Mia's Mittens...and Other random Things

This was yesterday at work. They actually pay me to get up in front of 100 preschoolers and their teachers and sing and be silly.

It is cold here and I am trying to enjoy since I will soon be dwelling in the desert. The only problem is that last week it snowed there too.

It so rarely snows in the desert that there was an 11 year old quoted in local newspaper that has made me laugh all week. He had never seen snow and his quote was: "It's real cold, and it tastes like water!" Now, you might think he's not the sharpest tack on the board. But the reality is that snow rarely ever happens in the land of cactus.

As a matter of fact I was laughing at my brother who had slipped my sweet nieces hands into tube socks and then put plastic over them, and it was all held up with elastic hair ties. He was quite proud of the mock-mittens when he sent me the picture below.

My first thought was, where are that girls mittens! My second thought was, you learned that from Dad. My third was, Hey! where were our mittens as kids? But then I remembered, We lived in the desert!! No one has mittens in the desert!

The day after it snowed in AZ it snowed here. That's when I had also figured out that mittens are highly overrated. It only took a few minutes before the mittens were wet, their hands were cold, and the kids were complaining. What did I do? I found some socks!

But I didn't feel like walking upstairs to get some hair elastics, so I just fastened them the old fashioned way...

I duct taped them...just like Dad.



Snow in the desert. (and on the golf course!)



Mia's Mittens


La Vida Dulce!

I Am Not a Writer, But I Play One on the Blog

This afternoon I felt a rare bloggers spark that generated from the depths of the small place inside my brain that's called "creative", and I made a bee-line to the computer.

I am not a writer, but I do enjoy writing. I have a large box of journals that I have kept since I was probably about 10 years old. What i have noticed about writing is that it tends to come in waves of creativity that I cannot predict. One minute I might be folding socks and suddenly something will inspire me and, if i can get to pen or paper (or in this case keyboard), than all is happy and I can ride a wave that is fulfilling and fun.

Sometimes, if I know something is due, like the Christmas card letter or a piece I am working on for other projects like speaking to groups or whatever, then I might think about them and have spurts of creativity that allow for the piecing together of thoughts over time. But this is a rare thing.

Usually, when I have a stroke of writers luck I am running on the treadmill, or standing at the kitchen sink with my hands full of soapy water, or sitting at the intersection on the north side of town that has the longest red light in the United States (and I am not exaggerating!) And usually the "good-writing" thoughts don't come in the first 4 minutes before the light turns green but about 30 seconds before....long enough only to grab the pencil that fell in between the seats to the floor, along with three petrified french fries and that tube of lipstick I lost last year. But then you have to have paper.

I tried having pads of paper everywhere so I could jot down ideas or thoughts but that can be scary in many, many ways...have you ever tried to write and run?

The hardest part is that often the creative spark fizzles out almost as quickly as it starts. Sometimes you can work through distractions. Meaning that people could be talking to you, or waiting for you, or jumping on your toes and you would still manage to get your thoughts out. But more often you can be filled with inspiration and blink the wrong way and it gets jostled around somewhere in the brain, never to be found again.

But I digress.

Today I was ready to blog. I wasn't exactly sure what I would write about but I was going to look at the handful of posts that I had started and saved as drafts and attempt to finish one of those. I was ready to take care of those silly photos that refused to be seen in the last entry.I was going to get things on the old blog cleaned up a bit.

Then I was going to write about my last full week of work before this chapter of life closes. I was ready to tell you about my last Chapel Day at the preschool, and how I had held it together through all my favorite songs, until one the teachers came up and hugged me and I dissolved into tears. Right there on the stage. In front of all those sweet children. I don't much like crying in front of poeple and I am almost always surprised when it happens.

I was ready to write.

But Blogger was shut down for maintenance and my creative balloon deflated.

Snow Angels

Yesterday we finally got snow. After waiting and waiting we can say we have seen every season in this beautiful state in full!How fun it was to wake up yesterday a bit before 6 in the morning and see that it was steadily snowing! It was all I good do to wait until 7 to wake up the kids.

Random Poll - January

I'm procrastinating.

I have done some major overhauling on our house in the last 10 days and I think I may have hit my peak. The motivation by excitement and pressure is slowly starting to fade and now it comes down to pure "gotta do it" attitude and the pleasure of crossing things of my ever growing list.

Moving. It's a lot of work.

You know what is really funny? We have a formal living room that we call the Yellow room because we don't formal-ly live in there. It is home to my treadmill and piano and currently is the room that is used for weight lifting, martial arts practice, and light saber fighting.

True confession: When we moved here 22 months ago I was uncertain where I should hang all of our portraits. There are about seven or eight large portraits of the kids at various ages. Since we weren't going to be in that room much I wasn't sure where to hang them after I unpacked them from the move so I stacked them neatly on the piano in hopes to get to them soon. I never got back over to that stack to organize and hang them up.

This weekend, I picked them up, dusted them off, wrapped them back up in movers paper and put them back into a moving box.

Our house should be on the market by the end of the week and when that is done I will feel better...mostly because by then I should be done organizing and deep cleaning.

But on to other things...

Did you make a New Years Resolution?

I resolved to eat more chocolate and to have the pictures I just re-packed hanging on a wall in my house-in-the-desert sometime before December 31, 2007.

We'll see what happens.

My New Years resolution track record is not really very good.

Airplane blog

Several weeks ago I made a weekend trip to Texas. On 12/14, while in flight I suddenly had a need to write. These are some of my observations while in flight. I kept forgetting to post so here it is. Happy reading!

________________________________________________

I'm ready. I've got my big hair and blue jeans and the captain has just come over the intercom announcing that our flight will arrive in just over an hour.

Texas! Don't Mess with It!

I'm flying solo for a much anticipated wedding and to visit my girlfriends. But the next time I go I won't be alone. This is my second visit since we moved and next time, if I don't take my kids to see their state of birth, they may sue me for independence.

Right now I am sitting in seat 11A. A window seat. There is a college aged girl sitting next to me who is studying from a text that must weigh as much as her and I combined. She looks young to me, probably in her early twenty's. I probably look incredibly old. Why do I say that? Because when I was twenty-two I thought thirty-four was older than dirt.

She is reading Homer's The Illiad. IN an attempt to make conversation I asked her if she was reading it for school. She said, no. I was actually very surprised. I had asked the question expecting an obvious response. Who, I ask you, reads The Illiad when it isn't expected of you? She told me that she had never read it and thought that perhaps it was one that she should read. This is when, practicing my best Texan drawl, I told her that there are these beautiful little inventions called Cliff Notes for such things.

She laughed in a charitable kind of way and hasn't spoken to me since.

I offered her some gum and she declined. She probably thinks that a middle aged woman with a Texas cheerleader drawl and big hair who reads Cliff Notes in lieu of real literature might not be the greatest conversationalist. Or she may just not like peppermint gum. But then again trying to balance that towering textbook might have her mind a bit occupied.

I, on the other hand, gave up reading on this flight because I kept reading the same paragraph over and over again. I wonder if my seat mate had noticed that I hadn't actually turned a page. I am currently reading a book called A Girls Best Friend by K. Billerbeck. It's an excellent read, but I am far too excited about seeing my best friends, and sitting so close to this gal is distracting.

Wait! She just got up to use the powder room and the text she is reading is sitting in the chair next to me. It is a very large Accounting Book....Huh. Maybe she will balance my checkbook for me while we are sitting here... But anyway, as I was saying, she is reading fine literature and learning to push numbers, and I am just trying to get through my latest chik lit book. It's a shame really. Here I have three full hours (four since my flight was delayed) of uninterrupted reading time but I just can't do it peacefully and contentedly sitting next to strangers.

Speaking of time, isn't time weird when you are traveling? It's like the minute you step into an airport "time" as we know it ceases to exist. Traveling long distances seems to make time feel weird...i don't know, maybe I'm just dehydrated and feeling "heady" from all the hair product I'm wearing.

When I started to write this there was a baby of about eighteen months sitting in 10E with her mom. The baby was crying for quite some time while her parents desperately tried to comfort her and make her quiet. I found myself caught between two feelings.

1. Compassion.

2. Annoyance.

On one hand, I want to reach over and tell her that I can't blame her sweet bundle of joy because I, a thirty-four year old woman, would also like to scream because I am tired of sitting in this cramped space near Smarty-Girl.

But on the other merciless hand, I want to give her that "I've-been-a-mother-for-more-years-than-you" speech that goes something like this: I know you are young. And your daughter is quite precious. But are you aware that there is a marvelous invention (and beautiful gift to Motherhood really) called Children's Benadryl? It's a miracle worker!

But it's not my style to give unsolicited advice to strangers. So I will do the same thing today that I do every time I am on a flight with a crying baby. I'll wink at the mom and tell her she did a good job, and that I have been there before. Only because that is what some kind lady said to me once a long time ago. And I have never forgotten it.

Well I should wrap up and try to read.

La Vida Dulce - from somewhere over Texas!

A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I took a bloggers break over the holidays. It has been awesome to have the entire week with the kids and The Mister (aka: The Hubby.)

We celebrated Christmas with lots of food and presents and some of the traditions we have made as a little family unit. We made cookies and drank hot chocolate. We read the Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke. We wore our matching Christmas Pj's and laid around a lot on Christmas Day. It felt great to relax and rest and appreciate the Holy Day.

After all the R & R, we decided to go visit the nations capital since we are now operating in "crunch time" here on the east coast.

We weren't allowed inside the Capital as they were preparing for the state funeral of President Ford. We did pretty well for a whirlwind 48 hour trip with two kids in tow. We used Metro to get around so the kids experienced their first subway ride. Grace loved it. As a matter of fact I think it was her favorite part of the whole trip. We visited the Natl Aquarium, the White House, the Vietnam, Lincoln, Korean, Washington and WWII Memorials the first afternoon. Then we came home and collapsed. On Thursday we went to the Natural Science and History Museum, walked around the outside of the Capital, walked to Union Station for lunch and then took the Metro to the Zoo. We had tentatively decided to visit the Aerospace Museum on Friday but when we woke up that morning we were all ready for less people and our own bed. So we went home.

The following pictures are from our trip. And, as usual, given The Misters request to not be named or pictured he is not shown, but he was there.

La Vida Dulce!

Look kids! The White House!

Inside the Lincoln Memorial

Vietnam Memorial

Inside the Rotunda of the

Natural Science and History Museum

The Korean Memorial

At the National Zoo

Uno Loser

One of the great things about having school aged children is their ability to play board and card games without our help. Now that they both can read we can actually play with them instead of playing for them.

Several weeks ago we had told the kids that if they got their evening "stuff" done (brushing teeth, pj's on, etc) in a timely manner and without being goof balls then we would play a couple rounds of Uno. Since then we have played just about every evening. It has been really fun except for one small thing...

I never win.

At first I was OK with it. But night after night I began to get paranoid. Were they hiding cards? Were they not shuffling properly? Was The Mister in on the plot?

After awhile I began to take it personally every time one of them would hit me with a Draw 2 card, or worse, the dreaded Draw 4. I can't even talk about the skip cards.

One night, after losing to a 6 year old three times in a row I couldn't take it anymore. I cracked. I crossed my arms and began to talk more smack than any 34 year old stay-at-home-mom should be allowed to do. The Mister put his arm around me, looked at me with love in his eyes, and gently told me that in one night I had ruined years of teaching on how to be a good loser. He also said that talking smack is usually done when one is undefeated or has even a remote chance of winning.

That night I was determined to win. I wanted to play "just one more", but the kids were begging to go to bed.

The kids think this is hilarious. I, of course, am so glad to bring joy in their lives. They love to bring it up when we are driving to school, or standing in line at the grocery store. They look at me in an impish way and say, "Mom, that was so fun last night when we were playing Uno and you kept losing." They were keeping track, but now the number of losses is so great that would need a scientific calculator to keep track of them.

Actually it was pretty cute the other night when I had visited Loser-ville for the billionth time and The Boy looked at me and said "Mom, I still think think your a winner."

Thank goodness for soft hearted boys.

Random Poll- December....or

Do you like Gritty Fudge?

OK, I tried really hard not to bring this up this year, but The Hubby and I had the same discussion we always have around this time of year and so it can't be avoided.

If you have known me for more than one Christmas you have heard this before...but hold on a minute, I need your help.

The topic for this Poll is:

Christmas Fudge.
The Hubby and I agree on so many things but this is one that we just don't see eye to eye.
When I told him that I was going to make it it a random poll on the blog he said that I rig the random polls so the outcome will turn out in my favor. Which is totally not true. For example, the M&M Poll. But anyway...

Last night I had made a double batch of fudge. I love making candy at Christmas time and giving it away to people. For the record, I like eating it too. Especially fudge. This year I was especially hopeful when making my Christmas fudge because I had gone out and bought a candy thermometer. In all the years of baking I have never used one, but two years ago when we bought this house it came with an electric stove which made making candy a bit tricky. When you cook fudge too long it isn't happy. After cooking with gas for over 8 years I had years of successful fudge making. What makes fudge a "success"? Glad you asked.

Successful fudge is fudge that is firm, and yet creamy. It melts in your mouth and you shouldn't think about anything else while you are eating it. Nothing makes me more crazy than when I overcook my fudge and it comes out gritty. It happened last year and this year I thought I would solve the problem by having a thermometer and cooking it precisely to the right temperature.

This year the fudge was better but still a little gritty. I hate it when you bite into fudge and you can feel the grit on your teeth. It's like nails on a chalkboard for me.

I have always teased The Hubby 'cause he prefers gritty fudge. Or what I like to call "sub-standard" fudge. Not to influence you or anything. He actually thinks that that is how fudge should best be enjoyed and I, quite frankly, completely disagree.

With that said here is the poll: Are you a smooth and creamy fudge eater? Or a gritty fudge eater? Wait. Perhaps I should say overcooked fudge, so as not to influence you or make you feel bad.

Don't be shy...I won't hold it against you.

Big Mistake

I have just sent out 75 Christmas cards with the wrong blog address. So now, those people with whom I communicate only through Christmas cards are going to go to www.coffeegirl.blogspot.com (I'm coffeegal) and see some weird person who hasn't posted since August 2005.

If you happen to know someone who gets my Christmas card, casually bring it up in conversation. Because i know y'all have nothing else to do with your busy lives than sit around and talk about my blog.

I am uncertain what to do about this little problem other than to wait until I send out my next batch of cards in the Spring which will be : NEWSFLASH: Change of address cards.

Yes, we are moving and I have yet to mention it on the blog because I wanted it to be official, and if you got my Christmas card you will certainly be in the know soon. But you will never find me at this blog, because I sent you the wrong address.

i just hope that coffeegirl doesn't suddenly get into nudity or something bizarre...because she's about to have 75 hits to her site.

Oh well....La Vida Dulce!

Not So Much

Lately my favorite Snack/lunch/dinner has been Wheat Thins, an apple (thinly sliced) and a couple spoonfuls of peanut butter smeared on a plate.

This tasty combination all happened accidentally. Being a huge fan of the apple dipped in peanut butter I decided, one day, that I needed something more. Bread. No... to much trouble. Chips. Not really my thing. But there was a box of Wheat Thins and I thought to myself: Wheat Thins are carbs much like bread. So I went with it. Plus it was quick and easy. Which seems to be what i go for the most these days.

One afternoon, while making my way to the table to eat, my crackers slid into the peanut butter and I found an enjoyable sweet salty type meal/snack that I enjoy several times a week.

Last week I ran out of Wheat Thins. So this weekend while I ran into the store I found that there were Reduced Fat Wheat Thins. On Sale.

Being temporarily seduced with $1.50 price tag, which led to temporary insanity I began to think thoughts that buying the reduced fat version of my favorite cracker would be a great idea. Especially since I am looking forward to taking in a few extra "holiday" treats....Cause, you know, those extra 10 calories you save by consuming crackers made to taste like pieces of cardboard can allow one to feel so much better about oneself while eating her weight in Christmas fudge.

Anyway, it isn't often that I buy Reduced Fat items anymore. There once was a day that you couldn't find Crisco in my house that hadn't had part of it's fat removed. That's not so much the case anymore. I'd like to tell you it's because I am not one iota concerned about my waistline, the truth is I was tired of eating bland cardboard and pretending to be happy.

So, back to the point. Reduced Fat Wheat Thins are stupid. And they taste bad too.

Luckily I i have been making my kids eat through this box with me so that we can be done and start over with a new Full Fat box because quite frankly, my Peanut butter, sliced apple and Wheat Thin lunches/snacks/dinners have been lacking this week and it makes me grumpy.

Although today I had a little bit of PB left over and I also had a couple of mini Hershey's bars that were calling from the kitchen...

So maybe it all works out in the wash.

La Vida Dulce

Sweat Shop

I am desperately trying to get my nieces and nephews gifts out on time. I am hopeful to get these things out by Wednesday but at this point I am uncertain.

Pictured are my projects for the gang.

I am am very excited to see my Texas Peeps in 72 short hours...which adds to my need to finish this project on time.

I am hoping that my cold that I have had for 9 days now is soon to go away...The rumor is that it lasts 10 days...so I have one more day.

OK...I've had a little break. Now i have to lock myself back in my sweatshop to finish up!

La Vida Dulce!

Cookie and Me

Just a quick post to let youknow that when I woke up this morning at 6 a.m. it was 16 degrees.

Yes, you read that right....16 degrees!!!

How is that possible?

I want to tell you that I have spent my day hanging out in Cookie- the blue heating blanket. But the truth is that I have been busy, busy busy, feeding my Christmas card paper through our ridiculous printer...one at a time, by hand. It took me 2 hours just to get the cards printed. I also wrapped some gifts and finished the sewing part of 9 dolls I am making for nieces. And strted addresses the afomentioned Christmas Cards.

I found the cutest robot pattern that I ordered through the mail...It has yet to arrive and I am starting to panic because all this sewing, baking and happy Christmas joy has to be finished and mailed off by next Wednesday or it will have to wait until the new year....which isn't any fun.

Have I mentioned it's cold outside?

Hey! The Hubby just came in with the mail and my pattern has arrived!

Gotta Go!

Gift

I went shopping about a week ago with my friend KHB. We were looking at the sale rack at Ross. I was trying to find some cute little items for my secret santa recipient at work, when KHB approaches me with a look of serious disbelief. In her hand she carries a little plate with cute little penguins bedecked with santa hats.

Cute, i say.

To which she turns it over.

$1.49.

VERY CUTE, I say.

But it's not the price she is showing me.

It's the sentence in tiny black lettering that says:

Serving foods on this plate may poison them.

Well then.

Maybe not so cute after all.

Random poll - Christmas Style

A dear friend of mine called yesterday and said she had a question for the blog. I think it was her way of saying "You haven't posted in so long that I am feeling the need to give you some inspiration." Which I totally love since i have had a bit of bloggers block.

So here is the random poll:

What is a good White Elephant gift for $10 dollars or less?

And while we're at it:

What is the funniest thing you have ever seen/got at a White Elephant gift exchange in Christmas' past?

Comment away...the Christmas parties are starting!

More Tree's

OK, I'd like to promise you that this would be the last post about trees but I don't like to make promises I can't keep.

Today was to be my bread making, Thanksgiving preparing, day of bliss. But instead I spent the morning and part of the early afternoon being completely panicked and seriously contemplated drinking the two 24 ounce cans of Budweiser that I bought to soak my turkey in (see November 2005 archives).

The weather this morning was cold and rainy and I had looked at the online weather report early this morning to see how soggy the day would be. NO where did it mention that there might be accompanying winds that, given the chance, would gust to a quick and tornadic like way and take out 7-8 trees in our yard. One tree was quite big and it was very, very scary.

Let me tell you why.

In our back yard their has been a tree that has been dead and the Mister has been concerned for some time regarding this tree. So when the tree guys were chopping down trees next door on Monday I asked if he would look at that tree (and one in the front that died during the drought this summer). Now I live in an area that is known for it's ridiculously tall pine trees. Like I would liken it to going to New York city after only seeing it in picture...You know the buildings are tall but when you get there you realize that they are in fact so much taller than you could have even imagined.

The trees around my house are like that. They are ridiculously tall.

So this tree in the yard is a concern but I had just talked to the tree guy and it was going to be handled.

Let's just say that this storm this morning just saved my a hundred bucks.

But here is the REALLY scary thing that makes me sick to think about even 6 hours later. Normally The Boy gets up in the morning and takes Kona out to "do her thing" before we leave for school. But it was a soaker of a rain at the usual time so I had him wait. Around 10:15 I asked him to go ahead and take her out since the rain had slowed to a slow drizzle. He took her out, hung up the leash, and ran up stairs to continue playing in his room and the winds suddenly started to pound against the house and I looked out the office window and saw trees bending at a very odd angle while the leaves and debris were being blown like so many socks in my dryer.

At this point The Boy has reached the top of the stairs and is yelling "Mom trees are falling down stairs" and he races back down stairs with eyes the size of saucers.

Then the power went out.

The huge dead tree snapped and fell right where The Boy and Kona had been standing not three minutes before it toppled.

I began to frantically call people on my cell phone trying to find somewhere to go....preferably some place safe from trees. But the power was out and I didn't know how to raise the electric garage door.

So I called my parents in AZ so they could panic with me. But unfortunately I hadn't had my cell phone plugged in and I was running out of juice. Not a good thing if you suddenly find yourself hunkering down in the hall bathroom with a tree as a new fixture.

So we stayed in downstairs and prayed that the wind would go away.

The power didn't come back on until almost 2.

The good thing is that my turkey is happily sitting in it's beer brine bath and the bread has all been baked off and all is ready for our day of fun, feast, and family tomorrow... Where we will all give thanks that my sweet Boy is not a pancake.

God's Blessings to each of you and your families as you celebrate tomorrow.
Happy Thanksgiving!

La Vida Dulce!

TIMBER!!!!!

So I have gotten absolutely nothing done today because the neighbor next door is having 14 huge pine trees cut down in her yard and is like a train wreck...I just have to watch.

And let me tell you....the answer is "yes". When a tree falls in the forest is DOES make noise....and it is impressive!

Turkey Love

I am slightly irritated over the new version on Blogger because I can't get my pictures to post the fast way...and in the process I have posted three times without any luck. So I have posts that are flying out in there in cyber-space. If you find them, please let me know.

I won't let this blogging mess damper my spirits (or consume too much precious time!) during one of my most favorite weeks of the year. I love Thanksgiving Week. The preparation. The hard work that pays off so well on Thursday (which is also the Mister's brithday), and the decorating of the house on Friday night. Very, very fun!

I hope to post pictures throughout the week. Until then...

La Vida Dulce!

Alive

I am currently trying figure out my blog in a new format! I will post soon!

Bummer

Back in the "Texas" day, around this time of year, I needed to come up with some gifts for my nieces without breaking the bank. The Girl, my then 3 year old had received a beautiful ballet skirt and I decided I could make one. So I did what I always do when I want to make something...I ripped it apart to see how it was made and then I put it back together again.

So began my very short tenure in them making of ballet skirts. At the time I was teaching a preschool ballet class and all the Mom's (who also are my dearest friends) kindly paid me to make them for their daughters and, as word of mouth among 'the Mommie's' goes, I ended up getting many orders and I made some unexpected cash for the holidays. Then I quietly retired from a life sewing tulle.

Until I was encouraged to make some skirts to sell at a booth at the school carnival last weekend.

To make a long story short I locked myself in my sewing/guest room last weekend for about 8 hours and cranked out 9 ballet skirts. A friend of mine who makes some great monogrammed handbags said she would go in on a booth together and we were very excited about it.

But my creative dreams were dashed as I didn't sell one blasted skirt.

I'm not too worried about it. But I have to admit that when you make something it is hard not to take it personally when others don't think they are the greatest thing they have ever laid eyes on. This is probably why I don't need to be selling the things I make....Or I just need my sweet friends who 'ooh-ed and awed' three years ago to come see me.

Wait! One of them is coming to see me! In 3 short days!

Can I just say: HURRY UP SATURDAY! Or wait....not too fast.

Her room is covered in tulle!