13 Things About Our Halloween Experience

1. Why is it that children desperately want to be a certain character and then shed their costume after five minutes, only for mom and dad to carry it? By Halloween night, Eli’s fake hair, earring and eye patch were long gone.

2. Glancing outside Halloween night, I spotted a grown man wearing a pirate’s hat and a grown woman carrying a death sickle. Only at Halloween.

3. What the hell is a Lemonhead, and why do people think I need so many of these in my . . . er . . . I mean in my kids’ trick-or-treat bags.

4. Since Georgia wouldn’t wear the Dora wig (when I tried it on her, she screamed like I had put a dead skunk on her head), and wouldn’t wear her backpack half the time, her costume was basically a girl in a sweatsuit. I kept telling people, “She’s Blonde Dora. Just go with it.”

5. Why is it, I can turn on the TV on Halloween night and find Halloween 6 (which sucks by the way), but not the original Halloween? I have it on DVD, but that’s not really the point, now, is it?

6. I am learning that children who normally love stickers, absolutely hate them when they get them trick-or-treating. Dude! It’s Halloween! Give them candy! For that matter, anyone who hands out raisins or toothbrushes deserves to get their house egged.

7. There really should be an age limit for trick-or-treating. If you are 17 and show up at my house with no costume, holding out a pillowcase, I am NOT giving you candy.

8. Eli’s preschool director continues to dress inappropriately at Halloween. This year, it was slutty ballerina. I wish I could get a picture of this for you guys! I didn’t know you could get a tutu that short.

9. I have seen Hannah Montana on TV, and she is NOT slutty. Why is it that every girl I saw dressed as Hannah Montana had to skank up their costumes. My gawd! Do some parents look at their children before they leave the house?

10. If you want a child to have one piece of candy, give them one piece of candy. Don’t put your huge bowl in front of their face and say, “Now only take ONE piece.” You think a kid has that much self-control? Because I certainly don’t.

11. The candy bowls with the hands in them that grab you may be funny to you, but they scare the hell out of a 2-year-old. Not cool, people. Not cool.

12. Yes, Blonde Dora! She is too dressed up! Don’t make me bitch slap you on Halloween. What is with these people?

13. My children are brutally honest. My neighbor jokingly told Eli to eat all his candy before bedtime. Eli said, “My mommy said I can’t or all my teeth will fall out!”

Wordless Wednesday - Blonde Dora and the Pirate

Where's my calculator?

At 5 years old, my son is quickly developing a love for math. I’m sure of one thing. He doesn’t get that from me. I’ve always been good at math, but it’s never been something I would say I actually enjoy. At all.

In fact, this is probably one of our biggest differences. I always loved words. English was my favorite subject. I can’t get Eli to understand that G makes a “guh” sound, yet he knows that 10+10 = 20.

This morning I found him huddled on my bed with his pumpkin bucket sorting his candy from his weekend take. He was counting how many Kit Kats he had, how many Reeses he had, how many Skittles, and then adding them all together.

Not only that, but while we’re in the car driving, I feel like I’m in the middle of a pop math quiz. As soon as we get in the car, he starts asking me, “Mama, what’s 2+3? What’s 15+8? What’s 18+18? What’s 100 + 1? What’s 196 +35? What’s 1200+39700?”

Okay, I have a lot of hidden talents. But one of them is most certainly NOT doing math in my head.

At that point, I really thought I was going to have to dig my calculator out of my purse at the next stoplight. They say driving with a cell phone is distracting. You should try driving with a 5-year-old quizzing you on simple addition.

Manic Monday - Trick or Treat

This week’s Manic Monday theme is Trick or Treat. I thought about going several different ways with this, but as I sit here, utterly exhausted, I’m thinking I can just tell you about my weekend.

Actually, I might split the weekend into a couple of blogs because it was THAT eventful. We took the kids to Old Shawnee Town on Saturday night, where there are Historic Hauntings and trick-or-treating, and on Sunday, we went to Boo at the Zoo (sponsored by Hershey’s – yum yum), and Sunday night, we went to Trunk or Treat at Eli’s Preschool. The story I’m going with for today’s blog is from Trunk or Treat.

When I was little, trick-or-treating consisted of the whole house-to-house thing, but it seems trunk or treat is very big here. At Eli’s preschool, several of the church members opened up (and decorated excessively) the trunks of their cars, and filled them with candy. The kids loved it, and made out like bandits! Then we went inside, and there were snacks, arts and crafts, and games! It was awesome! Dude, they didn’t have anything like this when I was a kid.

Now, here’s the kicker. The entire time we were there, we were being stalked by an old woman. Oh, you heard me right. It started outside when we went by her trunk. Apparently Georgia looks exactly like her granddaughter (now 27) did at the same age. The woman was almost in hysterics sharing this information with me.

Then we went inside for fun and games. There was the lady again. This time, she came over and wanted to chat seriously. Her granddaughter’s name was Callie, and she wanted to know if our daughter’s name was Callie. I said, “No, it’s Georgia.” She was extremely disappointed, as if this was a personal affront to her, and said, “You mean her name’s not Callie?” Okay, that’s when I started to think this woman might not have all her marbles. We talked for awhile longer, she went on and on about how much Georgia looked like this Callie person, and then we snuck off.

The kids were playing games in the game room, when old woman sneaks up behind me, and I hear, “I can’t BELIEVE her name’s not Callie.” Okay, psycho, get away from my child. Now given, I was very tired after Boo at the Zoo and Trunk or Treat was zapping the last of my energy, but still.

We were finally ready to leave. The kids were tired, cranky, and we had plied them with candy just so we could goad them into taking a picture. We were in the parking lot on the way to the car, and guess who pops up. Dude! She had to have been following us. She stopped Eli first and asked him if he was Callie's older brother. Okay, freakshow, her name's Georgia. Then the woman said to me and the guy who was with her (son? grandson?) “She looks EXACTLY like Callie did at that age.”

I gritted my teeth and said, “Yeah, and she looks EXACTLY like I did at that age too. Imagine that!” Luckily, the guy with crazy old woman started laughing. Thank god, he thought I was funny and not bitchy. I meant it in a funny tone, but sometimes when you’re tired, things don’t come out right.

*sigh* The things I go through for free candy.

Eli the Fashion Critic

This morning, I was getting dressed and I put on my new jeans that I just bought on sale for $18.99 at Kohl’s. I was doing what all women do (come on admit it) – I was halfway wrenched around in front of the mirror attempting to see how my ass looked in my new jeans.

It doesn’t help me that jeans these day are “low rise” and just keep getting lower. Unfortunately, after giving birth to two kids, the waist band of my underwear just keeps getting higher. You know, things need to be hidden covered up. This invariably means that if I don’t combine the right underwear with the right jeans, it’s “I see London, I see France.”

Eli walked into my bedroom and asked quizzically, “Mama, what are you doing?”

Still wrenched around, I said, “I’m just trying to see how my jeans look.”

Then I bent over and said, “Can you do me a favor? Can you tell me if you can see my underwear?”

Eli looked and said, “Don’t worry, mama! I see them! You didn’t forget to put them on. They’re purple.”

After I stopped laughing, I said, “Thank you, sweetheart.” Eli seemed very confused as to why I was laughing, but also seemed pleased that he had made me so happy.

13 Movies In My Netflix Queue

1. Ghost Story – I just returned this one. A 1981 flick starring Fred Astaire, John Houseman and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. It wasn’t quite as scary as I had remembered it was when I was 10, but it was still creepy.

2. Knocked Up – I’m beginning to wonder if I will ever see this movie. It has been #1 in my queue since its release, but I still haven’t received it. However it has gone from “Very Long Wait” to “Long Wait” so there’s still hope.

3. Don’t Look Now – This is one I haven’t seen in a few years. It’s a very creepy 1973 movie starring Donald Sutherland. I can’t wait to see this one again!

4. Film Crew: Wild Women of Wongo – Eric loves the Film Crew movies! The Film Crew movies are Mystery Science Theater revamped. We’ve seen to of them so far, and this one is next up.

5. Curb Your Enthusiasm – I just started watching CYE this season, and it is hilarious. I now have to catch up on all previous seasons. How many are there, anyway?

6. Mr. Brooks – I’m a little concerned about this one. I think it looks really good. But wasn’t it at the theater for like a week? That’s not a good sign.

7. Oldboy – This Korean psychological thriller is supposed to be awesome, and have a good twist. Plus, the director is a Hitchcock devotee! Dude, that’s all I need!

8. Ocean’s 13 – Someone please tell me this was better than Ocean’s 12, or I might have to remove it from my queue. Or I could just mute it and watch George Clooney. He’s got the whole Cary Grant thing going.

9. Sorted – This is an English thriller starring Matthew Rhys (I LOVE him) playing a lawyer who investigates his brother’s mysterious death.

10. Transformers – I saw this by myself over the summer, and I LOVED it! So, I put it in our queue and I’m going to make Eric watch it. I may just break down and buy this one.

11. Spiderman 3 – I didn’t get a chance to see this one over the summer, and it finally comes out on DVD next week. Woo hoo! I love a good Spiderman or Batman movie. I can’t wait for Dark Knight!

12. A Mighty Heart – I really want to see this even though I can’t stand Angelina Jolie. I think I can get past that for this movie, though. I have a feeling it’s going to be a two-fisted weeper.

13. Evan Almighty – I really love Steve Carrell, but I’m nervous about this one. I’ve heard everything from “It’s a good family film.” to “It sucks horribly.” I’m teetering.

Wordless(ish) Wednesday

A rainy day at the Pumpkin Patch with Eli's Preschool Class . . . and Georgia . . . because she refused to let a picture be taken without her in it.

Diaper Dealer

Why does my daughter seem to poop in her diaper every time we leave the house? I don’t get it. She has a nice leisurely morning at home to do her business, and nothing. But the second we leave to go somewhere – like to the grocery store, or preschool to pick up Eli – Boom! The eagle has landed! *sigh*

And it’s not just a little poop. It’s not as if she’d be happy to squeeze out a couple of pellets and call it good. Oh no! When we are in public, the more people there are around us, the bigger and smellier the poopy becomes. It’s like it’s a personal quest for Georgia to try and outdo herself each time.

Knowing this fact, you would be amazed at the number of times I forget to bring a diaper with me.

Last week, we were at Gymboree. Sure enough, we were there for about 10 minutes when the smell began. I didn’t even have to lean down to sniff Georgia’s butt to notice where it was coming from.

I had run out of diapers in my humongo purse/diaper bag the day before because I had to change Georgia’s stinky pants when she let one loose in the middle of Super Target, so I forgot to put more diapers in my purse when I got home.

So, I was trying to figure out how to deal with this. My first thought was to ignore it. Maybe no one else would get close enough to Georgia or everyone would be cursed with severe hay fever and wouldn’t be able to smell. It quickly became clear that plan was not going to work.

I finally laughed and said, “Of course Georgia decides to poop as soon as we leave the house, and I forgot a diaper.” Well, apparently the smell was worse than I thought because the other moms were tripping over themselves shoving diapers at me so I could go and change her.

Okay, here’s the other thing. I am frugal. Since, Georgia is petite, she is still in size 3 diapers. She could wear a size 4, but I think it’s silly to move up to the more expensive next size when she can still wear a size 3. The little girl who loaned us the diaper was several months younger (and quite smaller) than Georgia and was wearing a size 4. WTF?!

And, they pulled out a Pampers Swaddler. Dude! I buy the cheapest possible diapers I can that don’t leak (Luvs). That’s right, we tried everything down to Wal-Mart generic, but Luvs is the cheapest you can get before the diaper starts leaking. Do you know how expensive Pampers Swaddlers are?

Hell, I am counting the days until Georgia is potty trained and I won’t have to buy diapers for the first time in six years. And there are other moms out there who are so joyfully amidst the poo that they are swaddling their children in expensive diapers the size of bath towels. I don't get it.

Manic Monday - Frost

This week’s Manic Monday word is Frost. Thanks to Janna at Jannagraphics for the cool Manic Monday banner!

I had a story that came to mind immediately when I heard this word. Every year, our neighbors have a washers tournament on Labor Day weekend along with the celebratory barbecue. If you’ve never played washers, imagine something similar to horseshoes. On one side of the yard, a coffee can sits in the middle of a shallow box. You stand on the other side of the yard and try to throw a washer into the coffee can. If you get it into the box, you get two points, and if you get it into the can, you get three points.

Our neighbors play some serious washers. Everyone plays in teams of two, and they have the brackets all drawn in a big white board.

Okay, I suck at washers, but this year, Eric made me play. Why? Because he wanted the grand prize. Our host of the event makes some awesome cinnamon rolls. To the winner of the washers tournament, he would deliver his homemade cinnamon rolls on the day of the first frost.

My husband was out for blood. He wanted those cinnamon rolls. So it came to finals. And somehow, we made it to the finals. Maybe it was our talent, but I think it was the power of our distraction – our children running across the yard just when someone was about to throw or Eli screaming, “MY TURN!” right as someone tossed. Some may call that cheating. I call it strategy. Muwahahahahaha!

Anyway, it was down to the finals, and it was us against a divorced mom and her 8-year-old daughter. Since I tossed half my washers while holding Georgia, I was not much help. Eric however managed to pull it out. The allure of those cinnamon rolls was enough for him to kick the ass of that 8-year-old girl in the finals of neighborhood washers. Woo hoo! Now we are just waiting with bated breath for that first frost, which by my calculations, should be coming up within the next week. I can just taste those cinnamon rolls!!

I Don't Like Candy Corn!

Dude! I have had this song stuck in my head for like two weeks! It is a cute song, but they play it on Noggin all the time. And it doesn’t help that my son walks around singing it 24/7!

Official Battery Licker

In an update to my post earlier in the week, I would like to declare that Yes, I did it! I wasn’t going to cave. I wasn’t going to step out onto that ledge they call peer pressure, but in the end, all the “talk” proved to be too much for me. I had to see what it was all about.

There I was, in my kitchen, at the battery drawer, going through the double A’s in my frantic search for the 9-volt. Finally, buried in the back of the drawer, I found it. One lonely 9-volt, begging to be licked.

The anticipation had built all week (and that really is the best part, isn’t it), until the time had finally arrived. I opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue, and received a teeny tiny little buzz.

Dude. That’s it? Seriously? I get more of a jolt when I burn my tongue on my morning coffee. To share my level of anti-climactivity, when Eric walked in the door, I made him open his mouth and I shoved the battery on his tongue.

He just said, “What exactly are we doing?”

I just sighed, “Oh never mind.” Next week, I need to come up with an experiment that’s more interesting.

13 New Shows That Are Worth A Look

1. Bing Bang Theory – Anyone who has ever been or dated a computer nerd will love this one!

2. Pushing Daisies – I absolutely love this show. This is one of the most original shows I have seen in a long time. It’s fabulous!

3. Private Practice – The first week it wasn’t great, but it’s getting stronger as it continues. I love Kate Walsh, and I keep watching because Taye Diggs has to take his shirt off one of these days!

4. Bionic Woman – Since this is on at the same time as Private Practice, I have only seen it twice, but I did like it. I just wish it were on at a different time.

5. Dirty Sexy Money – This is one of my favorite shows of the new season. But then again, I would watch Donald Sutherland in just about anything. I wouldn’t care if he was reading nursery rhymes for an hour.

6. Back To You – Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton – you can’t go wrong there.

7. Moonlight – Okay, I just love vampire shows!

8. Women’s Murder Club – I absolutely love the James Patterson books, and this new series does not disappoint. This one is awesome!!

9. Journeyman – My husband keeps comparing this to Quantam Leap, which I never watched, but I like this Journeyman.

10. Samantha Who? – I have this DVR’d. I watched the first five minutes, and it made me laugh hysterically.

11. Carpoolers – It won’t last, but it was cute.

12. Big Shots – I watched this last week on mute. I have no idea what it’s about, but there are really hot guys in it. I’ll watch it again.

13. Singing Bee – I’m a sucker for game shows, and I don’t know why I find people singing horribly off key so entertaining.

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday - Dinner Time

Eli refuses to eat (as always) . . .



And takes pictures of his family instead.

Licking the 9-Volt

I occasionally do some brilliant things, but last week was one of my winners. With the whole car situation, all we needed was one more thing. And don’t you dare leave in my comments how “these things always come in threes” or I’ll start sending you spam emails.

Anyway, on Thursday afternoon, I was hanging out with Eli. He was napping on my bed, and I was sitting next to him working on my laptop. Around 2:00, my friend Stacey called. About 45 minutes later, I picked up the phone to make another call, and there was no dial tone. Well double crap. I went and checked the other phone, and it had no dial tone either.

Just what I needed. Phone issues. We had to leave to go pick up Eric from work, so I was hoping the phone might magically work by the time we got home. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I called the phone company on my cell. They told me that my phone was either off the hook or there was a short in the line, and they would send someone out the next day.

Eric said, “Well the phone’s not off the hook. Did anything happen in that 45 minutes that would have caused a short in the line?” Oh double crap again. In that 45 minutes, I happened to spill a glass of water. Eric just looked at me. We went back to the bedroom. Sure enough, I happen to spill it behind my night stand. Right on the phone jack.

Eric unscrewed the phone jack, and it was full of water. He dried it out, and disconnected the phone wires. After that, the other phones worked just fine. We didn’t use that particular jack anyway, and it never would have occurred to me that you could short out your own phone line! But if anyone is going to do it, it would be me.

I decided to keep my appointment with “the phone guy” anyway because I wanted to make sure all was safe and we weren’t going to die in an electrical fire. He showed up the next day, and I explained how my son (sue me) spilled water. He said it was fine, and it wouldn’t cause any problem. I asked him if he was sure it didn’t carry enough electrical current to do any harm.

He said, “Ma’am, it doesn’t carry enough of an electrical current to kill an ant. When your phone rings, if you put those wires on your tongue, you might feel it, but it would be like licking a 9-volt.”

I just stared at him. “I beg your pardon?”

He said, “Like licking a 9-volt battery. Haven’t you ever done that?”

Me: “Now why on earth would I EVER lick a 9-volt battery?”

Him: “Because it’s got the positive and negative on it, so that’s how you tell if it’s good.

Me: Blank stare.
Him: “You lick it, and if it’s good, it gives you a buzz. I thought everybody had done that!”

I guess you learn something new every day. I may not be well-versed in the art of licking batteries, but at least my phone works.

Manic Monday - Bat

“On a hot summer night, would you offer your throat to the wolf with the red roses?”

This week’s Manic Monday word is Bat! Thank you to Janna at Jannagraphics for the great Manic Monday banner!

Bat is such a great Manic Monday word! If you happen to be a fan of Meat Loaf (the singer, not the entrée), you may already know where I’m going with this from the above quote.

There are only a few albums that I can think of which are truly great. It doesn’t happen very often, but every few years a singer will release an album that is not only full of good songs, but full of classics.

In 1977, Meat Loaf (aka Michael Lee Aday), released his second album “Bat Out of Hell” which included such classics as “You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth” (beginning with the above wolf quote), “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”, and “Paradise By The Dashboard Lights.”

Incidentally, I’ll buy anyone a beer who would take on the challenge of singing the Paradise song with me at a karaoke bar. At 8 minutes 28 seconds, that’s a feat I haven’t tried since college!

Bat Out Of Hell has sold an estimated 34 million copies worldwide and has become one of the biggest selling albums of all time.

I know a lot of my readers don’t agree with my musical tastes a lot of the time, but come on! This is a rock and roll classic!

Crash!

What a week! Just when you have been bombarded with sick children, and have had vomit and diarrhea flying everywhere, and didn’t think the week could get any worse, it does.

On Tuesday of this week, my husband was on his way home from work and totaled his car. He is fine, and that is the only thing that matters. At least that is the only thing that mattered until I got over the initial euphoria that he was alive and okay, and began trying to figure out how we were going to afford another car.

I won’t even go into what happened with his accident. It involves him running a “yellow” light. He doesn’t think it’s funny when I tell that story using air quotes. Anyway, it’s only been two days, so I haven’t been able to find any humor in this situation yet. It’s got to be there somewhere. Right?

So, I would like to apologize that I haven’t visited your blog this week. I’m already horrible for visiting and not commenting, but this week I’ve been horrible for not even visiting. I’ve been too busy scrubbing poop stains out of children’s pants, providing free chauffer service for my husband, dealing with Georgia’s two-year molars, and nursing a headache that hasn’t gone away in two days. And no one has even tipped me.

Next week will be better, right?

13 Yummy Halloween Treats

Halloween makes me thing of many things, especially all the yummy treats I love!

1. Pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting

2. Roasted pumpkin seeds

3. Candy corn cookies

4. Pumpkin-shaped Reese’s peanut butter cups

5. Caramel apples

6. Ghostly cookies with marshmallow frosting

7. Popcorn balls

8. Stuffed mushrooms that look like eyeballs

9. Homemade doughnuts (traditionally given out by our neighbors at Halloween)

10. Apple cider with cinnamon sticks

11. Chocolate chip pumpkin muffins

12. Monster cookies

13. Snack size candy bars!

Wordless Wednesday - Daddy's Girl

Wake Up Call - The Sequel

We have been at my parents’ house for the last few days, and I was very pleased that Georgia seemed to recover from the vomiting fairly quickly. The weekend was going along well other than the fact that I was not sleeping.

We did the normal game of musical beds that we do when we are at my parents’. First, we put the kids in bed together, and Eric and I went to bed in the other bedroom. Then, Georgia came and got in bed with us. She wallowed on top of me, rolled around, got comfortable horizontally, and finally kicked me out of bed, so I got in bed with Eli.

Last night, when I was getting in bed with Eli, I heard the sound coming out of him that I’m sure you’re all too familiar with. That unwelcome sound of diarrhea just letting loose.

I scooped Eli up as fast as I could and ran with him to the bathroom. I yelled for Eric to come and help. Poor Eli was so confused. He had still been asleep, so he didn’t know what the heck was going on. He woke up to a horrible stomachache, and mommy stripping poopy jammies off of him and sitting him on the potty.

Things went downhill from there. When Eli’s tummy started to hurt, he kept jumping up off the potty instead of sitting down. Oh, the mess that would cause. From midnight last night until about noon today, he had a difficult time making it to the potty. After about six pairs of undies and some Immodium Jr., he finally seems to have it under control, so I think we’re on the upswing. Yippee!

Then tonight, I went to get Georgia ready for bed. She made a poopy diaper, and I went to change her. Total diarrhea. Oh no.

Manic Monday - Track

This week’s Manic Monday word is Track! Thanks to Janna at Jannagraphics for the cool Manic Monday banner!

I am out of town for a few days at my parents’ house, so I didn’t think I would have time to post, but I couldn’t pass up this word because one thing popped into my head. Night Tracks!!

Do you all remember Night Tracks? It was basically two 3-hour blocks of music videos which ran on SuperStation WTBS (later TBS SuperStation) on late night weekends. It would start around 11 p.m., and run well into the next morning. Night Tracks was very big at slumber parties. You always knew you had stayed up too late when they started repeating videos.

Night Tracks began in 1983 and ran until 1989 when they changed it to two 2-hour blocks of videos, and started calling it Night Flicks. In the Spring of 1990, it was further reduced to two 90-minute blocks. In the Spring of 1991, Night Tracks introduced "College Crush Groove", two 30 minute blocks of Alternative music videos in addition to the two regular 1 hour blocks and in August 1991 it became completely Alternative with the subtitle "The Music That Matters". However, the ratings did not significantly improve and TBS canceled the show in May 1992.

Night Tracks had several good years, and I will always remember those late nights fondly. If you’re ever playing 80’s Trivial Pursuit, you may want to remember the first video they ever played on Night Tracks – “Family Man” by Hall & Oats.

Wake Up Call

I would like to know if there is ever a time when something is not “going around.” Every time one of my kids gets sick, someone invariably says, “Well, there is something going around.”

That doesn’t help me when my daughter wakes up at 4:15 a.m. throwing up. After a long night last night, that is what happened this morning. It’s never fun when you’re analyzing vomit at 4 a.m. trying to remember what your child ate while changing the sheets.

I changed her sheets and changed her pajamas and then brought her into bed with us because she was so upset. 15 minutes later “GAK!” all over our bed. That got Eric moving faster than I had ever seen him in the middle of the night. This time, he changed the sheets on our bed while I gave Georgia a bath. We were now at 5 a.m.

By the time I finished with bath and got Georgia calmed down and back to sleep, it was 6:15. The alarm goes off at 6:30. Not cool. I made Eric miss his morning meeting so he could take Eli to preschool and I could let Georgia sleep. Luckily, that was the last time she threw up, which could be because she refused to eat anything. Until right before she went to bed. Why do I envision myself up again at 4 a.m. this morning?

Busy Night

I'm taking a TT break this week. I was going to sit down and write one tonight after I whipped up some cookies for preschool. Unfortunately, things never work out as planned. I made dinner, cleaned the kitchen, and started making cookies.

Halfway through making cookies, Georgia climbed up on the counter and dumped lemonade in the batter, which curdled with the eggs. So I had to dump them out and start over. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough eggs left to make another batch. Since we were signed up to make cookies, we had to go get more eggs so we could come home and finish cookies.

By 10 p.m., the last batch of cookies were finally in the oven. It's been a very long evening.

Wordless Wednesday - Georgia's Bad Hair Day

Eric the Ticket Broker

They recently opened a huge new arena in town and the first few shows are big. There was a giant uproar because when tickets went on sale for Elton John, they sold out fast, but when tickets went on sale for Hannah Montana, they sold out in under a minute. A minute! Apparently, with all the presale tickets, by the time they went on sale to the public, there weren’t even that many available. They’re now going on ebay for $1000. And I just recently realized that Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana were the same person, but I won’t even go into that.

So, my husband gets the idea that he can make money selling tickets on ebay. I immediately get the feeling that this won’t end well. Every concert that has gone on sale at the Sprint Center has sold out so far. So last Saturday when Billy Joel tickets went on sale, he was online at 10 a.m. sharp and got fairly good seats. For $200. Sweet Lord. Can you believe how much they charge for concerts these days?

Eric said, “Don’t worry. They’ll sell out by the end of the day. I’m sure of it!” Uh huh. That was Saturday. If you check Ticketmaster, there are still Billy Joel tickets available. I have a feeling my husband and I will be enjoying a Billy Joel concert in December. Which is fine. I mean after all, I did drag him to see Clay Aiken three times. (No comment from the peanut gallery on that one.) And I know he likes Billy Joel so I’m cool with that.

What worries me is when he said, “If I can’t sell these, Garth Brooks tickets go on sale next week, and I KNOW I’ll be able to sell those!” Dude! If I get stuck going to see a Garth Brooks concert, I will NOT be happy!

Manic Monday - Orange

This week’s Manic Monday word is orange, and it was one of those week’s that I was overwhelmed with things to post about. So, instead of writing a long post about one thing, I’m just going to list a few things that came to my mind.

1. Has anyone seen Rob Lowe lately?

He is rocking that orange. Dude, lay off the spray tanning. Seriously.

2. Eli and I carved our first jack-o-lantern of the season on Friday. Daddy has all the fancy books with the pumpkin designs, but Eli wanted to do this.

I think it’s perfect!

3. Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins at Starbucks I tried one of these this week for breakfast. *drool* Uh! Ma! Gawd! It’s my find of the week! I couldn’t find a photo of one, so next time I buy one, I will snap a pic.

4. A few of our favorite characters each day are also rocking the orange look (in a good way, Mr. Lowe).

Zoe, from Sesame Street is one of our favorite Sesame Street characters, but she doesn’t quite edge out Elmo and Cookie Monster.

5. Backyardigans

I’m not even going to try to explain the Backyardigans, but my kids LOVE this show. Tyrone, the orange moose, is best friends with Pablo, a blue penguin; Tasha, a yellow hippo; Austin, a purple kangaroo; and Uniqua, a pink cow.

It sounds bizarre, but it’s actually quite good. Speaking of bizarre children’s programming, my kids have caught a couple of episodes of that new show Yo Gabba Gabba. Dude! It’s like you can’t look away. As soon as I find a video for the song “Don’t Bite Your Friends”, I will post it. I laughed so hard, I about peed myself.

6. Blue’s Clues

Joe from Blue’s Clues often wears his orange sweater with squares on it. I have debated the Joe vs. Steve issue, and although Joe is much more the eye candy than Steve was, he lacks the personality. Steve was funny! I miss Steve!

7. Lastly, I am reminded of the Jenny Jenkins song because nothing rhymes with orange! I love that song. Lisa Loeb has a new version of it. They play the video all the time on Noggin. Eli calls it the “Colors Song.” We always turn it up loud and dance - and you have never seen anything cuter until you have seen my son dance.

Of course, I couldn’t find the video, but if you click here, you can listen to the song. (Make sure you have your speakers on – it will start automatically when the Web site comes up.) It’s one of my favorite kids’ songs!