And So It Begins….

So this is the photo I promised.
Took the girls Tuesday evening, and did the portrait thing with them. Every year we do a photo of all four grand kids for my folks. We also do just the two of them, seeing as how I don’t think my outlaws are that interested to have pix of my brother’s kids in their house. Call me crazy! Since my two are the youngest I figured it might make sense to try and get pix of just the two of them at a different time, shorter attention spans and all. So went over to the mall, did those photos, let them run around in the kids area

Side note: Why do people think it’s ok to let their children run wild in the kids play area in a mall? Most of the kids there are usually under the age of 2 and sweet. There’s always at least one or two 4-6 YOs literally racing around, jumping over other kids and parents, knocking kids, people and strollers over and generally being obnoxious. Inevitably they hurt someone’s preshuuusbabeeee and those with the smaller kids leave. Not my preshusbabee mind you, cause I’d go kick their arces if they get too close. Ok, I wouldn’t physically hurt them, but I would give them the mommy speak smack down and look of death. And if that doesn’t work I’ll go humiliate their parents. And if that doesn’t work I’ll threaten to have Stephen Cobert put them On Notice. Bet you’re totally jonesing to hang with me at the mall now, aren’t ya?

So anyway, I bribed them w/a promise of McD’s if they would participate during photos. I don’t know if that worked of if I just got lucky, but the pix came out pretty good. Since they were dressed up already I decided to hit the Clause Booth. Let me tell you, good call on my part. We walked right up to Santa & took our time. No one was there! I highly recommend the Tuesday evening Santa visit BTW. DD1 was able to tell him what she wanted (“an American Girl doll that’s Big like her cousin S” and the mermaid costume and the gold dress with the crown….”). Santa then pointed out a skylight above us where you could see “the tops of the reindeer antlers on the roof where he’d parked his sled”. (Good call, cause she asked where his sled was when we got there & I told her that the mall gives him special parking on the roof.) She was pretty excited.

DD2 had a different sort of experience. She would NOT sit on his lap. (Did you guess that, what gave it away?) He gave her a small candy cane and she thought was good, but she still wasn’t leaving mommy. Maybe she has more common sense then the rest of us. So mommy is in the pix. While I'm glad this photo came out so well, I wish I could photoshop myself out, but the way Santa's beard is next to my shoulder makes me think it would look weird if I did. I'd kind of like to photoshop the experience from my mind too. Just before they'd take each photo, Santa would "bounce" his knee on my side. Ummm, inappropriate, much? It kind of perved me out, but I think (I want to believe) that the "photo elf" was giving him a signal to do it in order to get DD2 to smile for the actual photo. That's the story I'm going with ok, cause otherwise, ewww! I have all kinds of issues with the fact that I'm encouraging my daughters to sit on a strange man's lap & take candy from him, so like I said I'm trying not to think about it too much. I'm trying not to ruin it for myself.

I hadn’t really thought that part out, (that I might need to be in the photo too) so I had on sweats, but luckily they were black & my top happened to be red. Too bad my hair was so out of whack and that I didn’t have make up on, sigh, the sacrifices we make for our parents. You do know this is all about the photo for the grandparent’s right?

Speaking of….


Guess who’s got the girls today? They’re hereeeee! We’re headed to the City (San Francisco) this weekend as it’s my BIL’s 40th and he’s have a big par-tay. We even got a hotel room so we can cab it and drink all the Zin we want!!! All the cousins are flying in for it and DS's folks came out to watch the girls so we could spend the weekend up there. More on all this later.

Good Reads and my Weirdness (maybe that makes this Weird Wednesday)

I’m totally having the weirdest day.

I couldn’t turn my mind off last night so I didn’t fall asleep until after 3. Yes, 3 AM. Then DD2 woke up at 5 and WOULD. NOT. GO. BACK. TO. SLEEP. How do they know when to do that to you? I did get some awesome cuddle time with her and she totally would’ve gone back to sleep if I let her sleep ON me in my bed. But I needed to get up soon and knew I’d sleep through the alarm if I tried that one. So awake I was.

Maybe today isn’t really weird, maybe it’s just me. I mean weirder than usual. Save it. I’m just delirious and when I get over that and hit my wall (which I can’t believe I haven’t’ hit already BTW) then I’ll realize it was just the jolt of caffeine and TWO F’ING HOURS of sleep that’s the problem.

I'm having really, really good blog karma today and wanted to share. Cause I lurve you Internet, really I do and that's not the coffee talking. I swear!

Cry-It-Out has a post that will leave you in tears. Mike’s a really good writer (damn I sound like a ‘tard. “He write good.”) Duh, he get’s paid for it for a reason. Usually his posts are funny and sweet and they resonate with me because DD2 is the same age as his Emme. (And she's adorable.) That and Emme was my #2 name for DD2. (Actually name #2 was Emilia, which is Spanish for Emily, but I totally would’ve called her Emme, so I feel all connected with him or something. And now he’s going to realize what a total freak I am and be all concerned I’m stalking his daughter and block my comments….told you I was in a weird mood). Anyway, short story long, his post today is the definition of melancholy. I’m touched enough by it that I’m telling you to go read it. You might want to have a tissue nearby.

AND

I’ve found two new blogs! (Cause I didn't have enough on my plate.) Well, new to me. You, Internet, have been holding out on me. I thought you loved me. I’ve totally wasted like 2 hours here at work reading archives of both of them and I think I pink puffy heart them both. Ahhh, new infatuation love. So while you didn’t tell me Internet, I will not hold out on you:

Petroville
She’s a curly girl like me, so I already feel all bonded with her. Yup, that’s what it’s come to folks, you have the same hair as me & I’m your BFF.

My Husband Calls Me Weird
Nicki just moved into a new house during the Thankgiving rush (hmmm….who does that sound like?) And is in debt (she’s American, duh). She does rude things to her new appliances (I'm not saying I do that, but if I did I probably wouldn't write about it. I'm just saying I understand her.) and when I saw her choice in Threadless shirts, I realized I just met my soul sista! I think I seriously have a girl-crush on her.


Ok, I do actually have some work to do here today folks. Gasp! I know it’s been two weeks now and I’ve had stuff to do every day but one. (Yeah, there was a extra long weekend in there, so what?) The stuff I have to do today, involves the paper trail of those who flaked on the project I’ve been working on. And, so as not to become one of those people I should probably get back to that. Ya think? More later, seriously, cause I have new pictures!

Cyber Monday

Hmmm…First there’s Thanksgiving, then Black Friday…not sure what Saturday & Sunday are (me thinks the stores lump them in w/Friday, but I may start referring to them as Shiny Saturday and Sparkly Sunday). Now there’s Cyber Monday, how about ‘Sleep In Tuesday’ or ‘Bankruptcy Wednesday’? Oh, I think that hits in January when the credit card bills come.

So quick update on the weekend:

Turkey Day – Relatively painless. The most we could’ve hoped for really. No one
got too drunk or nasty. My kids generally held it together and we were able to
leave early enough to get the girls to bed at a reasonable time. Oh, and the
food was good.

Black Friday -- spent the day on and off the couch. Back
pain was bad, but we were having a party on Saturday so I need to get some
things done. I would dust and lay on the couch, run an errand, lay on the
couch…that’s pretty much how the day went. Around 4 I finally gave up, took half
a vicodin and went to bed. Slept though dinner, but felt much better when I got
up. Later, when I went to bed for the night, I laid there realizing that my
lower back was in a complete spasm & if you put your hand on it you could
feel the spasms happening. Yeah for vicodin is all I have to say. No shopping
for me, but dude! Who the heck is getting up to go shopping at 4AM????

Saturday –Spent the morning getting ready for the party. Pain was
pretty low key. Party was fun and low key.

Sunday—Gloomy, grey
day…matched my mood. Pain was back and I “trudged” through the day feeling sort
of drugged (I wasn’t) and blah. Got DS to finally put some baby locks on the
desk in the kitchen, but ended up cleaning out the whole desk as a result.
Wasn’t really planning on taking that on. So I still need to clean the house
from the weekend. Blah.

So here we are Cyber Monday. I'm at work, but yes, I will be partaking in the sales, as long as I don't have to get up at 4 AM. Will you?

Thankful for Vicodin

I had a rough day yesterday. No, it wasn’t horrible, just rough. I woke up hurting (my back, what else?) So it started out poorly and got worse. While driving to the grocery store I looked in the rear view mirror as both girls screamed (or something equally distracting) and turned into the parking lot at the same time, not something I’d recommend BTW. The result was that I turned too hard & hit the curb w/my front tire. Arrg! Gave myself a flat, bah! I was so mad! Yes, it was my fault. I know better then to let the girls distract me like that, but not feeling good and all I let my guard down. I think part of the reason it made me so mad was because I knew better.

I know, not the end of the world.

In fact, I have roadside service who was very, very responsive (Thank You USAA!) and very timely (within 30 mins). Since I was at my destination I took the girls into the store, got our groceries (none of which were perishable), bribed prepared them for a wait in the car with starbuck’s cookies, and got myself a much needed mocha. We actually waited for maybe 10 minutes. DD#2 desperately needed a nap & DD1 needed lunch, but both somehow managed to hold it together till we got home. So yeah, it could’ve been MUCH worse. DD#2 slept for over 3 hours and after that I packed them up to go repair the tire (I had on the small spare), so we got to sit in the tire center for 30+ minutes only to be told it wasn’t repairable. There’s much more to all of this, but right now it’s not really funny to me (it was to others around us though) so I’ll spare you my whining the details. I took the girls home for DS to feed and headed out to Costco to get a new set of tires. They had a 2.5 hour wait, which would put them past closing, so they made me a deal that they would bump me to the front of the line today when I came back. By the end of all that my back was aching, not the awful sciatica pain that I was getting before, but the muscles all around that area on my right side were definitely in a spasm. I decided I deserved another mocha. Breakfast and dinner of champions! (Ok, so I also had two atkins bars during the day, but that was the total of my consumption for the day. I'm all about setting good example for my kids.) So this morning I woke up with the OTHER side of my lower back in a spasm!

OMG!!!

I think I must’ve been picking up DD#2 in a way that favored the right side, and tweaked my left side. Dude! Could I be any more awkward and retarded??? Sometimes I don’t know how on earth it is that DS stays married to me, I’m such a liability!

So I’m trying to remember to be thankful for what could’ve been a really horrible day was really just a very busy, tired day. All things considered, I think that’s a lot to be thankful for, don’t you?

Gift Me Baby One More Time….

Ok, my friend & I were talking about the whole gift giving thing. We’ve decided that Gift Cards should not be considered impersonal. We’re taking up the charge. I mean think about it, aren’t there people you buy for who really, really don’t need anything else in this world? Often times they’re the same people who would really like certain kinds of things, but because it’s their hobby, not yours, what they want would be out of your price range or something you just don’t know enough about to really purchase for them. I agree that gift cards are not appropriate for some people; kids for instance. You can usually figure out something to give a most kids that are age appropriate and in your price range. Include the gift receipt if you think there’s a good chance they have it already, but kids are as excited about opening something as they are the gift itself, so I think kids are out on this one. But for people like teachers, your 90YO Aunt, your teenage/tween-age cousin who you really don’t see very often, your secret Santa co-worker, etc…I think it’s entirely appropriate to give a gift card. Let’s face it; none of us need that 13th bottle of Bath & Body Works lotion, no matter how important moisturizing is to you. And I’m pretty sure you kid’s teacher already has that “#1 Teacher” mug from the last 3 years. So this year I’m starting the Gift Card rebellion of ’07! Ok, not really, but there are a few people who I’m getting them for, because I know that’s what they would appreciate and it’s not impersonal in that case. Plus I’m creative about where they’re from, so that makes them more personal. Here’s what I mean:

Teachers: Movie passes, enclosed in a “popcorn” bucket, with some
raisinettes, & microwave popcorn.

90YO Aunts/Uncles: I have several of these in my family. They do not
need another sweater or coffee mug. I’m getting one Aunt a month long bus
pass (she doesn’t drive) and a gift card to target (her favorite store).
For another Aunt & Uncle I’m getting them a gift card to a local
brewery. I’ll put enough on it for dinner, but since they don’t drive at
night any more they’ll probably get two lunches out of it.

Close family friends: Starbucks card (even if they don’t drink coffee, there are plenty of other yummy things, I’m sure they’ll find something to use it on.) A holiday travel mug is included to help make it more personal or if you know they’re really into coffee or tea you could get them a bag or the “good stuff”, and this year you can personalize your starbucks cards online, so I’m totally doing that.

So do you have any ideas for this? I’m all ears, I’m always on the look out for creative ways to give someone something they would really appreciate.

The Season of Giving

Just got home from my niece’s birthday party. This was her family party, just one of the several affairs we manage to work into what used to be a single event occasion. With the holiday season upon us (I put a serious dent into my Christmas shopping last night. Yeah, I know you’re supposed to wait till “Black Friday”, but Kohl’s was having a seriously good sale, I had a coupon I could use on top of the sale AND they were open till midnight! That’s my kind of shopping!) the whole excess of our celebrations has started. I have to admit I have very mixed feeling about it. Part of me loves it; watching the kids open all the gifts, the room so full of gifts you can even walk through and I certainly can’t complain about the fact when I’m the recipient of much of that excess. However, we’re doing our best to really outdo ourselves this year.

My niece turned 8 this month, but we started the celebration in October. My mom took my niece to the American Girl place in LA for her birthday gift. This was when I was in Miami so they took DD1 with them (my SIL went as well). They flew to American Girl Place in LA for the day. Yeah, they FLEW down for the DAY. It sounds like it was a very, very cool day, DD1 is still talking about it. But man has the bar been set high.

For G'ma, not me. I am making it very clear that I do not pony up airline tickets as gifts (unless of course it's for me, but I digress...)

At the beginning of November my brother’s family went on a Disney cruise. It wasn’t for S’s birthday, but since it’s her birthday this month, they celebrated it profusely. (I would’ve done the same BTW. Seriously, can you ever get enough free cake?) Since they’ve been home she’s had a kids party, a small birthday celebration on the actual date of her birth and tonight was the family party. Whew! I'm kinda tired just writing it all down.

Yup, the family O’Speak is not about doing things small.

And so here we go; the Holiday season….
Part of me wants to put a nix on the excess. I don’t want my kids to get greedy and end up being all about the gifts, not about the giving. We’re planning on doing many of the things that will help them to learn about how lucky they are; we’re participating in things like the giving tree and food drives. I talk to the oldest one all the time about how lucky we are to live where and how we do. Not sure she really gets it, but I'm trying to help her understand that we have been very, very blessed.

We go to church and DD1 is in classes, so they’re getting some exposure to the meaning behind Christmas. But when you’re 4, lets face it, it’s about getting stuff. At 4, Baby Jesus is cool and all, but kinda hard to be the Fat Man who leaves you shiny gifts. And that's ok, that's how it's supposed to be when you're 4, right?

Honestly, I’m a big part of the problem; I’m the one purchasing most of the gifts. I get so much joy from the excitement of the day and watching their anticipation. I’m excited for the excitement of Christmas Eve and listening to little girls sneaking down the stairs to see if they can catch a glimpse of a flying sleigh or maybe even a reindeer. When I think of that, when I remember waking up at 4 AM and sneaking out to see if Santa had made it to our house; yes, I would get up and not be able to see anything because it was so dark, but be able to tell that stockings had been stuffed and so would go back to bed knowing I’d missed him, but he’d made it again; when I think of that…then I can’t help myself. Because giving them that type of joy and being allow to be part of it, I just don’t have words to express my excitement.

The Holiday Spirit

Still not completely myself, I’m just so freaking tired. I’ve been going to work and all, but I get home and literally fall onto the couch & pass out. The headaches seem to have abated so that’s a plus. Now that work is giving me actual assignments I’m finding that being ill really cuts into my blogging time. Gonna have to work on that one.

So it’s officially the holiday season (you can tell because the red cups are out at Starbucks) which means the official season of bitching about my family has begun. Some friends and I from work were talking yesterday about the upcoming holidays and all the things we have to do related to them, especially on the day of the holiday. I would say our biggest gripe is about where we have to go and who we have to spend them with. I’m not totally dis’ing my family. It’s just the whole hurry and do this so we can hurry and do that aspect to the day. “We have to open presents by 10 so we can finish cooking the side dishes by noon, and get the turkey in before everyone shows up at 12:30…blah, blah, blah.” That part of it isn’t all that much fun, it’s just kind of stressful.

If you have to drive to various houses (I don’t, but one of my friend does) then you’re doing the drive, drive, drive so you can spend a short amount of time at each place and realize that you spent more time in the car then anywhere else that day.

I've made suggestions for things like ordering the dinner from a grocery store so everyone can relax, but I get shot down, "that's not how we do it." Well, maybe is should be. How about just hanging at home & everyone gets to play with their new toys? Maybe we could do the eating part the day before and then spend Christmas day lounging in PJs, opening gifts, playing with new stuff and knocking back leftovers & cocktails. Now, that sounds like my kind of day.

Blah, and the Blah too!

I’m still here. Sorry, I’m having a blah week. If I were truly creative I would somehow have found some humor in my blah and written about it. But it’s a bad case of the blahs, so not so much.
The biggest part of my deal is that I’ve been sick this week. I think (meaning I’m trying to convince myself) that it’s some kind of sinus thing. On Tuesday I woke up with a bad headache & nausea. I was also exhausted when I woke up. Not such a good way to start out a day, especially one you’ll be spending herding small children for the better part of . As the day progressed both the headache and nausea got worse, around lunch time dizzy and lightheaded decided they wanted to join in. That was right after I spent the better part of DD#1’s gym lessons having hot and cold flashes. Fun! I made myself eat lunch hoping it might help the headache and nausea; it didn’t, but it didn’t make it worse so I guess it wasn’t all bad. I found that I could keep dizzy and lightheaded out of the picture if I stayed horizontal, so I spent the rest of my afternoon on the couch in the playroom. I convinced the girls to play “house”, so I could lay there semi comatose and “watch” them. I was the sick kid & they were the “mommies” making me tea & soup to make me feel better. (When I write it down like that it sounds so cute. Wish I’d been feeling well enough to appreciate it.) I called DS & told him that while I wasn’t asking him to come home right now, if there was anyway he could come home early I would sure be grateful. I also told him I would cry if he needed to work late. He is such an awesome guy, he came home at 2:30 at which time I gratefully gave into my exhaustion and fully passed out on the couch for hours. Blah, blah, blah…more about being sick, blah, blah, blah….no, I’m not pregnant; yes, I’m sure. Anyway, I went to work the next two days because, even though I felt crappy, it wasn’t completely crappy enough to take a sick day. It was lousy enough that being at work was more restful then staying home entertaining my kids.
My mom (aka—the babysitter) is of the belief that if I stay home, regardless of reason, you should be taking care of your kids.

“I had to take care of you guys when you were little when I didn’t feel good,
and no one helped me, wah, wah, wah…”

“Well, jeez mom, perhaps that was cause you were too lame to call and ask for
some help ? Since you had two sets of capable Grandparents and about 50
bajillion cousins living less then 5 minutes away????”

Side note: On the day of the car accident when I came home early, took a vicodin & nap; I was informed that I “had a lot of nerve” for coming home early but wanting her to continue to watch the girls because my neck & back were hurting and I wanted to be drugged up for a while. She wouldn’t mind a nap too you know.”

Yeah, I’m a selfish bitch like that.

Since I know I’m not preggers I was trying to think what else it could be & it occurred to me that sinus’ could be the culprit, although no nose running as of yet. Tonight, I got a wave of the very heavy exhaustion again and a migraine about 5 PM. (It sucked because I had actually felt pretty decent most of the day.) I collapsed on the couch & sucked on a diet soda, caffeine can help migraines. I passed out about 6, and woke up a couple hours later (girls were in bed already) feeling less tired. My migraine finally broke about 11. So that was my very, very long way of telling you why I haven’t written all week AND why the heck I’m still up at 2 AM when I am feeling better. I think I’m a little amped from the soda; I had 3 by the time it was all said & done. I don’t drink that much soda in a week usually.

Ok, I also realized that the only things I was really thinking of writing about were about as boring as this post. So there you go.

There's hope! DD#2 had her 18 month check up today, so I have more to report on that this weekend. Hope your week was better than mine.

Universal Law of Mondays

There is a universal law that states: “Regardless of what time I get up to leave for work, and how much I do at night to be able to be ready to leave early, there will be obstacles that will thwart my efforts and provide that I arrive at my usual 30 minutes late every time.”

Last night I showered, blew my hair dry, pulled out my clothes, made lunches (mine and DD#1), put everything I needed to take with me by the door and filled the car up with gas. There is no reason why I should’ve been late today. Even if I were to wake up late, because of the time change I should be good, right?

Yeah, well the kids decided to wake up early (WTF?). When they get up they want my undivided attention & today was no exception. My mom usually deals with picking out clothes and getting them dressed on work mornings, but this morning I did it. I also ended up starting their breakfast & getting the dogs out before my mom showed up. None of it is big stuff, but it all steals a few minutes here and there.

To make up the time, I didn’t touch up the ends of my hair & I grabbed my makeup to go. I figured I could put it on at work. Hugs, kisses, “Have a good day! I love you!” and I’m out the door, just 5 minutes later then I wanted to get out.

I unlock the driver’s door w/the key & only the driver’s side unlocks. Hmmm, that's weird, maybe it didn’t hold it long enough., put it back in and turn, hold, hold, hold….no, nothing. Ooook, I put my stuff in the car over the driver’s seat & as I’m putting my lunch on the floor I see that the light over DD#1’s seat is turned on.

Uh oh.

I put the keys in the ignition & turn. Nothing.

Damit!

I had the battery charger in the back of the car, so I was able to get the car moving right away, but after the time it took to jump the car, I didn’t get pulled out the drive way until the usual 30 minutes late.

When I got here, I pulled in at the same time as my boss, so she’s well aware of what time I got in today. Lovely.

Just a friendly reminder; it’s Monday! Can I go back to bed now?

A Lesson in Humility, Along With A Hectic Weekend.

Quick before they notice I’m gone!

So our weekend has been fairly uneventful; thankfully. My back, while sore, is not completely out of wack & carrying DD#2 around hasn’t totally tweaked it out yet. FAC was really fun this week (lots of wine, not whine). The neighborhood recently got 3 new families and the ones closest to us were able to join in. We may have overwhelmed them a bit, but overall I think they’re thrilled that they decided to move here. Best part, they have two girls, ages 4 & 18 months! It's like I put in an order for a family with two girls the exact same ages as mine! There were so many kids (13) this week that DD#1 did play with her, but I’m not sure she really got to know her at all yet. DD#2 totally hit it off w/their #2 R. They’re both about the same size & being youngers are on the “tuff” side. They were so damn cute playing in the dirt together & “making dinner” in the play kitchen. I could’ve died. It was good to see DD#2 finally playing with a girl her age for a change. It seems like everyone has boys her age, which is fine, but I could tell she had a lot of fun w/R.

Saturday we slept in (DD#1 slept till 10 AM! Gawd that kid is awesome sometimes!) and then did some light house cleaning. In the afternoon DD#1 ended up having a playdate w/AD from down the street. It was a pretty good one (no fighting) and at the end we walked her home and I was cracking up at DD#2 as she mimicked everything the big girls were doing. How come I never haf my camera on me when she does the super cute stuff? In the afternoon my dad took us to dinner. The girls were complete angels and my dad could not get over how good they were.

Today we headed to church, and once again DD#2 was being amazing during Mass. It was really crowded so we had to sit in a pew w/other people; something I try to minimize so that I can minimize the potential annoyance of having an 18 month old around. But the baby room was full and so were the pews. It wasn’t a big deal; right behind us there was an 18 month old, 7 month old and 4 month old. DD#2 was interested in them, but not overly, so they were actually a good distraction. They were not the most well behaved kids on earth though. They weren't awful or anything, just not the angel my child was being. DD#2 was being the perfect child, and we’d just gotten past the part of Mass when everyone shakes hands and wishes each other “peace.“ DD#2 loves that part & insists on shaking hands with everyone too. Everyone finds this adorable, of course, so I was feeling pretty smug about how good my kids were by this time and fate decided to put me in my place. We’re standing and DD#2 decides to toss her cup onto the pew. It was a “disposable” cup so the lid immediately popped off dumping the full cup of water all over the pew. We were supposed to sit right about then, of course. I was able to warn the lady next to us right off, but still think it got on the edge of her jacket. It had already splashed all over the side of my skirt so I looked lovely when I got up for communion. I had nothing to wipe it up with, at first I grabbed a onsie of DD#2 from the diaper bag, but I realized I needed something more absorbent...

You guessed it, I cleaned it up w/a diaper.

Guess, making me walk out of church w/a full diaper and a half soaked skirt was God’s little way of reminding me of the humility that I might want to keep in check.

Taking it from Behind

On my way to work Thursday I was rear ended. It wasn’t a bad accident. In fact the damage to my bummer is pretty minimal. I as stopped at a red light (3rd in line) and the kid (age 17, of course) behind me didn’t stop. Thinking about it, I’m pretty sure he never hit his breaks; at least I never heard his tires. He was going around 35-40 when he hit meo , so minimal damage to the car because he hit me square, but not totally minimal to me, because he hit me hard (and the fact that I’m already pretty banged up doesn’t help.) He had insurance and pulled over to exchange information, etc…so I’m at least thankful for that. Within an hour of this accident I was starting to stiffen up. By the time 3 hours had passed my lower back & neck were quite angry about the whole deal and additionally giving me a headache. I cut my losses and left work early . At home I took a vicodin, applied ice and tried to sleep it off for a couple hours. It did help. I woke up feeling much better; probably not feeling much of anything to be honest. The minimalizing of the pain lasted until about noon today. Now I’m laying on the couch (blogging) while DD#1 colors and DD#2 sleeps. I probably wouldn’t even mention all this except that DS had to go out of town for the weekend. His Grandmother (age 92) passed this week and he has to go back to PA for the funeral. He won’t be back until Monday night. If my back is bothering me I’m out of luck this weekend, because I’m on my own.

The biggest issue over this is that I didn’t get to post about our Halloween. Now it seems so long ago that it hardly seems relevant. BAH!

Here the Reader’s Digest version so I can feel better about it:
Trick or Treating was fun. The big kids were frenzied and we were constantly yelling, “Don’t Run”, “Wait for us!” and “Slow Down”. A couple times one of the kids bit it because the house was dark & they couldn’t see the step the just tripped over. A few skinned knees, but otherwise no one was worse for the ware. And no candy was lost in the chaos. DD#2 got into the swing of things by house two and FILLED her bucket. Her petit-ness worked in her favor and people were amazed to see someone so small and cute toddling up to their porch, “Twik o Twet!” and their hearts just melted. A “Tank You” (without being prompted) and they’re signing their mortgages over to us. So both girls had a blast. DD#1 asked to come home about 5 minutes after her normal bedtime, but I made her keep going to houses as we worked our way home (no one wants to be the party pooper!). Once home she wanted to have a piece of candy and when I said, “Yes, but just one.” She started to riffle through her treat bag. We got the distinct pleasure of teaching her how to “sort her candy” by dumping it all out on the floor. She thought that was pretty cool (cause it is) and I know will be teaching her sister the finer art of candy sorting next year. She re-sorted it the next day with her G’ma, or course.

My only complaint (you knew there was at least one) about the evening is sort of random. Our neighborhood is one that people drive into in order to bring their kids Trick or Treating. I have no issues with that in of itself. I think it’s great that their kids are able to get the experience even though they don’t totally feel safe about their own area. I get that and I’m cool with it. The thing I wasn’t cool with was the group of 10+ cars in a line going down the street following the group of 20 or so kids as they went house to house. Get the hell out of your cars people! It wasn’t even cold that night, so there was no good excuse, just laziness. It bothered me mostly because it was so dangerous to the kids out Trick or Treating. They were watching their kids, talking on the phone, etc…but someone’s kid runs into the street unexpectedly….ok that was my rant. We took lots of pix but none were as good as the ones I already posted, so you can scroll back to see Arial & Minnie Mouse.

I’m off to our Friday Neighborhood Playdate (I think I’m going to start calling FAC for Friday Afternoon Club, like in college.) Wish me luck over this weekend, if it doesn’t go well it’s going to be a really, really long weekend.