TV R.I.P.

My three year old, kind of expensive TV has officially shit the bed. The repair men ripped the insides out and shoved the empty shell back into its place in my entertainment center like some kind of electronic taxidermy.

We still have a backup upstairs in the bedroom (circa 1989) which is totally incompatible with my DVD player. *Sneer* I was in the middle watching Rushmore and planning on watching Kill Bill on Friday. Which I might add that I postponed watching because I thought by Friday I could call a truce with the husband and offer up the movie as the white flag. Do these men know about my big plans?

Husband and I are still arguing about the old car/new car. He totally won (sticking with the old car for one more year) but he did tell them to fix the old car without ever asking how much it would cost. Then proceeded to tell me that I'm not responsible with money. Ding Ding....Round Two.

School Days

Could we be any less ready for school to start? It starts in seven days and I think I've purchased two shirts and a pair of pants for the boy and a dress and a shirt for the girl. No pens, pencils, crayons or new shoes. No new lunch box or backpacks (although strangely enough my son says he's fine with what he has - whatever).

They assigned "optional" work for the summer. Math pages, journal pages - crap like that. I say crap because MY GOD YOU OVERACHEIVING WACKOS - IT'S SUMMER!! Also they highly recommend that you participate in the optional (but not really) Summer Reading Program at the town library. Which we did, totally half heartedly, but some effort is better than none, right? They get a certificate, a certificate. Which I'm guessing will read:

Congratulations.

Your parents forced you to waste quality outdoor summer fun time on mindless activities like filling in worksheets and writing journal pages. Now kids, we know you will be doing plenty of worksheets and will do the mandatory journal pages every day in school so we'd like to thank your parents for not thinking of any fun or interesting way to reinforce what we worked so hard to teach you last year.

Okay, a wee bit sarcastic maybe but I cannot speak a word of this out loud on the outside chance that my son might hear me. Cannot diss the school in front of the kids. Big no no. School you can kiss my no homework doing, no school shopping, sucking the last bit of fun out of summer ass.

And if on the off chance his teacher (hey there Mrs. L) or his principal (wassup Mrs. H) ever stumble across this.... I'm totally kidding and yay school - we love it!

P.S. I just typed diss and wassup in my post. How old am I? NeXt thIng u no I b tYping liKe diS.

Sunday Report

1. Read new car ads wistfully.
2. Fought with husband over financial ability to purchase new car.
3. Laundry
4. Watched husband steam clean living room rug.
5. Five minutes ago.... our Big Dog just threw up all over living room rug - cleaned it.
6. Had boiled lobsters and corn on the cob for dinner.
7. Made beds, breakfast and lunch
8. Helped son clean room, cleaned girls room.
9. Returned work phone calls. Call me while I'm on vacation and I'll return your call at 9:30 am on a Sunday morning. Hah!

Pathetic list. I truly cannot think of much else. On my way to watch Kill Bill vol. 2! Finally!

Home

We're back. I wish I could say I was glad about it. But I'm not really. We headed to here on Wednesday and for the first time in a few weeks I truly enjoyed having my kids with me on a 24 hour a day basis.

It was eventful to say the least. Car trouble, animal encounters and a nice gash on my leg when I walked into the picnic table last night. Actually, those were just the bad events. The good events were numerous. Creating islands on the sandbar with my son, my daughter's first shower, a glass Turtle that she named Turd (short for Turdle), campfires, swinging on the swings in pajamas at seven a.m. Good stuff. I highly recommend it. Even to those of you who hate bugs or mosquitos :) . There were no mosquitos but plenty of daddy long legs. ew.

It all started with a blown brake line on my car, which of course was loaded to the gills with camping gear and children. What you see here is the puddles of brake fluid I left behind. A wee bit dangerous, but we were rolling out of the bank parking lot when I realized that I could not stop and pulled over straightaway. Goodbye relaxing trip- hello car repair bill. 

Raccoon damage.

Lying in bed at two a.m. and I hear what I think is a skunk sniffing around and maybe nosing into the bin of dry goods (bread and cereal and things....see squirrel damage below). I check, don't see anything. I go back to bed, not to sleep though because I never sleep the first night that I'm anywhere but home.

Four a.m. comes and I hear some more action from outside... I check again and I see him...up behind a tree, eating something and watching me. I do a quick scan of the bin, not open, so zip, I shut the tent curious, but really wanting back into the warm bed. Not fifteen minutes later I hear the same damn noise....now I'm pissed and very, very tired. I jump up, grab the flashlite and leap out of the tent, realizing after I do this, that I am actually scared the raccoon will jump on me and claw the crap out of me for confronting him.

Well, it was the cooler. He popped open the latch and the rustling around that I heard was actually him digging through the ice cubes to find the package of chicken. He ate three pieces before I interrupted his little party.

Squirrel damage. We pulled up to the site after a bike ride on the canal and found a squirrel running away with a huge piece of bread in his mouth. And two more laughing behind the trees. So much for the bread. What I don't have is a picture of the peanut butter lid they ate through when we left to go to the bathroom. It was the only damn thing I forgot to put away. 

The site.  

A show of brute strength (or ribcage) at Sandy Neck Beach. 

Girlie with her camping art. We have a bunch of her painted rocks in our flower garden. But the wood, I don't know where those will end up. Hopefully not the woodstove but she is not yet four and there isn't alot more room for the art projects. Time to thin out the collection. :(

A huge trout at the fish hatchery.  

A bike ride on the Cape Cod canal. 

Ice cream and a growly face. 

Camping?

I took the kids down to the Cape yesterday and set the TENT up. Tent, yikes, I haven't slept in a tent since I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter (serious error in judgement - I couldnt' get a good night's sleep in my own bed what made me think an air mattress in the woods would be a viable alternative?). Then we jetted back for a birthday party for my son's best friend, my babysitting two of my friends' girls, supper for all and work for me.

We were supposed to return to the tent today. But seeing as my children acted like horrible cretins all of last night, it is questionable. I am slowly packing up and watching their *new and improved* behavior.

It's looking up....Mother in Law just called and is taking the kids until noon.

So if you don't hear from me for days it is because, having the backbone of a jellyfish, I took the kids camping.

Beginning to hate titles

Well, who knows if we'll be hitting the campground this week or not. Tent? Maybe.

I just took a look at my kids and their cousin in the picture a few posts back and that pond sure looks deserted. It's a water supply and we are totally not supposed to be swimming in it but my husband's cousins have this adorable cottage on it and have been doing it for years - sorry to the residents of nearby city who might ingest a bit of daughter's pee.

Just when we're having our first 'projected' week of summery weather I have to break out my son's hockey gear. First practice is Wednesday. I love watching him play what I don't love is chasing the girl around the rink and purchasing popcorn/drinks/candy to keep her relatively still while I try to watch the boy.

Husband told me I have no respect for typing this late at night (on my Dell quiet keyboard even). This from the man who got home well over one hour late from work with no phone call and no explanation. Damn that I cooked a late supper and we were still eating when he got there. Nothing says 'where the hell have you been' like a cold dinner and a family that has already left for a bike ride without you.

Worried about my loss of ummmm...oh yeah, Memory

I've just spent the last forty five minutes online trying to make reservations to go camping this week with the kids.

How did I forget that the camper is in Maine?

Sleeping Beauties

Why is it that my children will only sleep in on the days we have to get up early? oops, loud typing woke the daughter....back later!

Summer. 

Toothless. 

My huge formerly beautiful azalea bushes. They have been decimated by aphids and may perish. Note: They should be the healthy green color of the plants in the background. 

The last piece of new siding went up on the house today! Hurray! 

Never Mind

Okay, I'm over that Haloscan anxiety now. Forget it.

I'm a blind sheep

So I jumped on the stinking Haloscan bandwagon. Why? As dumb as this sounds....."Everybody's doing it." Is it any better than the blogger comments? Don't know. Was I missing out on some important comment related things? Don't know.

Well.... I lost all of my freakin' old comments. What the hell? Do I get emails when someone comments me? How will I know? Will I have to check all the time? It's too late at night for this kind of stress.

And all of the time I've wasted crying over the missing comments I could've been working, which would have freed up my Sunday night. Ugh!

My Happy Post

This one's going out to you Lisa:

My kids are sleeping soundly.
The humidity is gone.
I sold a ton of sh*t on Ebay.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and beautiful.
I have a ton of pina colada mix leftover from my book club meeting.
My house is still clean.
My inflatable boat didn't blow away.

They wanted to be sumo wrestlers - how could I say no? 

We saw this praying mantis at the library the other day. I haven't seen one of these guys for years. 

Is it appropriate to yell "Hah-Suckerrrrs!" at the computer as you check out your 'item's I'm selling page' on Ebay?

I have a book club meeting tonight at my house and have to spend the day cleaning - ugh. Inspired by April I tried a cosmopolitan at dinner last night with the idea that I might serve mixed drinks instead of wine (which I don't drink). Egads I am such a whimp! I belong to the "all mixed drinks must taste like juice or a slushie" school of drinking. It really was a pretty shade of pink though. I'm back to the wine and the Smirnoff Raspberry things.

Thanks for the help on the camera issue, I really must take another look at the instructions for mine. I've got to be screwing it up somehow. If not though I will be definantly checking out those Nikons.

Camera Question

I'm getting unhappier by the minute with the digital camera I bought last year. It's a Sony Cybershot. I can't get it to take a good action shot to save my life. None of my son's hockey pictures came out at all. I thought checked it out before I bought it, but no one else I knew had a digital so I didn't know who to ask. And that chomping sound you hear (or don't because it's in my imagination) is the sound that damn thing makes when it EATS up batteries!

There are alot of people out there taking pictures and I was wondering what digital cameras you use and if you like them. I'd love to get a new camera (or figure out if the problem is, in fact, with the camera and not the photographer, eh-hem, me) so any help would be appreciated - Thanks!

Yellow jacket invasion

I am bleary with lack of sleep. Two of these little bastards came into my home uninvited, one into my son's bed and one into mine. He got stung on the upper lip in his bed as he was trying to go to sleep and he got stung in my bed on the hand after he finally fell asleep.

When my son wakes up in sheer terror and a lot of pain mommy doesn't get to sleep. Daddy gets angry and irrational, grumbling about work and whatever so mom's on duty. He just laid there crying and screaming because, like his father, he gets angry and irrational. It's a happy home at 1:00 a.m.

Really mud does work wonders though and there is a feeling that I can't really name that encompasses being the mom and being able to hold your baby and know that there isn't any other place on earth your son would feel this safe.

His face is all swollen but he's better this morning and the intruders are dead, courtesy of a work boot, so all is well in the home again.

Ugliest Doll in the World

This may be mean but c'mon is this doll not ugly? My step-sister gave it to my daughter when she was 8 weeks old. I opened it up and almost died on the spot. I've hated these dolls since the first time I saw them on their pushcarts in the mall.

I've been gathering toys that are gathering dust and this beauty came onto my radar screen so if you don't think its ugly or maybe you'd like to scare small children it can be yours... How, you ask, could you be so lucky? Click Here to find out!

I hate finding good stuff to write about the crap I'm trying to get rid of on Ebay. I mean, 'like new' really means 'sat unused behind another funner toy for awhile and proved to be a waste of money'. I usually only sell one thing at a time because of the pressure. Which really isn't actual pressure, just me hating to deal with crap like this. Why do I torture myself so? For this or maybe this. Basically it's for Christmas money. The husband always falls under the dark cloud of a possible layoff so I try to hoard a few dollars away here and there for the holidays.

Down with the Complainer!

Blah Blah Blah. That last post was all about the bad.

I have kept my little blog here a closely guarded secret from everyone, except obviously the people who are reading it. My son caught me posting pictures and read the title (damn that school for teaching him the reading!) and promptly forgot/doesn't understand that this info travels outside of my own computer At my last book club meeting my friend spied my camera (which I've been throwing into my purse for a camera emergency) and called me out on it and I said a quick murmur about blogging.

Well, my friend wants to know if I'm still into that blogging and hey can she check mine out? Eeewwww. No, no, no. Is it so wrong not to want to share? She's not a bad friend, but I'd feel like I was being graded on each entry. And because I haven't told anyone about the blog thing I cannot tell anyone about the questioning friend. A vicious circle. You watch this whole secret thing will totally come back to haunt me one day.

Warning - Girl Complaining - Beware

What is the deal? 66 degrees and rainy. Summer, hey Summer, where the hell are you???? Sixty six is supposed to be the low temperature for the day - not the high. I had my heat on in my car today. They've predicted brighter weather for tomorrow - phew.

My son got his second grade teacher assignment last week. He got the one teacher I was hoping he wouldn't get. She's on one of the Committees I work for so I know her a little bit. She's kind of friendly but seems like she'd be dull in the classroom. And she doesn't have much nice to say about teaching while she's at these meetings that I attend. She's alot with the "I've been teaching for 452 years and kid's will destroy XYZ in no time flat". Things like that. Which brings me to a huge pet peeve of mine....

The principal at my son's elementary school posts the assignments the Friday before she leaves for vacation to give the parents time to get over any issues they might have with the school's choice. Apparently, the parents in this town have never been able to suck it up and accept the assignments. Which it would seem to me also teaches their kids no lesson about sucking it up. If you don't like it - COMPLAIN! and then you'll get your way kiddies. Our school works like this - if you request a teacher for any other reason then a special needs situation you will not get that teacher. Plain and simple. The point they're making is that they have confidence in the abilities of all of their staff, not just a few favorites.

I thought it that maybe I live in a spoiled brat town (which I kind of do but I digress) but apparently, not getting the kindegarten session you request is big news elsewhere. I just read a blog where the woman was complaining because her daughter got afternoons and had big plans for the mornings such as pedicures, doing errands alone and getting coffee. She did mention that she'd be available to volunteer then too because her baby will be in preschool in the am (I don't want to sell her short). Her daughter would also miss her dance class. All of the comments for this woman's post were sympathetic. Things like "you pay taxes - you should get to choose" and "why do they even have afternoons, no one wants it?" Brilliant. What about the parents who pay taxes and want afternoons?? How about those idiots? There is an entire legion of whiny, bratty moms out there raising whiny bratty kids. She may be nice and her kids maybe wonderful, but that school principal will remember her and I hope she sticks the baby into afternoons next year. Grrrrr.

It's all coming to an end!

They will be arriving shortly. I've watched all of my movies: 8 mile, Love Actually and Dead Like Me. I lu-uh-uve Eminem. The girls in my book club told me that grown-ups don't like Eminem. Fools.



C'mon, what's not to like?

Any other Big Brother watchers out there? The best moment so far had to be the look on that crumb Jase's face when dimbo Holly came out and proceeded to hang herself all over him. Hah!

Off to do the quick clean up before they come home and wreck the place!
Later taters!

Anarchy and Patriotism!!

I can do whatever I want whenever I want. And it ROCKS!! It's 11:30 at night, Incubus is blaring from my computer and there's clean laundry all over my bed, begging to be folded. I watched a movie while eating Chinese food on the couch! Usually a forbidden activity. Not this weekend. Rules? Who needs 'em???

They've called a few times. It rained and rained and rained on them. My sister in law packed up and drove home. My son begged to stay, so stay they did. Did I mention that my husband is really in the top 25 of dads in the entire universe? His husband ranking is still in question , but these daddy things he pulls, always get him a few notches higher. Then his proverbial "So, what did you do this weekend?" as he surveys the house with a disapproving eye will send him spiraling back downward.

This post is taking me forever to write (a bit o' Godsmack comin at ya loud and clear).

Turns out I am not a very successful addict. Done with Webboggle. Probably something to do with me not being a very successful player.

MMMMmmm - I just smelled my hands and they smell like bleach. (proof I have been doing something). I love the bleach/chlorine smell. I also love the smell of a New England Boiled Dinner as prepared by my mother in law, fresh cut wood, campfire smoke, and gasoline. Who cares? Maybe someone. And if you're that someone...thanks!

The Pats won the first preseason game tonight. I love that damn team.

Here are some pictures of my personal favorite:


Vs. Jacksonville



Tonight's Preseason Game

Well, I wasted alot of time fooling with those pictures, now it's late....g'nite.

Florida and Maine

Lunch!

I can just hear my daughter hollering every time I look at this. Which is a good thing. I took this at Lion Country Safari this past March. My inlaws rented a house for a month this past winter/spring and we flew down for our first airplane ride vacation. We didn't hit any of the Disney/Sea World stuff and opted instead for the river boat 'alligator sightings' cruise and the beach and mini golf and that type of thing. At the airport all of the grammy and grampy types were asking the kids if they were going to see Minnie and Mickey. My son was like "Disney World is in Florida?!?!?!?" Oops, did I leave that out?

We tried the Kennedy Space Center. It bored us to tears. It was hugely expensive and so, so dull. The only way to even get close to where they launch the shuttle and all that is a 2 1/2 hour bus tour. Huh?? They want us to sit on a bus for 2 1/2 hours and get off once for a photo op and once at the gift shop?? Not this family. We opted for the space shuttle playground then took off to Cocoa Beach.

We loved stinkin' Lion Country. The kids were cuckoo on the Safari. It's one of those deals where you drive through this park and the animals roam freely (except the Lions, they have their own lion spot, because pretty much most everything else there was dinner) the Zebras and giraffes, elky things and Lions. They had such a blast it was impossible not to love the place. There's a zoo there too. A lot of lizards and birds, turtles and things. Did I say we had fun?

Well, they're all gone to Maine. I had to work tonight and they went without me! The house is quiet. Not the 'Phew, they're in bed quiet'. The 'The house is way too empty' quiet. The longest I've been totally without my kids before is 27 hours. My son's gone away with my husband and I've taken him away too, but no kids? After 27 hours I was pacing around, mindlessly cleaning the countertops and looking out the window waiting for them. Now I have three days if I want it. I could go up tomorrow night, but it's supposed to rain a lot in the next day or two and I'm not sure if I want to hang out inside the camper with the dogs and the kids. Plus my sister in law, her boyfriend and my nephew. But for now, I'm going to watch Dave Letterman in bed, wake up too late, eat cereal by myself and only make one bed. Did I say I was actually thinking about going to Maine???

Our last night, we tricked the kids into eating frog legs and alligator tail.  

goofing off at lunch 

yawn 

I have a picture of me, when I was 3 years old, riding on this same tortoise. I wanted to throw my daughter on his back and snap a quick pic more than you'll ever know.

 

many thanks

I just wanted to say thank you to StrugglingAuthor for giving me another reason to sit here instead of say, doing laundry or dishes or something productive.

The reason is this.

My name is Jenny and I'm an addict. Of course, I kind of suck at the game, so this fascination won't last but another night or two at the most. I swear three or four nights of this game and it's done. I promise, by the end of the month I'll be ready to cut down to like every other hour and by like, Halloween I'll be almost ready to play only once a day. I know, it'll be my New Year's Resolution. No more Webbogle. those are mean't to be broken, right?

Kidding, but I really do suck at it.

It's a holiday!!

Apparently, the State of Massachusetts is celebrating the little known 'hey we know you pay a whole lot in taxes so don't pay sales tax for a whole day (on items under $2500.00) so we can jump start the economy a bit' state holiday.

Be back later, have to get the decorations out!

Here we are again. Yikes, I'm getting nostalgic. I think I'm actually missing this. Guilt is a beautiful motivator. (And unabashed love for the son). 

Here's a photo from my cubscouts career. This was at the end of our 1/2 mile, very easy (3yr old daughter walked it) hike at a nature park type place in our town. Note the hydration pack on the guy.