Poppins

A number of years ago, I fell in love with a Mary Poppins umbrella from the Disney Store.

I just love Mary Poppins. I've seen the movie, read all the books, and even been to the Broadway show. One cold Halloween evening five years ago, we were going to a street fair and I wanted a warm costume. The beloved umbrella, black boots, white blouse, blue sweater and skirt, pink scarf, gloves, and a tape measure...remember when Mary measures the children?

Well begun is half done! The hat took a little doing -- but I had a small black straw hat of my mother's, and I added paper daisies and apple stickers in lieu of cherries (thank goodness for scrapbooking supplies).

Over the years, I've upgraded a few accessories. I found a replica of the movie hat and scarf on eBay.


And just a couple months ago, some inexpensive old fashioned boots at Costume Express. But I think my Poppins has loosened up over the years! She looks much more relaxed now.


She's California-ized! Because it was hot here!

Remember, her special word does include Cali.

SuperCALIfragilisticexpialidocious!

Green

For the Women's Colony Green Picture Challenge...

Click on the mosaic to make it bigger! It's better that way!

Clockwise from top left:

millstones in the garden at Mission San Diego de Alcala
the cemetary at Normandy (photo by Ernest)
gorilla amongst greenery at the Santa Barbara Zoo (sadly most of the greenery got cropped out)
the Handy Husband's Jolly Green Giant aka shuffleboard table
graffiti cacti at San Diego Old Town
a mossy cave at Blarney Castle, Ireland
volunteer green tomatoes
Ernest behind a green leaf on a 6th grade field trip
and in the center, the Niki St. Phalle sculpture garden in Escondido.

I just started doing these color things. My personal rule, just for myself only, is to try to find pictures from my archives. If red or yellow comes up next, I am set!

Halloweened OUT!

I was a lazy babe last night, and convinced my household to bolt the door and turn out the lights. No Halloween for 3/4 of us, although we did watch my favorite zombie movies: Shaun of the Dead, Fido, and Night of the Living Dead

The best zombie-smashing scene ever?



But truly, I was already Halloweened-out by the events at school on Friday. I somehow managed to hit each classroom for their respective parties. I was the queen of pin the face on the pumpkin, and had my usual internal rant about appropriate goodies (3 trays of the same grocery store cookies in the same class).

The most innovative treat? The watermelon jack-o-lantern with fruit skewer hair. That mom went all out. She was also there all morning, helping dress kids and serve the snacks. There were a lot of wonderful parents helping out!

The most awkward treat? The heavy glass dish of "mud pie" (chocolate pudding, gummy worms, oreo crumbs, and skull candy), sent with NO serving utensil and not enough skulls to go around. As I slopped it onto the plates with a tiny plastic spoon, I fielded the whines of "I wanted a skull." That mud pie would have been great in individual baking cups.

I was the original Super Nanny, and I'll talk about my Poppins obsession in another post.

What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?

My sons have recently become obsessed with Klondike bars. So we're constantly joking about "what would you do?" Maybe that's why they've been so helpful to me lately!

The really good news is you can get a $1.00 off coupon here: https://ssl.unilever.com/whatsupwiththebox.com/box/default.aspx

I'm not getting anything to plug Klondike bars, I'm just sharing the latest obsession in our house!

An Awwww Moment

I was going through old photos, looking for pictures of certain colors...

And I found an Awwww Moment from June, 2004. 5+ years flew by in an instant.

Do you think I'll ever get a picture of this again?

So I ask you kindly to put an Awwww Moment on YOUR blog! And please let me know so I can Awwww right back at you!

I Bought a Box of Meat

Yes, I admit it. I was suckered in by a man who rang my doorbell. Was I interested in buying some meat? Some of his customers were unavailable and he did not want to haul the meat back to Santa Ana for restocking. I knew it was a sales come-on, but when he opened the box and showed me the lovely steaks, and in his Russian accent offered a box of seafood for no extra charge...yes, I caved in.

Imagine my panic with the refrigerator situation. But fortunately the freezer was not affected and kept my lovely meat safe.

We've had, in no particular order: Coquilles St. Jacques* (scallops), Shrimp Chowder*, Surf-n-Turf (crabcakes and sirloin), NY strip steaks, bacon wrapped filets, and stuffed flounder. And a bunch of hamburgers.

*These required actual recipes!!!

I'm just loving this not-have-to-go-shopping thing. And the men are loving the food.

So? Did I overpay a little? Maybe. Is everyone well fed and happy? Yes. Net result: priceless.

Mwa-ha-ha!

Made you look!

This is what Ernest looked like when he came home Sunday night. He had been playing the evil cowboy villain, Bad Bart.

Channeling a little Gene Wilder, maybe? But Ernest has better hair.

Fixed

The fridge is fixed. And only $106! That's almost not worth haggling over with the warranty people.

I wonder what my spoiled food cost will be. The yogurt, cottage cheese, cheese and lunchmeat are toast, so to speak. Fortunately I stuck the milk and eggs in Erik's tiny refrigerator--had to take the shelves out! The produce is wilted but edible.

What about the condiments, I ask you? Are the 4 jars of pickles (kosher dills, sweet gherkins, bread & butter pickles, sweet pickle relish -- you can't have too many pickles in my opinion) still edible? Or the 5 jars of mustard (dijon, yellow, Jack Daniels, Cajun, Sweet'n'hot -- ditto)? 4 jars of jelly? Capers, grape leaves, horseradish, and red curry paste? Syrup, teriyaki sauce, lemon juice, lime juice. 4 kinds of salad dressing. Barbecue sauce, tahini, chocolate syrup. Marinated dried tomatos, kalamata olives, and maraschino cherries. And how could I forget the ketchup and bacon bits????

In other good news, the computer is working too. After spending a long time lying on the floor wiggling and jiggling wires, I found the culprit to be the plug plugged into the plug strip. Maybe we jarred it loose while pulling and pushing on the refrigerator.

What else will break? Things come in threes! Oh, wait! The first thing already happened. Last week Ernest was trying to get the blender off the top of the refrigerator...and knocked down the lemon juicer...which smashed my butter dish. Thank goodness for Replacements.com.

Blue

This is for the Blue photo challenge at the Women's Colony.


I'm happy I had put my favorite blue photo in another post, so I was able to copy it out of blogger. Because the computer with all my pictures on it will NOT TURN ON. And I've also had trouble with the refrigerator again (that's 2 prior links!). What the heck is going on here? It's making me feel blue!

And that reminds me of this...my kids overplayed this 10 years ago. I'm so much happier listening to the music they currently like!

Catching Up

My poor little neglected blog. I didn't feel much like doing anything while I was sick (except watching streaming video to catch up on so many TV shows that I've missed). I didn't even feel like reading, let alone writing.

Since I've felt better, I've been catching up on my massive stack of library books. It's towering at 8 books right now, and two more holds just came in to the library. I blasted through The Lost Symbol yesterday.

In other news, Ernest was jonesing for a fire after stacking all that firewood a few weeks ago. So here it is, the first fire of the season courtesy of Ernest.

Glad This Week is Over

I noticed some familiar cities on the feedjit -- I think my friends and relatives are checking on me. No news is good news, folks.

The Handy Husband has been gone just about as long as I've been sick. He's leaving Singapore Saturday morning at 7 (around 4 pm Friday for us) and is due in L.A. Saturday morning at 11 a.m. Just a few hours earlier and he would time warp himself! (Wait, he kind of is -- he's leaving Tokyo at 5 p.m. Saturday!)

Me, myself, I? Have been sick. 6 days of a fever and its sidekicks, pain and suffering chills and aches, plus a gnarly phlegm-filled cough. The doctor's office never did say what I had, so it must not be the bad flu, although they did make me wear a mask. Probably a reaction to the flu shot, plus a respiratory virus. Today I had a fever-free day, which helped a lot, but I am still coughing like a bad engine (if you can come up with a better simile, I'll thank you!) and have very little appetite. Here's to losing 3 pounds the hard way.

(I hope the boys got enough to eat...they had to do some cooking!)

Goodnight, all. Now where's my codeine-laced cough syrup?

Signs of Fall 2009

Once more, the season changes and it's fall again. Here's some artwork from Frank for a change, done in 3rd grade -- ELEVEN years ago! Funny thing, Ernest did the same picture only 5 years ago and his is faded.



A slight change to my hair color -- less blond and more gold. I'm probably the only one who notices.



This is a shocker -- It was cool enough that Ernest wore a jacket one morning!



And we got our annual pile of firewood. Thank goodness, we had a lot of help to move it!

Flu Shot

Yesterday our school provided flu shots in the nurse's office. So I got a flu shot, because it was so convenient. I don't think I've ever had one. I also haven't had the flu in over 5 years.

I was also starting to come down with a cold -- you know, the usual sore throat and runny nose.

Now, not only do I have the cold and cough, I also have symptoms of a reaction to the flu shot:

From the CDC website. "The viruses in the flu shot are killed (inactivated), so you cannot get the flu from a flu shot. Some minor side effects that could occur are: Soreness, redness, or swelling where the shot was given, fever (low grade), aches." Yep, got all 3.

I'm sending Ernest to pick up take-out for dinner.

Bigfoot Sighting

Driving Ernest home from school the other day, he saw something strange. So we u-turned and drove back to look. There it was, smack in the heart of Smalltown:

Bigfoot!

Yes, Bigfoot. Ernest purposely made the picture blurry because aren't all Bigfoot pictures blurry?

It's actually a little statue in front of the fire station. Those firemen have a sense of humor!


So what's the strangest thing you've seen lately?

Preparations

The Handy Husband is leaving for a business trip to Singapore on Friday. So far his preparations have been to:

1. Enlist Ernest to load lots of music onto Ernest's old iPod which he gave to me the spare iPod. I see stacks of CDs next to the computer: Led Zeppelin, Green Day, Pearl Jam, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Van Halen, John Fogerty, Eric Clapton, Dire Straits, Aerosmith (the evil bastards still have not refunded our ticket money), and OMG even BRUUUUUUCE.
2. Buy noise-cancelling headphones.
3. Wonder about Singapore money. So I ordered some from Wells Fargo. Cute money -- it's plastic like Australian money! I like the clear windows!

And that's it so far.

My advice?

1. Honey, refill your Xanax prescription.
2. And while you're there, get all your nice shirts cleaned by the hotel laundry!

Ooopsies

I've had a number of frustrations annoyances little things that bugged me oopsies recently.

Last Thursday, Ernest left a message that he needed his sax by 1:30 (on a day he DIDN'T have band). I got home at 1:15, hot and sweaty, to find the message. So I got it to him by 1:25, only to have him say he didn't need it because he had arranged to borrow one. So I lugged it back to the car in a very grumpy mood. (Why didn't he call back to say he didn't need it????).

The next morning, the Handy Husband and I swapped cars, because I planned to take his truck in for an oil change. I remembered to take my personal items (school first aid bag, whistle, hat, spray bottle) out of my car the night before. But I forgot to look in the trunk. After the HH left, I searched for Ernest's lunchbag, and then I remembered...I visualized myself flinging it into the trunk along with the sax while I had my little hissy fit.

At the oil change, the quoted half-hour wait had turned into an hour. I bickered about that, because it was HOT outside. They managed to get it done in the 40 minutes I had to spend at Taco Bell (the nearest air-conditioned space).

At Albertson's that same day, I was scolded for not having my wine bag. Because IT TOO WAS IN THE TRUNK OF MY CAR.

On Sunday, Ernest tripped over a hose and broke a sprinkler pipe at his cousin's house.The HH ran over and shut off the geyser of water and fixed it the next day.

Albertson's was rude again on Wednesday. I wanted a piece of salmon, not all 2.6 pounds of the slab. But they will only cut a piece in half. Half a piece will not cut it with me. I should have shopped at my local-family-owned market, where they actually do provide service. But I had to deposit my paycheck, and the bank branch is in Albertson's. (Note to Self - I could make the deposit and then just leave. Or I could sign up for direct deposit.)

Not only did the meat person thwart me, but the checker rang up items that weren't mine and then blamed me for it. Excuse me, but I put the bar down behind my items! Blame the person behind me, who crowded her stuff too close and pushed some of it past my bar! And after the checker grudgingly voided the wrong items, she ignored my produce, which was still sitting in front of the bar.

And the HH is stressing because he is busy at work (new sales records set this month!), his car parts have not arrived, and he has to go to Singapore next week.

I had a performance appraisal today, but at least THAT went well!!!!! "Mrs. STM is friendly, knows all the children, and always steps in to help." Or something like that.

OK, I'm done now.

But if you have anything you'd like to RANT about, please feel free! My ear and shoulder are both available.

If You Give a Boy...the Sequel!

If you give a boy a rolling pin, he might make Pie. Especially if he is wearing a Pi shirt.


If he makes a pie, he'll need some butter.

If you give him some butter, he might stack it up before he mixes the dough.


If he mixes the dough, he might eat some.


If there's any dough left, he will roll it out.


If he rolls it out (with the rolling pin you've already given him), he might make some filling.


If he makes filling, it will be pumpkin.


If it is pumpkin, he will say yum.

YUM!

The Chicken or the Egg?

Sometimes my husband cracks me up. He came into the room, saying, "I know what came first: the egg." Thinking he had read something scientific, I asked, "Why?"

"Because I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, just had quiche for lunch, and we'll be having chicken for dinner."

If you ate the chicken and eggs together, you'd have a Mother and Child Reunion. (Seriously, Paul Simon named that song after a dish in a Chinese restaurant.)



Later...the handy husband had to leave me alone with the chicken on the barbecue for a few minutes, to deal with a minor plumbing issue...I fear I burnt it a little. Hey, barbecuing is HIS job. That barbecue is hot -- now I have a pink spot on my arm.

Wasabi Doc?

Subtitled: Home Remedies for the Common Cold

I discovered that a handful of Trader Joe's Wasabi Peas did a really great job at clearing out my sinuses when I had the cold!



Any other good remedies? I'll pick one comment at random and send the lucky one a bag of peas.

Happy Anniversary

I did a nice post last year for our 25th anniversary.

So here we are at 26! As with Frank's birthday, the year just flew by. Where did it go? I don't even have a decent picture of the two of us together this last year. That's always a problem when I am the one taking the pictures. I hope one of the boys will take a picture of us before we go out to dinner. We're going to Root 246. My niece recommends the chili dog, but I said "Chili dog? On my anniversary? I don't THINK so." Burp! And the kids? Although they have demonstrated that they are capable of cooking, they'll probably get pizza.

If you give a boy...

[Blink. What happened? This boy was little yesterday.]

If you give a boy a knife...




He might chop some vegetables.



If he chops some vegetables, he might keep going and cook the whole dinner.

If he cooks the whole dinner, he will eat it up.

If he eats it up, he will say yum.

Yum.

The End.

Heart Shaped Potato

So President Obama and David Letterman were joking about a heart shaped potato? We had one, a long time ago.





Oh my, isn't little Ernest adorable? He was three and and a half. His talking Franklin toy was cute, too. Sometimes, Franklin would say, "I love fly pie!" And Ernest and I would crack up. Ernest would squeeze Franklin over and over, to get him to say the fly pie line and make me laugh. Sigh.

The Rag Bag

All those clothes we've given away over the years. What happens to the ones so tacky that even a thrift store can't sell them?

Some of them are turned into rags. The Handy Husband bought a box of rags for the dirty work in the garage. "Wiping Pals?"

These appear to be knit terry rejects from the 80s.

The Beach Babe halter top --



A chunk of a monogrammed bathrobe--



Look! We had quite a chuckle over the lavender choners--



They got a little dirty --



What will come out of the box next?

Birthday Breakfast

Yes, he was surprised...

By the pie...

Hey Nineteen

Last year I commemorated Frank's 18th birthday here, here and here. And now it's a year later. Funny how a year flies by.

The plans for the day include breakfast with the family (including cousins and grandparents), and dinner out at a Greek restaurant.

The cake? Once again, he said "surprise me." He really shouldn't do that -- it gives me far too much chance for mischief. So his cake this year...shh, don't tell him (I don't think he reads my blog)...isn't going to be a cake at all!

It's going to be PIE!

Fundraising

I know the schools are short money. I donated a lot in the spring, to help fund the music and art programs.

But it's getting a little draining.

Now it's the annual gift wrap fundraiser. I don't want any gift wrap or cookie dough, thank you very much. I'm trying to reduce the clutter, not add to it. Oh, the guilt. So I made another donation.

Next week, there is a spaghetti feed. After participating in one a few years ago (cooking pounds of spaghetti in the evening, delivering it to school the next morning, and eating it reheated that evening) I am a little squeamish about that, too. [I felt comfortable eating at Mr. Thomas's pre-school spaghetti dinner because I knew there was a professional in the kitchen!] Maybe another donation instead?

And yet to come, still more fundraising for the 8th grade trip. Each child is supposed to volunteer 20 hours of time for bake sales, car washes, etc. There is a RUMOR that if the child is involved in some other kind of community service, he/she can count those hours instead.

Hello? I hope so. Ernest has already amassed over 200 (TWO HUNDRED, that's right) hours volunteering at the zoo this summer. He's got a personal goal of another 75 to go by the end of the year, to reach a cumulative total of 500 hours over the last 2 years. Something nice will happen if he makes it! This is one motivated child.

Note to self -- must find out about this rumor.

Holy Knotted Shoelaces, Batman

Jenn is student teaching in first grade. And she was worried about shoe tying.

I started to comment on her post and it got too long..thankfully, that's what a blog is for!!!!!!!!!

My latest assignment as an aide is several [still waiting for a schedule!] first grade classrooms. We've had three full weeks of schools so far and I am FULL OF STORIES.

Quite a few of them still can't tie their shoes. And, I am sad to say, there have been a few second graders also!!!! Perhaps because they wore velcro too long? I think velcro is great for Pre-K and probably for Kindergarten. [But I don't know for sure -- maybe Mr. Thomas can give me the lowdown sometime.] One first grader consistently has untied shoes. EVERY DAY! ALL THE TIME!! Does he come to school like that? His brother was the same way last year.

Muddy shoes were an issue last week, until I moved the soccer goal! My 8th grader was disturbed when I told him I had been cleaning mud out of a 1st grader's shoes. "You shouldn't have to do that," he cried. Him with the elephant poo on his shoes.

So there are my shoe stories. How about you?

Anything interesting happening with shoes in your world? (Jen's found some more cute Crocs.)

Life with Teenagers

Parents of young children, do not despair. Soon they will grow up and you will find yourselves with unexpected evenings free, although the timing may not be good.

We thought everyone would be home tonight. However... Frank's drummer friend called, said a really good guitar player was coming over and could Frank (bass) come too (35 miles away). So he's gone. And Ernest's friend called...could he come over...yes, he could eat there (because I haven't even started dinner yet). Ernest's riding his bike but we don't have enough C batteries for his bike light so he will stop at the hardware store on his way.

You'd think this would be a green light for a lovely romantic dinner, but ...I'm sneezing and the HH's car project has been enticing seducing bugging obsessing keeping him busy him all day and he is in the garage, all filthy and sweaty.

So...leftovers or takeout????

Hanging Out

Ernest had even more zoo volunteering to do this weekend: the ZooBQue tonight, and zoo theater tomorrow morning. So I said, I'll take you there, but we're spending the night so I don't have to get up so early on Saturday!

Just a few minutes ago we were IMing each other across the motel room and feeling very silly about that. And then the power went out! Now it's back on, but HBO has disappeared from the TV. This motel is much nicer than where the Handy Husband and I stayed last weekend! I've got pictures of that, I've just been too lazy to post them.

My plans for tomorrow: sleep late while Ernest walks to the zoo (we are THAT close!) at 8 a.m., shop, go out to lunch, and see a movie. It should be a nice day, and somewhat cooler. I know this because Ernest checked out the weather on his iPod.: "I love wi-fi SO MUCH!" he said.

ZooSnooze Pooz Part Twoz

Ernest went to another ZooSnooze on Sunday. The Handy Husband and I caught the gorillas at breakfast before we found Ernest Monday morning.



Then we snuck up on Ernest and I photographed him in action, just like the animals. Darn it, he moves too fast, just like the animals!



He came home with only a small amount of elephant poo on his shoes this time.

Exactly!

That's exactly what it's like around here. Ernest talks so fast I can't even understand him sometimes. Or are my ears slower than they used to be?

It's Funny How Things Work

Can someone explain to me why I have two teenage sons yet I am the one with pimples on my chin?

Why did my cat become addicted to turkey lunch meat, then inexplicably refuse to eat it?

And why, when I was perfectly happy to be laid off, did I not only get rehired but now have come across two other possible jobs? -- accounts payable at my husband's office, and administrative assistant at a local museum. (I am inclined to keep my status quo because I do love my summer vacations.)

So what's strange in your life lately?