Category Archives: Random

Thank goodness for four-day weeks! Though it will make next week seem that much longer! Ugh!

Here’s a bunch of randomness for you…

• This morning as Liam and I were getting ready to leave and Liam was giving Simon hugs and kisses, Jack walked up to them and asked for one. Thinking he meant to bestow them on Simon, I said, “No, you’re staying home with daddy, come give mommy hugs.” And Jack said, “No, I want hugs and kisses from Liam!” Too cute. Moments like those give me hope that they do love each other 😉
• I watched Thor last night while I was riding the exercise bike – nothing like Chris Hemsworth’s super cut body to make you cycle faster. Am still annoyed with Natalie Portman in general – why do people like her?
• I got the following three spam comments from “people” named Werner, Earl and Waldo:
  • I simply want to tell you that I’m very new to weblog and really loved you’re blog. Very likely I’m planning to bookmark your blog post . You surely come with outstanding articles and reviews. Bless you for sharing your website page.
  • I just want to say I am all new to blogs and certainly liked this web-site. Very likely I’m planning to bookmark your blog post . You amazingly come with amazing articles. Regards for revealing your web site.
  • I simply want to tell you that I’m newbie to weblog and definitely liked your web site. Very likely I’m likely to bookmark your website . You amazingly have perfect articles. Thanks for sharing your website page.
• Do you think they all came from the same spam bot? Hmmm… I appreciate the small variations, but read all together it’s amusing to me. I do hope they follow through on their promise to “very likely” bookmark my blog, I love “regards for revealing” my website.
• I’ve been getting PT for my neck because I haven’t been able to sleep on my back for over two years without waking up with a horrible headache and knots in my neck that last a few days and I’d like to be able to sleep on my back again. It’s me with a bunch of older folks at the clinic I go to so at least I appear very healthy, though one of them asked me why I was there and I said for my neck and he asked how I hurt it and I had to admit it was from sleeping. Since yesterday I have been sporting some “cool” athletic tape, similar to the stuff the Olympic athletes would be wearing, which makes me feel superior sporty until I recall my injury is sleep related. The PT is helping slightly but I still can’t sleep on my back, fingers crossed that will change.
• Also, I am such a procrastinator that it took me over two years to finally look into a solution for my problem. Either that or I’m not a complainer, but that’s probably not it.
• When Liam got in the car yesterday after school, I asked about his day and he said, “I’ll tell you about it later.” When I reminded him of that this morning, he said, “I’ll tell you something: we had recess.” Thank you, dear, for that riveting insight into your day. [Note: He did tell us other things without our asking, like he has a kid in his class who just moved here from Mexico so he doesn’t speak English and the Dylan in his class isn’t the same Dylan from his preschool two years ago, but that Dylan is in another teachers’ class. Also, he loves his teacher once again.]
• Does anyone else have to really think through what daylight savings time means each time it happens… I have to take a moment and think, okay… fall back, that means that the kid’s normal bedtime will feel like it’s an hour later… oh, this means they’ll go to bed easier [bonus] but will also wake up earlier [opposite of bonus]. I do believe I prefer falling back to springing forward, my kids have been giving me trouble with bedtime since the time change in the spring, for real.
• I’m hoping to convince my kids to be angry birds again this Halloween… keep your fingers crossed on that one as well.
• Women’s Retreat is coming up next weekend… cannot wait… don’t care at all what Simon does with the boys while I am gone (especially since my mom will be here half the time and he was gone for three weeks), hopefully we can argue this still makes me a good mother since I am taking time for myself, this is a good thing.
• I totally sliced off the skin on the side of my ankle shaving last Friday and it still hurts. “Injuries” like that make me so mad because it’s not like I haven’t been shaving my legs for somewhere around two DECADES and still I do stupid things. Dumb.
• The only reason I want to fast forward through fall is to get through the election… I’ve been done with political coverage since, well, ever. I don’t believe a thing any politician says – I watched too much West Wing – and at least there is less talking once the election is over (for at least six months until it seems to start again – it’s like when stores come out with Christmas stuff in October, or September).
• The following epitomizes my best relationships:
  

This might not have the same ring to it as other randoms, Saturday Randoms just doesn’t seem to work.

• Jack keeps randomly saying something along the lines of “My hands/legs/belly/body feel fluffy” in a tone that indicates this is an unwelcome feeling. Each time I look at him when he says this, hoping I don’t find he has something unsavory smeared on that body part, and each time the skin is clean and clear and I am relieved. But I wish I could figure out what he meant by fluffy.
• I’ve found a new protein source for Jack – Zone bars, because he thinks they are candy bars.
• Liam wrapped up his summer program on Wednesday and when I asked him what his favorite thing was from the school age program, he said, “My teachers because they were so nice and fun and liked to talk to me.” Melt my heart. And also, success!!
• Now that the summer program is wrapped up, Liam is intent on getting to come to work with me, though I am not sure what he thinks I do there and why he thinks it would be fun. We do have a box of toys in our front bookshelf but that will only entertain him so long. I do think that on Monday, Simon will drop him off here and we’ll see how much fun he has.
• I’m eagerly awaiting fall television season kick off… though the new television of the summer has not left me lacking. [In all honesty, I’m just missing my guilty pleasure of watching new episodes of The Vampire Diaries, there, I admitted it (once again).]
• In prepping for Sandy’s shower, Stephenie and I have realized how deprived of crafting we must have been because we are going a little nuts (or maybe just me) but I love “branding” things and adding creative and thoughtful details. I told Simon, it’s like getting ready for our wedding all over again, I’m not sure whether or not that offended him – I assure you, honey, our wedding was a much bigger deal! I can’t wait for the shower to celebrate Sandy and Baby Girl Hop!!! Doing things = my love language.
• I’ve thus* far avoided any political commentary on Facebook, I just refuse to make political or religious statements in that media outlet, which is not to say I don’t make statements of faith but faith and religion are not synonymous, sometimes related, but not the same thing. [*Note to autocorrect, this is an instance where I would use the word “thus.”]
• Am considering a juice cleanse. Is this crazy? I don’t think so. I could use a chance to break my Diet Coke and coffee habit (also my bread and cheese habit, though it is much less “necessary” to my daily life).
• A woman in the office across the hall has been bringing her 8-week-old apricot-colored, golden-doodle to work with her. His name is Oscar and he is afraid of the front door and oh-my-gosh, he is adorable. Freaking adorable. I want one. [Dear George, I know you can’t read (or use the Internet) but know that I still love you.]
• We still don’t know who Liam will have as a teacher this year, school starts in 12 days. Thankfully my kid is very go-with-the-flow and doesn’t get anxious about such things, but it would be nice to know. I’m hoping he’ll get the one male teacher, we shall see.
• I won two things this week, which makes me think I need to enter a third thing to see what I could win… my winning endeavors were a box of goodies from Sugar Momma’s and the winning 100th caption at my friend’s awesome website Ya Don’t Say. I’m thinking of picking this print as my prize.
• I had a skin tag frozen off at the doctor this week… the only thing really notable about that was that because it was on my upper inner thigh, it was a little too close to an area I’d really prefer to keep liquid nitrogen away from. I had a moment’s pause about my doctor’s skill and then went ahead and hoped for the best. I survived with all my bits in tact. I’m sure you are pleased to know this (unless you are my dad or brothers, in which case you never want to speak of thus again). It’s my blog and I’ll blog about what I want to…
• I feel I ought to confess that I have a Justin Bieber CD sitting on my laptop. It’s not mine (honest), I borrowed it from Stef so I could make a copy (true story). You could judge me but then you’d have to admit you downloaded a Phil Collins song or a Wilson Phillips album and also sing along to Snoop DoggLion.

According to my handy url generator, this is the fourth time I’ve written a post entitled Thursday Randoms, which is completely apropos of nothing, so there you have it, welcome to Thursday Randoms #4!

• I had watermelon yesterday that made my mouth feel simultaneously wet and dry – why and how?
• Also, who do I complain to when my “seedless” watermelon still has seeds, sure they are tiny, but I still don’t want to eat them.
• My apologies if ever you see me on the road and I don’t notice you – I sat behind Heidi at a stop light yesterday, noticing the Taylor alumni license plate holder and M22 sticker – thinking both these things related to Heidi – and it wasn’t until we turned the corner and she turned onto her road that I realized it was indeed Heidi.
• I had my blood drawn yesterday (blood tests for old people reasons like checking iron and cholesterol levels) and it made me wonder how many times phlebotomists have the same conversation in a day. Her: I can’t believe summer is almost done. Me: Me either… [ramble on about school starting.] Blood draw done. Her: You’re all set… Then the next person comes in and it starts again. I wonder if they decide at the beginning of each day what their leading question of the day will be.
• We may or may not camp out Friday night in our friends’ backyard, depends on whether I can borrow a tent because I’m totally okay with a camp out, but I do require some sort of structure to sleep in.
• Trying to figure out what activities my boys will do for the fall, which makes me just not want to do any activities… can someone please be my activities coordinator and just tell me when and where to show up?
• It is mid-August. Crap. = The thought that runs through my mind at least five times a day.
• I am trying some different salad toppings to mix things up (my life, it is exciting; you are jealous, I know), this week’s new additions: cracked hemp seed and alfalfa sprouts. My previous add-in was soybeans, love.
• Based on the song Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson, iTunes created a delightful Genius Mix that included Two Step (DMB), Sweetest Thing (U2), The Hardest Part (Coldplay) and Babylon (David Gray) and 46 other songs, none of them by women, except one by Feist, one by Regina Spektor and one by Colbie Caillat – that’s strange, right? [Please do not mention that it is strange that I noticed that.]
• We attended a birthday party with slip and slides and a pool Tuesday evening, the boys had a blast, but apparently we need to reiterate to Jack that even though he is wet and wearing a swim suit, he shouldn’t just stand in people’s yards with his legs spread and announce he is peeing. And he most definitely shouldn’t do it three times.
• Jack is totally the kid that people’s husbands love because he is pretty rough and tumble with a dose of impishness (people in general love Jack, but men don’t always particularly love other peoples’ kids); to wit, Tuesday night Jack got a 5-inch scrape on his stomach and got hit in the head with a contractor’s bucket that was dropped from the jungle gym and despite a few tears, he kept running around and making faces that cracked up Sandy’s husband. Nothing can keep that kid from going for the laugh.
• My nephew, Mitch, is leaving for college… the very same nephew who puked on me within minutes of meeting me for the first time (for which I forgave him, hence yesterday’s pictures of my smitten stares) and thinking about it makes me tear up. Like real tears. Sniff… how can that boy be so old?
• George has kept his scarf from grooming on for the past couple days and this morning I decided to mess with him a little and put in on him like a bonnet. He was not amused.

It’s about time for a random list… I’m sad that I’ve forgotten quite a few things I’ve wanted to report to you over the past month…

• We saw The Dark Knight Rises Sunday night – it was pretty fabulous. Well acted, well directed, well written. The whole package, a non-stop action movie I can get behind.
• All the previews before the movie were squarely in Simon’s movie-enjoying wheelhouse: Taken 2, a new take on Total Recall (with his fave actress, Kate Beckinsale) and The Expendables 2 (a movie with Chuck Norris, Jean-Claud Van Damme, Sly Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jet Li, Jason Stratham and [laughably] Liam Hemsworth — side note: they were just showing the actors’ last names in the preview and it said Hemsworth and I said to Simon, “Liam or Chris?” referring to Miley Cyrus’ fiance or THOR, and then said, “Must be Chris” looks like I was WRONG).
• Prior to going to the movie, I thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt played the SUPER creepy bad guy because of a strange presentation/voice he had done at an awards show, but the bad guy was actually Tom Hardy – my new celebrity crush (don’t tell my hubby; Simon, forget you read this).
• Anne Hathaway is convincing in her leather bad-girl outfit, I asked Simon how many times he thought they asked her shoot a scene where she got on Batman’s motorcycle… you know the director was like, “Anne, we really need you do that just one more time. Um kay, thanks.”
• When the movie ended I couldn’t help but think of the shooting in Aurora and how horrible it all is and was… people just wanting to enjoy a movie, an escape from reality and some deranged individual messes up so much for so many. You can’t help but think of them when you’re in a movie theater, but especially when you’re seeing the movie they were there to see. Prayers lifted.
• We are apparently going to have to have a chat with Liam on appropriate conversation topics with girls, he told my friend’s daughter that “‘Chinas’ are another kind of bottom and also another country.” Mr. Know-It-All, the word you were looking for was “vagina.” Thankfully we could all laugh about it but oh my.
• Jack and Liam both got to have dates on Saturday… chaperoned by yours truly. Jack and his friend, Jadyn, are having great potty training success so as a reward, they got to go to Spoonlickers – a local fro yo place with multiple flavors and unlimited toppings. Liam and Maggie got to have a past-bedtime date to The Civic Theatre for Schoolhouse Rock Live! – so fun!
• During Jack’s “date” he and Jadyn were walking, holding hands and she says, “I just tooted in my undies.” And Jack replied, “You have to be careful not to toot too hard or you could poop in your undies.” Such a charmer (and another know-it-all).
• We kept ourselves busy when Simon was gone with many playdates (and a variety of babysitters to cover my work time) and now I think my kids need a little socializing detox because they ask daily who we are going to see that day and what we are going to do.
• You know what is awesome – waking up from a dead sleep at 1 am to find your 3-year-old standing in front of you with an actively bloody nose. More awesome is then having to spend the rest of the night with said 3-year-old in your bed, using you as a pillow/punching bag/footrest.
• I feel like is my American duty to have the Olympics on when we are at home. Even if I can’t handle the stress. I need to desensitize myself to feeling bad when people lose, I am never going to meet these athletes and their not winning impacts me about ZERO so why do I care that they are heartbroken? It must mean I have a BIG heart. Or other issues.
• I love hearing Jack pipe up his song request from the backseat, “What Makes You Bootifuwl, pweese!”
• Also love Jack speaking “Spanish” as he is convinced he can do… what it really is, is his spouting gibberish, often to the tune of a nursery rhyme/song. When you ask where he learned Spanish, he’ll say, “Dora.” And then Liam has to add, I know Spanish and he’ll say the words for “above” and “below.” My kids are multilingual… they know English, Australian and Spanish.
• Want to start a poll about how long it will take Simon to unpack his bags from Australia? I only ask because I finally finished unpacking the carry-on I took with me to Australia (from January) just the weekend before Simon got back from Oz. Whoops. Procrastinators unite… tomorrow!
• Maggie (Liam’s date from Saturday) can’t quite pronounce Lee-um but instead calls him “Lamb” and I love it – it’s so cute!
• Liam LOVED his first sleepover at daycare… they stayed up past 10 pm, went swimming, had popcorn and watched Little Rascals (which he first told me was called “Little Stinkers”) and in the morning he got to have a donut hole, a donut, a waffle and juice! Score. I’m glad I got him there on the right night in the end.
• This coming weekend we’re away at my niece’s cottage with my family can’t wait for simultaneous beach time and family bonding – we always have a great time when everyone is together, when we’re not picking on each other.
• Also, today is the last day of July and school starts in a little over a month and Liam will be 6 next week! Aaack!

That’s it for now… there is still so much but you’ll just have to wait or never get to hear about it in case my brain never remembers it.