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 :)

Coming Out of Hiding

Well, my entire life was consumed.

Consumed by, of all things, eight wonderful novels. As I've mentioned, I've been reading the Sookie Stackhouse Novels. Well, for the past week, it's about ALL I've been doing. If you're looking for a good bunch of books, these are a great read!

I have to say, I am totally in awe of people who can write stories like this. The author, Charlaine Harris, has other books, too. And I'm sure I will eventually get around to reading them. I can't imagine being able to sit down and weave the stores, characters, settings, and everything else. And this woman is either an extremely talented, creative and dedicated writer OR she's something supernatural. I am amazed at how she has explored the supernatural, and made up the rules as she went along. Kudos to her!!!

If you don't know, I'm not really casual about anything. When I start reading something and enjoy it, I jump right in, both feet first. I was walking to the bus stop while reading. I stayed up until 2:00 am many nights so I could finish the book I was on. When something gets my brain going, it takes me over. Needless to say, other areas of my life have suffered. The house is a mess, the kids are ready to kill each other, and I haven't blogged (sorry) or tended to any of my other online ventures. As I finished book number eight last night, I had a whole mix of emotions. I was sad I was finished reading about Sookie. I was amazed that I got through these eight books while still feeding, clothing and tending to the kids and the restaurant. I was glad that I was going to go back to 'normal' life. Then it happened.

I went to the Charlaine Harris' website. Yeah, there's another one coming out next month. I pre-ordered Dead and Gone today. No big deal. What's one more book, right? Um, WRONG! If you look under the bibliography on her website, you'll see that there are quite a few books with short stories about Sookie (these stories sort of fill in the gaps). Yeah. Now I have to read those, too. I ordered one from Amazon. There is the great possibility that I will read the collection of short stories, find another author that is fantastic, and discover another five thousand books I want to read.

Oh well. The kids know how to get cereal for themselves.

If you remember, the whole reason I started reading this series was that it's the inspiration for True Blood on HBO. I really enjoyed the first season of the series, and from what I understand, the second season is supposed to start this June. However, the series and the books are completely different. Well, not completely. Many of the characters are the same. But things happen differently. I'm not going to give out any spoilers here, but let's just say I'm curious about what direction Alan Ball is going for the second season. I'll probably enjoy the series. I may quite possibly enjoy it even more, because I'll be so into the differences.

Anyway, for now, it's back to my little spot here in Collier Township, PA and out of Bon Temps, Louisiana. And I'll write more.

Promise.

My plan is to go on over to my friend Barb's site, Barb's Bookshelf, and post something on the forums over there. Many of the members there use CafePress, Zazzle,, and other POD's (that's Print-On-Demand for those who don't know). They're uber awesome, and make up a large portion of who I like to call my 'online friends.'

And they're frickin' funny!

OK, I'm gonna catch up on some of that housework. The girls are at the neighbor's house, running through a sprinkler. Yup, it's April and it's 86 degrees right now. But I'm not complaining.

Have a gerat weekend!

First Taste of Business

Well, it was a fantastically beautiful day yesterday in Pittsburgh. Dare I say, the weather was perfect. I was in a pretty good mood, I didn't have to make my normal Saturday run to the restaurant, and the house was pretty clean. So, I finally gave in to the request that Chloe has been making since January.

The Lemonade Stand.

Chloe has been asking me at least once a week since JANUARY if she could have a lemonade stand outside. When I explained that people don't really want to buy lemonade when it is snowing outside, she offered up the idea of a hot chocolate stand. Well, although that would have worked a bit better, I held her off. There was a weekly lemonade stand inside my kitchen. She would get her small folding chair, and set up the cups and kool-aid on one of the stools for our island. She had three very regular customers...me, Tony and Becca.

They had some very grand hopes for the outside lemonade stand. As I cleaned up, I had them draw some pictures for the lemonade stand. We ran a couple of errands, and then came home to make the lemonade (instant, of course!). The plan was to set up their 'Cafe' tent:

We figured that we would cover up 'Espresso' with 'Lemonade.' Easy enough. I head out to the driveway and start setting up the cafe. The frame went up just fine. After a couple of tries (and Becca holding down part of the tent), I got the cover on. Then, it was just like one huge box kite. Since I didn't necessarily want the children flying through the sky through our plan, I nixed the cafe. After taking it down and putting it away, we set up our small plastic table and chairs from Ikea. That worked just fine. They had the ice, the lemonade and the cups. They even put out their gumball machine. Price? Two coins. Yeah, any coins. Although Becca is now realizing that different coins are worth different amounts, Chloe hasn't quite reached that level. So, I asked Becca to just 'go with it.' She also thought that she was going to make $1,000.

They sat there for about five minutes with me being the only customer. I told them that nobody knew they were there...they needed to let everybody know that they were having a lemonade stand. They did great! First, Becca walked down to the stop sign (just past our neighbor's house) and stood on the corner holding up a sign that said 'Lemonade' and had our address on it. Then, she used her loud mouth skills. Every car, every person that she saw definitely knew about the lemonade stand.

They got some customers, and then Chloe headed out for her turn at the marketing. It was very cute. The whole ordeal only lasted about an hour and a half, but they had fun. And they realized that just because you open shop, that doesn't mean you will have a ton of business. I told them what I do for the restaurant, and part of it is making sure people know what's going on, and where we are. Now, they sort of get it.

As a side note, I just started book 7 of 8 from the Sookie Stackhouse novels. I'm loving this series more and more! It is cutting into my snooze time a little, but it's worth it! I'll report on the entire series as soon as I'm done :)

Attitude Changes Everything

Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. I went through a little bit of re-discovery. Tuesday I was happy to get back to normal, but the next day I did absolutely NOTHING. (Although I managed to beat my high score on Scramble over at facebook.) I had a big ol' case of the 'blahs.' There was no particular reason I had these feelings. There's the possibility that it was the crappy Pittsburgh weather. But I woke up on Thursday morning, and my attitude changed.

The sun was shining, and I had a new peace. As I was drinking a cup of coffee that morning in my kid-less house (they were at school), my brain started thinking what my life would be like if I had all the money I ever needed. I imagined my bank account just overflowing with cash. You want to know what I figured out? My life really wouldn't be much different.

Sure, I would buy more stuff, and possibly go more places. But my daily life would be pretty much the same. I would still be getting up in the morning. I would still be getting the kids to school. There would still be toys to clean up, laundry to do, birthday gifts to buy and dinner to make. I would still live in this house, drive my car and drink the same coffee. Yes, if I had a crapload of cash, we may not own the restaurant anymore, but I'm not so sure about that. I mean, it's like our child right now. Most likely, I would still have that hour or so in the morning to catch up on restaurant work. Yeah, I could hire somebody to do the grunt work. So I might get a couple more hours to myself each day. But what would I do with that time? I'm sure for a month or so, I would just enjoy the fact that I HAD some time. But I would start some project and get involved in something.

And I'd be back to the same place.

So, I've reached another plateau of happiness. Acceptance is good. I'm really not a worrier. So, if we're low on cash one month, I actually handle it pretty well.

That's not to say that I wouldn't take some cash if it came along.

Mama doesn't NEED a new pair of shoes, but I sure wouldn't mind a few. And hardwood floors. Ooooh, and a maid to do the scrubbing. (Yeah, I don't scrub all that much. So again, money wouldn't really change my life, but it might make my house more clean!). I think my kids have felt this new calmness. They've been great the past couple of days. We've had fun, and we haven't really done anything special.

Yup, it's all about the attitude :)

Ahhhh....Back To My Controlled Craziness

I feel like this is my first day back to my so-called normal life. It feels good. We got through spring break. The Easter Bunny came. The taxes are done (and getting mailed today). Today is a day of sweeping, mopping and catching up on laundry.

I don't know why the holiday threw me for such a loop. We had three solid days of coloring Easter eggs. The weather wasn't awful, but it wasn't nice enough for the kids to play outside all day, either. Everything just took a little bit longer with two kids around. Becca headed back to school today (with tears, of course).

I did federal, state and local tax returns for three different people. This is the first year I dealt with TONS of business write offs, K-1's and what not. Because of that, I had a couple extra glasses of wine at Easter dinner. I felt it a little the next day.

So, here I am, back to normal. Back to homework tonight. Getting Downey's House ready for summer and (hopefully) the surge in business with the deck getting ready to open. Quite honestly, I don't really have a topic for today's post. Just wanted to share the fact that I'm feeling pretty peaceful. Even though my normal life consists of running around, I've gotten used to a certain level of craziness. Which makes me think...

What will I do when the kids have flown the nest? Yes, my house will be a little more clean. I'll enjoy a little more reading. But I already have the feeling that I'll be a little bored.

Well, and much more rested.

So, for the next few days (or weeks...or until a child pushes me over the edge) I'm going to enjoy the hell out of them. I enjoy their ages. I enjoy their humor. And then there's the cuddles and the kisses.

Yup...peaceful.

Should I Save My Sanity or Save My Money?

Well, today is day 2 of spring vacation for Becca. I'll tell you, it couldn't have come at a worse time. Or maybe the timing of my vacation was wrong. Either way, let me tell you what's been going on.

We all had a great time in Florida, and it was a week of family togetherness. We got home late on a Tuesday night, and Becca had school the next morning. I think she was still asleep as I got her on the bus that morning. When she got to school, she found that her regular teacher was out, and she had a substitute. When she got home that day, she cried that she didn't want to go back to school. I knew she'd have a bit of an adjustment getting back into the groove, and figured she had a little bit of extra troubles because she expected to see her regular teacher. Thursday came, and there were more tears when she got to school. There weren't any in the car that day, but lots of complaining. Friday, she stepped on the bus with big ol' tears of drama. Monday and Tuesday, same thing. Tears. Lots of them.

She's tried saying she has a stomach ache. She misses me. She misses her blanket. I gave her an old necklace of mine, and told her to hold it when she missed me. Helped a little. But now we have this week of vacation, and I think it's going to start again on Tuesday. Ugh. So, that's my update on Becca. I'm sure all will be fine, but it will be another week of complaining and fake stomach aches.

As for the title of my post, I want to talk about Aldi. I think I've mentioned the store here before. I love that store! And no, this isn't a sponsored post and I'm not getting anything to post about this store. Yesterday, I took the girls and did a grocery trip. I got an entire cart full of groceries and it cost 85 dollars. The cart was pretty full, and I even spent $10 on those
vaccuum space bag thingies and three bucks on some fresh flowers. I've never had a problem with any of their groceries (Well, scratch that. I did have a problem with some hand soap - the pump didn't work. But that could happen anywhere). Even though they don't have a bunch of name brands, their cereal, snacks, frozen items and produce suit me just fine. I feel darn proud of myself when I come out of that store. Saving money makes me happy. But the kids have to shop with me when I'm there.

I have to say, they were VERY well behaved yesterday. I think they may have reached the point where I don't have to yell at them the entire time, and they stay close to the cart. Chloe has her job of putting things into the cart, and Becca helped me decide what to buy. Just six months ago, though, it would have been a different story. They would be grabbing things to put into the cart, begging for toys and candy, and getting in the way of the other shoppers.

And that's the strength of the Eagle's Nest. If you're not local, I'll let you know that Giant Eagle is one of Pittsburgh's large grocery chains. My store (and many others) has a child care center called the Eagle's Nest. It is a room for the kids set up with video games, toys, crayons and tv's. One wall is all windows, so you can peek in, and they always seem to have enough adults for the number of children. Putting the kids in the Eagle's Nest is almost like having a 'Calgon, take me away!' moment. Drop them off, grab a cart, order a Starbuck's and leisurely stroll through the store. I can read prices. Look at ingredients. Take recipe cards. Be picky about my fruit/meat/veggies. It's actually relaxing. Until I get to the check out.

I literally pay twice as much when I'm at Giant Eagle. Really. Now, there are some things that I will only get at Giant Eagle. Steaks, fresh seafood, bakery goods. If I need any of those things, I stop in quickly and head right back out. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's nice to have an hour to myself to do my shopping.

I've been very, very good about getting my groceries at Aldi. Because Chloe is at preschool two mornings a week, I can sometimes even sneak it in while I'm all alone. Giant Eagle knows what they're doing with that thing! I think I'll save that for the summer. When they're both here. All the time. For three months.

I'd better start saving my cash!

Hey - POD'ers...Add Your Blog

This is for all of my Print-On-Demand friends. I created an aggregator for any blogs that have to do with the Print On Demand business at blog aggregators by FeedCluster.com. Just another way to get all of our blogs in one place, and hopefully up our traffic count. So, here's the address of what I created: podshirts.feedcluster.com. It's easy peasy to add your blog. Just click that link and on the right you'll see an option to add your blog (of course, you'll need to start an account). Once there are a few members, I'll add a widget on this blog that shows posts from members. There's also a badge you can put on your blog, too!

If you have other blogs, it was super easy to set this aggregator up. Let me know if you start one realted to a different topic, and I'll post it here!

Weekend Re-Cap

We had a fun weekend. Well, on the surface, anyway. It's hard to balance all the balls I have up in the air. Restaurant, kids, t-shirts, affiliate marketing, making the house look like it's not a pig sty. This weekend, we did a lot of stuff with the kids.

Saturday we went to breakfast with the Easter Bunny and an egg hunt. The girls had a great time. They had pancakes (their favorite), got to see their two cousins, and completely made out at the egg hunt. They each found three tickets, which entitled them to prizes. Chloe got a big and two small prizes, and Becca got 2 mediums and a small. The prizes were stuffed animals. My kids LOVE stuffed animals. There is a strange addiction there that I have yet to break. They were also very nice to their cousins. When I suggested that they each give one stuffed animal to their cousins (because they didn't get any tickets) they didn't even flinch. I was a proud mama. They were truly happy to make their cousins happy.

Then it happened.

We left the egg hunt and headed to the restaurant. We sat in a ton of traffic because of the inbound Parkway West closure this weekend. Becca started. "I'm jealous because Chloe got a bigger bunny than me!" Blah, blah, blah. Seems that every time we do something fun, the crabbies come out right after. We made it home, she complained some more, and eventually ended up on time out (I think it was for hitting her sister).

So, we wake up on Sunday and it's our day to go to the circus. The girls were excited. We all get ready and head down to the arena. They had fun watching Tony squirm as he saw the clowns outside mingling with the crowd. As we walked in and started going up the ramp to our seats, there was a vendor selling light up toys. Tony and I gave each other the "should we get these" look, and we bought one for each kid. The vendor says "twenty four." Twenty four? Dollars!?! I clutched my heart as Tony dished out the cash. We went in, found our seats, and walked around on the floor for a bit. They were offering elephant rides, pony rides and a big bouncy-slide thing. I entertained the thought of buying them tickets. I walked over to the ticket table and found it was SEVEN DOLLARS A TICKET! Pony ride for seven bucks? I don't think so. Big bouncy slide (the same one they have at many local festivals for $1 per ride)? No. I may have parted with fourteen bucks for the elephant ride, but the line was enormous. We bought a 'family pack' of tickets, which included a drink and hot dog for each person. We went and got our food (and those tickets were worth it, BTW), stopped by the cotton candy booth, plunked down 8 bucks for cotton candy, and headed to our seats.

The girls enjoyed the show. It seemed to drag a bit, but I'm glad we went. We bought more food. Pretzel, pop corn, peanuts and fries. As I emptied my wallet of cash, I was at least happy that we were all together, having fun. The girls were most excited about seeing Spider Man. He came out during the second half of the circus and did a little acrobatic ditty. They were happy, so I was, too. Spider Man made a second appearance with the clowns, but he was sort of like Elvis. Trim, muscular and svelte the first time you saw him. notsomuch the second time :)

Of course, as soon as we got in the car, Becca was complaining that she didn't get to go on the bouncy slide. Ugh. I about freaked out. I told her that I may not EVER take her to do anything fun ever again, because she just complains when it's over.

Yeah...that's my stellar mom moment of the weekend.

Tony could tell that I was just over this behavior. When we got home, he took the girls up the street for THREE HOURS!!! I had three hours to myself, and I was totally awake. I cleaned. Yeah, not the most exciting or relaxing thing to do, but it made me feel better, and I enjoyed it. I think Tony feels bad that it's going to be just me and the chicks for Easter vacation...and it looks like it's going to be too cold for them to play outside.

So, I had a full 'mommy' weekend. The restaurant was slower than usual because of the traffic situation. I have a clean-ish house (there was no scrubbing involved). I worked a little bit on my new affiliate site. It still has a long way to go, but I'll get there. And I had a request for a t-shirt design. I set up a store a while back, with all intentions of putting a bunch of designs in it. But then we, you know, bought a restaurant. So, I haven't worked on it much, but I have done a few special requests. Here's the one I did this weekend:

Peace, Love & Baseball Organic Toddler T-Shirt

I still haven't gotten it up on Zazzle, but maybe I'll do that now. OK...I think I've babbled enough for now. Next post? I think I'll touch on the fact that Becca is crying every morning because she doesn't want to go to school. Yeah. Fun.

I Want a Grown Up House

I've told you how I actually DO like my house. Now that the kids are (sort of) growing up, my mind has started to drift towards my fantasy of living in a clean, nicely decorated home. At this EXACT moment in time, I'd settle for clean. But I do have visions. Visions of beautiful hardwood floors. Of coordinating drapery and pillows. Someday (yes, someday...I keep telling myself) the girls will be old enough to appreciate the fact that this is MY house. And I would like to keep things finger print, marker, crayon and kool-aid stain free.

So, sometimes when I need to escape, I look at the nice things I would like. I found this website that's full of fabric shades, valances and curtains. After fantasizing a bit on this website, my heart yearned to be in a grown up place!!! I really do spend a lot of my time at home. And how cool is that site? Pick the fabric, make it perfect. I'm gonna have to start making some more money in order to afford my fantasy. But that's OK, I'll work on that. Right now all the curtains I have in my house are from Target. And they're not looking too swift. What is it with kids and curtains? They wipe their hands on them, twirl around in them. They've even tried to use them like Tarzan to swing on.

Maybe I've figured something out here. ::insert lightbulb:: If I get ALL valances, the kids couldn't destroy them. Well, I guess it's not that they COULDN'T, but it would be much more difficult. So, maybe I can start on my fantasy. Just gotta make some more cash. I got this far. I turned dreams of having a family, moving into a bit house in a nice neighborhood and owning a restaurant into reality.

I think I can handle curtains.

One Ticket to My Past, Please

First, let me say that I'm sorry for not posting over the past week or so. I truly got on vacation mode. Good thing I was actually on vacation. I relaxed. Really relaxed. I swam. Tony and I actually went OUT and had appetizers and drinks. I also plowed through three books while on vacation (more on those later - The Sookie Stackhouse novels - love 'em). And you know what else I did? I posted some old pics on Facebook.

Now that was fun. Because I was at my folks' house, there was a treasure chest of old photos. I tried not to be TOO embarrassing. Well, not to anybody else, anyway. I really don't mind embarrassing myself. At all. Anyway, here are some of the pics that I posted, for your viewing pleasure.


I actually posted the entire class picture, but I didn't want to step on any toes here on the blog. But, do you see that? Would you like to compare Look at Chloe:

Now, there's a 3 year age difference here, and I was limited to whatever pics I have on my laptop ('cuz I'm comfy on the couch, here), but there really is a crazy resemblance. I mean, she does have my genes and all...so I shouldn't be surprised. So, here is what she may look like in 17 years:

My entire family thought I looked like Joanna Kearns in this picture. I guess I sort of do.

So, where have I been going with this? Well, since being on Facebook and catching up with lots of old friends (from grade school and high school), I've been reflecting a bit. To be quite honest with you, there are large chunks of grade school and high school that I don't remember. I mean, I remember the big things that happened, and if somebody tells a story I may remember some of the smaller things. But I don't remember the details. And I'm fine with that. I've never been one to dwell on the past. Ever. If I'm looking at old photos, my brain might dance there for a while, but I've never been a 'Coulda, shoulda, woulda' kind of girl. My focus is always on the future. (So much so that I sometimes forget to enjoy the present). And I like it that way.

There were a bunch of us commenting on a photo from high school, and the conversation turned towards what we would have done different in high school. I'll be the first to admit...high school wasn't all peaches and cream. And my first instinct is that I would have not worried about boyfriends and spent more time with friends. But then I realized that if I didn't go through EXACTLY what I went through when I was younger, I wouldn't be the person I am today. If I didn't date the people I dated, befriend the people I befriended, go to the parties I went to, have ALL of the relationships I've had...I may be different right now. And I like me. Yes, there are some things I would like to improve. But all in all, I'm good company for myself.

And hopefully I'm good company for you! So, it's now 2:30 am. I've had four hours of sleep already, and I think I'll head up for 3 or 4 more.

That whole 'improve' thing. Definitely want to improve my sleeping schedule!!!!

Life and Fog

Last week we had an extremely foggy day in Pittsburgh. Or, as Chloe likes to say...'poggy.' Anyway, on that particular morning I dropped Becca off at Kindergarten, and Chloe off to preschool. As I drove to the restaurant to do some work, I thought about how going through life is a lot like driving in the fog.

Let me explain.

I know my way to the restaurant like the back of my hand. It really didn't matter that it was foggy at all. My brain knew all the right turns to make. I didn't have to look for any signs or landmarks. I knew they were there before I even saw them. I think that's what it's like going through a comfortable stretch in your life. You just go on auto pilot. You know where you are. You go there every day. It is your every day.

But what if you want to go some place else? I am at a point in my life where I think I know where I want to go. I believe I know what I want. If I were driving in the fog, but wasn't driving my normal route, it would be a bit more challenging. I would have to look for signs and landmarks where I needed to turn. In life, sometimes I pass these signs up, and have to go around the long way. I don't have a map, but rather a general idea of where I'm going.

Maybe I need a map.

How about you? Do you know where you want to be? Are you in your same comfortable routine drive, but want to go someplace else? First off, you need to figure out where you're going. If you are driving around in the fog...no map...and no idea where your final destination is...you will just be driving around.

To be more specific, I know that I would like to make a living online. I have already started doing this (and will be creating a new blog soon about how I make money online), but I'm not making a living. I also want to push Downey's House a bit further. I'm a little more unsure of exactly what I want here. Will it be an additional location? Will it be another restaurant all together? Not sure. But that's after the online stuff.

I know that I want to spend time with my children. And I'm doing a pretty good job at that. I know that some day I want to have enough money to enjoy life a bit more. Travel some. Spend time with my husband.

So, what's the point? I guess it's this: I've made some goals and I'm working towards reaching them. But as I speak with friends and family, most are not quite sure where they're going. Pick some goals, dammit.

Wow, that was a lot of back and forth babbling. Well, I'm on vacation, and being on vacation means that I get to think about life and where I'm going. Don't worry. I'll be back to 'work' soon. And I'll stop being so....um.....'thinky.'

Excuse me....

Just a quick note to say that I traveled with two small children yesterday. They were very well behaved, but it was a CONSTANT stream of questions. I had to have a glass of wine on the plane just to deal. So, I'm thinking of you...but I don't really have time to post right now. I'll try tonight. We're headed to Sanibel Island today to search for some shells.

BTW, the wine made it better. More later!

Thought Soup

I usually don't post a lot of 'techie' stuff on this blog. I'm considering starting another blog for this type of thing. But I DID want to at least mention it.

Let me back up, first. I started blogging as a way to get the word out about the t-shirts and gifts that I design for CafePress and Zazzle. That was almost two years ago. I really didn't know too much about blogging and such, so I jumped in with a free blogger account. I've been pretty happy with it.

But, once I opened the restaurant, I got a blog started over there. And I used Wordpress. I love it! It's on my own domain, and it's much easier to tweak things. I have since used Wordpress to set up an affiliate site or two. And I'm getting better at it! I've learned so much...how to install wordpress, playing with themes, and so on. I recently did two things with Wordpress, and they've made me very happy.

First, I actually PURCHASED a theme. I purchased the Flexx theme from iThemes. I love it! It's very easy to change the layout, colors and pics. Easy peasy. I also found a plug in for automatic updating. I loved it so much, I actually donated to the author (which is something I can't afford to do as much as I would like). Here's the link to the plug in.

Now, am I going to break up with blogger? Nah, I don't think so. It's worked for me so far, and I guess I'm sort of attached. I have, however, re-directed links to my own site. So, you can also find this stuff at http://blog.brainlint.net.

Just a little mention of regular life: The new menu starts at Downey's House on Tuesday, so I've been busy! I'm printing them up today. It's been a crazy couple of weeks trying to get the menu together, programming it into our POS system, and making sure we have all our i's and t's dotted and crossed. On top of it all, the girls and I are headed down to Florida on Wednesday. Packing? Haven't even really thought about it yet.

I also (finally) finished reading Dead Until Dark. I really, really enjoyed it...even though it took me much longer than it should have to read it. I bought the next 2 books to read while we're in Florida. Hopefully I get enough 'me' time when we're there. If you watched True Blood, the book and the show are pretty similar. But I was surprised that there wasn't any mention of Tara (the bartender). I'm not going to spoil anything for anybody, so I'll just say that there WERE differences in the book versus the series. But I think that both are very good.

OK, the girls are complaining that everything is 'Booooorrrrriiiiinnnnnnnggggg!' How about an exciting trip to Staples, girls? (OH, that makes me thing of a quick side note: I have always loved the smell of office supply stores. I'm strange. I love the smell of toner and paper. It makes me happy. We walked into Staples yesterday and Becca, with a smile on her face, said 'Mom, mmmmmmm...it smells GOOD in here! Poor thing.)

Wow...this post really did go just about everywhere. Like I've mentioned before, sometimes I just can't focus :) Have a great day!

Decorating

Just wanted to let everybody know that I'm tweaking with the look of my blog.

In between laundry, cleaning, restaurant cr@p and drinking coffee.

It's not getting done all at once, but about 10 minutes at a time.

Bear with me :)