it must be new years

Why do I say this? Because it's time, it's time for my kids to once again leave the nest and go back to school. I actually went to my bedroom last evening and put laundry away...JUST SO I COULD BE ALONE. How sad is that?

Between work ending, a lovely vacation and Christmas break, my family is really starting to grate on my nerves. Is that horrible? am I the only one? Will I actually (really and truly) look back to these days of incessant neediness and miss it some day?

Sometimes I wonder.

I took the boys to the mall yesterday, just to you know maybe spread out a bit. Garr they fought the whole way in the car. Sulked and kicked at each other while I was attempting to get what I needed at Staples. Whined if I was in a store that wasn't "someones favorite", or called becasue I needed to be at Hollister STAT! (!!!!) there was a "huge" sale. Ok, since when is a hoodie for 30 bucks a sale? Not in my book, so we sulked because I'm cheap. This from the oldest who wears a uniform to school anyway.

Then we went home, and asked the oldest to drive to this one pizza place because we really like their pizza. It's maybe a 10-12 min drive. He doesn't feel like it. Well I didn't feel like getting outta bed at 6 am one day to you know...give birth to you, but i did. I didn't feel like being your indentured servant and driver for the last 16 years, but I was. Now go get the damn pizza. And please when you get home make sure to whine extra hard about why we couldn't just order from the place that delivers....because you had to wait 10 whole minutes when you were there.

TEN MINUTES! the nerve. I have to wait 48 hours to get your butts back in school, you'll live.

football is like my lover

hmph...last nights game proved to be indicitave of the entire season. a few points short after a good game. at least they put the fear of God in those damn Giants, who now will probably end up playing the effn cowboys and I'll have to just wish the stadium opens up and swallows both teams.

bye football...i'll be waiting

It's the Superbowl...kinda

As mentioned earlier, I am a Washington Redskins fan.

This year I feel like I should be saying that in a meeting or something..."My name is Maria, and I am a Skins fan"

If you don't follow football, take my word for it, it's been UGLY.

There have a been a few shining moments, beating Dallas was tops in my book. Winning in New Orleans was pretty sweet, and I did enjoy the game I took the fam to. Went to watch Atlanta beat them soundly earlier this month, but at least my boys enjoyed that, and they managed to get attention from one of the Falcons WR's, who gave them a wave. You would have thought it was the second coming.

Which brings us to tonight...

Growing up in "Giants Country" (if there was a font of disgust, I would have used it just there), I had 2 options when I decided I enjoyed the foolsball. 1) root for the hometown team, or 2) pick their arch rival and root against em. I chose the latter.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because tonight is the night, last game of the season, after tonight Skins hang em up for another year. Giants pretty much have to win to play post season...And you heard it here ...Skins are playing spoilers, sorry Tiki..after tonight it's going to be over. Skins are going to send you home one last time, and be heroes for the rest of the NFC. I am stoked, and I will be calling out every Giants fan I know after.


****I reserve the right to delete this post if they lose ******

HAIL

back

we're home...yeah. can you sense the excitement? Our trip was wonderful, relaxing, great weather. No one fought an obscene amount. Only the day we tried to go to Magic Kingdom killed us, it was VERY crowded. But we stayed to the bitter end (mostly to get our $400 bucks outta the place) and watched the parade and fireworks. The days at Universal were awesome, it was practically empty. Of course now we know why, everyone was at Magic Kingdom. Went to Coccoa Beach for a day, and it was so relaxing, warm sun, empty beach. It really was a great trip. We even found a PS3 and brought it home...BONUS.

With a drawback or 2.

A little history for you, no trip is complete without a visit to the ER or urgent care. It's always something....swimmers ear, strep throat, a foot that blows up so much it really looks like one of those cartoons where the guy blows into his hand and makes it bigger. That was more funny than anything. You name it. I was in Kona for 2 weeks in 04, and made 3 trips to Hualalai Urgent Care....nothing says paradise like heading across the street to Wal Mart for your meds.

So this time it was me, Thurs night. After feeling like I was trying to give birth to a 10 pound gas bubble for most of the afternoon. I told hubs we HAD to go to the ER, I no longer cared if they laughed at me behind my back for coming to ER over gas. I just wanted to feel better. So we went, and spent thurs night until 5 am in the Sand Lake ER. It was nice as far as ER's go. And I got some great pills to make the rest of the trip go by real smooth. Nothing major, just a slight fem problem that my Dr will be able to remedy, (as soon as she gets back form vaca...glad I'm not dying).

Then because 06 could not go out on a high note, we get home late on the 23rd. There were just a couple boxes that were delivered while I was gone, I had asked a friend to stop by and put them in the garage so they would not just be laying outside. Turns out a certain grinch helped themselves to the boxes OUT OF THE GARAGE.

I KNOW!!!!!! Can you believe someone could sink so low? It wasn't even much, and unless this person had a Falcon fan, chess player, drummer and kid who wanted Guitar Hero 2 they were useless to that person. Just the point. Plus all of those gifts were for my 13 yr old, at least I was able to tell him what happened, and that I would buy him new ones. But the kid had 3 gifts under the tree on Christmas morning, and it bothered me.

but we did have a wonderful time, especially the part when I called one friend on the 20th, I was sitting at the pool, she was frantically searching for some I cat or something. ahhhh...life is good. Happy New Year ...I am hunkering down until it gets here..glad to see 06 in the rearview.

venus and mars collide

My husband is a bath kinda guy. Me? I honestly prefer a shower. So in our bathroom we have a big ol' jacuzzi tub, and a separate shower. Never the two need meet. Until yesterday.

Because of a plumbing glitch, the tub desperately needed a disinfecting. So the hubs was forced to use my shower. When I said to him.."I don't have any bleach right now, just use my shower". I had no idea the what I was bringing upon myself. OK, I should have. I mean we've been married for like a jillion years. I should have run immediately and bought some bleach. Looking back, I wish I had.

So I got into my shower, and oh no he did not..He did, he changed my shower setting. I had to tiptoe up (shower head comes out of the ceiling) to change it back. Also, because he is 6'4, and I am not even close to that, the water was hitting me smack dab in the face. Because, gawd, I guess he needed to shower his head as well, so he moved my shower head to accomadate him. hmph

I avoid drowning, and I reach for shampoo. He has messed up my collection of 1/2 empty shower products that I don't use anymore but refuse to throw away, AND put the wrong shampoo in front. AND used the scrub, but not put the top back on right. Oh the list of wrongs goes on and on. So I did what any normal woman (who is leaving for vaca in less than 24 hours and desperately trying to keep the peace) does.

I put a teaspoon of coffee in his choclate milk (he hates coffee), loosened the top of his mouthwash, so when he picks it up he'll grab the top and have a minute of frustration. Hid his cell phone under the bed and moved his shoes. Lots of little things, that will make him say..."I could have sworn I left it right here", but nothing that can be linked to me.

Because passive aggressive is my middle name.

Well I have some gifts left to wrap, and some clothes to pack and boys and girls.I AM OUTTA HERE...ciao

run don't walk

consider this my psa for December...should you see these innocent looking buns in your store, RUN , DO NOT WALK, away from them as quickly as possible.

Do not believe their innocent appearance. They are evil, Satan's tool. You will not be able to resist their cinamonny goodness, and the glob of gooey icing on top.

You might think that one small sliver cut off the side will satisfy you. It will not. You might think that scraping the wee bit of icing off the top of the packaging will cut it. NOPE. Before you know it you will have to go buy more to avoid the embarrassment of telling your family you are weak, weak to their power.

tis the season

Throughout much of my life as a mom I have been a Christmas nut. Decorations everywhere, gifts galore under the tree. Stockings stuffed, toys EVERYWHERE. Months obsessing over was there enough? and I loved it, don't get me wrong. I loved every second of it. Christmases when I was young were nice, but they were always stressful. My mom just doesn't enjoy it. She did it because of us kids, but her heart was not always quite in it. I swore my kids would have Christmases of their dreams.

Then one day a couple years ago, I was cleaning the playroom. I realized my Christmasness had to be curbed. My kids had too much. I had too much. I didn't need another Santa figure, or singing stocking. I didn't need 4 Christmas trees in my home, and my kids sure as heck did not need toys that would still be unopened in May.

The first year was hard, but I did ok. Everyone had gifts under the tree, but I knew I could have done better. The next year I restarined from buying any more decorations, and we took a vacation in January. The youngest still believes in Santa so there were gifts under the tree, but not so many. Last year I did great! of course money was tight so I can't really take all the credit. But that was nice, the gifts were well thought out and nothing was left unopened in the corner of the playroom. I also started something last year, the kids have to clean and purge before Christmas. Video games and toys that they have outgrown or don't like get donated.

This year I have found my stride. We are headed to Orlando for the week before Christmas. The only one with more than a couple gifts will be the youngest. He still believes, or he is smart enough not to tell me he doesn't. But even he is getting less. I put very simple, but nice lights outside, cut way back on decorations in the house. This year my siblings and I all decided not to exchange and I told my friends let's not exchange. And you know what? Not only did everyone agree, it's GREAT! I love it, in fact when I walk through Wal Mart and see the crap lining the aisles they are trying to pawn off as great gift ideas, I scoff. There were days I would have snatched those things up..."Just one more small thing"..this year I am smiling thinking of how nice it is to be stress free, and counting down the days till i feel the warm Florida sun on my face.

Christmas can be anything YOU want it to be, I see that now. It doesn't feel empty or fake without gifts and crap everywhere. For us it's spending time relaxing and enjoying all the fruits of the months of hard work, together, as a family.

and just where the hell do you think you've been?

my answer is long and drawn out and, quite frankly, goes completely against my decision to avoid the bad joojoo. so i will give the brief list of excuses

• my car had a run in with a majestic (albeit very large) creature of the woods. completeing my vehicular accident tri fecta, for what i can only hope, is the rest of my life. it also transformed me from just a chic who had a couple accidents this year, to a murderer.
• my desktop chose to stop connecting to the internet, turning it into a very large and expensive paperweight. i still have the laptop, but don't really like to use it.
• my oldest is serving 6 mos - life for Completely Irresponsible Behavior While Operating a Motor Vehicle. he may get an outside visit for his birthday in February. He may avoid the max, which according to the mom rules book, i am entitled to lay upon him because the car is mine, and i pay for the gas and insurance. we'll see how nice he can be
• work got UBER busy at the end of the season. This is actually quite a blessing and I am very thankful for it, the bills can get paid all winter this year. WOOOIE
• i have been a bit of a road warrior, also a good thing. only not so comfortable because rental cars just suck. I took advantage of the first time in recent memory i did not have a kid playing post season football and ran amuck. it was fun, lets just say Thanksgiving weekend? yeah, I was strolling on the beach.

so in between, killing deer, grounding kids, travelling near and far, and work, i was also just a wee bit down in the dumps. and lazy. i really hate this time of year. not Christmas, just winter. the sun is out all of 30 seconds a week, it gets cold, and even if it's a warm day, its still cold. i am just one of those people, i need the sun. as of right now i have 9 more winters to get through. then i can bail, not that i'm keeping track or anything.

so we are heading to Orlando in a week (which is a VERY GOOD THING AND I AM SUPER THANKFUL for), and by the time we get home we will be past that magic Dec21 mark. From then on, as most of you know, the days begin to get a wee bit longer. not enough to matter to most people, but it matters to me. so i bide my time, safe in the knowledge the end of this misery will come again. that and the fact my sister now lives a block form the beach, if only she wasn't 6 hours away.