there is a tribute in here somewhere

I LOVE football...yes I do. Sometimes I love it a little too much. Sometimes I think I may have missed something somewhere, because if I'm at a game and someone gets hit HARD, other moms are lamenting someone is going to get hurt and I am the one high fiving the kid after the game telling hin what an AWESOME hit it was. I like to think I just appreciate the skill it takes to excell at such a demanding sport.

So it is with a heavy heart I say go in peace Sean Taylor, you had some AWESOME hits.

turkey turkey turkey

mmmm I love Turkey.

I HATE shopping at Wal Mart 3 days before Thanksgiving.

Normally it is just me and husband and the chillins on Turkey Day. Occasionally I have had one of my siblings come to visit. But rarely do I have more than 6 or 7 people to cook for. Until this year when I have 13. So every other year of my Thanksgiving cooking life I have wanted a small turkey. Go ahead find a small turkey, like less than 12 pounds, I dare you. Unless of course you are looking for a large turkey, in which case every effn turkey you pick up will weigh less than your kids did at birth. So I pick up the biggest one I could find, at a whopping 13.56 pounds and think I'll just have to either a) make a crapper load of sides and appetizers or b) continue to check around for a larger bird. On my 3rd store I finally found one. So looks like I'm all set for Christmas dinner shopping.

I am very excied for everyone to come visit, however I was not so excited when I pulled into the parking lot and practically had to get a shuttle to the store. WTF does NO ONE work at 2 pm on a Monday afternoon? So after playing cart crash derby for an hour (By the way, why do they insist on filling the aisles with shit during the busiest weeks of the year?), I got into what appeared to be a "short" line, as if. The short line was filled with people buying crap without prices....300 pounds of butter that was on sale somewhere else and they wanted the sale price for it, (why don't these poeple just go to the store where the sale is? It's like 3 miles away? and what could 2 people possibly be doing with that much margarine...)and a VERY chatty older couple buying gifts off a baby registry, but forgot to give the cashier the slip until AFTER she wrung it up.

As my ice cream is melting on my shoe. Good times.....as I'm thinking why the hell did I invite, oh no not just invite...INSIST all these people come visit. Then I remembered, becasue I am thankful I have them.

Happy Turkey Day...remember why you are thankful too.

I have a boy

actually I have 3, and a neice who's moved in, but enough about them already.

Did you ever look back on something, an event or series of events and, while you may have been confused when it happened, later on you figured out why? That is my youngest.

When we got knocked up we both looked at each other like naa uhh wasn't me. I mean really I know we were all virile and fertile and what not, but it had been one of those months. So much so, that we were on vaca alone when I was at about 4 weeks, and I was thinking I had just gotten lucky that my Aunt Flo had held off visiting until after my trip. I even went sky diving (of course now I know what that does to a 1 month old fetus...dude it makes em all scrambled).

So really his arrival was sort of a shock. But regardless along he came. And you know how you finally start to feel back in the groove when your (then) youngest starts pre school, and you're not hauling diapers and bottles and strollers EVERYWHERE you go? Tantrums finally stop and you start to think life will be normal again some day. Only WRONG...you're in for it again. Yeah that was how I felt.

Everyone told me FOR SURE this would be my girl, that's why it happened. I was due a girl and here she came...only they were wrong. Turns out he did come along for reason I didn't know at the time, but now, NOW I know. Only I start to think I know, only to realize later, there is yet more to the tale.

He was born and my grandmother was very sick, she had been going down hill for a year or so and it was nearing the end. She lived to see him at 5 days old, and I thank God everyday I decided to ignore any medical advice and drive the 2 of us to see her. She died less than 48 hours after we left. So I said "That's why he came along, to help me through my Gram dying"

Then, a year later our marriage was bad. And a big move was approaching, and I contemplated just staying put. But I looked at him and knew he would hardly know his dad if I didn't at least give it an effort, and he dserved that. So we stayed together and I am so glad for that now. So I thought, again...good thing he came along.

Then this past summer when my brother died, my youngest has his name for a middle name. So I thought, see I had him so I would have a tribute to Jake.

And yet again, this past weekend, he and I went alone to visit my siter in Va Beach. I seriously needed a break, but didn't want to leave him home with the older kids and dad, because then I would worry, with husbands schedule I knew the kids would be on their own alot. So I just took him with me. We get to the beach and I am TIRED, I left mad early and it's a long drive, but we decided to walk to the beach and "Say hi". As we are walking up the dunes the smell hits us. You know that sweet sweet smell of salt and wind and uber fresh air. As I am thinking to myself how much I LOVE that smell he yells at the top of his lungs " YES! I LOVE THIS SMELL!".

And yet again my friends, that is why I had him.

today is the day

I was feeling a little blue this morning, Thanksgiving is here and while I am super excited that my brother and sisters and their g/f's, b/f's, dogs and offspring are all heading to the great white hell to celebrate together with me. Obviously we will be minus one and that makes me so sad I could just curl up and suck my thumb.

That and the fact that as I watched the youngest wait for his bus this morning that shit they call snow started falling, AND I think I may have some PMS issues, that have returned since I am no longer physically active EVAH, it seems. Anyway I was in a pissy mood.

And my husband calls, now usually this would segue into a rant or something bad. And believe you me, that man has done enough in the last month alone to warrant me putting a price on his head. But not today, today I am so glad he is mine. If I think the weather is bad here, where is working it is worse. It is pouring rain, turning to snow and miserable. He has already spent the last week working in the rain with a cold, and this morning he souned like hell. One look at the Doppler where he is and I said to him, "Why not just call it a day and try next week?"

Because he is afraid if he waits the opportunity to make the $$$$ up there will be gone. And I loved him so much, because I know how much he hates to work in these conditions, and I know the guys are being asses because they don't want to work in it, and I know the trucks are getting stuck, and the drivers are bitching for late hours and I know it would be easy for him to say screw it and come home.

But he didn't, because giving his family the absolute best of everything is more important to him than anything else. Today I feel so lucky.

(however next week, when the rosy facade is gone, I will bitch about the fact I live in an effn fort, while we collect snow mobiles)

electronics anonymous

Umm Hi! my name is Maria and I am finally joining the new millenium.

Because I am soo incredibly frugal, I have hee hawed around over the ipod situation for at least 2 years now. As soon as I think I have myself talked into splurging on one for, you know, me (my kids are on 2nds, mind you) a better one comes out. So, I wait and again finally convince myself to do it and the price goes down, and I get leery, a better one must be on it's way. It is a vicious cycle, and sometimes I just tire myself out.

Fast forward through the changing of my mind 43567 times, and the actual adding of one to a shopping cart, to remove and/or delete it another 1243 times, that brings us to Friday. I walked in and my neice says "look on the table". So I look, and glory be...angels sing

THE GIRL BOUGHT ME AN IPOD!

How sweet is that? Why? Because I always say I want one and never buy it. My kids could seriously take a lesson. or you know my husband.

I have found the one electronic item that could bring me peace. Yeah, it's THAT good. A friend many moons ago referred to my tatse in music as, let me see if I can remember his exact phrase...."on crack". I can't help it, I grew up in the age of disco, bopped through the British invasion of the 80's, banged my head to some serious metal, saw the first Seattle grunge thing, and have always had a soft spot for anything groovy..you know some r&b, blues, rap. Needless to say I can now jump from Suicidal Tendencies to Elvis, and back to LL Cool J, with zero effort. Plus all my old cd's that skipped...HELLO? It fixes them...(swoon).

The only downfall? I can never use it in public...I can't resist singing LOUDLY.