Photo Hunt: Blue

Big Blue Eyes & A Love of Chocolate:

I was in a hurry this week and had to dig into my archives for Photo Hunt. Sorry if you've seen this one before, I think I may have posted it awhile back.

I'm also entering this into the photo contest over at 5 Minutes for Mom, for a chance at winning $500 for groceries.

Trick or Treat

GM announced today that grandpa would be trick or treating as an "old goat." I wonder if grandpa knew about that. He was very serious about the idea, not quite understanding the underlying context. I burst out laughing every time he brought it up.

About 6, he headed out to make our rounds, knocking on neighbors doors and getting more candy than we will ever eat. All night long we heard (jokingly), stinky, p-u, don't come near me! It seemed that being a skunk was scarier than dressing as a ghost or ghoul. One guy jumped out from the bushes, GM turned around and yelled, "you better watch out, or I'll spray!"


I'm glad the night is over and we won't need to peruse the neighborhood again for sweets until next year. It was fun to see GM's face light up as he got candy, and hearing him thank people without prompting. But, it was tiring, GM was in a hurry to get to the next house, he kept announcing, "one down, lots to go." He had also snuck some chocolate before heading out, so he was buzzed on sugar and not listening nearly as well as usual. As much as I love Halloween, I'm glad I have another 12 months before we'll have to see it again.

Wordless Wednesday

Want to see more Wordless Wednesdays? Go check some out over at MomDot.

Christmas at MomDot

Halloween has almost arrived, so it's time to start thinking Christmas right? The stores will start to decorate soon. I should be starting to shop, even though I know that won't happen for awhile. I always put it off until the last minute. The Christmas buzz has even started around the web.

Over at MomDot, they are gearing up for Christmas of Dreams. The blog party is all about getting to know other bloggers, blogging about the holidays, and of course, some amazing prizes. On the 28th of November one lucky winner will be drawn for the final (and exciting) prize of Christmas of Dreams. The party starts at the beginning of November, so head over to get all the details.

The Good, the Bad & the Miserable

So, ya'll have to forgive me for not having a real post in a few days. It has been a hectic few days. This may not even qualify as a "real" post, but it's about the best I'll get for now.

The Good:
1. Parties: GM went to Little M's (his cousin) birthday party on Sunday and had a blast. It was hosted in a gym, and they got to learn all sorts of fun thing. The jumped on trampolines, walked on balance beams, and played games. Some of the kids even got to "fly," they put them in a belt and pulled them about 15 feet in the air. GM declined the ride. He looked at me and announced "Momma, that's much too dangerous. What happens if the belt comes off?" Where does he get it? I won't mention that I had just muttered similar words to another mom moments before he came over.

2. Parades: We went to our little local parade with some friends last night. The kids got a ton of candy. Between 3 of them, they had seven bags of candy. I have enough Tootsie Rolls and Dum Dums to last until next Halloween, and we haven't even gone trick-or-treating yet.

The Bad:
1. Work: I got conned into working both days this weekend. Since I'm not used to actually getting up two days in a row, I overslept on Sunday. I was supposed to be at work by 8 on Sunday, and woke up at 7:40 when my mom called to see why I was late dropping off GM. I jumped out of bed, showered, and was at work by 8:30. Being late is the worst thing I can do, I just feel off the rest of the day.

2. Dishwasher: Friday I had noticed that the dishes were going in the dishwasher dirty and coming out dirtier. Now, I'm not one to call someone to fix it, I was sure I could do it myself. So, I dove in, I spent an hour practically inside the dishwasher. I took it apart, scrubbed out the gunk I found, scrubbed some more, you get the idea. I finally got it back together this morning, I'm running a cleaner, and hoping all our problems are solved.

The Miserable:
1. The Hubby: Friday he started getting sick, just like I did a few weeks ago. So he managed to get through work until Saturday, but has called off the last few days. He's spent most of the last few days sleeping, coughing, sleeping some more.

2. Little GM: Yesterday, after I got out of the shower, hubby walks in with a thermometer reading 99.7. I assumed it was hubby's temp. But, no, it was the little ones. He is hot, snotty, and just uncomfortable. He's spent most of the morning lounging on the couch with cartoons and his bag of candy. He's not actually eating it though, just digging through and passing out the pieces he doesn't want. My pile seems to be growing beside me, but I was pretty thankful he handed over a chocolate tootsie pop. Mmm...

Butterfly Award

Tena over at Punky Monkey's has sent me this wonderful award. So first a big thank you! Then onto the award:

The rules for this award: answer these questions with only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? table

2. Where is your significant other? kitchen

3. Your hair color? brown

4. Your mother? amazing

5. Your father? wonderful

6. Your favorite thing? munchkins

7. Your dream last night? non-existent

8. Your dream/goal? photographer

9. The room you're in? Living

10. Your hobby? pictures

11. Your fear? everything

12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? happy

13. Where were you last night? home

14. What you're not? energetic

15. One of your wish-list items? house

16. Where you grew up? here

17. The last thing you did? work

18. What are you wearing? pajamas

19. Your TV? annoying

20. Your pets? cat

21. Your computer? slow

22. Your mood? sleepy

23. Missing someone? nope

24. Your car? Yellow

25. Something you're not wearing? socks

26. Favorite store? Kohl's

27. Your summer? long

28. Love someone? yep!

29. Your favorite color? pink

30. When is the last time you laughed? earlier

31. Last time you cried? unsure

Now, to pass this on to some wonderful blogs:
Jess over at Nothing But Purple
Trish from Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls
Bloggymommy at Coming to You From the Land of Ahhhhs...

Photo Hunt: Scary

This is my brother and nephew all dressed up for trick-or-treat night last year. I'd be scared of that face!

Christmas Cards

Our Christmas cards have arrived! I won a contest sponsored by Announcing Jack and Jill over at MomDot, and I was so excited to see a package containing our cards in the mail this week. I opened it to find absolutely stunning cards, that are beautifully made. They are printed on linen paper, adding to the quality even further. One thing I really like is that the cards aren't glossy, like most I've seen or received over the years. I've always hated how some cards cause a reflection so bad you can't see them well in certain lights.

Here's how our cards turned out: Obviously, those boxes over the names aren't on the final product.

The cards were created by Announcing Jack and Jill. The owner was amazing to work with, and did a wonderful job cropping my photos. You can't even tell that hubby's holding the camera. If you're looking for some fab cards for Christmas or birth announcements, you should definitely check out her site.

I'm so excited to have cards I'll actually enjoy sending out this year. So I have to send a big thank you over to Announcing Jack and Jill, as well as to MomDot.

Awards

I've received a few awards in the last few days, which I'm so excited about! Without further ado:

Trish from Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls has sent me this:

Here is how the Brilliant Weblog Award works . . .

The person giving the award chooses blogs that they consider brilliant in their content or design. In return, the recipient is expected to choose a minimum of seven blogs that they like. They leave comments on these blogs to notify the winners. They then post about receiving the award on their blog (like this) and list their choices with links. They also include a mention of whom they received the award and include a link. Pictures are great, but not necessary.

Jess at Nothing But Purple and Bloggymommy at Coming to You From the Land of Ahhhhs... awarded me with this:

Here's the translation of the award and the meaning behind it:
“This blog invests and believes, in ‘proximity’ [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close' - being close through proxy] "They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?"Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to eight bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.”

I received this from Jenna at For the Love of Baby:

The Rules.... list 6 things that make you happy then pass this award on to 6 people to make them happy!!!
1. My little GM
2. Spending quiet nights with my hubby
3. Fall
4. Having a little extra money to shop now and then
5. Getting a good night's sleep
6. Drinking hot cocoa for an afternoon pick me up

And I also received this one from Cena over at My.M.Spot and from Susan at Life in a House of Blue and from Bloggymommy at Coming to You From the Land of Ahhhhs...:

Since I would be here all day passing on awards (and it looks like a lot of the blogs I read have received these lately), I'm going to cheat and pass only pass on the last one. Plus, it seems to sum up all the others pretty well. So onto blogs I love:

AJ over at A Little Bit Nutty
Stacy at And So We Laugh...
Kritta at Protect & Provide
Tena at Punky Monkey's
Susan at What Happened to my House?

Wednesday's Flood

I hate Wednesday mornings, hate them with a passion. I have to be at work by 6am, meaning I have to get up at 4:30 to get ready and get there on time. For some people, this would be easy. Me, not so much. I'm not a morning person at all. To be honest, I'd sleep to noon every day if I could. And really, sleep, what is that? I go to bed between 11 and midnight, but I can't fall asleep. I just lay there are think of things I've forgotten, or worry about what I need to do the next day. If I try to go to bed earlier, I just lay there awake even longer.

So yesterday when the alarm started buzzing, I wanted so badly to turn it off and go back to sleep. The bed was warm and I had little feet snuggled in next to mine. I hated to risk waking him up, I know he had slept fitfully all night. I, myself had only gotten 2 hours of sleep.

I finally willed myself out of bed twenty minutes later, and got on my way to work. I arrive to hear that the coffee pot is on the fritz. Last thing I want that early in the day is for anything to come between me and my coveted coffee. I go along my business, trying to get in the mood to be there when I hear a sudden rush of water.

I look across the restaurant to see a river of water flowing out from the side room. The water was literally an inch deep and running without mercy into the kitchen. This was not how I needed to start my day. The water just kept coming too, we tried to deflect it, mop it up, but it was useless. Finally, we trekked to the basement to find a clogged pipe, after there was a good three inch lake of disgusting, dirty water filling the kitchen.

This is how my Wednesday went, dealing with a gross water filled kitchen at work. This is why I despise Wednesdays so much.

Wordless Wednesday

Little GM loves to tell scary ghost stories:

Floating pumpkins, there were 100s out on a raft at a Halloween event last year, including ones we carved. It was amazing to see. Here's a very small section of them:Check out more Wordless Wednesday's over at MomDot.

This post was brought to you by the letter "i"

Growing up, I was never the only Staci. In my class in grade school alone, there were 5 of us. What even worse, 3 of us had the same initials. I always felt lucky that my name was at least spelled differently than all the other. I loved that my name ends in an "i" the same way my mom's name does, even though both seem to be more unique versions of spelling.

What irritates me is that no one ever spells my name correctly. If I'm giving information over the phone, "S-t-a-c-i," is always followed by, "with an e at the end?" No, no "e", just an "i." Then I get whatever it is in the mail from these people, addressed to Stacie. Are the just trying to make me angry or what? Maybe they aren't sure I know how to spell my name, and if they can just spell it out for me on their paperwork, I'll suddenly realize my parents made a mistake, there really should be an "e" at the end.

Yesterday, the hubby got an e-mail from his sister, to let him and Stacy know what was going on in her life. Honey, did you get a new wife? I know she can't be referring to me. Pretty sad that people who are related to me can't even spell my name right. His mom does the same thing, cards addressed to Hubby and Stacey constantly, even though he has corrected her. It's not like we're newlyweds either. It's been 5 years. I'm not sure why my little 5 letter name is so difficult for people to remember.

Photo Hunt: Family

My cute little nephew at his first birthday party:

Too Much Information?

I was lurking around the bloggy world the other day. Yep, I admit it, I love to read about other people. I guess it's a little like eavesdropping, I just can't resist sometimes.

Anyways, I came upon this post pretty much blasting people for sharing too much information in their blogs. I'm not talking about last names, addresses, all that personal stuff. I'm talking too much info about their situation or life in general, their reactions to their own world.

If a blog isn't the place for this, than where would you like them to vent? What do you expect them to write about? We all visit tons of blog posts throughout the week. Which ones grab your attention? The ones that talk about real life, real emotion, real reactions, or ones that say nothing?

Here's what my post would look like if I didn't share too much, under some people's standards:
I got the mail today. I checked my e-mail. I ate lunch.

Wahoo! Didn't that get ya'll excited to come back and check out my next post? I get that there's a line that some posts can cross, but it's all a matter of opinion. Now, I'm not going to sit here and share every last detail of my life with everyone, but it's a give and take world. In order to have readers, I have to give ya'll something to read. Maybe it's another one of those things that I just don't get.

Bored?

If you've got a few free minutes and want to discover some great new blogs, go visit some of these wonderful ladies!

All of these great blogs belonging to members of the Momdot community. To join the community, and get included in our list, register for free at the Momdot forum.

Momdot Community Bloggers:

Sweet 'n' Sassy Girls

What's That Smell?

3KidsnUs

The Adventures of a Working Mom

All About Kimberly

Angelina Mia Bambina

For the Love of Baby!

The Mom Buzz

My Brute Squad

Debateur Debates

Chic Shopper Chick

What Happened to my House?

Waggoner World!

The Not-So-Blog Blog

Momdot

Life In A House Of Blue

Momdot

Coming To You From the Land of Ahhhhs...

Momma Cooks Cooking

Leah from Diaries of a Domestic Goddess

Nothing But Purple

A Little Bit Nutty

My Quest for Sanity

Just a Little Note

To the owner of the POS car next door,

I love the way you feel it necessary to shoot me a dirty look each and every time you see me. Although, I feel it completely absurd. I'm not quite sure how I became worthy of your glare. It brightens my day to piss you off as you walk into work in your painted on jeans. You do remember you work with children, right? I'm not quite sure your absolutely cheery demeanor or the fact that you poured yourself into clothes fits well with your job description.

Oh, and do you remember you have a spare on your car? You know, it's called a spare tire for a reason. You are only supposed to use it occasionally, not for 3 months straight. And by the way, parking lots are meant to park in. That means you don't need to park on my lawn every day. But I guess if you stayed confined between those white lines, your employer may complain that you've leaked oil all over the black top. So instead you choose to let it drip freely in my lawn. Thanks.

Today, when you went tromping past me, I looked up to notice two things. The first being that lovely look to kill. You want to hear the second? You left your lights on. Good job on that one! And if you weren't a complete and utter bitch, I'd have mentioned it to you, but since you obviously are, enjoy your dead battery. I'll be thinking of you when 6 o'clock rolls around. I may even peak out the window just to see the look on your face.

Bedtime Wishes

Our bedtime routine includes reading silly poetry books, to "get the giggles out" before going to sleep. Some of our favorites are Where the Sidewalk Ends, Falling Up, and It's Raining Pigs and Noodles.

One of the the poems is about Lester, the wish collector. Lester only uses his wishes to wish for wishes, and wishes, and more wishes. He does nothing with his life, except sit and count his "wealth," until he finally dies.

And they counted the lot and found that not
A single one was missing.
All shiny and new--here, take a few
And think of Lester as you do.
In a world of apples and kisses and shoes
He wasted his wishes on wishing.

After reading this, I questioned GM about what he would use his wish for. His answer was sweet and simple. "I wish that you would stay here and snuggle." It was so cute. And, I couldn't deny his wish, so I stayed a little longer and gave him all the extra snuggles he could want. I couldn't wish for anything else either.

Wordless Wednesday

This is going to be our Christmas card photo. I look awful. You can totally tell hubby's holding the camera, but you take what you got. Especially when the others look like this:

Sickness, Splinters & Sunburn

Still sick. Not just sick, miserably sick. Congested head, cough, fever, aches and pains. You name it, I got it.

The hubby got up early and took GM fishing. Not sure if they caught anything, but they managed to cover themselves head to toe in mud. I'm so excited to do that laundry. Um, yeah right.

GM came home with a huge splinter in his foot. Which led to a meltdown because he didn't want anyone to touch his foot. There was kicking and screaming, timeouts, an attempted nap, and plenty of tears before we were finally able to remove an almost 1/8 inch thorn from his little foot. On top of all that, hubby forgot the sunblock, and GM now has a sunburn. Yep, sunburn in October. Since when does it hit 80 degrees in October?

Our house is a bit miserable at the moment. Hubby's relaxing in the bath, GM's lounging with cartoons, so at least it's a peaceful bit of miserable. A big improvement from the screaming that could be heard around the block earlier.

Sick Day

Today's one of those days I wish I could call in sick. I'm so miserable, I've been sick since Friday, and it just keeps getting worse it seems. You know it's bad when I let hubby call off work so he could stay home and keep GM busy most of the day. I stayed in bed until almost lunch time, and have spent most of my day wearing a comfy spot into this chair.

I took some cold meds, and now I feel like I'm floating. This is why I avoid medicine, I always have a reaction of some sort to it. This one's making me feel like my head and fingers aren't really part of the same body. Like, I'm watching them move, but not really in control. Yikes! That's probably not a good thing.

So, if my posts are a jumble or ramblings, please be understanding. I need to get over this cold and be able to think straight. I'm off to find some coffee to give me a little energy and soothe my throat.

Photo Hunt: Lazy

One lazy kitten:

Momma Needs a Clean House

I have this obsession with watching Clean House. Maybe because I'm a closet hoarder. Just kidding, I'm content with my hoarding being public knowledge. Our house is tidy, we just have a lot of stuff. I feel guilty throwing away anything my son has made, and can't bear to part with my old wardrobe, in hopes that it will someday fit. I have found all sorts of ways to organize everything, bins, totes, folders. You name it, we've tried it.

Yet, the part of our house that drives me crazy is our carpets. We moved into our house about 3 months ago, and the carpets are kind of gross. The last tenants must have spilled stuff on them once a week, and just ignored the messes. Needless to say, we love the house, hate the carpet, so our furniture is strategically placed to cover their stains.

Then, there’s the munchkin who eats anywhere in the house, and daddy, who’s the king of spilling things. At least once a week, I’m scrubbing soda or milk or who knows what out of the carpet (usually from the bigger culprit).

Finally, there’s the cat. She a Himalayan, so she sheds everywhere, and I won’t even discuss the hairball issue.

MomDot and Bissell are coming to the rescue. They have a brand new Bissell ProDry up for grabs for one lucky momma. So head on over here to enter.

What Kind of Mom Am I?

There's so many classifications of moms these days. You can be a stay-at-home mom, a working mom, a work-at-home mom, a breast feeding mom, a bottle feeding mom, the list goes on and on. Everyone always wants to put us in a category. I've decided I don't fit into such a neat little box.

I'm the kind of mom who let's her child jump on the couch, and the bed. The kind of mom who thinks giggles and hugs are much more important than being on time and being proper. The kind of mom who lets her kid run loose at home, but expects him to act respectful to others.

I'm a stay-at-home, go-to-work, somewhere-in-the-middle mom. It's nice to have options, to have change a few days a week. I'd hate to work full-time, I love staying at home. Yet, if I was home every day, I think I'd go crazy.

I like being the mom who bakes with the little one, the one who taught him to write his name, the one who builds with K*Nex. I like being the one who comes home to hear, "I missed you" and giggle when GM tells people his mommy is "a working girl." I'm sure I'll enjoy the day I have to explain that he shouldn't use those exact words when telling his teacher what his mommy does.

Right now, I think I've found a perfect place, somewhere in between all those boxes.

Halloween Treats

We decided to create our own chocolaty monsters today. We covered graham crackers in melted chocolate, then added marshmallows, m&ms and broken pieces of graham crackers to create faces. GM loved making his own creations, and of course, licking his fingers. He also discovered how yummy m&ms are when dipped right in the chocolate.

Wordless Wednesday

My two boys:

Halloween Crafts

It's been a busy day, but I wanted to share the crafts we made yesterday with ya'll.

This is GM's glue ghost he made all on his own (note all 3 eyes). All we did was draw an outline on wax paper in glue and then fill it in, and add the eyes. We should have used more glue, they're almost transparent. But the little one had a lot of fun with it.
In the background above, you can see one of the construction jack-o-lanterns, and the others are below. I cut out eyes, noses, and mouths, then let him glue them on. In the one above, 2 mouths became eyes, but it added to the scare factor. We also used random pom-poms just because they were available.

Halloween is Almost Here

GM and I spent all day making Halloween crafts today. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but he made some scary paper jack-o-lanterns and glue ghosts. Plus a collage for grandpa's birthday. Tomorrow, we're putting out pumpkins on the porch. Here's last years display at the old house:


He's so excited for the parades and trick or treating. We finally narrowed down his costume choices. My sister picked him up both a skunk and a monkey costume at Old Navy today since he couldn't decide between the two. Later, when he called grandpa to wish him a happy birthday, he asked if grandpa could pick him up some "skunk spray" to complete his costume. Um, baby, if you smell like skunk, momma's not letting you leave the house. I'm not thinking you'll get too much candy smelling like that.

Random Moments Brought to You from a 4-Year-Old

GM is the sweetest kid around, when he's not bouncing off the walls. Okay, he can be pretty sweet even then. Here's a few of the things he's told me lately, out of nowhere:

"You're very important to me, mommy." I think he was just trying for extra snuggles at bedtime, but still very cute.

"I'm glad you appreciate me." I'm not sure where this came from, but it's the first thing he said to me yesterday morning.

"Mommy, you're the best grilled cheese maker there is." I guess I've had lots of practice, since it's the only thing he ever wants for lunch.

Bad News Saturday

So the news for the day, no baby for me. I was so sure, over 3 weeks late, and just feeling like it was finally my time. And I was so wrong. Maybe it was some cruel joke to get my hopes up, and than have them crashing down.

I can't move right now, my fingers feel numb, I just want to cry, climb into bed and not get out. I hid in the bathroom and bawled for five minutes before GM started yelling for me. I feel like I'm going to be sick. Why can't this just be easy?

I have to tell the hubby tonight, and I'm not sure I can even find the right words. He was so excited. He should be calling on his lunch break soon, and I'm considering just turning off the phone. I don't want to say aloud the words that will crush our spirits once again.

I just feel lost...

Photo Hunt: Sad

This is an old photo of the little one, but was very fitting for today. He was upset because mommy and daddy had walked outside to bring in more boxes when we were moving in, and he wasn't allowed to help.

And I Wonder Why I'm Crazy...

The little one thinks this it's so funny to do stuff like this when I'm trying to concentrate on other things. I guess I don't help it though, I egg him on...

Around the Blogoshpere Story

One day, Trisha was outside going for a walk. She really hated to walk, in fact, she downright despised it. This was because………….. She was tired of the nasty old men who would pervertedly let out cacophonous wolf whistles as she would hike down the road. Trisha hated feeling like a sex object, despite her night job as a lap dancer at the local T&A bar. Working at the T&A Bar, Trisha makes AWESOME Money from the men AND women that wont ever go home. One day Trisha got fed up with the bar and headed to a nudist beach.

Being utterly disgusted by the fat men at the beach, Trisha decided to start a campaign to exile any overweight men, so the beach would no longer be an eyesore. This quest however, ticked off all the wives who thought their hubbys were fat yet fabulous.

Read More of this story at: MomDot

Contributing Bloggers to this Story: MomDot, Womb at the Inn(sane), Nothing But Purple, Momma's Gone Over the Wall

Just Confused

So for the past 3 weeks, I've been obsessing non-stop over whether I'm pregnant or not. 3 weeks, and still I have no idea. I've read every pregnancy symptom checklist, taken all the on-line quizzes, and take five at home tests. I'm totally the Energizer Bunny, I keep testing, and testing, and testing. Negative on every at home test, and "indecisive" results from the on-line questionnaires. Really, what's a girl to do.

The other night, I had this really vivid dream, I was staring at a positive at home test result. I woke up so excited, it was so real. Only to realize it was just a dream. Intuition? Or just a weird dream caused by worrying too much?

I've got all the signs I had with GM: extreme fatigue, feeling sick every time I eat, headaches, having to pee every half hour. My stomach growls constantly, I actually had to start eating breakfast, which I never do.

So, either I am, and the tests just suck are wrong, or there's something really wrong with me. I think I'm going to go get a blood test done if I can't figure anything out soon.

Wordless Wednesday

Halloween 07.