A Little Bling

Snickers...A new term of endearment

It's been a very long week. Sunday was Smurfette's 1st "friend" party. We won Tootsie the clown at a fundraiser raffle. So Tootsie was a big hit. We had about 15 kids here. I started feeling a little funky by the end of the party and Smurfette went to bed with 102.5 degree fever. Sorry everyone. And that started the week of misery...we both had fevers and a very sore throat. Went to the doc on Wed. thinking maybe it was strep...it wasn't...I got the "it's a virus and you have to let it run it's course" speech...so I gave him the "do you realize it's almost Christmas and I'm not done shopping...I don't have time to let it run it's course" speech...so anyway, Smurfette & I spent Monday through Thursday curled up on the couch. I still didn't feel right on Friday but I was going a little stir crazy being cooped up in the house doing nothing all week.....so....Smurfette went to school and I spent that time wandering around the mall.....by myself.....ahhhhh......It's now Saturday and I still don't feel 100%. My babysitter called this morning to cancel because SHE'S sick.....Papa smurf & I are going out tonight with some friends.....Grandma to the rescue!

Thursday I went to Verizon to get my new toy activated....got the Voyager phone....very exciting. But I had all 3 kids with me because hubby was still at work. So....before we walked into the store I warned them all that there would be no yelling and no warnings....If they didn't behave they would immediately have their TV and PS2 and WII privilages taken away for the rest of the evening. We weren't in there 5 minutes before I turn around and the boys are on the benches wrestling each other down and being obnoxious.....so I interupt them and tell them that I was going to start bipping heads soon....and Hefty Smurf with his sense of humor defense tactic says (with a "I'm so cute how could you be mad at me" smirk) "uh-oh....Dreamy Smurf....stop (Dreamy wasn't paying attention to me and didn't see me).....mom's threatening us with "the bip" while giving "the look"..... everyone in the store witnessing this busted out laughing.....as did I.....and yes ....they still lost their priveleges! Nice try though!

So Smurfette went back to school yesterday. When I picked her up she said to the boy Alex...the one she has a crush on..."bye snickers"

me: "snickers?"
J: "yeah!"
me: "why did you call him snickers"
J; "because he's just like my favorite candy bar...& I just want to eat him."

LMAO!!!!

Christmas 2008

I sent the following email message to my parents and inlaws and wanted to share it with you because I know many of my friends & I have all discussed this and all share the same views on what a joke Christmas has become. It really has lost all meaning. And the following email suggests an idea I had to help get back that Christmas spirit. I thought maybe it would spark an interest with other families also....Here's the email I sent explaining the idea I had....I wish I had thought of it sooner.....

Hear me out.

Every year I dread the Christmas season even
more than the previous year....why?....because every year our (& by "our" I
mean "my".....because Papa Smurf only buys for ONE) list of people to buy for seems to
get larger. I figured out yesterday that Papa Smurf & I buy gifts for 38
people and only 10 of those people are kids. So every year
we.....I..... stress out trying to figure out what to get our parents because
they're the most difficult people to buy for.....why?.....because they don't
really NEED or WANT anything.....the ideas I was given this year were things
like....gift cards....gloves...... facial cream ..... slippers.....when we all
know darn well that if we really NEEDED or WANTED these things we all have the
ability to buy them for ourselves....because non of us are struggling
financially. WE don't need anything....YOU don't need
anything,..... So... Christmas in my eyes has come to an exchanging of
money....I purchase gifts for each of you that total between $75 - $100 and you
in turn give us money or a gift totaling about the same which basically pays for
the gift we purchased for you.....and vice versa.... Does anyone else see
the ridiculousness of this? Meanwhile, there are 100,000s of families in
Michigan alone that are struggling too hard to keep their roofs over their
family's head to even THINK about providing their own kids with a decent
Christmas.....or food for that matter. It's really getting to me this
year. I feel guilty.

The boys' gymnastics school is
sponsoring several different foster children for Christmas....they provided each
of the kid's age, clothing size, specific needs and interests.....we
purchased some gifts for those kids and it got me
thinking......

Here's my proposal and Papa Smurf thinks it's a wonderful
idea too.....we would have suggested this for this year but it's too late
now....came up with the idea too late.

What do Papa Smurf & I want for
Christmas 2008? We want you to take any money that you would typically
spend on us.....I'll let each of you decide if you want to include your gift to
the kids in that pool.....because....again.....lets face it, they're not in need
of ANYTHING.....but I understand if , as their Grandparents, you still feel
a need to get them something..... and pool that money together with
the money we would have typically spent on each of you (I estimate that pool of
money would be nearly $1,000) and sponsor/adopt a family (or even 2 or
3) in need for Christmas. I found a website http://www.voami.org/ that has an "Adopt a
Family Christmas Program"....Here's their brochure http://72.32.194.107/portals/37/Brochure_2007.pdf

There
are many different ways of doing this. We can do a "direct" sponsorship
where we get to personally meet and contact the family(s) we choose.....the
parents can then give us a wish list for their kids & themselves
and we can all purchase presents for the family directly..... or we can
purchase a gift certificate for the family and let them do the shopping.....or
we can simply take that money and just donate it to the site and let them find a
family in need. I thought pooling our money together to help 1 or 2
families would be a nice tradition we could start together...and would certainly
mean a whole lot more to each of us than just exchanging money back and forth
between ourselves.

I suggested earlier in the season not exchanging
gifts and received a little resistance but I think this is even better than not
exchanging gifts. It may be a little weird the first time we do
this....getting used to not getting or giving gifts to each other but I think
after that initial year we'll realize the difference we could be making in
another child's Christmas.

I hope you're as excited about this as I
am....let me know what you're thoughts
are.

Mama Smurf

Raising Dreamy Smurf to be a fine husband!

I got my hair chopped this morning...seriously considered going butch style but my husband in his VERY supportive way said......"really??!!".....with the right eyebrow and right upper lip lifted just so......so......I opted to leave a couple inches for his sake. The kids came home from school and didn't even notice.....I KNEW I should've gone shorter!.....so the following conversation took place...

me: boy..... no-one even noticed I got my hair cut.....

Hefty: you did? let me see...

me: I did...

Hefty: (after careful inspection): oh....(and walks away)

Dreamy: I noticed mom....and I like it....the men are going to think you are VERY attractive.....

LMAO!

Oh my dear Dreamy Smurf....how I love you!.......as you can see HE gets it! We've either managed to raise a genuinely sweet boy or an incredibly convincing bullshitter. Not sure which one is the truth, but quite frankly, I don't care.....because either way he'll make some woman very happy one day. If his future wife should ever happen to read this....you can thank me later!

To Hefty's wife.......I tried.....and I'll keep trying until he leaves the nest....but a mom can only do so much with the genes her child has inherited and Hefty Smurf is indeed Papa Smurf's son.....My dear husband has many wonderful qualities....as does Hefty.....but sweetness....or a romantic nature.....is not one of them....it just doesn't come naturally....

OMG....I'M WRONG....I just remembered a conversation that I was snooping in on between Hefty and this girl he likes at school. It was the most comical thing.....they've been IMing each other and Hefty wrote things like......I luv u......u are my everything......I miss you.....You're beautiful......LMAO!.......YES, THOSE ARE DIRECT QUOTES!!!!!!!!!!! So there is still hope.....apparently it's just me that doesn't bring out the sweetness.

And that little story makes me want to bring up another topic.....snooping.....yes, I am a snooping mother ......and I wear that title with pride. Many mothers feel very strongly against snooping.....they have moral issues with snooping and with giving their kids freedom and privacy.......and I obviously do NOT have those same qualms.....when my kids move out of my house they they will inherit their freedom and privacy. My father in law just bought and sent my kids a book called "Kids Are Americans Too". I just started reading it last night. It's suppose to be about the rights that children have as Americans. I jokingly (but not really) told my FIL that if this book is going to make my kids boycott our rights as their parents that they wouldn't be reading it. So far, that doesn't seem to be the case tho....the book is well written....so far.....