Thursday Thirteen #21: 13 Things We Don't Do Much Anymore

13 Things We Really Don't Do Much Anymore

1. Wait an hour for a baked potato to cook in the oven



2. Call “Weather”

3. Call “Information”

4. Re-fold a road map (thank you Mapquest!)


5. Get “Trip Ticks” from AAA (thank you again Mapquest!)

6. Shop from catalogs (Can you say "Ebay?")

7. Make sure I have enough cash in my purse on Friday before the bank closes

8. Go to drive-in movies

9. Get up to turn the dial to change the channel on the TV

10. Dial a rotary phone

11. Let the kids ride in the back of a pickup truck




12. Send the ten-year-old to the corner store to buy cigarettes for their parents (Did anyone else's mom and dad do this?)

13. Buy penny candy that actually costs a penny

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Buried in White Stuff

Twelve inches.


That's right.


It was at LEAST that much.


I honestly think it was more.


Appeared more like a monster fifteen inches to me.


Utterly buried in white stuff.



Snow, of course.

What did you think I was talking about?


And we had to go over the river...

And through the woods to Grandma's again...

Which was an interesting experience, now that we live in a rural area. They don't plow dirt roads.

They barely plow the paved ones.

Even when we got into the closest "major city"...


We saw several cars stuck in the ditch on the way there.

But we, luckily, weren't one of them. Lots of tractors out plowing their driveways. Michael was jealous. He had to use the snowblower. But it was better than a shovel!





We made it to Grandma's and back again without incident.

And it was a truly lovely drive...

Operation Decoration

I forgot how much drama and work it is to put up a real Christmas tree - quite a balancing act!

But the decorating is finally DONE. We had two ornament casualties during the process, and the cat has tried to climb the tree once already. The dog, on the other hand, keeps mistaking the Christmas tree stand for a toilet bowl and drinking the water.

Can I take a nap until Christmas now?

A-Hunting We Will Go

We spent yesterday tromping around in the snow, looking for the perfect Christmas tree. A friend of Michael's from work lives with pigs and chickens and goats and cows... the whole farm deal. They also have a bunch of evergreens that the prior owners planted to start a Christmas tree farm. Many of them are getting too tall to even sell.

They offered to have us come out and cut our own tree. So we bundled up and went out to find the perfect tree. The three kiddos ran around in between the rows (Michael's friend from work has a four year old daughter) until we found just what we were looking for.

Daddy cut down the tree - but Dmitri insisted on "helping."

Timber!

Then we dragged it off to strap it to the top of the car.

Dmitri insisted on "helping" again.

They have a new puppy - the kids loved the puppy!

And their new calves were fun to visit, too... although as Zoe said, "Cows are stinky!"

Who me? Stinky?

Moo!

I guess I can't put it off any longer... gonna have to drag out all the Christmas decorations this weekend and put up the tree... Wish me luck!

New Job

Michael told his employer yesterday that he's taking a new job. It's officially official, so now I can blog about it. Woot!

Strangely, we moved out here in order for him to be closer to work. He has about a six mile drive at this point. The new job is twenty miles from here - but that's still nowhere near the fifty miles he was driving before we moved.

But because the money is much better, and the benefits are, too, and the opportunity just sort of fell into his lap, it was just too hard to turn it down. Plus the stress level where he's working now is getting to be too much. The cap on his groups is twelve, but they're putting 18-20 people in there, which nearly doubles his paperwork.

Paperwork is the worst part of his job.

I hate change... but I'm hoping this is going to be a good one. I don't see any drawbacks to it yet, aside from the longer drive, and that's very do-able. He may have to work some evenings, but they're very flexible. He could even work four days a week instead of five, if he wanted to.

He's really leaving his current employer in the lurch. They've had a huge turnover there, and Michael is one of their best therapists. I know they're going to miss him and regret losing him. His supervisor said, "I'll see if management wants to meet the offer." We'll see. I doubt they will.

I know Michael will miss the people, and even the clients. Working with addicts has been really rewarding for him, and he's exceptionally good at it. The new job won't be inpatient treatment - he'll be seeing outpatient clients, dealing with substance abuse, yes, but a lot of other issues as well.

As much as I hate change, I can't see the negative to this. Let's hope that holds out. *crossing fingers* It really does seem too good to be true. And we all know what they say about things that are too good to be true...

I'm just gonna tell my inner cynic to take a freaking vacation and enjoy the ride, okay? Okay, then. Here we go...

Funny Sunday Morning

I bought cereal for the fourteen-year-old who was visiting this weekend, and the littles are on a sugar high.

Zoe insisted: "I want the frog cereal breakfast!"

Michael: "You mean, Sugar Smacks?"

"They're not called Sugar Smacks anymore." I laughed. "They're Honey Smacks."

"Smart marketing move on their part."

"I want Smacks! I want Smacks!"

Michael: "You know, Daddy once won a prize drawing the Sugar Smacks frog."

Dmitri perks up. "Do you still have it?"

Michael laughs. "I don't have any drawings left from when I was a kid, except the ones grandma kept. I don't think she hung onto that one."

"No, not the drawing, the prize!" Zoe insists, understanding her brother's question better than any of us.

"No, sweetie, I don't think Daddy still has his froggie decoder ring."

Dmitri stands up and squeals: "Mom, look! I found a dime with Jesus on it!"

"Ummmm..." Squinting down at the Canadian dime, I reply, "Not exactly, honey. That's Queen Elizabeth."

Mommy Zen

I'm resting on my bed flipping through channels. Thinking about sleeping. But not. The kids are running up and down the stairs, screeching at each other and the dog, which pretty much precludes the sleeping part of our program.

Zoe opens my door a crack, "Mom, Dmitri's chasing me."

"Okay."

The door closes. It's starting to snow outside. Big, fat flakes.

"Mom, Dmitri's trying to color on me with a blue crayon!"

"Okay."

There's nothing on TV. I should get up and do the dishes, but every time I get up to do something, I remember I'm still not feeling 100%.

The door opens again. "I meant a green crayon. He's trying to color on me with a green crayon."

"Okay then." I just watch it snow. More interesting than Oprah.

What? You would have taken the crayon? You underestimate the power of mommy zen. Being, not doing. Trust me, young padwan.

"Mommy, here's the crayon." Zoe puts it next to the TV. "Dmitri wants to go outside and play in the snow."

"Okay."

"Can I go, too?"

"Sure." I listen to her bounding down the stairs and call after her: "Snow pants!"

And off they go to play in the big, wet flakes.

Yes, okay, so the dog's ear was a tinge green when he came up to join me on the bed. But, remember, crayons are non-toxic. Didn't you read the box?

Being - not Doing. The Art of Mommy Zen.

Dustbin Blues

The worst thing about having kids?

I can handle dirty diapers, crayons on the walls, broken keepsakes, peanut butter in the VCR, apple juice all over the keyboard...

But the thing I hate most... is germs.

I've been sick more since the beginning of September (when the kids, coincidentally, started school) than I was all of last year! That's a year's worth of illness packed into three months. What do I have to look forward to for the next seven, I wonder?

Right now, it's strep throat. Yay me. *sigh* A hundred and two degree fever, an all-over body ache and a throat that's on fire. Don't ya wanna be me? Just in time for the weekend, too. Perfect.

Yesterday, I was a cleaning maniac. Today, I'm Cameron in Ferris Bueller... "I'm dying...!"

"When Cameron was in Egypt's land... let our Cameron go..."

Michael made me tea (Constant Comment, my favorite) and toast and brought me aspirin. Looks like I'm going to spend the day in bed. Which, really, isn't necessarily a bad thing, when I think about it. Would be nice to catch up on sleep.

"You're not dying, you just can't think of anything better to do!"

Well, he's got a point. What do I have to do? Hm... so much for those Christmas decorations. Oh well, there's always next weekend.

Besides, I'm still recovering from the annual room cleaning fiasco. Four hours of cleaning, sorting, holding up tiny pieces of plastic and asking, "What's this to?... Do you have that toy anymore?... Isn't that the one you buried in the sand at the old house and then forgot where you buried it?"

What did I discover? Here's the top ten:

1. Six marbles to the chinese checkers game. Glued into the underside of Legos. I didn't, however, find the actual Krazy Glue. Yet.

2. Seven socks that I've been looking for forever tied in knots and made into a "rope" hanging from Zoe's dollhouse bedroom window (which faces the wall - no wonder I didn't see it!) Apparently, she did it during "fire safety week" at school.

3. A naked Fairytopia Barbie with two amputated feet (dog victim, I believe, from the markings) but Michael said, "She's still hot."

4. Zoe had the paper punch, two pairs of scissors, the stapler and four rolls of tape. It took me fifteen minutes to vaccum all of the "confetti" she'd made out of her school library book. I wonder how much I'm going to have to pay to replace, "Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends"?

5. Eight dollars and twenty-nine cents in change.

6. Four spoons, a very bent and deformed fork, and lots of peanut butter sandwich cracker wrappers.

7. The dog's leash (I wondered where that was!)

8. A line of McDonald's french fries along the baseboard behind the dresser leading up to a peach pit. It was like the perfect ant-highway!

9. A bottle of nail polish. Red. Thankfully, they couldn't get the top off.

10. Two pairs of tweezers, a slew of bandaids put on various stuffed animals, and last but not least, and empty contact case. I'm pretty sure they DID have contacts in them at one point.

Okay, I have a date with Ferris Bueller, a box of Kleenex, and a down comforter. G'nite!

Thanksgiving Meme

Sandy tagged me for Thanksgiving... oh right, like I didn't have enough to do making the orange-pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread, orange chocolate coconut carrot cake and the peanut butter fudge!?

Oops, I'm supposed to be thankful... right. Okay, okay. Attitude adjustment coming up!

Since she stipulated that we couldn't include our husband and kids (would I have included them? Hmmm... after Michael's tantrum this morning that I must have "done something" with the envelope he'd left on the microwave which he later found in his car... and the two littles who have torn up my perfectly clean house in just ONE day home from school... gee, I dunno!) I'll have to come up with three OTHER things to be thankful for...

1. The television broke at my in-laws. Just in time for me not to have to deal with football watchers on Thanksgiving. Woot!

2. I'm not putting up the tree the day after tomorrow, like we usually do. Why? Because a friend has offered to let us go to their Christmas tree farm and cut our own. I'll have a real tree in my livingroom, right next to the fireplace, for the first time since I was a little girl. I'm so excited!

3. Monday is the one year anniversary of Deanna's death. She was one of my best friends, and I miss her a lot, but I'm grateful I had her in my life. (Well I had to have one good, serious one ;)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! May your day be filled with the sound of television parades, football (if you like that sort of thing) and a tremendous tryptohan-induced coma that includes unbuttoning at least the first button on your pants!

Mystery Solved!

My camera has been missing since Halloween. I couldn't figure out what happened to it. I took pictures of the kids trick or treating. Did I lose it en route? I thought I remembered putting it back in my purse (I keep it in my purse for those spontaneous shots) but it wasn't there.

Today, Dmitri's home because last night, he was throwing up most of the night. (ick) When I went into his room to change his sheets (I like to wash them after any germies go 'round) I found my camera tucked behind his mattress! Yay!

He swears he doesn't know how it got there.

Uh-huh. Right. I had my suspicions, but I kept my mouth shut.

When I downloaded pictures today, I found this:

And this:

And this:

Ah-ha!

Sherlock Hemlock

Has found the answer!

Almost Halloween

Have I mentioned this is my favorite time of year? Cool, crisp fall weather, the changing colors of the leaves, cider and donuts, apple picking, pumpkin carving (and pumpkin seeds! yummy!) hay rides, haunted houses and, of course, Halloween.


Which happens to be my favorite holiday. Why?


Well, first of all, I don't have to buy presents. Not that I begrudge giving gifts or anything, but everything is so commercial nowadays I get tired of the "Buy Buy Buy!" mentality that seems to run it all. For pete's sake, kids are even getting loads of gifts on EASTER now. When I was a kid, the Easter bunny left a basket with some candy and hid eggs. That was it. He didn't bring me a Wii and an Ipod. (Okay, so those didn't exist when I was a kid, but you know what I mean...) So I like the fact that, so far, there's no mythological "Halloween Bat" creature who goes around leaving X-Boxes for kids on All Hallows Night.


Second... I love the candy. I have the biggest sweet tooth in the known world, and if I indulged it as much as I wanted, I would have to join the circus or undergo gastric bypass. Seriously. It's that bad.


Halloween gives me an excuse to not only buy candy (because, of course, we have to have stuff to give out on Halloween!) but to eat candy. Leftover candy (and no, I'm not one of those moms who buys the gross stuff like Smarties or those awful black and orange wrapped chewy things so I won't eat it, either) and of course, candy stolen from my children's pillowcases.


Yes, I admit it. I'm a candy thief. I love the guy who started putting razor blades in candy. Or at least, I love the guy who started the rumor about the guy... I do! That means I get to "check" their candy and make sure it's safe before they eat it. Gee, honey, let me see that Snickers, I think there might be - CHOMP - nope, that one's fine, here's the rest...


Third, I love scary movies and Halloween is a perfect excuse to watch them.


Fourth, I love pumpkin carving. Okay, so I hate cutting out the top of the pumpkin, and scooping out pumpkin guts, and sorting pumpkin seeds, and actually deciding what to carve and then carving it and then cleaning up the pumpkin mess. I hate that part. But I love the end result!

And the pumpkin seeds.

And the kids won't love it like this forever.

Even the big ones!

Tomorrow's the big day!