The Aftermath

Christmas is like pregnancy. For months you prepare for the baby/Christmas. You shop for the layette/perfect gift. For days you wash baby clothes, open packages of diapers, and decorate baby's room/bake cookies, wrap presents and decorate the house. You're up half the night and then whoosh, just like that, it's over. Of course, after pregnancy and labor, you have a cute little baby to show for all your work. After Christmas, you're left with a house full of toys, wads of wrapping paper, mounds of dirty dishes, and thousands of boxes.

I have a little Christmas quiz for you. The following items filled my stocking Christmas morning. What do these things have in common?






A. They all have some yellow on the packaging.

B. They're all tasty treats.

C. They all have the letter "C" in in them.

D. They can all be bought at your local drug store/gas station around midnight Christmas eve.


My middle son, Jackson, got me the coolest Christmas gift!

He has a chance to earn play money at school for good behavior and excellent test scores. Every Friday, his teacher opens a "class store" and lets the kids use their "money" to buy items from the store. They can buy small toys, candy, and other treats.

Jackson hadn't bought a thing all year. He just kept saving his money week after week (which is really unusual for him since money tends to burn a hole in his pocket.) Anyway, he saved up a ton of money and used it all to buy me a beautiful necklace for Christmas. Is that the sweetest thing ever? Of course, today he told me that I was the worst mom EVER and believe me, after his behavior the last couple days, I felt like the worst mom ever. I briefly considered selling him to gypsies.

Oh yeah! I totally forgot about this to give you a heads up! My interview was featured on NPR this morning. Oops, sorry about that. You can check it out HERE though. In honor of the 10th anniversary of the 'web log', they're featuring information and interviews about blogs all week. Here's the web page featuring MY STORY. It always amazes me how they can take hours of tape or film and cut it down to a minute or two. And sheesh, you'd think I could at least slap on some lipstick before getting my picture taken. @@

A Dork in Chicago

I had an interview with NPR yesterday. I had to drive downtown to the Chicago office so they could record the interview which is scheduled to air the last week of December on Morning Edition. So, in order to get there in time, I asked my husband if he could get home from work by noon or if I should get a babysitter. He told me that it was no problem and he’d be home by 12:00. 12:00 came. 12:00 left. 12:05 came and left. At 12:10 I called my husband and asked him if he was almost home. He innocently answered, “No. I figured I’d get home about 12:30.”
“What?! I need to leave NOW! You SAID you’d be home by 12:00!”

My husband thought I’d told him that I needed to leave by 1:00 (because he doesn’t LISTEN!) and he apologized repeatedly for goofing up, so I couldn't be mad. So, I ended up leaving a little after 12:00 and even though traffic was kinda stinky, I made it there with time to spare. Let me back up a minute. Yesterday morning I remembered my interview with ABC and how dry my mouth was while talking to the reporter. I concluded that I hadn’t been drinking enough water lately and should probably chug down a gallon or two or ten before my interview so my mouth didn’t totally dry up while I was talking. So, about five minutes into my trip, I realized I had to pee. As traffic inched slowly along, the need to pee got worse and worse. Let me tell you, after having six kids, this is not something you mess around with. When you have to go, you have to go!

I guess I didn’t look at my Mapquest print-out very well. I thought the building was located immediately as I turned onto Wacker. As soon as I turned, I looked for a parking garage because I'm a dork and there is no way in the world I would ever, ever try to parallel park. I was afraid if I didn't park in the first garage I found, I wouldn't be able to find another one for ten miles. I found a garage right away and parked the car and prayed there was a bathroom somewhere in the parking garage. There wasn’t. I walked (really quickly) to the first establishment I thought might have a public bathroom. It was a restaurant and as I walked in and smelled the fresh bread, I realized that I hadn’t eaten yet, so I ordered a sandwich (after peeing, of course.) I asked the guy behind the counter where 65 E. Wacker was. He said, “Oh it’s a ways over that way.” He indicated the direction.

“What do you mean ‘a ways’?” I asked, my voice laced with concern.
“Oh I don’t know. It’s about eight blocks or so thatta way.”
Eight blocks? Eight city blocks? So almost a mile? I guess I didn’t have so much extra time after all. I sat down, scarfed four or five bites and then decided I’d better get walking.

I saw several of these signs as I walked to the building. Falling ice? That doesn't sound good.

I looked up to see from where the ice would fall. Ice falling from that height could totally poke your eye out! Couldn't it? Hmmm, maybe Mythbusters would know. Get on that, will ya?

So, I played the part of the dorky tourist the entire way so that I could bring you, my awesome readers, these pictures...

The L

House of Blues

Umm, a building

A round building

The river

I arrived at the NPR building, found the office, and got settled in. (By the way, there were parking garages on pretty much every corner all the way there. In fact, there was a garage RIGHT NEXT to the building!) I got to wear these neato earphones! I pretended to be Frasier as Roz (OK, it wasn’t really Roz, but I failed to catch the gentleman’s name) gave me instructions through the earphones. Oh yeah - he also brought me more water!

Cool, huh?

The interview went pretty well. I think. I guess we'll see when it airs. It was pretty cold here yesterday, so instead of walking back to my car, I thought about maybe taking a cab. The only problem is, dork that I am, I failed to note the location of the garage in which I'd parked. I didn't think I could tell the cab driver, "Um yeah, could you go to a parking garage about a mile away from here. I think there was a fire hydrant outside. And a tree. Yes, there was definitely a tree near there. And the L. The L ran near there. Somewhere. Oh! And there were some really tall buildings too! Do you know where it is?"

So, I just enjoyed my walk in the city instead. I learned that you should really wear gloves in December when walking a mile in the city. I also learned that when walking the streets of downtown Chicago, you must look straight ahead, focusing on your destination. Do not look at other passersby. Do not make eye contact. Do not smile. If you do, people will think there's something wrong with you. I also learned, according to the man with the sandwich board, that "the end is near".

I got back to the garage and thankfully didn't have to remember what number floor I'd parked on because the floors had names in addition to numbers for those of us who are mathematically impaired. So, I got in the elevator and pressed the button for the Flugel Horn floor (also known as floor 9). The elevator stopped at the fifth floor when a guy got on, and I stepped off. I walked up and down aisles looking for my car until I saw that I was on the Guitar Floor. Oops. I'd automatically gotten off the elevator when it stopped without even looking at the number. I walked back to the elevator, feeling like a total dork for like the twelfth time that day.

All I know is that I'm definitely thankful I don't have to drive downtown for work every day!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then last night we got to go out to dinner with friends. And without kids. Ahhhh. We've got some of the most awesome friends ever. We always have the best time when we get together with or without the kids. We also tend to do a lot of eating whenever we get together. A lot! We went to a yummy Greek restaurant and, as usual, ate too much! I think I still have garlic oozing from my pores from the skorthalia. Yum-o!

Mmmm, Roditis!

Aren't you happy I didn't put the first two pictures on here, Jen? :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh yeah! How could I have forgotten?! I'm going to NY next week to meet with my publishers! Yay! I've never been to NY and I'm really excited to see both the city and the publishers!

Check out Mamaslike!

Snow Miser, Vomit, and ABC

I had fun reading about everyone's favorite costumes and homemade costume ideas! I thought I'd share a few more pictures of my totally creative sister's costumes.


It's Heat Miser and Snow Miser from Rankin and Bass's The Year Without a Santa Claus.


Here she is as Edward Scissorhands.



She made this Vegas showgirl costume. Yeah, I know, she stinks. Of course, she hadn't had any kids yet in this picture.


And here she is as Marge. You can't really tell from this photo, but she actually dyed her skin yellow for this!

And how could I forgotten this costume I did! I guess you'll only recognize him if you live in an area with a Six Flags Amusement Park. A couple years ago, they played commercials with this little old man dancing to a fun little song. My son carried a small tape recorder and danced around to the song while trick-or-treating.

My baby threw up in her sleep last night at midnight. She was lying on my bed. I stripped her jammies off, wrapped them in my puke-covered comforter and threw the whole mess outside in the rain. Then I put her in the tub and scrubbed her down. Gag! After that vomit extravaganza, I was afraid to go to sleep lest she get sick again, so I stayed up until 9:00 in the morning. I'm glad I stayed awake because she continued to throw up about every 45 minutes, all night long. I figure we'll all have it by next week when we leave for Florida. That should make for a fun trip. Needless to say, I'm tired. I'm heading to bed and hoping that no one wakes me up with buckets of vomit tonight.

OH! I almost forgot! One of my readers sent me this link to the ABC segment! If you missed it, you can see it HERE.



My other blog - Mamaslike

Baby Blogger

Like Mommy, like daughter. She's a BabyBlogger. And she's an ultra cool BabyBlogger at that. ;)

OK, for those of you who missed the ABC segment and have asked to see it, I do not have a link for it online. However, my friend, Trish is working on getting the segment online and I'll put it up on my blog when I can.

Our new and improved product review site is up and running. Come check it out!

Um, Just how Many Cameras do you Have on You?

I was on ABC World News tonight! I know some of you caught it. While watching the segment, I should've been thinking, "I'm on TV! Cool!" Instead, the only thought going through my mind was the recollection of the Friends episode where the gang is watching an old video of Monica and she says, "...the camera adds ten pounds." To this, Chandler replies, "Just how many cameras do you have on you???" It's time to go visit my friends at Weight Watchers I think.

In every frame of the segment, I noticed my three year old jumping around like the monkey he is. And I just love the part where I tell him, "You get to have pudding for breakfast. No one else does!" Sounds like I'm bribing him, doesn't it? Not that I'm above a little bribery now and then, but my toddler had just had a tonsillectomy and was crying because he couldn't have a waffle. I was trying to explain that waffles were too scratchy for his throat and it was special that he got to have pudding for breakfast. Yep, that's me, perfect mom that I am, feeding my kid chocolate pudding for breakfast on national TV.

Anyway, the woman who interviewed me and wrote up the segment, Barbara Pinto, is awesome! She was so nice and, despite the fact that she leads a much more exciting life than I can imagine (she flew into a hurricane to cover the news!), she seemed genuinely interested in me. Here's the story she wrote on Mommy Bloggers.

Tooth Update~

I love my dentist! Whenever I have a tooth problem, this guy fits me in his schedule right away. I suspect he even skips his lunch time to see patients who have emergencies. He cracks me up too. He used to be so uptight when I'd have my kids there at the office. If he heard the baby, out in the waiting room with my husband, cry, "He'd get this worried look on his face and nervously ask, "Should you get the baby? I think I hear him crying. Do you want to go see what's wrong?" Now that he has a daughter of his own, his attitude has changed to one of, "Your baby's crying? Really? I didn't notice any crying." Funny how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, I lay down, got my pretty blue bib pinned on, and opened my mouth. My dentist took a look at my gums and said, "AAAEEEWWWW!" as he kind of jumped back. I'm thinking to myself, "this can't be a good thing when your dentist says 'Ew'." So he sticks a hunk of cardboard in my mouth to give my gag reflex a work-out while he takes an x-ray. The good news is the tooth is fine. Hooray! The bad news is that my gum is infected, however, a week of antibiotics and I should be good to go. Next week, he'll fill the first of many, many craters in my teeth.

Fridge update~

The repairman who came to my house last week told me that he'd have to order the part. Perfectly understandable that they wouldn't keep replacement parts on hand, them being an appliance repair service and all. He said it should be in by Saturday or at least by Monday. I hadn't heard anything from them, so I gave a call this afternoon and asked when they were expecting to get the part in stock. The girl on the other end of the phone replied, "Oh, we have that part in stock now." She made it sound like they'd had it forever.
"Umm ok, were you ever going to call and let me know? Do you realize I have a family of eight and we've been working without a refrigerator for a week?""
Anyway, it's scheduled to be fixed on Wednesday.

Bye Bye Birdie update~

I misunderstood my son. He didn't have to sing a song from the movie. He just had to wear a costume and/or bring in a prop and talk about the musical from the chosen character's point of view, using that character's mannerisms, and speech patterns. Whew. He did his presentation today and didn't vomit or pass out. Life is good!

My daughter, in typical little kid fashion, jumped up and down again and again and again this evening while saying, "Look at me! Mom, look at me! Look what I can do! Mom, look! Watch me!" I eagerly watched to see what she'd come up with this time. I absolutely love watching the kids' impromptu shows; watching them sing, dance, or otherwise perform. This time, it was a gymnastics exhibition. My daughter put her hands down on the floor and kicked her legs up. Right into my face. Oh well, why not have both cheeks hurt? At least I can say I'm balanced. ;)

WOLF! WOLF! COME QUICK!

I'm feeling a bit like the boy who cried wolf. Except I'm not a boy. And I didn't cry wolf. I cried, "Turn on your VCRs because I'm going to be on the news tonight!" For those of you, who tuned in, thank you and I'm sorry it didn't air again tonight. For those of you who missed it, well, you didn't actually miss it after all.

My toddler had been running around like a monkey on fire all day. Why is it that a toddler (and this really isn't exclusive to toddlers) can sit there watching TV, looking at a book, or playing with a toy and then suddenly, as if they were just poked in the butt with a pitch fork, they'll jump up and scream and take off like a shot? It's as if, out of nowhere, they become possessed and turn into raving lunatics for a few minutes (or hours, if you're so lucky.) The sweet child who was intently watching a video two seconds ago is now running through the house at warp speed and yelling in a foreign toddler language at the top of his lungs. Is this just a stress reliever? Is it to fight boredom? I think I'm going to try this the next time I'm at a boring PTA or church meeting. I'm just going to jump up in the middle of a dull speech and run across the room screaming, AAAAAAAEEEEUEUUURRRRGHGHGIIIIEEYYYYY!!! That should give everyone the proof they need to send me away for a nice long vacation in the nut house.

It wasn't just my toddler acting like a wackadoo today. My baby had to get in on the act too. She never stopped whining which wasn't so bad until she attached herself to my leg so I had to drag her everywhere I walked. Still, it was fine for the first, oh say, five hours and then I snapped. "That's it! We're getting out of here!" We headed to the library. I'm not sure about the kids, but I needed a change of scenery. I was obviously not getting any writing done at home anyway.

So, I went to the library this afternoon and bought my very own water damaged copy of Just Going to the Dentist. I joke that I've paid enough fines over the years to finance a new wing at the library. Today I walked in to see that they really are doing construction on the building. I knew it!

At the library, we picked out a few new books to buy borrow, then the kids hit the play area while I sat down to people watch. So often, I'm in a hurry when I stop at the library or the park or wherever. I feel like I'm forever telling my kids, "Not today. Not now. We're in a hurry. C'mon let's go!" I was so happy to be able to sit down and relax and give the kids something new to play with and let them have fun exploring the different toys. I had no plans of leaving until it was time to pick the older kids up from school. Then I smelled something. The baby had picked that time to fill her diaper. No problem. I'll just change her diaper and....oh no. I didn't bring any diapers with me. No diaper bag at all. No purse. Just my library card and my keys.

I make fun of the new moms who pack the entire nursery into their diaper bags just to go for a walk around the block. Well, here I am with nothing. I've been packing diapers for almost thirteen years straight and yet didn't think to bring one today. I could either stay there, let them continue to play, offer the other patrons gas masks, or I could disappoint them again and drag them home. I dragged them home with the promise that we could play at the park when we picked the older kids up from school.

Remember to always, always pack a diaper (well, I guess you don't have to do this if your kids are in high school). And remember to sometimes curb the urge to say, "Not now. We don't have time," and replace it with, "Let's play!"

No News is Good News?

Well, I'm in the line-up for ABC's World News again tonight, unless Britney gets a tattoo or something major like that happens, so take it with a grain of salt (shot of tequila and lime are optional.)

That's How the News Works

Ok, did we all get some good practice setting our VCRs, DVRs, and Tivo? Good. Now we'll have no problems when we have to do it for real!

I'm not going to be on the news tonight afterall. Some other news came up so I was bumped. They said they could cut the segment way down and still show it tonight, but Barbara, the awesome woman who interviewed me, insisted they show the full segment so it'll run another time. Probably tomorrow, but not for sure. I'll let you know when I know. :)

ABC World News Tonight!

For anyone who's interested, Trish and I will be on World News with Charles Gibson tonight at 5:30 Central time on ABC.
Now I've got to find a videotape and hire a rocket scientist to set my VCR.

I'm (NOT) Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm unpacking my suitcase and my special little quart size, zip top bag of 3 oz. toiletries because CBS called me today with the news that my segment is postponed indefinitely. I'm sure those are the words she used, but in my mind, I heard, "Don't call us, we'll call you. You stink. We don't want you on our show."

Oh well, as always, I believe things happen for a reason so it's all good. Disappointing, yes, but meant to be. Perhaps, if it's rescheduled, I'll finally be over this stupid cold. It probably wouldn't go over too well if I coughed up my lung on live national TV anyway.

I have an announcement to make! I'm toying with the idea of starting another blog solely for product/website reviews with free giveaways every week. What do you think? Take my poll to the right and let me know. ----->



My youngest son is on to me. My older boys like to play video games now and then. They go in spurts. They'll play nonstop for a couple weeks until they tire of it and then they'll go equally as long without playing a thing. It's actually really nice when they're on a video game run because that becomes an effective punishment. "No, you don't have to clean your room. The choice is up to you, but you can't play video games until you choose to clean up." Mua ha ha!

Anyway, when my two oldest play, my little guy always wants to join in. Instead of watching him throw himself to the floor in a fit until he spontaneously combusts, we pretend to hook up a controller for him and let him "play". He's cluelessly "played" along for a good year. Until today. I think he now gets the concept that's he's not really "driving" the car on the screen.
"Why won't the car turn? I keep crashing! I want to use his thing!" indicates his brother's controller
Uh oh.

I'm off to go supervise the middle kids in their mission to clean up the puddle of glue off the garage floor.
"Why did you guys put glue on the garage floor?"
"I don't know."
"Really? You don't know why you did that?"
"Well, I wanted to make bird poop out of glue."
"Makes perfect sense."

I wrote tonight's post out earlier today so no, I don't really let my little ones stay up until 10:30 at night to clean glue out of the garage. Are you kidding? I generally count down the minutes until bedtime around here!

When Angry, Count to Four; When Very Angry, Swear.

First of all, before you say anything, I have no idea what is wrong with Blogger. I don't believe I violated any TOS agreement unless calling the folks who did the math problem sad, is considered libelous. :D

Anyway, I don't generally get all preachy here, but today I'd like to talk about forgiving your enemies.

"But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." ~ Matthew 5:39

"An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind." ~ Mohandas Gandhi

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other." ~ Mother Teresa

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong." ~ Mohandas Gandhi

Now this does not mean that we should let people beat us up, knock us down and be weak. Absolutely not. Forgiving does not mean you're weak. Quite the contrary, in fact. It means that although our first, gut reaction when we've been wronged, is to lash out and seek vengeance, we should not. We should do good instead. We shouldn't want to keep score. We should love and forgive. It takes a strong person to do that.

Yes, I know that this is not natural at all. And it certainly isn't easy. It's very, very difficult for grown adults to find the grace to forgive those, who in our mind, don't deserve forgiveness. But we as adults, as parents, as role models, have to model this behavior if we want our children to learn it. How many times have you lost your temper and yelled or said something that you probably shouldn't have said around little ears. Even if those little ears didn't hear you say to clean up their room twenty times, you can bet they heard the word that slipped out of your mouth and you can most assuredly bet that they'll pick the absolute most inopportune time to repeat said word. Teacher conferences, the middle of the grocery store, quiet prayer time at church, and when the inlaws are visiting are all ideal places for your child to show off their newly acquired four letter word. I learned this when my little one started walking around saying, "Crap". Ahhh proud moments. Anyway, my point is that little ones learn from example.

Just like you want to set an example of helping people, putting others before yourself, cheerfully (at least sometimes) doing your chores to keep your household running smoothly, and telling the truth, you need to set an example of how to treat others, even those who have wronged you, for your children.

I believe that only God can give us the strength to love as He does. Because of that, we can pray for those who have wronged us instead of plotting our revenge.

Ok, I'm done being all preachy now. :)

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." ~ Oscar Wilde

"When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear." ~ Mark Twain just make sure the kids aren't around first! I love Mark Twain. Now he had a fabulous sense of humor!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A couple notes - thank you to all of you guys who took the time to write out your meatloaf recipes. I guess we can use those when supper swapping, right? :)

Thank you to everyone who writes me comments and sends me emails. I'd sure love to answer all of them, but I was going a little crazy trying to do that along with handling everything else on my plate, so I hope you understand that I just cannot answer every email and fulfill every request.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot! CBS is coming out next week to interview me and they're flying me to New York to be on the morning news! I get to go to New York by myself for a day! Just long enough to get a nice break without missing the little ones too much. I'm so excited! I'll update with details as to what time I'll be on t.v. Eeeeeek! The best part is - I'm going to meet up with two dear friends of mine who live on Long Island and CT and it's a good thing I am. I've never hailed a cab before so I need them to help me out or I fear I'll stand there on the curb looking like a dorky tourist all day and I'll never make it back to the airport!

And finally, because I think there are probably many parents who have a crib included in the recall, I wanted to put a little more information about it on here.....

Bill Cosby Would Feed his Child THIS Breakfast

So ABC was over this morning from about 7:30 until 12:30. They took a break for lunch and came back to film a little more from 4:00 to 5:00. The camera crew told me to make sure and write something good about them tonight, so I have to say thank you to Bob and Rene. You guys were great! And I hardly noticed your huge cameras, microphones and equipment following me around all day. ;) I am a little disappointed they didn't leave their really cool lights though. They set up these giant lights around my house so it didn't look like I live in a cave. These things were neat! (Did I really just write the word "neat"?) They didn't look like floodlights. They made my house look like I had a skylight in each room. Very bright and sunny!

Let's see, my kids spilled hermit crab food, Cheerios, water, and some more Cheerios all before 10:00. I think the camera crew pretty much just filmed me vacuuming all day. Then, stellar parent that I am, I fed Clayton chocolate pudding for breakfast. You know, because he had a tonsillectomy. He has to eat soft food. Pudding is soft. Of course, it never occurred to me that I could've made him scrambled eggs. Or pancakes. I could have given him applesauce or cheese. Something with some modicum of nutritive value. But noooo, I gave him chocolate pudding. In front of the cameras. The cameras videotaping my every move for America to see. I didn't even use Bill Cosby-like reasoning either. "Pudding has milk. Milk is good. Pudding for breakfast!" Nope, that thought didn't even cross my mind. :::shaking my head at myself:::

The woman who interviewed me, Barbara Pinto, was super nice. She even sat on the floor and played "animals" with Clay. She was very friendly and easy to talk to. She asked me wonderful questions. I answered her like a dork. Seriously. I really did. I'm not sure why. I'm really not nervous in front of cameras. It didn't freak me out that they were at my house filming, yet somehow my brain stopped functioning properly and I stuttered and repeated myself and sounded all around stupid. As Murphy's Law would have it, I thought of brilliant things to say. After she left. I kept thinking of clever retorts, and meaningful dialog. After she left. I felt like begging her to come back so I could have a "do-over"! Oh well. It probably wasn't as bad as I think it was and hopefully some genius at ABC will edit out all my stupidness and make me look articulate on t.v.

Oh yeah, and not to leave out the producer, Andy, he was great too. In fact he got to play babysitter to Brooklyn while the camera crew got a few more shots of Barbara and me. Brooklyn wasn't even crying when we got done and Brooklyn cries for everyone!

I don't know when this is going to air, but I will certainly let you guys know as soon as I find out! Even if I end up looking like a dork, it was still a really fun experience and I'm thankful for the opportunity to look like a dork on national television.

Something I didn't say (because, of course, I thought of it after they left) is that I believe so many moms can relate to me because I'm just an ordinary person. I'm an ordinary mom doing ordinary things and I have ordinary kids who act like kids, not like little robot adults. It's nice to see someone else doing the same things/going through the same things that you are. It's depressing trying to live up to that "Perfect Mom" image. You know the type of mom who showers. Every day! The kind of mom who always has on nice clothing, make-up, and actual hair care products. The kind of mom whose children are clean and dressed to the nines. The sort of mom who has a floor so clean you can eat off it, not the kind of mom who has a floor you can eat off of simply because there are so many crumbs on it. You know, the kind of mom who doesn't feed their kid chocolate pudding for breakfast on national t.v. Instead of trying to live up to Perfect Mom, it's much more comforting to know you're not alone in your quest to both love your kids, and to make it through the day without breaking down, curling up into a fetal position and rocking back and forth.

A Bunch of Random Stuff

First off, I want to thank Alicia at Raina's Designs for this totally cute dress that she made for my baby. These pictures don't do it justice! It's gorgeous! There's so much detail from the lace to the little flowers. This woman can sew and with an actual sewing machine too, not my "sewing" method of hot glue and duct tape. I would've taken a picture with my baby wearing it, but she has a cold and was crabby and not very compliant today (besides I wouldn't want her to get snot on it.)

I want to also thank Kim at Lillian Grace Boutique for making Lexi this adorable tutu and this T-shirt that says, "Move over Cinderella!" She wants to sleep in it every night! Talk about "fit for a princess". I'm not sure what she's doing in the picture. Posing? Shooting laser beams from her fingers? Doing a cute little wave?

And I want to thank Lindsay at My Family Meal Planner for sending me her family meal planner. This is a great cookbook with super easy recipes for busy folks. The really cool part of this cookbook is that she's got four meals planned every week and she includes a magnetic pad of paper with a grocery list for each week printed on each sheet. You can tear off a sheet, hand it to your husband, send him to the store, and as long as he sticks to the list, you'll have the ingredients for four nights of meals. Last night we had taco soup and it was simple to make and yummy to eat. Everyone liked it. Well, except Brooklyn who had fish.....

.....plastic fish

Gotta get those Omega-3s

Yes, that's my almost 40 year old child. Don't want to let the kids have all the fun now, do we? Between you and me - I don't think he was using it as a Pogo stick. I think he was fantasizing about using machinery i.e. a jackhammer.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Oh yes - thank you to Sandy, a nice woman from my church who has been telling me that "I started reading your blog back before you became 'famous'." She sent me this email...

Dawn,
Just for your information. I found a city named Bob in Louisiana. So even though it would sound out of place in your list of names, it would continue your theme.
Sandy

I stand corrected. I guess you can have an Austin, Savannah, Jackson, Lexington, and Bob. LOL!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here is a link to my most recent interview in The Daily Herald.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Again, I want to thank everyone who's taken the time to leave me a comment or email me. You don't know how much I appreciate it. I do read all of them. Seriously. I only answer a very few because I just don't have the time. I wish I could write you all a personal thank you, but until I figure out a way to add another ten hours to my day, I just can't.

Thank you so very much!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My little boy is having his adenoids and tonsils removed and possibly a second set of tubes put in his ears tomorrow. I won't be around to update tomorrow night because I'll be staying with him in the hospital. But since you guys are so awesome, I'll take a notebook and some pens and write a funny story while I'm there so check back in Thursday night. ;)

Hot Off The Presses!

A link to my Trib. interview.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-bloggermom_03sep03,1,987830.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout

A link to the interview I did with WTOP radio in Washington D.C. today. I sound like even more of an idiot with this one. You'd think I'd be over my nervousness by now. You'd think. Please, please, please, if I should mention doing another radio interview, someone slap me!

http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=595567&nid=92

Do I Really Sound Like That?

I didn't throw up during my interview with US 103.5 in Tampa this morning. Nor did the kids go barrelling through the house screaming like banshees while I was on the phone. That's a miracle in itself because everyone knows a ringing phone releases a hormone in children that makes them flock to you like seagulls to a bag of discarded Mc Donald's left-overs in the parking lot (sorry, I don't live on a beach. That's my experience with seagulls.) They sent me a clip of the interview and boy, do I sound like a dork! Does anyone ever like the sound of their voice on a recording?

http://www.us1035.com/cc-common/podcast.html

I have another interview with Star 102.5 in DesMoines tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. central.

Here's a link to the The St. Petersburg Times article http://www.sptimes.com/2007/08/28/Features/EBay_listing_a_bid_fo.shtml

OK, I have to go clean pudding off the ceiling now. Don't ask.