AMomTwoBoys

These past few days haven’t worked out QUITE as I’d planned, but at least my car didn’t attack me. It can always be worse.

We’ve all survived our little adventure in food poisoning and I may have even lost a little extra baby weight, so I’m not going to complain. It’s not as good as the weight I lost when we all had Rotavirus 2 years ago, but it’ll do. I wouldn’t recommend it, but I’ll take it.

This whole sickness has SEVERELY limited my time spent pondering my resolution for the upcoming year. I’ll have to get back to you all on that. I have, however, thrown myself wholeheartedly into my new passion for jewelry making. All my birthday money has been spent on EBay purchasing Swarovski crystal beads, which I plan to string into the most beautiful of bracelets, necklaces & earrings. Look for my new M2B Designs store opening up in the near future. I’ll even give you, my loyal readers, a 10% discount on your first purchase. Of course, I’ll have to jack up my prices to accomodate the lost earnings of the 10% discount, but it’s the PERCEIVED savings that counts, right? Okay, good. I’ll be accepting PayPal. You think I kid, but I do not.

Here’s what I’m looking forward to in 2008 (in order of when I think they will happen):

1) Becoming a step-Aunt to 3 beautiful little boys-and if you want to feel really bad about yourself, check out her next post where she shows a picure of herself. I didn’t even look that good with 1 baby. She’s practically got her own personal basketball team in there and she looks great. Bitch
2) Welcoming 2 little girls into our circle of friends. That’s right I said girls. And they’re coming to two different people, no more sets of multiples, please. I can’t handle the stress.
3) Dylan’s 3rd Birthday. I’m getting a Bounce House.
4) Becoming an Aunt to an as yet unidentified young’un. Maybe I should re-order & add Jan. 22 to #2. That’s when we find out what “unidentified young’un” is. CAN’T. WAIT.
5) Traveling to the DC Metro area to visit newly born as yet unidentified young’un, Cousin Will & my sister & her husband. At least right now I’m looking forward to it, that might change as the reality of taking a 3 year old & almost 1 year old an a voyage across the country hits me.
6) Zach’s 1st Birthday. They’re so cute at that age, although it’s hard for me to believe he could actually be cuter than he is now.
7) Traveling to the Smokies to visit with 3 new little boys, who will not be so little at that point, but will still be little enough to be classified as new. Oh, and to see all the other crazies family who will be there as well.
My 30th Birthday. Hopefully it will be MUCH better than my 29th was. Although there’s not much to compete with, so as long as I don’t have food poisoning, I’ll be good.

*I purposefully did not add a vaction to that list. Don’t know when that will happen, so I don’t want to jinx it. I just REALLY hope that it happens.

I’m off to EBay to make sure some schmuck doesn’t outbid me at the last minute. Suckers think they’re bidding against someone who hasn’t been in their pajamas on the couch all day just watching the computer. Buuuuaaaahahahahahaha!

Family of Four seeking a home health aid/nanny. Three of the four members are suffering from some sort of severe gastrointestinal illness, and the youngest has a hacking cough. Food poisoning is the suspected culprit of the gastrointestinal ills, as the mother’s birthday was yesterday and they went out to lunch and dinner. If you wish to apply you must be one crazy SOB please call 1-800-Sickies

Now

Okay, I’m back. Dylan’s watching Baby Einstein in his room, with a cup of chocolate milk. Don’t worry, the cup is of the Sippy variety (actually Sponge Bob straw variety) so there is no danger to his Pottery Barn Kids bed coverings.

Zach is awake -FINALLY!- with a belly full of the good stuff. At least he thinks so. You’d have thought he hadn’t eaten in 12 hours or something. Oh wait…he hadn’t.

DJ is still in bed. Unheard from. He hasn’t even sent Dylan out saying “Daddy wants Foffee”. He still must not be feeling well. Maybe I’ll go have another cup of coffee (with Bailey’s!). There’s time to make a few more cups for him. It is my birthday after all.

So, where was I? Oh yes, the things I want to do before I turn 30 in 365 days.

Let’s recap: Travel

Okay, that about sums it up. Remember now, this is NOT my New Years Resolution list. I’m still working on those. Those take time and careful planning. Those take actual COMMITMENT. This is fun stuff I want to do. I’m going to finally (3 1/2) years later, have my name changed on my passport. Not that I think I’ll need my passport, but I want to at least have it updated. JUST. IN. CASE. Mexico beckons. It calls to me. “Remember that week in Mazatlan?” it says? Or that “you’ve always wanted to go to Cancun and the Mayan Riviera”? Oh, and I’m going to enter as many times as possible to win this year’s HGTV Dream House. It’s in the Florida Keys which is another “Must Visit Someday” list member of mine. I’ve been to the very tip top of the Keys, but not all the way down to the bottom. Key West beckons me as well. “Still the U.S. Water you can DRINK without fear of major repercussions. Architecture, beaches, sunsets to die for.” That’s what the Keys say to me. Ahhh…I can hear it now. Oh, wait, that’s my mom’s new Ocean/Rainstorm/Babbling Brook noise machine ringing in my ears. That’ll have to do for now, I suppose.

SO, now that I’ve totally gone off on a tanget. More coffee (with Bailey’s!) and Zach hacking up a lung (but still smiling!), I’m back. No more talk of travel. I must focus on putting my plan into action. Small seeds planted in my NOT travel loving husband’s head. There. Done. Seed Planted. DJ- did you read that? Did you pick up on it? New roof & house paint BE DAMNED, I want to GO SOMEWHERE! And not to Palm Springs for a Dealer Meeting, although that will be nice, but somewhere new, somewhere exciting, somewhere (oh, look. Steve Perillo is on TV mocking me right now) that takes more than a car ride to get to. Somewhere where we can fulfill Dylan’s dream of “riding in a plane.” Did I say I’d stop talking about travel? I CAN’T. STOP. TYPING.

I didn’t mean to make it sound earlier like I hadn’t gotten any presents for my birthday. My mom bought me an AWESOME Dutch Oven a few weeks ago when I saw it at TJ Maxx and HAD to have it. Thanks Mom! My sister gave me an ITunes gift card and an “I Heart Jim” T-shirt from the NBC “The Office” store. I do heart Jim. I really do! I got cold hard cash from my in-laws…and I haven’t even been to the mailbox yet, so who knows what is waiting there for me.
Look at that, DJ’s up. In his own words, he feels like “someone stuffed a shoe up” his nose. That’s pleasant, eh? No mention of my birthday, though. Either the cold medicine, or he’s being his pain in the ass usual self and trying to make me think he forgot. He spent ALL night last night switching back and forth between the Golf Channel and the Hunting Outdoor Network in an attempt to drive me crazy. Nothing says birthday like watching animals get blown to smithereens (is that an actual word?).

This might win the award for longest, most non-sensical post ever. But it’s my birthday, so I’m allowed. Johnny Depp & Tyler Florence are no longer on T.V. (Robin Miller of Quick Fix Meals just doesn’t have the same effect), so I’m going to do find something else to do now. Like shower. I might even take the time to shave my legs! CRAZY! That’s me! I’m 29 now! One year til 30. It’s time to start writing that post NOW!

The day has finally arrived…it’s my birthday! Yay for me!

Birthdays are SO different than they used to be. No presents to open, no one to make me a birthday cake (it’s not the same if you have to make your own). No one’s even up right now, which is a birthday present in and of itself. I got to sleep until 7:09, which was a feat. And, as his own little present to me, Zach slept through the night, save for one moment of distress when all he needed was to have his “fa” (pacifier) re-inserted. Today’s going to be a good day.

Oh-speaking of, I hear Zach.

Okay, Fa’s reinserted. We’re good for another few minutes.

I’m less focused on my birthday right now than I am about the New Year. I really want to make 2008 the year I finally get my shit together. Like, I want to make resolutions that are practical and POSSIBLE. I want it to be fun. I want to figure out how to keep my house organized. I want to put laundry away as soon as I do it (or at least as soon as nap time is over). I want to wear jewelry. I want to learn something. Like how to speak Italian or how to make jewelry. Then I could speak Italian while I make jewelry that I could wear while I go out in the clothes I’d just washed and put away. How fun would that be?

Here are some Resolutions for my 29th year of life. These are fun. These are things I’m going to do before I turn 30 in 365 days.

- Take my children to Disneyland
- Go away for at least 2 nights with my husband, but WITHOUT my children
- Go on an extended (at least 5 night) FAMILY vacation to somewhere that’s not in California
*Do you see a trend developing here? I need a VACATION!*

There’s more, but a bedroom door just opened, so my moments alone are over. I’ll be back…

2 packages frozen spinach, cooked & drained
2 cups herb stuffing, crushed
1 onion, chopped
6 eggs, beaten
3/4 Cup melted butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon thyme
1 tablespoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Mix all the ingredients and form into big bite size balls. Bake 20 minutes at 350. May be frozen after baking.

MY BIRTHDAY IS TOMORROW!
:0)

Poor, poor little Baby Bear, commonly known as Zach around these parts, is sick. He’s finlly come down with the cold that his brother and dad have. He was fine when he went to bed last night and I didn’t notice anything when I went to his room to feed him at 3:00am. But when he finished eating and I went to put him back in his crib he was really stuffy and making these horrible labored breathing sounds trying to clear his throat. I felt so bad for him and started worrying, as I’m wont to do, so he ended up coming into our bed. Just so I could make sure he was breathing appropriately and all. No biggie. He’s currently asleep in his swing, still making funny noises. We’ll see what his mood is when he wakes up. Hopefully he’ll still be my happy, smiley little drooler.

Did you notice him? Here? Well, we’re lucky enough to have our own version of the Holiday Armadillo. Jealous, aren’t you?

My crazy Aunt Dawna recently opened up her very own Dog Grooming and Adorable Dog Merchandise shop. It’s called My Dog’s Spot. Cute, right? I’m still not sure why she didn’t use my descriptive title. Whatever.

Anyway, as a way of bringing in customers my Uncle Ryan bought a dog costume and stands on the corner waving a sign. Apparently, this technique ACTUALLY brings people in, and it gives us something to laugh about. Especially after a few bottles each of wine.

Well, he kindly offered to wear the costume for the boys on Kissmas morning. The kids were all totally freaked out by it, except for Cousin Will, who ran right up yelling “dog!” and spent the next 10 minutes hugging it. Dylan wanted nothing to do with him, but I did manage to take him up to the general vicinity of the Holiday Dog and he didn’t freak out. I’d say that’s a victory on our part.

Oh, and they also own this shop. They’re very diverse. Tattoo’s & Dog Grooming go hand in hand in our posse. Don’t ya wanna hang?

Remember this post? The one where I called Santa an Axe Murderer because of Dylan’s fear of him? Well, turns out I may not have been too far off.

For your reading pleasure, I bring you a few new recalls. Very well something that you Santa may have recently given your children.

I’m not sure about you, but I wouldn’t be prone to letting my children teethe on something that was sterling silver to begin with. But, to each his own, so here you go.

Dylan’s all about building towers right now. Fortunately, this is not something we own.

For those of you who live in cold areas and shop at Gap Outlet, take note. I’m assuming that if you’d spend $50.00 on a coat for you kid, you’d like to be sure they’re safe while wearing it. Just guessing.

Because, if you’re like me, you don’t need ANOTHER reason to worry about your children while they sleep at night. So, keep them out of these bunk beds.

At first I though, Um…DUH, but then I read further and saw there was a mechanical reason behind it. “Bombardier Recreational Products Recalls Snowmobiles Due to Crash Hazard”
Aren’t all snowmobiles crash hazards to some extent?