Christmas Is Finally OVER

I have lived with the Christmas tree and decorations a lot longer than usual. We celebrated it and then we had to wait another week to celebrate another one. My MIL came up to bring the boys some stuff and visit with us. That put things in a little bit of a delay. I being the type of a person that I am, can not stand having all of that stuff completely cluttering the house. The insanity of it all. I mean really. I have to dust it, wipe it down, and for what? To put it away in a few days.

I have had neighbor kids traipsing in and out of my house and asking me to feed them when they visit. I don't go for feeding the neighborhood kids when I did not invite them over. The kids now a days seem to be a little more able to ask for things that I would never have thought of doing when I was a kid.

The baby I watch has started crawling so I now have to prepare the house for a mobile little person. Let's just say it has been a while. Thankfully the tree will come down before he comes back on Monday. Now I have to get on my hands and knees and crawl around to see what other trouble he can get into. Amazingly I found places I didn't know that dust bunnies could hide. How do they get that far back under the furniture? And, they look like they have families!! The joy of a tile floor. Everything just sort of migrates to one corner and grows and grows. I suppose I will be sitting on the sofa one day and feel this nibbling feeling on my ankles and look down to see an overgrown dust bunny sampling me for a snack.

So, we get to wrap up (get it wrap, hahahah) the holiday for this year and move on. Unfortunately my birthday is this month so goes another "holiday" I truly don't enjoy celebrating. Who wants to celebrate getting older? That became not so much fun when I hit 20, and I won't say how long ago that was!

Facebook Sucked Me In

Wow, time has flown by. Our dear Wallie had to leave the family as about as quickly as he came into it. We thought he would be a wonderful addition to the family, but he just didn't fit in. My two boys loved him to death too. Wallie had a little stronger personality than we thought though. My son went to pick him and received a bite. Thankfully we didn't need stitches, but it was a lot deeper than I wanted. Wallie had just shortened his stay. I placed an ad, and thankfully he found a new home the next day. I was sad to see him go, but with all of the kids that come and go in the house I couldn't take the chance of one of them getting bit. My niece had been bitten when she was younger and had to have cosmetic surgery to correct it. I did not want the scenario.

I also got sucked into Facebook. I believe that it has received a majority of my life for the past few weeks. I have been playing word games that have I have become addicted to. The ultimate challenge of beating everyone else's high score. I have sunk too much time into it. I also have enjoyed keeping up to date with friends and family. Their daily habits and feelings, placed in a convenient place to visit. The best part is leaving a loving comment, or a note of sorts just letting them know that you stopped by. I love knowing that someone has been thinking about me.

In order to cure myself of this disease, I am going to have to try to go cold turkey. You know, maybe stop by for a game or two consisting of 30 minutes or more. Yeah right.

Wallie The Ruler

We recently adopted a chihuahua. They had graced him with the name "Wallie", so to keep from mass confusion for the little guy we kept the name. Wallie is all of three pounds. I believe that is all that he will ever be. Wallie is rotten. He is more high maintenance than my two kids. He is extremely needy. According to my mom this is normal for this breed. Great. I am going to have to put a bell around his neck because I have just about broken mine several times tripping over him. He has stealth radar and manages to go right under my feet while I am walking and wind his way between my legs. I have received a yelp or two when I have accidentally squished him between my ankles.

Wallie thinks he is a major monster dog and can rule the world. He treats all of the neighbor kids like they are play things and chases them around the yard. It is amazing how scared a kid can be when three pounds of skin and bones is chasing them.

Wallie also has terrible aim. We are still working on the housebreaking issue, which is so far coming along nicely. The only thing with Wallie is that his aim is really off. He is the only dog I know that pee's on his own leg when he goes to the bathroom. I have to watch to make sure that I clean his leg off before we come in. He likes to run in and jump on the furniture and rub and roll on it. I can't stand that. He also has terrible balance. He is the only dog I have ever seen that looks like a drunken sailor when seeking a place to poop. Fifteen circles later he finally finds a spot. While squatting to do the doo he wobbles. He rocks back and forth as if he is buzzing from to much alcohol. Every once in a while he loses his balance completely and falls backwards. I am hoping this is a "puppy" stage and he will outgrow it soon. I am sure the neighbors think I am doping up my dog because of the way he walks and wobbles.

Dust Devil

This is not in reference to a vacuum cleaner or those funny little dirt tornadoes that blow the dirt in your eyes. That would be too easy. This is about the incessant dust that seems to lurk on the table after you have just wiped. It comes up and plants itself happily back on the piece of furniture you just wiped it off of.

I hate dust. I have glass table tops (yes, I know, mistake) that my husband decided would be great to buy when we bought our new furniture. I hate glass furniture. I hate glass anything that sits around. It requires more maintenance to keep it clean than what I care to spend on it. My husband thinks it is fun to give me snowglobes which are balls of glass. After the fifth one I told him he had better not get anymore unless he wanted them upside his head. I hate cleaning those dumb things off.

After a manner of cleaning and working hard to remove the dust from my home I made a serious mistake. I opened the blinds and let the sun shine in. Who would think that doing something so simple would cause such insanity? I was just looking to let the light in and enjoy the sun. Instead I had sheer panic set in. You see, the room that I had just dusted was not in fact dusted. I know I wiped the tables down, the counters down, everything. I even used wet wipes instead of dry so I wouldn't just be throwing the dust in the air to resettle. Well, I found out that dust doesn't really get dusted. It just sort of shifts from one space to another. I had to quickly close the blinds so that I could "pretend" that my house had been dusted. What causes that horrible fuzz that returns just moments after you have wiped it up? I believe it is the dust devils following behind me laughing at me because I think that I am doing a great job removing their tiny little particle bodies.

Seeing Spongebob

Having boys has never been a problem with me. I grew up with three brothers and thought I knew it all. I figured it wouldn't be a problem to figure out what they were doing, why they did it, and what the end result would be. Experience. I was sure that I had it all. Who could know more than me? After all, I was changing boy diapers at the age of 7. I would watch how they interacted with each other and what made them tick. I thought I was ready for anything. So far, I have had so many surprises that I wonder if I was even there when my brothers were growing up.

I walked in on the boys in the bathroom the other day. One in the tub, the other on the toilet. I have to separate them or the one on the toilet will sit and play with the one in the tub, which creates a serious puddle of water on the floor. Well, I guess the one on the toilet was just finishing up when I walked in. No problem, just hurry it up a little before the playing ensues. As he was pulling up his underwear I noticed they were on backwards. Nothing new. This son has gone to school with a shirt on backwards, even shorts. This time was different though. There was a sane reason for this backward vision. At least he seemed to think so. As I pointed out that his underwear were on backwards his brother has to throw his two cents in. "He wants to see the pictures on his underwear." So the truth of the backward underwear was revealed. My son had a nice photo of Spongebob a la Patrick printed on the buttocks for which he thought should be in the front so that he could have a clear view at all times. I explained unless he was walking around with his pants down all of the time to see the picture there really was no point in wearing them that way.

No, I have a feeling this won't be the last time that Spongebob gets to see where he is going rather than where he has been.

Review: Bumkins Grinchmas

Having kids in the house I have been exposed to my fair share of Dr. Seuss and his crazy story antics. I love the colorful characters and the rhyming stories full of adventure and thrills. Bumkins Finer Baby Products also has a great fascination with Dr. Seuss and his lovable friends and have signed up to showcase the characters on their products. Bumkins was founded by Jakki Liberman who originally created the company as a means to provide her own family with an alternative to disposable diapers. She created the All in One cloth diaper which rivaled disposables in convenience and became the foundation of Bumkins products.

In 2005 they acquired a license to use Dr. Seuss on their products. Thus began the Dr. Seuss diapers, bibs, and many more items to choose from. They pride themselves on their designs, quality, and family-oriented merchandise. They believe that products can be both practical and attractive, and strive to provide visually appealing, value-driven merchandise. They follow the strictest safety standards for their products in the industry. Their merchandise is only made from natural or non-toxic fabrics, such as organic cotton and BPA free waterproof material. Another great fact is that they are made in the USA.

Courtesy of The Mom Bloggers Club, I was able to receive the opportunity to review one of Bumkins' great products. I received the Dr. Seuss Coverall Suit to try out. It is made from 100% cotton with easy to fasten snaps imprinted with the memorable Dr. Seuss hat. It fit the baby comfortably and left ease of movement for his legs and arms. The stripes reminded me of a candy cane which would be perfect for a Christmas gift. Not to say the least that he looked absolutely adorable.



When you make a purchase from Bumkins, make sure to check out their Bumkins Grinchmas Gift and Contest! With any Bumkins Dr. Seuss Purchase receive a Free Grinch Superbib and automatically be entered to win a four pack of Dr. Seuss How the Grinch Stole Christmas Ornaments! Just enter grinch08 at checkout to receive your complimentary bib.

Helper Sans Hamburger

Unfortunately my husband is not at home in the evenings due to his work schedule. I miss him, the kids miss him. I have found there is one side to the whole thing that makes me a little happy, no cooking dinner. Don't get me wrong. I love to cook, but once in a while it is nice not to have to. I feed the kids for sure, and have been guilty for claiming a bowl of cereal as a good dinner, but darn it, sometimes fruit loops taste better than anything else. My husband claims it isn't a fit meal for dinner, but hey, if you can start the day with it, shouldn't you be able to end the day with it?

Tonight I tried something a little different. I am not a big fan of Hambuger Helper, and the thought of eating it makes me nauseous. I had a box in the closet for "emergency" dinners, the kind where you hurry home from somewhere and realize you don't feel like cooking, but you have to feed everyone. I pulled it out and looked at it. Not very appetizing. I can't stand the stuff. For some reason it makes the hamburger taste rotten to me. I have trouble eating meat as it is, and that doesn't help. Well I decided to try it "sans" the hamburger. You know, make it without the hamburger. Kind of like a meatless noodle dish. I was a little surprised. It actually tasted better than I thought it would. I just followed the directions after cooking the hamburger and "tada" - dinner! Now if I can convince my husband it is still good without the meat I would actually maybe enjoy it - a little.