ladies....today is an interesting day.....

Today....January 12th....is....Feast of Fabulous Wild Men Day....not a clue where this 'feast day' came from but enjoy it just the same....guess I'll need to give my man a little extra luvin'....hehe...

how to cut down on airport security lines.......

NEW AIRPORT CHECK-IN ATTIRE.....of course, you still have to remove your shoes.




(not sure where this originally came from, if anyone knows pass it on so I can give credit where credit is due)
(for now I'm just gonna say 'thanks dad'...hehe...)

the frozen tundra.........

Hubby and I went on a weekend trip to Chicago for New Years. It was our first trip away together since D was born 5&1/2 years ago. My wonderful SIL stayed with the monkeys so we could go.

Did we have fun?? YES
Was it cold?? ONLY IF YOU WANT TO ACTUALLY FEEL YOUR EXTREMITIES

I don't think we have ever been so cold. The high was 7degrees....bbrrrrr....it makes me cold just thinking about it.
I will post more about our incredible meal once I get the pics on my computer.
BUT....I wanted to share what I bought on our trip.....



Need I say more?????
didn't think so.
(if you don't recognize the packaging, you wouldn't understand anyways)

Stay warm......baby it's cold outside...

January 7th

Celebrate.........OLD ROCK DAY!!!!
It's true. I didn't make this up.
Old Rock Day is an opportunity to enjoy and appreciate old rocks and fossils. Perhaps you can start a rock collection. You can go out on a field trip in search of old fossils (the rock kind). Or, if you choose, you can just play with old rocks.

There is little information available on what this day was truly meant to mean. So, the interpretation and the means of celebration is left up to you.

By definition, fossils are old rocks. Jewelry stones are old rocks. And, coal is an old rock, too. You can celebrate any or all of these old rocks today.

personally I like to celebrate those old diamond rocks..hehe..

heaven....

So today I was cleaning and d was 'helping' me.
We are Greek Orthodox so we keep our icons in our living room and beside that I have a basket of yellow silk roses in rembrance of my mother.
Anyways, I was cleaning the roses and such and d asked me why I kept them. I explained it was to remember my mom that is in heaven. He asked if everyone goes to heaven and I said, 'yes, when you die you go to heaven'.
He got all teary and said, 'I don't want to die and go to heaven' so I asked him why he felt that way.
His response (between all the tears) 'Because I would miss you and I don't want to be away from you'.
What a precious boy. It took me quite a while to calm him down and reassure him he didn't need to worry about it.

coming out of the woodwork.....

So I think this crazy computer is FINALLY back to normal. At least I hope so, although it still won't print....I'm working on that part.

We have a busy weekend coming up but after that I'm hoping to get some things posted that I've been thinking about.
Today and Saturday we have Sean Gnekow at our store for a wine tasting. He owns Gnekow Family Winery (Campus Oaks wines) located near Lodi and is a really fun guy. Plus, we have the monopoly on him in Cincy.

Oh, and d starts kindergarden on Monday. I am SOOO ready, if only he had all-day school...but I'll take what I can get.

On a different note, I discovered this blog a while back (don't remember how) and want to share it with all moms. She is an incredible woman (her hubby also) and makes me realize that things could be so much tougher. They were in a small airplane that crashed August 2008 and suffered life-threatening burns (with 4 children at home). Their perseverance is truly inspiring.
Visit:
NIENIE

Take care everyone and have a great weekend...see you next week.

computers......and monkeys

I was doing so well getting back to blogging and even had new pictures and then my computer got a virus....the coughing was really getting on my nerves.
Anyways, I've figured out what happened to it but I'm still working on fixing it. So, for now, I am using my trusty 8 inch acer 'toy' notepad. It works for basic things but please be patient until I get my 17 inch baby nursed back to health.
For now, no pictures. Sorry....
In other news.....d starts kindergarden on August 31st. He is very excited. He & I went out yesterday to get some school clothes and new Stride Rites for fall. (We have a new Stride Rite outlet near us with $20 shoes..woohoo)
Also, his bike's chain broke and we couldn't repair it so we went to the Trek bike store and bought him a new (to us) one for the same price as it would have been at Wal-Mart (but MUCH better quality).

We have officially moved m, e & s to toddler beds.....let me tell you "IT AIN'T PURTY".....we have to
.
.
.
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okay just got back to the computer...it would seem the monkeys that would be my children decided to rip the curtains off the window just now....they were running around the room with the rods in their hands and banging them on the walls.....

DOES ANYONE WANT TO TAKE THREE SUPER CUTE BUT NOT VERY TAME TODDLERS AND TEACH THEM SOME RULES/MANNERS AND THEN RETURN THEM TO ME IN A COUPLE OF YEARS....potty-trained and able to tie their own shoes......any takers....please? please?


eeehhhhhhh......didn't think so...dang it

new pics of my monkeys........

when daddy's in charge.....

pet peeve wednesday....

Yes, yes, I know...it's Friday but better late than never.
peeve #1
So, last week I went to one of those 'home parties' (you know who you are) and they only allow parking on one side of the street so I had quite a walk. Especially since the other friends..er... ..guests..er..inconsiderate people had to park their little 'I only have one child so I drive a small' car right in the middle of the block which kept me and my 'yes I have tons of kids' van from being able to fit anywhere close.
Now, this really irks me because I have to deal with parallel parking when I go to work and it annoys the crap out of me how those stinking little car drivers don't pull all the way up to lines. Come on people give us (mass)breeders some room here.....

peeve #2
I shop at Costco...in fact I'm there at least once a week...and I take all 4 kids with me. They are used to it and we do pretty well on getting in/out fairly quickly. Well.....not today...you see it was 'stare at that freak woman and her wagon full of kids' day.....that's right folks, 1 hour only for your viewing staring gawking pleasure in the diaper aisle you can see a mom with her 5 year old and 2 year old triplets.....they breathe, they speak, they even scream......(could it be all the strange people prodding me with questions that is scaring my children? and don't get me started on how they think my sex life is any of their business)

Okay....I feel better now....dang think of the money I can save by getting this all out and not wasting it on a therapist....

how to stay young.........

HOW TO STAY YOUNG

• Remember, there is no way you can look as bad as that person on your drivers license!
  
• Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them.
  
• Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.
  Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle.
  
• Enjoy the simple things.
  
• Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.
  
• The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.
  
• Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.
  
• Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it, If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve yourself, get help.
  
• Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, to the next county, to a foreign country, but not to where the guilt is.
  
• Tell the people you love that you love them at every opportunity.
  
• Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things!
  
• Always remember....Humpty Dumpty was pushed!

Pet Peeve Wednesday.......

Okay, so I know it is really Thursday but I did mean to post this yesterday....seriously I did.
Just so I can have a place to complain about people that I see in public I decided to make it a weekly topic.
HERE GOES.........

**Driving down the road yesterday I was fortunate enough to be behind a man that at every single light lowered his visor to continue plucking his eyebrows. Yes....it WAS a man.....yes he was PLUCKING his eyebrows.....even I don't do that driving down the road....geeessshhhhhh

**UNBUCKLED CHILDREN**
Okay, this seriously has to be the one thing that truly drives me insane. Yesterday, in two different parts of town I saw this.
First, a man was driving with his daughter in the back seat, actually sitting in her carseat, but not buckled in at all. She was leaning all over the place playing. So he thought enough to put her in the seat but stopped actually buckling her in? hhmmmm
Then, there was a lady with her 4-ish year old daughter in the front seat and of course, yet again, no seatbealt. And, in the front seat to boot, just put your kid in front of a moving train why don't you! auugghhhhh
I'm sorry, but there is no excuse for this..nada..zip..zilch..no way....no how....
So, I will amend this to say the only excuse is if you are in an absolute emergency, but neither of the people I saw were in any hurry what-so-ever. gggrrrrrr
It just drives me insane.

Alright....tell me what you think. What is your pet peeve? drives you mad? makes you want to scream at the person like a mad person?

Share Please!!!!!

CONGRATS!!!!!!

Guess what?!?!
Dad & Carol were married today!
WooHoo!
He finally made an honest woman of her after 8 years. Now I really can say she is my step-mom, but not the evil kind...hehehehe...

Way to go Dad & Carol. I'm very happy for both of you.
Love Ya!

Celebrating the 'big V'

I love the Cake Wrecks blog. Jen's little tidbits of wisdom make the pictures even funnier. M and I were scrolling some of her older posts and came across her 'hysterectomy' and 'vasectomy' cakes. Make sure you are sitting down and don't need to pee. Too dang funny.

Girly Cakes
HERE

Swimmers-no-more cakes
HERE

Em....the hoohaa cakes are just for you...love ya :)

funeral etiquette???

Okay....so this has been bothering me..so here goes....
The other day I was driving down the road in town and a funeral procession passed by me. Now, growing up in the south we were always told to pull over to show respect for the grieving family, so I stopped to let the procession pass me. No one else stopped or even slowed down and some even honked at me for stopping. I was so pissed off about this. I mean it takes only about a minute for all the cars to go by and people have such little regard for others that they are too busy to show just a little respect?? I mean come on...
Is this something that happens in other parts of the country? Do only people in the south care enough to stop for one minute of their day?
If these same rude people were in that funeral procession you know they would want to have the road cleared for them to get through as a group.
This is something that happens from time-to-time and it always makes me so mad. I'm always complaining about it to M.
pheeewwww.....okay, I am better now......