Winter Storm 2009

The kids and I have pretty much been house bound due to a winter storm that first brought us about 3/4 inch of ice over the course of a couple days, but then in a matter of only 2-3 hours, dropped 2 inches of snow on us! It's still cold, so nothing is melting.

I finally ventured out today. Alot of the pictures are taken from my front door, but I did take the camera with me today and took some out there too.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Whodunit?

Mom finds broken Snowmen Family Christmas decoration on the living room floor, directly below the shelf it had been on. A couple broken off pieces are randomly scattered throughout the room. This is the EXACT transcript of the discussion with all 3 children standing in front of me:

Mom: Look at this. What happened to my snowmen?
Gman: I don't know
Princess: I didn't see
Al: Wasn't me! (obviously the oldest one has figured out to plea 'not guilty' from the word go)
Gman: Princess did it
Princess: I think Al did it (obviously has figured out not to directly accuse, but still play the odds)
Al: Wasn't me!
Gman: Al did it
Mom: All of you go to your rooms until someone confesses.

By now, I'm pretty sure the guy who's changing his finger-pointing direction is the culprit. But since they're separated, I can question them individually to verify my hunch!

Mom: What happened to my snowmen?
Al, aka The Ringleader: It wasn't me! I don't know what happened.

Mom: What happened to my snowmen?
Princess sticks to her story: I didn't see who did it, but I think it was Al

Mom: What happened to my snowmen?
Gman: It fell off the shelf and it broke itself.

PS...today is my 1 yr. blogoversary!

Sherlock Holmes plays "What's my line?"

Clue #1
So, a couple months ago, I get a Facebook friend request. The email doesn't include a picture, but I recognized the name as that of the husband of Mrs. Funaholic, whom I had recently met, so I hit accept thinking nothing of it.

Clue #2
A few weeks later, his status update was near the top of the list....I see his picture and think, "What?! That's not him! Who the heck is THAT guy?" But since I was only on Facebook to avoid what I needed to be doing, I didn't put effort into investigating and forgot all about him.

Clue #3
A couple weeks later, he sends me one of those silly Facebook things, something about "So & So has sent you a Christmas present!" So I click on it to "open" it and it gives me some stupid message about how it can't be opened til Christmas. I'm all "What?! Who is this whack job?!"

So I click over to his Facebook profile to see who/what he is. Low-n-behold, I find I'm not the only one who just blindly accepted him!

There's Clues #4, 5, & 6!!!
Laura, Kim and the one and only.....Mrs. Funaholic!


The plot thickens!

Clue # 7
I took this pic a few weeks ago and just hadn't taken the time to blog it. However! When I looked at this guy's profile today, I noted Mrs. Funaholic is no longer, and I quote, a "Mutual friend."

Since he shares the name of your beloved and you were listed as a "Mutual friend," I can only surmise that you are, somehow, the link in this mystery, Mrs. Funaholic! Who is this guy-slash-imposter? And will the real Mr. Funaholic please stand up!
;-)

Sleepin' in the van

Princess still falls asleep when riding in the van for very long. Yes, I am aware that she gets that from me.

Interesting spot to keep a barrette...I probably would've just left it in my hair.



Hangin' with the homeys was just too tiring, I guess?

Snow!

We woke up to our first significant snow on Monday! The kids couldn't wait to get outside to build a snowman (unfortunately, it just wasn't a good packing snow). Eventually Al wandered out to play, too! (The weird picture is a creepy ice formation that developed below what I think is the sump pump opening.)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Sons or daughters

When Princess and I had our GWO manicures with our friends Staci & OM, a lady came in with 2 young men in their 20s requesting pedicures. (Staci's discrete photography)


Staci was getting a pedi and was sitting on the other side of the guy with his arms up, so she overheard the discussions. They had given their mom a pedi gift certificate for Christmas and since she doesn't have any daughters, she made them come. When the guy next to Staci sat in the chair, before removing his socks, he told the poor pedicure gal "I'm really sorry." His toenails were long & nasty!

So this leads to several questions:

• If he knew they were that nasty, why didn't he atleast do a trim job before going?
• Staci said she would have instantly quit if she had been the pedi-lady, so what sort of financial difficulty would I have to be in to make me stick thru doing a job like that?
• Did they give her the certif's knowing they would be going?
• Do you think they've learned to never give her gift certifs for traditionally female activities again?
• Did the mom make them come as some sort of motivation for them to get girlfriends/wives to avoid this in the future?
• Are they thanking their lucky stars that they didn't give her a gift certif for a wax?
  

Lipstick

As we're listening to the DJ on the radio spout out trivial factoids:

Al: "Hey, I learned something yesterday! "
Mom (bites tongue)
Al: Did you know that 80% of the lipstick women put on gets digested?
Me: No way, cant be that much.
Al: Yup. Why do women wear lipstick anyway?
Me: To make our lips pretty colors.
Al: Do y'all want your intestines to be pretty colors, too?

4th folder, 4th pic

I have been tagged by the Funaholics' leader to post the 4th picture from my 4th folder in "my pictures" folder. The funny/ironic thing is....this pic was taken to do a post for the blog and then I forgot all about it!!!

The stories:
Airport socks: Last year when I went out to Mesa to visit Laura, I wore crocs to the airport. I forgot that I'd have to take off my shoes at security and I HATE the idea of walking on the airport floor without socks on. Luckily the gift shop outside of security had socks...the soft, fuzzy anklet kind, 1 pair for $6, 2 pair for $10. So of course, being the bargain hunter that I am, I bought 2 pair and sent Craig home with the 2nd pair. Laura then dubbed them "airport socks" in her efforts to make fun of my idiosyncrasies. (FYI--I mailed her the 2nd pair and 6 months later I got a phone when she finally tried them on and discovered just how awesome "airport socks" are!)

Craig's trip gift: Whenever Craig goes out of town for work, he always brings me something. He brought me a 3-pack of "airport socks" rolled up into a container. When I unrolled them, I about fell over laughing! The white sock is one of my normal every day socks. The blue sock above is one of them--and should have been labeled that they were intended for NBA players only.

You'll break your teeth!

What parent hasn't uttered those words when seeing their child trying to rip open some toy or food packaging with their teeth?

Mom: "Don't do that, you'll break your teeth"
Gman: "My teef not boken! See!"

GNO, er, I mean GWO

Princess and I are alone for the Weekend! The biggest and lil' guys are gone to my mother-in-law's, the middle guy is at his dad's.

Today, we have had a fun-filled, awesome, girlie-girl day! She & I attended her friend's birthday party...the same boy who was her first crush.
...then we met up with Princess's friend OM and her mom so we could go get manies...


Then the 4 of us went to The Melting Pot for cheese and chocolate fondues.

Then Princess and I went to see the new Adam Sandler movie "Bedtime Stories" (it's a good movie, appeals to adults and kids, without all the slap-sticky, kiddie humor). On the way back from the theater, she and I had the cutest convo:

Mom: When we get home, it's straight to bed since its waaaay past your bedtime.
Princess: Can I sleep in your room?
M: With me? In my bed?
P: Yeah, I don't want you to have to sleep all alone.
M: You are so thoughtful, Sweet Girl.

Princess Diaries

She's very big into writing words and copies down every word she can get her hands on....the words on the Crayola box, the DVD boxes, whatever. She asks us how to spell words a lot, too.

Last week she wanted to write a message but wanted to "sound it out" and spell it on her own....and then presented me with this:



I will treasure it always.

Shiny, Happy People

Craig's coworkers apparently have too much time on their hands. This is what his coworkers did to Tony--the guy who dared to go on vacation without locking his office door:

Here's the hallway leading to Tony's office, note his inbox.


The box on the floor is his CPU.


The circular thing in the next shot is the phone chord. Click to zoom in to see the frame of his kid, stapler & tissue box. In your comment, take a guess at the mystery object on top of the black sorter.



UPDATE: As Tony was clearing it, he wadded it all up.
Final total accumulation:

Resolutions

It's actually a list in progress, but for sure, this year I want to:

• Continue teaching my family to produce less laundry (ex.: consider re-wearing something if it didn't get funky, say things like "just because you tried it on, doesn't mean it's now dirty.")
  
• Teach kids to take age-appropriate responsibility for themselves and the messes they create (ex: I'm tired of being the maid, say things like "In the last 1.4 minutes you've scattered the double-twelve set of dominoes; the tub of 1000 Legos; and the 100-piece Lincoln Log set all over the living room, could you at least pick up the 42 matchbox cars first!")
  
• Work on all the "To-Do" projects that have been on my list for several months--I really like QB's "Resolution-a-month" process....I might do that!

Happy New Year all!

Signage

I've found several lately:

I found this in a waiting room at the eye doctor. Isn't that a little like seeing a dentist about an ear infection?


This is just mean:


High school cafeteria:


Outside a high school gymnasium door. Very important information!


Craig found this one at a hospital. For the over-active bladder?

Holiday Card Points

Recall Ine's challenge to save our Holiday Cards and tally our scores? Not sure how many of you are participating, but I tallied my score:

Of my 52 cards received, I have 170.5 points!!!

Say Huh? 2009

Archives of notable Say Huh? 's for 2009
August
Alex went to ALOT of trouble to hide his Nintendo DS on top of the kitchen cabinets so that the little one wouldn't touch it.....but left his iTouch on the coffee table.

"Hey, Mom! I was the bathroom thermometer at kindergarten today!"---Princess, joys of being a monitor


July
"You know, if you're naked, in your room, you are this much taller" (holds up fingers to indicate about 1/4 inch) ---Princess, Age 5

June
What's that man doing with the princess?
---Gman, referring to the groom dancing with the bride at his Craig's uncle's wedding.

Driving along in the car, out of the blue, Princess says, "If your mom or dad give you a carrot, but you don't eat it, if there's a bug in the house, it will eat the carrot. That's why bugs can see so far away." ---Princess as we are driving to the pediatrician about her mystery fever, turned out to be strep.


May
I would still love you even if you didn't have bangs.
---Princess, said to me at the hair salon. Not sure why.

April
"You are a silly cat, Mom."
---Gman, in response to his mom telling him that he's a silly boy.


March
"Nooooooooo, Dad, the moon is too small!"
---Gman, when is dad asked him if wanted to be an astronaut and go to the moon.


February

Feb. 23---"It's only child abuse if it doesn't work! And if it does work--I'm a Genius!"
In reference to having Gman sit on his play mat for a very long time and he's only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom & eat meals. Drastic times call for drastic measures, and 10 months of only naked-potty-trained is DRASTIC TIMES!!

"My career at school would be over."
----Al, February 18, 2009. Said to his mother when he asked her to stop car dancing for fear his classmates might see her.


January

"I will never be done until I give up!"
--Al, January 2009

I found Al's box of snow in the freezer