Hey...I Packed It Up and Moved!!!!!!!

Well, Blogger has been great. It was the first place I ever tried a blog. Now I'm becoming an addict. So, I've moved the blog permanently to my own domain. Go check it out at blog.brainlint.net!

Winter Sucks

Well, Chloe finished her first year of preschool. She was a true darling, and took a great picture with her teacher:
They had a little concert. I laughed. I cried. I was so proud. Here's a little sample. If you're interested in seeing the whole thing, I have it broken into four parts over on my Youtube account.

Every year when the weather starts to turn warmer I state one thing. "Winter Sucks." I don't say it so much during the winter. But once I get to enjoy the warmer weather, I realize that I enjoy it so much. I don't even mind the July 90 degree humid Pittsburgh weather. Someday, I'm going to have to move out of my little slice of Collier Township so I don't have to endure the winters that I hate. Someday. Either that or I need to hope this whole 'Global Warming' things speeds up a bit. Here's what Becca and Chloe did to kick off their Memorial Day weekend:




After that, we got to hang out with some friends and neighbors for an impromptu cook out. And you know, summer is great and all...but what am I going to do with the kids?!?!? I think they will absolutely kill each other if I don't give them something structured to do, at least for part of the summer. Lucky me, there's a summer rec program available. It's close, cheap, and lasts for four weeks. We're signing up today (and so are some of their friends). Problem solved. And guess what? I'll have some 'me' time!!!

Um, YYYYYIIIIIPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

**And just a little note. I'm planning on changing my blog over from Blogger to Wordpress. I have plans to do it this weekend, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will happen this weekend. So, if you're coming here to see what's going on with me and get some sort of blank page, don't worry. It will be all sparkly and new soon!

A New Toy

I love getting new toys. Really, I'm just like a little kid when it comes to gadgets. Did I want jewelry or flowers for Mother's Day? No. I wanted a little pocket video recorder. So, here's the one that I picked out for myself:

I really like it...although I haven't gotten a bunch of time to play with it. Chloe's last day of school is tomorrow, and they're having a little concert. I plan on recording the concert, and posting it here. Here are a couple of sample videos I did. These are NOT in high def, just in regular VGA mode. I'll play with the high def more later.





This thing is great! It uses 2 AA rechargable batteries (which came with it...it actually came with four) and fits right in the palm of my hand. Great for throwing in my purse. It takes still pictures, too. I'm going to have fun playing with this...and I'll be able to share some more video of the kids with my folks. Right now we have a camcorder that records on those mini dvd's, and it's a pain in the arse to share them with my folks.

So, I got a new toy to play with, and today I'm going to get some new hair! Well, not NEW hair, but a new cut and color. If you live around Pittsburgh, I absolutely LOVE how Jess does my hair. Jess owns Hot Heads Hair Design, which is right next to Downey's House in Robinson Township. She's super sweet, a whiz with color, and she took a big risk opening a place of her own. she's great!

So maybe I'll post a pic of me and my new hair. I hope everybody has a great day! The weather is fantastic here. Maybe I'll slap some fake tan on myself soon, so I don't scare everybody when I wear shorts!

Another Blissful Week/Best Thing I Heard

Wow, this week has just cruised on by! We had a great Mother's Day at Kennywood!  The lines were almost non-existent, the weather was cool but nice, and we had a great time.  Here's my favorite picture of the girls from that day:

That's them on the kiddie coaster. But they had a great time on the Jackrabbit, too!

I thought I would share some of my Mother's Day love...and laughs.  First off, I got a very cute card from Chloe that she made in preschool.  Inside, it had a cute photo of her out in the garden.  Then, I got Becca's card.  She had been talking about it for three days.  It was a big surprise.  I totally cried when I read it.  Here are some of the pages:

So, that one is "My favorite time together is when we...lay together in my bed."  Cute.  Really, though, my legs aren't quite that skinny.  

Yup, Becca wants to give me an indoor pool.  Not quite sure where we would put that one...and I think it may be more for HER.

Yup, this one makes me cry.  How totally sweet.  Really, I look like ass in the morning.   But at least I have my daughters snowed.  And I'm not sure why I don't have any clothes on in this picture, but I don't sleep in the buff.  I'm always too cold for that.  Now the next one has a little story:

Now, at first look it seems innocent enough.  "My favorite thing about my mother is we both like to play."  I was reading the little book/card out loud.  When I got to this page, Becca exclaimed "Hey!  It's not supposed to say we both like to play!  It's suppposed to say we both want a slave!"

The laughter just roared out of my mouth.  I said "Becca, I never said I wanted a SLAVE.  I said I wanted a MAID!"  I explained how having people as slaves is a completely terrible idea.  She was fine with my explanation.  Then I wondered...did the teacher choose not to write the whole slave thing because she felt uncomfortable with that?  I mean, I may have done the same thing...don't get me wrong.  Then I thought 'play' and 'slave' could sound very much alike.  Especially in a noisy kindergarten classroom.  I was hoping that she heard 'play' instead of 'slave' because I really don't want the teacher to think that I was upset with the outcome of the Civil War.  Then I looked at the picture.  Looks to me like somebody is bringing me and Becca something to eat at a table.  Servants?  Cooks?  OK, that I can handle.  I have a bunch of money and I pay them well.  I'm fine with that.

But not slaves.

Hell, I can't even get my kids to clean up their toys.

So, that's my Mother's Day chuckle.  Sorry I waited a while to share it.  I had this crazy flu/cold all week.  Producing one pound of snot per hour takes a lot of energy out of ya.  But I'm almost back to normal (as normal as I can be, anyway).  

More later :)

Squeeee!!! More Vampires!

I'm like a little kid right now! Yesterday I got my delivery from Amazon, which included the new Sookie Stackhouse book from Charlaine Harris, "Dead and Gone." I'm sure I'll devour it in one sitting, but I just need to block out the time for that one sitting!! Today WOULD be the perfect day to lock myself in my bedroom and read it, seeing that it IS Mother's Day. But, <>seeing that I'm a totally selfless mother < /sarcasm >, I've decided that the family should go to Kennywood today.

Truth be told, I LOVE Kennywood. I've held onto that love of roller coasters since I was five years old. My first big memory of coasters goes back to West View Park. I used to ride the kiddie coaster over and over and over again. Then the park closed. If it had stayed open just one more year, I would have been old enough to ride the big coaster. No worries, though. There were plenty of other places to ride coasters.

Now, Becca and Chloe aren't quite tall enough to ride all the 'big' rides, but they ARE tall enough for the Jackrabbit. They both love it, and have been talking about it all week. And Kennywood has the best food, too (Unlike Cedar Point, whose food absolutely sucks!). I'm gearing up for some Potato Patch fries, a corn dog, some funnel cake and our traditional exodus treat...cotton candy. (Wow. Fried, fried, fried and sugar). By the time we get back tonight, my feet will hurt, my patience will probably be fried (heh, heh...more fried), and I'll need a Tums or two. But that's how it always ends, and I still consider it a great day.

So, Sookie, Bill and Eric will have to wait. I'm sure they will be a read that lasts until 2:00 in the morning.

Oh, I did get another book with my Amazon order. It's a collection of short stories called "Bite," and Charlaine Harris has a Sookie story in it. I enjoyed the story (It's about her cousin Hadley's death), but I wouldn't suggest purchasing the book just for that story (like I did). It was only thirty or so pages, and I could have lived without it. Or tracked it down at a library.

So, Happy Mothers' Day, whatever you decide to do! And a big thank you to my Mom. Although I appreciated her before I had my own children, now I really 'get it.' And she did a hell of a job. And she kept her sanity. Amazing.

***OOH, one last thing. As I was gathering links to this post, I found that you can pre-order the NEXT Sookie Stackhouse book, due out October 6th. Looks like the name of it is "A Touch of Dead." Yeah, I'm gonna have to go do that. Once I get some extra 'me' cash!

Back From My Blog-Free Zone

Well, I took a couple of weeks off from blogging. No excuses, I just had too many other things to concentrate on. I've missed ya, though :)

One thing I did last week was have an ADULT evening out. I've re-connected with some friends from high school. This particular group of friends are people who were in the school musicals and stage crew (like me). Our two teachers who organized (and worked their asses off) the shows and crew left our old school, and are now both at the same school. They put the show 'Company' on, which is one that we did back in the eighties. So, we got together and went to see the show. It was GREAT seeing everybody. We all headed out to Downey's House after the show, and really got to catch up. We had so much fun, we've decided to do it again.

Being out with friends and teachers from high school gave me the chance to have a visit with my old self. Which was kinda nice. I would think that the older I got, the more I would know who I am. To a certain extent, I do. I know how I will react to certain situations, I know my beliefs, and I know that my family is the most important thing in my life. But I've found that I've lost a bit of me...and I think it's because I'm so busy taking care of everybody else. You know, the kids need things like food, clothing, baths, activities. My third child (the restaurant) needs all kinds of stuff...a new payroll company, bills paid, ads, blah blah blah. I'm so busy getting stuff for everybody else, Heather sort of comes in last place.

So, on this Mothers' Day Eve, I've decided that I'm going to do something more for myself. I'm going to spend more time with my friends. I'm going to learn something new. I'm going to teach my kids to do some more things on their own (like falling asleep!!!). So, Happy Mothers' Day to all the moms out there.

Take some time for yourself. Although 'Mom' is the most important job we all have, it is not the sole definition of who we are.

Summer Teaser

Well, it was a fantastic weekend for weather here in Pittsburgh! It started on Friday, and it looks like it's going to last through today. The kids really enjoyed it. But here's how it went down:

Friday after school, Becca started. "Can you put up the pool?!?!" (I've promised that we'll put up the easy-set pool that has been sitting in the garage for two years this summer). I told her that I can't put that pool up until their birthdays (end of May).
Then she wanted a smaller pool. Well, it was 4:00 on a Friday. I wasn't ready to tackle any kind of pool. So we compromised on the sprinkler. They were happy. Saturday, I caved. I put up one of those hard shell plastic pools for them. We later found that there must be a hole in it. But they had a great afternoon, bouncing between my yard and my friend's yard. Carefree, almost summer.

Sunday we had a couple of events to head to. There was a christening for our friend's twins down the street, then a communion party for other neighbors at our restaurant. We headed down to the christening. Now, our friends there put in an in ground pool last year. They got it late in the summer, and the kids were in it once. I didn't think that the pool would be open yet for the season. But we got there, and the pool was open. (On a side note, I'm totally jealous of their pool and the set up. It looks like something out of a magazine. They should rent it out for parties.) So, I ran back to the house, got their suits, and they swam for a couple of hours.

Hello...it's April in Pittsburgh.

It was a great time, and the first time that, as a parent, I didn't have to get in the pool. They were fine just swimming on their own. Nice.

The communion party was held on Downey's House's deck. Because it's not normally this warm in APRIL, we had to sort of scramble to get the deck semi-ready. The chairs still don't match. We don't have any coolers out there yet. We need to do some landscaping. But it went well, all things considered.

So, it looks like our little visit to summer ends tomorrow. Which is OK with me. But I'm glad that summer IS right around the corner!

But if you talk to me in August, I might have something to complain about :)