Friday, October 30, 2009

Bugs

What a fall, the sky is gray and the leaves are turning beautiful shades of gold and crimson...and germs have infested my home. I have had a cough for over 6 weeks and the doctor gave me antibiotics for bronchitis and here I am now on my 3rd round of antibiotics and getting tested for pertussis...yep, that thing you vaccinate your kids against, the "P" in the "DPT" shot.

But wait, there is more...the males in the family have swine flu...giving men are pigs a whole new meaning. I can joke about this because it was a very mild case of the flu and trust me, my little guy has been way sicker thant this. The bad part is he had to stay home from school for a week and he had lots of energy since he wasn't that ill. I knew he had to have H1N1 because he had a flu shot, it's too early for the big flu and so off to the doctor we went...he got swabbed and yep, swine flu.

You know I joke about my blogs being written in less than three minutes and it is true...did I ever mention how much H talks...she is talking now, so I close before I start keying in what she is saying instead of my rambling thoughts...

Happy Halloween.

Monday, October 26, 2009

What I Have Learned About God

Knowledge about God and heaven through the eyes of my 5 and 7 year old provide wonderful insights to the character of God. I have always known that God is all powerful, knows all things, and the story of God's affect on Moses causing Moses to have to wear a veil to cover his brightness from being in the presence of God is amazing to me...but I learned more about his knowledge and brightness from my children last week.

The next morning, I drove the kids to school and H announced we would have to wear sunglasses in heaven because God is so bright. I hadn't thought of that possibility...I have only heard of streets of gold...never really thought of the brightness of His presence.

These are two things I learned about God last week. I can't wait to learn more!

Monday, October 12, 2009

My Favorite Season


"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on
the feelings, as now in October."
- Nathaniel Hawthorne


This is my favorite time of year. I love the chilly feel in the air. I love the rain. I love the trees turning their brilliant colors. I love the smell of baking apples and pumpkin bread, I love scarecrows and pumpkins. My absolute favorite holiday is right around the corner...Thanksgiving. A simple day of giving thanks with no strings attached.

And right after this season is over comes another favorite thing...snowmen...

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Goals

We are now home from the Wonderful Week of Disney. My body and mind have officially turned into a vegetable state. I have parked myself in front of the computer and done not a whole lot of anything. I haven't caught up on correspondence. I took my time uploading pictures from my camera, adding them to my blog and uploading them to Facebook. I have been tearing apart my farm on Farmtown, baking cinnamon rolls in Yo'ville and mostly, spending time playing Sorority Life. My mind is on a mad mission to clear the clutter from my farm, I sold everything and started over...I think it is a reflection on my mental state...too much time in a car with two little kids. I have also been hiring myself out as a Farmhand, to replace the money I spent on buying new stuff to make some experience points. (perhaps a subconscious desire to replace the money I feel guilty for spending on some groovy souvenirs...sweatshirts and tee shirts for the offspring...a source of contention with my spouse...he feels the trip to WDW should suffice, I like a shirt to remember it by...my dad used to always get us a souvenir after our trip to Disneyland or the Zoo was over, the tradition has kind of stuck with me and my spouse is bewildered by my need to do this)

And then there is Sorority Life. I think I have taken my desire to be be the one to get the As to being the one who moves up fast on Sorority Life...no one knows what I am doing but I can't stand not moving up levels fast. I used to always be the first to finish my test in school and I think I have taken this weird obsession to game playing on Facebook. I have two farms and two sorority accounts...I haven't picked up a book since I got home...and my magazines are on the end table unread and poor Inspector Morse is still in the Netflix envelope...unopened.

I would like to attribute my vegetative state to the cloudy, cool, rainy days that I came home to find. I think I had 8 cups of hot tea yesterday while I attacked sisters and organized sorority sisters. I think the root of my laziness...is hmmmm, not sure...

Yes, I think it is time to set a new goal for myself...a game free day on Facebook and reading 100 pages...and maybe cleaning the upstairs bathrooms...or maybe, I will go really crazy and go grocery shopping tomorrow and make a fabulous dinner. But, I swear I can hear the sound of really groovy shoes calling me from Sorority Life...or maybe it is the honking of my cool little convertible...I will clean and shop on Thursday...after all, Thursday is another day and well, Wednesday is tomorrow.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Chef Mickey





Day One at the Happiest Place on Earth...lunch with Chef Mickey (Don't tell Mickey but he could use some education from a good culinary school, shhhhh!) Not the best food but boy, it sure makes the kids happy :-)

Winner of The Best Disney Characters





goes to Cinderella's Stepmother and Stepsisters...hands down. I could have sat there all day and watched these three...H was asked if she the had the map to the kingdom and M was asked if he was eligible to marry...he did not like the lipstick kiss AT ALL!

Picture Time


Once again, M did not want his picture taken with a Disney Princess...that is until one of the "cast members" promised him a sword if he would pose. It was also suggested it would be good to use for fighting off his sister...and H was promised a magic wand to keep the sword bearing brother in line...(Okay, so we sit down to the Royal Table and find out everyone gets a sword (males) or a magic wand (females)...don't tell M, he still thinks he is special.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Day ??? Plus ???

The vacation is over and we are on our way home. I am in a fog. I think I wrote two days ago but I'm not sure. Here are a few highlights of our Disney Vacation. (This would probably be more clear if the kids weren't bouncing off the walls of our Holiday Inn Express room which has bunk beds...and my husband wasn't asking me about what David Letterman did and Jon Gosselin wasn't on the TV saying absurd things)

Now for the vacation moments...we went to the Cinderella's Royal Table (I thought this was a Princess experience but the only princess was Cinderella at the entrance) This royal extravaganza featured a little song and dance by two mice and the Fairy Godmother (and no autographs...at least the food was much better than at Chef Mickey). We did get to experience the inside of Cinderella's castle and it is quite exciting. (AND they had iced tea, anyone who reads my Facebook status will know that I was having severe iced tea withdrawals while experiencing The Magic Kingdom) I was also called "My Lady" by the servers...probably the first and last time this will ever happen in my lifetime. H was a princess, M called a prince and Greg was a lord...the kids will probably be called this quite a few more times, and Greg will probably never let me forget he was called a lord and will probably refer to himself as lord for the rest of his life.

We attended at luau at The Polynesian Resort. Yummy food was served up (minus the coconut pineapple bread...who would have thought that it was possible to bake bread that I wouldn't eat?) The show was pretty hokey, the dancing was fun to watch and the fire dancer was awesome except for one little problem, I found myself saying to M over and over "Don't ever do that!" You know little things like running one's hand over the torch, touching the flame to the tongue, or balancing the two burning ends of the torch on one's feet...I kept having visions of M trying this at home. Oy. M kept asking why is he putting fire on his tongue? Why did he touch the fire with his hands? Why did he put the fire on the floor? Bad images of M and matches coming up in my head.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party was lots and lots of fun, a great parade and an unbelievable fireworks display but I did notice even Mickey is suffering from the recession...there was not nearly the amount of chocolate distributed as at the last two Not So Scary Parties we attended. I missed that good chocolate...out of all the candy I only had one Butterfinger and one Oh Henry candy bar...a dismal haul compared to previous loot distributed by Mickey. M is hooked on the Buzz Lightyear ride and still refused the Pirates. I had to carry him out of the Haunted Mansion. We only got as far as the entrance when his eyes filled with tears and rolled down his sweet little cheeks. I am getting some really good blackmail material for when this boy grows up and I need to outwit him to do his chores (I am sure he is going to be taller than me and spanking threats just won't work as well as humiliating him in front of his friends)

Our resort was a big hit...we were able to go out and watch the zebras and giraffes after a fun filled day of teacups and Dumbo. The pool had a water slide that the kids could not get enough of...down the slide, into the pool, climb out of the pool, up the slide, come down the slide, and do it again, and again, and again.

There were lots of funny moments provided by M. If only I had a tape recorder for his clarifying of what was real, what was a robot, or the explanations for things provided by H. Tonight M wanted to H to count to "millionaire" and H explained a "millionaire" is something that can't be counted and goes on forever and I had to explain a "millionaire" is someone with a million dollars and "infinity" goes on forever.

My absolute favorite character experience was not provided by either character dining experience but stumbling over Cinderella's stepmother and two stepsisters...these ladies were a hoot! Watching them pose for pictures and listening to them talk to the kids getting their autograph books signed had me in stitches. Cinderella's stepsister asked M if he was eligible for marriage and gave him a kiss with lots of lipstick. He couldn't get that lipstick mark off fast enough. He rubbed it on his dad's shirts and demanded to go to the bathroom to wash it off with soap. H was told to scram after her picture...Anastasia taught one little girl dressed like Jasmine to shimmy and the stepmother scolded her about ladies not doing the shimmy.

M spied a gun on our first day by the Pirate ride and in Frontierland and for four days we listened to him beg for a gun. I didn't want to haul this around for the entire trip so I made him wait until our last day. I am not sure this was the wisest decision I ever made but I did use "if you don't ____ you won't get your gun" threat...a lot. H wanted a parasol and unfortunately, making her wait resulted in no parasol, they weren't being sold on Main Street last night and the store in Liberty Square that sold them was closed...I will be ordering a lace parasol online and I am sure I will pay dearly to fulfill this promise to my little princess.

Hopefully, my mind will recall the funny things said by these two...but I wouldn't hold my breath, my brain is in a fog, it is old and worn out by Little People and I am kind of hoping that tomorrow I will still know my name and address...I have given up on remembering my phone number...