“How on Earth did you do that”?!

This is what my husband said to me after I called him at work this morning to report what had happened. Let me back up a moment…I’m known for my “I love Lucy” qualities, both in respect to some of my “hair brained schemes” and in my general nature of being prone to mishaps. So this morning I’m getting ready, doing my make up like usual, and while using the eyelash curler something rather unfortunate happened. Apparently I did not have a good grip on it and somehow slipped. This maneuver caused the instrument to shoot across the room—sadly, taking my eyelashes with it. I now have one eye with no eyelashes. At. All. And yes, it hurt. In fact, the spring with which this thing went off caused me to wonder for a moment if I still had an eyeball. When I called the hubby and reported my tale of woe I could tell he was struggling not to bust out in uncontrollable laugher on the other end of the phone. After asking me how I could possibly do such a thing he comes up with: “Do they make a safety version of the eyelash curler? You know, one that so when you shoot it across the room it releases your eyelashes first?” Yeah. Funny. I’m over here with no eyelashes and hubby is teasing me. And all on the morning in which I am taking the baby to a playgroup for the fist time. This will be great—I’ll be known as the new mom—the creepy one with no eyelashes! Now I’m just sitting here wondering if they’ll actually grow back. I know they make false eyelashes but it doesn’t exactly sound like something I’d be into—or have time for. Speaking of which, I don’t really have time for such things as curling my eyelashes either, but hey, I had an eyelash curler that came as part of one of those cosmetics bonuses—I guess that could be the problem there. Note to self: go buy an eyelash curler--& look into getting one with a “safety” just in case.

Weight Watching, Gaining, Losing and Maintaining

So here we are at the beginning of a new year and so many of us are trying new diets to lose weight. For many years now I’ve been a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers [which I refer to as “WW” since it’s no coincidence it also stands for Wonder Woman!] I went back when my baby was just 8 weeks old to get the “baby weight” off and continue to go each week to drop the weight I gained the previous week “maintain”. I’ve learned a lot over the years about eating, exercising and in general the emotions behind the whole thing. To me, it’s all about a plan—not only do you need a plan to follow (for eating) you also need a plan to stick to the plan! Just sticking to it is the hardest part! I don’t know how many times I’ve stepped on the scale, known that I’d not followed the plan that week and lo and behold I didn’t lose or worse yet gained. Well surprise, surprise! [insert Gomer Pyle accent here] Then there are those weeks that I did exactly what I was suppose to do and I lost—it’s amazing what happens when you do what you are suppose to do! We come up with lots of little tricks in an attempt to stick to whatever plan we’re trying. Have you heard the one about not eating after 6pm? Yeah, that would work if I went to bed at 6:30. Then the other day we were talking about “trigger foods”; those things that you pretty much have to banish from your home because you know you’ll not only eat them but you won’t be able to stop eating them. One of my trigger foods is chips. Not tortilla chips or corn chips but good, crispy, fresh potato chips! One day I thought I had come up with the perfect solution to allow me to indulge in the occasional potato chip snack without going overboard—I bought one of those boxes with all the tiny little individual bags of chips. Sadly it hadn’t occurred to me that I can open multiple bags. Amidst a large pile of little potato chip bags I told myself this was a trigger food that needed to remain banished. ***sigh*** Another trigger for me is fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Not being much of a baker myself you’d think this would be easier to avoid. However, I have a mother-in-law who makes fabulous chocolate chip cookies and just happens to be a “cookie dealer” (like a drug dealer, only with cookies!) I have the hardest time keeping her from finding a way to get those cookies into my house! Since the hubby & I try to stay away from them she wants to try to give them to the teenager (who’s active, thin and can handle the extra calories) but I try to tell her I have no willpower and if they are in the house, even if she gives them directly to the poor teenager, I will tackle that kid to the floor to get them! Yeah, it’s pretty sad. And yes, I know, what a bad mommy for depriving my kid of cookies! (He does get treats so don’t feel too bad!) Seriously though, once she no-too-subtly smuggled him some cupcakes, later the hubby and I knocked on his door and said, “we know you have cupcakes in there—give ‘em!” (there were three, we all had one).

Flashback moment

As we approach a three day weekend I was thinking back to this very same time many years ago, when the now teenager was just in Kindergarten. I went to pick him up from school on Friday and said: "Do you know you don't have school on Monday because it's a holiday?" He said: "Yes Mommy, I know, it's Ma.. Mar... Martha Stewart day! After calming my uncontrollable laughter I corrected him and told him no, it's actually Martin Luther King Jr. day. Clearly a classic case of little ones calling something by a name that is more familiar and has a similar sound, I thought this was hilarious. Of course, back then, it was even funnier since Ms. Stewart had not yet done time in the slammer been briefly incarcerated. In any case, I’ll never forget this and have to remind the teenager of this each year.

Marriage & Entertainment

Just as I was thinking about writing a little post on marriage I ran across the following video that I thought would be perfect to share. I'm sure many of us are having to come up with new ways to entertain ourselves during the awful "writer's stike". {The hubby and I had to talk to each other last night after dinner!"} But seriously, I do miss my TV and frankly am kinda irked to even have to be paying for it right now when no one is writing anything! Grrrrr...

Enjoy the clip...

Houston, we have a problem...

So, the baby discovered the camera mounted above his crib and is apparently now tall enough to mess with it. I learned this when I flipped on the monitor to see my little angel and instead got a view of something that looked like the moon from the space station...seriously. Apparently, he turned it so it was a view of the wall, but was so close that it not only looked rounded but the wall texturing looked an awful lot like the "texture" of a planet! I recall not long ago some woman actually did get some freaky interference on her monitor and actually was seeing some NASA stuff, so I thought this was pretty funny. I guess I need to add "re-mount baby camera" to the hubby's never-ending to do list!

What do diaper bags have in common w/ purses, panties and frugal spouses?

Below is the story I wrote to go along with my recent e-bay listing for a diaper bag.
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Why, you may ask, am I selling this fabulous diaper bag? Sadly, it wasn't perfect for me. My husband says I have a habit of doing this thing he calls “The Perfect Search” for various items—I guess over a decade as someone who helps others find items and learn ways of doing things to organize and simplify life might have something to do with this trait. Anyway, it drives him crazy. For instance my search for the perfect purse is still going on. He's getting a little annoyed at my buying purses only to state they won’t work for some reason. Is it so much to ask that a purse be large enough to hold “the basics” and have enough pockets/compartments to organize various items? A purse somewhere in between the size of evening bag and suitcase? *Sigh* I am still looking for “the one” (which reminds me I have a lovely Coach bag I will be listing soon!) A while back it was the search for the perfect underwear. My husband griped, whined and moaned about being dragged through store after store, weekend after weekend, on his wife’s search for the right panties. Apparently perusing women’s panties is not exciting anymore once you’re married. Finding a good pair of well fitting, nice looking and stay put-ing panties is near impossible! Don’t even get me started on “thongs”! What idiot thought of this?! Was it a man who simply wanted women’s underwear to be as skimpy as possible or was it a woman who figured, “well, they always end up my bum so they may as well start there!” Either way, I refuse to wear something that makes it look as though my behind is enormous enough to have actually swallowed a pair of underwear. When the hubby makes the comment that I should buy thongs I just threaten to give up the whole search and buy granny panties...this seems to keep him quiet for a while...but I digress.

My search for the perfect diaper bag led me to this one, the Fleurville Sling Tote. This is a $150 diaper bag that is gently used and comes with the wipes case [never used], the bottle holder and changing pad. Though I really liked it I ended up needing something that can hold even more (& this holds quite a bit!) I am one of those “take it all with you just in case” types and I found I couldn't quite fit the kitchen sink in this one. So, the hubby said I needed to get rid of it. I can’t argue with him since it was a battle to buy the thing in the first place. You see, my husband is a tightwad frugal man, who has trouble understanding why his wife needs a diaper bag that cost more than his first car. I just tell him that wouldn't be the case had he not waited a hundred years until his forties to find the woman of his dreams and have a kid. "Yes dear, things cost more now and a good diaper bag actually does cost more than an AMC Gremlin did back in the 70’s. Sorry!"

So hey, you are in luck because you can buy this beauty for a fraction of the cost which will come in handy if have a cheapskate husband practical man like mine! Good luck and happy bidding!

Life is Great in 2008!

Yeah, I know, it’s pretty corny. My hubby & teenager have been looking at me like I’m the biggest dork for repeating my new mantra when the mood strikes—I just can’t help myself! In fact it’s been so much fun annoying them with it that I think I’m going to do it every year..lemme see…I could get a head start on next year's (Everything’s fine in 2009? We’re at it again in 2010? Okay, I’ll stop now.) But seriously folks….I have a New Year’s tradition I do each year on New Year’s Eve. I learned this many years ago and have since heard of others doing it as well. Each year-end after writing my final journal entry I list the big negatives of the year along with my hopes for various positives in the coming year. Then I print out the negatives, cut each into it’s own little paper strip, and burn each one in a bowl at midnight, thereby “letting go” of them. New Year = new start. Of course I’m not going to list them here for you to see, but those of you who know me can probably guess some of them!

Anywho, I thought I would share my thoughts on the start of the New Year and getting started on those resolutions. We are all familiar with the old Diet resolution; we tell ourselves "No more bad foods!" and then come February (if not the end of January) we are at it again with our favorite junk foods. Then there’s the ever-popular “I resolve to exercise daily” which again turns into a week (maybe a month) of diligence followed by many weeks/months of guilt in which we just don’t “get around to it”. I suggest that making small, positive steps in the right direction is a better idea than making grandiose promises to ourselves that we know we can’t/won’t keep. Take the dieting thing for example…for years I was famous for telling myself that beginning January 1st I would no longer eat anything “bad” (high fat, sugar, refined grain, etc.) and of course I would never stick to this for long. Anything that is too restrictive is destined to fail (and that goes for other things in life, but I digress). So now, years later and wiser, I know that I need to be realistic. So, although some of my favorite foods are on the “naughty” list, I use moderation in choosing how often and how much I’ll eat of these foods and stick to a healthy eating plan for the majority of the time. I mean seriously, if I could never have pizza again—well, you might as well just shoot me!

I plan to have some fun blog posts coming up so “stay tuned” and Happy New Year! Oh, and hey, it's going to be GREAT in 2008! ;-)