BigGuy is a SpringBreak Treat

No, not like a treat for me - although that sounds fun, maybe we can put the kids to bed early and duct tape their doors so no one can come out and interrupt a BigGuy Spring Break Treat for me. And now that we are on the topic - what is with the radar kids have? There are 3 things my kids can detect without any physical sounds or signals -
* Talking on the telephone - I can hide in the laundry room - make the call myself so there is NO RINGING - and then hide under the car, in the dark, in the garage and STILL my kids can find me to ask for something that could wait another 3 weeks to be answered.
* Reading a book - my children can be gone for hours and still if I sit somewhere comfortably and begin to read a book they will pop up to either talk to me - or worse yet, sit next to me reading their own book. The second one doesn't sound so intrusive to you? In fact, it sounds sweet and snuggly? Yeah, you would think - only Spidey will be reading out loud to me even if I ask him to read to himself - and SuperStar will be laughing at all the things in her book and tell me about them explaining all the things I don't really need to know since I AM READING MY OWN BOOK - and let's face it, TheKing demands to be read to. Since I am a good parent, I close my book and read with them.
*Getting a Special Treat with BigGuy - and I mean the kind that you have to close the door for - well, now close the door, lock it, turn all the lights out so it looks like no one is in there, then go into the bathroom and turn on the shower - still needing to leave cookies and candy on the landing so they get distracted and never make it up the staircase to detect that we are doing something kind of a Treat. I am so looking forward to the day that we don't have to listen while having a Treat. If the door is locked there is the pounding "What are you doing in there?" Even at night - hours after they have gone to bed - we can't sneak a Treat without them popping up, "I can't sleep. Can I get in bed with you?" I am almost looking forward to the day that they can put 1+1 together and it grosses them out so much that they won't go anywhere near the house while we are having a Treat.

But this blog is about BigGuy being a Spring Break Treat that is family friendly. Here in our corner of the world EVERYONE and their Step-Brother goes out of town for Spring Break. Which kinda stinks for them right now because there is a burglar on the lose in our neighborhood - he was just spotted this morning peeping in another window (so I went around to all my friends houses and checked back doors). However, the people it most stinks for is us. They are gone - we are here. No one to play with. So we make our own fun.

"Hey kids how about we go visit Daddy at work today and eat in the cafeteria with him?" Thinking in my head that this must sound completely lame to them - but please let them agree because we have to get out of the house before they drive each other mad.

"Oh that is so cool!!" and they scramble for their shoes.

And that was today's Spring Break Treat - lunch at work with Dad and seeing his cubicle and hanging out with SpongeBobBen his cubbie neighbor who has all sorts of SpongeBob items displayed. Just for good measure we threw in the Library for books and a trip to get some slip on shoes that fit for outdoor trampoline jumping.

Oh the Excitement here in the Little Corner of our world!! Call now to book your trip!

Welcome to the World

Baby L was born this past Monday. In fact, today he will be 1 week old!! Happy 1 Week Bday BabyL. Now..........BabyL has the distinction of being the Very First of the next Generation in my family. He is my sisters first Grand Child, my first Great Nephew - my parents first Great Grandchild and I guess my nephews first nephew!

Another interesting fact about him - he doesn't look like us yet!! Usually our kids look a great deal like us. BabyL's mom looks like us - in fact, she looks JUST LIKE SuperStar (or since she is 8 years older I guess SuperStar looks like her). Sorry GranmaR - I know how you like to claim the babies for our own, but this one is not there yet - maybe one of his ears look like ours? (my mom is really good at matching up whose ear looks like whose ear - seriously - I have two different ears - one from each family I have been told).

Still.....regardless of who he looks like he is a perfectly gorgeous beautiful baby. So sweet!!


This pic is BabyL and his mom, my baby niece Mags. I believe she is exactly my mothers age when she had me. She was very sweet watching her baby. Very much a first time mom too. Has things set the way she wants them. Not much interest in taking suggestions from a Mother Hen (me, because I feel like her mom too) who is still raising babies. In fairness though - if I remember right I wasn't interested in others opinions either - until the second child that is - then I was up for whatever time, money and sanity saving tip any stranger off the street had to give me.

Yesterday we went up to visit, give gifts, drop off some homecooked meals and sweet breads and just hang out a bit. It was a full day in the car with a little bit of Baby Snuggle Heaven in between. I love holding our babies (don't want one though - just in case higher powers are paying attention - no baby here thank you - just give me a 5 yr. old) Here is my other favorite picture from yesterday.


My baby holding a baby and looking in love. They are both so beautiful....ack! though - too much future in that picture - lucky for me she was rolling around on the floor a few minutes later claiming how bored she was..........

Nothing Like STL

Well, the title isn't completely acurate - there are some similarities to STL - there was a break in in the neighborhood. Another similarity would be the WAY the person broke in - that was pretty common in our old neighborhood too.

Guy goes to front door - knocks - no one is home - goes around to the backdoor - breaks into the house.

The difference - here there is ALWAYS someone walking their dog, standing outside, working from home, noticing that something is amiss. Well.........wait....that is kinda the same as in our old area too. Hmmm........

Well, today when it happened to the family across the street (in exactly the same fashion I described) another neighbor was outside in his front yard getting ready to walk the dog or smoke a cigarette (this neighborhood is often doing both) - and he noticed the stranger on the porch of the neighbor across the street from us. The stranger was not known, the neighbor is good friends with family across the street. He walked down to see what was going on and noticed the stranger walk to the back of the house - the neighbor phoned the police and the person who lived in the house - the police came within a few minutes, just behind the neighbor. The police in STL sometimes took longer, but usually it was a helpful neighbor who tipped everyone off.

The rest of the day was spent watching. And this is where I found things to be different. I watched the neighbors walk around outside - neighbors stop to "check in" on what was happening. People hugged and commiserated over what had happened. People brought brownies! Neighbors sent emails talking about what happened - what next - what to do to protect themselves.

It has been a long time since our house was broken into. It was two houses ago. There is some difference. We did not have neighbors come by to check in on us. We didn't have anyone phone to spread the word. The police didn't hang out for a long time. They didn't bring dogs in to track the person who did the breaking in. Yet the feeling of unrest, being volunerable and violated did come back.

Yet, now that I think of it - it is exactly the same as STL. May happen a lot less here - in our last area it was probably once a week someone was broken into (keep in mind it was a city neighborhood with dense population) - yet a break in is a break in - a violation of your privacy - it is an awful feeling - even if it happens less here, it still happens. Doesn't matter where you live. Same here as in STL.

Guess Who's Back.....

Sunny!! Forgot to mention that Sunny came home the end of February. There was so much going on at once I am just now catching up. Why the pic of her licking her lips? Well, this photo was taken within a few minutes of her being dropped off. As her mom and I talked in the garage she was inside eating the cake that was on the counter cooling! I kid you not - totally let it slip my mind what a dessert lover she was. Most likely she was thinking, "Hey, she baked a cake to welcome me back!!"

We have since been very careful about leaving things out. Sunny has also been very polite about sniffing things before taking them - which gives us more time to tell her to step back - until this morning - she decided to help herself to some Cocoa Roo's.........chocolate tends to be everyone's down fall.

Maybe It's Me.......but I find this Damn Funny!

So the other day I am talking to the kiddo's about this and that. Acronyms come up. You know - those fun and confusing short versions of long explanations or titles. Like CEO - which I still never really get right - is it Chief Executive Officer? or Chief Educational Organizer? or both? I think I must be a CEO - if it is the latter description. Anyway, the conversation we had that day was something around the same sort of confusion. "Mom, what does blah blah blah mean." and I said something inspired that made them happy and content with the world because they knew their mom knew EVERYTHING.

For you Newer Moms - That Is The Way You Want It - You Want Your Children To Believe You Know Everything!! Even more then their dad - but let the kids think Dad knows EVERYTHING there is to know about things you aren't interested in doing. Like for me - that would include putting together the game, Mouse Trap (hate that thing!) and any of those robots that turn into cars or monsters - oh, Transformers (hate those too) and how to put together train tracks (only because then they tear them up and that drives me insane).

But that is not what I found Damn Funny - the acronym thing ties in - but the New Mom Tips don't. Here is the funny - and know that the following content may not be advised for small children (or children you don't want to explain sex things to). So I will rate this PG-16 - although unfortunately I believe 13 year olds already understand these acronyms. Now - there are 2 school districts in our area (you will need that info later).


I am in the car coming home from Michael's (unneeded info, but now you have a mental picture - know too that I am happy, just spent almost an hour browsing for nothing and being bothered by no one - aaahhh....). I am listening to the new tape (ooops, dated myself - CD - that I just bought at Target - Target rocks!). I am totally by myself so my mind is Able to Wander. I am sitting at a light waiting to turn left (more not needed info). There is a Gigantic SUV in front of me. So I am totally noticing the back end because it is taking up all the space in my view. Wonder if that lady off roads in her gargantuan SUV? Wonder if she camps and needs the space for her tent? Wonder if she uses the SUV for anything other then loading it up with crap she buys? With cars like that sucking up gas how can our economy be suffering? I digress............so I am looking at the backend of her car. Oh, I see a bumper sticker. It says in blue letter with a white border on a blue background - BJHS - simple and to the point - they are in one school district (not ours). It is the acronym of a local Junior High School. I think about the fact the BJ is unfortunate. Who wants to go to a school that can easily be called Blow Job High School? Made me think of the story I heard about why in our district the schools are also still called Jr. Highs - because one of their names starts with a P - a middle school would have made the acronym PMS - PreMenstral School - no one wanted that so it is PJHS. Not bad - probably less teasing then PMS. Poor BJ. Bet the boys at BJ love the name once they figure out the joke though. I can hear the jokes........boys are dumb. Then I think maybe their district should change the name of Jr. Highs to Middle School to avoid the BJ acronym - hmmm.............maybe I should write them a letter about my brilliant idea........oh wait....that would make them BMS. Wonder which is worse - Bowel Movement School or Blow Job High School?

Hope my kids never ask me about those acronyms.

Perhaps I shouldn't be given time to have Free Thinking.......

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Luck Be With Ya All Day Long!!!

Tears, Pancakes, Helicopters, Small Planes, Large Planes, BigGuy & Quarters........

This morning (you are probably reading this yesterday) BigGuy went on a business trip. He has done this before. However, he has never flown on a plane while doing this. He has generally driven. Sometimes he is gone for 2 days, once he was in training for almost a week, but usually his trips are simple overnight kinda deals. We have never seen him off at the airport. Not for anything now that I am thinking about it. Although SuperStar has had us thinking about it for at least 2 days. Tearfully she has gone on and on about how much she will miss BigGuy.

Why oh why oh why oh why does Daddy have to go????????????? Why?????????? She says this in a way that would make you think BigGuy were never coming back - or that he was going to something terrible and he didn't want to go either. But he isn't. He will be back - probably sooner then he would want to be (although he does love us dearly - or so he professes). She literally worked up tears on and off for the entire day yesterday - worsened when I made her (yes, forcefully almost) get her hair cut to try to even out the bang whacking she gave herself 10 months ago - the crying only lessened when we let her pick the restaurant for dinner. BigGuy blames this drama on pre-pms stuff. Only that should be years off (please let it be years off). I blame this on......actually I have nothing to blame it on. But I do have a complaint to lodge:

Why doesn't anyone notice when I go on a trip and am gone for days? Where is the drama for the Mama? For the most part they hardly even notice when I arrive back home. What is up with that?



So to try to make the whole BigGuy Leaving for a horrible business trip to Sunny Florida seem more manageable for the kids - we took them to breakfast. There is a cute restaurant with Fabulous pancakes that has relocated right on the airport grounds. You can sit and watch the planes come in and out - well.......it is a smallish (yet impressive) airport - so really you don't see anything happen out the windows, but there is the promise of the possibility - and the pancakes are very good. The kids were excited - they even almost stopped crying (by this morning SuperStar had Spidey all upset too - in fact we ALL slept together last night - after SuperStar wept dramatically for at least 30 minutes).

At breakfast we got really lucky. There was a helicopter parked right outside the window. It was at least cool to look at - TheKing thought that was a humdinger cool thing - and then.......it started up half way through our meal and TOOK OFF!!



Right after that we watched a smaller plane tool around a bit - wait, that might have been right before we came in and then as we were leaving it pulled up just to the side of the window. That was cool too. So even though we didn't see any big planes take off - we saw a lot of little cool things. Well worth the meal - even though (through tears and stubborn behavior) we spent a fortune on food SuperStar talked us into a gigantic plate of breakfast food that she didn't eat.


The next adventure was getting BigGuy into the airport. Tiny airport (compared to those that I have been in - which are only major cities so far), but very nice. They had a nice check in area, two water fountains, a restaurant, a bakery, a little coffee stop, nice seating, sculptures depicting I am not sure what that the kids loved playing on - and lots of adults to look on at my pathetic children weeping endlessly as BigGuy took his shoes off and passed through the security area that we were not allowed to go into. The sobbing - the hands on the glass - the "what if he never comes back" questions - the "why can't we go in there too?" - and the chasing of TheKing back away from the security area. I tried to talk everyone into settling in where we could watch the plane taxi out and take off. Nope - not enough drama in that........we have to be in the center crying and wailing and crying....BigGuy really did miss a performance in his honor.

I tried to take it all in stride. Yep, they sure love him. SuperStar even stopped her weeping for a moment to assure me she had done this for me when she was 4 and I went for a weekend with my friends to a MOMS Club convention in MN. No she didn't - 2 friends left their kiddo's with BigGuy that morning, as soon as those kids showed up SuperStar was gone - I don't even think she noticed we left. But....it was nice of her to try to fake it for me. Kinda.

Eventually they all got bored with milling around waiting for nothing to happen. Because where we were NOTHING was going to happen. So I asked if they wanted to drive around to the plane tower and park and watch the plane leave. No, they wanted to go home and get a movie. What??? Daddy isn't even off the ground yet - you have been crying for days - you don't want to watch the plane take off??? The response was, "No, it is too sad. Can we toss a coin in the waterfall?"


I was stunned, relieved and suddenly very ready to go. "Nope, no coin in the water. I only have quarters." thinking that she had already spent a ton of money at breakfast that we threw away. There were people really close watching the drama though - so I thought it best of me not to look petty. However, SuperStar got me....she stopped right next to a group of older people, they were smiling at us and listening in...."But Mommy I want to throw the coin in to wish that Daddy's plane doesn't crash and he doesn't die. Isn't that worth a quarter to you?"

Crap. "Sure, here is a quarter." Handing everyone a quarter. Crap. The older people smiled at me. We made out way to the water fountains and then to the car - finally!!!

The only thing is - I wanted to see the plane take off - I wanted to wave to my sweetie and think happy thoughts about him. And all of a sudden - the weeping started again. Everyone buckled and the crying began from SuperStar - carried over to Spidey (know now that this is all very manufactured). TheKing began.

"What will we do without Daddy for 3 days?"
"Same stuff." was my answer, "It is ONLY 3 days after all."
"But it might as well be 3 years to me." was the pitiful answer in back.

I fully expected that if we didn't leave soon this was what would happen.....



So we left. Funny thing.........no one wanted to sit on the back porch and watch for the plane to fly over with me. The boys came out - got on the trampoline - kept asking me to watch them.....I totally missed the plane.