It snowed last night. It snowed A LOT. It's thick and heavy and sitting in clumps on the tree branches. It's 8am and my neighbor, Dan is already out there with the snow blower. That is so amazing. I have just barely gotten out of bed, have not finished my first cup of coffee and am just sitting here in a daze. Emily had a morning tantrum. I hate those! She has a snit about God knows what at least 3 mornings a week. The conclusion: She is not a morning person. Kris looked a little ticked when he woke up, shot Em a look and went downstairs. Cass spent the night at Angela's so we had a nice and quiet evening without a drama about who ate the Ho Ho's and drank the last juice box. Watched the snow as it came down, first as sleet, then as slush, then as these huge flakes. Every now and then, we saw a flash of lightning and heard some thunder. Pretty dramatic and it was so nasty out on the roads, Joe gave up an evening at a bar and stayed home and drank beer instead.

It's been a calmer week at work so I have started on New Years Resolution number 2: Prepare for CCNA exam and hopefully take the darn thing at the end of the year. For those who don't know, CCNA stands for Cisco Certified Network Administrator. I know that there isn't much need for that certification in purchasing but I am hoping to move into Technical Project Management someday and it will be helpful. BUT, the material is challenging and the exam is difficult. When looking for ways to practice, I did find a few online services that for $2000 will take the exam and pass it for me. HA HA! Where there's a will, there's a f'n way. God Bless America and NO, I DIDN'T CONSIDER THAT AS AN OPTION FOR A SECOND! I want the victory of passing this thing all on my own!

Tonight, I am going to see my friends band. He plays Classic Rock in a nice little smokey bar in Aurora. THE BEST! I haven't smoked in ages but I do it vicariously through everyone else. I still miss it but can't bring myself to buy a pack. The worst I've done is snuck a drag off my bowling teammates cigarrette but left it at that: A DRAG.

On todays agenda: Laundry, cleaning, Kristophers carpet. I have a snazzy new carpet shampooer. Band and beer and vicarious cigarettes later.

Kris had a band concert tonight. Emily has a shelf life of about 30 minutes and then lets us all know that she is done sitting and wants out of her chair. So, after chasing after her in the hallway of Conant High School, I am tired. I hope she grows out of this some day and works her way up to a shelf life of 60 minutes so I can actually sit and enjoy something without chasing, shushing, and dodging those..."CAN'T YOU CONTROL YOUR CHILD?" stares. You just cannot reason with a child. Logic and accountability are two traits you will never see in a kid. So, I lay down the law, set the boundaries and hope they learn something. It's just tiring!
I'm going to bed!

New Year's Resolution 2006....

Someone will always be smarter. Their house will be bigger. They will
drive a better car. Their children will do better in school. And their
partners will fix more things around the house. So, let it all go and love
you and your circumstances. Think about it. The prettiest woman in the
world can have a troubled heart. And the most favored woman on your job >may
be unable to have children. The richest woman you know -- she's got the
car, the house the clothes --might be very lonely. So, love you. Love who
you are right now. Tell yourself, "I am too blessed to be stressed."

I think finally...

we have the bodily fluid problem under control but it all came to a head for awhile there. Diharrea to the left of me, puke to the right and here I am stuck in the middle. Emily managed to cause of wave of digestive problems to everyone she came in contact with for two days and the virus finally left her but not without a grand finale. Saturday morning bright and early, shortly after finishing coffee and fortunately before breakfast, Emily blew out her diaper but it was the granddaddy of all diaper blowouts. I never knew so much could come out of something so small! Oh was it disgusting...all over the carpet and she stepped in it and tracked it all over the place! She cleared the cats out of the room that's how nasty it was. But she is feeling much better now.

Christmas is officially over, the decorations are down and it has been cleaned out of the furniture. Jelly stains, chocolate handprints, spilled wine, crushed potato chips, ribbon filled cat yak, pretzels, bits of Christmas dinner, we had enough food in the carpet to feed a third world country. But not only did I do the carpet, I did all the upholstery as well and my back is KILLING me this morning. Kris got on my case we didn't do anything fun all weekend. GRRRRRRRRRR! He got the evil death stare from me on that and then there's Cass, sweet doe eyed Cass. After I spent all weekend, cleaning up the remnants of Christmas and this past weeks flu, I got a little tired and all I wanted to do was sit and just be for a few minutes. So I told Cassie to straighten the kitchen after she was done eating. She threw such a hissy, you'd think I asked her to jump off the Golden Gate Bridge into a swarm of hungry sharks. "WHAT ABOUT KRIS??? WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO DO? THOSE CRUMBS AREN'T MY CRUMBS! ID DIDN'T PUT THAT THERE!" Then she started screaming at Emily who was bringing the contents of her toybox onto the kitchen floor and just generally being her annoying self. I told her to knock it off and I wanted to hear some water running in the sink for the dishes. So, she pouted and turned on the faucet so a little dribble hit the sink and it would take a day to fill the sink. Well, that did it! I got up and calmly told her to go to her room and stay there for the rest of her life or until I called her to come out, whichever comes first. I cleaned the kitchen up which took me all of 10 minutes. It's not like I own the TajMahal. It was two counters, the table and a pan that needed cleaning. WOOP DEE DOOOOOO! So, as punishment for being a bit on the selfish side, she is solely responsible for keeping the kitchen clean for the next 3 days. AND, I had a talk with Kristopher already about NOT being a jerk and leaving all his dishes and crap all over the place knowing she would have to clean them. Yes, he would do that. I remember reading somewhere that children feel more a part of the family if they are required to have some responsibilities maintaining the household. This may come as a shock, but none of the kids has ever thanked me for requiring them to help me. I know. I know.. INCONCEIVABLE.

Nothing new to report. Saw King Kong...which I LOVED! Joe wrote his schpeil on that so I will just shut up. I am also wanting to see Munich. I watched a movie called "Crash" last night which is all about Racism and it's many incarnations. Was good. Unbelievable in parts but overall, I enjoyed it. www.rottentomatoes.com has the reviews if you are interested in reading about the movie.

Later folkses and please let me know your availability for the Berghoff outing.

All the kids are home! Cassie vs the Jelly jar!

It's 9:50am. All my children are home today. Emily is whining. Cassie is whining. Kristopher is pouring gasoline on Cassie's already burning fire by causing her to whine MORE. Already at 9:30am, it's coming to a head. All I did was give Emily a glass of water and it resulted in two absolutely full and horrible diapers. Cass was obsessing over what she wanted for breakfast and I told her if her stomach feels that bad, it's toast time. Of course she wanted jelly with the toast and that led to a meltdown. She had to pull a new jar out of the pantry and little noodle arm couldn't open the jar. So after one attempt, she started whining "Mommmm, I can't open it" "Mommmmm" "Mommm come here. boo hoo hoo" I said..WILL YOU PLEASE THROW THAT CAP UNDER SOME HOT WATER SO THAT YOU CAN OPEN IT! She looks at me.. "WHY ARE YOU YELLING AT ME? I DIDN"T DO ANYTHING!" Then she stomped over to the sink and threw the jar under the water, made one more attempt, couldn't open it and started whining again! So, I walked over there, grabbed the jar and EFFORTLESSLY opened the cap. Then I couldn't resist laughing which was a HUGE mistake on my part. "STOP LAUGHING!" "MOMMMM! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AT ME!" "YOU'RE MAKING FUN OF ME." Then of course Kris had to walk in and donned a giggle and all Hell broke loose in the kitchen. Cass threw the toast on the plate and said she wasn't eating it. I yelled at Kris to go away and I didn't need his help. Then told Cassie she better put the fricken jelly on the fricken toast and eat it before I ban jelly along with pop tarts.

The beginning of a beautiful day! Thus concludes Jellygate 2006!

We are all coming down with some stomach bug and feel kinda YUCK.
Cassie has a band concert tonight. It's her first and she is all jazzed up about it. As luck would have it, Kris is home from school today being all whiny and sicky poo and Emster is running around giving me mega diapers. Cass will be so thrilled to know that half her personal audience is wanting to stay home in bed tonight. So, that is all for now. By the way, I love Milano cookies! MMMMMMM

The first 5 days of the New Year.

Hmm...it feels like the old one. It's been a rather uneventful week. Work has been nice and light. The kids are back to school. I am reading "The DaVinci Code." True to form, I started it 2 years after it was trendy and am reading at, of all places, the bowling alley. Yes it's noisy there and smoky and is generally mass pandemonium. Minus the smoke, it feels like HOME! I haven't had a cigarette in ages and ages and previously, my bowling adventure was my VICE NIGHT! I smoked. I drank. I once traded my bra to a biker. Well, all us girls on my team did. Kinda funny and NO, there was no flashing involved. My friend liked his Harley shirt. So we girls traded the bras for the tee shirt. HEE HEE! Those were the days! Now I sit and read and GASP...behave! WTF!? I used to order one of those oil cans of Fosters. Now, I settle for a simple draft. I used to walk out slightly looped. Now, I walk out very sober. What is happening to me???? In any case, it gets me out of the house. I love the bowling alley! No one is there putting on airs and trying to be anything they are not. WE are all just normal everyday people with normal everyday problems throwing a ball down an oily lane imagining that the source of all our stress is the head pin. Babes with balls!

I just realized that the above had nothing to do with the first 5 days of the New Year. My first 5 days:
I got up 5 times.
I went to work 4 times
I had a hangover 1 time
I watched Law and Order, X-Files, WIthout A Trace and a movie called "The Rainmaker".
I chased Emily out of the tree at least 4 times a day for the past 5 days
I vacuumed spilled coffee grounds out of the carpet twice because Em got into the garbage can and had a rip roaring good time with them.
I mediated countless fights between Kris and Cass.

Hmm... Looks like 2006 is looking a whole lot like 2005.
I have some ideas on things to change but it is still a work in progress.
Later!

HALLELUIAH!!

The kids went back to school today!!!!! DO YOU SEE MY HAPPY DANCE??? Of course now they are....*home* SIGHHHHHH! I've heard the word "idiot" 20 times. Cass calls Kris "dumb butt." He calls her "retard." Emmie just says.. COOKIE??? But for 6 hours today, it was quiet even with the voracious toddler pulling things down, touching everything, climbing things and chasing cats. Honestly, I don't know what the child will do when the tree comes down this coming weekend. It's become her bestest buddy. Kristopher made a little ornament for the tree when he was in 1st grade out of a wafer cone and one of those styrofoam balls. It looked like an ice cream cone. IN fact, it looked so much like an ice cream cone that Emily ate it. Well, she ate the wafer part anyway and I guess it didn't taste good because cone crumbs were all over the LR. Kris was upset. I was upset and amused at the same time and I am very happy the darn tree is coming down this weekend because there have been just way too many ornament casualties this year. As a matter of fact, I just pulled one from her hot little hands. Hope your New Years was smashing! We were a tad smashed which is just the way it should be!

Happy New Year

I have a hangover. I have a hangover and an active toddler. OUCH!