I Have No Words

On November 23, 2007, my 18 and 13 year old daughters were killed in a traffic accident. I cannot begin to express what I'm feeling right now. Maybe someday I will have the words but for now, I don't.

Wednesday Bites/Turkey Day Countdown

Since last week's inaugural Wednesday Bites post was so successful, I've decided to make it a regular feature.

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The first season of Sesame Street has been released on on DVD but has been rated adults-only. Apparently Cookie Monster is an addict and Bert was too grumpy to be rated acceptable for children. How the hell did my generation survive such atrocities?

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Speaking of screwing with my childhood, Monopoly now has a version with electronic banking. Let's not teach our kids to count, for the love of fiscal responsibility. And how are you supposed to hide your $500 bills under the board?

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If you want to play Santa in Sydney, Australia, you need to learn to say "ha ha ha." Apparently the PC squad Down Under decided it was offensive to women to say "ho ho ho." Should we stop using red lights in our Christmas decorations because of the suggestion of prostitution?

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For those of you keeping score at home, the Thanksgiving countdown is commencing nicely. All items on the list have been completed and crossed off. Tonight is the pre-cooking prep, such as pie baking, cornbread baking, assembling the potato casserole and slicing the ham.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving holiday. I'll be back on Monday.

Thanksgiving Countdown - Tuesday

Well, the countdown is proceeding on schedule (knock wood). Actually, I'm a bit ahead of schedule. My class ended early last night so I was able to finish up Monday's list and scratch a couple of things of Tuesday's list. The girls did a good job of cleaning the dining room while I was at class. They also did not kill each other. Tonight I will have one cleaning upstairs and the other cleaning her room. That should keep them busy.

Tonight's activities include: cleaning out the refrigerator (as tomorrow is trash day); sweeping and mopping my kitchen and bathroom floors (so a quick once-over with the Swiffer before the guests arrive should suffice); and steam cleaning the carpets. I'm also making my chex mix and then putting it out of sight because dude, that stuff is like crack to me.

My parenting class was better than I thought. The instructor said she knew we didn't want to be there, so we could skip the break and end a half-hour early. Yay!

We watched a DVD of some scenarios and then discussed what not to do. The scenarios were a bit overdramatic but I can see them happening with divorced parents - complaining about late child support in front of the kids; calling the dad a deadbeat; calling a mom irresponsible because she was late picking up the children for visitation. However, one scene involved a dad and his new girlfriend drinking and smoking pot while the kids were in the other room. The kids complained to the dad that there was no food in the house. I'm thinking "if you're going to smoke that much pot, you should have food to combat the munchies!"

The instructor did tell us that the number one thing kids wish they had more of was *drum roll* - time with their parents. So, in the spirit of that, I had Maddy read out loud to me while I was cleaning in the kitchen. Kelli and I stayed up until about midnight just talking about different stuff. I'm busier than a one-armed paper hanger, and yeah, I'm a little tired today. But having that time with them was cool.

Thanksgiving Countdown - Monday

T-minus four days until the main event. I have my lists of things to do and things to cook, and let me tell you - I'm going to be one busy little girl.

Apparently I felt I didn't have enough going on this week because I scheduled a parenting class for tonight and tomorrow from 6-8 pm. Our state will not grant a divorce until both parents have completed a parenting class. The closest one to my house is a half hour away.

So, tonight's agenda is: leave work at 4:30; pick up cheerleader child at 5; slow down in front of the house so she can tuck and roll out the door and I can speed off on my journey to being a better parent; come home and referee the fighting that has taken place while I've been gone; and clean up my dining room. You may ask why I need to clean my dining room? Well, the computer desk is in there, so that needs to be de-cluttered. My daughter built a magnesium model over the weekend, so the fallout from that needs to be removed. There is a box of stuff from my old office that I brought home in September and it's still sitting on the chair in the corner. I know, I know. I ground my kids for that stuff. I need to dust the chairs and the china cabinet.

I also need to review my cabinets to see if there is anything else I forgot from my two-page shopping list. I forgot evaporated milk for the chocolate pie, and a jar of turkey gravy. Yes, I admit it, I do not make turkey gravy from scratch. Reason one - because I don't cook a whole turkey and reason two- I'm making everything else from scratch, so I can skate on the gravy.

I think I'll have one child clean the desk and the other one do the chairs. Perhaps if I keep them busy while I'm gone they will have less time to argue with each other. (Ha!! I almost typed that sentence without laughing).

No Boys Allowed

First, let me preface this by saying I am not anti-men. I love men. I'm can change my own tire, mow my own lawn and kill my own spider, but I have no problem admiring a man who does it for me, especially without me having to ask. Quite frankly, I'm pretty impressed when they do it without expecting a pat on the head. Did I get a pat on the head when I cooked your dinner, washed your underwear, or birthed your child? Yeah, I didn't think so.

In the few months that I haven't had a man living in my house, I've noticed some things. My laundry piles have been cut in half. Who knew he wore that many clothes? Cleaning the bathroom is a breeze now. In fact, it stays cleaner longer now. Ditto on the rest of the house, and if I get the urge to vacuum at 9:30 at night, I can and not fear that I'm interrupting his TV coma.

I've also taken care of some a lot of little stuff around the house that we'd talked about doing but for some reason they never got done. Like sealing the kitchen door, re-grouting the bathtub and winterizing the lawn. I'm Annie Oakley with a caulk gun.

Don't get me wrong, it sucks sometimes that I now have to do all that stuff, in addition to the long list of mom stuff I already had, but I don't mind in the long run, because I have a sense of accomplishment when I'm done.

I'll be honest, I hired someone to clean my gutters. It's a two-story house with a pretty steep roof. In the end, I got it taken care of, so I can still claim a sense of accomplishment.

Vacation...All I Ever Wanted....

I recently started at my new job, so I don't get any vacation time off for a while. However, that doesn't mean I can't have a mini-vacay, so that's what I'm doing Saturday. I found a great rate on a nice hotel near the outlet mall, and I'm going to do some Christmas shopping Saturday and stay overnight, and maybe get up and do some shopping Sunday before I come home.

I like staying in hotels...nice hotels, that is. I've been lucky in that I've never stayed in a dumpy hotel. I've read hotel reviews online and sometimes the reviews are less than favorable. Some of them are downright scary.

I think my favorite hotel so far was the Marriott in Chicago. It had a comfortable bed, it was nicely decorated, and I could see part of Lake Michigan from my window. Oh, and it was a block from the Magnificent Mile and from Rush Street. That might have something to do with it being my favorite.

What's your favorite? Or your horror story?

Wednesday Bites

Not in the sucky "this bites" way, but more like little random bits of thought. I think I'm coming down with a cold and I'm tired and I can't really think of much more than two or three sentences at a time so...

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I took my 8-year old daughter to see Bee Movie on Friday. If you liked Seinfeld, you'll like the movie. It seemed to me to be one long standup routine. I amused myself by guessing the voices. Oprah is a judge. Chris Rock is a mosquito.

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Thanksgiving is a week away (technically 8 days but I have to start baking pies on Wednesday so it's a week to me). My dad and his wife are coming to my house. I'm very excited that I got my dining room re-decorated before they came. I was writing out my menu and realized we are having three kinds of potatoes - mashed, sweet and cheesy hashbrown casserole. Starch overload, anyone?

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I can't find any casual shoes that I like. I can wear jeans to work every day, but on days I don't wear my heels I have either my boots or my clogs. I went shoe shopping at lunch and couldn't find anything. I don't want a ballet flat and I don't want a grandma heel. Suggestions?