The Glamorous Life of a Hausfrau: July 2009

Friday, July 31, 2009

Happy Birthday, Baby!

Today is the Evil Twin's 50th birthday. Yep, the big Five-Oh! How did it come to this??? :-)

From a baby faced teen:

To a mohawked punk rocker:

To a dad of two who drives both a minivan and a Buick! LOL.

He and I both had mohawks back in our punk days, although he had his much earlier than mine (and I didn't even know him back then).

I love him because he is so much like me, but at the same time, not like me. He is outgoing, I am quieter. But, we have so many of the same interests and I think that being with him has drawn me out of my once MUCH quieter shell into a person who actually has fun with life and doesn't carry worries or regrets.

When we first met, I was 23 and he was 32. Now, we are 41 and 50, respectively. And, it seems like almost no time has passed whatsoever.

We're still silly. Even just last night, we were conspiring against Buddy.

Buddy had come down the hall twice saying that he thought he heard someone calling his name.

We proceeded to call his name and then act like we hadn't. LOL.

I think it only took him one time to figure it out because he didn't come when called the second time.

We've been through a lot together. Some good, some bad, but I'd like to think mostly good.

I still can't get to sleep well unless he's beside me in bed.

The man I hung all my hopes and dreams on has rarely let me down. But, the important thing is that he's been my ally for all the big things. That would make any of the smaller, less significant hurts pale far, far in comparison.

In my eyes, he still looks 32. He certainly doesn't act his age! And, he really doesn't look anywhere near 50. In fact, one of my favorite guessing games when we meet new people is "Guess the Evil Twin's age". They usually guess mid 30s.

I'm not going to put a more recent picture here, because I don't think he would approve of that.

But take my word for it, he is very handsome, very funny and very every thing I ever wanted for a partner in life.

On Thursday afternoon, the kids and I went to get a cake from Kroger. We picked one and Buddy chose the color of the icing to say "Happy 50th, Dad". Even Sissy said, "Daddy will love this cake!"

It was so fun. We don't have much money to celebrate right now, so I'm hoping the cake and the love of his family is enough.

Honey, I love you and I hope we have many more years together.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Victory!

Okay, all of my long time readers know I don't share much about my children. I won't disclose their names and pictures are simply out of the question, although I did post one thing with Sissy's face and I've posted at least one, if not both, of their baby pictures.

I finally uploaded a short clip from the pool the other day. Sissy is just a whirling dervish in the baby pool and the footage I got of Buddy is a long shot, so they're not super identifiable.

I just wanted to show you all a bit of what the Flip Ultra can do and also, show you our pool we belong to.

I'm serious when I say that Sissy and I almost always (like 99% of the time) have the baby pool to ourselves. Buddy will get in his inner tube in the big pool and I can keep an eye on him from my vantage point.

There are also 2 lifeguards stationed at all times, so I don't really worry about him.

I also tried to get some video of Apple, our complete Pain In The Ass parakeet. Here lately, I've been letting him out of his cage for some free range flying about in the evenings.

Since he is a complete PITA, I haven't captured anything halfway decent yet, but when I do....YOU can enjoy his antics too! Don't say I never give y'all anything.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Trying Something New

So, I'm playing around with my Flip camera and I took some video at the pool yesterday.

I wanted to upload it directly here, instead of a more "public" venue like YouTube, so I edited it and worked on an upload, only to realize that the file is much too large to upload directly to the blog.

But, I spent quite a bit of time on it last night before I checked into the file size, etc. Ever the dumb brunette - that's me!

It's all really very easy....But, I wanted to bypass the easy way and do it MY way.

Obviously, MY way isn't the optimal most of the time. Sometimes, I luck out and get it right.

So, I really don't have anything for you today.

It's raining here, so no pool for us. We rarely go on back-to-back days because I like to wash the towels every time - I like to use the same beach towels and not my regular bath towels....I know, I'm a little uptight, but I like things to be the same. Every.Time.

Anyhoodle, I'm also up to some sooper seekrit activities today, such as trying to figure out where I've put the insect repellent spray that I know is somewhere in this house.

I went outside yesterday evening and promptly got bitten by mosquitoes. They laugh and mock us for putting up little disks that are "supposed" to repel them.

Oh well, nothing better to do on a rainy day, I guess. ;-)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Exciting Evening

On Sunday, when we got home from grocery shopping and I was opening the front door, a little (like really teeny) blue tailed skink (lizard) helped himself to the inside of our house.

Now, I love the reptiles, the spiders - basically all creepy crawlies that aren't: roaches, flies, silverfish, bees, or mosquitoes.

I was worried about our new little housemate and made the attempt to locate him, but came up empty handed.

Then, on Monday afternoon, I see him skitter across the floor in the den (family room, TV room, whatever you want to call it). So, I got a really tall plastic cup and tried to track him.

He might have been small, but he was VERY fast too.

I gave up on the chase.

Buddy's friend had spent the night on Sunday and was here with us for dinner on Monday too (his mom had to work the evening shift), so we were eating dinner when Sissy asked for a cup of ice water. I came into the den to get her cup and saw our little lizard friend zip across the room again.

By that time, I had finished eating and so had the boys, so we all jumped into the fray to try to catch our little friend. Couches and love seats were all pulled out from the walls (note to self: clean all the dust bunnies off the wood floor, for the love of Pete, that's disgusting!).

We chased and laughed and sweated! Finally, I caught him sitting still and put the cup over top of him. Then, I carefully slid a piece of paper under the cup and flipped it quickly.

There he sat, all nervous looking and stuff at the bottom of the big blue cup.

I didn't get any pics because of the general chaos in the house - my main goal was to save this little lizard and let him back outside before he starved and ended up petrified in one of our closets or something.

All the kids wanted a look at him in the cup before I released him out back.

As soon as he was deposited on the brick planter he took off like a shot, but I know we'll see him again. We have loads of those lizards around our house. :-)

Monday, July 27, 2009

I Admit - I Am Lazy!

We had a pretty fun weekend - not much going on Saturday, but on Sunday, the Evil Twin, Sissy and I all went to the grocery store. Buddy wanted to stay home, and since he is 11 and all and we weren't going to be gone long, we decided to let him stay.

I just put a post it note on the phone with my cell number on it, we locked the front door and told him not to answer the door under any circumstances (we live on a dead end street and get so little traffic - and really, the only people at our door are people we expect...but we couldn't leave that point out, just in case, ya know?) and not to answer the phone unless the number on the caller ID matched my cell phone.

Everything went well and now I'm off the hook for my regular Monday grocery trip! Yay!

Buddy had a friend over last night. I woke up at 5 am and had to use the restroom. As I past his room, I noticed the light was still on. When I opened the door, he and his friend were glued to the computer playing one of the games they enjoy.

I was a bit surprised, but I told them to get in bed IMMEDIATELY and get some sleep.

The funny thing is, I couldn't get back to sleep when I returned to bed. I tossed around for a bit and decided to get up - remember - this is shortly after 5 am - not a normal time for me to be awake anyway.

I checked my email and decided to try sleeping again. Wasn't happening. The alarm went off at 6 am, the Evil Twin got up and shortly after, Sissy woke up. I put her in bed with me, turned on the Disney channel and tried desperately to log at least 20 more minutes of sleep.

No.

Got up and made the Evil Twin's lunch, grabbed a sippy cup of milk and some raisins for Sissy and made a third attempt at snoozeville.

So, it's just been a weird morning here.

I got in the shower and I guess the city was flushing the lines or something because the water pressure was terrible! I mean, I could have spit on myself and done a better job than that pathetic trickle of water I was getting.

Of course, after I dried my hair and went to brush my teeth, the water pressure was just ducky.

Here it is, noon and the boys are still asleep (I checked on them).

Random fact of the day: Did you know that at almost any time of the day or night, you can find Spongebob on a channel somewhere? I'm serious.... How do I know this? I have a 3.5 year old who constantly requests to watch it, and after a little bit of flipping around, I can normally find it.

I think it's a conspiracy! ;-)

Friday, July 24, 2009

Finally Friday

And I love alliteration.

And this is late because the Evil Twin and I watched another Christopher Guest movie last night. "For Your Consideration", which was very funny as usual.

He is much like John Waters in that he uses the same stable of actors for most of his films. Also, his movies are very loosely scripted, so it's up to the actors to provide appropriate dialogue. The results are hilarious.

So, I stayed up too late watching the movie and thusly, a late blog.

My plans for today are: having lunch with a new friend - a local blogger I've not yet met, but we are Facebook friends and I read her blog: Muzings. I'm looking forward to meeting her! She is probably the only other female conservative in this area, so I know we will be fast friends. I hope my hooligans (kids) behave themselves....I have to drag them along.

Well, I'm off to water my plants and my bursitis isn't acting up, so I'll take that as a good sign it won't rain today. LOL.

I really need to get moving if I plan on being on time for my lunch date!

Have a great Friday!! :-)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Tales From a Gadget Geek

I got a new "thing" this week. Actually, I got one and returned it and ordered a different one.

Let me explain.

This is my newest toy:

I first ordered the Flip Ultra HD - it arrived and I called customer service to find out how long the FlipShare program normally took to upload, because it seemed to be taking a while.

They have awesome customer service, but in the course of our conversation, I found out that the HD camera needed a much faster processing speed than my computer provided.

Now, I had done my research on this thing (I'm always leary about things being compatible with Vista 64, since I've encountered problem after problem). I never saw where a processor speed was offered as a technicality. So, the video was very choppy.

I called the company I had ordered it from - a certain well known book seller - and they offered to send a UPS label for return and then I ordered the Flip Ultra (not HD), which again, I did my homework on and I had all the necessary crap on my computer to handle it.

I wasn't about to buy a new computer or have a faster processor installed - that would have cost more than a new laptop alone! And, we all know, the Evil Twin's Wife is cheap.

The best news is I saved $50 on the non HD camera and I'm happy as a clam with it.

It can record up to 2 hours of video and it has a handy USB "arm" that flips out to transfer the video from the camera to the computer! It couldn't be any easier. Plus, I can email video, upload it to MySpace, YouTube, etc. very easily.

I'm seeing all kinds of cool video applications for this thing. The Evil Twin sees only one application: dirty home movies. It does have a tripod mount and we do own a tripod... Just please, don't let me end up on some YouP*rn site! LOL.

I actually bought it because we have almost no video footage of Sissy. Buddy has hours and hours on end, but poor Sissy and the 2nd child Syndrome, has very little.

I want to preserve some of her childhood on video too. So, we're off to explore our little Flip and make some fun memories!

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Look!

It's a teeny pepper!

Can you see it? Click to see it larger.

The wildest thing is that these little teeny peppers SMELL like regular peppers one would find at the grocery. Soooo cute!

I just want to pick it right on off and eat it! But, it's smaller than a dime, so I should be patient! ;-)

Buddy loves peppers - of all types. He states he will eat them all. I plan on using some in recipes if they become ripe enough.

We're all excited about our "garden" shit.

It's pathetic, actually. LOL.

Today finds me going to pay personal property taxes (long story on that one) and dropping off a package to UPS.

Perhaps the kids and I will grab lunch at Wendy's - my most beloved of all fast food places. Mmmmm.

I've got to get out and water my plants - even though it looks like it might rain later on. I like to go out and check on them anyway.

Like the Evil Twin said the other day: "We're becoming old people who just sit around and talk about their gardens and their ailments all the time." LOL.

Have a glamorous Wednesday! :-)

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Peppery Update

On my two pepper plants, I have eight teeny tiny little peppers! There is still hope alive with those things!

The plants themselves (leaves) are still pitiful looking, even though I spray them daily with a dose of water/epsom salt.

I really need to get back to doing my writing at night and setting it to post early the next morning. This writing while Sissy is awake (read: super needy) isn't working out for me so well.

But, we had a power outage last night just after 7 pm and didn't get the power back until after 9. We spent time outside - where it was cooler than in the house, even though I got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

It was still cooler and it gave me time to lovingly look over my "garden".

But, by the time the power came back on, I had a million other things to tend to and didn't get around to my blog.

So you get my scattered thoughts while I wait on Sissy hand and foot, listen to an episode of Spongebob I've probably seen 500 times by now and simultaneously try to block out the annoying bird chatter.

I'm a woman of many talents, I tell ya!

I wanted to share this picture of our shed. I thought it looked neat in the early evening with the shadow of the bird feeder cast upon it.

The shed came with the house and I suspect the prior owner built it. It's nice and roomy inside and the Evil Twin parks his mower and other lawn stuff in there (we only have a carport: no garage).

Have a great Tuesday! I think we're headed to the pool in a bit!

Monday, July 20, 2009

Monday Mornings

Most Mondays, I wake up and hit the ground running. Not so much today.

I guess it's the grey, overcast morning that has done me in. Zapped my motivation.

Of course, I need to find some energy somewhere, because today is grocery shopping day. I can't wait! (sarcasm...). LOL.

I'm grateful that it's a quiet morning, though. Sissy is coloring and even Apple the parakeet is not as annoying as usual.

I think I'm going to get a cup of coffee and kick back on the couch for a little bit. Then, I'll get in the shower and get my day moving. I guess there really is no need to hurry about.

The grocery store is open AAALLLL day (actually, it's open 24 hours a day!).

Random thought of the day: When I turned our overhead light on this morning, a bulb popped as I flicked the switch. Why does that always seem to happen that way? It's rare that one just burns out on its own. It's mostly when I'm turning it on...Is it me? Or is there some sort of scientific explanation of this phenomenon?

Better put light bulbs on the shopping list...

Saturday, July 18, 2009

July 18, 1933 - Sept. 17, 2004

Today would have been my dad's 76th birthday.

Above all things, he loved his family most and close behind were golfing and gardening. He spent at least 3 mornings a week at the golf course and all his other spare time tending to his impressive garden.

He also walked 4 miles a day.

He had 2 triple bypass heart surgeries - 18 years apart.

Pulmonary Fibrosis is what finally did him in.

He never lived to meet Sissy, but he and Buddy had a particularly close relationship. Buddy was the first grandchild on my side and my dad just thought he could do no wrong. Buddy loved spending time with his "grampoo", too.

Buddy was 6 and a half when Dad died. I don't think he ever really could wrap his mind around it then, and I know he still struggles with Grandpa's death to this very day.

When Buddy was born prematurely and spent 6.5 weeks in the NICU, the nurses said they could set their watches on Dad's arrival (visiting hours didn't start until noon, after the doctors had done their rounds) and my dad was there at precisely noon for 48 days.

Dad, you have a beautiful granddaughter now, too. She would light up your life just like Buddy did.

In his honor today, I worked in my little patch of dirt and plants. And thought of him tending to his own tomatoes, cabbage, onions, etc. There wasn't anything he couldn't grow.

Happy Birthday, Dad. We love you.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Time

Time is just flying by lately.

I feel like I get very little accomplished. I guess it's just summer in general - there is no structured schedule for me or the kids, so we just fly by the seat of our pants on what to do and when to do it.

I've also been trying to enjoy this freedom and spending more time relaxing, going to the pool, hanging out with friends, etc. and less time on the computer.

We spend the warm summer evenings outside, in the backyard. Enjoying the fresh air, the hammock, the nice breezes and getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. (Yes, we have repellent around, but secretly, I think they like that citronella smell! Bastids!).

So, I'm sorry if I've missed stopping by your place for a day or two. I promise I will get as caught up as I can this weekend.

We don't have anything planned and I'm going to try to do some laundry, shopping, random chores today (it looks like rain, so no pool) and that way, I'll have the weekend free for computer stuff! :-)

Trust me, even though I've really enjoyed goofing off the last few days, I've also missed hearing from all my blog friends, too.

I'm still spending every evening listening for that Ice Cream Truck. :-)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Disappointed

The Ice Cream Truck did NOT make an appearance last night.

Our regular guy said he was on vacation and a different person would be doing the route this week, so maybe the sub doesn't do the same route. Who knows?

I guess we'll wait and see what happens next Wednesday when the regular driver is back. All I know is I want a Choco Taco in the worst way!

Buddy went to spend the night with a friend, so the three of us kept an ear out for the truck. Sissy was so disappointed, the Evil Twin ended up taking her to Dairy Queen for a strawberry sundae instead.

I just stayed here.

The Evil Twin and I ended up watching a movie and that's why this is late this morning. (i.e. I didn't write it last night and set it to post as usual).

Oh well, sometimes real life interrupts my schedule!

And so it goes...

:::Sigh:::

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

True Confessions III

This is nothing very shocking... But, I totally crack myself up. All the time.

I'm always thinking of things that are hilarious and I just laugh and laugh.

The Evil Twin makes me laugh like no one else, too.

One of our cherished family activities is to make up lyrics to the Diarrhea Song. You know:

Some people think it's funny
But it's really green and runny
Diarrhea phthlllp phthllp.
Diarrhea phthlllp phthllp.
(that last part is the raspberry fart noise you make while singing the song).

We've come up with:

When your stomach starts to cramp
And your pants feel kind of damp
Diarrhea (etc.)

and:

If you're eating scrambled eggs
And there's something down your legs
Diarrhea....

Oh yeah, we're a funny bunch.

I'm not sure what happened to me along the way because I was raised a Southern Belle, but ended up being The Belle from Hell.

All I know is I am SO lucky to have met a man with an almost identical sense of humor. He does have his limits, though. But, most things are not an issue.

Another one of our favorite pastimes is making up lyrics to songs that already exist, but making them totally tasteless. This can be lyrics to commercials or any other music.

The Evil Twin is the most creative of the two of us. He really puts forth the good effort.

But, what can you say about a man whose own father raised him on lyrics such as this;

"In this prison cell I sit
With my shirttail dipped in shit
And a picture of my rectum on the wall
When the prison guards go past
They throw peanuts at my ass
And the warden, he plays billiards with my balls.
Oh, with my balls, oh with my balls...."

It was one of the few guitar songs the Evil Twin's dad knew how to play and sing.

So, yeah, I have the sense of humor of a 10 year old.

It keeps me young and Buddy thinks it's funny too.

He also thinks it's funny when I said that Sissy doesn't stand a chance in this household.

But, he DID NOT think it was funny when the Evil Twin and I went into an impromptu ballet performance in the parking lot at the Mart of Wal on Saturday!

And this title has nothing to do with this post, but I was recently emailing my friend MountainLaurel on Facebook and I sent her a private message with this title. She said I should use it for a blog title and I said I would. And, now, I did! :-)

Anyway, I had a lovely day on Tuesday at the pool - the weather was not too hot. In fact, I kept looking at the sky and thinking we were going to get rain because the sun would duck behind a cloud for a bit, then reappear for a bit. So, it kept it just sunny and hot enough and just comfortable enough to be a wonderful day to enjoy the pool. The kids had a great time.

It looks like we'll stay home today because I've been promising Buddy that I would make Banana Bread, plus I have laundry to catch up on, so Wednesday will be my "day off" this week.

I also don't have to make a lunch for the Evil Twin because he goes to the Chinese place on Wednesdays with his co-workers! Yay! It doesn't really matter - Sissy has been waking up extra early these days. I try to keep her in my bed until at least 8ish (I turn on the cartoons, bring her milk, etc.), but she wants to get up.

I digress....What I really wanted to talk about was my weekend! On Saturday, two of my friends and I went to Flatwoods, WV. Flatwoods has an outlet mall, which includes the Everything Fiesta store.

Many of my long time readers will know I'm a total addict of this dinnerware. It's made right here in WV and comes in a variety of vibrant colors. They introduce new colors and discontinue colors as they go along, so those of us who are fanatics jump on something new right away.

The new Lemongrass color came out and was only available at this shop. My friend B and I are old pros at Fiesta. Our other friend, S, sadly, had no Fiesta. Boy, we indoctrinated her right good!

S is now the proud owner of several place settings - we each bought the 4 piece Lemongrass - and she bought a few more settings. I got some new glasses and the other two gals bought some random pieces.

After shopping around at the outlet, we went to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. It was so good!

On our way back into town, we stopped by our local farmer's market, which has a wonderful wine shop. S had never been before, so she was just amazed! It IS a really cool place to enjoy.

It was just a really nice day. The weather was beautiful, the company was excellent. I hadn't had a chance to get out by myself in a very long time, so it was very welcome.

Sometimes, a mom (or anyone for that matter) just needs to get outside their normal routine and have some fun!

I hope we're able to do it again soon and perhaps even rope a few more WV gals into the mix. We are definitely going back in August when Everything Fiesta has a huge tent sale of factory seconds.

But, I hope we get back before then, too. Or perhaps some other outing that involves hunting for FiestaWare.

Friday, July 31, 2009

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Monday, July 27, 2009

Friday, July 24, 2009

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Monday, July 20, 2009

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Friday, July 17, 2009

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Friday, July 10, 2009

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Monday, July 6, 2009

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Wednesday, July 1, 2009