Trick or treat smell my feet

We had a great time. Ella and Claire both blew out their tights due to all of the festivities this week. They got so much candy this evening. I suppose one of the perks of having little ones is that they don't know what "the good candy" is. Jeff and I just sorted their loot. A pile of candy I like, and a pile that he likes. Wash down a few, well 8 reeses peanut butter cups with some red wine and you are golden.

Ella loved Halloween, esp. getting to ring the "ding bell". Claire loved dragging around her loot filled pumpkin. Happy Halloween...now on to Thanksgiving!

What's that smell

I am sitting here trying to rev myself up for trick or treating tonight. We went to a party this morning and I am beat. The kiddos had a ball and were high as a kite before nap time. Anyway, I don't know about you but if you are a parent sometimes you get a whiff of poo and your kiddos are no where near. We call it the phantom poo. The phantom poo has made it's appearance just in time for Halloween. I am about to get crazy with the febreeze. I have checked everywhere and can't locate its origins. Don't you hate that, with little ones you never know if they may have been diaper surfing and hid a present.

Gotta love Texas!

Time for some wine

Today was another busy day. I went to the gym in my 80's gear. See pictures above. the sad thing was no one noticed that I was wearing anything unusual. Pretty scary! We also went to All Things Made in China, aka Target's dollar bin so the girls could pick out something to buy with their Halloween money from their grandparents. Ella picked out a paint by number thing and Claire picked out a necklace. Their choices were perfect for them, Ella the artist and Claire the accessory girl. Claire may be missing a few brain cells now that I caught her sucking on her necklace. Nice!

We also went to the costume parade at Nordstrom. I was disappointed, they gave out the crap candy. The mints, Laffy taffy, I guess the economy must be bad when even Nordstrom can't fork out a little extra cash for some decent candy. FYI if you are planning to come to my house for trick or treating,..you too will find the Nordstrom cast offs. I ate the good stuff after Ella's last tantrum. Now for a glass of wine....

Wassup

Ok regardless of where you are on the political spectrum this is funny. Wasss up before and after.

Ahhhh..LOVE

My brother's girlfriend has been asking for some info on the vendors that we used for our wedding. I can't believe that it was almost 7 years ago! She asked about our videographer. i was able to find one of our highlight videos. Go to this site:
http://www.jeffandmelissa.net/Wedding/pictures/Videos/song1_hi.wmv

Planning a wedding is so exciting. Both girls will be in the wedding. I am a bridesmaid and Jeff is a groomsmen. My brother's girlfriend has great taste so I am not worried about the dress. I know that strapless is in at the moment and I could perhaps pull it off with a nice big padded bra and some double sided tape. Seriously, if you wear an A cup the dress has to be fitted or plumped up with padding. Designers have this notion that if you have an A cup you would have had a boob job. They don't even carry 32 A at Victoria's secret. Not worth Victoria's time to make bras for the less fortunate I guess.

The great Pumpkin

We had a busy day with class Halloween parties at school and pumpkin carving at night. Tomorrow we are going in costume to Nordstrom for a Halloween parade. I am seriously hoping that they give away the good stuff, none of this laughy taffy and tootsie roll business. If they can charge 250 dollars for a pair of shoes, I am expecting a full sized candy bar baby!

Tomorrow is also my dance class at the gym. we have been urged to wear 80's style clothing. I went over to my parents house and was able to locate my yellow Esprit sweater adorned with colorful triangles, squares, and circles. Ahhhh, memories. I wore it for my first school dance in 6th grade. I thought that I was hot stuff in my sweater and purple stirrup pants and purple flats. I put it on today to make sure that it fit...how could I forget in the 80's we wore everything LARGE. It still fit! Perhaps in middle school I really did look good in urine yellow, now it makes my skin look a tad bit jaundiced. It will be fun to see what everyone else is wearing. My face decided to join in on the fun and look like it did in middle school. How can I be 33 and still break out like I just slathered my face in pizza grease?

My hump

I was feeling like hot stuff because my test questions were approved. I got a contract and no negative feedback. I was feeling great. My brain still works, whoo hoo. Just got an email saying that they had not gotten around to looking at the questions due to some deadline issues with another contract. The bottom line is that my questions probably do stink. I am waiting for the next email, subject: REDO

I start my job at Oxford learning on Monday. I have mixed feelings. I was really loving my two "free" days. I was feeling sane again, accomplishing things. The in laws and Ella's party are just a little over a week away. I bought a bottle of wine to help me cope with crunch time. On another note, I had another "body age" test at the gym. They are free every three months. The last one I did, was when Claire was 5 months old and the girl told me that I really need to exercise. That was true I had not done a thing at that time. I had the same girl a year and a half later. I am in worse shape??, underweight, and at serious risk of osteoporosis. Yeah, she figured this out from an exercise bike and a scale. I was given the riot act about my bones and told I needed to get into a doctor soon. ? I am exercising, I am healthy, and the weight thing...I was .5 lbs under the cutoff. Now I am just plain ticked. I pay for this gym, I take a class that I love and I am in worse shape now than I was before joining. My only thought is that my super maxi pad was slowing me down on that darn bike. I am so paranoid now that I keep asking Jeff to feel for a hump on my back. My hump, my hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps.

Cheese!

I was really thinking that our family pictures were going to be really bad. Claire refused, and I mean refused to sit still. Our photographer Lesleigh Kelly from
Kellywood Photography did an amazing job. I have to give a shout out to her. Here is the website with our pictures.
http://web.mac.com/lesleigh/KellywoodPhotography/MOPS/Pages/Kopp.html
A few of them really crack me up. Long gone are the times when you checked out a picture to see how you looked. Now all I care about is that both kiddos are looking somewhere in the vicinity of the camera! Decisions , decisions!

Gotta love it

Today was a busy day. Ella went to three Halloween events and had no nap. She was surprisingly good! She had a ball dancing at the Candy Carnival, if you watch the slide show above a few of the shots have a little icon that says movie. You can click on them and see a short clip. Ella's thing is to swing her skirt and show off her panties. Someone asked her where Mickey Mouse was and she said here on my panties and lifted up her dress to prove it. Sure enough there was Mickey grinning on her bum!

Lady Bug Claire

My baby bro

He did it! My little brother who is 9 1/2 years younger than me finally asked his girlfriend of 7 years to marry him! Whoo Hoo. I was honored that he asked me to help out. I am PMSing so I cried at the hallmark store picking out a card. I cried while I watched him from a distance get down on one knee. We were hiding in the bushes so his girlfriend wouldn't see us. We were trying to snap a few covert pictures and get some video footage. I ruined the video by dropping the F bomb because I couldn't get my mother;s darn camera to work. WE will need to dub some music over my foul mouth. I swear I hate her camera. Anyway I am thrilled that things went so well. I am about to load up on benadryl, turns out hiding in a bush isn't exactly the smartest thing to do. I have bites everywhere...and I mean everywhere. So if you see my being unladylike and scratching like a guy on the sofa watching a football game don't stare.

Spooktacular

Isn't it great that little ones really have no concept of LAME. We went to Spooktacular at a local museum this evening. Should have been called Lametacular. Ella loved it because it was just a mother and daughter evening, no sister. I loved watching her bask in the attention. She was so cute. I am attaching a few pictures and one of her wearing Minnie her first Halloween.

Last Halloween

On a wing and a prayer

I have made it through the week. Whoo Hoo and I have a new job starting mid November with Oxford learning. This is just in time to get some extra Christmas money. We are thinking of buying a play scape for the girls. Darn those things are pricey. What happened to the all metal ones?

This weekend will be a busy one, we have a family picture session tomorrow. Hopefully Ella will like the camera instead of insisting that it is evil. I am just hoping that both of the girls look at the camera and no fingers are poking their noses. The UT game is in the afternoon. Hook'em Horns!! On Sunday we will be having a family brunch and in the evening we will be going to a candy carnival. It will be our first outing in the Halloween costumes. We shall see if I am still sane after getting the girls ready. Have a great weekend and yes that is me skydiving 4 years ago.

quote

Just watched The Woman 1938 movie....I just love this quote:
Joan Crawford: "There's a name for you ladies, but it isn't used in high society...outside of a kennel."

getting schooled

Here is a list of lessons that I learned the past two weeks.
1) There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, example Pomegranate martinis.
2) There is a closet New Kids fan in all of us. I couldn't believe how many people smiled and giggled at my new kids shirt. OK, perhaps they were laughing at me, not with me.
3) An almost three year old can have a huge heart. Ella saw a unshaven homeless man on the corner, I explained to her why he was there. She told me to give him a "nola"(granola) bar. I rolled down the window and did as she requested. Afterwords she said, "That lion man didn't say thank you..no manners."
4.) An obscure nail salon is NOT the place for a eyebrow wax. Go ahead and pay the extra 10.00. If you see me, no I am not surprised... my eyebrows just convey that emotion.
5.) Never shower when you have too many things on your mind. It is possible to use conditioner twice and forget to wash it out.

old school playgrounds

And this is why the playgrounds of our youth are no more!

Yessssss!

Ella is now back to her sweet caring self. I can't tell you what a relief it is. She is no longer on a pantie strike and is wearing her princess panties like a champ. She is counting down the days until her birthday. It was my goal to once again have a backyard party for her. I have been shocked at the prices at all of the party places around town, telling myself that I would never spend that much for a party. Never say never! This backyard Princess and Prince charming bash is costing more than I expected and I have to be the one cleaning it up. I made the invites to save money, but after buying the paper, envelopes, glitter,... i would have been better buying the darn things. I purchased all of the items for the games, crafts and favor bags. When will I learn??? Now I still have to find some prince crowns for the three boys coming to the party. Who knew how tough that would be! I still have to worry about the food, drinks and cake.

I do have the favor bags for the parents handled. I applied to houseparty.com to host an arm and hammer going green party. I was picked and got my cool freebies in the mail. I plan to incorporate them into Ella's party. I am all about getting free stuff!

Random TP

Have you noticed a change in Charmin toilet paper lately?

For ages I have bought the package with the red label. It had been the same for a long time. And then something changed - sizes. Double roll, triple roll, gigantic roll, you had to be really careful to make sure that you bought a size roll that actually fit on the toilet paper roller thingy.

Now, if the arrival of sizes wasn’t bad enough, suddenly the Charmin in the red package is thicker. Being the busy parent that I am, it took me a few clogged toilet bowls to figure out something was up.

If I worked for Charmin, I could tell them that their Ultra Strong version of toilet paper doesn’t stand a chance in hell of being flushed down the toilet on the first try. It’s the consistency and thickness of paper towels, and no one with half a brain would try to flush paper towels.

Got the right stuff

Well, I voted today! Whoo Hoo! Now I really have an excuse to switch the channel when I hear a campaign ad. Don't you just love the little "I voted" sticker. I proudly wore mine around all day and noticed that it had vanished when I went to pick up my girls from school. Ella found it on my rear after her nap. So basically for two of my errands I was drawing attention to my rear. Nice!

Back to the New Kids concert. Awesome time!!! My husband asked how bad they were. To be honest we were all screaming the songs and drinking a beer, so they sounded just as they should. I am still wondering how 40 year old men can still sing that high, however their pants were a bit snug. They did a whole 15 years ago montage, just to make us remember how old we really are. I did not burst into tears at the sight of them, but I did shed a tear because I was laughing so hard. Come on...that hanging tough dance is a little...l a m e !!

I did buy a 35 dollar T-shirt. Yes...35 dollars, but in my defense they assured me that some of the money goes to breast cancer research. I hope so, because Jeff is going to croke when he sees the credit card charge!

NKOTB

We had a great time! Post more later when I am done worshiping the porcelain
god. Drinking is BAD! Yes, that is Natasha Bedingfield, NKOTB opening act. She was on the elevator with us.

I spy

Today Ella had her dentist appointment. She has been two other times in the past and loved it. She was so excited about the appointment up until the dental hygienist asked her to lay down on the chair. Drama immediately ensued. There were screams, protests, and tears. None of it seemed to phase the dentist who has five children of her own. Her comment was only... you will be amazed what a different child she will be in 6 months! Amazed in a good way? Gosh I hope!

After the appointment, Ella and I went to a local bakery for a treat. Claire was with my mom, so we had some bonding time. She is such a cool kid when she isn't jockeying for attention! We were playing I spy and looking for shapes in the restaurant. I pointed out an oval and explained to her what one looked like. She understood and was finding them all over the place. A semi portly woman strolled by and Ella in her excitement yelled, "Look Mommy her bottom looks like an oval." Nice... good thing were weren't playing I spy animals. Can you imagine if she would have yelled, "look, that woman had a monkey butt!".

Show me the money ...baby needs a new pair of shoes

On Friday evening I am going with a few friends to the New Kids on the Block concert. I guess it should now be the Middle Aged Men on the Block. Whoo Hoo! There will be people watching galore. I wonder what size bras and panties will be tossed up on stage this time considering all of the "fans" are in their thirties!

Job Update: I guess the test questions that I wrote were good enough because I got a contract in the mail yesterday. I am now officially a educational consultant...it is so nice to be something other than Mom! I also had a great interview for a PK reading academy. Show me the money ...baby needs a new pair of shoes.

I broke down today after my interview and joined costco. Wouldn't you know it, the one time I come, they had no samples. I was planning on having my morning snack for free.

Turn back the clock

The other day I received an email from the gym that I am a member of. They were offering a peel party for 19 lucky clients at the spa. For 30 dollars you could potentially look 10 years younger. All this at an 85 dollar discount. I thought what the heck, I have never had a chemical peel for my skin. I phoned for the appointment, I was number 18...I just made it. I was reassured that my face would not resemble a tomato. I was in! So, today was the day. I must admit that I was a tad bit nervous, chemical peel does not sound like a nice thing regardless of the fact that they attempted to mask the unpleasantness with the phrase, peel party.

I was greeted by a 20 something girl with beautiful glowing skin. She asked me how many peels I had had in the past, I said never. She looked at me with her perfectly arched eyebrows and said, "Oh, really." It could have been me, but I did detect a little bit of pity in her voice. She then began to ask my about my beauty regime and skin care. I told her the truth...I wash. She prodded me further, what products do you use? I wasn't sure if she really wanted the truth (whatever is on sale at Target)or not, so I fibbed just a tad stating that I only use oil of olay rejuvenist. She sighed, and asked me to lay down. The facial massage was to die for, I was feeling great until she said, "Do you realize that you are very broken out? You are storing up toxins in your nasal passage." What? Yes, I know I have a few pimples (thank you PMS), and the toxins are known as Texas allergies! After the peel, I met with the product sales person who spotted me immediately and asked if I just had a peel. How did she know? Could it be the fact that I looked like I just got back from a day at the beach without SPF?? Once she found out my affinity for all things cheap, she gave up on her sales pitch.

So how do I look? Defiantly about 15 years younger, when I was in the throws of puberty. So if you see a redhead with a pink irritated face and a sprinkling of pimples it is me. For 30 dollars I really did turn back the clock!

Electric Blue

Ok, I turned in my test questions for the company that I am writing for. I turned them in a few days early with a note attached asking for some feedback. I really am not sure if I am on the mark or not. I still have not heard anything. Either they were great, or they just can't get around to telling me you stink! I spent my possible earnings tonight at Mom's night out. Wishful thinking?

I have another job interview on Wednesday for a preschool reading academy. It sounds like it would be a great fit, but then again I have been wrong about every position I have attempted thus far.

On to the potty front... Ella has sworn off panties. I can't figure out what has changed. Are the panties too small and she is getting a wedgie, because that can be enough to turn anyone off. She is doing great minus the pantie revolt. Mommies, I have a tip for you, avoid Trix yogurt. We bought it as a treat for Ella. It turned her poop blue, not a nice navy color, but electric blue. It did a number on her nice white sheets. So much for a stain stick. I have pondered calling the 800 number for laundry tips on the back of the package just for fun. Boy, has my idea of fun changed since becoming a mom!

Sisters

This evening Ella was getting pretty fed up with Claire in the tub. So she said, "I want to throw Claire away". I told her that I understood that sometimes little sisters can be a little annoying, but we love them anyway. So Ella said, "Tomorrow is trash day."



The pictures are from a birthday party that we went to at build a bear . Super fun!

Little Runaway

When you become a mother you have THIS IDEAL OF HOW YOU WILL RAISE YOUR CHILDREN. Occasionally you witness another mom doing or saying something to their children and you think, at least I have it more together than her. Then YOU have a day in which other mothers are thinking the same thing about you. Yes, mothering is a very humbling job.

Yesterday was my day from hell. I failed as a mother and am probably the talk of my cul-de-sac. It was my morning to sleep in until 8:00. Whoo Hoo! The girls were downstairs with Jeff. Suddenly, I am startled from my precious sleep by, " Ella! Get into time out NOW." I race downstairs to see what had happened. She had thrown her red kool-aid laced with amoxicillin on the carpet. She hates to take her medicine, so that is they only way we can get her to drink it. I rush to clean up the large stain splattered over my carpet. I then realize that we are out of carpet cleaner. Jeff takes off to home depot to pick some up. Ella is sobbing in the corner. I sit down with her to "talk it out." She swats at me and says, "go away mommy". I scooped her up and put her in her room. I worked for about 10 minutes on the carpet and then went upstairs to talk to her again. Claire at this time was happily playing in her little kitchen. After about 5 minutes of talking to Ella and helping her clean her room I hear..."Excuse me? Excuse me from downstairs. I run down the stairs. Who the heck is in my house? I am wearing a tank top, no bra, shorts and my eyes resemble a raccoon with last nights mascara still clinging on. The woman is holding Claire and says with certain reproach, that "your child was five houses down running around." Oh my Gosh!!! I thanked her profusely, still unable to digest the magnitude of the situation. She began walking out the door and said in a haughty voice, "perhaps you need to take better care of your child." WTF??? OK I was too frazzled to say anything. Apparently, Claire had opened the front door and went out for a stroll in her jammies while i reprimanded Ella. A little teary eyed, self esteem shot I walked into the kitchen just in time to discover that I had forgotten to put the coffee cup under the coffee maker...yep, coffee was everywhere ruining my handmade Halloween cards. I madly rush to clean things up, cursing myself as I cleaned. Then another knock on the door. Someone had found my dog. She had escaped with Claire. I began sobbing, Jeff was still not back with the carpet cleaner after an hour and a half.

I was picturing CPS showing up questioning my parenting abilities. I played over and over the things that COULD have happened to sweet Claire. Then I thought about the woman that brought her back to the house. She must think so little of me. Oh well... I am a mom, I am not perfect, but I try. That little turkey Claire will be the death of me!

brown

Lately poop has been the topic of conversation in our family. This just cracks me up!

Great

Today was a day. I dragged both girls to the gym for my dance class. Ella is still in a mood so i was in fact literally dragging her. I was having a great time dancing until I raised my arms. Apparently I was going for the European look. Gross! After the gym we went to HEB. Drama ensued when Ella lost her free balloon and the buddy buck machine ate her buck. Ella is really having a hard time dealing with EVERYTHING. She really is such a joy...when she is asleep!
I mopped the floor, vacuumed, did laundry, emptied the dishwasher, made food for my meeting tomorrow, and made dinner. I wrote that just to make myself feel better, like I really did something. Oh yeah...and I took a shower so I could eliminate the European look. I showered, shaved my legs, but forgot about the pits AGAIN. Perhaps I will set a new trend, wonder what would happen if I applied styling product to it??

This years Haunted House!

Addiction and Quitting

What is it with Chick-fil-a? It is just a chicken sandwich with a bun and two strategically placed pickles. There must be something secret in the breading or marinade, it is addictive and no other chicken sandwich will do. McDonald's has tried to replicate it...yuck. Why is it that I always want the darn sandwich on Sundays when it is not open. One day I asked one of the employees why it was not open on Sundays, she said, "because of God."

On another note, I finished my writing job a day early. I wrote my two questions and am sending them in as I type this. I KNOW that I will need to revise them. They were just OK. So much for 25 dollars a question...for the amount of time I spent on them I think I averaged 2 cents per hour. I am just glad that they are done. Jeff thinks I should just quit, since I am stressing so much over it. I told him that I just have to try my hand at this before giving up. During college I was pretty good at quitting. I worked for a week at IHOP and got fed up with the 70 year old blue haired career waitress telling me that I had to show my work when calculating change. I quit Tres Amigos after one day. I hated that I smelled like beans and became privy to the cleanliness or lack there of in the kitchen. Did you know that tres amigos was founded by three white guys? After tasting the food I really don't think they have any friends with authentic recipes. Oh yeah, and I worked at Gallup poll for two days. I am telling you, getting hung up on is not good for self esteem. After college, I was a teacher for 8 years and never again quit something. Gotta go my Chicken Sandwich is getting cold.

tag team back again

Claire is just getting over her sinus infection and ear infection. She is on antibiotics. The antibiotics have done a number on her little belly. I have changed her clothes 4 times and her sheets twice just today. Her poor little tushie! Two days ago, Ella got a runny nose and this afternoon began running a fever with cough. So, I took her to the doctor...just a cold. Now of course I am feeling yucky. Tag, I'm it.

I went to Ross today and looked at clothes. I can't believe that the sweater dress is in style again. It didn't look too bad on my prepubescent body way back, but now I can't imaging how it would not cling to every little budge or imperfection. Leggings and sweater dresses are not a style that I was hoping to come back.

The count down is on to submit my first set of test questions for my new job. As I mentioned before, two weeks to write two questions. I stink at this, I really do and I have become the worst procrastinator. I have done laundry, dusted, mopped all to avoid writing my second test question. I am avoiding the computer because I feel guilty for not working on my question. What happened to my drive, my work ethic, my ability to think??

Snot and Modern Jackass

Claire has a double ear infection and a sinus infection. She is on antibiotics but looks nasty, nothing says beautiful like crusty snot in your hair. She is quite skilled in blowing dual snot bubbles. Talent I tell you, I'm thinking about entering her in America's got talent.

On another note. If you have sometime,listen to this. It is my favorite segment that I heard on NPR. It is about the "Modern Jackass". After you go to the link, click on full episode (it's free). Listen to act 1

http://www.thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=293

Let me know what you think... do you know a modern jackass. I myself have been one at times.

If I only had a brain

I did manage to get a part time job writing test questions for the teacher certification test in Texas. I have until Oct.9th to write two questions. Sounds soooo easy right? I mean, what moron can't write two test questions in two weeks? My brain just can't think anymore. I attempt to write professional sounding questions and they end up sounding like something you would ask a middle schooler. My professional vocabulary is dead. I have writers block. My ability to remember all of those education classes and theories is shot. I have to worry about domains, competencies,directed stems, open stems,rationals...I hope I am making it sound hard! My wonderful IBS is acting up due to the stress of two measly questions. I am debating if I should just call the company and say that I am not cut out for this, or turn in my questions and wait to be canned. I get paid 25 dollars per approved question. So far I am averaging 5 cents an hour IF they take my questions. I know there is a learning curve, but this is ridiculous!

On another note in my quest to save money, I thought that I would make the party invites for Ella's birthday party next month. I made them on the computer , bought special paper, glue, envelopes, glitter...it turned out NOT to be remotely money saving. Sometimes you feel like a windshield and sometimes you feel like the bug. Yep! I'm the bug.

I am attaching a few pictures from today.

Let's Bowl, Let's Bowl, Let's rock and roll!

Today we went bowling with my mom's group for the first time. Ella had a BALL!

Observations

The past few days Ella has been a little diva. She wants everything her way and has been "so sad" as she puts it. Can 2 1/2 year olds have PMS? Today she is back to her chatty sweet self. She has told me that I look pretty 5 times today, apparently she did not notice my new cluster of PMS pimples and unwashed hair. Unconditional love...or perhaps she just wanted her fruit snacks. As I was rushing out the door today, Jeff brought out my coffee. She said, "Ahhh..daddy is a very nice man and he is a cute man too." I cracked up. She kept chatting about the fabulous qualities that her Daddy posses. Then she said, "He is sometimes very stinky too and he needs to wear a shirt." The benefits??? of Jeff working from home is that he can choses to work with or without a shirt and sometimes a morning shower.