It was a short night...

Well, tonight was the Father-Daughter Ball... My daughter was excited all day about going to it. She was even asking this morning if she could go right then. We went over to my sister's house where my sister saved my daughter from getting one of my hairdos (I'm 'do impared) and my daughter kept talking about how cute she looked. No self esteem problems there! We came back to the house, got her dressed and started taking pictures. Everything seemed to be going so well...

They were at the ball for less than an hour.

My sister and I decided that we were going to go peek in on the ball so we could see all the fun. My husband and daughter were sitting at a table right next to the door, so they were pretty easy to find. But why weren't they up dancing? YMCA was playing, and who doesn't love that? My daughter wanted no part in it. My husband tried to get her to participate, but no. I guess he asked her if she wanted to go home and she said that she did.

That's when my sister and I were spotted. Oops!

Anyway, they came out and my husband said that our darling daughter didn't want to stay.

And what did I do?

I burst into tears.

I was (okay, I still am) so sad that she would want to pass up this fun night. I know that my daughter doesn't do well in large groups. Even smaller groups can do her in. But it still just broke my heart that she would be missing out.

And I cried. All the way home. When I put my daughter to bed. When I talked to my husband afterward. I'm even getting a bit misty right now.

My husband told me that they did get in two dances when they first arrived, but after that, she was done. I guess it's a start.

So, I'm posting some pictures of the happier, pre-ball, times. Please ignore the tubs in the background of the one picture. They've been there for months for a bit and really need to be taken down to the basement. I'm sure I'll get to it one of these days soon.

The African Anteater Ritual

Tomorrow night is the ball! Have I mentioned that I'm excited about it? My daughter is beginning to get concerned though. Why? She doesn't think she knows how to dance. When I tell her to "shake what your mama gave ya" she just looks at me like I'm crazy. I've tried grabbing her hands and dancing around the room with her, but I get an eye roll. Hey! You're 6! That's too young for eye rolls! So, she's left me with no other choice.

I'm going to have to teach her the African Anteater Ritual.

I know, it might seem a bit advanced, but it might be my last hope. And if life is like the movies, which of course it is, everyone else will be doing it with her in no time.

Well, everyone except my husband. He'll be doing the Robot.

*eye roll*

Ferris Bueller in the making

Yesterday, my darling daughter decided that she was just too sick to stay at school. She kept going in to the office and telling them that she didn't feel good or that she felt low. Let me explain. My daughter has Type 1 Diabetes. Because of this, everyone at the school gets freaked out worried whenever my daughter says she's feeling sick. They have her check her blood and she's rarely low, but they're still afraid that there must be something going on. That something is usually that she just doesn't feel like being at school. Have I mentioned that she's a stinker?

I was at the school at lunchtime to give her insulin and got an earful from the health tech about how often the stinker had been in there just that day. I talked to my daughter and she couldn't decide if she felt sick to her stomach or if she was just hungry. Uh, yeah. I sent her off to lunch after telling her that she was fine.

Did that settle it? Of course not.

Right after the lunch recess, I got a call from the school office saying she was back in there complaining that she didn't feel good. No temperature. No low blood sugar. Yet they were still concerned. Fine. I went to pick her up from school. And do you want to hear something shocking? She was all better by the time we got home! Miraculous, huh?

But I'm a mean mommy.

I told her that, clearly, she was not better and that she had to go to her room and lay down. She kept trying to convince me that she was all better, but I just had to make sure by keeping her in her room until dinnertime. This, of course, was torture. She can play happily in her room for hours when it's her own decision, but if she's sent there, it's the end of the world as we know it. The time in her room seemed to do her well, because by the time she was allowed to come out, she was perfectly healthy. It's a good thing she has a mommy who knows just what to do to cure mystery illnesses.

Now, if I could just train the ladies at the school office to be as mean as I am...

Giveaways? I love giveaways!

Sorry folks! But this giveaway is now closed. Congrats to Julie D! If she doesn't get back to me by Monday at midnight, I'll pick another winner. Get back to me Julie!

Some of the blogs I've been reading are doing these fun giveaways, so I thought I'd jump in! This is my first giveaway ever and I have to say, I'm pretty excited about it! So, what can you win? I thought you might ask. I will be giving away the following:

36 adorable scratch and sniff Valentine cards. What kid doesn't love scratch and sniff? And to make it even better, they smell like chocolate! Mmmm... And for Mom (or Dad if he can wrestle it away from Mom), a Hershey's Giant Bar.

With all this chocolatey goodness, maybe I should enter! Okay, maybe not. Wondering how to enter? It's easy! Each of the following will get you an entry:

1. Leave a comment on this post. Doesn't sound too difficult, does it?

2. Totally for my amusement, leave your favorite CLEAN joke in that post. Inappropriate posts will be null and void - hey, this is a PG blog!

3. Subscribe to my blog and make a note of it in the post. It's the gift that keeps on giving!

4. Sign up as a follower on my blog and make a note of it in the post. Just don't follow me on the road because that's a sure way to get lost.

Oh, I should also mention that you should leave your email address so I can notify you if you've won. And you want to win, don't you? Also, this is open to US addresses only - sorry! Entries will be accepted until Saturday, January 31 at midnight Pacific Time. Good luck!

Thanks for visiting! Feel free to come back often!

If the glass slipper fits

This Saturday night, my husband will be taking my daughter to her first ball. Oddly enough, I seem to be the one most excited about it! My husband is asking if I'm sure just a shirt and tie wouldn't be enough and my daughter, never really being a princessy kind of girl, has no idea what a ball is. She is excited to wear a really pretty dress though! No, her dress wasn't made by singing mice, but by my sister - and please don't ask her to sing.

So what do you think? Is it just a mom thing to get so excited about things like this? I'm just tickled about the whole thing! I wish I had a good camera so I could take a gazillion pictures. And if there was a way that I could be a fly on the wall that night, that would be good, too. I hope to hear wonderful stories afterward. Okay, and maybe some funny ones.

Hmmm... If I'm the one getting her ready for the ball, does that make me the fairy godmother?

Where's Moondoggie?

There's a member of my family that I don't think I've written about yet. Yup, my dog Gidget. Wasn't she cute when she was a puppy? I got her right after we'd moved in to our new house and gotten brand new carpet. Okay, so that might not have been the brightest idea, but how could I resist that cute face?

Over the last few years, we've gotten Gidget numerous toys to play with. Most have ended up in her tummy within minutes of her receiving it. She's a chewing machine! But we have found one type of toy that will actually last for months - a tug toy. She loves her tug toy! If you ask her where her toy is, she'll get all excited and run and get it. But she has this crazy little game she likes to play with my husband and me. She'll bring her toy to my husband and try to get him to take it. He'll say, "Take it to Wendy!" Off she trots over to me. But does she give me her toy? No. She'll stay just out of arm's reach with it and taunt me with it. So I tell her to take it back to my husband, which she does, and she'll try anything to get him to grab it. She'll try to force it into his hand, drop it on his lap, etc. Um, hello? My husband just doesn't get it. Why will Gidget try to get him to take it, but keep it away from me? I'll tell you why. My dog is a stinker!

Are you lookin' at my Tagalongs?

I am up to my ears in Girl Scout Cookie stuff right now. Not only am I co-leading the troop, I'm the cookie manager. Am I crazy or something? They've got this lovely computer system that the orders have to be entered into, but first you have to log in and go through two hours of modules to teach you how to use the system. I found it rather amusing that the first module was all about opening an account, getting a password and how to log on. Um, we had to do all that stuff to get to the module? Nuts, I tell you.

Anyway, I'm pooped. I'm going to go to bed now so I can have dreams of Thin Mints dancing in my head.

Oh, and one last thing. No one even tried to guess the answer to my joke a couple of days ago, yet MoonGoddess thinks I should still finish what I started. So for those who missed it: What's the last thing to go through a bug's mind when it hits a windshield?

It's butt.

:o)

Bowling shoes - a fashion statement?

My daughter and I went bowling today for my niece's birthday party. It was mostly 4th grade girls, but the moms, a few 1st graders and a couple of kindergartners bowled, too. Since it was a kids party, they put up bumpers in the gutters for us. I have to say, thank goodness for the bumpers! And no, not just because the kids needed them...

Quite a few of the kids did really well. My daughter was even beating me for the first handful of frames, and that's with her just walking up to the line, putting the bowling ball on the ground and pushing it down the lane. There were some other interesting shots by the kids. My nephew lifted the ball up to his shoulder then chucked it forward - yes, it made a loud noise when it hit the floor. Some of the kids would go running with the ball up to the line, then stop, wait for a bit, then throw. It was all quite entertaining.

I have my own bowling ball, but I don't usually bring it with me when I go bowling. When I do, people expect me to know what I'm doing and that's just not the case. I took a bowling class in college and got to bowl twice a week for a semester. You'd think that that would improve my game, but no. My average back then was 111. I haven't bowled in at least a year, but today my score was 108. I don't think bowling is my calling.

Most of the kids scored higher than the adults, which was pretty embarrassing. My ever-so-unimpressive 108 was the high score for the day, but a 1st grader came pretty close with a 106 - I think she might be turning pro soon. I won't mention my sister's score (72) because it would just be too humiliating.

All in all, it was a really fun birthday party. And I can rest easy knowing that I won't be called relentlessly by the pro bowling tour asking me to join them.

Phfffftt!

writ·er's block (rī'tərz) n. A usually temporary psychological inability to begin or continue work on a piece of writing.

I've got a horrible case of writer's block tonight. I keep coming up with tidbits of ideas, but I can't seem to put the thoughts together. Clearly, my brain is broken. Due to my complete inability to express myself at this time, I'm left with no other choice but to bring out my favorite joke...

What's the last thing to go through a bug's mind when it hits a windshield? (Feel free to put your answer in the comments!)

A little off the top

I went in and got a much needed haircut today. My last cut was in the middle of last summer and I was looking very Sheepdogish. Now I can see! I'm going to have to get used to this cut though. When I told the hairdresser that I like to keep it long enough that it will rest on my shoulders, she must have thought I said I don't want it to touch my shoulders. I haven't had my hair this short since 9th grade when I started to grow it out after the evil that was done to it (more on that in another post in the future). I've been getting a lot of compliments on it though. Of course, they could be saying that it looks so good because they're comparing it to how dreadful it looked before. Hmmm...

When my daughter saw my hair, she started to giggle and tell me that it was short. I was wondering if she would ask if she could get her hair cut, too, because she likes getting haircuts. But no, she stuck to her guns. She's recently decided that she wants to grow her hair really long again so she can donate it to Locks of Love. Her hair used to be long enough that she could almost sit on it, but decided to donate it back when she was in kindergarten. I'm sure she made some little redhead with cancer very happy! Her hair grows so fast that it might be long enough again this summer. I have to say that I'm pretty proud of her for wanting to help people like that. This Mommy has a happy heart!

Pay no attention to that tree behind the curtain!

In case anyone was wondering, I got it done! I managed to get down all of the Christmas decorations inside my house. The outside still has the Christmas lights up, but that's not my job. Oh, honey!

So, everything is down... Not exactly put away... But they are out of sight. I didn't have to get any scornful looks from the Daisy's for my procrastinating ways.

My daughter came downstairs this morning and saw that the tree was in pieces and that all the ornaments were off. She was sad that the tree couldn't just stay up. I'm guessing that one of the reasons that she's sad about it is because it really means that there are no more Christmas presents coming. She kind of gave it away when she asked me how much longer it would be until Easter...

Procrastinators Anonymous

Is it still Christmas at your house? It is at mine. Or at least, it looks like it is. The shameful truth is that I still have all my Christmas decorations up. It's a good thing we have a fake tree.

I really need to take it down. Tonight. I've got the Girl Scouts coming over to my house tomorrow for our troop meeting, and it's just too embarrassing to have it up. Actually, it was pretty awkward still having it up at our last meeting two weeks ago.

Hmmm... Maybe I should just turn my house into one of those Christmas houses. You know the kind that they show on t.v. with the crazy folk who leave their Christmas stuff up all year?

Okay, okay. I'll take it down.

Different is good

A couple of years back, I saw that my daughter was starting to notice that some people looked quite a bit different than she did. I knew what was coming... "Mommy, why does their skin look different than ours?"

I told her that it's because God loves beauty.

I asked her if she thought it would be pretty if all the flowers in the world were the same color. She decided that that wouldn't be a good idea. Flowers are beautiful when there are many colors mixed together. The same thing works with people. Look at all the beautiful colors that God has made us. Wouldn't it be boring if we all looked the same? God loves us and made us all different and wonderful.

"Pretty neat, huh little one?"

I got a smile, and then she was off. I guess she was happy with my answer.

Why are you hopping around?

Gina left me a very funny comment yesterday that I can't stop laughing about. Go ahead and read it, I'll wait.

Done?

So, that got me thinking about handcuffs and it reminded me of something I did when I was little. My dad used to be a police officer, so of course, he had handcuffs. And what kid doesn't love to play with handcuffs? Unfortunately, I wasn't supposed to play with them. But they just called to me...

One day when my parents were out in the front yard, I got a hold of the handcuffs. And did I put them on my wrists? Of course not! I put them on my ankles. Tightly. Hey! They wouldn't come off! I knew that I shouldn't have been playing with them, but I didn't want to get into trouble, so what did I do? I hid under a table and hoped that they wouldn't notice me. In my young mind, it was a brilliant plan. It might have been a better plan if that table had had a tablecloth on it. Yes, I was caught immediately. Yes, I got in trouble. Maybe if I had been wearing a long skirt and just took very small steps... Or hopped... No, I'm sure that wouldn't have worked either.

Well, I learned my lesson. Don't play with handcuffs unless you've got the key. What? Did you think I'd say "follow the rules," or something like that? Nah. Too much good blog material comes from not following the rules. ;o)

The following video is probably a PG, but you might want to make sure there are no little eyes around. Less 'splaining that way.

I need a better place to store things...

My daughter started pulling things out of some of her drawers today. There are a couple of drawers in her dresser where I've kept things from when she was little(r) and there are some things that I probably could/should have thrown away, but for some reason, I just didn't. She came downstairs earlier holding a nipple shield (yea breastfeeding!) and the instruction booklet that came with it and wanted to know what it was. She was hoping to keep the shield as something to play with, but being the mean mommy that I am, I said no. Anything is a toy to her! With my luck she would have brought it to school to play with and I would have had some 'splaining to do.

In the same drawer was her first Halloween costume - she went as Pebbles Flintstone (see above pic). The fabric for her costume was really soft, and apparently really stretchy. She came down wearing the leopard print "top" and wanted help tying the shoulder ties. She couldn't figure out the black diaper cover, so she was wearing that around her neck. She wore that lovely outfit around for most of the afternoon and thought that she was just the height of fashion. That's my girl!

I should probably go through that drawer...

Itsy Bitsy

My husband and I went out and had a lot of really good laughs tonight. No, we weren't seeing the latest comedy at the theater. We went and watched my daughter's "Itsy Bitsy Fun Sports" class at the Y. Watching 4 to 6 year olds trying to figure out what they're supposed to be doing is a hoot!

The class started with the teachers trying to get the kids to stand on a line and put their arms up to make sure that they weren't touching their neighbor. This took a good bit of time and the kids still ended up clumped together. Next came the stretching. The teachers would demonstrate a stretch and the kids would try to copy it. Or not. Arms and legs were going everywhere except where they were supposed to go. When it came to the arm stretches, a few of the kids were doing things that would have been considered rude in some countries. Ahem.

The real fun came in when they tried to teach the kids how to play kickball. After explaining the game for about 15 minutes, then walking the kids around each base so they could see where they needed to go, the game started. Kind of. The kids would kick the ball, or not, then just stand there. All the parents are in the stands yelling, "Run!", but the children wouldn't budge. Eventually, one of the teachers would go and scoot the kids toward first base. They would also forget to run to the next base, so there'd be a pileup at first base. Some of the runners would go chasing after the ball that their teammate had just kicked, helping out the opposing team. Some would just start running all over the gym instead of to the next base. It was fun to watch a huge group of kids from the outfield all running after the ball, then not knowing what to do when they'd gotten it. I really wish I had a video camera with me!

Are you wondering what my little darling did? When she was up, she tried to kick the ball, missed it, but somehow still managed to stop it. She then kicked it while it was just sitting there and ran for first base - hooray! She got to first base and noticed that no one was paying attention, so she stole second. Then third. Then home. Yup, she stole 3 bases without anyone even noticing. She was the only kid there to steal a base. Should I be proud? She was pretty proud of herself after that! Little stinker.

Raisins - When grapes go bad.

I was reading the blog "i have to say" today, and there was a post about picking the raisins out of raisin bran cereal. I'll be the first to jump on that bandwagon! I, too, would pick the raisins out. I don't know why we couldn't just have bran cereal. Why must I be tortured with raisins?

When I was in college, my raisin picking became legendary. There was a 24-hour restaurant called Frimple's that my friends and I would go to at all hours of the night. They had these yummy, massive cinnamon rolls.

Okay, maybe not quite that big, but still huge. They were so wonderful, except for one small problem. They were packed with raisins. Raisins that you couldn't see unless you dissected the cinnamon roll. So, what's an Anti-Raisinite to do? I ordered an extra plate for the raisins and let the dissection begin. My skill at removing all the raisins was beyond compare. People couldn't help but stare in awe at my extra plate with the mountain of raisins on top. I could have fed a small country with all those evil little things. But not a one made it into my mouth. *sniff* I'm so proud of my collegiate achievement!

Hold your breath!

My daughter started her latest session of swimming lessons yesterday. She's been taking swimming lessons since she was a baby, which could lead one to believe that she'd be an excellent swimmer by now. Um, no. She's never made it out of the beginning class.

It's not that she doesn't like to swim. She really loves to be in the water and gets excited to go to her lessons. She just manages to weasel her way out of having to do things in her class. You see, she's cute, tiny and very charming. She uses it to get extra attention from adults which includes extra help in the swimming pool. She never has to try anything on her own.

Unless Mommy is in the pool with her... If I'm going to put on a bathing suit and go out in public, she's going to go under water.

Sister of mine, you were warned...

Sister of mine, you've fallen victim to one of the classic blunders. The first one is never get involved in a land war in Asia. The second, only slightly less well known, is never go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line. The third is never be rude to a blogger because said blogger WILL blog about it!

I was talking to my sister tonight and we were talking about what we'd done today. She asked me what I had for dinner and I told her that I took my daughter to McDonald's. I really hate going there and I try to limit doing the fast food thing to once a month, so tonight was that outing. My daughter had just finished a swimming lesson and had done really well (another post on that to come) and she was pleading for McDonald's. My husband was working late, so it was just the two of us... I gave in, much to the dismay of my stomach which really can't handle fast food like it used to.

Now, back to my sister who has apparently appointed herself to the diet police. She asked me, "Was that on your diet?" You know, because that's always so very helpful a question to ask anyone who is on a diet. Let's see a show of hands of the people who have been on a diet, had that said to them and it helped them... Hmmm... No one? What a shock! Not helpful to anyone!

But just for grins, I'll answer the question. Yes, it did fit into my diet today. The number of calories I've consumed is still UNDER what I'm supposed to have, thank you very much. Hmph!

Watch out for dieting bloggers - they're cranky!

Oooo! Bendy!

I got to go on a field trip with my daughter's first grade class today. What is it like riding in a bus full of first graders? LOUD! But it was a really cool field trip! We went to see the Peking Acrobats at a gorgeous historic theater. I was ooing and aahing before the performance even started. Yes, I'm a sucker for beautiful architecture.

So back to the acrobats - they were amazing! My daughter kept laughing at me because I kept saying, "No way!" repeatedly. I mean really, are people supposed to bend, fly and lift that way? I felt like I should have been telling the kids not to try those things at home. I'm guessing that there will be at least a handful of homes that will have broken pots, chairs and anything else the kids tried out their new stunts with. No honey, the dog doesn't like to be twirled around in the air. Why do you ask?

I searched YouTube and found a handful of video clips of the Peking Acrobats. I've decided to post the one that showed my daughter's favorite part of the performance. Enjoy!

Shake it, baby!

Why is it that when I go on a diet, my family still expects me to feed them? Even the dog thinks she should get fed. Unbelieveable! No food for you!

I started my diet a few days ago and I've been logging my food on the Sparkpeople website. So far, so good. I've been keeping within the calories allotted to me, and I'm ravenous doing pretty well. I have to say that time goes very slowly when you're on a diet and waiting for the next mealtime to come around.

I was having one of those diet shakes yesterday and my daughter wanted to know what I was having that she wasn't. I showed it to her and asked if she wanted to try some. Thinking it was a milkshake, she said yes. When I asked her if she liked it, she said that she did. Then I told her that it was a diet shake and she immediately changed her mind. You see? Even a 6 year old knows that diet stuff must, by definition, taste yucky.

It's getting close to dinner time now, so I know what I'm going to start hearing... "What are you going to make for dinner? I'm starving!" Carrot sticks make a good dinner, don't they?

Your nose is running - better go catch it!

I went to dinner tonight with my family to celebrate my niece's 11th birthday (Happy Birthday Bubba!) and during the conversation, my blog came up. Always helpful, my dad suggested that I post tonight about kids and runny noses. I had a different topic planned earlier today, but for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. So, runny noses it is. Ick.

I find it odd that kids seem to really like tissues, but refuse to use them for their intended purpose. It's just so much fun to empty the tissue box! My daughter is able to come up with all kinds of things to do with the tissues other than blowing her nose with them. No, that job goes to the back of her hand, leaving a lovely "snot rash" across her face. It really gets my gag reflex going...

Of course, we were all like that when we were kids. Once, when I was young, my mom asked me for a kiss. I went and gave her a kiss, after which she said, "That sure was a wet kiss!" My reply? "That's because my nose is running!" Ah yes, good times...

Is that the call of the wild Do-Si-Do?

It's Girl Scout cookie time! And wouldn't you just know that I'm the cookie manager for my daughter's Daisy troop? Why? Because I need to have hundreds of boxes of cookies laying around my house...

Calling to me...

Thin Mints, why do you tempt me so?!

The girls in our troop are 5 and 6 years old, so we really didn't want to put too much pressure on them to be selling a ton of cookies. It seems that the girls have a different idea. They can hardly wait to start selling them! Of course, the goodies that they'll earn for selling "X" number of boxes probably helps, too.

My daughter is ready to start knocking on all the doors in our neighborhood so she can be the local cookie pusher. C'mon, try one... You'll like it...

So if you live near me and are having a hankering for Girl Scout cookies, I have a cute little redhead who'd love to be your supplier.

Can I be a loser, too?

I love/hate the show Biggest Loser. I missed the show on Tuesday night because I'm terribly out of the loop. Thank goodness for Tivo. I got to watch the wonderful, wretched show today, so I'm all caught up.

Why do I love the show? It's wonderfully inspiring to watch people work so hard and lose so much weight, totally transforming their lives.

Why do I hate the show? Because those people are losing so much weight and I'm not! Seriously, how do they lose 20+ pounds in one week? I'd have to start lopping off body parts to do that! It's just not right.

I wonder how many hours a day they workout to get that kind of results. And why is it that they never seem to be sore the next day after these killer sessions? I worked out for an hour one time with a personal trainer and it took me a week to recover. What's up with that?

I've got to get motivated here. My big plan is to start working out tomorrow. Today I started getting ready by polishing off the Red Vines cleaning the kitchen and having pizza for dinner planning my grocery shopping trip for tomorrow. Yup, I'm about ready! Now, where are my headband and leg warmers?

Ho, ho, ho! Merry January 7th!

Just when I thought the holidays were over, they pull me back in! My daughter's school was supposed to have their holiday program before winter break, but the school ended up being closed due to snow. They had tried to reschedule it to get it in before the break, but more snow foiled their plans.

But wait! Don't put away your holiday sweater yet!

Today, January 7th, the parents all got to pack in to the school cafeteria to hear our kids sing Christmas and Hannukah songs. I have to say that my daughter's class was pretty cute singing their songs, even if they did look a bit confused. Are we having Christmas again? Apparently, yes.

Christmas also continues at my own home. I have yet to take down a single ornament from my tree, the garland from my staircase or the icicle lights from my roofline. Yes, I know. They should have come down already. Maybe this weekend...

Oh, and just for good measure... In an earlier post I mentioned a shameful family tradition - losing gifts before they're given. I was so proud of myself this year for not letting it happen. Clearly I've broken free of that mold.

What? What present? Doh!

Yes, I found a forgotten present a couple of days ago. Oh, the shame...

Would you like to see an impression?

The PTA in our school district sponsors an art program since the regular school budget has no room for art. So four times a year, parent volunteers go to a class to learn a project that we will then go teach to our child's class. In case you haven't guessed, I'm the parent volunteer for my daughter's class. I get to teach a classroom of first graders about Impressionism.

Impressionism? For first graders? Isn't their art already impressionistic?

Anyway, we all got to sit through an hour and a half of learning about art history (zzzz...) before we finally got to paint. Unfortunately, that meant that we only had half an hour to do our impression of a Monet painting that was being projected on a big screen.

Half an hour?! I cannot work under these conditions! I am an arteest!

Of course, I wasn't able to complete my painting to my satisfaction. (I am not obsessive!) As I looked around the room after our time was up, I saw that no one really seemed finished. At least, the lack of time is what we'll be blaming our finished product on...

Why you shouldn't have a phone in your room

Today was my daughter's first day back at school after the break. She's been asking the entire break when she could go back to school because she missed her teacher. I, on the other hand, was wishing that I could continue to sleep in for a few more weeks.

We got some snow last night that managed to stick, but later it started to rain, so I figured there wouldn't be a problem with school today. You know, because the rain would melt away the snow...

5 a.m.

RING! RING! RING!

It was my early morning pre-recorded wake up call to let me know that school would be starting 2 hours late due to snow. Isn't that nice of them to call at 5 a.m. to let you know that you can sleep in for 2 extra hours?

Now, if I could just get back to sleep... You know that's not going to happen. So I went downstairs to watch tv for a while in the hopes of putting myself back to sleep before I really had to get up. And what do you know? After a couple of hours I was able to nod off!

Minutes passed...

Then...

"Mommy! Will you please give me breakfast?"

I'm perfectly normal. No, really.

My husband tells me that I'm obsessive. I'm sure I have no idea why he would say such a thing. I'm not obsessive. Not at all.

Okay, maybe a bit.

I do get a bit crazed with some computer games. I could sit for days hours a while and play some of my favorite computer games. I'll admit that some of the games I like are pretty mindless, like Poppit, Yeti Orca Slap, or Virtual Bubble Wrap (I mean, who doesn't like to pop bubble wrap?). And when I was younger my dad and I used to get into Tetris wars - yes, things would get a bit competitive. But hey, that doesn't make me obsessive, does it?

Yesterday though, I came across a new obsession game. I was on the blog "Where My Mind Roams" and MoonGoddess posted about a game called Funny Farm. Why do they call it Funny Farm? Because that's where you'll end up after trying to figure out this puzzle game. I tell you, this game will melt your brain is really something. It seems like a harmless little word association game, but then it sucks you in. It doesn't matter if I've spent the last half an hour staring at the screen without a clue what word to throw out there, I can't pull myself away. Must! Find! Words!

MoonGoddess, my husband does not thank you for this. ;o)

Let's see, I've got 8 hours and 34 minutes until I have to wake my daughter to get ready for school in the morning...

Find the happy place! Find the happy place!...

The call of the Yeti

My daughter goes through life with her own personal soundtrack. If she's moving, she's making a noise to go along with it. The chances of her being able to sneak up on anybody are pretty slim.

She started her noises when she was really young. Of course, the animal noises were very popular:

What does a dog say? "Woof!"

What does a fish say? "Glub, glub!"

What does a giraffe say? "Nothing." (Giraffes don't have vocal cords.)

My favorites were some of the more obscure noises, like that of a Yeti. Yes, she is very entertaining.

To this day, she's still a sound effects protege. My husband thinks she'll be the next Michael Winslow. Hey, a guy's gotta have a dream.

The batting of eyelashes

I asked my daughter what she thought I should blog about this evening, and she thought I should write about Grandma and PopPop coming over. Of course at that time, they hadn't been over. As a matter of fact, they were warm and snug at home with no plans to go out. So, what would make a couple of grandparents go out in 30 degree weather?

"Grandma, when are you going to come over?"

Yup, one little phone call from a pleading 6 year old girl is the one surefire way to get grandparents to risk becoming popsicles. They didn't stand a chance.

My folks came over, chattering teeth and all, and spent some time with my daughter. Grandma got to hear the names of her granddaughter's Littlest Pet Shop animals, twice, and got some snuggle time in. My daughter invited Grandma and PopPop to spend the night with her and suggested that they just sleep in their clothes when Grandma used the protest of not having jammies. Always thinking, that one. Somehow my folks managed to find a way to break away from the batting eyelashes so they could get back home again.

Grandma and PopPop - don't be surprised if your pajamas turn up missing. Your granddaughter might be holding them hostage.

Don't say that word!

Well, here we are in 2009. Do you feel all the resolutions flying around out there? Those evil arbiters of doom...

Can you tell that I'm anti-resolution?

I mean, really... Making a resolution just seems to be asking for failure. And no, I don't think resolving to bring world peace and to beat gravity are asking too much of myself. Aim high! Okay, who am I kidding? Just resolving to get in a shower every day can be a stumbling block. Oh, the pressure of a resolution!

So, I'm not going to make any. Nope, not me.

But maybe in a couple of days I might start to think about things that can be tweaked.

A bit.