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!

What my kids say

Well, I thought I'd start posting some things that my kids say to me. Partially for entertainment value, and partially so I don't forget when I'm old and gray. So, here are some things I remember from the last week or so. Right now they're all from Becca. Chloe definitely has big huge conversations with me, but she hasn't started questioning the world so much yet. Well, except by asking 'Why?"

So, last week we're in the car driving to the bank and here's the conversation I had with Becca

"Mom, do bears eat people?"
"Um, well, not usually."
"Well, I think bears eat people, because people are full of meat. And bears like meat."

OK, point taken.

Then, one morning as I was getting Becca ready for school, this was the scene:

"Becca, come on!  You've got to get your outfit on and come down and eat your waffle!  And we still have to do your hair!! You don't want to miss the bus!"

Standing at the top of the stairs, with her hand resting on her hip, she says:

"Geez Louise, Mom!  You sure are one bossy woman!"

Um, ok.  Point taken again.

She also was kissed by a boy on the bus.  She had a half day that day, and got home about 12:30.  She didn't inform me of the kissing incident until 5:30!!!!  Um...HELLO!!!  Where where have you been all afternoon!!!!  I got the details, which were that she was kissed on the cheek by a boy that she DID like.  She thought it was yucky.  She no longer wants to marry this boy.

Chloe has been adjusting pretty well to Becca not being around.  The house is much calmer.  But I definitely can't wait to hear how Becca's day went when she gets home.

On another topic, I started taking Chantix yesterday.  My quit date is Friday the 12th, which will be the first day I'm at the restaurant during the new smoking ban.  There are a couple of girls at work who have started taking Chantix, too.  I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Wow...I went to the movies!

I am so excited...I went to the movies. Not a regular date with my hubby, mind you. A family date with all four of us. It was the first movie that Chloe has sat through. We had a failed attempt to see Shrek 3 at the cheapie movies. She lasted about a half an hour or so. We went to see the Bee Movie yesterday. I thought it was pretty funny. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. Maybe that was due the giddiness that the girls were really behaving well. And the icing on the cake was that we got to use our $40 gift certificate that Tony won LAST Christmas at his work Christmas party. Chloe did, actually, end up falling asleep on my lap. And I spent the middle 40 minutes of the movie with my arm totally asleep. But that's OK. Becca also liked the movie very much. Before we went in, we had to try to win stuffed bees from the claw machine, of course. We won one for each girl (after about $12 worth of tokens!). The girls were even game for going out to dinner after the movie. The behaved pretty well there, too. Sketchy towards the end, but they had been sitting still for quite a long time! So, thumbs up for the Bee Movie, and thumbs up for the fact that I can actually take my girls to a movie every once in a while. Good timing, seeing that it's getting cold and miserable here in Pittsburgh!!!

I shouldn't be doing this...

Right now I'm supposed to be cleaning my office. I am oh so good at procrastination. The papers are everywhere, kids books on the floor and there are two CD/DVD organizers laying on my desk just waiting to be filled. Everything that needs to go in them is scattered. All over. Oh well.

I have just a few little notes about life over the past week or so. Maybe I'll go in chronological order:

Last Saturday my hubby went to the Pitt game. Home opener. He had a great time and took a cab home. The next day he shows me this beer coozy (you know, to wrap around it and keep it cold). But this one doesn't just say 'Pitt' on it. No...this is a super fantastic invention. And I can't believe that I didn't think of it. It has two really strong magnets on the back of it, and they're covered with a piece of pleather. That way, when you're tailgating you can just put it on the car. It actually holds en entire full can of beer. So simple.........




Sunday night I had girl's night out. Nice dinner at the Grand Concourse, drinks outside at Bar Louie, and then a jaunt into the South Side and we headed to Dee's Cafe. Felt good to get back to drinking and smoking...no matter how bad it might be for me. For just those mere 8 hours I had no responsibility. Nice. Of course, there were 6 moms. What did we (mostly) talk about? Kids and kid/family related stuff.

OK, while I was writing this post here's what happened: I had Chloe (2) come up to me and say 'turds.' She did not have a diaper on. So, I asked "Where?", and she led me to the family room. Diaper on the floor, full o' turds. At least none had wondered onto the carpet. So, I did the whole potty-diaper change thing with her. Then Becca (4) wanted a peanut butter sandwich. Cut into a circle. Of course, then Chloe wants one, too. So I made two peanut butter sandwiches. The point is, if you're reading this you would imagine that I'm sitting at my computer just typing away. Not exactly.

Well, I'll have to catch up on some more later....I'm actually going to start to clean! By the way, if you're looking for Halloween shirts, I've started a new blog at halloweentees.wordpress.com
I've picked out shirts that I like. The one is quite funny, and I think I'm actually going to purchase it. Here's the link: 333 Half Evil

Yet another Zazzle contest

Well, there's another contest over at Zazzle, and here's my entry. The theme was Pirates because there is actually a day designated to "Talk Like a Pirate." Go figure. Please, go and vote for it if you have the time. Thanks!

Embrace Your Inner Pirate
by hdowney
Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

My StumbleUpon Page

Some General Stuff

OK, here are just a few things. First of all...when, exactly, did I become a grown up? All kinds of responsibility, cleaning toilets, caring for kids and falling asleep on the couch at 9:00 (like my mother). I'm sure it was a slow and gradual process. But I was a bartender until I had kids (in 2003), and I was a late-nighter. I'd be eating eggs at Denny's at 2:00 in the morning on a Wednesday. Now, the only reason I'm up at 2:00 am is to fill up a bottle (of milk). Although I love my kids and love being a mom, every once in a while I miss the 25 year old me. (Which, if I had to pick an age to stay forever--that would be it. But only if I could still have my kids...but that's an entirely different post. Anyway, took the family to one of my favorite places last week...Sarris candy. My four year old nearly passed out when she saw all of the stuffed animals. (She has a strange stuffed animal addiction). Of course, the chocolate is yummy....(mmm...peanut butter melt-aways) but they also have a nice selection of candies from when I was little. For example, we bought some 'flying saucers' (like communion wafers with little balls of sugar inside), candy dots on paper (you always end up eating some paper!) and gold rush gum. So, it was fun. There was a great crossing guard outside. Guess he's been there forever. The hubby bought him some chocolate, and the kids gave him big smiles. They also have an ice cream shop at the store, but we went right after lunch. If you're interested in going (can't believe you haven't been there!), here are the directions. OK, just had to share! If you go, have a great time...and tell them you read about them on my blog!