A Wii Obsession

Last year, miraculously, Santa was able to get his hands on a Wii to give the cherubs for Christmas. It was an extremely exciting gift, and has led to hours and hours of family fun. I personally happen to hate all manner of games, especially video games, but the rest of the fam loves it. So I am a fan.

Until tonight anyway. All three of the kids desperately wanted to play each other, then Daddy, then each other again, then Daddy, then each other.......you get the picture. And all I wanted to do was sit and watch a taped episode of "Wife Swap".

But I lost the battle and on they played. If you don't have a Wii, one of the most fun things is to make your own "Mii" which can be your "guy" when you play the Wii. The features that you can use, like hair color, nose shape, eye shape, etc. are really amazing.

And I won't tell you what my Mii looks like, and of course I didn't make it, the King did.

What's that? You really want to know what my Mii looks like? Well, I'll give you a hint. I'm cute, blond and my mouth is open in the shape of an "o". Yes, the King is a pig.

Anyway, tonight the King and Matt decided to make a Mii of Fergie, the dog we adopted over the summer. So down they sat, pouring over the options, when Matt stood up, ran to the dog and said "Hey Fergus, what color are your eyes? Stick them out for me!"

I laughed for 20 minutes.

The Little Things, Part 2

I love my kids, but they can really drive me crazy. They are so "up in my business" sometimes that I want to just freak right out. Sometimes I scream when they are talking to me - I really do, I admit it.

But I discovered another simple thing today.

This afternoon I took two of the three cherubs to Target because Grace had just had a pretty traumatic trip to the orthodontist after school. This was the "xray/molds" visit, which if you know about the molds, can be pretty yucky. Well, couple that with a nervous kid and you get kind of a messy situation. Let's just say we had to step out of the office a time or two to calm down, take some breaths, etc.. In the end she admitted that she was much more worked up than she needed to be, which is good because we go back tomorrow morning for ANOTHER set of molds. Yup, another.

Anyway, I thought a trip to Target for a little treat was in order. And what did my darling girl want from all of the options at Target? New markers and a pad of paper.

I haven't seen either one of the devils for about 90 minutes now - they have been upstairs coloring. I LOVE THAT!

Simple people, simple.

It's the Little Things

It cracks me up that it is really the little things in life that matter.

Every day, I feel like I do a million things for my family and for others too. I cook great meals, I keep the house spic and span, I run the kids around like crazy all day, I volunteer so much I should sit on my hands when people are looking for helpers......you know how it is.

But really, while those things are great, it can be even more simple.

Last night, I put the kids dinner on the table, realized we had no milk because I hadn't been to the store in three days, and I took a frozen can of Minute Maid Orange Juice from the freezer. As I was getting out the pitcher, Matthew said "Hey Mom, is that the kind of orange juice you make yourself?"

"Yup." I said.

People, it was like these kids just won the lottery.

"Yahoo! Yeah! That is our FAVORITE!"

Matthew even said "Mom, you are the best mother ever! I just love you!"

All this for making a can of frozen oj. Who knew!

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Time Gets Away

Some of you have commented on how incredibly lame my posts have been lately - or I should say, my lack of posts. You couldn't be more correct. I have been lame.

And I have all the best intentions. I sit down, attempt to put up some pictures to go with a post, the computer locks up, the pictures get placed in the wrong spots, I get mad and I walk away from the computer without putting up a single word.

Last week though my very helpful sister Krissa walked me through getting a picture up, and (here is the key) being able to move it where I want it. Others have tried to help me with this (thanks Jenn! I'm dumb though) to no avail. But she did it! And the result were those two random pics of my family with my cousin's family at the beach, and the pic of Matt and Fergie taking a nap. Whatever.

This week is a new week, and I will have a new attitude.

And since I don't have three parent teacher conferences, three shifts working at the school book fair, floor time at my real estate office, a PTA meeting to take notes at, an election to vote in, a book club meeting to go to, and six different practices to get kids to after school I should be in much better shape this week.

THE Party!!!!!

The weekend before Halloween, my sister Jenna and my brother-in-law Sam had their annual Halloween party, which has become a huge event and they spend immense amounts of time decorating and planning for it. Each year it gets better, and this was just amazing.

Let me set the scene for you:

You enter the party through the side gate which leads you into the alley which has been transformed into a white billowing gateway - to heaven. Heaven is the courtyard, which you can see in the two pics below.


This is what heaven looks like - can you even believe this?

When you enter heaven, there is Dean Martin music playing, a table filled with glasses of champagne, and out pops St. Peter, dressed to the nines in his white tux, halo and wings. When Dan and I came in he greeted us with a warm hello, asked us how our trip was, and handed us glasses of champagne. After exchanging a few more pleasantries, he asked us to sign in and pointed to the guest book on the table.

Dan signed us in, St. Pete took back the book and began to do some checking. But something was wrong. Looking troubled, he uncomfortably told us that we actually "weren't on the list". "Oh, this is awkward", he said. "I really hate when stuff like this happens guys. But unfortunately, I'm going to have to ask you to step "that" way." And he pointed to a black area that looked horrible compared to heaven. But forward we went.

The alley lined with black sheets and creepy sounds and things hitting you in the face led to the cemetery. (Are you getting the picture here folks? Yes, we were going through purgatory straight to hell.....how clever is that?) At the other end of the creepy walk, you enter a graveyard.

Here is a picture of it, and the light in the back coincided with the crashing sounds of thunder in the background. There is a body hanging there that gets lit up when the lightening strikes, but it didn't come out well in this shot. Sorry. But see the hand coming up from the grass? This is just one example of the many many things that you might not even notice on your first walk through but you see more and more with each look around.

This is a coffin filled with shots - you have to do one before you can proceed. I did two.


Jenna and Sam's house is perfect for a party like this. Two big courtyards, the one below is where the party is really held, make such a great party atmosphere.

Heads floated in the pool.................

In this picture, awards are being given for best costumes......my sister Jenna is the one holding the envelope.

This is St. Pete and one of the best costumes - John Bobbit (note the bloody crotch and in the bag he is holding is a sausage carved to look like his weiner). How great is that!

This is Sam and another party-goer - note his cool white contacts. Freaky.

Great job guys! Can't wait for next year!!!!!