Category Archives: Life in general

I do not plan to make a habit out of not posting on Thursdays but the past few weeks have been a little crazy but the to-do list is nearly done (at least as it stands now – I’m sure to add more to it).

1. Do you prefer cotton, silk, or flannel sheets?
I can tell you that I do NOT prefer silk – just doesn’t appeal to me. But I love flannel for winter – so nice and cozy, and cotton for warmer weather. Cotton sheets feel so decadent the first time you put them on your bed after winter. I also don’t really appreciate expensive sheets – we got a set for our wedding and I took them back and was able to purchase all of our Calphalon pots and pans, I’d much rather be cooking than sleeping anyway… well, that’s not true, but I doubt nice sheets would help me sleep that much better. But someone can feel free to prove me wrong.

2. What time zone are you in?
Eastern Standard Time. Can I tell you I had the hardest time remembering the name of the time zones in the U.S. until I ridiculously older age? For some reason that is just something that won’t stick in my head. Other things that won’t stick in my head, which item people mean when they use the terms “former” or “latter” and State capitals. There are many other things but they are gone from my brain at the moment.

3. What is your favorite part of the holiday season? 
Christmas Eve at my parent’s house – we’ve had the tradition on my side of the family of getting together there every Christmas Eve (minus the one we went to Texas). We eat food, we open presents and we play games. All those memories are just so warm in my mind – full of happiness and joy – which is exactly what they should be for Christmas.

4. What is your favorite “wintry” drink? (It doesn’t have to be an “alcoholic” drink!)
My brother, Mike, makes some delicious mixed drinks – he’s been doing a signature one for the past few years. A mini-Guinness, a drink that tastes just like an oatmeal cookie and a martini made with cranberry-orange vodka that he made himself. Those have all been so very good. My old standby is eggnog – nothing says winter like eggnog (or maybe hot chocolate).

5. In your opinion, what is the worst job in the world?
Nothing specific, but any job that feels like a dead-end or that you just hate would be the worst job in the world. I’ve never had that kind of job but there are days I dread going in to work and I like my job so I can’t imagine if I hated it and how disheartening that would feel. [For the record, I’d really hate to be the person who empties out things at the hospital – cafeteria trays, bed pans, colonoscopy “things” – just ewww.]

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question Friday!

Some recent pictures from my phone with a few words…
I wish I could sleep like this and not wake up with a sore everything. Jack was snoring so loudly last night I had to turn the monitor down because it was keeping me from going to sleep.

A rare moment of sitting at Liam’s soccer game… of course “Uncle” Kevin was making him laugh like a fool, the moment that stopped he was digging through my bag looking for fruit snacks once again.

Liam looking like a real soccer player at his last game on Saturday – he finally learned to stay upright through the whole game and didn’t make anyone else cry – we are so winning at this parenting thing! Though, when asked, Liam said he didn’t want to play soccer next year but that he wanted to be on the bowling team. Probably because the only times he’s been bowling were parties – who wouldn’t want to be on that team?

Oh my goodness, I am a tired girl and it’s only Wednesday (technically Tuesday night when I write this). It’s just one of those weeks… blah, blah, blah… really, it’s just life. You cannot be a parent and not be busy. When you’re responsible for more than one person, you are just busy. Busy, busy, busy. I’m just going to repeat my main points three times.

If you’re not already watching it (and you like cop dramas), you should be watching Prime Suspect. It’s great. What is not great is Revenge and yet I still am watching it when it comes on. I cannot explain my actions.

I went to a fundraiser tonight. Aside from some of the organization’s staff, I was the youngest person there. The food was outstanding and they had a DIY cupcake tower/bar with “streams” of toppings which is something I’ve never seen before – such a cool idea. The idea was you dip your cupcake in frosting and then dip it in whatever topping you wanted. Though I opted to have a Vanilla  Java Stout instead of dessert – totally worth the trade-off. The fundraiser was for an organization that promotes literacy in the county and so there were word games you could play and I ended up winning the Scrabble game (each person could draw 7 letters and play the best possible word) so my time playing Words with Friends totally paid off!

Jack’s going through a clingy phase… he cries when I leave him at daycare again and tonight when the babysitter arrived, he came running out of his room, crying and saying,” I don’t want you to go, mommy!” What to do with this child? He is an unpredictable mystery to me.

Liam still loves kindergarten and still says recess is the best part, though he has nothing bad to say about it at all. He was telling me yesterday that if their lunch table was full that they could also sit at the peanut-free table. He takes a PB&J sandwich every day, I told him that he probably shouldn’t sit at the peanut-free table, hopefully somebody is monitoring it, wouldn’t want Liam causing anaphylactic shock. He does get to buy his lunch from time to time and the last time he was excited to tell me that he got a Gardenburger and he LOVED it! Hopefully no one will ever tell him that they are made out of vegetables.

And that’s all she wrote… look, a cute puppy:

Source: thechive.com via Ali on Pinterest

While I have no qualms about getting older and will happily tell people my age (33) there is an aspect of aging that kind of sucks… all the ailments and “health” issues that seem to pop up and be generally unavoidable. [And oh my gosh, now I’m going to talk about my ailments, call me Grandma Michelle.]

This is now one of the main topics of conversation when I get together with my friends – between that and our kids, we are pretty set, which is rather sad considering we obviously used to be able to talk about other things since the kids and health issues are relatively new to the scene. But that’s reality, we’re no desperate housewives. Healthwise, between us we’ve had two gall bladders removed, developed gluten aversions, wear hearing aids and have trouble digesting certain foods – to name a few (because the whole laundry list is just as uninteresting as the ones on this list).

As for me, I take iron because my hair falls out; calcium with Vitamin D to help maintain my bone density; Prilosec to combat heartburn and an ulcer. Not to mention Gas-X, a multivitamin, B-6 Complex and Biotin. I cannot see without my contacts, literally, I’m nearly blind. My knees randomly hurt and crack when I crouch down. I can’t sleep on my back because it makes my neck hurt and then I end up with the worst headache ever. I can’t sleep on my stomach because… well, that’s not a new thing, I’ve never been able to sleep on my stomach. The point is, these were things I never thought about 10 years ago – or even 5 years for that matter – and I kind of miss that state of unknowing bliss, when I took it all for granted because there was nothing bothering me (aside from my faulty tonsils that I got rid of 8 years ago).

But the scary thing is, in another ten years, I’ll probably look back at this decade and think that I had it so good. And I’ll probably be right. Because the odds are someone I know will get cancer or some other terrible, life-threatening disease and that is no joke. The problems just get bigger and the stakes higher. So right now I’m just going to be thankful for my little aches and pains and keep praying for unknowing bliss. Because there’s no going back and there’s go getting younger, despite what we see in magazines. But if I could wish for one thing, it would be for my hair to stop falling out because at some point, I’m going to go bald and I do still have my vanity.