The holidays are making me fat! (And they haven't even happened yet!) It is still 3 weeks till Christmas. My waist line began to expand just before Thanksgiving and I have no will power to avoid the holiday cheer and cozy warm comfort foods.

I'm way behind in exercising (like 6 months). I want to be thin, not so mushy in the middle. I really don't mind exercising if I could find the time. But, I do mind giving up good food and dessert this time of year. It adds to the festive feeling and without it I know Christmas wouldn't be the same. Depression would set in.

But I have to come up with a plan for Jan 2nd. (can't start the 1st--it's still a holiday!) I swore I would never be an overweight mom who sat and watched her kids have fun and didn't join in the activities they enjoy.

And, I'm vain, I want to look good, hot, SMOKING! I want my hubs to worry that other men are checking me out! I want him to be more than proud that he is the man who gets to take me home.

I don't feel that way right now. It is no one's fault but mine.

Does anyone out there have a suggestion to get myself motivated to get in shape for myself and my family? What plan do you use? What doesn't work?

There are too many decisions to be made while Christmas shopping! First, and foremost, just deciding what to buy a person is enough to send a throbbing electric jolt screaming from my left eye into the base of my skull.

But then I have to decide the right brand, or color, size, or type, or style, or flavor. And the fun doesn't stop there. NO NO NO NO....then I must surf the web for hours searching for the absolute best price available. (Even if it is a matter of $2 and some change). Or should I just order it online, take the free shipping and avoid the possibility of coming in contact with the swine flu, getting mugged in the parking lot, run over with a shopping cart, or forgetting where I parked my car and using the alarm to find it!


In the past I've been siked about getting every loved one the perfect gift; well thought out, researched, and lovingly wrapped. But, this year I'm a little repulsed at the gouging of eyes and gnashing of teeth that threaten my trip into the department store jungle tomorrow. GOD BE WITH ME AND MY BABY!

I intend to join the club of gift card purchasers for those most difficult members of my gift list. Frankly my dears, I don't give a damn this year. Those few people never seemed to appreciate my efforts anyway and I've got better things to do than sweat over a blouse and accompanying necklace that probably get returned or donated days after the faux "Thanks, I love it!"

Maybe I'm a little jaded today. Bah humbug to the gift giving. I'm enjoying just sitting and watching the tree twinkle.
The morning is coming on fast. I hope I can get a little jingle in my gitty-up in the morning. Any suggestions on how to find the HOHOHO in the Christmas rush to get MOMOMO?

The Cakes and The Cowboys!

I give you the Cakes....And the 5 Year old cowboys to boot!





The party was a success despite the rain.

And now onto Thanksgiving! I think I pass myself coming and going this time of year. After Thanksgiving comes the birthday that my husband and I share.
Yes, you heard correctly.......my husband and I have the same birthday! Let me add that he is one year older than me (and always will be)! But, I do not have my own special day (neither does he) not even mother's day cause I have to share that with all of you readers!
Anyhoo, after our joint celebration comes the chaos of Christmas, then New Years! I love this time of year, don't get me wrong, but boy am I tired and it has only just begun!
Tomorrow I must grocery shop with the hundreds of other stressed and eager chefs of the home kitchens across the US. We will fight each other for the best sweet potatoes in the produce aisle. We will vie for the last bag of rolls, and careen our carts into one another as we race to the shortest checkout line!

Tis the season, ya'll!
Make yams, not war!!

Happy Thanksgiving America!

Try and freeze the moment, though it will melt.....

I love to bake. Cookies, pies, cakes, desserts of all kinds. I don't much care for cooking dinner unless I have the time and energy to try some new exquisite dish.

But I love to BAKE! The smell of melting butter, toasting sugar, warm vanilla, and decadent chocolate fills every cranny of my house and (I believe) its mist is capable of smoothing the edges of a rough day.


This week I will prepare to bake my twins 5th birthday cakes!! Should I use bittersweet chocolate for just such an occassion? I think of this year as just that....Bittersweet! While I'm proud of them and myself for getting them this far mostly unscathed and uncracked, it is a little sad that, for all intensive purposes, they are no longer my baby boys.

Nope. They are kids. They have achieved the smell that school aged kids aquire after just 5 minutes outside no matter the weather. Like puppies. And next August they will be school kids. (tear) And it feels as though I will have to share them with the rest of the world. There lives are no longer going to be all mine to witness. And while I want them to grow and become happy, productive people, a tiny piece of me wants to hold them close and keep them all to myself forever.

But thus free-eth a hair of time for me. Course the littlest guy will still be clinging to my leg and babydom for a few more years. So I'll be alright. And the big guys will too.

Devon asked me, quite out of the blue yesterday, "Mom, why does everything change?" I'm not sure what prompted the question. (I think it was the spongy crab and octopus creatures that we've been growing in water for 4 days.) But it was a profound question, none-the-less. I wonder that myself.

I'm sure there is a time, a moment, a memory in all our lives that we wish we could capture and keep it with us always. What is your's?

While I ponder just such a moment for my own, I imagine for most of us it is not the time we won the science fair in grade school, nor our wedding day, or even the birth of a child. It's that day that we were all together, happy, healthy, maybe just sharing a bowl of canned soup and Saltines, but laughing at the baby's silly faces. Or an evening walk around the neighborhood, the boys splashing through puddles on their training wheels, the baby pointing at a passing helicopter, and my husband and I imagining where we'd be happiest in the next ten years. All the time not realizing we were already there.

I'll bake my cakes for this weekend. They'll be perfect little representations of the precious care and work that went into the last 5 years. And they too will melt away with each bite. Everything changes, Devon. So, enjoy each moment. You are going to miss this when its over.



If you are reading? Tell me about that moment you'd freeze forever.
Either in my comments or link back to your blog and reference this post.

I HATE BLACK FRIDAY!! The Thanksgiving Holiday has all but vanished from the American Calendar thanks to this horrid day. Mostly due to the commercialism Christmas has become and the fact that no one buys Thanksgiving gifts!

So the stores inundate us with sales and sneaky ways to pull us from a table of family and friends sharing a blessed moment over great food so we can stand in line with rabid shoppers foaming at the mouth (in pajamas) to get the one plasma tv on sale for $10.50!

I was appalled to see that Walmart has decided to begin black friday ON THANKSGIVING DAY!!! For crying out loud! After they lost a security gaurd last year when a feral mob ran him down as he unlocked the doors, YOU"D THINK THEY'D COOL IT A BIT!

So, as for me and my guys, we spend the Thanksgiving holiday giving thanks, eating too much food, being with family, and relaxing. Then the weekend is spent decorating our house for Christmas. TREE AND ALL!! We go out to a local tree farm and cut our own, drag it to the truck, get sap all over us, pine needles everywhere, and mud on our boots. But,......BOY IS IT FUN!

You can keep your angry mob, Super Stores! I'll keep my holiday special!

The verdict of the case of the glow in the dark hair...

Well, here it is. Before and after. What do you think? WILD, right? I'm starting to consider myself punky! (or insane, depends on my mood).

As for what the hubs thought:

I heard his key in the front door. I sat at my laptop at the kitchen table dressed to the nines to match my new mod hair-do. (excuse the embelishments) It was date night, right? I heard the door open and shut quietly and could sense him scanning the house for some sort of movement or lights. I knew he zoned on the kitchen when I heard size 12 footsteps heading my way. He rounded the refrigerator and peered in my direction. And then.....

HE BEGAN TO LAUGH HYSTERICALLY!!!

Good thing he was across the kitchen or I would have hurled this computer at him! Then he continues with, "No, really! It's not that bad!"

"NOT THAT BAD, HUH?" Well neither is your pot belly and hairy back! (I should've said that.....)

So we went to an early movie (where he hid me in the dark of an empty theater). Really that was my decision. And when we emerged from the dark and called to check on the boys at mom's house, are date ended.

One of the twins was crying uncontrollably to my husband on the phone that he just wanted to go home and he needed to see his momma! Sooo, what could we do? We drove to get them all. Mind you it was only 7pm and we hadn't even had dinner.

How convenient. We wouldn't have to be seen in public with my hair.

Oh and my mom hates it! My dad just said, Oh My God!

But, the three most special men in my life, they think it's the coolest mom hair ever!
Screw the rest!

My hair glows in the dark!

For some reason my hair craves change. OK, so I crave some kind of self inflicted excitement in my life. Sure the boys' new accomplishments keep things up around here. There's soccer, the baby is now fully mobile on two limbs, and birthdays and holidays are just around the corner.

But, I had to go and do something dramatic to feel fun and alive. So, yesterday I decided to go platinum blond. I'm not sure if that is what we achieved (my hair dresser and I). I thought it looked good when I left the salon yesterday. Shocking, but good none-the-less.

As the day progressed and I eyed myself in the rear view mirror, the buffet mirror at my mom's, my reflection in the microwave, and finally the bathroom mirror after showering to remove the excess bleach that must still have been bleeding my hair of all pigment, I began to laugh hysterically.

It was better than crying. The twins love my new do. "Mom, I think your hair will glow in the dark," they exclaimed when I picked them up from preschool.

My husband hasn't seen it yet. He arrives home from a two day business trip this afternoon. I've warned him that I bear a close resemblance to the rock singer, PINK. "Cool," he said. Clearly he doesn't understand that I don't have the nose ring and hit records to hide behind in the carpool line.

We're supposed to go out tonight on our monthly date night. When he sees what I really look like he may call off dinner and just hide me in a dark theater where we are less likely to run into anyone we know.

My head will give off a great glow with which to see our popcorn and candy.