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Welcome Back Chris December 5, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in 2009 Adventures.
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Last week my youngest daughter made a plea to Santa to bring Chris the Mouse back to our house. She set up her Elf Bed, put out popcorn, cookies and crackers, because “that’s what Chris likes to eat,” and wrote a nice letter to Santa! She couldn’t wait until morning. This was almost as big as Christmas Eve!

 

 

The next morning she flew downstairs to see if Chris had arrived. The look on her face was great when she saw Chris. All morning long she talked about all the things that she and Chris were going to do. My older daughter came into the kitchen and said, “Mom, wasn’t I her age when I found out about Santa? I think I was! She is getting worse instead of better!” I told her if she didn’t watch out Chris wasn’t going to leave her anything except little mouse droppings!

My daughter took Chris to school with her the first day she had him. He stayed in her locker box all day. My daughter swears that he cleaned her and her friend’s locker out. I swear I did not go up to her school! Pinky promise!

Chris spent his first night with us sleeping in his little Elf Bed. At least that’s where my youngest daughter put him to bed! When she woke up the next morning she found Chris sitting at a picnic table with 2 candy bars in front of it. He was even nice enough to leave one for the non-believing older sister!

The next night my daughter once again put him to sleep in his bed and once again he didn’t stay there! I am starting to think he has something against sleeping in his special Elf Bed because we found him sleeping in the Doll House!

The following night my daughter decided that Chris needed to sleep with her. He apparently woke up during the night and left some little miniature chocolate bars on the stairs. My youngest daughter was nice and shared them with her sister. I told the Non-Believer to “be careful of the chocolates because he might have made them himself!”

Hopefully Chris will start to sleep a little more at night next week but I am not going to hold my breath!

Video Of The Week December 3, 2009

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When Humans Are Sleeping

Something Old, Something New December 2, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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Let me start by telling you about our grill. Our grill is about 6 years old and is on its last leg. Seriously! It lost 1 original wheel about 2 years ago and we replaced it with an old training wheel. The inside is falling apart and when you eat the meat that’s cooked on it you have to be careful not to eat metal!

The other night my husband was going to grill some fresh venison back strap stuffed with cream cheese and jalapeno and wrapped in bacon. YUM! My mouth was watering just putting these babies together.

My husband went outside, lit the grill and then moved it closer to the backdoor where the light is so he could see better since it was dark. That’s when I hear a BANG followed by an “Oh Shit!”

I was smart and stayed inside. My husband came back inside after about 10 minutes. He mumbled something about a piece of shit and then took the plate of meat and went back outside.  My youngest daughter ventured outside and came back in with the empty plate for me to clean and just started laughing and said something about another wheel breaking and wood. I didn’t even ask!

My husband comes inside and tells me to hold off on cooking the side dishes just yet because he has to switch out the gas tank, which he hates doing! He gets that done and relights the grill. About 10 minutes later I hear another BANG! followed by an “Oh Shit!” He comes in and tells me he lost one of the venison wraps inside the grill because the grill grate broke. No big deal it was an extra anyway.

We finally ate dinner and my husband declares that we are “Getting a new Gawd Damn grill no matter what!” Ok, no problem, that will be our Christmas present for this year.

This is why we needed a new grill!

 

Yesterday my husband went out and bought a new grill and we put it together this morning. It took us probably an hour and a half to assemble it and nobody was hurt or asked for a divorce!

I am going to like cooking on this baby!

The Return Of Chris The Mouse December 1, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in 2009 Adventures, Chris the Mouse.
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Well it’s that time of year again. Yep, it’s Christmas time! Time to put up the tree, hang the lights outside, shop till you drop, drink Egg Nog and be Merry! Oh, and I almost forgot, well actually I was hoping my youngest wouldn’t remember, it’s time for Chris the Mouse to come back for a visit!

Chris the Christmas Mouse

 (If you would like to read his adventures from last year click here.)

My daughter still has her “Elf Bed” from last year and since we don’t have a Christmas Tree up yet she made a drawing of a tree to hang somewhere to put the bed under! She tried to set it all up last week but trying to bide some time for myself, I told her Santa won’t let the Elves or Chris the Mouse leave the workshop until at least December 1st.

This morning she remembered that it was December 1st! She was all happy that Chris would be able to come back tonight! Why can’t kids have crappy memories like their parents!

So, like the stupid ass great mother that I am, I have typed up Santa’s Letter for the arrival of Chris the Mouse tonight.

I will try to give a weekly update on the “Great Adventures of Chris the Mouse!”

Broken In Sweatshirt November 30, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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We had a very nice Thanksgiving this year. We spent Thanksgiving Day my husband’s family. Oh who am I kidding, we pretty much spent the entire weekend with them! My husband took off for the weekend to go deer hunting and I spent Friday and Saturday with my in-laws!

This past Thanksgiving Holiday I found myself reflecting on the past year and I have come to the conclusion that I am getting older. Not OLD like my 10-year-old likes to call me, but older like a broken in sweatshirt that fits just right!

Here are a few things that happened or I did this past weekend that really opened my eyes to this new broken in sweatshirt stage of my life:

  • Thanksgiving Day I sat down and watched the Macy’s Parade all by myself. I like it so I watched it! And… I told anyone that came into the room trying to change the channel to get the hell out!
  • Friday morning my mother-in-law, my two sister-in-laws and I went antique shopping. I had blast! I didn’t buy anything but I did take these pictures:

I had the same Fisher-Price Little People sets when I was a little kid! They were my favorite toys! The antique shop wanted $50 per toy set! As for the coffee cup, I drank my very first milk-sugar-coffee from a cup just like that! They wanted $8 a cup for them! It’s a good thing I didn’t have any cash on me!

  • I left both of my girls alone with my brother-in-law and 3 of my nephews while I went out shopping. Did I mention I left them out in the country with lots of 4-wheelers and a dirt bike at their fingertips! Also the brother-in-law in question acts like he is one of the kids! They all survived and so did I! Although as the days keep going on I am hearing stories from my girls that involve not wearing helmets, dirt bikes and wrecks into parked cars!
  • Saturday when we finally made it back home I watched a movie that I wanted to watch. It was not a kids movie and it didn’t have guns or cars in it! 
  • I started reading a book this weekend! Me with a book! I have not read a book for enjoyment in probably 15 years! I actually like reading for fun!
  • Did I mention I went antique shopping!

Thanksgiving November 24, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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Thanksgiving is fast approaching us so I thought I would make a little list of some of the things I am thankful for this year.

I am thankful for:

  • Not killing either one of my children. ~ Especially after hearing: But so-and-so has it, But so-and-so parents would let her do it, You just don’t understand how hard it is to be a kid these days, etc., etc!
  • Not having a job yet. ~ How would I ever find the time to make and serve hundreds of BBQ sandwiches every other week at the High School or make Eclairs at the last minute for a 5th grade school project if I had a job?
  • Having a sense of humor. ~ If I didn’t have a sense of humor I would have been really angry and I would not have been thankful for the first item above. Especially last week when my youngest daughter was pulling the gray hair off my sweater in church and showing ALL of them to her older sister!
  • My blogging friends. ~ Thank you for reading and commenting on my posts and for sharing yours with me.

I hope all of you have a nice Thanksgiving!

Video And Question Of The Week November 19, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Just Wondering?, Video Of The Week.
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12 comments

Poor Pedro

From the movie Giant

(The audio is poor so you may need to turn up your speakers)

 

Question of the week: How many people will you be sharing Thanksgiving with? Will they be at your house or are you going to have Thanksgiving at someone elses house?

 

New Moon November 17, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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My girls love the Twilight series. My oldest daughter read the entire series. I told my youngest daughter that she had to read the book in order to see the movie. But that went by the wayside real fast once her older sister got the Twilight DVD! My youngest is just like me she hates to read! We have found that if we read a book out loud to each other it’s not that bad. It’s actually fun!

OK, sorry, I went off subject a little there! Back to Twilight! This morning I found out our DirectTV has an interactive Twilight channel for this week. It shows trailers for the New Moon movie and has a couple of little games to play. I told both of my girls about this morning when I woke them up. You would have thought I woke them up on Christmas morning! They were dressed and downstairs in 10 minutes flat!

Both of my girls want to go see the New Moon movie this weekend. They are both freaking out because they think the movie will sell out and they won’t be able to go see it this weekend. My youngest daughter is also freaking out because she wants to go see the movie with just her big sister, NO MOMS ALLOWED! This will be a first for her to go see a movie with just her sister.

Well I was nice and bought them the tickets online for this Saturday and I have no intentions on going to see it with them! I am debating on whether to tell them this information this afternoon or to milk it for a few days! I can’t keep secrets like this so I will probably bust by dinnertime!

 

Do I Have To Have This Conversation? November 14, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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I swear there is something in the air lately! My girls have been coming up to me and either telling me things I don’t want to know about or asking me questions that I don’t want to answer!

Let me start with my 17-year-old:

17-year-old Daughter: “Mom, my friend Tom is going to ask out this girl out who already has a girlfriend.” 
Mom: “You mean she already has a boyfriend, right?”
17-year-old Daughter: “No, you heard right she has a girlfriend!”
Mom: “Is he hoping for a  Ménage a trois?” (I can’t believe I actually asked my own child that question!)
17-year-old Daughter: “No, he just wants to get it on with the both of them at the same time!”
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry!

Now for my 10 year-old. (Keep in mind that she is in the 5th grade at a Catholic School and that they have had class room discussions about how your body changes at their age.):

Conversation #1:
10-year-old Daughter: “Mom, guess what we kept doing at lunch today?”
Mom: “God only knows! What did you guys do at lunch today?”
10-year-old Daughter: “We kept going up to the boys and asking them, What comes at the end of a statement? Then they would say PERIOD and we would run off laughing!” (She was cracking up when she told me this.)
Mom: “You shouldn’t do that to the poor boys!” (Then I turned away and chuckled.)
10-year-old Daughter: “Then I went up to Jane and I said, “Hi, I’m Mother Nature and I have a new little FRIEND for you!” The boys told Coach on us so we had to sweep the lunch room!”
 
Conversation #2:
10-year-old Daughter: “Mom do you know what a French Kiss is?”
Mom: “Excuse me?!” (I was in total shock at this one!)
10-year-old Daughter: “Do you know what a French Kiss is?”
Mom: “No, what is it?” (In hopes that she would tell me a really great joke!)
10-year-old Daughter: “No, really, tell me what a French Kiss is!” (She was turning a light pink at this point.)
Mom: “It’s when two French people kiss.” (Now please go away!)
10-year-old Daughter: “MOM! Tell me what it really means! We were talking about this at school and I want to find out if what the other girls said was true.” (She is now a light red at this stage)
Mom: “It’s when two people kiss and their tongues touch.” (Did I just really tell my 10 year-old daughter that!)
10-year-old Daughter: “That’s what they said too. That’s just GROSS!” (Her face is now fire engine red!)
 
Conversation #3:
10-year-old Daughter: “Can my sister take me to see New Moon next Saturday?”
Mom: “It’s rated PG-13 so I might have to go with you if they require an adult to go with you.”
10-year-old Daughter: “My sister can be TRIED as an adult in court doesn’t that count?!”
That kid cracks me up!!!
 
 * Names have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty!

Video Of The Week November 12, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Video Of The Week.
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4 comments

Up Time America

Kimberly Alyn

Sometimes Love Hurts November 9, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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I spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my daughters. Sometimes they help, sometimes they just watch and talk to me about what’s going on in their lives.

This weekend I had the insane idea of making caramel apples. Now, back when I was a kid we used to buy a kit that had these caramel wraps and all you did was wrap the apple and stick a tongue depressor into it! Man those were the good old days!

I managed to find a kit to make caramel apples but you had to use the stove! We mixed the package with milk and sugar and brought the mixture up to 242 degrees! My youngest stuck the tongue depressors into the apple while my oldest daughter and I were stirring and taking the temperature of the boiling goo on the stove.

Once it got hot enough we dipped the apples into the goo.  I of course told both my 10-year-old and my 17-year-old to, “Be Careful! It’s very hot! It WILL burn the crap out of you!” The listened very well and they both managed to dip their apples into the hot caramel goo and walk away unharmed.

I however should have listened to my own advice! I dipped my apple into the boiling caramel goo, pulled it out, rolled it around and tried to let the excess goo drip back into the pan. Well guess what, it dripped right on my finger! I dropped my apple back into the goo and screamed! That crap sticks to anything it touches! Especially the flesh on your fingers!

I screamed to my oldest daughter to turn off the stove, remove the apple and get me some burn ointment as I held my poor index finger under cold water.

My oldest daughter managed to save my apple and my youngest daughter just laughed her ass off! I kid you not she was rolling on the floor in tears! I’m so glad I can be a source of humor for that child! Did I mention that she will probably not make it to eleven at her rate of laughing at me! 

The apples turned out yummy, my finger will be fine in a few days and I provided, however painful to me, a good memory for my kids!

Protected: Kaboom!!!! November 5, 2009

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You’ve Got Spam November 5, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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I love some of the things I get in my inbox. This morning I received the below e-mail. Normally when I receive junk like this I just delete it but since I was in one of my “Moods” I decided to go ahead and reply back. I love how he sent it in Comic Sans MS font. I deleted last names and e-mail addresses but everything else is as it was sent! 

Dear Mr. P,
Thank you for taking the time to review my resume. I truly regret that you overlooked the fact that I am not stupid when you were reviewing my resume.
I am sure Cass Screw Machine Products is a well established Manufacturing Firm but, at this time I do not wish to be Screwed.
—–Original Message—–
From: Francisco P
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2009 1:56 AM
To: Heather
Subject: Re: Part-time accounting position

Dear Applicant,
 
We got your resume and your application for the job of Accounts Receivable Position as posted online.
 
Our HR Managers have gone through your resume and due to some certain factors you have been picked as one of our possible candidate to be our Account Receivable Manager.
 
Cass Screw Machine Products is a well established Manufacturing Firm, delivering high quality precision screw machine products to some of the largest and best known companies in America for a long time.  You will find our high quality machined parts in the BEST products on the market today.
 
We serve the entire United States, United Kingdom and a growing export market, particularly in the supplies of selected equipment to the growing processed potato and French fry industry. Superior products including Air Make-up Units, Fryer Air Washers. Your primary task for now , as a representative of the company is to coordinate payments from customers and help us with the payment process.You are not involved in any sales. Once orders are received and sorted we deliver the product to a customer. After this has been done the customer has to pay for the products but in most cases we make our clients prepay for orders or items they order for . About 90 percent of our customers prefer to pay through Certified Cheque or Travellers Cheque drawn from the United Kingdom based on the amount involved. We have decided to open this new contract -to-hire job position for solving this problem.
 
Your First Primary task(Collection of Payments):
 
1. Receive payment from our Customers or Clients.
2. Cash Payment at your Bank or any cashing facilities near you.
3. Deduct 10 % which will be your percentage/pay on Payment processed
4. Forward balance after deduction of percentage/pay to any of the offices you will be contacted to send payment to, You’ll have a lot of free time doing another job, because this job is part time, you’ll get good income .But this job is very challenging and you should understand it. We are considering your application because you satisfy our requirements and we are sure you will be an earnest assistant till we start running our branch office in your state.

Get back to us with information below information , so that we can add your mailing address to our Regional database and forward it to our customers for them to send payments.
 
FULL NAMES:
FULL HOME ADDRESS WITH HOUSE NUMBER:
CITY:
STATE:
ZIP CODE/POSTAL CODE:
COUNTRY:
OCCUPATION:
HOME PHONE NUMBER:
CELL PHONE NUMBER:
MARITAL STATUS:
AGE:
NATIONALITY:
EMAIL ADDRESS:

Your response to this email is needed , so that we can reconfirm your mailing address  details we have in our database.

We will be updating you as soon as the payment is being sent to you and you will be directed as to where to have the remaining 90% of the money sent to, after the deduction of your 10% pay on any payments received and processed by you.
 
A swift acknowledgement of the receipt of this email will be appreciated.
 
Thanks For Your Total Understanding and taking time to read our offer.

Best Regards,

Mr Francisco P…

Sucker! November 2, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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Do you hear that sucking noise? No, it’s not my vacuum cleaner running, although I really should give it a whirl around the house here soon! No, it’s the noise that follows me around when I get near my kids schools. They seem to suck me into everything lately. Don’t tell anyone but I actually like it!

This past week I got sucked into helping out at my youngest daughter’s Halloween Carnival. I was there from 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon! Our class ended up not having a game to run so I ended up helping out the other 5th grade class. It was a good thing I was there to help out because only one other mom showed up to help out for that class! I got to learn how to make popcorn in a real popcorn machine. We made and filled 500 bags of popcorn!!

I thought for sure I was going to have nightmares of this damn clown!

I think I got suckered into the popcorn deal because of Bad Karma! A few weeks ago my youngest daughter’s class went to a week-long Outdoor Learning School that was about an hour and half away from us. We had enough drivers for the trip up but not for the trip back. I ended up having to go pick up my daughter but I could not drive back any other kids because I don’t have my driving record on file with the school. Our class room mom also made the trip up there but she only wanted to get her daughter. They found out she had Driving Clearance and she ended up taking back 3 other kids. I kept walking past her and mumbling “Sucker” to her the whole time we were there! I couldn’t believe it, but right when we were about to leave I reached into my jacket pocket and I found a lollipop from our church bazaar the week before! I pulled it out and said, “Here you go a Sucker for a Sucker!”

She got me back Friday when I was leaving, she asked me if I wanted my Sucker back!

Question & Video Of The Week October 29, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Just Wondering?, Video Of The Week.
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6 comments

Stephen Lynch

Halloween

Question of the week: Do you check your kids halloween candy? How much candy do you swipe from them?

 

Life… October 26, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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In his song Beautiful Boy, John Lennon wrote “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

What is life? What is the meaning of life? What is my purpose in life? What the hell am I doing with my life?

Ah yes! All the great questions for the making of a mid-life crisis! One of these days I suppose I will have the answers to all these questions. I also suppose once I have all these great answers I will drop dead at once so I can’t pass them on. I believe every person has to find his or her own answers to these questions.

I have thought about these questions really hard lately. The one thing I have tried hard not to do is to not stop living while I try and figure out these great mysteries of life. That would truly be a waste of life in my opinion.

Last night my youngest daughter and I took a bike ride right before sunset. We had to stop a few times to rest her little legs. During one of these stops, as we were watching the sunset over the golf course, she said out of the blue “I think life is what you do between sunrise and sunset!”

Wow! Out of the mouths of babes! I truly believe my youngest is an old soul sent here to guide me between my sunrise and my sunset!

Question & Video Of The Week October 22, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Just Wondering?, Video Of The Week.
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5 comments

Question of the week: Which show do you like better, The Addams Family or The Munsters?

The Addams Family

The Munsters

The Doll House Project October 20, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Life As I Know It.
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About 2 months ago I posted a video about our progress on our Doll House. Today, my poor glue-gun burned fingers  I am very happy to announce that construction has ended on this house and I am able to post an updated version of our Doll House Project!

The next phase of our project has been turned over to my daughters. They will be the Interior Decorators for this project. Hopefully they won’t take as long as the construction crew did and they will come in under budget!

Video Of The Week October 15, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Video Of The Week.
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6 comments

1960’s Kodak Commercial
Turn Around

Question Of The Week October 14, 2009

Posted by Just a Mom in Just Wondering?.
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5 comments

 Question of the week: What seems to be your busiest month?

For me October is always busy for some unknown reason! It seems like every weekend we have something going on! Trust me I am thankful for having all of these activities and I thank the big man upstairs daily, but I am actually looking forward to November!