Extraordinary Mundane

Parental Lesson of the day: Dinara learned to vacuum. There is much involved with vacuuming that you take for granted. She was just running around with the vacuum. But we actually talked about “project planning” and how to section things off into smaller bits and vacuum in straight lines so you are sure to get everything. I love Wednesday afternoons. They are chore day in our house. We work together for an hour as a family and make great progress. My kids might need years of therapy but by gosh, they are going to know how to make a bed, run a vacuum and sweep a floor! Ha.

Parental Quandary: My eldest daughter wants a cell phone for her birthday. Do we or don’t we? Since I don’t believe avoidance is a long term coping strategy I think we really have to decide when its appropriate and then how we are going to monitor it. It would be convenient to text her !

What Im working on right now: Trying to be happy with what I have versus focusing on what the ideal is and therefore what I do not have.

Tonights Dinner: Chicken and Rice

Today’s Funny I love this video. Yes I know it’s been around the internet for weeks, but it’s still hilarious.

Now Jimmy has a response. Not quite as good… but gets better as it goes on.

Oh my God… this tip is going to make me sound so Martha

If you want to get all into the holiday spirit, you have to focus on the senses right? Sights, sounds, smells, tastes… they all work together to build memory.

Tonight to help build the mood for your trick or treaters consider this! Before you put your candle in your pumpkin, sprinkle a little cinnamon inside. When the pumpkin heats up… it will smell yummy like pumpkin pie! A lovely way to kick off Fall.

Yes I know that smell is associated with Thanksgiving, shuddup.

Our neighborhood is starting an interesting tradition. We’ve never done it before, but I guess it’s pretty popular on the east coast in the south. It’s called Booing.

What you do is create a bowl of goodies. Sort of like a “christmas stocking” for Halloween. Then you leave the treats at the door and run. They get their booty and put a picture of a ghost on the door. They are then supposed to do two houses in the next two days. The idea is that neighbors with kids are all supposed to have ghosts on their door by Halloween.

Sounds fun huh?

I have created a PDF file that people can print out and use for their booty. It has both the directions and the poem. I mounted it on black cardstock.

Happy Halloween! And please comment if your neighborhood does this or you are going to start doing it!

Booing.pdf

Everyone should watch this video. And have your daughters watch this video.

Three Things Meme from over at Karen’s…

Things That Scare Me
• Being unable to save my children in a disaster situation
• My inner thigh and upper arm skin
• Pandemic Bird Flu

3 People That Make Me Laugh
• My kids
• My husband
• Charlie Sheen on the show 2 ½ Men

3 Things I Love
• Kashi Flax Seed Chewy Bars (carb heaven!)
• My bed with fresh clean sheets
• Seeing my fitness level improve

3 Things I Hate
• Lack of free time to spend with people I love
• When my phone or ipod need charged
• The attitude of some people who keep doing the same thing and yet continue to expect a different outcome

3 Things I Don’t Understand
• The tax code
• Why grande lattes must be $4
• Where all the other half of the socks go in the laundry

3 Things On My Floor
• Dog hair
• Punchout pieces from the box I put together
• Stuff from the office that is becoming Emma’s bedroom

3 Things I’m Doing Right Now
• Listening to the song “Comfortable” by John Mayer
• Telling my children to put away the laundry I folded
• Shaking my left leg under the desk

3 Things I Want to Do Someday
• Go to Greece
• Be able to run 5 miles without walking
• Do mission work in Africa

3 Things I Can Do
• Stay extremely focused on whatever I put my mind to
• Eat a whole bag of Oreos in one sitting
• Organize anything

3 Ways to Describe My Personality
• Direct
• Bossy
• Caring

3 Things I Cannot Do
• Write well
• Stop eating apples everyday
• Keep my mouth shut when I think someone is dead wrong or being unjust.

3 Things I Think You Should Listen To
• Your conscience
• Narrow Daylight by Dianna Krall
• Your heart (now that song is in my head)

3 Things I Think You Should Never Listen To
• The voice in your head that tells you not to try something new
• 50 Cent
• People who don’t have open minds and hearts

3 Absolute Favorite Foods
• Lobster Tails with butter
• Salads (honestly!)
• Fresh Blueberries

3 Things I’d Like to Learn
• How to run and keep my heart rate under 130
• How to trade options
• How to motivate my children to keep their rooms clean

3 Beverages I Drink Regularly
• Water
• Diet Lipton Green Tea
• Skim milk

3 Shows I Watch
• House
• Oprah
• Project Runway

What about you? Fill out this meme and leave a comment so I can come read about your three things!

If you are geeky.
If you like Star Trek.
If you are bored and are looking for something interesting to read.
Check out this little piece written by the Holodeck Janitor aboard the Enterprise.

Amazingly accurate quiz with only four questions! Saw this at Karen’s Place. (Quite awhile ago and I am just now publishing this because I’ve got too much to do today to actually sit down and write anything meaningful).

How You Life Your Life

You have a good sense of self control and hate to show weakness. You tend to avoid confrontation and stay away from sticky situations. You tend to have one best friend you hang with, as opposed to many aquaintences. You have one big dream in your life, and you never lose sight of it.

Cori Tagged me. So I’m playing along

7 things I plan to do before I die:
Go to Africa
Support someone in their death.
Take my children back to their birth country Kazakhstan
Island hop in the Caribbean by private boat with my husband.
Meet my grandchildren. (I want lots!)
Get certified in SCUBA.
Take a cooking course.

7 things I can do:
Bring sex humorously into almost any conversation.
Keep any secret you tell me.
Manage money well.
Smile while I multitask to the point of being overwhelmed.
Be a thoughtful listener.
Guide myself by strong morals and principles.
Soothe myself with meditation…or food — depending on my mood.

7 things I cannot do:
Fold fitted sheets well.
Stop eating chocolate everyday.
Motivate my husband to exercise daily.
Enjoy doing laundry.
Find extreme pleasure in routine.
Stop trying to improve myself.
Sleep less then 6.5 hours and be pleasant.

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:
IQ over 125
Emotional intelligence
Political skill
Spiritual Depth
Money
Ability to make me laugh
Capacity to bring out the best in me.

7 things I say most often:
Thank you.
Use your words.
If you do that again, you will get a consequence.
You rock!
I love you.
Fuck. (I tend to have a potty mouth)
Anyway…

7 celebrity crushes:
Prince William
Jeff Probst
Phil from Amazing Race
Nip Tuck Guys
Matt Lauer
Sayid from Lost

7 people I want to do this:

Hmm… are there seven of my readers who want to take this on? Let me know if you do it on your blog and I’ll link you here!!! Or feel free to leave it in the comments!

Well not that I’m calling you a pig or anything. I’d never do that. But if you draw a pig… they will tell ya about your personality. Here’s mine.

Can you imagine working for a company that has a
little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
117 have directly or indirect! ly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It’s the 535 members of the United States Congress.
The same group of idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws
each year designed to keep the rest of us in line

Can you get 100% first time through?

Try the Color Test.

Yummy

Appetizer
Name a store or restaurant you no longer visit because of a bad experience you had there.
Nothing comes to mind right now… the ones I can think of are out of business. Says something about my power doesn’t it? Heh.

Soup
If you could own any building in existence, which one would you want?
Hmmm. Something Oceanfront. With a pentahouse. And lots of other units that would provide me an income to live in the manner in which I could become accustomed.

Salad
What’s your favorite commercial these days?
I love the idenity theft ones from Citibank. Leather bustier is my favorite I guess. I also like the Pepto commercials with the people doing the dance.

Main Course
When was the last time you felt guilty about spending money, and what was it you purchased?
I felt guilty getting my teeth whitened because it’s pure luxury. It wasn’t something I needed, it was something I wanted. And there are thousands of other thing I needed I should have spent the money on.

Dessert
Friday’s Feast is going to be having it’s First Birthday in 2 weeks. What should we do to celebrate?
Send me a box of chocolate covered strawberries I can eat in your honor.

Ok I’m too busy this weekend to blog so I am yet again stealing from Marcia and listing ten things I’m good at:

1. Figuring out people’s weaknesses and bringing them to their knees when I am pissed off. Not pretty, but true.
2. Investing – my love of money shines through.
3. Staying focused and achieving all my goals- can you say Type A?
4. Pampering and nurturing people I care about – I have a soft side.
5. Administering brutal honesty – Shuddup. It’s good for you.
6. The lost art of teasing – yes sexually.
7. Project management – my neurotic OCD tendencies help out a lot here.
8. Shopping. I’m really good at comparison shopping. I love a good deal, but not at the expense of me enjoying my luxuries.
9. Maintaining long-term/distance friendships – if I care about you, I’ll at least stay in contact with you once or twice a year.
10. Creating new businesses. All the ones I’ve started have been successful. In fact, I’m getting a bit bored. Might be time to start another one.

I am a little late at the blogging thing today. Don’tcha just hate when life is too busy to blog? Anyway, there wasn’t much to write about anyway.

I was surfing and saw that Marcia at Mixed Messages did a list of ten things she’s bad at. Actually, her list could be my list too… but for the sake of a blog post, here’s mine:

1. Asking people for help. Especially when I really need it. I like the illusion of being strong.

2. Calling people on the phone. Much rather email. Or IM.

3. Stopping myself from eating at night.

4. Trying to fix what is upsetting people instead of just validating it and listening.

5. Getting Dinara to actually stay in her seat for one whole meal.

6. Sending timely Thank You cards, including making my kids send them. But I’m getting better.

7. Accepting that life can happen in the “gray” and everything, including my emotions, don’t always have to be black and white.

8. Crying when I’m upset. I bottle it.

9. Being patient with my kids after 4pm. I wish I could buy patience in bottle form.

10. Especially 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9 on Marcia’s list.

Got this from AmberBamberBoo

Accent – I don’t think I have one.
Bra size – 38D
Chore I hate – Laundry. Especially putting it away.
Dad’s name - Fred
Essential make-up – eye liner, blush, lipstick
Favorite perfume – Currently Ralph Lauren’s Blue
Gold or Silver - white gold or better yet platinum
Hometown – Cape Coral Florida I guess. I’ve moved around a lot. I consider where I am now home.
Interesting fact – Despite still not feeling 75% I am going to go get my teeth whitened today.
Job title - Mother, Lover, Friend.
Kids – two girls and one boy.
Living arrangements – Beautiful home on the cul-de-sac of suburbia
Mom’s Birthplace – Wayne NJ
Number of apples eaten in last week – more then four – Fuji are my favorite.
Overnight hospital stays – oh geesh, I dunno. Several different times more then one night. Emma’s Birth, Hysterectomy, Tonsillectomy, Weightloss surgery, plastic surgery.
Phobia – cockroaches
Question you ask yourself a lot – Is this as good as it gets?
Religious affiliation – I grew up Methodist. Dad was a Methodist Minister. But now I consider myself Heinz 57. I’m sorta like a spiritual voyeur.
Siblings – 2 younger sisters. We are all about four years apart.
Time I wake up – 7am on weekdays. Weekends are later if my kids and/or hubby are feeling gracious.
Unnatural hair color – I don’t color my hair and it’s dark brown. I sometimes put in some highlights in the summer though.
Vegetable I refuse to eat – Brussel Sprouts
Worst habit – Can you say Control Freak?
X-rays – dental and several broken bones.
Yummy food I make – I make really good chicken and rice with milk gravy.
Zodiac sign – Scorpio. Explains a lot doesn’t it?