Keeping up with the Jones'

At a recent family get together after talking about the economic crisis..my sister in law was angry.."Why can't people just live within their means?" "How come people are buying houses they can't afford?" She states that she & her husband are practically debt free. They pay a mortgage and utilities..that's it. No car payment, no student loans, no credit cards. If they want something..they save for it. My husband explains to her that she is in a very small percentage of this country. Great for them, but, it's not easy to get to that point. If everyone lived within their means, we wouldn't need credit card companies, right? Right. But, people don't. So, people spend, spend, spend. My mom used to refer to it as "keeping up with the Jones" Everybody has that feeling, once is while. How can they afford that and we can't? Why can't our kids have that too? It is jealously..pure and simple. So, they charge it and deal with it later. Until, all that comes back to haunt them in the charge statement. We are guilty of too, from time to time.
I find it interesting that people now are willing to tell you "we don't have the money". I think in the past, people wouldn't feel comfortable talking about their finances..now, I think it is overboard. Everybody is having trouble and wants to share it. I think people who don't even have financial issues say they do....to keep up with the Jones. It's the American way.
I find this insulting sometimes. My husband and I have never had money. I am a stay at home mom and he is a public school teacher. A great profession, but, let's face..teachers are underpaid...big time. That's a whole other blog post. It's what we have chosen for our life and are ok with it. But, now, people understand what we go through. A budget, tuition assistance, shopping second hand...they "get" it now. Yeah,ok. When this finanicial crisis is over, most people will go back to overspending and not look back. We will still be here..budgeting, tuition assistance, discount shopping. That's just the way it is. The American Way.

I thought this was very powerful...

Just freaking me out

By now I think everyone has heard about the chimp who savagely attacked that poor women in Hartford, Connecticut and caused serious injury to her face and hands.

I personally must be spending too much time on FB to have heard this story, so I didn't learn about it until yesterday. I did a little searching on Google and was able to find the 911 call by the chimps owner. It was bone chilling! This women who had raised this chimp for 15 years, was screaming "shoot it, shoot it" over and over. I can't describe the feeling I had after hearing this call, however, I do know I felt so uneasy. All I could visualize was this women sitting in her car, watching her best friend be torn apart by her "beloved" chimp. The owner thought her friend was dead and feared for her own life as well. A scary thing about this tape is that, in my opinion, I don't think the 911 operator believed what was happening and at was scale. It almost seemed like he hesitated sending help. I hope this was not the case, as this may make a huge difference in the victims recovery.

Anyway, I can't seem to get this story out of my mind. I went to a party yesterday evening and we were talking about it there. Some people had seen an actual live video on YouTube of the attack and said they had never seen anything like it. I had dreams about this last night and just cannot get this poor women, the women attacked not the owner, out of my mind. To think her life will be so severely altered because she was trying to help a friend. Of course, you have to ask yourself why was someone would allowed to have a wild animal in a suburban setting. I don't care if she was Grandfathered in, you shouldn't be allowed to keep a 200 lb chimp in your home, especially if he has caused problems before.

I know you cannot blame the chimp, it's sad he lost his life due to the lack of respect his owner had for wild animals, but, I do continue to ask myself could this have prevented? What do you think? On a side note, have you ever read something or heard it on the news and just cannot get it out of your mind? This happens to me all the time. If a friend tells a story that tugs at my heart strings, I become consumed with finding out all of the details. The same thing happened when a very sad incident happened years ago at a college party. I thought about all of these young people who died or hurt and how this effected the people in their lives. Strange thing, as an adult I have met people affected by this tragedy and their lives have never been the same. I always want to put my arms around them and hug them, because to me it's still so fresh on my mind. For them, they have to put the horror in the back of their minds to push forward in life. It's sad. All of these tragedies we see on TV happen to real people, we have to remember that.

Keep this women and her family in your prayers, as they must need all they can get.

What ever happened to Mrs...

Something that continues to drive me crazy is when people have their children or my children call them Mrs. or Mr. and then their first name! It drives me nuts! What ever happened to addressing an adult Mrs. or Mr. and their last name?

Obviously my kids are only 4 so when they started talking all I could do was the same thing other parents had their kids call me...Ms. Kathleen! I assumed that this was the new formal way children are too address adults. All of the dance classes, tumbling classes or anything up until this year they were involved in , they addressed the adult in this fashion. I didn't know any better, as all of my friends had their children doing the same.

I never felt comfortable having my children address people this way and some of my friends didn't care for when my children addressed them in this way either. In fact I have one friend who asked for the girls to call her a very cute nick name, I like this idea better to be honest. They still address her by this fun name and it seems for them to have a closer bond with her as well. Anyway, when the girls started 4 year pre-school this year they addressed the teacher as Mrs. Johnson! Not only that, but, Mrs. Johnson address' all the other parents by the formal greeting and their last name. My question is, if our children are still using formal salutations when they enter school, why the hell are we having them do the other? It just drives me nuts!

I know on the "driving me nuts" scale, this isn't a huge thing, however, I want my girls to address adults as Mr or Mrs Last name! Why is so hard for parent to do? Do we not know our friends, neighbors or soccer coaches' last name? Growing up there was only one adult that we addressed by his first name and it was because he did have a very hard last name to pronounce. Until this day when we talk about our old neighbors, we still call him Mr. & Mrs. Al, however, he is the only one.

I don't get this and really don't know when it started, however, it will be something my children will not do. In this day in age our children seem to be lacking so many manners and show little respect for adults. Maybe this is because we as parents have been allowing them to address adults by their first name. To me this seems to make an adult more on their same level, rather than as a more respected figure.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone's children are going to grow up as physco killers because they address' adult in thiw way, however, I think adults deserve respect from children and in my opinion I think starting with this may help. What do you have your children do? How do other children address you or your husband?

I can't believe they are starting Kindergarten...

Today is sort of a bitter sweet day for me, I am registering the girls in Kindergarten. Don't get me wrong, I think they are both ready and very excited for the new adventures they face, however, I am a little sad that my "babies" are going to be in school everyday.

"When" they start school has always been a very fine line, as their b-day is very close to most school cutoffs. I have the luxury of starting them or holding them back. Pete and I have always felt very strongly about not holding them back, however, have received a lot of negative remarks in regards to this. We get a lot of parents saying we are going to scar them for lives and they won't keep up with the others. Maybe I live in some delusional world, however, I don't feel a child who turns 4 or 5 in the beginning of August will be acclimated to school better than my girls, who's b-day is in the beginning of Sept. They are both in a very advanced preschool class and keep up better than most, in fact they seem to be more advanced than some of the Kindergarten kids from other schools.

We do send them to Catholic School, which was more willing to accept them over the public school. Our local district school wouldn't even consider letting them start this past fall and our "choice" school felt the same way. Now the "choice" school did say they would test the girls early for Kindergarten,however, not for pre-school. That didn't seem to make any sense, therefore that option was off the table. We are both happy with the school and feel God sent us and the girls on this path for a reason, however, it is financial struggle at times. By the time our local district school would accept our girls, they would be starting 1st grade and by then, why would we change schools? I think sometimes schools have these rules in place more to manage population and over crowding, rather than the best interest for the child. The fact that the principle wouldn't even meet my children, turned me off. Yet I have a friend who is the Principle of one of the top Elementary Schools in the country who wrote a recommendation for my girls to start school this past fall. He said if we lived in his district, he wouldn't have thought twice about accepting the girls early. Makes no sense!

I have never doubted our decision or felt we have made a horrible choice for our kids, however, only the future will tell. My feeling have always been, I can hold them back if they are not ready, but, cannot move them up if they are! Does that make sense?

What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you think it should be parents choice as to when they start their children? Earlier or later? Should each person be tested no matter what their b-day is?

It's official...I'm boring!

We are driving to school one day last week and we were talking about a little girl in their class who wore a very "fun" dress to class...OK a Mickey Mouse costume...something I would never in a million years let the girls wear. So I said to them "blanks Mom must be so fun & relaxed if she lets blank wear her Mickey costume to school". The girls both agreed and I admit too, blanks Mom is very fun, in fact most every other Mom I meet is more fun than me. Of course this led to the questions "am I fun"? Emily, never sparing any one's feelings, said "no", "you are NOT fun". "You make us wear itchy clothes to school, we can never get messy and you never play with us." I was certainly taken aback by this discovery, however, she was not wrong. I run their little lives as if we were the First Family and had to always been seen in a certain way. Erin can attest to this, as I freak out when the girls get messy, I just cannot let myself go and be "fun".

Gabriella on the other hand looks at me so different and really tried to spare my feelings. She said "Mommy, you are too busy to be fun, because, you are so busy taking care of us. You drive us everywhere, make us pancakes, gives us baths and make sure we are safe. If you were fun, you couldn't be those things either". I was touched my her caring nature, however, taken aback by her insight...she is only 4! She ended her touching speech with "Mommy, I love you just the way you are, even if you are not fun!"

I suppose there are worse things in life then not being "fun", however, I do wish Iwould relax and try to be more fun.

Maybe today I will let them go out in their costumes, I mean what is the worse thing that could happen...they have fun?

Facebook Update

So, it has been a little over a week since Kathleen and I joined Facebook. It started out great, finding old friends, connecting with far away relatives. Well now, for me at least, it has lost some appeal. It is too much pressure. How many friends do you have? How many posts on your wall? Has anyone commented on your pictures? Did anybody send you a water balloon? a hug? a shot? It is like high school all over again. But, my husband, reminded me that I am a grown woman with four children, should I really care if somebody doesn't send me an online shot? I tell myself no, I don't. But, you can't help feel that way. A friend recently told me she is thinking of going back to school, because, a guy she went to school with ( 20 years ago) is a doctor according to his Facebook page. What has she accomplished? I told her plenty, but, she now thinks her life is boring and useless. I also reminded her that just because his Facebook page says he is a doctor, doesn't mean he is. I could say I am a botanist that enjoys scuba diving, red wine and we own a vacation home in Maui. Only my family knows that I am a stay at home mom in the burbs, haven't drank in over 10 years and can barely afford my current home, let alone have enough money for a vacation home. Ok, I am getting off track..sorry.
I have enjoyed re-connecting with some friends from the past. I have also found some relatives that I haven't spoken to in 20 years. So, that aspect has been positive. The rest..I am going to try and just remember it is just a website.

So she cheats a little...is that so bad?

YES!!!

OK...probably not, but, cheating at games drives me nuts! Now that the girls are getting a little older, we play games more often and I am learning that Emily not only cheats, but, is a very sore loser.

Last night we played Monopoly Town and my sweet little Emily continued to cheat over and over. I kept trying to explain to her that I won't play games with them if they cheat, because, we have to learn how to do things the right way. Don't get me wrong, I know kids cheat at games because they enjoy the feeling as if they won, however, I strongly feel it is my job to teach them how to play games the correct way. Pete on the other hand, well let's just say he helped her take a few extra dollars from the "bank".

I'm sure in the long run cheating at games will not make her a hardened criminal, however, I do think she will never learn the value of winning something on her own. I also feel we play games for a reason...playing games. I hate seeing the girls make everything a competition to see who is going to be "better" at something. I'm not sure if all kids are so competitive or my girls because they are twins. It drives me crazy! I'm one of those people who always loses and I am OK with that, because, I usually have a good time. By no means does this mean that I don't like to win, but, I don't have to win to have fun. I'm trying to pass this message on to my girls and it seems to be falling on deaf ears with Emily.

Maybe if she didn't get so angry when she lost, maybe she wouldn't want to cheat so much. Does it ever set in? Will this be her nature? Will she be competitive her entire life? I hope not!

Have I ruined my kids?

Ever since the girls have been born Pete and I have been germ freaks. I'm not sure if it was because they were premature, I was sick or it was just our nature, but, we are obsessed with protecting them from germs.

We are crazy when it comes to public places and sanitize like crazy. We are obsessed with having them wash their hands and bring small cans of Lysol every where we go. At any given time you can find 3 cans of Lysol in my purse, as well as plenty of hand sanitizer. We won't allow them to go places that we know people have been sick or allow people to come to our home either. Sometimes I feel I have offended people because of this, however, for the first 3 1/2 years of their lives they were never sick.

This is where I came to the Have I ruined my kids question. This cold & flu season has been much different. I can't remember the last week that I didn't have one of the two coughing or sneezing. It is driving me nuts! I don't give them anything for their colds, as their pediatrician does not recommend it. The humidifier runs like crazy and pump them full of liquids. My girls eat extremely healthy and we keep a normally extremely clean home. I just don't get it! My only assumption is the lack of germs they have been exposed to have made their immune system so low.

This drives me crazy because Pete and I have tried so hard to keep them healthy and now I feel like we have done them no good. It kills both of us to hear the girls up all night coughing, knowing that we did this to them.

I fear once they start school full time that it will get worse and wonder if their is anything I can do to prevent this. I don't want to expose them to sick people, however, I don't want them always sick...does that make sense.

I am frustrated...any suggestions?

FACEBOOK

A friend recently suggested I check out Facebook and to be honest I was a little hesitant. No because I didn't like the concept, but, it overwhelmed a little. I accepted her offer and now officially on Face book.

I'm not why I didn't join this earlier. How great to reunite with old friends, family and meet new people. What a blast! I have chatted with people that I haven't seen in at least 20 plus years and of course chatted with Erin. I think she and I need help. No only have we IMd each other on Facebook all morning, but, we have talked about 10 times on the phone. Tuesday is the only day the girls don't have school, so we use it as a relax day.

The only thing about Facebook that may be a negative for me is, so many people seem to have accomplished so many great things in their lives. I guess that makes me feel kind of like a loser!! I know Mom, wife, kids...bla, bla, bla... it's all great! But it would be nice to say "I have traveled the world" or "written a novel". Well, I'm only 35 so , hopefully, I will have plenty of time to add to my Face book page.

Thanks Lisa for suggesting. I am truly enjoying connecting with everyone.

Do you do Face book? What is your favorite things about it? Any tips?

(picture copyright of Facebook)

On Line Coupon codes

I use this website a lot to get on line coupon codes...

Check it out!

http://www.retailmenot.com/

5 things I let my kids do...that I shouldn't!

Not all of us can be perfect parents, most of us fall into the mediocre at best category. Needless to say I do have 5 things that I allow my children to do, even know they probably shouldn't.

1. Listen to certain songs. ie... Single Lady, Shake It, Womanizer and Sexy Back. All clean versions, yet no more appropriate. You can find my children at gymnastics or catholic school school singing "All the Single Ladies, put on ring on it..." I crack up, however, other parents look at me like I am having them read from the book of Satan.

2. Eat junk food as a meal and don't make them eat veggies. Ok...what parent doesn't give in when their child isn't eating a meal? So they refuse to eat dinner and you give them Lifesavers instead, they'll make up their nutrition in the morning. If not then, I'm sure they'll give them something healthy in school.

3. Bribe them with material items in order to get them to do things. This has really bit of us in the ass, as they always say "what are you going to buy us if we do it?" Or "let's just go buy it". When they started school I had to bribe them with "treats" when I picked them up. Needless to say every time they get in the car they ask " what did you buy us". When I don't, which isn't often, we stop at the bakery for cookies.

4. Let them wear pull-ups if they don't feel like going potty before bed. Ok this doesn't really hurt them, however, teaches them laziness. Ok, teaches them that Pete and I can be lazy. Who wants to get up and change the sheets at 2am? Not me! They sleep together so when you get one up to change, the other wakes up and they NEVER fall back asleep.

5. Let one of the two have a bottle whenever she wants...yes, she is 4! This one is actually funny, because, she knows she shouldn't be drinking from a bottle. I even caught her lying to friends at school about drinking a bottle. I guess Pete and I shouldn't give in, but, she is stubborn as hell and it's not like we are putting Vodka in the bottle.

6. Turn the TV on before bed in lieu of reading books. I loath reading and Pete tells a story like a ... I don't know a bad story teller. Don't get me wrong, the girls love books and love when they are read too, but, I just cannot stand reading to them. I always say "tomorrow I'll read 2 books, just watch Arthur". Thank God for DVR!!!

OK, so I have more than 5, probably a lot more than 6 too, but, of course all my parenting traits aren't so bad. I do have a couple of things that I think aren't too bad.

1. They drink TONS of water.

From what I hear, allot of people can't get their kids to drink any water.

2. They eat tons of fruit. Fruits good, who doesn't like fruit!

3. They have GREAT manners and are very polite. Always "yes, please" or "excuse me"...very polite!!

4. Very kind and loving. They never want to see anyone with hurt feelings or sad. Anytime they see me cry, they always comfort me and bring a tissue. They just have the sweetest little hearts.

5. They are excellent at washing their hands and understanding germs. Germs Bad...clean good!!!

6. Hmmmm... have I only done 5 things right in the past 4 years?

The point is as parents we are always too hard on ourselves. Yes, I know my kids should eat more veggies, but, in time. They are healthy and eat a very well balanced diet otherwise. Sometimes other parents are the first to judge you. We all have our good points as parents and we all at sometime think we are failing miserably. My theory is if you love your child(ren) and everything you do for that child is out of love, than you can't possibly be doing anything wrong!

Do you ever feel as if you are having a "bad parent" moment...or life? Is your best friend the "perfect" Mom or Dad? Or worst of all...do you judge other parents????????

Tick, tick, tick...

Just 2 more hours and the girls head back to school after a very LONG week of snow days and sick days.

Don't get me wrong, I love being with my girls, however, when they are bored all hell breaks out. We have had broken dishes, paint messes, doing things they would never do and staying up way too late. As much as I dread when they start going everyday in the Fall, it's what they need. What we all need.

I never thought I was a routing type of person, but, I guess I am.

So the clock is ticking down and we are all a little excited about getting out of the house. I'm sure by tomorrow our "busy day", we'll be wanting to hang out at home in our PJ's and watch TV.

You can never win !

(ps...our paint mess wasn't as bad, but, it wasn't pretty!)

What do your kids watch on TV?

Just admit it..your kids watch tv. Mine do. The tv is probably on more than it needs to be at our house. Sometimes, nobody is watching, but, it is on. I am finding out that what my kids watch is different than other kids. My kids are 6, 5, 3 and 22 mos. They watch PBS, Playhouse Disney and occasionally NickJr. NickJr is rare...I don't think they need to be watching all those commercials. No Cartoon Network, regular Nick or regular Disney. Now we are starting to find that our oldest is probably getting a little tired of these programs. But, what to watch? She loves stuff on HGTV and Food Network. She would like to watch more Disney & Nick, but my husband & I don't like think Hannah Montana, Zoey 101, Zach & Cody are really that great for a kid her age. Some of the humor she doesn't understand and when she watches it, all the kids want to watch it. My 3yr old certainly doesn't need to watch them and my 5yr old has no interest in them. But, there is nothing in between for a kid too old for Dora and too young for Hannah Montana.

So I'm wondering....what do your kids watch ( or kids you know) and how old are they?

Child's Health Guide

With cold and flu season in full force..here is a handy Child's Health Guide from Parenting Magazine.

http://www.parenting.com/ChildHealthGuide/childhealthguide.jsp

One of those mornings!

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Between a sick husband (always fun), crabby kids, my car not starting and being swamped at work with all sorts of crazy issues....it's just a stinker of a day!

It could be worse, the weather could suck too!

Calgon take me away!!!!

I know the picture is a "little" crude...but it's one of those days!

What would you do?

I hosted a Wine Tasting party a few weeks back and had a very nice turnout. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and also ordered quite a bit of wine.

One person in particular ordered a bottle of wine and accessories for a Christmas gift for her neighbor. Now, this person lives about 55 miles from me and I don't see her often. I did have plans to see her the following weekend, so she ordered the wine with the thoughts I would bring it that day. Unfortunately, that weekend was crazy and I barely made it out of the house with underwear, let alone her wine. I apologized and asked if we could make arrangements for her and my husband to meet sometime in the coming weeks to give her the wine. She agreed and I said, let me know what will work best and I will make sure Pete can accommodate. (She and my husband work about 6 miles from each other).
Every time since this initial conversation, I have asked her about making these arrangements and they were never acknowledged. With Christmas fast approaching and still not a word, I sent her an email last Monday...never heard back. I called her Tuesday morning at 7:30 and asked her to call so we could iron out these details, as the week was soon coming to an end. Finally, on Thursday evening she called. I asked about delivering the wine or about when she could meet Pete...nothing! She was having a type of Holiday Party at a friends house that Saturday, perhaps she thought I would bring it then...even know I told her and emailed her I wasn't coming to this party.
Anyway, this brings us to last evenings phone call. When she called, the first thing I said is "what are we going to do about this wine"? I told her my Mom and sister were coming to visit on Saturday and they could bring it to her then. (my Mom lives very close to her). She said "you know it's for Christmas, so I would need before Thursday". I told her, well let's see if we could work sometime out for tomorrow. Then it started to become difficult. I asked if Pete could meet her at lunch.. "no, I don't take a lunch". Can he meet you after work "no, we probably close early at 3pm due to the snow and I have to get my son". Can he meet you before work "most likely not, because I don't know when I will get there because of the snow". Then her statement to me was "Just return it"! Return it? Was she kidding? This wine has been sitting at my house for her for a month and now she wants me to return it? Why did she even order it for her friend, if it wasn't really that special of a gift? It made no sense.

She abruptly ended the call with "kat, I'll call you later tonight". Ok...let's wait to the very last minute, that makes sense.

So I called the hostess from the party and was told "no, it's not possible to exchange the wine unless it was rancid". Also, she was having a difficult time dealing with the parent company and having a hard time being paid herself and felt a refund would be impossible the accessory. I then called Pete and asked what to do. He asked if and when she could meet and I said, well she's making it really hard. She couldn't leave even for 10 min. to meet him, she couldn't meet before work or after. He finally said "F" it ... we'll just give her the money, it's obviously not important to her to get this gift, so we'll just take care of it". I told him that is would be $42 and he's like, we'll just take it from the money his parents gave the girls for Christmas. This made me sad, as I was going to use this money to pay for their gymnastics.

Now, I should mention I have been friends with this person for a LONG time and thought we had a very good relationship, however, this situation is proving to be very challenging. It's almost making me question this friendship.

I called her back about an hour after the first call and told her that Pete had a meeting at 8:30 and 1pm and if she couldn't leave, he just wasn't sure he could make it back to work in time for these meetings. (She works across from a huge mall and so does he...it's like a mad house). I proceeded to tell her I would send a check and she was like "fine". I told her we would just re-gift the wine and keep the accessory. She then was like "well, I can take the accessory and you can just send me the money for the wine". WHAT?? That doesn't make sense. I was like, you know what I don't know when I will see, so I'm just going to keep it all and send you the money to get it over and done with. I'll drop it in the mail Saturday.

She was like "oh, don't worry about it, send it when you can". Send it when I can? Let's see every month I'm in the red, couldn't buy her kid a present or most of family gifts this Christmas, but, now I am going to purchase $42 of wine crap because she didn't bother to an effort to help me get this wine to her.

I don't know how to feel about this. Pissed, hurt, nothing...not sure! All I know it the whole thing seemed to unfold weird and I don't know why. I should also mention, this is the same person who would be willing to drive 100 miles to pick up something if need be, so obviously the importance of giving this wine to her neighbor wasn't really the case. It seems like she didn't want to be bothered with it for some reason and just figured I would take care of returning it and it would be over and done with....well it's not!

My advice givers have all said "don't pay her" or "you are nicer than me". I don't know what to do in this situation. I don't have the money for this wine, yet, don't want to start a big tado over it either. I should also mention that Pete and I didn't purchase anything from this party because we didn't have the extra money to spend.... well, I guess I will now !

I really don't know what to do, but, I do know I am unhappy right now thinking of the situation. The sad thing, I don't think she even noticed I was upset or how she made me feel.

Any thoughts, suggetions, advice?

HO, HO, HO!

Feeling guilty

I mentioned in an earlier post that my Mother in law and I went head to head over Christmas and it didn't end pretty. That was before Thanksgiving and we are still not really talking too much. I use to bring the girls over there at least once a week or sometime over the weekend, if not that, I would call her just to chat. Needless to say, this has made our few encounters very uncomfortable for everyone. My Father in law tried to pretend all was "OK" and she tried to talk to me, but, feel the very cold shoulder I gave her.
Today they came over to give the girls gifts and have lunch, it was actually very nice and pleasant. They were here sometime and we even got to a point of idol chit chat. When they were leaving, I could see it in their faces how sad they were that we wouldn't be spending the Holidays with them.
I'm feeling guilty for obvious reasons, but, still feeling very strong about my initial feelings. I believe the Holidays in there family revolve solely around his one brothers family and there is no room for anyone else. This year proving my point almost to easily, as they are having Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to accommodate that sister in law, so she can see her family.
I'm not sure what to do, as I don't want my Mother in law to hurt so much, but, I too don't want hurt feelings.
I must say, I don't feel guilty enough to cancel my plans on going away. In fact, I am counting down the minutes!!!

Toxic Toys

Before you put these under the tree, take a look at what's inside: lead, arsenic, mercury

Click Here for a complete list of toys. Scary stuff.

Snow Day!!!

Is is bad that I am happy today is a snow day? When I told my kids that school was closed because of the weather, they were so sad. Their little faces showed such disappointment of missing their first Christmas Party and all I could do was use everyone once of energy to control my body from breaking out into a jig! Bad Mommy!
I should use this day to clean the house, but, I'll spend it blogging. One of the girls has a runny nose, so no snow playing for us.
My husband must have felt his work as we know it would collapse if he did not arrive, so the trouper left at 5:30 in horrible conditions to grudge to work. 2 1/2 hours later he arrived safe and sound. Actually, it didn't take him as long as I thought and honestly I'm just glad he got there safely.