Things to Look Forward to in the New Year

• Having a Mother-in-Law to get to know and possibly meet in a few weeks (it still feels like I'm part of some t.v. show)
• Working and contributing to the family income (something's gotta give at some point)
• Making a difference in the lives of the children I care for
• Possibly meeting a blogger friend
• Snow?
• Making birthday gifts for family and friends
• Being healthy and happy
• Enjoying time with my family
• Making friends
• Using my time to do things that fulfill me

Did You Hear Something? Up on the Rooftop?

Shhhhhhh! Santa is visiting our house a day early. It seems that he was running a bit ahead of schedule in our part of the world.

I think we'll have 2 very surprised kids in the morning. :)

Jingle, jingle, jingle, jingle...........

It must be getting closer to the holiday. Two of the four in our house are sick. At least I have everything purchased and wrapped. Now I just have to find the strength to make green rice krispy treats for the class party tomorrow. And remember to not cough while doing it. ;)

Is everyone else ready, or are you planning on braving the malls this weekend? If so, I wish you luck. You're going to need it.

One of my favorite Christmas memories............
My brother, sister, and I were all taking turns opening our presents on Christmas morning. It was my turn and my mom told me to pick out one of the gifts with my name on it. To: Roxanne From: Santa. It was written out in perfect cursive handwriting, just like all the other gifts from Santa and not like either of my parent's handwriting (yes, I was that inquistive). Just as I opened the box, my breath was taken away. It was the cutest and softest stuffed raccoon I had ever laid my eyes upon. I cuddled it up to my chest and buried my face into it. I was in heaven.

I was so lost in the moment that I hadn't noticed my mother's pleas. For some strange reason, she was telling me that this was NOT my gift. Huh? It had my name on it. It was in Santa's perfect handwriting. You must be mistaken (not exactly what I was thinking at the time.....more like "MINE, MINE, MINE!!"). No matter how much I protested, she still kept insisting that it was not my raccoon.

"How would YOU know? Santa's the one that picked it out for me, wrapped it, and put my name on the tag???!"

"Well, I think he made a mistake and put the wrong tag on it."

"How do YOU know?!"

"He told me."

*thinking, thinking, thinking*

*still with a death grip on the raccoon*

(my older brother and sister loved the fact that they still had something over on me with the whole Santa sham, so they were not going to devulge any info.)

"How did Santa tell you? Weren't you in bed when he came?"

"He asked me to help him wrap some of the gifts."

"I don't believe you. This is MY raccoon. It had my name on it."

*slowly releasing death grip, because I know who's truly in charge and it's NOT Santa*

I did eventually give up the raccoon, but I NEVER EVER let my sister thoroughly enjoy it. She, on the other hand and true to form, made it worse by rubbing it in at every opportunity, that that was HER raccoon and I was not to ever touch it. (I believe I snuck in a few cuddles here and there when she wasn't looking.)

Many years later, after having children of my own, I still can't believe that my mom chose to handle the situation the way she did. She says that she did it because we always had an equal amount of gifts and that if she hadn't have made me give it to the rightful owner (which is still questionable), then I would have had one more gift than my brother and two more than my sister. My guess is that it would have been less traumatic (and probably unnoticeable since us kids never actually counted our gifts), if I had had more gifts then if I had one ripped from my soul.

What do you think?

I invite everyone to write about their favorite Christmas memory, good or bad.
Have fun!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!!!!

More on High Heels

You know what those kinda shoes are good for? Getting revenge on your boyfriend. If he's cheating on you, you can kick him in the nuts."

-Jesse

(honestly, I do not make this stuff up.)

Hodge Podge

What do you get when you combine loud music, nacho chips and hot dogs and soda, and rampant teenage body odor? A junior high school dance, that's what!

I volunteered to help out at the dance (and, of course, reminded Bobby that I would not embarrass him. Not on purpose at least.)

I mostly helped out in the snack bar. The most popular items were candy, slush puppies, and Vault soda. Oh yes, the next generation is on the diet of champions. Wheaties, step aside.

Jesse went in to use the bathroom. Upon returning, she informed me that there are some very talented poets in junior high. "Guess what I read on the wall of the bathroom? It was soooooo gross!! Hickory dickory dock (do you see it coming....I didn't), Your mom sits on my cock." This was in the girl's bathroom, mind you. What sweet children.

On a more sentimental note, the relationship with the newest member of our family is progressing. She has called on the phone twice. The first call lasted an hour and a half long. She is going to call back tomorrow so she can get a chance to talk to me. I'm glad that she's a gabber so I can hold down my end of the conversation gracefully. The more emails and phone calls are made, the more similarities are discovered between Ron and his birth mom. This is all so new to him, but he is handling it much better than I ever would if it was me. I am going to do my best to let this be his journey, even though I am full of curiosity and enthusiasm. I know how huge this is for him and for her, too. Their lives will literally never be the same again. There is nothing that can take the place of finally meeting someone that you are related to genetically. I know that he has the kids and they mean the world to him. But for some reason, and I can't put it into words, this is something completely different. She is making some preliminary plans of coming here in January. Sort of a detour of an already planned trip to visit her mother who will be having surgery. I am so happy that she is willing and able to allow not just Ron, but the kids and I into her life. And I think that he is finally ready to reciprocate.

Lots to think about and digest. Until later........

Who's Your Momma? (and while we're at it.....Who's Your Daddy?)

Just a quick post before I put myself to bed. I believe we have a new member of the family. No, there wasn't any babies born recently. But there was one born almost 37 years ago and the person responsible for bringing that life into this world is alive and well and very, VERY excited at the prospect of developing a relationship. If you didn't get the gist of this yet, Ron's birth mom responded to his email. Let's just say, if you can tell anything about someone from a few emails back and forth, she seems like an awesome individual. And she's willing to let him guide how quickly or slowly their relationship progresses. And she never wanted to give him up for adoption. Just those few simple facts has already won him over (or at least convinced him not to run at full speed in the opposite direction). And I'm not exaggerating when I say that that is a HUGE DEAL.

Jesse: Yay! Now we have a new grandma!

Bobby: It's like we've found the missing piece to the puzzle.

Roxanne: (no words to express how I feel. Ecstatic, grateful, hopeful are the best I can come up with right now. And maybe YAY!)

These Three Things About Roxanne Are........(in the spirit of the season, think These Three Kings)

And because I promised Bearette I would, here's the meme she tagged me with. Better late than never, right?

3 things that scare me:

people who smoke while pumping gas
the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where the guys face melts
weird noises in the house late at night when my man is not in bed beside me


3 people who make me laugh:

my son
Wayne Brady
Carolyn


3 things I love:

my family
chocolate
hugs
(not necessarily always in that order)

3 things I hate:

hateful people
dogs that hump your leg
summers so hot that you literally feel like you're going to keel over and die

3 things I don't understand:

politics
computers
Paris Hilton (and I don't want to)


3 things on my desk:

stapler
paper clips
post it notes
(now that was boring, wasn't it?)


3 things I'm doing right now:

typing
thinking I really need to go take a swig of Nyquil and go to bed
listening to the cat's crunch, crunch, crunching on the food


3 things I want to do before I die:

learn how to surf without getting eaten by a shark (by the way, have you seen that girl from Hawaii that got her arm taken off and now she's competitively surfing again? You go girl!)
see my kids grow up into well mannered, generally happy with their lives, adults
meet some of mine and Ron's blogger friends

3 things I can do:

sew quilts by hand (aka: no machine necessary)
twirl a baton
pass gas in the aisle of a store and get outa there before anyone notices (or at least I hope so)

3 things I can't do:

fly a plane (although I would make an honest attempt if I were in a 2 person plane and the pilot suddenly lost all bodily functions)
shoot a gun (again, I would make an honest attempt if someone were trying to kill me and there happened to be a gun readily available)
speak a foreign language, not even pig latin (ix nay on the ig latin pay)


3 things I think you should listen to:


3 things you should never listen to:

annoying people that drain the life out of you in mere minutes
advice from well meaning people that know nothing about you or your situation
the annoying question guy that used to be on Wings


3 things I'd like to learn:

how to play the guitar
how to take apart and rebuild a computer (kidding!)
how to be more at ease with small talk

3 favorite foods:

ice cream
veggie lasagna
chocolate

3 beverages I drink regularly:

water
water
juice

3 shows I watched as a kid:

Sesame Street
Electric Company
Dukes of Hazzard (yeeeeee haw!)


3 people I'm tagging:

Suzy
Liz
Stu
(and if you don't want to, I won't take it personally. Seriously, just say, "screw it I'm too busy" and move on with your life)

Check this Out

It's a good thing I wasn't here a few days ago. You know, since I'm trying to stay away from processed foods and all. Because I would have SO had a ton of garbage bags and filling them so full that I had to drag them across the sand. I dream about stuff like this. Literally.

The Internet: A great way to meet up with friends, old and new

The internet is a strange thing.

I just recently found some old schoolmates by searching on MySpace (I don't usually go there because most of it is crap, but one of my best friends from high school is on there and so....). Anyhow, I attended high school in California yet I found a friend who lives in Indiana. It is close, but not THAT close. But the "small world" part of this story is that she has a close friend that she visits a few times a year that lives about 15 minutes from where I live. So, we are planning on meeting for lunch the next time she is in town. The other small world koinkydink is that her and her family used to be regular customers in the mom and pop store we owned back in the day. Weird.

I've "met" a very diverse group of people through blogging. Sometimes I feel like it's a waste of time if you're never going to meet any of these people in real life. But then I forget about that when Liz cracks me up with another one of her antics with wine bottles (or posts pictures of her darling child). Or when I get to share in the joy of someone's wedding day. Or the frustrations and joys of being a new parent. Or the goings on of city life and lots of cute dogs. Or the artistic talents and funny anecdotes of an Englishman. Or witnessing a prime example of what commitment really is. Or laughing my butt off at the sarcastic humor of a couple of fellow moms. Or the insightfulness of these fellow bloggers. Or the uniqueness, honesty and beauty (both inner and outer) of this gal. I've loved wasting many hours sharing in parts of your lives, whether they be funny, tragic, or intellectual thoughts. Whether we ever meet in person or not, I guess I don't really feel like that time was wasted at all. Especially with all the long distance support that you have given me from time to time. Every last comment has always meant a lot to me. (For some reason this has taken a really sappy turn for the worse, so let's move on shall we?)

And last, but not least, I may soon have a birth mom-in-law to add to the Christmas card list next year due to this weird thing we call the internet. Ron checked his classmates.com profile and the message that he sent to his birth mom months ago, was finally read. I have my fingers crossed that this turns out to be a positive thing for us.

**Disclaimer--If you were not mentioned above, it is not because you are not important enough, smart enough, or that people don't like you. It is simply an oversight on my part. My apologies. If you complain enough, I'll mention you next time.

Crater Face

Ever since Jesse's initial interest in not eating any more meat (which she has since given up), I became more interested in it myself. For quite a while, meat has kind of turned my stomach. The grease, the slime, sometimes the smell. And I always would end up feeling bloated and overstuffed after a big meal with meat and all the fixins.

And just in the past month or so, I was researching some natural remedies for acne treatment on the net. I think I've mentioned before my disgust at having acne and the beginnings of wrinkles. And the fact that I hate the way my face looks about 99% of the time. Instead of having break outs during "that time of the month", it is pretty much all month long.

I have not wanted to go the route of getting strong medications from the dermitologist. My sister took Retin-A in high school and it did some nasty things to her body. Her face eventually cleared up, but I don't want those side effects. I've done the Pro-Activ. It may be good for Jessica Simpson and Kelly Clarkson (and I'm sorry but those photos had to be close ups to even see their so-called acne). It somewhat sort of worked, but not enough to justify paying $40 a month and having massive amounts of the stuff stock piling in the cabinet. I've tried just about every over the counter product including some mild remedies like the Neutrogena bar and Cetaphil cream. No such luck. I still would have at least one to two large sized pimples (you know the kind that have a pulse...I'm not exaggerating) and a slew of small pesky ones.

So in my researching, I found a list of foods that are good for preventing acne and a list of foods that can cause acne. The list of good foods included foods that I mostly eat already. Among the list of bad foods was meat, dairy, sugar or sugary foods, and processed foods.

I had already been cooking mostly vegetarian meals (with scattered complaints) and so I decided to continue with the no meat thing. I was not willing to go to the extent of cutting out dairy, since that is a large portion of the protein sources I've been using. Plus I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE cheese and am not willing to give it up. I also have a sweet tooth, but try to defray that by having Hershey's dark chocolate kisses around and grab a few when the urge hits. Processed foods are a little bit easier to weed out for me. I've been making more of an effort of not purchasing the processed goodies, which is not easy in a household of snackers who think they have to have stuff around to crunch and munch on.

Sooooo, while in the meat isle of Sam's Club, I (very quickly) passed through. This is when I finally admitted that I was not willing to cook meat (since I mostly cook dinner) for the family. I figure that if I'm the one cooking, it should be something that I am going to enjoy. Right?

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to force the veg thing on everyone. And I haven't religiously cut out meat. But I have consciencely attempted to find other protein sources, even when we eat out. Which is not easy, by the way. This is Ohio. There are not exactly vegetarian restaurants on every corner (or even in every neighborhood). I have continued to eat fish, which conviently the rest of the family likes, so I suppose I'm going for the Pesco-Vegetarian status.

I didn't want to turn this into a huge deal, especially since at least half of the family are ravenous carnivores. And I don't think I've tried to push too many wierd dishes off on them so far. We've only had tofu twice in the last few months (which was quite yummy in fact). Lots of quiche, which Jesse devours and Bobby runs screaming from the kitchen at the sight of (he has never liked eggs even as a baby). I've got some pancake and waffle recipes that use mostly eggs and cottage cheese (shhhhh, don't tell the egg hater). I think my favorite new dish so far has been the sweet potato and peanut soup recipe that I procured from Bearette (thanks, btw). I made enough that it lasted all week. Mmmmmm.

So, does anyone have ideas on how veggies and carnivores can happily sit down at the same table without the cook working overtime?

As far as the Great Acne Desimation Experiment, I think it just might be working. Besides the food changes, there were also suggestions of drinking plenty of water and zinc supplements. I have always been a water drinker, but I have tried to consciencely step it up a bit. I had tried taking 50 mg. of zinc which didn't seem to be doing it after about a month. So I upped it to the maximum suggestion of 100 mg. Since then, I haven't had any huge outbursts, which is quite miraculous. If all goes well, I just might have to post a picture and prove that there really is a person behind all these words.

It's Beginning to Smell a Lot Like Christmas....La, La, La, La,La

We cut down our tree on Saturday

Had some piping hot apple cider after freezing our behinds off at the tree farm

Put the tree up on Sunday and decorated it while listening to Christmas tunes

Built a fire in the fireplace

Wore Santa hats while decorating the tree

Shopped for a few presents to donate to the school's toy drive

Shopped at Sam's Club for groceries and had an interesting conversation about vegetarianism in the meat isle (where I finally outed myself as a non-religious vegetarian)

Ate candy canes

Waited for snow to start falling

**What did you do to get ready for the holiday?**

Working Overtime

Here we go again. I'm going to try a new strategy. The child care referral line that I am listed with let me know (after I inquired) that evening and weekend care is the most needed type. I'm guessing that it's partly because most daycare centers do not offer these hours and there are a lot people that work retail and/or second shift jobs. So I am now going to offer these hours (minus the weekends). If I do get the job that I interviewed for, I can still work that one during the day and do the daycare in the afternoon to evenings. If it doesn't work out for me or the fam, we can always adjust later. But for now, I NEED SOME FREAKING INCOME! And I think switching from one to the other will make it seem like I'm not working that many hours in a day.

So here's where you guys come into the picture.

My new ad. Since the last one did not produce results (and after mulling it over, I think it may have been a little too much "out there").

Farm Friends Daycare in Xxxxxxx

Now offering evening care with flexible hours. Loving home environment. We have bunnies to cuddle and activities to keep your child busy and learning. Call today to join our family. (666) 555-6655.

Constructive criticism?