Thankful Thursday

I am, as many of you can probably tell, a fairly lucky woman. Here are some of the reasons I'm feeling the love today:

1. First signs of spring. Crocuses, and the tulips and daffodils are starting to poke their little green heads up. Of course tomorrow it's supposed to cool down again, but I'll hang onto the good feelings for now.

2. Good friends, and reasons to celebrate. This week I have attended two - count 'em - two parties. Yes, I am just that popular (never mind that one of them was hosted by me...for children.) My dear friend A hosted an Oscars party at her house Sunday night. Admittedly (sorry A) I really could care less about the Oscars, but I had fun, and I'm always up for a good game of Pictionary. Tuesday I hosted a Mardi Gras party for kids. I made a King Cake. It was a lot of freaking work, but the party was fun. We made masks and danced to "Iko Iko" by the Dixie Cups. That was all they needed, which was nice for me. The moms and I could just hang out and do what we do best - socialize.

3. The Beastie Boys. I just have never gotten over those fabulous white boy rappers. Right now I'm listening to "The Mix-Up", an instrumental album akin to the instrumental pieces on "Check Your Head". Wicked.

4. My mom is taking the kids Saturday night. Need I say more?

5. My Girl Child is reading so well! Her teacher started giving them relatively easy books to work on, and she is zipping through them. Sometimes she gets impatient and makes things up, but for the most part she is sounding through the words and just...getting it. I'm so proud. A few weeks ago she read "Go Dog, Go" to me, and I cannot believe I didn't take a picture of it. I was just so into the moment. These are the days I wish I had a camera attached to my head. Ah well, it is certainly a scene that can be restaged...

This post has significantly improved my mood. I'm glad I wrote it.

Snuggles, readers.

Pretty Teeth

This is my Monkeybutt before getting his braces on (Tuesday 8:30AM).

This is my Monkeybutt AFTER getting his braces on (Tuesday, 11AM).

I heart Demetri Martin. And ninjas.

I just finished watching Demetri Martin. Person.
It made me giggle. I paid homage to that fact by quoting him at the bottom of my blog. I was particularly amused by the following bit:

"I'm in a weird position, because I like rainbows, but I'm not gay. So whenever I go out wearing a rainbow shirt, I have to put "Not gay." But I'm not against gays, so under that I'll have to put "... but supportive." It's weird how one group of people took refracted light. That's very greedy, gays."

teehee. Oh, and I finally know which clever person came up with the whole "glitter is the herpes of craft supplies." I didn't know before, but now I do.

Ok, so here is the most important question you will ever have to answer. I understand many have tried to make you ponder this important, life-altering, quandry. I feel sooner or later you are going to have to make a decision. I have, and I believe my reasoning may lay to rest this mind-nibbling issue for good:

Would you rather be a ninja or a pirate?

Now, I have always been pretty adamantly pro-pirate. I mean, come on...they sail, they're constantly surrounded by friends, they get to pillage (who doesn't enjoy a little pillaging?), and they're drunk much of the time.

But, see, here's the thing. There's scurvy, pirate friends tend to mutiny, pillaging is against the law, and if you're drunk all the time, you're not exactly on your best game. A ninja can kill a human being, like, 100 different ways with just his or her hands. They have mad skills, and they are just this side of being invisible. I'm pretty confident a ninja could kick a pirates butt. Plus, they get plenty of exercize, they have all sorts of cool weapons, who doesn't love being sneaky, black is slimming...

I want to be a ninja. Someday...(have I, perhaps, solved that whole "what I want to be when I grow up" issue with which I've been struggling?)

Some more random musings:

Happy belated Valentine's Day! I hope all my darling readers had a sweet one. My mother (thanks Mom), who may, on occasion, be described as a saint, took both my children. The Studmuffin and I got funky, and then had my friend A and her husband over for dinner, and we had a wildly fabulous time. Admittedly, we do not often get together with other couples (this can be attributed to a few reasons: a. all of these couples also have children, and perhaps do not have access to such ready and willing babysitters as I do, and b. my husband is not exactly Mr. Social Butterfly.) But last night was a blast, with such highlights as good food, Catchphrase (at which my husband SUCKS, yeah, I said it, that's right), really good cheesecake (still waiting on that free cheesecake, Eli's manager guy...), and a lot of laughter. Like, side-splitting laughter. Anyway, after our friends left (probably to get funky on their own, we're not those kinds of friends), we watched Battlestar Galactica and then I got a bunch of stuff done. Including doing my taxes. I went back upstairs after, and informed Studmuffin of what I had accomplished and his response: "wow, dear. what a romantic you are. taxes on Valentine's Day." Funny, I had no thought in my head that he would mind. He's not exactly Mr. Romantic himself. So, for future reference: don't do the taxes on Valentine's Day.

I knocked a bunch of to-do's off my to-do list. I almost regret the fact that I didn't take pictures along the way, so I could share my amazing sense of accomplishment. I did my taxes, cleaned my craft area, made Valentines, repotted a very overgrown aloe plant, cleaned the entire main floor, cleaned the girl's room, cleaned out the cat boxes (wheee!), worked out quite a bit, did the grocery shopping...dude, I am so on top of things.

Right now I am listening to: this CD my brother gave me, Vampire Weekend. Totally digging it. They did a song on the soundtrack for Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, which had a pretty dull story, but the music was kicky. Actually the movie reminded me of something I would have loved as an alterna-geek teenager (like Heathers or Pump up the Volume - I loved me some Christian Slater), but as an adult all I could think was, "where are these kids' parents, and do they know their minors are out in NYC, running around, drinking, and having sex at 4AM?"

This morning, before we picked up the kids, the Studmuffin and I went to First Watch for breakfast. Now, I know a lot of people love their food, but I have to admit, I was unimpressed. We waited much longer than they told us we would have to (no big - no kids, after all), and then the food was...average. Maybe even less than average. We really need a decent breakfast place around here. We have IHOP, Perkins, Bob Evans and all, but back in Chicago there were all these yummy independent places to eat breakfast, like the Nest Cafe in Bartlett. Their food was worth getting out of bed and paying for. Up in Columbus, near my very talented and hip cousin, is a restaurant called Wildflower I have come to crave, even though I've only eaten there twice. Last time I got this French Toast made from challah, and I swear, I dream of it. I want a good breakfast restaurant, darn it.

Ok, so, all these people are having babies recently. Three of my favorite bloggers just had babies. Two of MOMS Club friends just had babies. Four more are pregnant. Another is making plans to adopt. I am feeling some bizarre uterus twitches...baby cravings? Don't tell Studmuffin. I'm sure they'll pass soon. In the meantime, I'll probably be asking to hold all your babies a lot. Take me up on it - a break for you. Everyone wins.

Alrighty. It's late, I'm tired, and this post is getting mighty long. Kisses and all.

Yeah, I'm a geek. And?

This was an excellent day. I got a buttload of stuff done this morning (including mopping my floor, which I've been meaning to do for way too long.) I snuggled with the Girl Child. Got her on the bus. Went out, alone, bought a new mop (mine fell apart in the mopping extravaganza this morning. I'm apparently a pretty hardcore mopper, and my old mop couldn't take the stress.) Browsed a bookstore. Came home, made yummy dinner.

But here's the really cool part of my day. I got an e-mail update from a favorite author, Jennifer Crusie. She was going to be at the Joseph-Beth's bookstore in Norwood, tonight, from 7-10PM, along with Lani Diane Rich and Anne Stuart, talking about their most recent collaborative novel. Studmuffin told me to go ahead. heeheeheeheehee, I got to meet Jenny Crusie! She signed my book! I totally embarrassed myself by gushing over her, and the other two authors (authors are so more my kind of celebrity.) Lani Diane Rich has written some excellent novels as well, including one of my favorites, Maybe Baby (by the way, these are romantic comedy-type books, so if that is not your kind of read, you might want to skip this particular post.) I was pretty psyched to meet her as well. Anne Stuart has written several novels which I have never read, but when she described her hero from her Ice series as having been inspired by Alan Rickman, I knew I'd have to read her novels, as well. I even ran into the three of them again, at Whole Foods Market (we don't have one around here, so if I'm in Norwood I hit that one.) Jenny lives in Cincy - I could run into her again!

I know, I'm a total geek. I don't care. It made for a very cool day.

Some people love winter.

Admittedly, I am not a cold weather lover. But it does make for some mighty cute photos.

You can see, my kids actually quite enjoy the snow and ice. The living room has been strewn with sopping outerwear for over a week. We've been sledding several times, and the kids have almost permanent wet, pink cheeks. The snow is almost gone, and it is supposed to be warm over the next week. I'm sure we'll get more snow and more snow days (shudder). This is Kentucky, after all. If you don't like the weather today, just wait a minute and it will change, isn't that what they say about this place?

Thankful Thursday

Today I am grateful.

• I've completed most of my to-do list today.
• I have a Michael's gift card burning a hole in my pocket.
• I have a free afternoon tomorrow to spend it.
• My house is quiet right now.
• The temperature will be rising this weekend. No snow days next week!

Updates

Last week was a bit rough. It snowed, a lot. The kids were home all week. I had a week-long headache. I was PMS-ing pretty hard, and yelled a lot. Sorry kids.

I did, however get to do a few fun things:

• I love to shovel snow. I shoveled a lot of snow.
• I took the kids to see "Inkheart", which we all enjoyed.
• We had fun with my nephews on Saturday.
• Last night was a new episode of "Heroes", and it looks very promising.

Monkeybutt and I both want to read "Inkheart" now - admittedly, I generally tend to watch Brendan Fraser movies just to ogle, but this was a fun one.

Hey, this is pretty random, but have any of you watched "Big Bang Theory"? My brother has gotten us all hooked on this hilarious sit-com. Monday nights, 8PM, CBS. Seriously, watch it. Sheldon's character alone is awesome - he ranks up there with Dwight Shrute as most hilarious sitcom character ever. Add the rest of them...I haven't seen an episode yet that didn't make start hacking uncontrollably because I was laughing so hard.

Anyway, I'll try to come up with something interesting to write about next time. Snuggles...