whistle stop!

it's a good thing that germs aren't as big as they appear on commercials for products like lysol. personally, if i saw my little monster grab a phone with a thousand huge (yet colorful) squirmy germies crawling all over it, i would freak out. i'm a very careful mom when it comes to germs and cleanliness but enough is enough. monster already comes out of church now and says, "we gotta wash hands cuz i was in the dirty nursery". oops - my fault.

anyhow, none of us would leave our homes or our beds or - geez - none of us would open our eyes if we actually saw germs for what they were. so thank you, lysol, for showing me what microscopic germs look like up close, but i don't really want to keep that image in my mind...and in a minute, it will have flown out of my brain only to be replaced by another thought or worry. unfortunately, the "whistling" jingle that lysol brand plays on its commercials will stay with me. forever. nothing like whistling a light and lively toon while showing people magnified germs that want to make them sick and die. cheers!

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look ma, no hands!

i shaved my left leg twice today and forgot about my right in the shower today. seriously, what?

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tonight, i was telling my little monster a bedtime story about 'chalk the boat' and 'sammy race car'. at one point, chalk the boat gave sammy race car a high-five. monster stopped me and told me that chalk must have used his mouth since he doesn't have arms or hands. wow. wow! he's a very logical thinker for being 3. he he!!!!!!!!

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a backhanded christmas gift?

i am going to buy our neighbors a muffler for their car and a new screen door for christmas. or any occasion, really. they are great people. salt of the earth people! but they are LOUD. we hear that van start up, warm up, leave and then come back several times a day. it makes me CRAZY! this is not a new issue. they've had that loud van for at least the year and a half we've lived here. are mufflers that hard to come by? (actually, my husband says it the catalytic converter - but whatever.)

the side screen door is the only door they use, and the slam on that door could wake the dead. there's no spring or little part to slow it down - it just shuts full force each time. the kicker is that they always slam that door then start up the van ... faithfully at monster's naptime. whether they're pulling in or just leaving, it always wakes my boy and working from home most days, it really puts me in a bind when he doesn't nap! it really gets 'funny' the times they're finally about to pull out of the driveway when they remember something and have to go back into the house. of course they don't have a second key, so they stop the car, go back in and slam the door again. then slam it on the way out and start up the car again. double the pleasure - double the fun.

so i'm wondering how i can gift them these items without looking to obvious. impossible, you say? i agree but i might try it anyway. oh, thank you for letting me whine!

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busy town & spaghetti squash

i have got to rave to you about a new game my son got for his birthday. richard scarry's busytown "eye found it" is a super buy! from the way that it folds up easily to be stored away...to the object of the game, it comes highly recommended by me. (yes, me. some unknown person who is writing a blog you're not sure how you stumbled onto.)

basically, you unfold 3 boards that fit together like a long (6ft) puzzle piece. taking turns, you spin and move the cute pieces along. sometimes you get to pick a clue card and you have to find as many of the object on the card as possible in a minute. today, i drew an ice cream cone. using mini magnifying glasses, monster and i set a magnifying glass on each one we found - then counted them up and moved forward. both of us! there's obviously more to the game, but the object is actually to work together and beat the piggies before they eat all the picnic food. love it. love the pictures, love the idea, love the teamwork. love it.

where does spaghetti squash fit in? it doesn't. i just have fallen in love with my squash! simply stab the vegetable with a fork or knife several times (particularly good to do when you need to get a little frustration out), toss it into the oven @ 350 or so, and wait an hour. (hey! you could play busy town during that time!) when it's ready, just slice it open, dig out the guts/seeds, and sprinkle on some marinara or butter and parmesan cheese. a brilliant way to eat spaghetti without all the carbs.

oh yeah - my husband and son won't go near it. eh - they don't know what they're missin'!

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gotta love the airbrush

Ah - the art of airbrushing. If I lived in Hollywood, I wouldn't look half-bad either! I admit, I leaf through OK! magazine and People and all the other gossipy, trashy magazines out there. I don't buy them, but love to read them in line at the grocery store. (That is, when my little monster isn't pulling gum, mints and Combos off the shelf and flinging them into our cart).

Now, we all know about airbrushing and how one mag forgot to airbrush Demi Moore's hip back into the picture after fixing her all up. That sort of thing. But it still gets to some of us women-folk (and guys too, I suppose). I probably do buy into it a bit, because I'd like to love the way I look too. Which makes me wonder if the airbrushee feels weird looking at a more perfect self when they view their very own magazine cover for the first time.

Oh, I'm not saying I wouldn't JUMP at the chance to be made-over and airbrushed into a pin-up girl or the face of an article entitled "Look THIS good!". Ha! Given the chance, I'd probably knock a few people out of the way for that! : ) What I am saying, is that it's about time something like this happened...

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/twiggys-photoshopped-olay-ads-banned-in-england-554961/

Read the article. Very interesting. An Olay ad is being banned in England for airbrushing to the extent that Twiggy looks about 30, instead of, well, much older than that. I'm sure she still looks good - just not that good. C'mon. Get real!

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Family Jewels

I went to get my ring cleaned this morning since my crazy-beautiful engagement ring was losing its sparkle. My little monster came along in his doggie Halloween costume and I was sure to hold him the entire time at the jewelers. The same, friendly man at the back of the store took my ring to clean it. Then TJ and I decided to have a look around. Again, I carried him the whole time so not to make anyone nervous. Including myself.

My reason for going in was two-fold. Other than the cleaning, I wanted to look for my grandma's Christmas present. She wants turquoise earrings. Keep in mind at the time I went into the store, I was the only person there. No one else. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

While we listened to the buzzing of the ring cleaning, I waited for the woman working the store to ask me if I needed help or wanted pricing on anything. She ignored me TOTALLY and I have to think it's because I had my son with me. Or in my sweats, I didn't look like a big buyer. Well, I found some nice earrings and then ran across an incredible necklace that I wanted for myself. While I was looking around, another customer came into the store and the woman made a beeline for that person to see if they needed any help. Nice. I didn't feel like asking the rude woman for pricing...so I didn't. I probably should go back and thank her for her unfriendliness. It saved me quite a bit of money...and the temptation to tell my husband about the incredible necklace. I guess I felt a little bit like Julia Roberts during the shopping scene in pretty woman. That is, except for the whole hooker part. Oh - and I had my kid with me. My doggie kid.

Sorry, jewelry store. You missed out on a possible purchase or two...and I'd like to thank you!

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C'mon, seriously?

I work in higher education at a local private college and I continue to be surprised by the way people think...or don't think. For example, when students apply for admission or inquire about our school, we ask for an email address in addition to other pertinent information. Well, every so often (more often than I'd think!), I come across an applicant's email address that stops me in my tracks. Email addresses that include words like "farthead", "mymommaspimp", "knowuwantme" and other such things that give you a pretty good insight into the minds of our youth. Of course, most of them have numbers following the "fun words or phrases", which leads me to believe that more than 1 kid has decided on that email address. C'mon, seriously?

Perhaps the most disturbing part of all of this is that they actually didn't think hard enough to NOT include that email on their college application. I have an idea! Why don't you create a new email address just for college or job applications ... and save the creepy ones for your oddball friends. That is my tip of the day!

Oh, there are so many students who blow my mind in good ways. The hard-working but fun-loving students who do well in school, volunteer, get involved in athletics or music and spend time with their families from time to time. And no matter the email address, each student has the capacity to literally change the world. I just hope they all take the initiative to change it for the good. Lord knows we need all the help we can get!

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