Happy New Year!

OK, well, it's only New Year's Eve at the moment, but I just wanted to be the first to say it! It's already 2008 in China!
I just felt like I needed to hurry up and blog about 2007 and tie up all my loose ends. I forgot to mention that one of my Zumba classes gave me some items from Bath and Body...one of which is a bath pillow. It's bright pink and is still in the box, at the moment, right next to my bed. Peter asked me the other day why I haven't been sleeping with my new pillow. I told him it's not for the bed, it's for the bathtub. "The bathtub?" he said. He just stared at me like I had lost my mind. I tried to explain it to him but he just could not wrap his mind around the idea of putting a pillow in the tub. I guess bathtime=playtime for him!
Also, Caleb (who says he hates reading) has been engrossed in a book I got him at the library. It's called the The Scary States of America: 50 Weird and Terrifying Stories Based on True Events. I knew I was taking a chance on this one but I figured ANYTHING to get him to read on his own. SO, it worked, he's been reading it on and off for weeks. It totally sucks him in and he'll sit and read for hours. The downside is that it also scares the bejeezus out of him. He is scared to be in the dark, scared to be anywhere by himself, scared of looking out windows, scared of the noises the hot water heater makes, scared of breathing...you get the idea. He won't even go to the bathroom and close the door. If I make him close the door then I have to stand outside the door and reassure him the whole time that he's OK and that I'm not walking away. He had a particularly hard night after reading about the 'New Jersey Devil'. We kept telling him this stuff was all fiction and that maybe we should get rid of the book but he insisted that we keep it so he could finish it. So I sat down the other night, after the kids had gone to bed, and read a few chapters for myself. It was SCARY! It gave me the creeps, too! In the middle of the night, when Caleb woke up scared for the umpteenth time, he agreed to let me take the book back to the library. The book has been gone for a few days now and he has progressed to sleeping on the floor beside our bed (in a sleeping bag) instead of crawling into bed with us. Next time maybe I should read it first...
Speaking of reading, I just finished the last Harry Potter book. I sobbed uncontrollably at times but held myself together, for the most part. The VERY DAY that I finished it, Dave read in the news that J.K. Rowling is hinting about writing an 8th book! Who knows if it will happen or not, but I'll tell you this; they are not going to be able to use those same kids for the 8th movie. They are getting way too big! Are MY kids growing that fast?

Rockefeller Christmas

We (OK, I) had a great idea that we would take the kids into the City to see the holiday window displays and the Rockefeller Christmas tree. As a bonus, we told the kids we would take them ice-skating either in Rockefeller center or in Central Park, whichever one was less crowded. I originally thought we might do this on the Friday before Christmas because the kids got out of school early and Dave would be getting off work early, too and we could just meet him there. We decided it would be too crowded, though, and decided to wait 'til after Christmas.

SO, we went yesterday, and I swear I will NEVER EVER do that again! Everywhere we went was unbelievably crowded. The line for ice-skating in Central Park was a mile long and the rink in Rockefeller, well, even though we stood right next to it, we never even saw the rink because it was so crowded!

Every street corner, every window, every INCH was jam packed with people. We were like cattle, slowly shuffling through the sidewalks, just trying to get to the next destination. I knew it would be a bit crowded, but Dave said it was WAY worse than it had been before Christmas. Who knew?!? I never understood before when I would hear news about people, human beings, being trampled to death at soccer games or wherever. NOW I understand. I don't normally have a "fear of crowds" or anything but I swear there were so many times when I thought to myself, my gosh, if there was any kind of crisis that would cause all these people to panic, we'd be lucky to get out alive. Or heaven forbid, someone should have a heart attack or something, I can't see how they would be able to get emergency personnel in quickly. I told Dave, I don't EVER want to do that again so if I bring it up next year, I guess he can just pull up this blog entry for me so I can remember!

We made our first visit to FAO Schwarz and the kids enjoyed seeing the life-size Lego models of Harry Potter, Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid. Also, Indiana Jones, Sponge Bob, and many Star Wars characters. The did NOT, however, enjoy the idea of us taking them to a toy store to "just look around".

So, after all the walking around, NO ice-skating, and NO toy purchasing, we felt pretty bad for the kids and told them we'd take them to a nice restaurant. Caleb and Sam are actually kinda 'into' the whole "let's go to a fancy restaurant" idea whereas Peter would be much happier at McDonald's. (When I say 'fancy restaurant', we're talking about something like Olive Garden or Applebee's)! Unfortunately, we were on 5th Avenue and the 'fancy restaurants' there started at around $40/person. We knew we had to keep walking away from 5th Ave. and Madison Avenue, more toward where we were parked in a budget parking garage. (Only $18 for 4 hours)! Anyway, by the time we got down there, we could only find Asian restaurants and a couple of Diners. We opted for a diner called the "Moonstruck Diner" because it was nicely decorated and had fish tanks to look at, too. Anyway, all of us had a good experience except for poor Dave who tried the seafood platter. (Man, did it stink)! So now we know, when you are at a restaurant with "diner" in the name, you DON'T order seafood, even if it says it's fresh daily. But hey, my fries were darn good!

Here's some pictures:
The first ones are of the window displays at Bloomingdale's. (Bloomie's to New Yorkers). Each window was originally designed by children...with some adult help for the end product. There was a little description at the bottom with a storyline for each scene and the names of ages of the kids who dreamt it up. My favorite was one made entirely of candy. The robot (above) moved its limbs, too.
Here, Peter is saying, "WHY do we have to keep looking at these dumb windows?"

You may have heard about the Penny Harvest Field. It was really cool and the kids sure enjoyed looking at over a million dollars worth of pennies. (That's 100 million pennies). Of course, people have been throwing in all kinds of spare change so who knows what the tally is now. It was originally collected by children in all the NYC schools. (Over 850 schools). They only collected pennies so that even the poorest children could participate. Anyway, you can click on the website if you want to learn more. You can see the tree in the background. It was HUGE. Every single branch had lights on it. They are LED lights so they are quite brilliant in person.
Also, I just HAD to take a picture of Home Depot right in the heart of midtown Manhattan. Do you think they are ready stocked with sheets of plywood and loads of 2 x 4's? I didn't see anyone leaving with flatbed trucks full of supplies...

Oh yeah, there was one teeny incident while in Rockefeller Plaza. Not only was it wall to wall people, but you had to maneuver around street vendors selling their junk, I mean, wares everywhere. Well, the crowd was so thick I got separated from Dave, Sam, and Caleb but I had a hold of Peter's hand. One of the street vendors who cut me off from Dave, inadvertently backed into me, pushing me backwards off a curb, onto my hurt knee. He did it hard enough that he had to have felt me but he never even turned his head to look.
Needless to say, this really ticked me off and as I got up and proceeded to plow through the crowd, I will admit, I was not so gentle as I shoved past the vendor. After I got past him he had the nerve to yell out to me that it wasn't nice to push people and that I couldn't go around pushing people like that. Normally I would have just rolled my eyes and ignored him but I, instead, chose to act like a two year old (well, maybe a three year old) and got into a screaming match with this guy about how he wasn't watching where he was going and backed into me and pushed me off the curb with my kid, etc., etc. He just kept interrupting me, telling me that there were homeless people around (whatever that means) and how it's not nice to push people. We were literally yelling at each other with HUNDREDS of onlookers in Rockefeller Plaza.
It ended with me yelling at him to knock it off! He finally shut his mouth and I stormed away through the crowd...I noticed people got out of my way at this point....
Poor Peter said, "Mom, were you angry at that guy?" I said, "No, I was VERY VERY angry at that guy." Dave was far enough away that he had no idea anything happened. In retrospect, I am sorely embarrassed by my behavior in front of all those people, (and those of you who know me well know that this was a little out of character for me) but I just didn't feel like letting a toothless street vendor push me around in New York City. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and I really wish I'd ended it differently. Something more like, "Knock it off!...and MERRY CHRISTMAS!" snarl

p.s. Caleb is begging us to take him to Times Square for New Year's Eve. It's the 100th anniversary of the ball drop and they're expecting a MILLION people there. I told Caleb, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?!?!"

Day after Christmas FUN!

So, I got up this morning to go teach a class. There was a good turnout so it was fun. Immediately afterwards I went to the doctor for a pap smear, flu shot, and tetanus shot. Not the funnest day after Christmas ever...the worst part was sitting in the waiting room for an hour with tons of sick people and no book to read. Why did I forget my book?! What was almost worse than that was sitting in the freezing cold examination room with nothing on but a paper napkin and again, no book. There was a Sports Illustrated magazine, though, but I opted to stare at the floor tiles. I just hope I got out of that waiting room without contracting something. At least I know it's not tetanus...or cervical cancer.

Remember when I mentioned awhile back that I take off my pants two legs at the same time? Well, when I was uploading the Christmas pictures off of the camera, I found these two pictures that Dave had taken. You can see my black slippers and my pajama bottoms sticking out of them. I guess Dave took it because it kinda shows how I HOP out of my pants and the bottoms are still in the slippers. See, I told you he found it endearing.
Oh, by the way, I bought these pajama bottoms recently because I liked them, I needed some new ones, and they were only five bucks. They have flying guitars with the words "Rock Star". When Caleb saw me wearing them he asked me about them. I told him I had just bought them and asked him if he liked them. He said yes and that they really increased my sex appeal. (His words exactly). I wasn't sure how to respond to this so I said, "Uh, thanks" and walked away.
Where does he come up with this stuff?!?!?!?!? Should I be concerned?

p.s. I forgot to mention in the previous post that one of the gifts that Santa brought was wrapped in a Kohl's box. It was to all 3 kids so they were tearing it open together. Once they got to the box, amid the frenzy, someone (probably Sam) saw the box and read out loud, "Kohl's". Then I heard one of the other kids exclaim, "Coal?!? Santa brought us coal"!?!??!?

Without a hitch

Well, we pulled Christmas off without a hitch, I'm happy to say. More than I can say for Steph, who had a fire in her oven and had Christmas at a Chinese buffet. I swear she does these things on purpose just knowing that it'll make a great blog entry later!

Anyway, back to MY Christmas. I woke Caleb up on Christmas Eve, after Sam and Peter had fallen asleep, so he could help set out the Santa presents. He was really excited but wasn't feeling well (after all the food and sugar at Logan's house) so he just set the presents out, ate a carrot that had been left out for the reindeer (he didn't even want the brownies...that's how much sugar he had already had), and went right back to bed.

We had made a deal with the kids to not get us up 'til 7:30am, so that was nice. Sam and I actually got up at 7:00 (I never get to sleep in because my full bladder wakes me up early anyway) and we started making monkey bread for breakfast. The kids were really excited and happy with everything they got. Sam said it was the best Christmas ever. We got him a cellphone. So, apparently now he is not the only 5th grader in the world who doesn't have one! (It was only $10/month and the phone was free so I figured, what the heck, now I can keep track of him when he and Caleb are walking home from school and shows up a half hour late...a story for another day...). The downside to this is he is dying to use it and no one has his number and he has no one to call. So now he uses it to call me and Dave constantly, even when we're at home. It's like an intercom system. It doesn't bother me because I keep my phone in my purse usually and just ignore it. But Dave keeps his phone on him all the time and so it is ringing in his pocket constantly.

Hello?
Hi Dad, it's me, Sam.
Uh, hi Sam.
What time is dinner?
In about an hour.
OK, thanks, bye.
Bye.

Stuff like this goes on all day long. Caleb received 4 more Lego Aqua Raiders sets which completes his collection. He spends hours and hours putting this stuff together and he really loves it. He likes the idea of being a collector and is very excited now to have a complete collection of something. Peter got a variety of things...he is pretty easy to please. The one big mistake I got him (via Grandpa Capener) was Moon Sand. It is supposed to be the "new" play-dough. He loves play-dough and the moon sand is supposed to be better somehow because it never dries out, etc. I HATE it! Why did it never occur to me that it would be...sandy! It is just like wet sand and I'm glad he loves playing with it but, oh my gosh! It makes a HUGE mess and there's colored sand all over my kitchen table and dining room! Aaaaargh! At least he's not doodling on the computer screen with magic markers, I guess.

Our Christmas dinner was fabulous. Dave bought a very expensive ham and although I had misgivings at first, it was worth every penny! It's the best ham I've ever had. We splurged another $3 and bought the glaze to put on it, which was delicious too. Something happened to me in the middle of the day, though, before we even had dinner. I wasn't sick or anything but it's like a message was finally sent to my brain that said STOP EATING NOW!!!! It was weird, because all my need for sugar, etc. was finally satiated! So I stopped stuffing myself and when dinner time came around, I had a normal sized portion of everything and felt pretty good. Until dessert. Even then I had half of what everybody else ate and I was stuffed sick. Good thing I had to teach a class bright and early the next morning. When I got there, a lady in the front row yelled to me, "Work us HARD"! I guess we're all paying penance for our holiday splurging.



Here is Peter enjoying his gift from Santa: a NASCAR race track.






Left is Caleb and his new Smithsonian crystal growing kit. Another of my "great" ideas. Good thing he has safety goggles and a dad that is happy to help him!

And below is only part of the Christmas Aftermath.

Christmas time is here!

Well, we actually got all our shopping done THREE days before Christmas! This is a first for us. We usually put it off and are scrambling at the last minute on Christmas Eve to find that one more item that our kids MUST have. It was nice to have it all done and wrapped way before Christmas Eve. Peter drove me nuts all day on Sunday because he was so excited for Christmas to come on the "next tomorrow", which is Peterspeak for the day after tomorrow. On Christmas Eve we were invited to the home of one of Caleb's friends from school. Her name is Logan and they hit it off as soon as we moved here. Anyway, her parents invited us over, knowing we had no friends or family here and they were really nice. It wasn't a huge gathering but there was enough food to feed 50 people!
While we were there, the subject of Christmas caroling came up (Dave and I HATE caroling, by the way) and I said I hadn't seen any carolers and wondered if people in New Jersey go caroling. They scoffed and shook their heads at me and said no, people in New Jersey don't usually do that sort of thing. (Can you imagine caroling at the Sopranos house)?
Seriously, I can imagine a group of carolers going door to door and I'll bet about 50% of the homes would simply refuse to open their doors and the other 50% would open the door and scream at the carolers to get the !$*@# out of here and go mind their own !$*@# business! Jersey people, you gotta love 'em. At least they say what they mean. Later, after we came home, Dave said that he thought I had been exaggerating last summer when I blogged about how Jersey girls talkandhowtheytalksofastthere's
nowayyoucangetawordinedgewiseandtheyconstantlyinterruptyouandthemselves andeachotherANDtheysaythesamethingoverandoveragainforemphasis.
But he acknowledged now that I was NOT exaggerating. It really is just like that!
OH, one of the women told me that she and some friends DID go caroling one year when they were teenagers to "get money for beer". I was totally confused by this. I asked her how do you "get money for beer" by caroling? She said they would go door to door caroling and people would just give them cash (to get rid of them, probably). Then once they had enough they went and bought beer. Hmmm...Dave said maybe next time we need money for a movie at Blockbuster or something we should just start caroling in our neighborhood. Shouldn't take long to get $4.95, I reckon. Of course, after awhile, the neighbors will catch on. Before you know it, the next time we want to rent a movie we'll ring the first door and when they answer they ask,
"How much do you need?"
"Four ninety-five," Dave replies.
"Here's five bucks. Keep the change and get outta here". Hopefully they'll leave out the expletives with the children present. Aaah, lasting Christmas memories for the kids.
SO, that was our Christmas Eve. I've got to go rest for a moment and get over my overstuffed feeling of nausea before I can actually write about Christmas. WAY TOO MUCH FOOD TODAY!

He's driving me crazy!

Believe it or not, I'm not referring to anyone in my household: it's the mailman! He's driving me crazy! Often I will put more than one letter/bill into the mailbox and I put the flag up. First of all, sometimes he doesn't lower the flag after he comes by so I go all day thinking he hasn't come when he actually has. Whatever, I can live with this. The worst part is that he only takes the TOP piece of mail and leaves all the rest! WHY!?! Why would he do this? I've learned that I have to put the most urgent bills on top to make sure they get mailed. What can I do about this? Who do I complain to? Do I call my local post office and complain that my mailman is driving me nuts? Do they not learn to take ALL the mail in mailman school? Is it because I didn't give him a birthday present this year? I HAVE been known to give Christmas presents to our postal carriers, but you'd better believe this one is getting nothing from me!

Here's some blabbing that has nothing to do with any of the above:

Peter likes to wear this shirt because it reminds him of how old I am (currently). He likes to tell people, too. I wouldn't mind except that he tells people I am fifty-three. I guess we need to work on that. I assume it's because he looks down at the shirt and from his perspective I guess it could look like fifty-three. But on that note, why doesn't he just tell people that I'm S3?

Yesterday, Caleb yelled to me from the bathroom, "Mom! The toilet is overwhelming!" When I took a look at it, I had to agree, it definitely looked overwhelming. Good thing Dave is good with a plunger.

Peter walked into the bathroom the other day and closed the door as I walked by. He told me he didn't want me to see his privacy.
When Peter is trying to get out of the car with all his stuff from school and I'm telling him to hurry up and open the door for me, he yells to me, "I'm full of hands!"

That's all I can remember for now. Aren't you glad there's no more Zumba videos today!?!

Last one, I promise!

OK, here's a preview from the new Zumba infomercial that's coming out in January. It's by the same company (Guthy Renker) that put Winsor Pilates, ProActive solutions, and Tae Bo on the map. Now it's Zumba's turn! It won't let me post the video here, you'll have to click here and watch it on YouTube. Muchos besos!

Zumba with Erick

Can you guys tell that I'm bored to death and have nothing to write about? Erick Santana is one of Zumba's master trainers. He is amazing to watch and learn from. Ladies, I am 99% sure he is gay so you can watch all you want without your husbands getting jealous! I only included this video here because of my favorite part: Hitler in a yellow tank top. Watch for him!

Zumba Hamster

Leaf pick up

We've learned that they have a different way of picking up leaves here in New Jersey. First, you rake all your leaves into the street. No kidding. Just see the picture at right. We are given dates for leaf pick up based on our voting district, which unfortunately, we have no idea what it is but oh well. When we see all our neighbors frantically raking leaves into the street then we know we'd better get busy!

On the day of pick up, the city uses snow plows to push all the leaves on your street into a big pile. And I mean a BIG pile at least 5 feet high. My kids would love to ride their bikes right into it. This big pile gets carted away in a truck later in the day but in the meantime, they have to clean up all the leaves up and down the street that didn't quite make it into the pile. Unfortunately I haven't been able to snap a picture of this, but seriously, they come by with a big vacuum! A large vacuum hose sucks the leaves up into a truck. It is like a giant Noo Noo from Teletubby land. I could hardly believe it when I first saw it and thought, well, that's one way to do it! It looks so funny to me.

We have one more leaf pickup...after Christmas, so I'll try to time it right to get a picture of that for your viewing pleasure. Until then, I'm just wondering how they're going to manage picking up all the leaf piles which are now completely covered in snow and ice! Any suggestions?

Snow Day

The kids were sent home early from school today as a big snowstorm was heading our way. The snow isn't too deep, but the freezing rain has been a problem. We spent a lazy afternoon watching America's Funniest Videos which I just introduced them to a week or so ago. They love it!
Once they finished that and their homework, it was already dark outside. Undeterred, they proceeded to play in the snow in the backyard with the porch lights on. I didn't have to keep an eye on them too much until I happened to look out and saw the sprinkler going. Now why did it never occur to me that they might want to turn on the sprinkler? It's partly my fault since I should've had the hose unhooked to the faucet by now anyway. I'll be curious to see if our backyard is a skating rink in the morning!

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus?

**Warning**This blog post is for adults only. Kids, please check with your parents before reading any further.

Caleb has been suspicious/skeptical of the whole Santa thing for a few years now. He's nine and last week he confronted me about it again and told me over and over how he really needs and wants to know and how much it is totally stressing him out to not know. I tiptoed around the answer and never was straight with him. I had a hard time trying to understand how it was "totally stressing him out"...I can't remember being nine and being totally stressed out about whether or not Santa Claus was real. Anyway, after talking it over with a few friends and with Dave, at length, we decided to go ahead and tell him the truth.

SO, I sat down with Caleb the other night and brought up the subject and told him that his dad and I decided he was ready to know the full truth of the matter and so on and so forth. Well, his reaction was totally unexpected. For some reason I thought he would just purse his lips together, narrow his eyes, and nod his head while saying "Hmmmm, I thought so." Uh, no. He barely held back the tears and said things like (and I quote):

I can't believe this.
It just can't be true.
Christmas will never be the same again.
Christmas is ruined now.
All the magic is gone.
I just can't believe it.
I can't believe this is happening.

All the while he's shaking his head back and forth and trying not to cry.

My very loving and nurturing reply sounded something like this:

Uhhhh,
Ummm,
Uhhhh,
Ohhhh,
(but in my head I was saying, "This is all Dave's fault.")

Of course I immediately felt horrible, like I'd completely ruined his childhood. I reminded him that he had interrogated me endlessly the week before and that he had demanded to know the truth. I asked him if he wanted us to just keep lying to him every time he asked us about Santa like that and he said, "Yes, I wish you would've never told me the truth. It was fun to just always hope and wonder if he was real or not and now that's ruined." He said the next time he asks me something along those lines to just say to him, "Caleb, remember our talk?" and he made the little quote signs with his finger when he said "our talk".

I also told him that his brothers (even Sam who is 11) don't know the truth about Santa---Caleb interrupted me right here and said, "DON'T TELL THEM!" I guess he was trying to protect them from having their childhoods completely ruined, too. I reassured him that I had no such plans: Peter is too young and Sam, who is NOT too young, probably already knows but likes to pretend anyway.

He only started perking up when I told him that now that he knows, he can help us "play" Santa and help set out the gifts and stuff on Christmas Eve. He was really excited about the idea of eating the cookies that we leave out for Santa, too. The only downside to this is that eating the cookies was MY favorite part of being Santa. I guess I'll have to relinquish that as a consequence for ruining his childhood...

Happy Birthday Peter!

Peter turned SIX today. He woke me up bright and early, standing over my sleeping body and staring me down until I cracked one eye open.
"Can I open just one present now?", he asked.
"No, not yet," I mumbled back in my breathy morning voice.
Then he started whispering threats of what he was going to do if I didn't let him open one present right now so I answered back with a few more threats of my own...something to do with taking presents back to the store, I think. I was still half asleep so it's all a little fuzzy. It was kinda funny, though, because the whole time we were issuing threats to each other we were still whispering; as if we needed to stay quiet in orderto what (?) not wake me up?!?

His party was at 12:30. He pestered me endlessly from 9am to 12:30; asking me when the party would start, when his friends would arrive, and of course, when would he get to open his presents! Why don't we just schedule their birthday parties to start at 9am to avoid all this aggravation!

As you may know, it was a "dog" themed party. We had pizza and hot dogs and I put Cracklin' Oat Bran and Reese's Puffs cereal in a dog bowl to snack on. I have to say, it's scary how much these cereals look like dog food. Cracklin' Oat Bran just happens to be Dave's favorite cereal but I almost never ever ever buy it because it's ridiculously expensive and it looks just like dog food!

We also constructed a dog house out of cardboard boxes and let the kids "decorate" it with markers while we waited for all the guests to arrive. Luckily, we only had 4 guests. 3 of them were girls and let me tell you, I am not used to having a bunch of girls around. They were so bossy and catty with each other; the drama was too much for me! I agree with most that boys are definitely much easier!

I'd like to say that I'm blogging about Peter's birthday in order to remember the fond memories and record it for posterity. Mostly, though, I just want to brag and show off the cake I made! I am SO proud of myself with this cake. It looks just like the picture that I copied it from. This cake is the whole reason for the dog theme; Peter picked it out and had his heart set on it. I was not excited about having to make it...I was thinking we could just do a plain cake and stick some plastic dogs on top or something. I've been getting away with stuff like that for years! Anyway, despite the hard work, it looked great and he was really happy with it. I think Sam and Caleb were a little jealous. I'm not sure they remember me doing cakes like this when they were little. I'll have to pull out the pictures to prove it, I guess. All the remember right now is the aforementioned plain cakes with plastic objects stuck on top! The only funky thing about the cake, though, was that I unknowingly purchased "magic" relighting candles that you can't blow out. It turned out to be hilarious, except for the sparks flying around as Peter blew harder and harder as I kept insisting that they were regular candles.
Dave and I are exhausted but Peter and his friends had a great time and we don't have to do it again for another whole year! Here's a video of the birthday song and candle fiasco.

I've been tagged!

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning of the post. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog. Unfortunately the buck stops here because I only know one person who has a blog and hasn't been tagged yet! That's YOU, Nichole!

So here goes nothing, not necessarily in any order:

1. My feet are a half size off from each other. My left foot is a half size smaller than my right foot. Makes shoe buying a little tricky. Fascinating, I know.

2. I LOVE infomercials and have been known to even make a few purchases from them. I have SpaceBags, Winsor Pilates dvds, and have been an active user of Proactiv Solutions for many years now. Now that I am home recovering from knee surgery I have LOTS of time to watch infomercials. Do you know that they play infomercials 24/7 on cable?!!! I have so far refrained from purchasing anything lately but I swear they really get me when they say, "Call within the next 2 minutes and we'll take away one whole payment and throw in a free Siberian tiger" or something else. I keep reminding myself that there's really not an operator sitting watching a stop watch to see if you made the 2 minute cut off. I tell myself I can order it online later but then always forget all about it! Probably a good thing. Watch out, though. Zumba is coming out with a new infomercial in January. I'm going to be watching for that one!

3. When I was growing up, I was always afraid I was going to be abducted. I don't know why...I never had any scary experiences with that really. Maybe I saw a show that freaked me out or something. Anyway, the bad thing now is that I have carried that fear over to my own children. I totally FREAK out if they get out of my sight for even a second. I used to even have a hard time letting Dave go to the store with the kids without me; thinking he might lose one of them. I have been working on it, though, and am slowly getting better. I don't worry at all when Dave takes the kids somewhere and I even let Sam and Caleb walk home alone from school now...and we don't live super close to the school either. The first few times they walked home was really hard for me but now I don't think too much about it. Baby steps...

4. I LOVE teaching Zumba. OK, I know you are all rolling your eyes and saying, yeah yeah, we know already, Shelley! But I have to say it anyway. It is SO much fun for me. It's like I'm a different person when I'm on stage. It's funny, too, 'cause the people who come to my Zumba classes all think I'm this wild, crazy, outgoing extrovert. They don't realize I'm only like that when I'm teaching Zumba. The rest of the time I'm actually kind of quiet and shy...more of an introvert. They invite me to parties and restaurants thinking I'm going to be the life of the party only to realize I'm not like that at all. I love teaching, in general, too because I shout out a command and everybody DOES IT! At home, it doesn't work out so well. At work, I say "3 squats now, or 2 kicks left" and they all follow. At home, they don't follow me so much...

5. I love NASCAR. Some of you already know this about me. I got hooked on NASCAR when I was pregnant with Peter and was puking all day. I would lay on the couch and watch t.v. and it must've been NASCAR season or something because that's all I watched. I really got hooked by the science behind it...drafting, fuel efficiency, do you change 2 tires or all 4 tires on the final pit stop, all the rules, etcetera. I've been to a couple of NASCAR events and they are SO exciting! Much more fun in person, but you can sure see it better on the t.v. I took Sam and Caleb in Michigan, once, thinking I was the coolest mom EVER to do that. They complained the whole time because it was kinda cold and way too loud for them (despite the ear plugs). Steph took me to a NASCAR race in Texas for my birthday one year. We had a blast and totally did NOT fit in with the crowd. It was kinda funny. We bought matching tight black t-shirts with NASCAR written across the front with rhinestones. Classy! The highlight was a catfight in the stands between two drunken women. You don't get to experience THAT when you stay home and watch it on t.v.!

6. I don't take my pants off one leg at a time. I take off my pants both legs at the same time. ...I stand, push the pants straight down or let them fall down, then I lean over and sort of hold onto them with my hands while I jump backwards, out of the pants. I have no idea why. I guess I think it's more time efficient or something. Dave looks at me like I'm nuts each night but I think he actually finds it quite endearing.

OK, so there you go! Six useless things to know about me...now you're all better people for just knowing, I'm sure!

O Christmas tree!

This is the first year, since we've lived in Michigan, that we've had the opportunity to cut down our own Christmas tree. I figure if we're going to have a live tree then we should make sure it's as fresh as possible and cutting it down ourselves hopefully solves that issue. So even though it's been 3 Christmases since we've done it, I think we somehow forgot how much of a pain it can be! No, really, it was a fun (but COLD) experience...until we got home. The trunk was too skinny for our tree stand and it took us FOREVER to get it right. In fact, it took us until the next day! And even now, you dare not touch the tree for fear of it wobbling around. Luckily the stand has a fairly wide base so I don't think it'll fall over...keep your fingers crossed!

We decorated it the next day and it was snowing outside so it was definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I bought a new star for the top of the tree and I LOVE it. We also got a small artificial tree to put upstairs that the kids could decorate all by themselves with all their "kid" homemade ornaments. We might have to put the presents under their tree because we forgot to cut off the lower branches of the real tree and it reaches all the way to the floor now with no room for presents. And we can't cut them off now for fear of tipping the wobbly tree over!

The cutest part of the whole process is that the kids really get into the Christmas spirit and get excited about giving gifts to each other. They (especially Peter) pick out some of their favorite toys and then wrap them in white office paper and stick them under the tree for each other. Also, I find things like this (picture left) laying around all over the house. Normally I don't get excited about paper and toys all over the place, but this is kinda cute!

I got in trouble today...

I taught two Pilates classes on Wed. and Thurs. night this week. My knee felt great the whole time, NO problems. Until late Thursday I noticed it was getting uncomfortable. I rolled up my pant leg and saw that my knee was quite swollen. I iced it down, but it kept me up a lot during the night as I was feeling pain from where they cut my muscle during surgery, all the way up the side of my thigh. I got up the next morning and went to physical therapy, already knowing I was in trouble. The therapist reassured me that there was no irreparable damage done but he was NOT happy with me. He didn't yell at me but he was kinda like, "Now look what you've done!" He was going to put me on a stationary bike today but now he couldn't progress me to that because of the swelling in my knee. He made it very clear: NO more Pilates (or anything else) until he says so! So, MOM, I do NOT need you to comment on this post, OK?!? ;-)

Groundhog Day

The other day at dinner, Caleb asked me an interesting question:

Caleb: Is Christmas the biggest holiday?
Dave: Yes
Me: What do you mean by "biggest"?
Caleb: You know, like, the most celebrated...
Dave: Well, yeah, probably...
Me: I dunno, there's always Arbor Day...
Dave: Or Groundhog Day...
Me: OOOH, Yeah, Groundhog Day; celebrated by millions of people all over the world!
Caleb: MOM, I just learned all about the earth at school (his class just finished a science section about the earth and how it travels around the sun and how that effects the four seasons, etc.) so I KNOW that Groundhog Day is celebrated at different times throughout the year depending on what part of the earth you live on!

Aaargh, Peter!

Peter has been a bit mischievous lately. I don't know if he's always like this and I just haven't noticed or if he's just been more so lately because I am laid up recovering from knee surgery. He often gets in trouble for writing on walls, carpet, etc. (did you know that you can DRAW on carpet with crayon?!). Here's a small list of his latest antics.

It started last week, the day before my surgery. I had a stomach virus and laid in bed most of the day. I thought he was being really good and entertaining himself. He even made me a homemade get well card with a flower on it. How sweet, right?! Later, I found that he had scribbled on the computer screen with a permanent black marker. And this is not an old, hard, glass computer screen; it's a soft flat screen monitor. (Did you also know that a Mr. Clean magic eraser will remove permanent black marker from a flat screen without ruining the screen)? Steph is upset with me for not taking a picture of the screen...snapping a quick picture at the moment was NOT on my mind.

The day after Thanksgiving, he decided to decorate the windows with some foam craft leaves. No problem, right? How did he attach them to the window, you ask? With Elmer's glue, of course! Luckily, I was able to head this one off before it became another task for Mr. Clean. In his defense, he DID ask me if it was OK to do this, he just asked me AFTER he started.

In the midst of all this, Dave and I found that he had also carved his name into our coffee table...multiple times. Luckily the coffee table was a garage sale bargain instead of a family heirloom, but I really like the table nevertheless. I'm hoping that ONE day, we'll look at his handiwork carved on it and say "Awwwww, that's so cute!" Not today, though.

Speaking of today, all 3 boys were playing in the backyard after school. Caleb and Peter were monkeying around in the treetops, literally, and I looked out to spy Peter standing up in the tree, pull down his pants and relieve himself right then and there. It looked like he was trying to squirt Sam who was below, on the ground. In Peter's defense, I was told that Caleb did it first and that's what gave him the idea. Omigosh, can this be happening?!? I daresay this would NOT be happening if I had 3 girls! Sorry Steph, I didn't take a picture of this either.
One more thing about Peter that has nothing to do with any of this. His 6th birthday is coming up in 2 weeks and he wanted a party with a "dog" theme. Luckily I found that theme at the party store and got dog invitations, decorations, etc. (Remember when Caleb wanted a Loch Ness monster theme? They didn't have that at the store...) Anyway, Peter still has trouble pronouncing his "R's" properly so when he talks about his dog party, it sounds like he's telling people he's having dog potty for his birthday. Here's a picture of Peter with a wolf hat on...it is too big for him so he can pull it down over his face and it looks just like a mask. I thought it was somehow appropriate for this post. Thanks to Janet for sending it from Alaska!

Black Friday, anyone?

So, first of all, thanks to everyone for your well wishes. The knee surgery went very well. Everything went as planned and I'm doing great. The doctor said the knee joint looked really banged up and was in pretty bad condition but that everything went as planned and hopefully this will get me back to a full functioning level. I was walking on it within hours (with a cane) and by the next day could walk without the cane. I say walk, but it is more of a hobble. I walk kinda like Frankenstein. The worst part about the whole thing was that I thought I was going to be in a lot of pain afterwards so I immediately accepted any narcotics that were offered to me. That was a big mistake because I, apparently, do NOT handle narcotics very well and it turns out I was not in much pain at all. I'm still not having hardly any pain and I'm not even taking my Tylenol anymore AND I had physical therapy yesterday. Oh well, now I know I would rather deal with minor pain than any side effects from narcotics!

Dave made a wonderful Thanksgiving spread for us on Thursday. He started the day before and everything turned out perfect. I knew he could do it...the kids and I gave him an early Christmas present in return. A new winter coat...he needed a much warmer coat since he treks through the "wind tunnels" of NYC each day. Anyway, it was the wrong size so would you believe that I went to the mall on Black Friday?!? OK, it was just to Sears, it was 3pm, and Dave dropped me right at the door so I wouldn't have to walk/hobble so far. All I had to do was switch the coat for a different size and luckily the lines weren't long anymore. Then I just sat in a chair and waited while Dave took the kids to Radio Shack to find some batteries for Sam. Just this much activity tired me out, but I was so thrilled to be at the mall on Black Friday (I'm usually one of those people lined up at Best Buy or Circuit City at 5am) and feel like I got to partake in the shopping specials. (The coat was on sale "more" and they gave me a whole $4 back)! At one point I even left my chair to venture to the shoe department in case there was something irresistible but I started feeling shaky and soon returned to my chair. I think it was just from dragging that HEAVY coat around!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and Black Friday!

Knee surgery this week

Speaking of downtime, many of you know that I'm having knee surgery this Tuesday. I have a cartilage tear behind my knee cap and also my knee cap tends to slide towards the outside of my knee joint just a little bit. (This is very common in women; I'm willing to bet a fourth of you women have the same problem and have no idea). I had no idea, either, until I started teaching so many exercise classes and tore some cartilage. At first it was just a little bit bothersome and I thought it was something that would just go away. Finally it got to the point where by the end of the week (after teaching so many classes), I could barely walk and was in constant pain.

I went to physical therapy ALL summer long and now the problem is manageable but I finally decided to just go ahead and have the surgery. It locks up all the time and hurts terribly to get it 'unlocked', if I step wrong or move the wrong way it is very painful, or if I sit still for any length of time it is quite difficult to stand up and get it moving again. My doctor said I could keep living like this until it becomes bad enough that I HAVE to have surgery or I could just go ahead and do it now while I'm still young and in good shape. It's remarkable that I've been able to keep teaching Zumba all the way up until the night before surgery and hopefully, if all goes well, I will be able to start again in January.

So, I've been a little anxious about the surgery. It is arthroscopic so I like to use the word "procedure" in lieu of "surgery". I hate the idea of being put to sleep and have people do things to me that I am unaware of. What if there's a fire, or a bomb, or a natural gas explosion? Would I wake up? Would everyone just scream and run for their lives and leave me behind?

I also had a dream the other night that they put the I.V. in my face instead of the back of my hand. As they were sticking it into my cheek, I asked them what the heck they were doing. They said that this is how they do things nowadays. They proceeded to stick the needle all the way through my cheek and into my mouth where they squirted the anesthesia and I had to drink it! I was so relieved when I woke up in my comfy bed and realized it was all a dream.

Anyway, the "procedure" I'm having done is called a lateral release; where they go in and cut the retinaculum (fibers) that are pulling too hard on one side of the knee cap. And then they are also going to clean up the cartilage tear(s) behind the patella and, well, it's arthroscopic which means they stick a camera in there and see what else they might want to work on for good measure. It's supposed to be fairly simple and straightforward so I'm hoping it is and am trying to just think of it as getting a lube and oil job. All of my classes at work know I'm having knee surgery but I made a mistake one day last week. Someone asked, during class, when my surgery would be. I said it's next week; someone else, across the room asked what kind of surgery I was having. I made the mistake of saying I was getting a lube job. Mind you, there's music blaring, people talking, and so on. She thought I said I was getting a boob job! We all had a good laugh at that one.

SO, surgery is Tuesday around noon. Dave is off that day and doesn't go back to work 'til the following Monday. He gets to cook Thanksgiving all by himself! (I planned it that way, of course). Nah, he is a great cook and actually likes to be in the kitchen on holidays. Lucky for me he doesn't watch any sports! I am looking forward to milking this for every bit I can...
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

End of soccer season

Finally it's over!!!! Er, ....I mean, um, sadly, today was the last day of the soccer season. Peter played his last game yesterday and Sam and Caleb had their last games today. We began the season by watching the games with lots of bottled water, hunting for shade, and sweating to death in the heat. Today we sat there freezing our tails off with snowflakes flurrying (is that a word?) around our heads. Dave and I had MANY layers on plus blankets and were still cold. It was especially painful to sit and watch Sam's game as his team has tied once and lost all the rest of their games. Today they actually scored first and looked like they might finally get a win. Then they lost 2-3 due to TWO penalty kicks by the other team (which were totally bogus; that ref was rigged!). I think I overheard a parent on the other team say that this was their first win, so I guess it's just as well. Someone had to lose, right? Again. Baseball sign-ups are December 1st even though they don't start 'til April! Did I mention we signed up for soccer back in April? They do sign-ups very early here. So I guess you have to know what sport you're going to want to participate in five months in advance. I'm not sure who all is going to want to sign up for baseball...we'll see. Until then, I'm hoping to enjoy some downtime!

Tooth Fairy Time!

Peter lost his first tooth today! It's been loose for awhile so Peter has really been looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy soon. It came out all by itself this evening. He was so excited and said it didn't hurt at all...then he showed me the "hole" that was left in his mouth. It surprised me how much blood there was and he saw my expression and asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I replied.
He ran into the bathroom to see for himself and started to freak out. I reminded him that it didn't hurt at all and that this was totally normal and then he was OK! I just hope the tooth fairy doesn't get sleepy and forget to come tonight. Sometimes she's like that!

Walking to work through NYC

I've already mentioned some of the things/people Dave sees on his daily walk to and from the bus station and Rockefeller Plaza. Now, as he walks through Times Square and Broadway, he gets to see picketing stagehands. I'm not sure what the strike is all about...I'm sure there's a good reason but I feel bad for all the people who traveled long distances with tickets to a great Broadway show.
Today, Dave also saw throngs of people outside the Hilton as Alicia Keys was coming out of the hotel and getting into her SUV. He said it was unbelievable how many people were standing out there just waiting for her to walk out and then how they all crowded all over the SUV, taking pictures and shouting to her, etc. Sounds scary to me...
But the scariest part of Dave's walk to work is the elevator ride in his building. Well, not the ride itself; it's the getting on and off the elevator that's scary. The elevator doors are, in Dave's words, "brutal". I remember when I was there thinking that the doors were really heavy and not very user friendly. If they are closing, you'd better put your tail between your legs and run as fast as you can because unless you're waving an unwanted limb in just the right spot to catch the door's eye, those doors will NOT stop closing! Just recently, one of Dave's coworkers got hit in the head by those stupid elevator doors. She ended up, no joking, in the hospital with a concussion! Sounds like a law suit waiting to happen...
Once you're on the elevator, the ride is most pleasant. They have these little flat screen t.v.'s that tell you the weather, stock market, and many useful tidbits like stores raking in $8,000,000,000 last year in unused gift cards. (See post below). And then you can start many a conversion with the phrase, "Hey, today I read that...(fill in blank here)" and it looks and sounds like you've been reading the NY Times or something. Very classy...
Then, once you've reached your floor, you'd better not be distracted by the t.v.'s because you've got to jump out quick before you receive the next concussion!

The Gift Card Dilemma

To FINALLY finish up my yoga certification, I needed to do 8 hours of yoga "community service". To make a long story short, I've been teaching yoga at the kid's school (for free) to a small group of teachers during their lunch hour. They are so nice and seem to really enjoy taking time out in the middle of the day to relax and stretch, etc. (One teacher is Caleb's current 3rd grade teacher so we get to put our heads together about him now and then, too...much to Caleb's horror).
ANYWAY, today was our last day together and they gave me a card and a gift certificate to the local mall. It was totally unexpected; I didn't expect anything from them at all. So, now my struggle is this: do I spend the gift card on myself on something completely frivolous or do I do what I normally do and spend it on something that I, or we as a family NEED and would have to buy anyway, i.e. saving me some money.(?) OR, option 3, spend it on the kid's or Dave's Christmas present, again, saving myself some money.
You have ONE week to vote!
p.s. Dave read today that last year, there was $8 billion in unused gift cards. That's 8 BILLION, people! And all that money just goes to the store(s) and pure profit. Who's not spending their gift cards? Not me, man, I spend every penny and then some.

It's Fall!

Now that we have overcome Halloween, we can focus on one of my favorite seasons: Fall. Well, really, my favorite season is "anything but Winter"...I'm not too picky since I just hate Winter. I love living up North in the Fall and seeing the leaves change and slowly drop, buying apples by the peck, making many many apple recipes, and I even love the smell of leaves burning on a crisp night. Also, I feel it's finally "OK" to bring out the hot chocolate and drink it whenever I want. Again, I'm digressing towards food...
Here's a picture of our backyard yesterday. Well, that's not the whole backyard, just the trees lining the back of the property. This picture was taken through the screen on the back door so it blurred it up a little bit...but I think it's beautiful and often glance over my shoulder at the view as I'm typing here on the computer.
Sam turned eleven this past Friday. He was lucky 'cause the kids were off school Thursday and Friday anyway so he didn't have to go to school on his birthday! I took them to see the Bee Movie that morning and then took them to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch, where we spent almost 3 hours! Some friends from school met us there, too. Despite all the schools being closed, it wasn't horribly crowded and the only trouble I had was when I was ordering the pizza. Mind you, it was really loud in there, but I swear the cashier kept asking me what kind of pie I wanted. I kept trying to tell her I didn't want any pie, I wanted a large pizza. Then she asked me what I wanted on my pie. I fianlly realized she was talking about the pizza and remembered that people here don't call it pizza, they call it pie. If I had wanted to be truly tacky, I would've pointed out to her that there was NO PIE listed on the menu posted overhead, only pizza. Also, as I waited to order, I was standing ON line, not IN line. Everyone here says that; I don't know that I'll ever be able to switch that one.
Anyway, Sam's birthday celebration extended to the late evening with cake and he was allowed to have a friend over to spend the night (a first for us). He invited a friend who is, of course, a fellow YuGiOh enthusiast. This friend, also, had just had a birthday the day before so Sam was really sweet about the whole thing and was insistent that both their names be on the cake and that they both got to blow out the candles, etc. Here's a picture of Sam with a YuGiOh present from us. He also received lots of $$ from relatives for his birthday which he has already spent on more YuGiOh paraphernalia. OH, and he lost a tooth during the Bee Movie so the tooth fairly came that night, too. It was kind of a busy day...
Meanwhile, Dave was at work in NYC and saw the Rockefeller Christmas tree being erected. Here's a picture from his work...it's taken with his cellphone. You can see the ice-rink on the right. He said by the time he left work, they had scaffolding erected halfway up the tree (to decorate the tree). I can't wait to take the kids and go see it when it's all lit, etc. We're told the crowds are horrendous once the tree is on display.
Oh, one more picture that I found interesting on Dave's phone. This is a picture of a landscaping crew as they are trimming some bushes...eight floors up. (Dave is on the ninth floor). Dave says the guy who is straddling the bushes and holding a broom was actually casually walking along the outside ledge and sweeping the trimmings away. He and some of his coworkers were watching him through the window with morbid curiosity. And no, there's not another ledge just below him to catch him if he fell. As someone who hates heights, I find this behavior both unbelievable and insane. But the real question is: was he sweeping towards the bushes or away?

Fitting in...

I may have mentioned this before...I can't remember. The people here in Jersey are a little different from everywhere else we've lived. I mean, deep down, people are basically the same everywhere you go. But I don't think we've ever lived anywhere so...ethnic. This can be a great thing. Especially when you go to the grocery store and are looking for a difficult to find cheese: it's there. It can also make you feel like you stand out a bit, though.
Here are some last names of people at the kid's school: Giacoio, Avalo, Pospisil, Zuzeck, Della Penna, Skorupa, Terracciano, Borgese, Orsino, Tarabocchia, and Dipiazza. I looked through the whole school address book and found no one with the last name of Davis or Jones, but I DID find ONE Smith! My kids go to school with other kids named: Sergio, Frankie, Vinnie, Dominick, Rafaella...there are a lot of Catholics here so we do have a few Marks, Stephens, and Anthonys (but Anthony is pronouned "Ant'ny" and you have to say it really fast). I looked through the whole school address book and my kids were the only Sam, Caleb, and Peters in the entire school! (I did find one Samantha, though). The worst part is when you're supposed to be writing down someone's name and you have no idea how to spell Tarabocchia. Surely they're used to people asking them how to spell it though, right? Capener sounds so very tame and easy to spell all of a sudden!
One more thing: Peter told me that there was a teacher at his school that he saw last week and even though she is a girl teacher (a.k.a. female), she had a mustache. He was very intrigued by this and made sure I understood the gravity of the idea of a girl teacher having a mustache and that it was NOT part of a Halloween costume!

Peter's new pastime

We've started receiving several pre-holiday toy catalogs in the mail. I swear, if you order one thing from one catalog one time, you get on a mailing list of every toy catalog that has ever existed! I'll admit, I actually like thumbing through some of them 'cause they do often have some pretty cool stuff, even if just to look at. PETER, however, has decided to cut out the things he wants from each catalog and make a sort-of collection. Every now and then he'll tape the most important ones onto a piece of paper and give it to me so I'll be sure to run out and buy them...but for the most part, he just makes piles of clippings. I haven't counted them yet but I'm sure there's at least 80 different items cut out that he's decided he wants for Christmas. Some of them cost hundreds of dollars...money is no object for him. The funniest part is that he uses no discretion when cutting them out...so even if I wanted to buy them for him, I have no idea what it's called, which catalog it was from, or how much it costs. I just have a picture of a toy. Oh wait, maybe he does use some discretion. When he cuts out the picture, if there's a child in the picture playing with the toy and looking ecstatically happy, the child is not cut out of the picture.
Also, here's a picture of Peter and his "best friend at school" on Halloween. They are so cute together!

Halloween album

Halloween 2007

Well, I found out that the night before Halloween is called Goose Night around here. There was lots of toilet papering going on and I saw shaving cream squirted on objects here and there around town. In Michigan (specifically the Detroit area), it is called Devil's Night and is much more violent...most of the activity dominated by setting fires all around town. Goose Night, in contrast, is much more benign. The toilet paper is a nuisance but at least doesn't permanently destroy property or put lives in jeopardy! Sam had a blast at his school party and came home all sugared up. It was a really fun, safe experience for him and I'm so glad he got to go this year.
The kids got up ON TIME today, for once, and were ready for school like an hour early...if only we could have Halloween everyday...
Peter got to wear his costume to school the whole time and Sam and Caleb got to change into theirs after lunch. They all had a costume parade after lunch. Since Peter was all ready for Halloween to start at 7:15AM, it was a long day for him. He kept asking me when we would go trick-or-treating. (Did he actually think we were going before school)? When I would tell him we would go when Dad got home from work, he'd say "How many minutes is that?" I'd tell him it's **hours away. He'd then ask, "How many seconds is that?" At one point, I actually had to get a calculator out and show him that we would go trick-or-treating in 14,400 seconds. He informed me he could only count to 106 seconds. You might say it was a long day for me, too.
As usual, they enjoyed handing out candy to trick-or-treaters just as much, or more, than going themselves. Caleb, especially, said something about how fun it was to stay home awhile and hand out candy to cute kids. Peter generously donated almost all his candy when ours started running low. He went through each piece deciding on which to keep and which to donate and ended up keeping only a handful. We ended up not needing to use his but I'm hoping Dave or I can take it to work and leave it or something! We certainly don't need it in the house! (See previous post about Steph's party pooping).
Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!!!
p.s. Dave says (in response to the previous pumpkin post) that he remembers things differently. He has done his fair share of pumpkin scraping, innard removing, and cleaning up. I'm sure he's right...if only I'd been blogging all those other years...we could look back and find out for sure! ;-)

It's the Great Pumpkin...

This past weekend, we held our annual pumpkin carving night. What this usually means is I get to cut open the pumpkins, scrape out and remove all the innards by myself, Dave carves a nice pumpkin face for the kids and I then clean everything up. It's not really an activity I look forward to each year. This year was a little better...Sam and Caleb did a lot of scraping and innard removing and actually carved a pumpkin each all by themselves. Peter didn't want to get his hands slimy so pretty much just watched me work. (I remember Sam and Caleb used to refuse to put their hands into the slimy pumpkins, too). Dave was busy making us a yummy dinner so we let him off the hook. Hey, anything as long as I don't have to cook!
This is the first year we used actual "pumpkin carving tools" which made the whole thing SO much better...as opposed to just using sharp kitchen knives that the kids aren't allowed to use anyway! Here's a picture of the finished pumpkins. They are already starting to shrivel up. I carved the two on the right; Sam did the one on the bottom left and Caleb did the one on the top left.

Sam is going to a Halloween party at the school tonight for all the 4th and 5th graders. Apparently this is an annual thing and should be lots of fun. After the party, they are given rolls of toilet paper and they actually get to run around the outside of the school, papering whatever they want to! (Their school is an "open air" campus with small, individual buildings connected by outdoor walkways). There are lots of big trees too! I couldn't believe it when I heard that, but, each kid had to sign a slip promising to arrive half an hour early for school the next morning to help cleanup. I'll be interested to see how it looks!?!

One more note about Halloween: Steph told me that on the TODAY show this week they were talking about all the candy that kids bring home from trick-or-treating. They said the average kid brings home 14,000 calories in their bag!!! That's fourteen THOUSAND, people! I couldn't believe my ears. But wait, there's more! They took a poll and the average mom (myself included) sneaks approximately ten pieces of candy per day from their kid's loot and is consuming an EXTRA 1,000 calories/day! Lucky for you guys I can do the math, and from that I can tell you that we will gain 2 pounds a week at that rate!!!! Yikes! Steph is such a party pooper.

This weekend I was on a cleaning frenzy and actually found lots of leftover Easter candy! I threw it out, of course, (after Dave ate a stale peanut butter cup) but thought it would be kinda funny to hand it out to the trick-or-treaters. Can you imagine your kid coming home with an old chocolate bunny in their bag? Or some marshmallow peeps?

What's on YOUR mousepad?

Every now and then I get one of those e-mail questionnaires that you're supposed to fill in the blanks or finish the sentence so that all your friends can learn a little more about you. I love reading them and seeing what my friends answered about themselves, but I'll admit, I've NEVER done it myself. I think I'm just too lazy to delete their answers and put in my own! Anyway, one question they often ask is: What's on your mousepad? Not a very exciting question, really...but I have to confess that I love my mousepad! Dave bought it for me a few years ago when I became enamored with the artwork of Gustav Klimt. His work is quite unique, in my opinion. Most of his paintings are on square-shaped canvas, although nowadays when they are reproduced, the distributors often crop them to make them rectangular (so they'll fit in ready-made frames). ANYWAY, my favorite is "The Kiss" which is the mousepad Dave bought me. We just can't afford the original...although Christmas IS coming, hint, hint!