me in kindergarten

AWWWWWWWW! maybe i'll use this as my profile image. look at those curls (before they became frizzy, annoying and unruly)!! i always thought that h looked 100% like his dad, but looking at this i can see his pointed little chin and his little bunny teeth. well, since he lost his baby teeth and the big ones are growing in (crooked) not so much.

anyhow, just thought i'd share.

all my children

okay, here are my favorite christmas pictures of each of my children, male, feamle, and canine. the one of jane is with her look-alike, s made it at build-a-bear with her christmas money from great-grandma & grandpa. she also loves their website and plays the little interactive games. h's picture is just pure reaction... he had such fun opening presents. s's picture is when she didn't WANT me to take her picture, and the look is pure teenager. a special thanks to lotusflower for the precious dress she is wearing.

we've had a relaxing few days with little event. lots of game and toy playing; all the kids are outside now playing king kong. i'm sure h has taken the title role, casting jane as a t-rex and s as ann darrow. she does a mean imitation of fay wray, let me tell ya. a wee bit dramatic, our daughter, and i have NO IDEA where she gets it. really.

unexpected company

now, the post title could insinuate many things, but most would consider unexpected company to be unwelcome company. in this case, not so. i knew that ari was coming home from school in boston, and knew he was going to be nomadic, but he's discovered it's probably more comfortable here (even with screaming children and barking dog) than at friends' houses. he's been busy seeing everyone and not around much, but it's still good to have him here. he's keeping t company and helping to paint the attic. the kids are excited like they always are when any of the never shows up to play.

ari leaves tomorrow for the beach to be with his beloved, but maybe he'll come back to stay with us before heading back to the great white north. company like this is always a welcome distraction! especially in the hectic days before christmas. i have a full-on feast to cook before tonight... and i'm really not complaining. after cooking low-carb for t for so long, mashing potatoes will be a pleasure. our friends the caplans (with 3 kids) are coming over, and i'm hoping for a really warm and nice christmas eve dinner.

oh! and i finally figured out what to get t for his birthday. i'm so excited! i really hope he likes it, we'll have to have a party when he gets back from l.a. if i haven't mentioned it, he's leaving january 1 for a few days of work on preproduction for a new film. i'll keep y'all posted.

google adsense

i had heard that adding google adsense COULD potentially make money if someone clicks it from your website. this is highly doubtful at my meager blog, but i had also heard it's kind-of funny to see what ads it posts on your blog, as it uses phrases from your posts to choose which ads go up. hilarious! one time it said "get your house extra clean!" (i'm paraphrasing). another time it told me i could get rid of unwanted dryer lint. yet another time it extolled the animal kingdom lodge at discount prices. so now every time i post, i can't wait to see the google ad it's gonna show. try it, you'll like it!

twas the week before christmas, and if we WERE in the house, only jane would be stirring, since we're all too busy doing other things elsewhere. the kids both have nutcracker dance camp all week and they're having a ball! i'm getting last minute gifts and food for the feast. also, i went to the gym and had a nice leisurely lounge in the steam room after my workout. ahhh.... how i miss those steamy summer days. i am so cold blooded that even southern winters are too bitter for me. pathetically, i have an electric throw blanket on the sofa for watching tv at night.

i told the kids i'd give 'em each a quarter for every time they ran around the house (with the dog). after a half an hour, i'm looking out at their flagging energy and wondering how they lasted so long. i'm gonna have to cough up a mint. maybe they'll sleep well and have visions of sugarplums. highly unlikely given that they have no idea what a sugarplum is. s keeps having grinch nightmares. i try to tell her that the grinch is good now, but if you go to the email santa website, the return letters to both my kids said that the grinch is stealing mrs claus' cookies. this fueled s's worry that the grinch is INDEED still bad. thanks alot, email santa.com.

daughter roasting by an open fire

okay, i just thought she was cute asleep by the fire. after the dryer incident last night, we inexplicably lost power for several hours. welcome to the country! we had candles and fires burning, and while it's a great adventure for the kids, it's a bit tiresome for the adults. especially as we had already fed them, but were waiting to make dinner for ourselves until after bedtime. it was cold cuts and jell-o instead of steaks. bummer.

dryer lint

well, the dryer wasn't doing its job, and it had a kind of funny smell, so i figured it must be time to clean out the dryer vent. you always hear those terrible warnings that if you don't clean the vent your house will catch on fire or something.

note to self: wear a mask next time you try this. or hire a professional.

i heaved the dryer out of its miniscule upstairs hall closet (i hate this fact enough to dedicate a whole post to just it) and was confronted with 4 years of... stuff. lint, fuzz, money, hair ties, rocks, papers, ribbons, you name it. so much stuff, but nothing really exciting. (i'm not sure why i was expecting a jackpot, but after all that heaving, i had high hopes!) anyhow, i had to squeeze out to get the dustapn and a screwdriver to remove the tube from the dryer as well as the wall. by the time i got back up, the children had made a, well, a prison for themselves in the bathroom that was being blocked by the dryer. i carefully eased my way back in behind (whew!) and swept up the dust, cleaned out the vent, and replaced all the parts. i was already sneezing and hacking (still am) but felt it was a job well done. or well ALMOST done. i still had to push the sucker back! it was lots harder than it looked, and after cursing, sweating, and breaking my back....TA DA!!!! i did it.

just another day in the life of a working housewife.

and the children were so disappointed that i wrecked their fortress. alas, sometimes you are the only one to pat yourself on the back for a crappy job well done.

pine needles

there are pine needles everywhere, and now starts the first of, oh, six months or so cleaning them out of every crevice in our lives. they are in the van from when we bought the tree at walmart. a lovely, lush and fragrant douglas pine! it's all so wonderful at that point. then it trails needles through the garage (that get swept out continually until spring) and leaves a puddle on the living room floor. that's BEFORE we put it on the stand and decorate it. by then, the fallen needles are rattling in air vents, being tracked upstairs, and slipping under all the furniture. pesky little buggers! i have dreams at night of picking pine needles from my teeth and out of my hair. jane barfed up a pile of dog food and WHAT ELSE?? pine needles. i'd post a picture, but i couldn't snap one before she ate it right back up. kim was right!!! dogs ARE really disgusting. but i love her anyway.

before this season is over, the needles will be in our clothes, and settled in every toy under the tree. next year i think i'll get a fake.

wine

gah! i love wine.

the veterans are coming! the veterans are coming!

they're coming to take it away, away! they're coming to take it AWAY! what are they taking, you ask?? why, all my CRAP from the attic, of course! i am so in love with the vietnam veterans of america right now i could cry. instead of having to schlep all of my gently used items all the way to a thrift shop, then convince the nasty ladies there to give me a tax receipt, i just have to put it on the porch! and they come take it! and they leave you a blank repeipt! it is bliss. i am planning to fill that porch as full as possible to get rid of as much as i can. i'm the anti-packrat... IT ALL MUST GO!!!!! especially before christmas, you know we've got a mountain of unopened gifts already. oh, dear.

no more late nights

man oh man. first you play, then you pay. after such a lovely evening, first with baby back ribs, then the art show, we did indeed get home a wee bit late. not terribly late, mind you, but a good hour and a half after h's usual bedtime. they went to bed so nicely and peacefully, i had high hopes for the morning. hah!

i even let them sleep in a little, even though we need to get up and moving on saturday morning in order to make it to dance by 9 am. the morning started well enough; we managed to get out the door and to s's dance class in time, but then the proverbial poop hit the fan. my lovely son was replaced by demon boy. he dawdles, he mopes, he resists, he cries, and he's WAY too old for all of it. after s's class and before h's class (a one hour layover) i made the mistake of going to the mall. when this did not go particularly well, i was already in a foul mood, but then i asked him to buckle his seat belt.

oh, my.

i got very angry at this point, turned around to buckle him myself, slammed my head into the tv (it comes out of the car ceiling) and then i was REALLY mad.

then we got to class.

he didn't want to do it.

gosh darn it, if i'm going to blow the entirety of saturday driving up there and killing time for almost 5 hours, not to mention the quantity of money it costs for the class, the gas, the drive-thru lunch, HE'S GOING TO CLASS. i made him at least sit and watch today, but if he pulls this garbage one more time, he's done for the rest of the year. i hate to threaten, but i don't know what else to do. one thing i know for certain...

there's no more family fun past eight o'clock at night.

magic kingdom

we only got halfway through the magic kingdom due to crowds and time constraints. good thing we'll be back in may to finish the job! we had to be back to the hotel by 6pm so the kids could hang at simba's cubhouse and mom & dad could have some adult time. we chose the resort restaurant jiko-- with african inspired food-- for dinner. it was lovely! ok, at the magic kingdom we loved everything: pirates of the caribbean, haunted mansion, thunder mtn railroad, small world. can't wait to get back, hopefully not shoulder to shoulder next time.

kids art show

ahh, the photo will get here as soon as i load it from the camera. i'm like one of those silly commercials with the kid saying 'mom i've been in your camera for 6 months, can you print me out now?' but not really. so alas, until i load, you'll have to deal with a visual description. the lovely folks at chapel hill comics, andy and vanessa, hatched the brilliant plan to host an art show for childrens art. highly inspired, and it was so cool to see the young artists at the opening. h entered 2 pieces and s entered one. the kids could have them for sale (name their own price even!) but ours decided not to sell. h, however, with his keen eye for art, chose to purchase a piece from a budding 6 year old artist named sadie zimet entitled 'evil'. he spent $13 of his hard earned allowance on it, and he won't even get to see it until the show comes down in a month. again, i will be sure to post a photo of 'evil', it's just fantastic.

who's clamoring for more disney photos?? i know, NOBODY!! well, i'm posting them anyway. and you'll have to just wait for pics from the art show, unless the lovely lady vanessa has beat me to it and put the up on the comic shop site. check it out!

a few free minutes

i have a second to write early this am because of dog, cats and children keeping me awake. i'm thinking of installing a padlock on the door! then the dog would be sure to tear at the carpet outside our door and do more damage than she's already done. linoleum, anyone??

took the kids to see the nutcracker on sunday. it was a lovely and highly professional student performance by the lovely dancers at tyb. even the kids seemed to like it, only got a little fidgety toward the end of the sugar plum fairy dance. i sat rapt with awe at the grace and strength of these young people. i know what blood, sweat and tears it takes to dance (and i suck at it)!

anybody want more disney photos?? well, of course you do. and, if not, here they are anyway. these are of disney/mgm studios. it was a little crowded the day we were there, and we stayed WAY too late for the children to see the water/light/fireworks show, fantasmic. highlights were the indiana jones stunt spectacular and the insanely scary tower of terror. we have scarred our children for life by taking them on that ride, but when asked, they'll say it was their favorite part. for those uninformed, it is an elevator ride that drops out from under you at random intervals. terrifying, truly.