Family time

Rich and I often complain about our lack of family time.Since I work every weekend, the time usually reserved for families is just unavailable to us. This week was Rich's vacation so we tried to spend some quality time together. Today we went bowling.

Every now and then Rich will take Lillianna bowling on a weekend but we have never gone just the 3 of us. I generally don't love bowling. I'm not sure why but it's the last thing on my list when it comes to enjoyment. Lillianna LOVES to bowl, and she's darn good at it too.

When we entered the dark bowling alley, cosmic bowling was already in progress. Thank god I hadn't had any recent bouts with vertigo because the strobe lights would've caused me to fall on the floor. The hip-hop/rap music wasn't too deafening but the lights did throw me off when I got to the line to roll the ball. After the second string the lights went back on and cosmic bowling had ended. Rich and I looked at each other and I said, "Wow! That is so much better. Now I can see!" We decided to bowl 2 more strings now that our vision had returned to normal.

Considering I never liked bowling, we had the most wonderful time. We bowled for 2 hours. We laughed,hugged and joked with each other. It was such a relaxing time for us. We each won one string. (One string we messed up because of Rich's strike so he probably won that one too but we didn't count it.) Lillianna beat us both in the last string and we were so proud of her.

This was so much fun. I hope we can find ways to spend more family time in the future.

How does your family have fun together?

Cleaning time again

Right now I am on a break! "A break from what?" you are asking yourself. Well, let me tell you.....I have been cleaning Lillianna's bedroom for the past 90 minutes and I am only halfway finished. I have already dumped one huge trash bag of junk and after I catch my breath I will head back in there and tackle the other half. I am hoping to be done by noon so that I can shower,make lunch,pack my dinner and go to work. I have to leave at 2:45pm so time is a tickin'.

Lillianna has been helping me and I am so proud of her for finally agreeing to give up some of the things she has been holding onto for so long: broken crayons, unknown pieces of doll furniture ("They must go to something, Mommy!"), pieces of games that she once owned (I found a cherry to Hi-Ho Cherry-O in her Barbie drawer this morning. I just looked at her, sighed and tossed it in the trash.) As I went through her Barbie bin I found an arm, oh not a human arm, gosh what are you people thinking??? It was clearly a Barbie arm,(Isn't that right, Hannibal?)so I asked Lillianna what the heck it went to.

"Oh that goes to one of your old dolls, Mom."

'My gosh, no wonder it fell off,' I thought. 'That doll is almost 40 years old.' I checked her other parts to see how they were holding up. All I can say is that gravity is good to Barbie. I wish it were so kind to me.

Well, my break time is over, *sigh*. I am armed with a new trash bag and I am heading to my dear daughter's room. Wish me luck!!

A nice surprise

Christmas Eve was wonderful as it always is at Debby and Mark's house.(More on this later.) Lillianna got so many wonderful presents.It was overwhelming.In addition to the dolls and other toys,Debby bought Lillianna a beautiful,sparkling,floor length Christmas dress.I thought I was going to burst into tears.I asked Lil if she wanted to try it on so Debby could see it. She agreed but once it was on she wouldn't take it off! She looked like a princess which is the look Debby said she was going for when she bought it.Lillianna twirled and whirled so that her dress whipped around. She loved that.

Lillianna thanked everyone for her gifts and she was so appreciative of what she received. My friend,Kristy, (that's Auntie Kristy to Lillianna)made her a long sleeved flannel nightgown with ruffles for Samantha, her American Girl Doll. Lillianna looked at it in awe.

"Mom, do you know how special this is? I bet it took Auntie Kristy a long time to make it for me," she said as she hugged the nightgown to her chest.

Christmas morning, Lillianna woke us at 6:00am to open her presents that were under the tree. We didn't buy an excessive amount but she had some really nice gifts under there. She was overjoyed with each one.I left her to play while I started to prepare our annual Christmas breakfast. Kristy and Jerry were coming at 10:00am so I wanted to start the bacon and hash browns early so that I wouldn't have much to do when they got there.

A few minutes later Lillianna came into the kitchen and looked at me.

"Hi, honey," I said looking at my very solemn child.

"Thank you so much for all my presents, Mom. I really love them."

My heart melted.Where on Earth did this precious child come from?

"You are so welcome," I said as I hugged her tightly.Then she went off to play.A few seconds later Rich came into the kitchen.

"Do you know how we know that we have a great child? Because she thanked us for her gifts," he said. I just nodded. Lillianna leaves me speechless quite often.

What surprising thing did your child say this holiday season?

Signs

While driving around doing last minute shopping today, I saw two disturbing signs.
The first one was in front of a furniture store. The sign read, "Free Delivary."For those of you who know me well, you must realize how hard it was for me to just keep on driving. As a hater of misspelled words, I should have marched into the store, demanded to see the manager and said, "I know I'm not Vanna White but I'd like to buy an "E" please." Then I would've handed it back to him and said, "Now please change your "A" to an "E" and I can continue on my merry way."
If you suck at spelling, that's ok, but don't post your ignorance for all to see. I would definitely not shop in a store with spelling mistakes on their signs.

The second sign that I found disturbing was at a pool store. (This is not the same one Rich works for, by the way.) The sign said, "Three person hot tubs." That made me think. A two person hot tub would be for you and your significant other.....quiet, intimate, romantic....I understand that.
A four person hot tub would be for two couples....nothing inappropriate (I have to live in denial, thank you,) maybe 4 people just want to relax and chat.
A three person hot tub????? Kinky is the only word that popped into my head when I saw this.

What would you think?

Four little girls

I was sitting in Papa Gino's today waiting for my lunch order when a woman with 4 little girls walked in. They seemed to be about 3 years old. They were all the same height but they didn't look alike, which doesn't mean anything, so I couldn't determine if they were quadruplets or completely unrelated. So I was sitting on the bench and the little girls starting talking to me all at once while the woman was picking up her pizza.I looked over to the woman who was smiling at me and I said to her,
"Oh my gosh! They're all talking at the same time!!" She just laughed.

"Her name is Rachel," the little girl sitting next to me said, pointing to the girl who was sitting next to her. "Did you want to say hi to Rachel?"

"Hi, Rachel," I said as I waved and smiled. Rachel waved back.

"I have brown eyes, do you see? Brown eyes, I have brown eyes," said girl #1 as she looked in the mirror behind me.

"Yes, I do see that you have brown eyes," I replied.

"I have a boyfriend," said girl #2 as she stood before us, swinging her arms from side to side.

"A boyfriend?" I exclaimed. "And I thought my 7 year old daughter was young talking about a boyfriend."

"Well his name is Sponge Bob Square Pants. I'm gonna marry that guy," stated girl #2 proudly.

"I'm gonna marry Square Pants too," girl #3 chimed in. "I love him."

"Hmmm," I said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure you can actually marry a sponge.You might want to check into that."

"Ya, I think you can," announced girl #1.

Just then the woman came over to collect the girls and sit them down for lunch. They all smiled and waved good-bye to me. I waved back and laughed. Sometimes kids are really amusing.

Fun in the sun

Fun in the sun is posted over at DotMoms. I finally wrote about our trip to visit my mom in Florida. Ok, so it's 2 weeks late but at least I got it done!

Is that an elephant?

Last night Lillianna slept in bed with me while Rich slept in her room. That's the arrangement when she is sick because I like to touch her at night to make sure she isn't spiking a fever. Her temp tends to soar around 1:00am so I need her next to me just to be sure. At 3:00am Lillianna woke me up.

"I have to blow my nose," she said.

"Ok, well I might as well go to the bathroom so I will get up with you."

Lillianna's bedroom is right next to mine which is across from the bathroom.As we stepped into the hall, we heard an elephant. You know, that trumpeting noise that elephants make?Well that sound was loud....and very close by. We were stunned. How did an elephant get into our 2nd floor apartment? Was it even possible?

"What the heck is that, Mom?" Lillianna exclaimed.

"Uhm....that is your father." I explained.

"Is he snoring?" she asked, looking very confused.

"Well, not exactly. He is trumpeting like an elephant for some reason."

Lillianna and I burst out laughing as we ran back to bed. We snuggled together and tried to go back to sleep. The trumpeting was getting louder.....and louder.

"Holy moly! It sounds like an elephant trying to pull his foot out of the mud!!" I laughed.

Lillianna had a giggling fit.I couldn't even imagine how those sounds were coming out of my husband. I will admit he has been known to make some other sounds that have almost scared me out of bed but this was quite different. I marched into Lililanna's bedroom.

"Honey," I said as I shook him gently. No response. More trumpet noises.
"Rich," I tried again as I shook him a little harder. Nothing.
"RICH!!" I said more forcefully as I tried to roll him over.

"Huh? What? Was I snoring?" he asked groggily.

"Ah, no....not snoring. You were making elephant noises!" I patiently explained.

Rich looked apologetic. "Sorry, sorry. That's because I was dreaming I was riding an elephant and charging through a village."

I looked at him in astonishment. "Seriously?" I gasped.

"Ya....I was riding an elephant.Sorry for the noise. Sorry."

I left the room shaking my head. I went back to my room and looked at Lillianna.

"OH-MY-GOD! He was dreaming he was riding an elephant. That's why he was making elephant noises!!"

We laughed ourselves back to sleep.

During my break at work I called Rich to ask him about all of this.

"Do you remember me waking you up at 3:00am?" I asked.

"Huh? No...why'd you wake me up?"

I gave him the whole story. He laughed and laughed.He doesn't remember a darn thing!!

Have you ever had anything like this happen to you?

"

My congested child

I knew a few days ago that some type of illness was brewing in Lillianna's system. She complained that her throat felt dry when she woke up in the morning.Yesterday she mentioned she felt a bit congested and that some of her friends in school were sick. It was only a matter of time before they passed the germs her way.

This morning at 6:30am Lillianna walked into the kitchen while I was getting my lunch ready for work. I am always surprised when she wakes up before I leave for work on the weekend.

"Ya know,Mom,last night I woke up and Daddy was still up and I told him I was congested so he gave me some grape medicine," she explained.

"How do you feel now?"

"Ok."

She went into the living room to color on the couch after she declined my offer of breakfast. At 7:00am I left for work.I usually don't call home until lunch time but I called at 9:00am and spoke to Rich.He informed me that Lillianna had gone back to sleep an hour before. Every mommy alarm went off. My child is not a napper unless she is absolutely exhausted. I told Rich to check her temperature when she woke up.
I called back at 11:00am and Lillianna reported that she didn't have a temperature.
I breathed a sigh of relief because she usually runs a very high temp when she is sick.

On the way to my second job of the day I called Rich on his cell phone and he told me Lillianna was asleep in the car and they were on their way to pick out a Christmas tree. Since she didn't have a temp he figured it was safe to take her out for a short time. I didn't have any problem with that. I'm not actually worried about her because she has her doting daddy to watch over her but I always want to be with her when she is sick. I like to be able to snuggle her or just sit with her while we watch t.v. It's hard for me to be at work from 7:30am-9:30pm on a day when my congested child is home feeling yucky. She doesn't need me to be with her but my heart wants to be with her.

Do you feel the need to be home with your child even if your very competent partner is home taking care of him/her?

Teenage memories

Last week my co-workers and I were chatting about something I hadn't thought about in over 20 years: sitting and waiting for a boy to call but acting like you didn't care. That's really quite an art!

Justine said she would cue up her stereo so that it would play a really "cool" song when her boyfriend (now husband) would call. As soon as the phone would ring she would crank up the volume and yell,"Hello?" into the phone, thus giving the illusion that she was busy having fun listening to great music and definitely not waiting around for him to call.
MaryJo and I agreed that we did the exact same thing.
I used to go one step further and make sure I was at the other end of the house but I kept my phone right in the hall where I could hear it. When it rang, I ran to my bedroom and gasping for air, I answered in a breathy and surprised voice, "Hello?" That let the caller know I was busy doing something important and I was absolutely not waiting for his call!

How did you pretend you weren't waiting for that special someone to call?

Chanukah frustration

I love Chanukah! Well, I did until this past week when I had to do some last minute shopping. Lillianna and I flew home from our vacation on Tuesday, the first night of Chanukah. I didn't plan ahead so I had to go looking for some Chanukah supplies yesterday. I went into CVS and immediately found their wrapping paper selection.There were three large boxes filled with Christmas paper. I poked through them all to find the Chanukah paper and I was surprised when I couldn't find a single roll. I flagged down an employee and asked where the Chanukah paper was. He took me on a journey to the other side of the store where four rolls of Chanukah paper were jammed in the middle of their Chanukah card display. I was horrified to find that this paper cost $4.99 while the Christmas paper was $1.99.Why did it need to be separated? I would've thought that all holiday wrapping paper would be in one place.

I suddenly got a very bad feeling. I hesitantly asked where the Chanukah candles were and I was told they didn't carry any. I looked around and saw hundreds of red,white and green candles of all sizes and shapes displayed all around the store.
I didn't want to over-react but the word anti-semitism popped into my head.I know it was probably more ignorance than anything but come on! It's 2004. Chanukah is not a new holiday. I bought the wrapping paper but I left feeling very frustrated.

This past year when I went looking for Rosh Hashanah cards this same store had Passover cards in the same display under the heading, Rosh Hashanah. I pointed it out to the woman who was putting out the cards and she showed me her list of instructions and that's what it said to do. Rosh Hashanah is in September. Passover is in April. Even if they wanted to get ahead of the game, why were they under the wrong heading?

Today I was out doing errands and found myself in CVS in another town. I went in looking for something and I happened to walk down the wrapping paper aisle. I was overjoyed to find all the holiday paper happily mingling in the same boxes. This time the Chanukah paper was $2.99. Interesting! I decided to buy a roll there and return the other one when I went to pick up my film. I went to the check-out and put the paper on the counter. A saleswoman in her 60s approached me and asked,

"Dear,you do know that this is Chanukah paper, right?"

"Yes, I do," I answered. I wanted to say,"Ya well the menorahs,dreidels and Jewish stars were a complete tip off," but I held back.

"Ok, as long as you know it's Chanukah paper," she continued.

"Yes, I know," I said smiling through my clenched teeth.

"Because last night a woman came in and was about to buy it and I asked her if she knew that it was Chanukah paper and she said, Chanukah paper? Oh my god! I don't want Chanukah paper!! She was so glad I told her."

"Ya, well this is what I came in for," I snapped and turned to pay the cashier.

My good feeling of seeing all the wrapping paper together was destroyed with this woman's comments. It's not like I was unknowingly buying a cobra and had no idea of the ramifications of owning such a poisonous pet. It was wrapping paper!!
If I had bought blue Santa paper by mistake I wouldn't have had a fit over it. "Oh my god!!!! Santa!!!! UGH!!!!!!"

I went food shopping in my favorite supermarket today and lo and behold they had a Chanukah display with candles, Elite Israeli coin chocolate and other Chanukah items. This store is always right on top of things.
I think all stores that sell Christmas items should also sell Chanukah items. They can't use the fact that Chanukah came weeks earlier than Christmas this year because Christmas decorations went into the stores right after Halloween!

Are Chanukah supplies easy to find where you live?

{Please check out Gary's post about this same subject. He said it better than I did.)

I'm home but I'm not happy about it!

Lillianna and I had a wonderful vacation. I will write about some of the highlights in the next few days. We left sunny Florida yesterday and came home to icy rain in Massachusetts last night.That was depressing!

We were both happy to see Rich at the airport and I was pleased to see that the apartment was clean when we got home.
I was not so happy to see five days worth of mail piled up on the dining room table just waiting for me to sort through. Oh joy! Our rent is going up with the renewal of our lease.This is a huge complex and we already pay the highest rent out of everyone I know here. I am sick that it is going up. We aren't in a position to move yet so I will suck it up and renew the damn lease. That was a fine "welcome home!"

I called to make an appointment with my podiatrist for Friday morning because I can't walk on my right foot without excrutiating pain. I had surgery on both feet about 9 years ago for heel spurs. I am hoping I don't have another one because I will be so royally screwed if I need surgery again. I won't be able to drive for 6 weeks. How will I get to work? I am trying not to panic and imagine the worst but I know what heel spurs feel like and cortisone injections never work on me so if this is happening again.........I can't even think about it. The pain started suddenly on Monday and it really surprised me. Maybe it's something else?

I am still unpacking so that's it for now.Sorry this isn't very interesting but I'm not having a very interesting day.

And we're off...........

Well....this is it! Tomorrow morning,Lillianna and I will be on a plane for Florida.
I hate to admit that I am still not completely packed. I did manage to give the both of us a manicure and pedicure this evening so I am not completely unproductive. I am hoping to be asleep by 11:00pm since I will be waking up at 4:00am. Lillianna is still tossing and turning in her bed, poor thing. She is so excited but also very nervous.
"Mom, remember all those plane crashes? Well, what if we crash?"
I tried to reassure her although I haven't been on a plane since September 11th. This is going to be a little scary for me too.

This will be my last post until we return next week. I haven't spent 6 days without a computer in ......uhm.......never!! Wow....I hope I survive it.

See you next week.....so to speak!