Home again, home again, jiggety jig...

I don't know what the hell that means. My dad used to always say it when we would roll in from vacation. Anyhoo...yes, we made it home in one piece. Now, I know that nobody wants to really read about our trip. That is sooooo boring. Kind of like when people bring in pics from vacation to work, and you are supposed to act all interested, and "oh my gosh, how beautiful the scenery is!" Yeah, I will skim right over that and get to what everyone likes. The train wreck portion. Let me preface by saying, this was a fantastic trip, and we had a blast at Disney and Animal Kingdom. The boys' meltdowns were few and short-lived, and they thoroughly enjoyed both parks. Here is proof. See the smiles?

However, the creeping crud struck. Chase puked one night (bless your hearts, I am so sorry, housekeeping staff of Disney's Wilderness Lodge. You earned your money that next morning.) Two days later, Hunter did his Exorsist impression. Only, it was not pea soup, it was tater chips. All I can say is, I do not know how I managed to not throw up while cleaning that up. Eww to the eww eww eww...

So, we get to mom's, and it is like 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. You know, "take one down, pass it around..." Here is the final tally of the Barf Patrol:

Lyn

Aust

Mom

Mom's hubs, Jerry

Me

Yo Yo Yo the Stepbro (more on him later. He is a trainwreck all on his own. )

At least mom and I only had issues with it coming out of the basement. The others had basement/attic problems. We got off light. A little Imodium, rest, and we were good to go. However, Lyn getting sick boogered up our annual Black Friday shopping excursion. She also missed out on delish Thanksgiving vittles.

Then, on our way home, our van starts doing the hippy-hippy shake. Not sure still what is up with it, but even after lucking into a mechanic who would take a look on a Saturday night in Chapel Hill-by-God North Carolina, the front end still wanted to boogie down the road. Dave could not go over 60 mph.

But we made it home, and the ol' girl is at the Honda dealer for them to take a look and see what the problem is tomorrow.

The cat, tadpole, crabs, and fish survived our vacation thanks to our neighbor. My Christmas cactus, mums, and impatiens notsomuch.

All in all, though, we made some great memories, and are getting ready to plan our next trip to Disney in the Fall of '09. I promise not to bore anyone with a zillion pictures (unless you are my friend on MySpace, and then you better look at all 81 pics, and comment on ALL of them if you are a real friend...) Let's hope our next adventure has a little more of the element of good luck.

Vacation's all I ever wanted....

Vacation, had to get away...

I am on the big VAY-CAY! Yahoooozie! We just wrapped up our trip to Disney and are now at my Momma's house in NC. I am ready for some yummas Thanksgiving vittles this week, as well as a fun Black Friday shopping spree with my mom and sister the next day.

I will post more details on my trip when I get home and have free time (Sha. What's free time?) But here is an abbreviated summary of our trip so far:

Drive (drive, drive, drive, and freaking DRIVE.)
Cold? WTF? Isn't this Florida?
Swim anyway.
Ft. Wilderness, best place evah.
Golf cart + beepers=fun
Magic Kingdom, still magical after all these years.
One kid pukes.
It's A Small World After All (again and again and again...)
Animal Kingdom rocks harder than I expected.
Hunter as the star cowboy at the Hoop De Do Review.
Pack up all our crap.
Second kid pukes.
Second kid pukes again.
Potato chip vomit makes me want to toss my own cookies.
At my momma's. No place like this one.
Little niece's Spelling Bee and my massage scheduled for tomorrow. A good day, indeed.

Details and pictures to follow when I head home next weekend. I hear I missed some PA snow while I was away. Bummer. I am sure more is to come, but I love that first snow.

See you soon! : )

Heavenly shades of night are falling...it's twilight time...

(Oldie but a goodie, there.)

But that is not the Twilight I speak of. It's...

And holy crap, suffice it to say, I am obsessed.

I have only read the first in the series, but even before I finished it, I was at Borders, buying the second. I have not started it yet, maybe because I am still reeling in the feeling from the first one. Now, I am no lover of the supernatural, and freaky/scary/stories with blood in them don't normally appeal to me, but this was just, well, wow.

I was wondering if maybe I was becoming a Twi-Hard, but in looking that up, uh, no. Sounds a little more descriptive of the Junior High set. So, then, I thought maybe I was a Twilighter. Close, but apparently, according to some definitions, you must be in love with one of the characters. While surfing the urban dictionary, I came across the word "Twilf" which I thought might apply...I mean, it sounds like MILF, and has part of the word "Twilight" in it, but upon clicking on it, found it to be waaaaaaay off. (And ewww, by the way...) So, I guess I am just a 39 year old mom of three, living in Whitelegs, P to the A, who escaped into a fab, fab, fab book that happens to be about vampires. I was so lost in the book, that I can really say "escape". It is actually a vampire story, but that is sort of secondary to the love story, and that is the part that appeals, I think. But, it is not the entire appeal, I mean, can't you get that in any damn Nicholas Sparks (He is such an S.O.B., but don't get me started) novel? This is more about obsession, desire, a wanton lust kind of love. *Whew.* What a great read.

If you have not read it, I am driving the bandwagon today and slowing it down for you. Hop on. You will fall in love.

On the road again...

...just can't wait to get on the road again...

Actually, yes, I can.

The thought of spending many, many, (did I mention it will be many?) hours in the minivan with the fam-damily actually makes my stomach sort of twitch. Hubs wants to drive straight through to el culo del mundo (aka Florida...and Google is again, your friend...) We are leaving at night and the plan is that the boys sleep the whole way. I should have prefaced that to say OUR plan, because the boys always seem to have their own plan, and never the twains shall meet. We are as armed as can possibly be with lots of DVD's, snacks, and a little potty for those, "I have to stop right now. No, I mean NOW" moments. Bringing lots of comfy blankets and loveys. Darkness will be on our side, encouraging sleep. The only thing that may keep them wired is that at the end of the long drive is DISNEY WORLD. That is always to be in all caps, because that is the way we say it around here, sort of loud, bug out your eyes a bit, and e-nun-ci-ate every syl-la-ble. That's DISNEY WORLD.

I am totally psyched about being at DISNEY WORLD, and totally un-psyched about getting to DISNEY WORLD. Would I be a bad mom to catch a cheap flight there and meet them when they get there? I suppose so.

So, pray for us (read:me) that we make it there with as little extra gray hair as possible. While you are at it, throw in a couple extra:

That Roly Tadpoly doesn't become too froggy while we are gone. I want to watch him evolve.

Ok, let's get real...that Roly Tadpoly survives and is still here in two weeks when we return.

That the cat does not get super-annoyed that we are leaving her for two weeks, get all bejiggity in our absence, and tear crap up. Or pee on something.

That my plants don't die. I just can't ask our neighbor to do one more thing. He is already taking care of the tadpole, the fish, the hermit crabs, the Lump (cat), bringing in the paper every day, parking in front of the house, and keeping a general eye on the place. I think asking him to do one more thing would make me feel like I should be paying him.

T-minus 3 days until we launch...

Baby Crack

Not the cute kind...not the squishy tooshie.


And technically, it is not for babies, and no, it is not really crack. But it is just as addicting, and wires them the hell out.



Pixie Stix.





The little kid discovered them in his Halloween candy after dinner tonight and a new obsession was born. The boy is truly his mother's son.


Made him a bit puckery at first, which then made him laugh, laugh laugh. He then closed one eye which made me laugh, laugh, laugh. And it reminded me of the first time the medium kid Hunter tried Smarties and proclaimed, "That tastes my eye shut!"

Lord only knows when he may come down from the sugar high. He just ran from the table saying, "candycandycandycandycandy...." and giggling like a maniac.

He and I may be watching the 11:00 news together tonight.

Little critter

Because our house is just not crowded enough, and because we need one more creepy, crawly pet, I would like to introduce to you.... Roly Tadpoly.

I promise, he's in there. It was just hard to get a good pic in his habitat. Oh, and that is not the only water he has. He has a whole little pool in there.

The boys were instantly intrigued.

And we had to give Destructo Baby (aka Chase) a nice, long speech about how Roly "Can not come out and play, and he does not like it at ALL when you shake his house, and no, he does not like fruit chews. Not ever." I saw a little gleam in his eye when he tried to sweetly assure me, "Okay, mommy." I am hoping Roly gets a chance to at least get to the semi-frog stage.

Thank goodness Roly showed up today and not while we were on vacay. He would have spent a couple of weeks in the mailbox, and poor little guy would not have had a chance. The first one we got, months ago, was DOA, and I would have been upset had we lost another little booger (and by the way, if you have not seen a tadpole IRL, they actually do look sort of like a big ol' booger.) I hope he grows up to be a cute frog and not some gnarly looking warty thing. Ew.

The Day After...

*Sigh...*
And that about sums it up for me.

Needless to say, I am less than thrilled about the election outcome, but I am cautiously hopeful for the future of our country. I consider myself more of a liberal Republican. I am for gay marriage, pro-choice, and fully support programs to help get folks back on their feet. Yes, I voted for "Bush's third term", and no, I did not "not" vote for Obama for any other reason other than I just think so much of what he is promising is pie in the sky. I don't give two craps what color he is, and frankly, when someone suggests otherwise, it really gets my blood going. I wouldn't care if the man was hot pink with chartreuse stripes... Although that would be something cool to see.

I have had my own experience with discrimination. I am sure, as women, we have all been discounted at one time or another due to our gender. That kind of discrimination is usually pretty veiled. Not many people will outright blow you off to your face because you are a woman. But, they do it jokingly, or behind the scenes. Anyway, that is not the discrimination I am talking about. Mine was more of a cultural discrimination, and man alive, was it blatant. It stung, and to be blunt, pissed me off so badly that now, some ten plus years later, it is still stuck in my craw.

So, back in the day, I had a boyfriend. For name's sake, let's call him El Diablo. For those of you who don't habla...Google it. Trust me, the name fits. So, anyway, his family had it out for me from jump because I am not Hispanic. For some reason, that made me inferior in their eyes, and they did not mind a bit to be sure I knew it. I was destined to always be the outsider; the gringa, the guajira, the "American girl". I tried my white arse off to be nice, polite, friendly...to no avail. They (although completely bilingual) insisted on only speaking Spanish when we would get together, thereby shutting me out of conversation. I was judged on a regular basis, and more than once, caught one or more of them giving me the once-over. Luckily, he found himself a nice Cuban girl who was more on "his level". Last I heard, they were married, and he is her problem now. Thank God for unanswered prayers.

So, no, I am not racist. Is it okay that I just have a different idea about the direction I would like to see our country move and NOT have it do a lick with our new President's appearance? k?thx. 'preciate that. I will stand behind our new President, and pray for our country. We really have nowhere from here to go but up, and I am hoping for the best.

Sharing the love...

Kelli (Uber-cool retro/green/hippie in 2008-mommy) at Gohn Crazy graced me with my very first blog award. Only trouble is that none of us gringas are too sure exactly what it says. My Espanol has become quite rusty (read:non-existent) since I moved from South Florida. Basically, what I get from it is that it says, "Blah, blog...blah, blah, blah." But I know it has to be something good! Sorry this took me so long, Kelli. I have been seriously remiss in repaying your kindness!!

(I need to now pass this along to eight other bloggers.)

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”

I am passing this on to...

1. Caroline @ Cheaper By the Half-Dozen

2. Kate @ The Dinner Diaries (Nepotism rulz!)

3. Mommy Dearest @ Parenting is Overrated

4. Mamalicious @ Multi-slacking Mamalicious

5. Staci @ Wise Way of Life

6. Amy @ Smells Like Insanity (Even though Kelli already gave her the award...now you have two!!)

Ah, hell...that is all I can think of... So I am two short.

Again, thanks, Kelli! Or should I say (one of the few phrases I remember...) Muchas gracias!

Gettin' buggy with it...and Joke Du Jour courtesy of Hunter

We hit the neighborhood for trick or treating on Friday night. And can I give a *woot woot* to my Township for having the common sense to schedule Halloween on actual Halloween!?! There are surrounding Townships that decide what night to actually let kids trick or treat. What kind of super-crap is that? ToT is the 31st. Period. Not the 30th, not the 29th....the thirty freaking first. I never heard of such a thing until I moved here. Nobody seems to know why, either. Some say it is to keep it on a non-school night (which doesn't apply this year...the 31st was a Friday), some say it has to do with high school football game schedules (for real? That is just stOOpid if that is the case)... None of the reasons make good enough sense for me. But my niece gets to clean up (lucky girl!). Her area does ToT one night, and ours another night, so she comes over for extra treats in our neighborhood! So, I guess it can work out after all.

This year, Hunter was a black widow spider, Chase was a caterpillar, and my niece Kylie rounded out the buggy bunch as a bumblebee. I must say, they made an adorable trio.

The loot...

And they did not get any mini-Snickers at all. At least, that is what they think. That's my story, and I am sticking to it.

Now, without further ado...what you have all been waiting for...the Joke Du Jour, courtesy of Hunter. (Brace yourself. Those who have urinary incontinence issues may want to take a quick potty break to keep from peeing yourself.)

What did the banana do at the playground?

Banana splits.

Yeah, he's four. It is an acquired humor.