Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Is an "Air-head" the same thing as a "Scatter brain"?

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm an air-head...but I completely concede to being a scatter brain. I'm almost more embarrassed to admit that I found my credit card...you know, the one I left in New Jersey....than I was to admit that I lost it again. Where did I find it? Right in the front pocket of my purse where I always keep it and looked for it 5 times. How did I miss it? I have no idea. It was wrapped in the Applebee's receipt. I have no recollection of the entire bill paying process at Applebees. I have no recollection of paying the bill or of wrapping the receipt around the card or of tucking the receipt and card back in my purse. What does all of this prove? The whole Law of Attraction theory! I was in a pissy mood with a pissy attitude. I was flustered at the whole weekend experience and so I probably looked for the card in a frenzy of frustrated negativity and overlooked it. Had I had a better and more patient and positive attitude I know I would have taken my time and found it. That's how "The Secret" works. I think I need to watch it again for a refresher.

My mom told me when I dropped Smurfette off at her house last week for my weekend scrapbooking slumber party that Smurfette was crying. She said she "missed me because I'm her best parent". heehee.

Smurfette is feeling better today. No more vomiting. Kept her home from school anyway just to be safe. She's been running around all day so I'm thinking it was probably the same short lived stomach bug Hefty had a couple weeks ago.

Papa Smurf's out of town this week until Friday night. In fact, he was gone before we even returned from Philly. So, I'm playing the single parent role for a few more days. It's very difficult for me to get back that positive energy while playing the single parent. I'm trying real hard. I desperately need to start running again...either that or start drinking!

Monday, January 28, 2008

The Land of Bad Ju-Ju

I'm a firm believer in the law of attraction. The law of attraction suggests that the energy you give is the energy you receive. Positive energy/attitude attracts positivity....negative energy/attitude attracts negativity. So in keeping with that theory...I have no-one to blame but myself because I was one HUGE force of negative energy this weekend!

DAY 1

Me and my friend D car pooled to Pennsylvania with our 3 boys for their gymnastics meet. This wonderful weekend began on Friday. We drove for 10 uneventful hours to our destination....Allentown, PA. Arrived at the hotel to find out that they only reserved one room..."no problem" they said, "we'll get you a second room". They also reserved us for the wrong days..."no problem" they said, "we'll just change that".

That 1st 5 minutes in the hotel should have been my 1st clue.

We arrived around 8pm because we stopped for dinner first....so by the time we got settled into our room we were all tired and ready to call it a night....we had to be up by 6am the next morning for the meet. We did not realize, however, that our hotel was also occupied by an entire school of teenagers and their chaperones for a ski trip. I actually "tattle tailed"....at 2 in the morning....and again at 2:30 in the morning....because they (the PARENT CHAPERONES!!!) were up yelling, screaming, slamming doors, and partying....ALL.....NIGHT......LONG! So.....I "tattled". I turned up the blower in the room to drown out the music...and.... I "tattled". I'm not proud of it... but it had to be done. I officially feel like a crotchety old person...I mean I actually tattled. Who does that...I mean really! So after the second call the security finally came and I heard them ask the "chaperones" to keep it down.

That kinda worked.... temporarily..... but then we were kept awake by the rabbits above our room. The rabbits received a 9.7 for speed, a 9.8 for rhythm, and a perfect 10 for endurance. The rabbits finally passed out from exhaustion after about an hour and the party people began again. So, at 4am I actually opened my room door and, like the crotchety old person that I am, screamed down the hallway "IT'S FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING....ARE YOU KIDDING ME.....SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!" I'm just not a pleasant person when I don't sleep...I'm the first to admit it. They pretty much just laughed at me and kept partying. I then heard D open HER door at 4:30am and say, (in a much more diplomatic tone....because she's a much more diplomatic person) "I can appreciate a good time too but it's 4:30 in the morning and we have kids that have to be up for a competition in a couple hours can you please keep it down"....and they listened. Security complains...they don't listen....I scream....they don't listen...D sweetly asks and they oblige...BRAT!

So I got a whole 1 hour of sleep....and the boys got a whole 2 hours of sleep. Hefty Smurf now has to compete on 2 hours of sleep. I got out of bed and went to make some coffee. There's a coffee maker....there's coffee creamers and sugars......there's no coffee. I call the front desk....

me - "is there suppose to be coffee to go with the coffee MAKER in my room"
front desk man - "yup"
me - "I don't have any in my room"
front desk man - "oh....well....security is making his rounds now" ::::WHERE THE HELL WAS SECURITY AT 4 IN THE MORNING::: "so if you'd like some coffee you'll have to come get it"
me - OMG YOU MUST BE KIDDING....
front desk man - "oh, but wait...let me check and see if we have any left...."
front desk man - "nope, sorry, no more coffee"
me - OMG YOU MUST BE KIDDING
front desk man - sorry, it's been that kinda night
me - click

Now, I don't consider myself a very picky person...I consider myself relatively easy going...give me a good nights sleep in a clean room and some coffee in the morning and I'm generally a pretty happy traveller....I got neither....they were, however, kind enough to leave a condom in the bathroom tissue box. And another mom in our group was searching for the remote control under her bed and you can imagine her surprise when she found personal lubrication entitled "Gay Glide" under her bed.

I'm not creative enough to make up shit like this.

So we go down to the restaurant for breakfast.

There's no menu...just a buffet...and 1 server for the entire restaurant...an entire restaurant that's full of teenagers, chaperones, and young gymnasts. The scrambled eggs weren't cooked; they were slimy. The sausage was cold...I don't mean they were luke warm because they had sat out too long....I mean "they were never cooked to begin with" cold. The ONE server brought me a cup of coffee and I never saw him again....I've never wanted a coffee refill so desperately in my life....Dreamy Smurf asked for chocolate milk and he received a glass of ice with a splash of chocolate milk (who the hell puts ice in chocolate milk??!!) We sat there with our group of gymnasts and parents complaining about the evening and the service and literally never saw the server again. We actually had to skip out on the bill because we had to get the boys to the gym. It was literally the worst and most disgusting hotel I've ever stayed in.

So..... we get to the gym and Hefty realizes that he left his gym bag back at the hotel. OMG. I drop them off, drive back to the hotel, get his bag, and rush back to the gym just in time for the competition to begin. I'm sure you can imagine the mood I was in.

Hefty Smurf had the worst meet he's had all season. There were many falls and a few tears of frustration. He was talking to Papa Smurf on the phone afterward and said "yeah...I fell SEVEN times....do I have to remind you that there are only SIX events!" It was just NOT a good day!

So while we were at the gymnastics meet we called to find a new hotel. When day one's competition was over we checked out of hotel #1 and travelled to hotel #2. Ahhhhhhh. Much better. Excellent service, quiet night, comfortable bed, morning coffee. What more could we ask for. D and I felt the need to work off some steam so we worked out in the gym that overlooked the hotel pool while the kids went swimming. Now we're talking!

Day 2

Full nights sleep, lots and lots of coffee, wonderful breakfast with wonderful service. It's gonna be a good day. NOT.

Get to the gym. Dreamy Smurf is missing one of his ring grips from his bag. This is the 3rd set of ring grips we've gone through since November. Hefty Smurf's ring grips are still in the car from his competition the day before but they're too big on Dreamy...warm ups did not go well because of the size of the grips but he actually pulled it off during the competition. Not his best meet but over all he did very well.

Left the competition and decided to drive an hour to downtown Philly to see the Liberty Bell and run up the Sylvester Stallone "Rocky Steps"...yes, sadly enough, Dianne and I, dorks that we are....felt a compelling need to run up the same steps that Rocky ran during his training in the movie....all the while singing the Rocky theme song. But before doing this we had to park the car. We got shnookered by some bimbo in a vehicle collecting parking fees...there was no sign saying that parking was $7.00 but who was I to argue...so I said to D "wow, high-way robbery"....the lady then says "I heard that, but I've heard worse...I've been called a drug addict, a thief, so whatever..." she then starts yelling at the car behind me "what are you looking at...f--king a-- hole...bleepity bleep bleep bleep" my windows are rolled down and the kids are hearing all this....D and I are just looking at each other like WTF was that....I'm still waiting for my change because I've handed her a $20 but she has no money to give me back...so she calls over some thug in a car next to her who looks like he's ready to start a fight with the car behind me....I still don't have my change....D and I are still trying to figure out if there's a hidden camera somewhere...or a hidden sign that says that this is a paid parking lot....the guy finally gives me some change and we drive off to park thinking we were just hosed. We run the steps come back 15 minutes later and the "money collectors" are now gone....we were hosed! Oh well.

Then we go to dinner at Applebees in New Jersey...never been to New Jersey...it'll be fun.... We sit for 15 minutes before our drink order was even taken. So we decide to speed up the process by placing our drink order with our appetizer and dinner order...all at once. Drinks arrive. Appetizer never arrives. D's dinner arrives....we cancel the appetizer order. No-one else's dinner arrives. Dreamy is starving and crabby.... We wait....and wait....10 minutes later Hefty's dinner arrives. Dreamy is still starving and still crabby.....we wait....and wait.....10 minutes later Dreamy's dinner arrives....we wait...and wait....I'm starving and I'm crabby...

me (to the waitress): "is there a reason all our meals didn't come at the same time...D got her meal 20 minutes ago and is done and the rest of us still haven't gotten our meals."
waitress: "I'm REALLY sorry about all this...we are like way understaffed and the kitchen is like a total mess right now."

10 minutes later my dinner arrives....10 minutes after that David's meal arrives....and no...I'm not exaggerating....An hour and a half later we finally finish our meals and leave a little miffed.....we then leave New Jersey to start our 2 hour trek back home (should've only taken 75 minutes but we got lost)

Day 3

.....and 12 hours later...the next morning.... while getting ready to leave for our 10 hour car ride back home....I realize that I left my credit card on the table of the restaurant....the restaurant back in New Jersey. OMG. So I call the restaurant...no one has turned it in. This is like the 5th time in the past year that I've lost my credit card. I really think I need to just cut the damn card up and start paying cash...I'm tired of cancelling cards...I mean how sad is it that I know the number to my credit card's customer service by heart....no I'm not kidding! OMG I've had enough of this vacation....there is some serious bad Ju-Ju attached to this vacation. Can anything else possibly happen. I mean really. Why yes...something else CAN happen...I CAN come home to find out that my daughter has the STOMACH FLU AND JUST THREW UP ALL OVER MY MOTHERS COUCH!!!!!!!!

I used to think of PA as the romantic home of the Pocono Mountains...Now PA is the home of the bad Ju-Ju.

Monday, January 21, 2008

I'm right...you're wrong...nah nah.....

I'm back. Returned home Sunday afternoon after a wonderfully relaxing, yet sleep deprived, weekend scrapbooking slumber party at my friend Kelly's house. Four grown women scrapbooking all day in their jammies with no meals to cook, no children to escort, and no-one to cater to....all of us even treated ourselves to a back massage on Saturday night...we had a massage therapist come to her house...it was beautiful!

One of the topics of conversation...."what is your (and each of your family members') favorite word to say. I can honestly say that I had never even thought about it but I told them I'd find out and post the answers in my blog....exciting conversation piece! So last night my family went out to dinner at Applebee's and I asked the question. Papa Smurf's immediate answer is "I don't have one, I guess 'money'"....I said "no, a word you like to say not something you just like"...so he said..."ok....." Holy shit I've already forgotten what his answer was...how's that for senile! I'll have to get back to that one...Hefty's answer was "Medulla Oblongata"....and Dreamy's answer was "pituitary"...those answers are from last year's science lessons on the human body. I actually remember Dreamy just blurting out (repeatedly) the word "pituitary" in a very nerdy and nasily voice...it was hilarious...apparently he never forgot it. Smurfettes's answer was "princess...and Barbie"....hmmmmmm....I don't think she understood the question. As for me....I still go back to "pachycephalosaurus"....and "blogger" is pretty fun to say too....or how about ......AH HA....I JUST REMEMBERED!....Mufasa! That was Papa Smurf's answer! Actually, his answer was "Mufasta from the Lion King"....I said "Honey, it's Mufasa, not Mufasta"...the entire family then ganged up on me telling me how wrong I was and "wanna bet...come on lets bet"...I said "no, I don't want to bet but I'm telling you it is Mufasa"....SO! I just googled it....AND I'M RIGHT!!...and now no one is home (boys are at their friends' and Papa Smurf is at work) so I have no one here to rub their noses in it...damn, they sucked the glory right out of that one! But rest assured, when they all get home I will have my moment...LOL...I may have to regress to my toddler years and say "NAH NAH" and hold my thumb on my nose while wriggling my fingers!

This morning I was lounging on the couch watching my TIVOed episode of Oprah from last Friday and started crying at the story of one of her guests. I must be PMSing because it was just a financial crisis story with a Suzie Orman guest appearance...certainly doesn't seem worthy of tears...but Oprah was crying too and so it must have been justified LOL! Anyway, Smurfette walks into the room and says "Mama, don't cry, today is a good day"....LOL! Oh my sweet girl...you make me laugh!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

7:30 wake up call

Well, Kelly, I'm glad I'm amusing SOMEone as it appears your my only loyal blog follower...LOL! You need to start one too!

It was 7:30 this morning...sun hadn't even fully risen....kids were still rushing around the house getting ready for school...I still had my jammies on...and was still sporting the Medusa hair style...with smudges of black eyeliner under my lids (I was too tired last night to even bother washing my makeup off)....and the door bell chimes. I'm thinking who the hell is ringing my door bell at 7:30 in the morning. It was the guys here to install my new counters. I said "dude, it's like 7:30 in the morning why the hell so early?..." to which he replies "actually, I've been sitting in your driveway for the last 15 minutes because it was still dark outside and I figured 7:15 was too early"....."Oh...yeah...you're right....but 7:30 (a whole 15 minutes later) is MUCH better." Oh well, counters look great & I'm thrilled to have our bowling alley counter tops out of here! I spent the morning during their installation high as a kite on fumes from whatever chemicals they were using in my kitchen. I seriously felt light headed and dizzy from it. I'm guessing that's why the guys installing the counters looked a little brain damaged...too much exposure. I started hallucinating on the couch thinking they were probably using some fumes that would make me pass out so they could rob us blind...I kept thinking I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes...and then thinking "no...I can't...they'll kidnap Smurfette..."...I was seriously scaring myself. They also barely spoke English...they kept speaking some other language...whispering...like I might hear and understand a word or two....I think they were laughing at my hair....lol.... They probably show up at the butt crack of dawn on purpose to see how many house wives they can catch off guard in their skivies. I'm sounding paranoid...and this is precisely why I could never do drugs...they make me paranoid.

I officially resigned from my job today. I seriously hope my mother's not reading this...she'll have a nervous breakdown if she does. I haven't worked in 7 months....I can't work during the week because I have Smurfette here...and I can't work on the weekends because of our meet travel schedule...and on the rare weekends that we DONT have travel plans...quite frankly, I don't WANT to work. So in 2009 when Smurfette's officially in school full time...1st grade....I'll reconsider going back. So ma....don't worry....we're doing just fine on Papa Smurf's income!

Monday, January 14, 2008

Home Sweet Home

There's no place like home....there's no place like home...I'm in my shiney red shoes clicking my heels together! We're home after a long weekend in Chicage. LOVE that city but didn't get a whole lot of time to enjoy it. We had a free day on Saturday and enjoyed the Aquarium that day but the rest of the weekend was spent in a college auditorium sitting on very uncomfortable stadium seats. The boys did good. It's a huge meet with the best of the best gyms so the competition was impressive. The boys had a couple falls each that took them out of contention for all around medals but Dreamy Smurf just missed placing by 1 tenth of a point even with his falls on vault and floor. He came home with 4 medals for individual events. Hefty Smurf had a major wipe out on floor (usually his best event) and horse....but even with their falls they came home feeling good about their performance...that's what matters.

Back to my last blog entry....OH MY GOSH!! I can't remember the last time I've been that frustrated. We bought this van loaded with all the extras thinking that all the extras would make for more comfortable travelling with all the road trips we're always taking. But it does no good if we can't figure them out...the dual screen dvds are useless if you can't figure out how to play 2 different movies.....The AUX jacks are useless if you can't figure out how to get the PS2 to play on the screen with the remote.....the USB port is useless if you can't figure out how to download the ipod music....the programable garage opener is useless if you can't program it...the ....I could go on and on....so basically we have a whole lot of useless gadgets on our new van because I can't figure them out! And my PHONE!!! OMG I wasted 2 hours in the car trying to type out and post a blog...I would get the entire thing typed out and then everytime I'd go to post it I would end up deleting it...never did figure it out so I gave up and wasted 2 hours in the process! And as I type all this I bow my head in shame realizing how rediculous it is that I'm complaining about it...I understand that...I remember taking road trips as a kid sleeping in the back of my parents pick up truck with the cab top on with my pillow and blanket....no seat belts...no radio....no tv...and certainly no dvd players...I know....I get it...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Sometimes less is more!

I'm so frustrated right now I could scream! We're on our way to Chicago. I'm sitting in the passenger's seat of my new high tech van & blogging on my new high tech phone. Should be fun...right? It would be except that this is my 6th attempt at posting this damn blog entry because I keep accidently deleting everything I type because apparently me and "high tech" don't get along. In fact, the further into this trip we get the more I'm hating "high-tech". I spent the first hour of this road trip sandwiched between the boys in the back seat with the manual in hand trying to figure out these "fun" high-tech gadgets...I gave up!

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

The new and improved organized me!

Spent the past weekend doing NOTHING! It felt really good to get some things done around the house that we've been neglecting since the holiday season began full swing... we Papa Smurf popped the counters off in the kitchen to prepare them for removal...our new counters are being installed next week. I organized a few junk drawers ...3 in our kitchen and 1 in our bathroom. Are we the only people who have junk drawers in every room of our house. After seeing my cousins obsessively compulsively organized junk drawer mine has been really bugging me. My cousin's junk drawer is organized alphabetized and compartmentalized with nothing out of place! I got aggravated this weekend because I couldn't open the darn thing (weren't we just talking about this on New Years!?) and broke the plastic scotch tape holder because I was trying to force gently & patiently open the thing....it opened....and half the drawer fell out the back side...it was time! The "junk" drawer in the kids bathroom is next on the list. I opened it and found a number of empty candy bar wrappers. Apparently this is where the kids hide the evidence. Along with the wrappers were huge chunks of dried up toothpaste covered in matted hair. It's truly about as disgusting as it gets and one of those spots in the house that I'd be completely mortified if someone from the outside world saw! Then the 2 baskets of mittens, gloves, hats and scarfs in our foyer comes next...overflowing with nearly 50 single gloves without a match...there's even infant sized hats and mittens still in there...it's obviously been awhile. I'm going to try to clean out one cupboard, closet or drawer each day! This is the new organized me...I can't even type that with a straight face!

Spent all day yesterday on the phone catching up on making appointments that I've been neglecting since before the holidays. Hair cut appointments, Yearly doctors visits, Pet Hotel reservations for Gracie during our gymnastics travel season, spent a while on the phone with the travel agent finalizing annual girls trip info, bought tickets to see the Spirit of the Marathon show, made an apt. to finally get our couches cleaned....FYI, the fabric protection life time guarantee that Art Van offers does NOT include Silly Putty...of course....so we're stuck with a neon green spot between the cushions...can't see it unless you actually sit on the couch. Maybe if I take a red marker to it it won't be so obvious? The phone was pretty much glued to my ear for most of the day. It felt good to knock all these things off my list. The new organized non-procrastinating me....LMAO!

Then I spent the afternoon helping out in Smurfette's preschool classroom. She said to me...
"I'm glad you get to help in the class today cause that means you won't ask me what I did...you'll already know".
Getting information from my boys about their school day has always been like pulling teeth. And Smurfette is proving to be no different. There must be an art to extracting this information from children because I hear from other parents that their kids go on and on about every last detail of their day...not my kids!

The next few weekends are busy with travel. We're leaving this Thursday for Chicago for the boys' meet. I'm going on a weekend scrapping escape (complete with massage) the following weekend. Then driving to PA the weekend after that for another meet! Let the fun begin!

PS...I'm so excited to finally learn how to do the line through the word thing...it's the little things in life!

Thursday, January 3, 2008

insomnia

I can't sleep anymore. I think this past couple weeks may have ruined my sleep pattern for life. I tried going to sleep around 11. Couldn't get comfortable. 11:30 David Letterman comes on so I gave up the fight. I love David Letterman but usually can't make it till then to watch the show. I gotta say....I usually find facial hair on a man repulsive but Dave actually looks better with it. Go figure. Letterman ended and I still couldn't fall asleep so I layed in bet with my head lamp...LMAO.....to do sudoku puzzles....got tired of sudoku puzzles after awhile and switched to crosswords....could barely keep my eyes open so around 1:30 I decided to try again....layed awake in bed until well after 2:30. And then had to wake up at 6:45 this morning to get everyone off to school. I had high hopes of starting my work outs this morning after shipping Smurfette off to school but ended up taking a nap on the couch instead! Got up and now I have a HUGE batch of homemade low fat chicken and veggie soup brewing on the stove to start my healthy eating New Year....made hubby take the 10 pound bag of peanut m&ms to work to get them the hell out of my house......I mean CAR! Yes...I keep a ready supply of peanut m&ms in my car at all times and then wonder why I can't shed a pound....hmmmmmmmm....Came home from the gymnastics run with the kids last night and Papa smurf asks what I had for dinner....I held up the 10 pound bag of peanut m&ms......ugh!

Dreamy Smurf woke up Wednesday morning ....sits at the kitchen table......looks out the window and screaches in delight at all the snow.....the snow that fell MONDAY night. LMAO. He was glued to the TV downstairs for almost 6 hours straight on Tuesday watching the "Monk" marathon....His new favorite TV show...I think he relates to Monk......He "gets" Monk....LOL! By the time he came upstairs it was dark out and so he never realized it snowed....how sad is that. Now in my own defense as a mother I have to say that after them not getting any sleep for the previous 2 nights I let them just veg all day....they didn't even wake up until after noon....so I wasn't all that concerned about them sitting in front of the tube all day. So yesterday they spent 3 hours outside building a snow fort.

Smurfette had her first sleep over Tuesday night. Her friend from down the street spent the night. This girl is Dreamy Smurf's age but she plays so nice with Smurfette. Smurfette always wants to call her to play & I usually say no because she's so much older that I keep thinking that she wouldn't want to. But her mother assured me that she loves to...so we gave it a try and they did great. It was really cute watching the girly laughing and giggling.

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Shhhhhhh...........do you hear that........it's the sound of peace and quiet! No more shopping, no more wrapping, no more cleaning the basement for the next party, no more "after party clean-ups", no more holiday visiting! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Blissful relaxation! The thought of stepping foot into another store just makes me want to vomit!......Did you ever think you'd hear me say that I'm all shopped out??!! Me either! But I am! I'm never shopping again! LOL!

I haven't blogged in over 2 weeks because I just haven't had the time....and when I did have time I was either sick or didn't have enough energy to lift my lazy ass off the couch! So I'll recap the last 2 weeks.

Before the official holiday started I had 4 classroom Christmas parties to help out with...I had to skip out on one of Smurfette's (she has 2 different schools and so had 2 different parties....so I didn't feel all that bad) because it was my last chance to get HER Christmas shopping done.

The last time I blogged I was feeling sick. Well, the week after the doc told me to let it "run it's course" I STILL had a sore throat. So on the morning of Sunday the 22nd (the day we had the my family's Christmas party) I hit my Doctor neighbor up for a prescription....I had been sick for almost 2 weeks and had had enough but didn't have the time to go back to my doctors office. So I begged my neighbor to call in a prescription for me which he graciously did....I have to say that having a doc next door definitely has it's perks! Within 24 hours of the 1st dose I felt like a new person! I finished my last dose of the z-pack on the 26th and now, 6 days later I think I've reinfected my self with my toothbrush....I forgot to get rid of it when I was on my antibiotics and now my throat hurts again.....UGH!

So anyway, we hosted our annual Christmas party with my Dad's side of the family on the 22nd. It was a good time. Santa made his yearly stop to our house with gifts for the kids. It was a fun day. I had a minor melt down with my family because I found out the day before the party that 19 of the 38 family members that had previously told me they were coming.....suddenly couldn't make it. I was a little peaved to say the least. But what can you do?

Then we also had Christmas day at our house with my mom's side of the family. We enjoyed ourselves and had a great Christmas Day. Hefty Smurf scored it a 9.5 on a 10 point scale...lol!

Then the Thursday after Christmas Hefty went to bed with a low grade fever and said he "just didn't feel right". We woke up at 2 am to the sound of "splat cough cough, splat cough cough"......that would be the sound of Hefty standing in the middle of the hallway (right next to the bathroom door) puking....So I started yelling "HEFTY.....THE TOILET!........GO..........TO.......THE TOILET!!!!" What would possess an 11 year old to just stand and puke on the floor. I understand not being able to make it to the toilet but at least show a little EFFORT in getting there! It was everywhere.....the entire length of the hallway was covered in vomit....it was up the walls.....covering the baseboards.....It took us a half hour to clean it up. I thought being a nurse was kinda like riding a bike....once you develop a strong stomach for certain things you'll always have a strong stomach.....Yeah....not so much.........I'm definitely out of practice!

That bout of stomach flu prompted us to cancel our plans to attend our friends' holiday party on Friday night. These friends live in Arizona and were in from out of town for the holidays staying with her parents and were throwing a holiday party at her parents' home. Part of me was of course disappointed to not see them because we only see them a couple times each year but the other part of me was almost relieved to not have somewhere to go that night. I needed to just sit back and relax for an evening.....the irony of that story is....the next day...Saturday....I drove the boys to gymnastics (Hefty was feeling better by then) and I ended up running into them at Walmart! What are the chances!?

Then Sunday night we had a holiday party at a neighbors house and had lots of fun.

Of course we had to add to all the stress by having the brilliant idea of giving our kitchen a face lift during the middle of the holidays. We went shopping for new appliances and HAD to have them delivered the day after Christmas....brilliant aye?!....and then we went shopping for counters and just HAD to have them come out to have the template for the granite made the day after that....the Thursday after Christmas....brilliant aye?! Why couldn't we wait to do all this until after the holiday's you ask?.....that's a very good question.....and I'll get back with you as soon as I have an answer to that!......But it looks really nice so far and the counters should be in in a couple weeks! YEAY! We've hated our counters since the day we bought this house....We see these damn counters in bowling alley bars.....gas station counters.....and the latest... Barnes and noble bathroom vanity.....it was time!

Let's see....what else....oh yeah....got a new van somewhere in there too! I called the dealership and said...."look, I know exactly what I want.....and exactly what I want in it.....I'll run down the list and you can tell me if you have it available....I want all this done on the phone because I don't have time to spend an hour there while you do all the credit checks and such......and I need it done quickly because every day I drive my current lease is costing us more money because I'm already almost 12,000 miles over my allowance.......I want to be able to just walk into the dealership when it's ready and sign the papers and trade my old lease for a new one on the spot.....can you do that?" It was the quickest and easiest purchase I ever made....did it all over the phone. Spent 30 minutes at the dealership signing papers and transferring plates and having the old lease inspected....it was quick and painless and I'm LOVING my new van!

Somewhere in there I made a trip to the travel agent to pay the remaining balance on our trip to Atlantis in February...and also to inquire on possible destinations for our girls long weekend trip in april...I think we've decided on a resort on Clearwater beach 4 miles from down town Fort Myers. Can't wait!

Last night was our annual New Years party and we had a fantastic time. The adults were in the basement and the kids were up stairs (for the most part). It's so worth the trouble of having the party at your own house just so you don't have to worry about driving home drunk or finding a baby sitter! My kids didn't get to bed until 2:30am (Smurfette actually passed out around 1am) and I ended up having to wake them up at noon! Sunday night they had their all night party at the gym with the rest of their team....they were up until like 5 or 6 in the morning....we picked them up at 9am and they went directly to bed and woke up at around 2pm....so the last 48 hours has completely thrown their schedules off and I'm afraid it'll take them the rest of the week to get back on track! ....I'm editing this blog entry to add that Since starting this blog entry this morning I have discovered a huge glop of a neon green substance...looks like silly putty....stuck inbetween my couch cushions....the couch is ruined and the silly putty won't come off....the cushions were stuck together and this shit is in a huge 5 inch circle glob. I think for future new years partys the parents will for now on be responsible for their own kids....if anyone reading this has any idea how to get silly putty off a couch cushion please let me know....in the meantime, I'm off to do some on line researching on the subject....UGH!

So...the holidays are over and I'm getting back on the fitness wagon!

New Years Resolution #1....I'm going to work out 4 x /week and fit in at least one 3 mile run OUTSIDE each week. I'll start the official marathon training in April but I want to at least be able to run 3 miles when I start....so that's my goal.

New Years Resolution #2.....keep New Years Resolution #1 for more than 2 weeks!