Fat Naked Crayons

A few weeks ago I got myself a Crayola Crayon Maker! I had been looking for one of these for 2 years. They had stopped making them and I asked everyone I knew if they had one, so you can imagine my surprise when I walked in to Target and saw the Crayon Maker! And it was ON SALE!!!! So I tossed it in my cart and took it into my classroom to take all of our old crayon stubs and make them new again. I had my student assistant read all the directions and set it up, purchased the lightbulb and then we put in the crayons and let it rip! You should have seen the reaction of my students. They are 12-14 year olds and they would gather around it as it was melting and ask me about a million questions like:
how does it work?
is it hot?
why does it smell so funny?
why are they all different colors?
may I help peel the papers off the old crayons?
can I pleeeese be the one to pour it?
And the truth is, I was just as excited as they were! The comment that truly cracked me up was when one kid asked, "hey, where is the paper around them?" and another kid replied "Yeah, these crayons are fat and naked", and we all laughed.

Christmas is here!!!!

Today is the day after Christmas and after yesterday, I have come to a few more realizations about Christmas:
1) Do NOT forget to fill the stockings! Saying, "stay here while I go check if Santa came" to your kid just doesn't cut it and is sure to raise your heart rate to an unhealthy level while madly stuffing stockings.
2) Wow, what a mess! I could have filled 5 garbage bags with wrappers and trash and I only have one kid!
3) The simplest toys are the most appreciated. My daughter has been entertained since last night with her weaving loom. It is the hit toy of the year in our house.
4) Christmas is no fun when you are on the run. I was so happy to be back at my house by 5 with a fire going in the fireplace chilling out with our new toys!
5) There is much less of a let-down after all of the presents are opened and all of the fun is over if you remember the true meaning of Christmas- love. God showed us his love by sending Jesus to us as a baby born in a simple manger to save us from our messed-up selves and give us the gift of heaven.
Merry Christmas!

waiting on Christmas

I cannot believe that it is Christmas eve already! I will start by confessing that Christmas is not up there as one of my favorite holidays. There is such a huge build-up and let-down over it. Even if I do try to keep it simple and focus on the true meaning of Christmas, it always seems to leave me broke and tired. There are a few things I have learned now that I am the adult in charge of Christmas at my house:
1) You will see THE BIG PRESENT that your kid wants every time they are with you, but the one time that you have a chance to run out and get it on your own, it will not be there.
2) Desperate times call for desperate measures: when I realized that THE BIG PRESENT was not to be found in stores two days before Christmas, I paid 40 bucks to have it overnighted, 40 bucks! I was desperate, which leads me to number 3...
3) Just because you pay 40 bucks to "overnight" something does not mean it will actually arrive the next day. In my case, it actually meant at least 5 days later.
4) The hobby shop is actually a pretty cool place to find Christmas presents, a parking spot up front and no line at the cash register, SCORE!
5) Waiting for your kid to fall asleep is virtually impossible without actually doing so yourself.
6) Last but not least I learned that you should buy a little something for yourself too, or your child will tell you that you must have yelled at them too much this year or made them do too many chores, and that is why Santa didn't bring you anything.
Merry Christmas!

don't hate us cuz we're Floridians 2010

Here are some reasons why you should feel sorry for us Floridians in the winter time fresh for 2010. It is usually 88 degrees and sunny here, so when the temperature dips down below 50, it causes a lot of excitement. First of all, it takes until at least mid December to finally get cold so we are always very surprised. It also happens very suddenly- one day we are swimming and wearing shorts and the next day we are like, "oh my gosh, what is happening". We hope it will pass in a day or two and warm back up for the weekend, which it usually does and we can just make do with a hoodie But when it doesn't warm up after about 4 days, everyone is like, "OH CRAP WE NEED TO BUY COATS!" My kids in my class grow too fast for their parents to spend money on coats they will grow out of overnight, so they just bring their blankets out with them to the bus stop in the morning, and when they get to the school, stuff them into their backpacks. And to top it off, we are probably all going broke paying our kids extra allowance for carrying our plants into the house so the frost won't kill them.

cars and peas

This week my car's air conditioner broke. I know that doesn't seem like such an emergency, but I live in Florida, so it kinda was. Anyway, both my little one and I were sick this week, but I made time, left work early and took the car in. Two hours later, they gave it back and said it was fixed. I did not even make it home before it was blowing hot air again. Needless to say, I was irate just thinking about the one and a half hour round trip I would have to make again. I called them and said that I was not happy! Well, they must have wanted to make me happy pretty bad because the next day they sent me a new car, and a cute guy to take mine in! When he dropped the car back off to me though, I could tell that I didn't stand a chance with him. The conversation went something like this:
Guy: I vacuumed out your car for you...
Me: Uh, so how did that go for you.
Guy: Um, were those peas in your backseat?
Me: Uhm, yeah they were, thanks.
Oh well, maybe next time!

Colds and Hocking Loogies

My daughter has had a cold for a couple of weeks now, and I was trying to decide whether to take her to the doctor for it or not. I called her godmother, who is a pharmacist, for advice. She told me that I should look to see if what she is coughing up is infected or not. I thought that was a great idea- until I realized that my daughter did not know how to "hock a loogie"! So, we hung our heads over the toilet together, and I tried to teach her how. As a very experienced teacher- a middle school teacher at that, you would think that I would be done teaching her how to spit in about 30 seconds flat, but after 5 minutes of coughing and going "ach", we had a whole lot of nothing to show for it. Boys are probably born knowing how to do this stuff, lol!

bubble tea

Have you ever heard of bubble tea? I have always wanted to try it ever since I read about it online. I even tried to drag my neighbor with me one night to get some from a tea shop more than a half hour away. Well, I was walking through Countryside Mall the other day and was so excited to see a tea shop that sold it! Yay! There were so many flavors to choose from. I ordered a honey green tea and the girl gave me the cup and they even had these special big straws to drink it with. I took a big sip and ewwww! The bubble things were chewy and tasted like fish eggs, well, how I figure fish eggs would taste. Oh, my goodness, I thought I was in for a tasty treat and was pretty grossed out! I offered some to my kid and she wasn't going for it, not even my dad would drink it and he will try anything!

epic sneezes

I sneezed in front of one of my classes yesterday and this one kid said, "Wow that was an epic sneeze!" I never really thought that I had a weird sneeze so I called up my mom and told her what the kid said. She replied, "Yea, it is kinda loud". Oh, great! So I have been running around my whole life with an epic sneeze and never even realized it?! Why can't I be one of those people that don't make any noise when they sneeze? My brother has the quiet sneeze, although sometimes I wonder if it could cause your head to explode by holding your sneezes in like that. Do you think it is possible to have a cute sneeze? I am not sure. Please pass the tissues!

Voting, Politics and Stomachaches

I hate politics. Anytime someone tries to talk with me about politics, my stomach starts to hurt. My dad always said not to discuss politics if you want to remain friends with people. I registered to vote when I was 17 so that as soon as I turned 18, I would be able to vote for president. I even had to ask my mom which political party I should choose because I had no idea. So ever since then, I have done the best I could to vote for candidates whose main agenda I mostly agree with, and who I also believe aren't going to screw over teachers, put 35 kids in classes, and give all the public school money over to private charter schools (which is a whole other story). Near election time, 3 things make my stomach start to ache: first, are the ads on TV. I will see an add for a candidate calling another one a crook, then the crook has an ad calling the other candidate a liar. It is like a twisted logic problem meant to confuse everyone. The second thing that makes my stomach start to ache is when I see the little old man at the library trying to get me to early vote every time I go in there. It makes me think that I need to hurry up and decide between the crook and the liar and my stomach starts hurting even more. Last, when I finally make up my mind and vote, my stomach feels better for about 5 hours and then starts to hurt again when all the results come in and nearly everyone I vote for has lost. I always feel like I am rooting for the loosing team and there will be no rematch for 2 to 4 years!

dentists and lasers

I have a huge toothache and had to make an emergency trip to the dentist today. As I was driving there, I caught myself thinking that I hope that the dentist can fix my tooth without actually having to touch it. I mean, we are in the year 2010, why hasn't someone invented a laser that they can just point at your tooth and take care of business? Why are people still being drilled with those horrible drills? Anyway, when I got there and was seated in the chair, the hygienist said, "oh you are a gagger". Well, isn't that just a great thing to have in my file?! Of course I am going to gag when you stick all those instruments into my mouth. Which is another reason why someone should really look into that laser thing! Then, I had an idea that if I was really good and didn't gag while she was taking the x-rays, maybe she would take it off of my file. Too bad it didn't work.

The Gym

The gym is a strange place. I just love to people-watch there. There is this guy who works out every day- lets call him "sweaty guy" He has a puddle of sweat under/on/ around the machine he is working out on. Every time I go in there I am careful to examine my machine carefully to be sure that I don't get on one that he used. (Just writing this is making me gag). Do you ever go to the gym to find SOMEONE ELSE on YOUR machine? Why does that make me so sad, like my machine has cheated on me with another woman! Or have you ever been exercising next to someone who you think is stinky, but then after awhile you start to think hey, what if it is not them who is stinky but me? I also think there is also some weird sort of time warp going on in the gym. How can 20 minutes last soooo long. I start the bargaining about halfway through my workout. Saying things to myself like, oh I am sure 17 minutes is just as good as 20. But no matter how long I work out for, I feel so proud afterward that I want to walk up to everybody and brag that I just got done "hitting the gym".

Why I love summer.

About this time of the year, I start to look forward to summertime. I miss summer already. Here are all the reasons why I love summer.
Because I can go to the bathroom on a big persons toilet- whenever I want.
Because people don't call me "Miss Uhhh" all day long.
Because it is quiet.
Because I can take a nap in the afternoon.
Because I don't have to eat lunch at 11 o'clock in the morning, nor do I have to try to scarf it down in 15 minutes flat while standing over the copy machine.
Because my classroom is sparkly clean.
Because I can wear tennis shoes and my feet don't hurt.


The way I see it is the only thing I don't like about summer is that I don't get paid!

toys that rock

A few weeks ago my daughter and I visited the Legoland store. I was shocked to see that they are charging upwards of 30 dollars for these kits. I felt like that is a pretty steep price to pay for something especially if you are not sure if it will end up sitting in the closet and not being played with. My daughter and her friend played out front (with the free Legos) for at least a half an hour before I finally dragged them away, but they have never had Legos of their own to play with. So, this weekend I was out yard-sale-ing and found an entire tub of the things for $3.00. Well, it was a beautiful day outside, but we spent hours sitting around the dining room table sorting and trying to build something out of the Legos. My mom tried to tell us that it would be best to save them for a rainy day, but my dad suggested he spray the hose at the window so they could just keep playing. Here they are at the table with the Legos. I am not sure who is having more fun: my daughter or my dad. What do you think?

Fall in Florida

Right now Floridians are totally excited- it is fall! Kids are excited because they get to wear pants instead of shorts. Women are excited because they don't need to keep up their pedicures and can wear those cute new boots. Everyone is excited because we can turn off the air conditioner in our houses for a few hours each day and can step outside without melting! Weathermen are very excited. They get to finally say something besides "today's high will be 92 and it will be partly cloudy with a 50% chance of rain" like they do the other 300 days of the year.

teens, fashions and flashbacks

I was in the middle of teaching my class today when I suddenly notice what one of my students is wearing on her head:

Here is another great fashion that I saw a kid walking down the hallway wearing. I actually had to stop and stare:

I had sunglasses like these back when I was their age! I think it is so funny that fashions have not changed in all these years! (It kind of reminds me of another post that I wrote about kids toys.) Back in the 80's you would have thought that fashions 30 years in the future would be so far advanced that we would not even recognize them, but no, WE ACTUALLY WORE THEM!

Yup, Kids Toys Suck

So, my daughter and I spent about half an hour trying to stick bits of rolled up paper to a sticky mold that is supposed to be some sort of animal with giant plastic tweezers the other day. This toy is called Paperoni. Every time you stick one little paper on, two fall off. We might get it done by Christmas.

Kids Toys Suck

I was thinking back to when I was a kid and the kinds of toys I played with. I played with things like Barbie dolls, Play Doh, Lite Brite, and My Little Ponies. You would think that kids toys in the year 2010, almost 30 years later, would be so far advanced that they would blow your mind. You would think. All we have around here is crap though! My daughter was going crazy over the wonder toy, "Aqua Sand" after she saw some commercials for it on TV last Christmas. She did not get any until recently because she failed to tell Santa about it until about 2 days before Christmas. Santa is not a mind-reader, man, he needs it in writing! Anyway, she finally got the Aqua Sand and it is basically a plastic bin that you fill with water and pink sand. The pink sand does not mix with the water, so it sits on the bottom of the container in little blobs. It is darn near impossible to get the sand back out of the container and is a huge mess. It is like handing your kid a bucket of sand and water in your house and saying "have fun"! What a mess.

kids and staplers

In my classroom I have a bin to hold my staplers. I teach my students where it is on the first day of school. Every single day, all year long, at least one kid will come up to me during the day and ask me where the stapler is. I am a very patient person, but about halfway through the year, I begin to loose my patience- I mean, they are in the bin, where they have been all year! Then I always have that one kid who gets his hands on the stapler, and clicks all the staples out of it, or better yet, staples his textbook, pencil, finger, etc... I guess you have to be a kid to understand the fascination of a stapler. I just don't get it!

raft races, toilet seats and last place

Today my daughter and I went to the 28th annual Homosassa River Raft Race. My dad and his friend just found out about this contest last weekend. I thought it was pretty weird that this thing has been going on for 28 years and this is the first time we have heard about it, but anyway they decided to give it their all. They made their raft a plumber's boat and build it from PVC pipe, plastic wrap, duct tape and toilet seats. It was truly a sight to behold. They tested it out in the neighbor's pool to be sure it would float.

Then they made their final improvements and headed up to the race. Well, they came in pretty much dead last, way behind the other "non mechanical" rafts. But they kept on racing and finished the course. When my daughter said "why don't they just stop because they lost", I explained that just because you come in last sometimes, doesn't mean that you don't keep trying. It just wouldn't be the same experience if they didn't finish what they came to do, whether coming in first place or last place. Besides, they lost the race to Batman and Robin. Come on kid, they have superpowers!

middle school boys and the bathroom

What is it with middle school boys and the bathroom?! What is wrong with them that they can't just go in there, pee and come out? But noOoOo! They feel the need to wad up wet paper towels and throw them up to get stuck on the ceiling when they are in there. Or have a mosh-pit/fight club. Or make strange noises. Or best yet- make "water balloons" in the sinks. And no, if you must know, they were not water balloons. UGH, BOYS!

Lines, People, and the Happiest Place on Earth

As frequent visitors to Disney, the happiest place on Earth, we find ourselves standing in lots of long lines- go figure. In our time standing in Disney lines, I have noticed that there always seem to be the same types of people standing there with us. Below I have a description of my top 5 favorites. Enjoy!


The "Get A Hotel Room" Couple- they can't keep their hands off each other and put a lot of effort grossing out the entire line. Excuse me, can you stop kissing and move forward?!


The "3 Hours Past My Naptime" Child- this poor child was awakened at the break of dawn to drive/fly to Disney and has been dragged around in the hot Florida sun all day. They have lost interest in the rides an hour ago and are letting their parents know it.


The "Sibling Slappery" Kids- he hits her, she hits him back. This goes on and on with them occasionally accidentally slapping you too and the parents never seem to notice it at all.


The "Too Close For Comfort Creepy Caveman"- he stands practically touching you as if he has never heard of a thing called "personal space", even stepping on the back of your shoes from time to time. Bonus points if he forgot his deodorant.


The Locals- these people are great to be behind. They share their tips on the best place to stay, eat and any other Disney secrets they know.

fish fish and fish!

I must confess, I think I have a bit of addiction to fish. I know that it is a strange pet to have, some people would not even consider them to be pets at all. It all began with my next door neighbor standing on my doorstep with a fish tank in her hands and begging me to please take her fish since she was getting a divorce and moving. I guess no one wanted custody of the fish. It was a big yellow one that I thought would be boring but turned out to be pretty cool and would move the rocks all around the tank with his mouth. After awhile he would look at me with his big sad fishy eyes and made me feel sorry for him in there all alone. And if I were to get him a friend, of course I would need a bigger tank! Which of course would require a new stand to put it on. And some fishy artwork to hang on the wall behind the new tank. Which leaves me with a 35 gallon tank containing 9! cichlid fish that are the focal point of my living room. Sometimes I even notice my daughter watching the tank instead of Nickelodeon!

play dates and the dress-up drawer

What is it that inspires my daughter and her friends to dress up like it is Halloween when they get together? They run upstairs giggling in their cute little outfits from Justice and come back down in witch costumes, cheerleading outfits, princess dresses and anything else they can put on. I get such a kick out of seeing what they will dress up as next!

Hoop earrings are good for any occasion

My daughter plunked down her own money to get her ears pierced at Christmas time. She was so excited about it and was religious about having me turn them and put the cleaning formula on each ear with a q-tip every night before bed. We counted the days until it was finally time to change them. When the fine day came, she chose some cute mickey mouse earrings and came to me to change the earrings. Well, I got one in, and she began screaming and crying. Now she never even cried when they pierced her ears to begin with, so why changing them was so traumatic, I have no idea! I had to practically sit on her to get the other one in her ear, and we have only changed them one other time since then when one had fallen out. For some reason, tonight, she decided to be brave and let me change them again. She chose little tiny gold hoops and it was relatively quick and painless. A little later when we were riding in the car, she was admiring her earrings in the mirror and she stated that she is so glad she chose the hoops because they are great for any occasion, you know, like Disney, a wedding or even a party. You know, I think she is right. I may even get some little gold hoops for myself!

gum, conduct cuts and diets

There is something magical about gum when you are a kid I guess. Something to make you want to chew the same piece all day long, take it out for meals and put it back in and chew it some more. The other morning my daughter and I were getting in the car for school, and I noticed she was chewing gum. I asked her where she had gotten it, and she informed me that it was from the day before, but not to worry because she had taken it out of her mouth to "brush her teeth and stuff." I made her spit it in the woods at her school. She didn't want to and told me that it is probably poisonous for animals. I made her anyway and will probably find a belly-up woodland critter with a piece of chewing gum lodged in his furry little throat.
Another thing about gum that I find magical is that even though kids always get caught for chewing gum in school, they just cannot seem to resist chewing the stuff. When I catch them, they even go to the garbage can and then watch me to see if I'm looking. If I don't look, they will pretend to throw it away in order to keep it and chew it more. If I do look, sometimes they will bite it in 1/2 and only throw part of it away so they can, again, keep it and chew it more. I have even threatened to make them scrape it from the desks, but it doesn't seem to slow them down. I had a teacher who kept all the scraped off gum in a big jar on his desk. I think if I did that, I would loose my appetite everytime I looked at it. I guess it would help with my new diet plan at least. Not sure if it would inspire the kids to give up their gum though!

moms, baggage and wine

This weekend was the first time that my daughter ever spent the night over her father's house. Strange I know. She was very nervous, but excited. She packed up her pink suitcase herself with pajamas, clothes, a dress up dress, 3 leotards, mighty beans, a nightlight, a lamp, a bag of popcorn, a balloon flower and an extra pair of shoes~ she is not a light packer. After I dropped her off, I ended up crying on the way home. It is so strange being without her. They say that you feel like your heart is walking around outside your body, I liken it to walking around naked. It just feels so weird without her with me. She has been my shadow for 6 years now. The other day we were walking up to her school and she did not want to hold my hand. I had no idea that this stuff would happen so soon. I guess I was also hoping that I would have moved along myself by now and maybe the blow would be softened, but I haven't, I have just focused on being a mom and it hit hard. So what is a lonely momma to do on a Saturday night? I recommend a glass of wine, piece of cake and a great movie.

ken, mermaids and hot tub parties

Lately I have been making my showers very quick. Everytime I get in the shower Ken is grinning at me. And his pants are down. And he is in the shampoo dish with the mermaids. He bugs me. I feel like he is saying "hey baby, come get in the hot tub with us" or that I might be interrupting something. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, the shampoo dish even comes crashing down in there and wakes us up from our sleep. I think the barbies are having some wild parties in there. I think that the mermaids could be causing trouble too. In the Peter Pan movie, Wendy remarks that the mermaids look sweet and Peter replies that they will "sweetly drown her". So I worry about the mermaids too. I don't think I could take a bath with them, but my daughter is much braver. Maybe it is time to buy them a town house to move to or something.

friend requests

I get some interesting friend requests on myspace. Here I have rated the top 8 guys who will not be accepted as my friends. I am a friendly person, but I am sure that once you read my list you will agree.
8- Death metal music is playing on your page
7- Um, you are married
6- You forgot to put on your shirt in all of your pictures
5- You have pictures of feet on your profile and have requested a picture of my toes
4- You have beer/liquor bottles as your background
3- Your only friends are girls wearing very skimpy outfits
2- There is a "kiss counter" on your profile.
1- The picture of you shooting the gun is just freakin me out!

a 20 buck and pierced ears

A few weeks ago I was getting ready to go to the mall and my daughter disappeared into her room and comes out with a little purse jingling with money. I said to her, what are you doing? She said, well I am 6 now and I want to get my ears pierced. I told her that we would check it out, but I didn't know how much money it would cost (I had no idea how much change she had stuffed in her little purse) or if they would be able to do both ears at the same time (which I heard is a must), so not to get her hopes up. Well, when we walked into the mall, she did a bee-line for the piercing pavilion or whatever that kiosk is, and says to the lady, "Hi, I'm ready to get my ears pierced, I want my birthstone and here's a twenty buck!" and slaps a twenty down on the counter. Well, me and the lady both looked at each other and I was like well, I think she is ready. She hopped up in the chair, didn't even flinch and asked for a lollipop that she spied in one of the drawers. That's my girl.

kites

It was a beautiful day on Monday~ finally warmed up and was very breezy. So my daughter and I decided it would be a great day to fly a kite. We grabbed our new Barbie kite and headed out to the beach, the only tree-less area I could think of. When we got there I followed the directions on the package, blowing up the kite with the provided straw, we threw it up in the air, and BINGO! Can you believe it flew?! We each took a turn holding the string, and then she and I looked at each other like, "now what?" I guess every time I have ever flown a kite before I always spent hours running all around throwing it up in the air over and over before giving up on it and never actually gotten one to fly! Even Barbie looked impressed with us.

time zones, clocks and snoozing

There have been SO many times that I have woken up late for work and in a panic realizing that I had forgotten to set my alarm clock. You know the feeling of enjoying an extra long snooze, then suddenly realizing what happened, leaping from the bed as if it is on fire, dressing and getting out the door quicker than humanly possible. Well, for the first time ever this morning, I had the complete opposite happen. Yes, I got ready in a different time zone. I don't know what the heck happened but somehow my clock was set on a different time zone and I got up out of my toasty bed, dressed, got my kid up and dressed. We ate waffles, sat on the couch, I put on my boots and was getting ready to go out the door, and I saw on the clock downstairs that it was 6:22! You would think I had noticed that it was unusually dark outside. So, we did the only thing you could do in a situation like that with an extra hour to kill~ got back in bed!

Cold Weather, Frisky Kids and the Horse Whisperer

For those of you who don't know, I am a middle school teacher- brave I know, but I love it. So, I was in the office at the mailboxes yesterday, and someone commented that the kids were kind of wild, and another person said that it must be the cold weather. So I shouted out that I thought the kids were acting like little horses who get frisky in cold weather. For example, they sing spontaneous songs, try out random dance moves, or just fall out of the chair in a sudden burst of energy. Today one of my classes played "pass the cough" during their quiet work time. Usually I nip it in the bud, but today I sat and watched for a minute. This is how it went: a boy on one side of the room quietly clears his throat. Then a boy on the other side clears his throat. Then it goes to someone new, or back to the first one. Meanwhile, I look at two more boys who are giggling in their chairs and trying not to bust out laughing and ruin it. Now, the teacher goes wrong if she yells at them to stop it, because then the coughing kids say "what, I was just coughing?!" At this point you must approach the frisky horse carefully, get down on their level, and whisper quietly to them "do you think I am stupid?" This tames them and enables them to complete their work. It is supposed to be so cold here Friday that it might even snow. Can't wait to see what they will try to get away with next!

Flip Flops and Winter Coats or please don't hate us cuz we're cold

Tonight I am going to give you the cold, (and I mean cold), hard truth about Floridians and wintertime. 
We do know that we sound like wimps because we are crying about the 40 degree weather. 
And we do know that it is, like 14 degrees where you live up north- 2 with the wind chill (what the heck is that?!) 
We know that you would trade places with us in a minute, 
BUT... you have one thing that we don't: SUPPLIES. Here is the truth. We are SURPRISED every year when winter comes here. It is 85 degrees or warmer 340 days of the year here, so when it all of a sudden goes from 85 to 40 (and it drops overnight!), we say "what the heck!?" and don't know what to do. First of all, our only choice of footwear down here are flip-flops, so our toes turn into little ice pops! Second of all, we have no winter coats, all we have are Gap hoodies, and they just don't cut it when the temperature falls below 65. Third, we don't own ice scrapers. God forbid we get a little ice on our car.  True story- the daughter of a friend of mine found an ice scraper in her glovebox and thought it was a comb. We don't even own gloves so our fingers could definitely get frostbite. I can only ever find one glove in the bottom of the sock drawer on the few days of the year that I actually need them! One of the strangest things is that all of our little trees and plants in our yards shrivel up and just DIE if we don't cover them up on cold nights- our yards look like they are full of ghosts! So you can see that Florida winters can be cold and tough on us, so thank God they only last about 3 weeks. I don't think we would last much longer than that!

bedtime and my nice things

I have two VERY NICE THINGS in the world: my car and my leather rag rug. I think that my daughter secretly conspires to ruin them both. So, tonight after the third spill on the rug in two weeks, (just how DO you remove milk, orange soda and nail polish from leather?!) she was sent up to bed early. After I attempted to clean the rug and read her some books, I tucked her in and thought all was well. Well she came downstairs after about a half hour and told me that she could hear me "too loud talking on the phone". I told her to go back to bed. Then a half hour later she came out because she needed water, and a half hour later she said her tummy hurt. WOW! How is it that she seemed to know that I was pulling one over on her by giving her an early bedtime, AND she ended up in bed later than usual bedtime after all was said and done?!

New Year

For the new year I decided to keep it simple- no weight loss promises or trying to stop cussin for me- no! Em and I decided to try to love each other more. One day down, 364 to go and it is already a struggle for us, lol! Here is to a more love filled 2010 for everyone!