Why we don't take Marissa out to eat

Enough said.

What I come home to

After a day such as today, it's such a nice thing to come home to these two...

(My husband's pretty cool, too).

Rough Day at Work

I don't write much about my job here, this is mostly for my friends and family to keep up on my own family, see pictures of the girls and how big they are getting. But today was a rough day at work. Rough. Ugh.

It's a rarity that I come home from work feeling exhausted by the events of the day, but today I did. I won't say any more than that now, I just am hoping that things will be getting better again soon.

My new piece of technology

Note to self -- others cannot hear the music in the iPod, just me. So singing along with the music is a really geeky way to show others that I really AM closer to 40 than to 30, and that perhaps I'm not ready for this technology after all.

I have to RESTRAIN myself to keep myself from singing, at least now I'm down to soft humming during choruses.

This guy cracks me up

Check out the toolbar on the top of this page. There's a little link called "next blog." It used to be called "next random blog," and it does just what it says -- randomly pages you through all the blogs on blogger.com that people choose to make public. Browse at your own risk.

I came across this guys' blog and had to bookmark it. Man, is he funny! He's a stay-at-home dad of a 2-year-old boy in Des Moines Iowa; just had his 36th birthday too. I love how brief his postings are but funny as hell.

Here's his latest post from yesterday:

This evening my son and I were hanging out outside when a mosquito landed on his forehead. I instinctively smacked it. Therefore smacking my son on the head (not too hard).

Afterwards he looked at me, furrowed brow and all, with a look that most likely meant -

"Dude. Don't ever do that again. Someday I'll be able to kick your ass."

Okay, that's it, I officially have to go start my day.

Something that Freaks me out

There is just something about hearing electronic toys go off in the middle of the night in a fit of dying batteries that just freaks me out.

I awoke this morning to the sound of "bee booop! bee booop!" coming from inside the house. It was the sound that one of Lindsey's toys makes when it turns itself off. It kept doing it over and over, which makes me believe that there is a ghost child down there, turning the toy on and off over and over in wispy silence, wondering what new piece of technology this is since last being alive 100 or so years ago.

Or perhaps a burglar invaded our home and tripped over the damn thing in his rush to steal...what? Our 200 lb flat screen TV? The most valuable items in our home sleeps in the beds anyways, not sure what a burglar could steal that I'd get too riled up about.

Perhaps it's the thought of those Chuckie movies, or the twice-in-my-life reading of Stephen King's "It" that makes me nervous when I hear these electronic twitches in the night. But needless to say, once getting up to turn off and de-battery the toy, I was up for the day.

My Birthday

My birthday was this past weekend. I LOVE my birthday. I like feeling extra special for just one day, all the cards and the calls that I get throughout the day. Thanks to everyone who sent a card or gave me a call, by the way, I really appreciate it!

I'm always amazed by people who get cards out on time. Usually I'm sending them the day of the big event. I've finally stocked up on belated birthday cards, so now I'm even lazier -- if you get a belated birthday card from me, I probably didn't even buy it with you in mind, I bought it knowing I was going to miss someone's birthday, just didn't know it would be yours.

I got a slew of gifts from the family -- a Cinderella Barbie, supposedly from Lindsey but really for Lindsey, a Cinderella baby doll, supposedly from Marissa but she seems to like playing with it best, and a new workout bag with an extra special something stuck in the pocket -- an iPod shuffle.

This is my first foray into the latest technology, and I've been wanting it for my workouts. I have a Discman, and a couple of years ago it wouldn't have been too unusual to see it in a fitness club, a bulky round gadget strapped around my waist. Now, it would be downright embarrassing to be seen with something like that, when everyone is walking around with these little tiny MP3 players and iPods.

I was trying to describe to my dad the size of this thing, so I finally measured it -- 2 1/2 inches wide by 1 inch long, and 3/8 of an inch thick (that includes the clip to clip it to your clothes.) It holds a maximum of 240 songs which can be played continuously or in random order (thus the name "iPod shuffle.")

It is a technological wonder, though it is incredible how the "wow" factor goes down dramatically once you reach out to those under 30. Even Lindsey knew when I opened the package what it was and wanted to put the earphones in to "listen to the music." Huh?!? How does a 4-year-old know this? Turns out her pre-school teacher has one and plugs in before leaving work every day, every once in a while letting someone listen in on the music before taking off.

For an idea of how small it is, click here.

And yes, my iPod is pink.

Outside Play

I just wanted to quickly post a couple of photos of Marissa playing outside. She LOVES to play with water, and she loves to play outside, so the nice weather finally makes it possible for her to do both.

She wore this skirt because all of her other shorts (all four of them) were in the wash. She did NOT want the skirt on and then after I wrestled it on her, she pulled and pulled on it and said, "Off! Off!"

I suspect she will not be the dainty fairy princess of all things girly that Lindsey is.

Lindsey's Birthday Party

All I have to say is, it was a lot of fun AND a lot of work! Big thanks to my friend and neighbor Amy who helped throughout the whole party!

Activities included:

• making butterfly wings with posterboard and lots of craft glue, feathers and foam stickies
• making pretzels and baking them up
• having lunch which consisted of a hot dog in a crescent roll (which Lindsey helped me make!), fruit kabobs and macaroni and cheese
• Eating the pretzels once they came out of the oven
• Trying on our now dry butterfly wings and dancing around the room with great abandon
• Eating Dairy Queen cake

Whew! Lots of activities, but all so great so that Lindsey didn't even notice that nobody brought her gifts, and there was no gap where a "gift opening" would have happened. She was polite, had no problem sharing with her friends, said "Thanks for coming!" as everyone was leaving and didn't ask where her gifts were.

Even better, we raised almost $100 for Children's Cancer Research Fund, which I'm sure they will greatly appreciate. I will probably make my own donation to just round it out to $100, but it feels good to give to someone else rather than look at a bunch of stuff sitting around our house and wonder where it's all going to go. Hopefully someday the lesson will sink in with Lindsey and she'll be grateful for what she's got and not want for more.

Marissa

It seems like it's been a while since I've posted a photo of Marissa. She is getting bigger and bigger -- her hair is getting longer, too!

Yesterday and today it was beautiful out -- highs in the 80s! We spent lots of time outside. Or as Marissa likes to say, "Outsiiiiide! Outsiiiiide!" She says more words all the time now -- she now says "sit" (appropriately), and "wet." I have no idea why she started saying "wet," but she'll point to a puddle and say "wet," then promptly stomp in it, splashing mud everywhere. Have I said yet that she's our boy?

It's difficult to get a photo of her, I followed her around the backyard for probably 5 minutes before snapping this one, and it's the best I could get. She moves too fast, is always busy, and looks very serious much of the time as she's focusing on...whatever she's focusing on at the time.

So here's a photo of the smallest peanut, not so small anymore, with a nearly-blonde head of very curly hair! Hard to believe she's related to the rest of us with that light hair.

Lindsey's B-Day

Lindsey's and Marissa's birthday seem to eclipse anything they are near, including Wayne's and my own birthdays. This year Lindsey's birthday is almost a month-long celebration. I was traveling on her actual birthday, so she was at Children's World (for once) on the actual day. I flew in from my trip the morning of her birthday and stopped by over lunch to bring cupcakes for her to share with the class.

Then, the next day Wayne and I took the day off work and took her to the Mall of America. She was so excited the night before she didn't get to sleep until after 10:30, then woke up at 6:45 a.m. Needless to say, we had to leave the mall when the meltdown started, and ended up carrying her kicking and screaming to the car.

But she recovered after a long 4-hour nap, during which time Wayne and I got an amazing amount of work done around the house! I managed to clean out most of the baby clothes that Marissa's outgrown. I still think of her as a baby, until I see what size a "newborn" size really is and realize that she's in 2T's now. So out went four garbage bags full of baby clothes. I was going to donate them to charity, only to find out that my co-worker was having a garage sale, part of a big neighborhood garage sale, so I gave all of them to her and said, "Hey, if I see any money, great, if not, but none of the clothes come back, even better!" Hopefully they all sell.

I had to keep a few nostalgic pieces, though, like the little tiny stretch-knit pink and blue caps that both girls wore to come home. In comparison I also kept the "I was born at Fairview" onesie and cap that was given to us after each of them were born. I kept them to remember that each of them were too small to fit into them -- the caps fell over their eyes and the onesies came down to their knees. Both of them are still "new" and have never been washed.

I also kept the little outfits that Marissa and Lindsey both had their one-year photos taken in. Wayne's mom gave me his outfit that his one-year photo was taken in as well -- some day I may put all three in a shadow box to put over their three baby pictures in our hallway. My one-year baby picture does not grace the hallway...because I never had one taken. (Guilt trip, Mom and Dad! Don't you feel awful? ;-))

Okay, so there was a long tangent...back to the birthday thing...

Lindsey's actual birthday party is this Saturday, May 12th, since she was invited to a playmate's birthday this LAST Saturday. So now she thinks she's turning five, since she already turned four. I don't need her to grow up that fast, she can stay four for a bit longer!

A Musical Joke: groaning is appropriate

An E-flat, a C, and a G go into a bar.

The bartender says: "Sorry, but we don't serve minors."

So, the E-flat leaves, and the C and the G have an open fifth between them.

After a few drinks, the fifth is diminished and the G is out flat. An F comes in and tries to augment the situation, but is not sharp enough.

A D comes into the bar and heads straight for the bathroom saying,"Excuse me. I'll just be a second."

An A comes into the bar, but the bartender is not convinced that this relative of C is not a minor.

Then the bartender notices a B-flat hiding at the end of the bar and exclaims: "Get out now! You're the seventh minor I've found in this bar tonight."

The E-flat, not easily deflated, comes back to the bar the next night in a 3-piece suit with nicely shined shoes.

The bartender (who used to have a nice corporate job until his company downsized) says: "You're looking sharp tonight, come on in! This could be a major development."

This proves to be the case, as the E-flat takes off the suit, and everything else, and stands there au naturel.

Eventually, the C sobers up, and realizes in horror that he's under a rest. The C is brought to trial, is found guilty of contributing to the diminution of a minor, and is sentenced to 10 years of DS without Coda at an upscale correctional facility. On appeal, however, the C is found innocent of any wrongdoing, even accidental, and that all accusations to the contrary are bassless.

The bartender decides, however, that since he's only had tenor so patrons, the soprano out in the bathroom, and everything has become alto much treble, he needs a rest - and closes the bar.

Are you smiling?