the whole story....

point being, "don't get your panties in a bunch, things don't get solved that way." i should take some of my own advice.

In a little white house,
All warm and cozy,
There lived 2 small cats,
Named Eras and Sophie.

Sophie was sweet,
soft and kissy,
Eras was not,
he was throwing a hissy.

"Eras!," said Sophie,
"whatever's the matter?"
"My red ball is GONE!,"
he said with a chatter.

Sophie said quickly,
"We need to think."
Her face then lit up,
"have you looked under the sink?"

"I looked here, I looked there,
I looked under the sink,
I'm throwing a hissy,
and i cannot think!"

Sophie thought again,
and put her paws in the air.
"Eras!," she said,
"have you looked under the chair?"

"I looked here, I looked there,
I looked under the chair,
I'm throwing a hissy,
and I do not care!"

Calmly Sophie sat down,
letting out a big sigh,
when she looked to the right,
something red caught her eye.

Eras walked over slowly,
at almost a crawl,
"Hey!," he yelled out,
"right there is my ball!"

"Yes," Sophie said.
"Aren't you glad i'm your sissy?"
"I am," Eras replied.
"You stayed calm, and did not throw a hissy."

so much butt was kicked

yesterday between me playing j.d. salinger, and craig playing the iron chef... :)
mmmm... potato soup and seasoned potato wedges!
oh, and i played lady gaga in the car yesterday too, except for lottie i sing, "poopa, poopa-razzi."

it's no catcher in the rye.

but i wrote a book. kinda. a children's book for my daughter, starring her 2 estranged siblings, eras and sophie. (my old cats.. we gave them away to a great owner who is doting on their every wish)

i actually started this book 3 years ago, when i had my nanny job. i cannot believe it's just been sitting around! i started illustrating it, and not really knowing what to do with it. fast forward 3 years and some odd months later, and i'm married and have a toddler. so, i dedicated it to charlotte, and layed the pages out in shutterfly (we had a giftcard) and am going to give it to her for xmas. a book, illustrated and written by her mommy.

yes i realize

that a few posts down i was preaching to be happy with what you have,... BUT i got a 30 percent off coupon for old navy/gap from a friend....(oh you want it? here it is!) <-clickie

so i got a few key pieces for myself (yes i got some stuff for other people too, i'm not completely selfish) but i love the look of scarves and these short sleeved button up sweaters. i'm in LOVE with sweaters this year and i have really... none. gotta do something about that. how pretty is my new gap scarf?

a little superficial wishin'

that i win these on ebay.

how awesome are these??

back to basics.

I just read this quote and I really need to learn to live by it.

"If you seek some special life outside daily activities, that is like brushing aside waves to look for water."

-Unknown


I'm interpreting it as we all need to find beauty in the mundane. I constantly (and I mean constantly) question my talent, my intelligence, my looks, my cooking skills, my worth as my husband's wife, my mothering skills, ... Basically anything that makes me, well, me.

I always think, I could be doing "more" to make myself more interesting - but just by being me, that's special enough. I know this could very easily turn into a stuart smalley post.. "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and goshdarnit, people like me." I know that if I peaked into the lives of people I envy from afar, I'd probably click my heels 3 x's and want my own life back. I have enough spinning in my head to not include somebody else's spinning as well.

A friend and fellow blogger posted about people settling for their mates,and having the 2.5 kids and the "dream" and why she isn't chasing the dream right now... Because people who force it are miserable. And who wants to live out their adult life with somebody you forced into marriage, or a relationship that was really never meant to work in the first place? It all made total sense. Except that unlike a lot of people, I have the pleasure of being in love. And having "adult love." and hopefully, we'll never ever hurt each other.

I think that's where a lot of people get confused. They confuse adult love for the mundane. The "boring" and can't see past that smoke screen of wanting and needing more, more more, and take each special gift for what it is. I mean really, that's where we are as a society. Just look on any corner and you'll see a ridiculous amount of choices. HM? Starbucks or mccafe? Arby's or wendy's? Macy's or sears? It's all VERY indulgent. And pretty ridiculous.

In short, lets get back to basics people. Quit taking your kid to chucky cheese's and buying all those video games and go take a romp in the leaves.

radom things

i saw a lady carving the pittsburgh skyline out of cheese today on my lunchbreak

my arm is killing me from my flu shot. (*ouch*)

red robin is really YUM (gratuitous lottie shot at red robin)

it was a dark and stormy night....

So yesterday we took the baby over to gammy and pappy spec's neighborhood to trick or treat... I was a bit aprehensive (for sure) about how this would go down. In my mind, I was thinking we'd float from house to house and maybe she'd skip? (which, she kinda did!- that's us skipping in the one picture)

Well, right when we were leaving, I was like, "ok, where's her sack?!" "I don't know, don't you have it?" so back to get the sack. As craig went into the house, I noticed that his neighbor had on a devil mask and was making children cry. AWESOME!!! I thought that should be our first house.

So captain sack comes back and we head over to the first house. Their neighbor whose porch had caught on fire, and as she was going over details of the fire, "umm hmmm. Oh my, the tv caught the whole place on fire?... Oh wow. Wow WOW WOW." secretly, in my head I was thinking, this whole trick or treat thing is not going to go down well. Lottie was squirming and flipping out, wanting to be held. And I wanted to just have a great time. The time in my head I had pictured with my little sweetie opening her bag and then cooing, "BYE BYE!" as we walked away. Hm.

Enter, the 2nd house. Still not too sure about all this, and the guy didn't even have his DEVIL MASK ON. I was all, "where's the DEVIL mask?!" and he said he was scaring kids... Um, YEAH. That's the POINT. Oh well.

So literally around the 4th house, our little genius catches on that they are giving out CANDY. And it's for HER. To put in her SACK. That is on her ARM. And then, it was all gravy baby. We even heard a few, "BYE BYE's!" and "TANK YOUUUUU's" - my halloween dream come true.

I think I love this mom stuff.

the patch

we took lottie to her first pumpkin patch (or, "punkin") and she liked it i think! aside from the insanely priced punkins.... and food, it was fun. we even did a hayride and watched how cider was made. the pony ride was NOT a hit, so 5 points deducted from my report card. which leaves me with about a B- lately. although, i did clean up the poop water from her small blue bathtub AND the corn that was stuck in the drain. (girl you need the CHEW your food.) so, add 5 points and we're back to where we started.

Here's a picture that makes me smile.. I need to smile lately.
Aside from wrecking my husbands car, october depresses me. I know a lot of people love fall, and I am more "in like" with fall. Like, if fall called me, I'd let it come over for dinner, but I wouldn't let it be my boyfriend.

punkin' patch

so, craig thinks it's funny that i say "punkin" - he thinks people will think i'm dumb.

HOWEVER, i think saying, "PUNKIN'" instead of "PUMPKIN" is adorable.

here's our punkin's. i don't swear on this blog, but we f*ckin' rocked it this year.

we've been devastated.

craig's aunt, eileen, has passed away after a long battle with numerous ailments.

i think that it's most shocking because there have been so many ups... but the downs went fast and furious.

she was such a trooper. this woman made our day, and in many ways i think we took her for granted. she visited our new home when we bought it back in 06' and brought a columbia fleece blanket that i sleep with. i don't sleep with it covering me, like a regular cover, but i hold it in my arms and in a way, it's kind of my "blankie." it means that much more to me now that she's passed.

when lottie was born, she was right there, by my side, literally in the room where i gave birth with blood still on the floor! (i was so embarrassed by that!) minutes after lottie was born, she got to hold her. she brought her a blanket that is the softest blanket ever, and i still have it folded in lottie's cupboard, not sure i want her to get her sticky fingers all over it, that's how beautiful it is.

even when she was sick, she was always thinking of others, and how they would feel..back in april, she called our home phone on the day we celebrated lottie's birthday -(wishing me a happy birthday too! us april babies always stuck together) telling me she was too sick to come and was that ok? ugh.... she should've known it was ok. i was more concerned about her.

my one regret is that when we went to see her in the cleveland clinic that i was too overcome by emotion to whisper into her ear all of this, how she always made me feel comfortable and loved. accepted even.

i will always remember her for the following reasons:

-being a mom of 3 boys and still being able to relate to us girlies

-being a strong woman who never compromised her beliefs or opinions

-sticking up for her mother in times when her mother felt pulled in 2 directions

-her awesome, perfectly manicured toenails (she always had them done!) i'm way to lazy for that.

always ALWAYS thinking of us, from silly emails we'd share (yes i still have them all!) to things for "princess lottie" as she called her. :)

eileen, you were an amazing woman, loved by so many it's evident. the best are needed in heaven, this is proof.

(the pic is from last xmas and lottie "opening" the presents from eileen)

...get your motor runnin...

...head out up the driveway....

oh my...

you never know what is floating around there, on the internet. lol.

(yes, i know these people and i vaguely remember what is was for...)

come to jesus

i've been following stephanie nielson for a few years now. she is an amazing woman.

she loves her family. she loved her life... please, check her out. she's a lady worth watching.

she's suffered burns on 80% of her body... well i got a dumb burn tonight, from a glue gun, and it was probably less than 1% of my THUMB.

she was recently on oprah! me and several other people actually wrote to oprah, and guess what? it WORKED. her story got told. and i could not have been happier. i guess.... life is funny. or, cruel. but her husband christian worked through broken ribs and a broken back to save her from her airplane. i could only hope that my "mr nielson" would do the same for me.

this is a true love story. these 2 people truly love each other. even though i think that later day saints are not quite the people i'd like to model my life after... after learning from these 2, i'm not quite so sure i'm right in my way of thinking.

i cannot begin to understand what this family has gone through, but love to watch their love grow.

i thought it would be easy

but it isn't! making a salad for 50+ people, i can only imagine what my mom is going through.

you see, my sister's wedding reception is at my mother's house. i asked what i could help with, and somehow, we came upon agreement of a salad... well, this is an extensive program. cutting, washing, seasoning, wow. lol. and i wanted to make sure i had the best salad EVER. since this is my only sister.

so, this is from almost start, to the finish. i includes dried dates... i love dried dates in my salad don't you?

now i'm nervous.

my sis is married...

neato! a little wedding in the freezing rain. and afterwards, i realized i do NOT like lamb. next time i'm stickin' with chickin'.

tomorrow is the reception and i'm a little freaked out abt making a salad for 50+ people!

i have to decorate my "bride and groom" scarecrows tonight... i hope my glue gun has glue!