High School Never Ends

Someone from high school added me as a friend on facebook today. I don't remember too awful much about this particular person except for that said person was always nice and therefore I went ahead and confirmed this person as a friend. Yay me.

I began to peruse this nice person's profile pictures and it was like high school was smacking me in the face all over again. All the pictures contained more people from high school and more people from high school and still MORE of them. These were all typically people who I did not hang out with in high school... I think it was the entire cheerleading squad and several members of student council. There were like, over 100 of these people.

And I'm sort of curious as to why this person requested to add me as a friend. Because I was more of the tee shirt and jeans, open flannel shirt wearing, dyed my hair black, and wrote poetry type of girl. And under my mom clothes and my mom van and my mom hair, I'm still that girl.

So much drama at the DMV

Earlier this year I lost my drivers license. So I went online to renew it and found out that my drivers license was suspended. I had received a ticket back in 2006 that I had sent, along with a check, off to a lawyer recommended to me by a friend.

I then promptly forgot about the ticket.

Unfortunately for me, the lawyer had done NOTHING with the ticket and me being without record of the check I had sent back then was left with no choice but to deal with the consequences.

(Yes, I realize I could have probably gone to the bank and had them pull up records of my checks back then... I wasn't in for that much of a hassle with this particular lawyer who later I would find out had a whole other story.)

So off I went to the courthouse to pay a ridiculous amount of money to have my license reinstated. Except then I had to make more time to go to the DMV with my very expensive piece of paper to get my actual license.

And when I went to the DMV the nice lady behind the counter said "Your license is set to expire next year, would you like to go ahead and renew it now?"

To which I enthusiastically said yes because who wants to come back to the DMV ever?

She explained that there would be a simple eye test and I'd be all ready to go.

So I looked into the little machine.

And I read the letters with both eyes.

Check.

And then she covered up my left eye and I read the letters with my right eye.

Check.

And then she covered up my right eye and asked me to read the letters.

"What letters?"

There were NO letters. There weren't even little blurry dots where letters were supposed to be. There was white space.

I tried to make something up. :)

And then the nice lady behind the counter told me we'd just reinstate my license and I had until my birthday in 2009 to get my eyes fixed to I could renew it. And if I couldn't get my eyes fixed by then I could just get a note from my eye doctor explaining why.

That's comforting.

Fast forward to last month when I lost my drivers license AGAIN.

I know, I know.

This time I just went ahead and ordered a new one online. And the system told me if I wanted to pay an extra $5 I could go ahead and renew until 2013. Which I did.

I am truly relieved that the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles has such safety regulations in place when giving licenses to propel tons of metal down our roads at high rates of speed. Lovely.

(not an actual drivers license)

To heat or not to heat...

It's 51 degrees outside. I know most of you are thinking that sounds positively wonderful. Like beach weather or something.

I'm freezing.

I'm sitting in my office in jeans and a hoodie and socks. Freezing. And debating actually turning on the heat even though our thermostat swears to me it's only 74 degrees in here.

It's lying.

But seriously, 51 degrees in South Florida? What's going on? We're only supposed to experience this type of thing for 3 days a year and those 3 days are not supposed to occur until January.

Imagine my dismay when I had to locate jackets and long pants that fit for three children at 6:45 AM this morning. Being the super woman that I am, I managed to do so and still get them all to school with plenty of time to spare.

I think I earned myself a cup of hot chocolate.

Teacher's Planning Day

Today the kids have off from school. So teachers can plan. What sort of hell is the school district putting on our teachers that they need 3 whole teachers planning days and 6 early dismissal days so they can plan? Aside from the fact that the kids are only in school for 6 hours a day, which would feasibly leave 2 extra hours every day for planning, an entire summer, winter, and spring break for planning and I think that these teachers even have a planning period scheduled for them every day while our children go off to other places like music and art and PE.

What the CRAP are these teachers PLANNING?!?!

Can I blame this on the FCAT? Is this due to higher educational standards placed on our teachers by our states legislature? Wouldn't our children be doing better if they were actually in school learning instead of hanging around here with me all day? I mean, I love my kids and all, but I'm no educator. I considered that homeschooling thing for exactly 10 seconds before I realized I'd never do my children justice.

That and the thought of spending the entire day with my kids every day with no end in sight has me running to the corner to rock back and forth while sucking my thumb.

Which is why, my friends, I'm leaving the kids with The Man today while I go shopping.

TTFN.

The post where I humiliate myself

Usually I'm behind the camera. I'm the one snapping the pictures and the pictures are usually of my children. When scrolling through the archives of our past few years there are only a small handful of pictures of me.

And usually they are of me behind other people. Cause I'm no dummy and I know when a camera is aimed at me it's best I hide as much of myself as possible behind other people.

The other day my sister handed me a CD of pictures she had taken on the cruise. With her camera. A camera I was not operating and therefore was not behind.

You guessed it, I was in some pictures.

I'm fat, y'all.

Like really fat. Like "Holy Cow, Sister, step away from the Twinkies!" fat.

I'd like to blame it on having three children, but Goober is 5 y'all. This isn't baby weight. This is ice cream and cake weight. This is french fries weight. This is "let's get some fried chicken" weight.

I mean, it's not like I didn't know this. I've stepped on a scale. I've noticed that I keep buying bigger jeans and noting the use of spandex in the materials of my clothing. I've found myself slumming around the house in many pair of jogging pants (obviously not used for actual jogging, mind you) because the thought of putting on real clothes with buttons and zippers was just meh.

I had a glimpse of this earlier this year when my mother snapped a picture of The Man and me walking toward the ocean together. I was wearing a bathing suit and she took a picture of my back. My backside.

My ass.

I thought she loved me.

I was horrified when I saw it... but I destroyed the picture and immediately put it out of my head.

I think I'm fatter now.

I haven't devised a proper course of action at this time, but I'm working on it. Just as soon as I give the rest of that chocolate cake in my fridge to the kids therefore eliminating temptation.

Is there even a good substitute for chocolate? This could be painful.

A Moment of Silence, Please

I just finished our final entry for the Disney Cruise trip over at Traveling Spaz.

That was sort of exhausting... and sad to be done with. :(

But in happier news I got an award! Back in August, I was given this award by Every Day Baby Steps and it made me all giddy and happy. And then today I got it again!

This time Soccer Mom bestowed it upon me and again I got to feel giddy and happy. :)

Since I've already passed it along once, I'm going to break the rules and not pass it on again, but thanks Soccer Mom!!! That really made my day. :)

Now... speaking of awards... I have a little award that I've been giving away on my blog for a while now. You may remember it as the Little Fish award.

Unfortunately this month I got no nominations for the Little Fish award and actually, the past few awards were kind of tough to get nominees for so I guess, like so many fish in my past, the Little Fish has gone belly up.

I'd like to take a moment to recognize those who have won the award in the past:

Little Fish Hall of Fame
Life With Three
katydidnot
Melizzard
Morningside Mom
Me and You and Ellie
She Just Had To Say It
Be the Cake
Stop Screaming, I'm Driving!

All eight of you are superfantastic. :)

Let us all have a moment of silence for the fish.

*flush*

If we took a holiday...

So we've been back from vacation for exactly 1 week and already I can't get the thought of another vacation out of my head. I've been daydreaming.

Seriously, I'm not even completely unpacked yet (and today's not the day, either) and I'm already logging into travel website and pricing reservations.

I've looked into camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness where we can go to a Ho Down and go horseback riding and toast marshmallows and stuff.

I priced a cruise for the whole family to see glaciers in Alaska.

I detailed a fabulous romantic vacation for The Man and I to visit St. Augustine in the spring.

Yes, I realize I could have sufficiently unpacked in the time it took me to look into all those vacations. But unpacking is depressing and daydreaming about new vacations is exciting!

I have to buckle down and throw myself back into my normal life. Tonight I'll be picking up Goober and heading to the grocery store, then dropping Munchkin at a Brownie Halloween party (omgosh her costume is so cute it hurts me), and bringing Bug over to my mom and dad's to work on his science project. We'll be home after 9, no doubt, and then I'll have to clean up the house a bit, finish up some laundry, and make The Man something to eat. That's the reality that is my life.

I'll have to put Mediterranean cruises and African safaris out of my head for a while longer.

Open House & A Little Bliss

The third and longest installment of our Disney Cruise vacation is up on Traveling Spaz. This installment is all about Nassau and the Pirate Party!

Last night was Munchkin's open house at her school. It was interesting to see her interacting with all of her friends from school while we waited to go into her classroom. She and the other girls were standing together chatting just like a group of women waiting for a table for lunch!

It was great to see her come out of her shell like that. We've had issues with Munchkin being overly shy and turning inward in social situations so I could have cried seeing her interacting just like all the other girls. Maybe there's hope for her yet.

In other exciting news, my first Creative Bliss post is up on Blissfully Domestic. I sort of think it's funny that I'm posting for Creative Bliss since I probably could have named this blog Creative Spaz just as well as Domestic Spaz. But I'm getting better! I can now digitally scrapbook AND make diaper cakes. Look out Martha.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dogs Tails

As I've mentioned before, my best friend T is having her first child in December and as her best friend it was my duty to throw her a baby shower. :) My wonderful parents allowed me to use their beautiful and centrally located home for the event allowing the children and The Man to remain home while I entertained. A whole day with no kids! Rock on!

So without further adieau and because I'm having a bit of writers block lately when it comes to the blog, I give you pictures!

On the menu was fruit salad, cucumber salad, pasta salad, assorted cheeses with crackers, chicken dip, hummus and veggies, homemade chocolate chip cookies, and of course, cake.

Publix made the cake - is it not the cutest thing you've ever seen?

Over here we have coffee, punch, ice water, and an assortment of hot teas. There was also supposed to be iced tea but I forgot to take it out of the fridge until the party was over! Doh! Notice the additions to the diaper cake of which I am incredibly proud. :)

T collected many wonderful goodies for the baby.

There's the lovely mommy to be herself posing with a wee guard!

Of course, no baby shower is complete without humiliating party games. T's sister-in-law came up with this doozy. We were required to walk from one spot to another with two quarters between our knees and a balloon under our shirts. Then we were required to drop both quarters from our knees into this tiny little glass! It sounded horrible, but was actually quite fun.

And just like that it was over. I hope T enjoyed her shower. Now she should be all ready to have that baby which I am anxiously awaiting. I can't wait to sniff him. Does that make me weird?

The Great Pumpkin

I posted my second installment of our vacation over at Traveling Spaz. Two more days still to go!

We're still trying to get back into the swing of things here. Last night we took the kids to buy a pumpkin. I was all excited because the temperature yesterday morning had dropped down to 67 degrees which is practically freezing down here in South Florida. So I figured the evening temperatures would be somewhere in the 70s and it would be a perfect night to go get our pumpkin.

It was close, we enjoyed a brisk 83 degree outing to the pumpkin patch over at the Methodist church. The kids were thrilled and couldn't wait to get out of the car to peruse all the orange gourds to choose one to hack up into a menacing jack o lantern.

Mama told me there'd be days like this

Today was just one of those days. Which makes me wonder why I'm even still awake because it was one of those days you sort of just hope will end.

It started with me hitting snooze for an hour. AN HOUR. I don't understand why it's so hard to wake myself up in the morning. I'm seriously just not the type of person that is bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning. If it were up to me I'd wake up at noon and go to bed around 3 in the morning. Unfortunately that schedule doesn't fly with the school district.

So I woke up 1/2 hour before the kids were supposed to be at school. While I had no problems getting Munchkin to school on time there was just no way Bug was going to make it.

I also had nothing to pack in Goober's lunch box. And I couldn't find clean matching socks. And there was a bug flying around in the van.

So I let the bug out by rolling down the window.

And then the window wouldn't go up.

And then it rained.

And then I got "the look" from the lady in the office at Bug's school when I took him in and asked for a tardy slip.

Then I had to run into the grocery store with Goober to get something to fill his empty lunchbox with before I took him to school. He begged for Capri Suns. I tried to get him to pick the 100% juice ones or the Roarin Waters ones... but it was Very Cherry or nothing for that kid. There are some battles you just don't choose to fight.

I also purchased doughnut holes from the bakery that were buy one package get one package free.

I ate like 12 of them on the way to Goober's school.

In the rain.

With the window stuck down.

When I finally got home I went back to bed, hoping when I woke up things would be better... but when I woke up my house was still a disaster and our suitcases from vacation still hadn't been unpacked and there was still laundry to do.

But The Man fixed the window on the van and this evening I bought two whole packs of fresh new clean socks for the kids. Tomorrow's already looking better!

Back from Paradise... *sigh*

Things I learned from vacation:
1. You probably won't need half of what you pack.
2. You can't do everything you want to do, so don't stress yourself out trying.
3. It really is a small world.
4. Eating everything put in front you is a bad idea.
5. Drinking everything put in front of you is also a bad idea.
6. It's difficult to put on a damp bathing suit in a very small bathroom.
7. One application of sunblock is not enough for a day in the Bahamas.
8. It will be over far too quickly.
9. You should always tell other people that you are returning a day after you actually return.
10. It will take approximately the same amount of time to unpack as the vacation lasted.

We had an amazing time on the Disney Wonder. We've already calculated how much it would cost for us to actually live on the ship. ($373,869.60 annually - but hey, that includes food, nightly entertainment, a full time maid, room service, personal waitstaff and gourmet chefs for a family of 5!) We think we can probably get a 10% discount, though. ;)

I've posted a recap of Day 1 of the trip including a motherload of pictures over here: Traveling Spaz

So check it out!

I'm going to go try to get my life back together again. :) Oh wait, that implies it was together in the first place.

Steel drums, sandy feet, and cocount rum in my future...

See ya later y'all! I'm outta here!

Y'all be good while I'm gone and maybe I'll share some pictures when I get back. :)

Mickey, here we come!

I think I can hear Donna Summer singing...

I'm a little late with my Sincerly 'Fro Me To You for today... but I'm going to blame it on this sneaky little virus that seems to be sweeping through my house.

Today we're going to head back about 25 years to 1983. Except this 1983 happened in 2008. At the skating rink.

We actually do have an updated skating rink in our area but our favorite is the same one I used to skate at when I was a kid. And it looks exactly the same. I'm not even exaggerating. It seriously looks EXACTLY the same. It's like a time warp.

This year we had Munchkin's birthday at the rink. She was a little nervous to get on the skates but told me it was because they were brown and that she didn't look good in brown. I sort of don't blame her, really. I'm pretty sure the skates are the same ones I used to skate in when I went to the rink.

Um.. yeah...

But after a little encouragement and some force we got her on the skates.

And eventually, with the help of the wall and the promise of presents later, she started to glide a bit.

Before long she let go of that wall and actually made it around the rink a couple of times.

Then she demanded those presents.

And we ended the day with a little no skate boogie on the rink.

For more Sincerely 'Fro Me To You flashbacks, check out We are THAT Family!

Where's the honey, dammit!?

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday. I forgot to go buy fresh garlic for Robin's remedy yesterday so I ran out this morning to get some. I purchased my fresh garlic and fresh lemon and some of that Airborne stuff and a bag of zinc lollipops for Bug and came home to whip up a cup of "tea" from Around the Island. :)

And now I can't find the honey.

Where did the honey go? Could we seriously have used all the honey and I didn't know about it? Bug does have an affinity for peanut butter and honey sandwiches. But who runs out of honey? That's like running out of salt or ketchup or dried parsley. It's just something you always have.

I'll probably find it after I clean out the cabinet in its entirety or buy more honey.

I did find an unopened bottle of B Complex that expired in 2006. I took one anyhow. Do vitamins really expire?

So I'm loading up on every immunity boosting thing I can find and hoping for the best.

In other news, I've sort of become obsessed with diaper cakes. My BFF is expecting her first child and I'm throwing her baby shower on the 19th so I made a diaper cake for her.

She's got a giraffe theme going and I was pleased to be able to make one that didn't look so traditional. I had a lot of fun doing it, actually! I followed the instructions from this YouTube video from Carolyn Braden:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bKwE9POjnE

I made the cake in the time it took to watch True Blood on HBO the other night.

If I can do it, anyone can. Seriously.

So then I was on Etsy looking at other peoples baby cakes and I'm all gung ho to add more to my cake now. Just look at all these cakes!

I know, the cute hurts. I think I'm going to add a little of that crinkly stuff and maybe a giraffe print fuzzy blankie or something. Ya think?

We've Got The Funk

So I mentioned before that we're leaving for vacation this weekend. The whole family is super excited, too. The Man's brother is even making my whole family dorky matching tee shirts.

So I'm sure you can imagine my dismay when Bug came down with some funk on Sunday that had him knocked out in bed all day long with a fever of around 102. The poor guy's still battling it today and has so far missed two days of school... in a week of school that currently only has four days... when he'll be missing four days of school next week.

I'm a little freaked out about this.

To top it all off, yesterday I felt it coming on. That's right. The sickness was overtaking me.

My dad noticed it before I even did when I talked to him in the morning. He noticed I didn't sound right. I chalked it up to lack of sleep.

Then later while at the gym I noticed my standard walk wasn't as easy as it usually is and when I turned the treadmill up to run for a bit I felt like I was going to die. Something just wasn't right.

I headed over to the store to buy 3 bags of Ricola Honey Lemon with Echinacea drops and a bottle of Zicam in some attempt to fight off the funk.

But the funk is here today and it's kicking my butt.

Any suggestions on how to make sure we're all healthy on Sunday when we board that ship? Anyone?

Arrrr! Here I be Announcin' th' Next Wee Fish!

Y'all... you have to go translate your blog, or my blog, or any blog into pirate speak.

http://www.syddware.com/cgi-bin/pirate.pl

I laughed out loud at my own darned blog.

So what be ye waitin' fer? Get t' 't!

Okay, but enough about the pirate speak.

It's the first Tuesday in October! That means it's Little Fish Announcement Time!

This month's winner with an astounding EIGHT votes, is Stop Screaming, I'm Driving!

Congratulations Carrie!

Here's your badge. :)


<a href="http://slackermomof3.blogspot.com/2008/07/little-fish.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://domesticspaz.com/blog/goldfish.jpg" /></a>

There are currently NO nominations for November's Little Fish, so please go nominate some of your favorite lesser known blogs! :)

Get used to it...

It seems that the phrase around my house is "It's not fair!"

Munchkin takes the last of the chips and Bug exclaims "It's not fair!"

Bug leaves something in the living room and I ask Goober to pick it up and put it away and he lets me know "It's not fair!"

Goober gets a cooler toy in his Happy Meal and Munchkin whines "It's not fair!"

Welcome to life, kids. It's not far. It's never going to be fair. You might as well learn it now rather then later. When you get to be a mom or a dad you'll never get any chips because your kids will have eaten them all before you could even blink. You'll clean up everyone else's mess all the time and all your meals come with is a bill.

It's not fair, that's the darned truth.

A morning in the life...

Yesterday morning my alarm clock went off at 6:30 just like I told it to.

Except, evidently that means nothing to my brain. My actual wake up time was 7:06. Just a note - if I don't leave the house by 7:10 we will most likely miss Bug's bus.

I scrambled out of bed to find Bug sitting in the family room watching some crap on Nickelodeon in his underwear.

Frick!

I throw clothes at him asking him why he didn't try to wake me up.

"I did, Mommy! I knocked on your door and I told you we were going to be late."

Double frick!

At this point Munchkin and Goober come tumbling out of bed with sleep in their eyes. Bug is half dressed and I start throwing clothes at the other two while running around in my nightgown.

Bug finishes getting dressed and I shuffle just him out to the car. I can take the other two in a minute but I have to get him to his stop. Goober demands a hug and a kiss before I can walk out the door. I hug, I kiss, but evidently my kiss isn't good enough and he wants another. I need to nip this in the bud right away so I refuse another kiss and scramble out the door.

I hear his wailing as I shut the door.

Here's your picture:

Me wearing orange flip flops and a pink floral nightgown and nothing else, purse and keys in hand. Bug with all kind of messed up hair in a slightly too small navy blue polo shirt and slightly too big khaki shorts and a backpack as big as he is.

And we tear out of the driveway in the minivan only to see the flashing lights of the bus already at the stop.

Due to the dynamics of the stop and the current traffic situation, I cannot drive the van close enough to the bus to let Bug out where he doesn't have to cross the street. But the bus driver sees me in the van and she knows I'm me. So she signals that I can walk Bug to the bus and she'll wait.

Um... thanks, but no thanks, lady. Can you imagine seeing me in my nightie and flip flops parading across the street with my kid in front of all my neighbors? I think not.

So I wave a "nevermind" type of wave hoping she'll believe I actually intended to drive Bug all the way into school this morning. She appears confused but moves along.

And I drive in the wrong direction until she's out of sight so she'll never know.

Goober is still wailing when I get home.

I smell the salty air already... oh wait, I live in Florida...

Hey remember me? I used to write here occasionally.

My mind has been preoccupied, though. See, we're going on vacation in a little less than 2 weeks. And I can't seem to get my mind to think about anything else.

This isn't just any vacation, either.

We're going on the Disney Wonder!

We're going with my parents, and my sisters and their families. There will be 14 of us in all. :) It's not our first time, either. We did this once before in 2005 and it was the best vacation EVER.

E-V-E-R

Imagine a first class resort floating atop beautiful Caribbean seas.

Now imagine that they entertain your children for you while you sip fruity drinks.

Add to that a private island unspoiled by the hustle bustle of typical tourist destinations, just lush tropical surroundings and more fruity drinks.

Supplement it all with incredible food in massive abundance and a staff that seems to know what you desire even before you desire it.

Got that?

Now throw Mickey Mouse into the mix.

I know! Could it get any better?

The last time we were on the boat, Munchkin was just barely 4 and I'm sure she only remembers little glimpses of it. They're going to have *so* much fun.

I'm so excited. Only 10 days more to wait!

For more Sincerely 'Fro Me To You posts, check out We are THAT Family!