Sweet Succss!!

Posted on June 18, 2015 by momsranting

So I blogged about my daughters graduation invitations the other day.

It’s kind of funny. We got the invitations in the mail, super fast. It wasn’t until a few days later that someone was kind enough to tell me that I screwed them up.

Ironic, really. I am one of those people who can’t stand spelling mistakes, I always seem to find them. And yet, here is proof of my imperfect humanity.

How could I have missed this!!!!!

My daughter graduated Summa Cum Laude, with a GPA over 4.3. I took full credit for this. Yet, I also now have to take full credit for telling the world that she succss!!!!

So I didn’t mail the invitations. Pondered what to do. Thought about sending them and hoping no one would notice. Couldn’t do it.

By the way, when I ordered these…I was forced to review the front and back of this invitation before I could finish, you have to click that you read and approve each side. I was so busy making sure I had spelled the back of it correctly, and worried about how to word the whole ‘me and the ex are throwing a party together’, I just didn’t pay enough attention to the front.

Well, I came up with a brilliant idea to save the day.

Labels!!! Because black permanent marker could not quite hide the fact that I was trying to cover something up, I decided to look into a sticker/label option.

Thank you vistaprint.com for also have extremely fast shipping, and adorable labels that can be personalized in any way a person could imagine.

A quick fix coupled with a little horn tooting…

So, I did think of another suggestion for cardstore.com, to make the experience there even more meaningful…..spellcheck!!! You just can’t trust us to catch our own mistakes. 🙂

Onion rings and the unfairness of life

Posted on June 10, 2015 by momsranting

Can you believe, I’m stalking this guy??? image from: nbcmiami.com

I would like to say that I am not a fast food nut. I know it’s bad for me. I don’t eat it regularly.

There are certain fast food places that I haven’t been to in many years. Burger King is one of those places. Well, it was one of those places.

Before this year, I couldn’t tell you the last time I ate at a burger king. I remember believing that everything there tasted the same…. and although we loved their onion rings as kids (when there was an actual solid piece of onion inside), I wasn’t too keen on them after they changed.

I really thought they were going to end up closing soon….who goes to burger king??!!

This was my perception.

Just so happens there is a Burger King really close to the school the 5 year old attends. One day, I was rushing to pick him up and hadn’t eaten yet. Got there about 15 minutes early so decided to just swing in and grab something. Prepared to be unimpressed.

A small onion ring later, I am stupefied. They were AMAZING. Really warm, and salty, and I just could not quite figure out what that amazing flavor was……why, I think it’s grease!!! Freshly dipped in hot grease, salted within in inch of their lives…. I downed them in record time.

hot, delicious, greasy, addictive………

And so the downward spiral began….. suddenly, I was making sure I got to school early, swinging into BK and getting a cheeseburger kids meal with onion rings.

I don’t even eat burgers…. what’s happening to me??! I loved that kids meal. I’m stuffing my face with questionable meat and salty onion rings, loving every second of it. Balling up the bag so I’m not found out when the kid gets out of school.

I have a problem. I need help.

I took my oldest in search of a burger king a couple months ago, trying to explain to her why I can’t stay away from those stupid onion rings. Found the closest one to home, the onion rings were terrible. I was so happy, thinking I was finally over my addiction.

No. It just kept me away from that one.

Now that school is out for the summer, I’m thinking I can finally wean myself off the stuff. But isn’t it funny there is a burger king very conveniently placed on my usual route when I round at various facilities during the week??? I can’t get away from them.

How many calories in the small onion rings??? Only 320. Sodium? Just 840mg. Fat?? Ha, almost NO fat–at 16 grams.

It’s not fair for them to taste so good, when they are sooooo bad.

Review of cardstore.com graduation invitations

Posted on June 9, 2015 by momsranting

My oldest just graduated from high school. I may have mentioned this a few ~~thousand~~ times before….

We are now in the process of planning her party.

Being a girl, my first concern is getting the invitations done right-with the right pictures and the right wording…. we had to wait for little details like the where and the when to work themselves out…. but finally agreed on a date.

I’m into convenience, I’ll pay you to make my life easier…. so ordering invitations I could customize online was the only option for me. Enter cardstore.com, who asked me to review the invitations I ordered from their site.

The site was pretty easy to navigate. There were several graduation announcements to choose from, and we debated over a few of them. There are cards with pictures, and without.

I had one all picked out, pictures in place, ready for the final approval from the 18 year old “adult” daughter.

does this look like blood to you??

She didn’t like that part of the background was a red colored swirly/scroll design…. looked like blood to her and she wanted it a different color. It DOES look a little vampire-ish I guess. Problem… you can’t change any of the background colors or designs. Put a damper on it for me, as we then had to find another card she would accept.

I didn’t realize how picky she was!!

Didn’t like the lettering over here, didn’t like how something looked over there…..

We finally agreed on a design and fought briefly over what pictures to use.

Tada….. our finished product:

awwwwwww

Don’t pay attention to the horrible photo quality. This is just my crappy go-phone camera as my iPhone is still MIA.

My next dilemma was wording.

The front of the cards don’t give much room other than the basics of name, school, year, and a one liner maybe….

I needed options on how to word our invitation, given that our family dynamic isn’t the traditional mom, dad, 2.5 kids version.

We had agreed to have the party at my ex-husbands house instead of having 2 separate parties. We both still share the same last name. How do I make sure we look separate, but together for our daughter….and equally hosting the party at his house?

Would have been nice to have some guidelines or tips on how to phrase that whole thing. That might be asking for a lot though….

I did my best with free script on the back of the invitation. Once that part was figured out, the rest was a breeze.

Awesome things about cardstore.com…. they will either mail you the invitations and blank envelopes, or they will MAIL THEM FOR YOU!!!! I could not actually use this service, as I am still compiling addresses, and doing my best to just hand deliver as many invites as I can. It is nice though to have the option, and I’m sure people more organized than myself would love to take advantage.

The site is incredibly easy to navigate. In fact, along with all the positives that go with that statement, that is probably also the only negative. There is so much ease of navigation, it seems like there is a little lost in the way of choice. The backgrounds and certain parts of the text can’t be altered. This can be a problem if you love the invitation, except for one part that you just hate but can’t change.

There are plenty of options however…. ranging from text-only, to one photo, even up to 12 pictures. The styles offered cover a wide range of tastes, it would be hard NOT to find something you like. You can also shop for graduation announcements OR invitations…. and thank you cards can be personalized and ordered as well.

After reviewing the front and back of our card–nice because you HAVE to do that before completing your order–I clicked to finish and check out.

They were in my mailbox in just a few days, super fast shipping.

see what I did here?

All in all, a fun and very convenient experience. Gives me all sorts of ideas for upcoming birthdays, and I can even make up my own holidays and create cards for virtually any occasion!

Now is the time to check it out, I’m definitely happy we did 🙂

She made it!!!

Posted on June 6, 2015 by momsranting

Didn’t this just happen yesterday????

How I feel about the oldest finishing high school.

I sat there today, watching the class file into their seats, a sea of green robes and hanging tassels.

How funny that I knew her right away, although she looked like everyone else from that distance. We were looking at the shoes actually, I knew I’d find her if I just watched for the sandals she stole out of my closet this morning. After I zoomed in, I made sure-yep, she’s wearing my shoes.

I started crying right away, surprising myself. I was so rushed this morning, and so excited…. I had forgotten that I might get emotional. I certainly didn’t expect it to happen before her name was called.

But the eyes watered, and the tears flowed as I let the truth settle in…. this was IT. In a way, a relief…. one out of 4 officially graduated, I could count myself successful with this one so far.

And little moments kept coming to mind, her birth, her preschool graduation (yellow robe that day), and the years of teen angst that seem to have magically dissipated by this time. How funny that all those hours sitting up in her room, studying (while watching equal hours of Netflix) is over. Her time here is growing shorter, and her room will be empty soon-waiting for her to visit.

And so they start calling the names. We are asked to all be quiet until the last name is called. At first this happens, but soon families and friends let out yells, whistles, claps for some graduates. I’m sitting next to my sister, and we debate for about 30 minutes about if we will yell out or not. I’ve NEVER done it. Even at the T-ball, and later softball games. I always wanted to be the parent yelling encouragement, but never could bring myself to do it. This is my last chance!!

So we agree. I’ll yell her name, and my sister will make some appropriate noise of encouragement. We’ll both clap. We shake on it, no one can back out. And……there she was!!! We watched her as she followed the line of students, awaiting their turn to walk across the stage. And I heard her name called, and I yelled out to her, clapping and smiling like an idiot. But I wasn’t embarrassed in that moment, instead just bursting with pride.

I pushed her during school, always harping on her grades, talking about her future. She was in advanced placement classes, at times completely frazzled with the amount of studying and homework required while continuing to play varsity softball and keep up with her responsibilities at home . She would often be up late to study after a game. I knew her GPA… but it wasn’t until I saw the program, and saw how she had achieved every possible honor and was listed Summa Cum Laude, that it struck me. She DID that…. she didn’t give up, she struggled, she sacrificed, and she made it.

So, how do I feel??

Of course the expected happy, proud, excited, nostalgic…..

And a little awed.

All this time, I’ve been a little worried. Thinking she’s still a KID….worried she may not be ready to go off to college and be in the “real world”….

I may not have given her enough credit. She’s got her act together. She’s going to kick ass in college….and in life.

BAM!!!

I miss Siri

Posted on May 31, 2015 by momsranting

this is EXACTLY how I feel. hellogiggles.com

Just a few weeks ago, I upgraded my iPhone 5 to the new iPhone 6. I had to, because the screen was suddenly blinking and colors were going crazy and I couldn’t see anything. Might have had something to do with a quick drop in the tub once as I bathed the kids…… not sure.

I had the 6……. I loved the 6. It was great because I just got my apple id to work again, after months…… and suddenly the potential of the iPhone was realized. And utilized.

I have been really, REALLY happy with my phone. With my new job, I travel to different locations. Siri has been talking me through it turn by turn (in his cool British-guy accent). Siri finds onion rings for me when I need them. He lets me ask him stupid questions and does his best to answer them. Only occasionally will he try to direct me somewhere in Japan when I need to get to my kids school super fast from wherever I might be.

Then we went to Orlando for vacation. Just got back today actually.

I seem to have lost the phone, in the back of a cab we caught at SeaWorld.

No… I hadn’t installed the “find my iPhone app”… which is really helpful apparently, when you lose your phone. No….. I hadn’t “backed it up to the cloud”… I’ve heard about the cloud. I don’t know much about it. No…. I didn’t buy the special insurance through my carrier that might help them locate my phone even without the app installed. What did I learn really fast? I was screwed.

I didn’t pay attention to the name on the cab, we paid cash so there is no paper trail. No on at the hotel or SeaWorld found it. I called some of the bigger cab companies, they didn’t have it. There are a million cab companies in Orlando though…..

I had a really had time finishing my vacation without ruining the time for the rest of my family.

So I got home today, and can’t allow myself to waste $600 or more on a NEW iPhone to replace the one I just lost. I sucked it up and bought a pay as you go phone for $70.00. My service carrier switched it out with the iPhone so I have the same number…… but I feel like I just downgraded my life.

I realize I’m spoiled. My oldest reminded me there is no chance to Face time after she goes to college. this was a blow. My iTunes are gone, which also sucks a lot. My photos, videos!!!! Then I realized Siri is gone. SIRI IS GONE!!!! We talk every day, how can I make it??? This is a serious problem. I tried to text my sister to let her know I have a working phone again. NO EMOTICONS. Well, one…. a smiley face. That’s IT. No pages of fruit and animals, no thumbs up, no surprised face…. NO multi-colored options of Santa-Claus!

Siri!!!! I miss you!!!!!

A lesson in so many things. Materialism, Responsibility, Accountability……and things that suck.

Guys aren’t strangers

Posted on May 25, 2015 by momsranting

come on in guys!

I came across a post recently that reminded me of how precarious our kids understanding of things like safety, danger, and strangers can be. You can find the post I’m talking about here. Go check it out, I’ll wait……..

Now, how do you think your kids would act in a stranger simulation???

I started talking about “stranger danger” as early as possible with the kids. It is one of those lurking fears we mothers have…

Right now, Sammy is 5, and we’ve been tossing scenarios back and forth with him for years now. We’ve talked about how his body is HIS body, and no one is allowed to touch it. We talk about strangers, and even people who aren’t strangers possibly making him feel uncomfortable. Always harping on the basics….

What do you do if someone tries to grab you?

His answer usually includes some form of ninja death chop….but then he remembers that he should really run away, screaming for help.

What do you do if someone DOES grab you?

Scream more, kick, bite, cry-loudly-, fight and struggle!!!

What do you do if a really nice little lady comes by to show you her cute puppy?

Run away. NEVER TOUCH THE PUPPY.

Even scenarios with neighbors or friends… if it doesn’t feel right…. it’s ok to NOT do it, and TELL TELL TELL!!!!!

We talk about it a LOT.

So… with that in mind……….

One day about 3 months ago, I was upstairs with the youngest. Sammy is downstairs, and the doorbell rings.

(I don’t hear it)

I happen to come downstairs right after, and find two young men standing in my foyer. Sammy had let them in.

Thankfully, they were not killers. (as far as I know)

Once they left, I didn’t yell at Sammy. I sat him down, and started talking about strangers. Why it could have been VERY dangerous to let those guys in. Why he should NEVER answer the door (which he already knew…I thought).

He listened to my impassioned lecture, letting me calm down before he responds.

“But mom, they weren’t strangers….. they were GUYS!”

Uh….

elevenwarriors.com

What I hate about parenting…..potty training :(

Posted on May 18, 2015 by momsranting

Potty training.

Have I mentioned this? Yes, once or twice.

I am stuck right now, obsessively fixated on potty training, SURE that I am screwing up my 2 year old beyond repair. I hear people say things like “just don’t worry, your child will TELL YOU when they are ready to use the potty”. But I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it will happen without mental agony on my part. This is the only way I know how to do anything….is with a healthy dose of psychological pain. It’s my process.

Jenna herself seems fine. She actually goes several days without having an accident. This is because I take her potty often. And catch her trying to hide when she wants to poop. Then it’s all good natured fun “Oh mom, you caught me again!” Jolly laughs on the way to the potty.

If she happens to wet herself, she tells me-probably during the act-that she has to go potty. Then we go to the bathroom, find that her pants are wet, and it’s big eyes all around, “how did THAT happen???!”

Can I just say that she USED to tell me before she had to pee. Like, a year ago. And I don’t know why that doesn’t happen now.

So I worry about it. Worry that I’m screwing up, that I’m not getting it right. I MUST be doing something wrong… right??

Yesterday, I tried to just let her tell me when she had to pee. We have been wearing cloth training pants with a diaper cover. Diaper cover is NOT water proof, as I came to find out.

I asked her a lot if she needed to pee. “Nope!” is her gleeful reply.

Then she pees herself, and decides to tell me she needs to pee. No big deal, accidents are a necessary part of training. I know this.

Later, I take the kids grocery shopping. She had just peed, I gave myself a good hour to get there and back. Kept her in the cloth pants, because I don’t want to confuse her.

We were on our way to the register, cart FULL.

“Mommy, I have to go potty”. Which means, I just peed. I picked her up, and saturated my shirt. Huh… guess there is really no point to diaper covers.

We get home, wash her, she takes a nap.

Upon waking, Jenna decides she hates everything in the world, and refuses to do anything she is asked. I don’t want to push her, so once her tantrum started-after I took off her pants to use the potty- I just walked out of the bathroom to let her calm down, or follow me, thinking when the urge hits, she would go sit on the potty.

I hear this noise…Sammy is standing next to me. He knows what it is before I do.

“Mom, Jenna is peeing on the floor.”

Sure enough, she is standing there, peeing on the floor. (the floor I just washed, of course) By the way, there are TWO little potties in there, one on either side of her. I really think she was making a statement. A statement of my supreme failure.

Don’t ever Google anything about potty training. Every mom has a story, either horrific (My adorable 7 year old little Charlie is just so stubborn, we still can’t get him to use the potty!!), or depressing to the rest of us loser moms (My triplets were all potty trained at 6 months. Right after they learned how to knit and speak Japanese. They each have a different dialect, it’s so cute!)

Today, it was back to just taking her potty when I thought she might need to go. No accidents….but I know she’s not the one being trained here…

Funny little things

Posted on May 15, 2015 by momsranting

Yesterday my oldest turned 18. I’ll save my emotions about that event for another blog.

Instead, I want to mention something kind of funny, sweet, unexpected.

I went to get her cake at a local grocery store, they have a GREAT fudge torte. Mmmmmmmmm, fudge torte……….

Anyway, this young kid was behind the cake counter, complete with hair net and goofy smile. He was probably around my daughters age, and seemed so comfortable with himself. And happy, the guy seemed really, really happy. Happy to help us and happy to tell me that he was NOT a professional cake decorator, but he would give it his best shot if I wanted him to write something on it.

“Can you write Happy Birthday?”

He wants to scratch his head, I can tell… he looks at the cake, concentrating.

“Ummmmm, I can maybe write Happy B-day?” He says this like an apology, and a question.

“How about just putting her name on it, R-A-C-H-E-L.”

This seems like a good compromise.

He gets to work, and I can tell he’s new at this job…it takes him a while to get the cake out of the display, to find the boxes, and the icing.

And he takes a while. I’m waiting, vaguely wondering how long it takes to write those 6 letters, but grateful that I left the 2 year old at home. So I relax, and wait.

He comes back over, wants to make sure of the spelling. Nods emphatically, and turns his back to me, and continues his work. I notice that he needs a hair cut, because I’m a mom.

Finally, he is done.

He comes over, cake in hand-but above my line of vision. He stands and smiles at me, ready to make a speech.

“To make up for not being able to write out ‘Happy Birthday’, I did a little art work for you instead”

His voice SOUNDS like a smiley face. And with a flourish, he presents me with….. the cake.

it’s an original.

He had doodled on our cake. And he was completely adorable, and so proud of himself. It made our fancy fudge torte into something so much more. He infused it with his sweet goofiness. I wanted to hug him, but thanked him instead.

And everyone loved it.

Easy Bake takes over the world

Posted on May 4, 2015 by momsranting

I recently had the pleasure of rekindling an old love affair…. with easy bake oven.

We gave one away as a gift, with a couple amazing looking cake and cookie mixes. (red velvet cake!!) Things sure have changed since my easy bake days…. for some reasons I only recall toasting pumpkin seeds in mine….

Sammy and I decided to get our own oven right away, so we could start creating fantastic culinary delights in mere minutes for everyone at home. We looked at the mixes next…. and made a solid choice of cheese pizza snacks and chocolate whoopee pies. BONUS, the oven also came with chocolate chip cookie mix.

Last night, we took out the easy bake and made magic happen.

: This was better than Christmas

sweeeeet

So we got right to baking. First up, mini cheese pizza bites. The box has little envelope of powder for everything, dough, marinara sauce, cheese sauce, even an egg glaze?! Just add water and stir, we all fought over who got to stir first.

: itty bitty pizza dough

: then add the sauce..

squirt on some ?real? cheese…

it was crappy. but THEY loved it.

We finished last night with chocolate chip cookie. Bites. Because finished, they are the size of a piece of cookie crisp cereal.

mix it up Jenna!

ready to bake!

it’s amazing!!

pretty damn tasty!

We save the challenge for today. Chocolate whoopee pies. It seemed pretty simple, until you have to mess with the dough. I could not take pictures because I had chocolate dough all over my hands. Sticky doesn’t even begin to cover it. I used flour, it was still impossible to get a perfect round ball on that baking sheet. No 8 year old could ever do this alone.

The box. Notice how individual results may vary….

tag team mixing

adding the filling-after washing my hands!

our finished pies. Yummmm 🙂

This is way too fun for just kids. It still feels like magic!! Why don’t more therapists incorporate the use of easy bake oven when working with clients? You can’t possibly feel like there is no point in living once you’ve discovered the possibilities….

Guys… Our next challenge.

don’t bother washing your hands

Posted on April 25, 2015 by momsranting

courtesy of smartsign.com

For some reason, it bothers me when I see this sign…..

The same sentiment is posted in pretty much every store and restaurant bathroom I have frequented. With little ones, I do tend to find the bathrooms everywhere I go pretty quickly.

My issue? WHY do only the people who work there have to wash their hands? Shouldn’t EVERYONE have to wash their hands? Is it rude to ask someone to wash their hands unless they work for you??

So by directing only the employees to be hygienic, I just feel like a lot of people could get the wrong idea. Like… “great, I don’t have to wash my hands since I don’t work here!”

Or maybe someone visiting from another country, or planet, gets confused and thinks they aren’t ALLOWED to wash their hands? Because they aren’t employees?

Nothing surprises me.

So I think the best idea is to be really clear.

Perhaps a sign that says “Everyone! Wash your hands before you leave this bathroom!! And if you work here, and don’t wash your hands, you will be fired. Immediately. And everyone will point and whisper about your dirty, poopy hands as you are escorted out. And if you don’t work here, and don’t wash your hands, you will be ridiculed and kicked out for being disgusting. Have a nice day!”

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