Cleaning the Slate for 2009

I'm not sure what resolutions I'm going to make tonight, but I thought that maybe, instead, I should clean the slate about things that are bothering me, or things that I need improvement on, before 2009 begins. Maybe it will help 2009 start off on the cleanest slate possible.

• I told Scott the other night that I don't want any more children. Those who have been reading for awhile know that I had an ectopic in the summer of 2007, and that one tube is gone and the other is double clamped. How can we have more children? Adoption. Scott was adopted and he wants to adopt a number of children. After doing foster care for a few years, I honestly don't know if I can handle the stress. I told him this the other day and he got fairly upset. We're now in the process of sort of healing from this grand announcement.
• I don't think I'm the best mom that I can be. Quite often I work instead of playing with them, and I tend to get snappy easily. I also think that I expect too much from my children sometimes.
• I need to be better at communicating with my friends. I'm horrible at emailing back, and I tend to avoid the phone more and more lately. I love and appreciate my friends and need to keep in better touch with them.
• I'm talking with my father, and that whole situation - with my mother and my father - is royally fucking with my mind. I need to get all of my priorities straight and do what is best for my children and them alone.
• I know I can work harder than I do. Quite often I procrastinate and add stress onto myself. I have done this since before I can remember. I need to start working smarter so that I don't stress myself out as much.
• I need to get my health under control. I've been avoiding some things that I need to get done, and my body is slowly showing me how pissed off it is becoming.
  
• I need to make more time for Scott and I in the coming year. We didn't have any vacation together in 2008, really, and we need to change that for 2009. Only by us having a strong relationship can we be great parents for our children.
• I need to make more time for myself. I am thinking about scheduling a weekly "Mom's bathroom hour", where I take a long bath, or a hot shower, then do my nails, ect. I can't spend the money on spa treatments around here - or won't because I'm a cheapskate, but I need to start pampering myself a little in my own home to de-stress.

So those are some of the things that I'm thinking about right now, and hopefully I can improve upon them in the New Year.

I hope you all have a happy, and safe, New Years and that your 2009 is amazing!

Holidays Over - Relaxing??

Praise Jesus!, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

Are the holidays over yet??!! Oh, by the way, how awesome is that picture? It's what Toad looked like when he opened the DS on Christmas morning. Then he did a little dance - I'm so not kidding, I have video proof!

Anyway, yesterday Toad's friend came over to play for most of the day and then my mother came over to check out Rock Band 2 and to bring dinner (go MOM!).

Then, after they left and the kiddos went to bed, Scott and I played on our Rock Band 2 characters and opened up Livin' On a Prayer - BON JOVI BABY!!!! YES!

I was reminded today that New Years Eve is TOMORROW - WOAH! And we still have NO IDEA what we're doing. We were going to go out somewhere, but we can't agree on where to go out. Now there are talks of two things...

1. Of he and I going out to a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant, which is about 25 minutes away or so.

2. His co-worker and his SIL (one of my BFF's) and her fiance coming over to play rock Band 2 with us.

So I have NO IDEA what is going on, but I do know one thing - if my family is around me, and I get a kick-ass Happy New Years kiss from the hubby, I'm a happy girl.

But I have no idea what resolutions to make. I refuse to make the weight loss resolution, because I never stick to it. What resolution are you making?

Getting Spoiled

Yesterday we headed to Walmart in order to let the kiddos spend some of their holiday money. My father surprised us by gifting Scott and I with a $50 gift card to Walmart, so we figured we'd look around and see if there was anything we wanted to purchase.

On the trip down we had to stop at an ATM machine to get money out for lunch (Scott's big for cash) and it happened to be an ATM machine that I used when I was in college. I had a weird flashback - remembering that I would often try to get out something as small as $20 and would often see "insufficient funds". Yet yesterday I took out $100 and there was enough left to pay the mortgage with - very surreal.

So we hit Walmat with me feeling very appreciative of the things that we have - our house, our vehicles, and most especially our family. That didn't stop me, however, from badgering Scott to use of the $50 so that we could purchase something I've wanted for awhile...


Rock Band 2!!! I've wanted Rock Band for a long time, but Scott hated that it was wired - Rock Band 2 is almost all wireless, except the mic and hat has a really long cord. It was definitely over $50, but using the $50 towards it, along with me promising some pretty big things to the hubby, meant that we came home with the LAST Rock Band 2 for the Wii in the back of our minivan.

Scott jumped online to do some work while I hooked the whole thing up (he helped in the end, though, when I couldn't figure out why the drums weren't working for some reason - in the end, Babygirl actually accidentally got it working LOL). Then we started jamming. Toad LOVES it!!



Scott eventually jumped on the drums - he used to play drums in high school, and it was very hard to get him off of the drums long enough to eat dinner. He did let our brother-in-law get on the drums for awhile, as he loves the drums too, and between the two of them I learned pretty quickly that Rock Band 2 can make anyone think that they're truly a rock star!!


So we came home with Rock Band 2 and it left me, once more, loving how hard we've worked and how hard we'll continue to work, in order to give our children, and ourselves, things that we've always wanted.

Bacony Christmas

I've got lots of pics from Christmas I'm uploading right now onto Flickr, but I had to share this story - one of my bestest friends, Danni, sent me a Christmas package and asked Scott to wrap it - he was frustrated because he apparently bought the same thing for me. I laughed because it seemed amazing that my husband and one of my best friends bought me the same gift! On Christmas day he had me open his first (Sorry Danni) and then hers - this is what was in the package:

A whole lot of BACON SALT!!! I've been looking to try bacon salt for awhile, and they both got me some for Christmas! I will be set up in Bacon Salt for awhile!!

What's really funny is that Scott left a message on the order sheet about his order - this is what it said:

Hi guys! I'm so glad I found you! My wife has been wanting some Bacon Salt for a long time, so I'm getting it for her for Christmas. Thanks!! - Scott

And they replied!

Scott - I threw in some Bacon Lip Balm just to add to the holiday Bacony goodness! Enjoy! Tori and the Bacon Salt Team.

THAT is customer service people!

Hope you had a wonderful holiday and that it was as filled with Bacony goodness as mine was!!

The Christmas Party

The girls, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

Look! Look above!! There, on the far left! The woman with the black and pink shirt and the black hair and the glasses?! See that woman?! She's a fatass and needs to stay behind the lens and not in front of it!!

Moving on.

The Christmas party with my mom, step-dad, and step-sisters and their families was on Saturday. It's the first time we've had it at my house, and the first time we've gone to it in a number of years. There was a massive falling out, and in order for there to not be ANOTHER falling out, let's not go there, kay?

Each step-sister has kids. SS1 has 2, SS2 has 5 (lord have mercy), and SS3 has 3. With our kids that's.....12 kiddos in the house. Add 9 adults and you're ready for a party - or a mental institution.

Everything was going fine UNTIL the sewer decided that it was pissed off and had enough and backed up on us. We have our own septic system, but when it was put in (long before we moved in), the dumbass who built it put in a 90 degree angle in the piping. This means that occasionally it gets plugged - especially when you've got little kids who don't pay attention to the Charmin bear commercial and use too much toilet paper.

Scott spent over an hour trying to unplug it when everyone was here, but was unsuccessful, so we had to very CAREFULLY use the downstairs toilet - making me feel like a miserable hostess.

(yes, he got it fixed the next day - a temporary fix I'm assuming. Yes, it will cost us plenty of money come the spring...*sigh*)

The gift giving went well, and there was really nothing blog-worthy about the entire situation, aside from the fact that none of us killed each other and the toilet broke.

That's NOTHING like the fact that today I left the dogs in the garage because I was trying to be nice (it's FREEZING in VT!) when I took Babygirl to preschool and did some errands - only to come home and find that they'd found the garbage bag from the Christmas party on Saturday night (nice segue, no?) and had strewn it from one end of the garage to the other.

NO CHRISTMAS FOR PUPPIES!

Guess what it did this weekend?!

Tree day, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

SNOW! That's right - snow, and more snow, and more snow. Still waiting to see if Toad and Babygirl's schools will be canceled tomorrow or not. I'm gonna guess not - unless we get about a foot overnight!

We had the family holiday party, and I've got those pics over on my flickr acct. But I loved this pic - it really shows how much snow we got - LOTS. Scott had to shovel TWICE!!

More on the family party after I've recovered from all that damn manual labor LOL.

Loving my Camera

Sometimes I look at photographs and I go "wow. Oh wow. I wish I could do that." But I know that the trick in taking an excellent photograph lies in not only practicing your craft, but in catching the little moments that make the picture great.

This morning I got up early and watched last night's Top Chef (I've said it before and I'll say it again - God Bless DVR). I heard Toad get up but I had no idea Babygirl got up until I walked into the kitchen and looked down the hallway. Babygirl was laying there on the floor with two of her bears - using one to rest her head upon, waiting for her brother to get out of the bathroom.

Instead of yelling for Toad to get out of the bathroom, or continuing with my morning routine, I snagged the camera.

Good pic or bad pic? What say you?

Christmas ornaments

Me, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

I remember when Scott and I first got together - we had no Christmas ornaments. My grandmother hated the idea of us not having a tree and bought us a little one that we fell in love with. It had some tiny ornaments on it and was just adorable.

Then our son had his first real Christmas and so we got a tree and started to really enjoy Christmas with our son. Once again my gram saved our first tree by giving us the 12 days of Christmas balls, which we love and, again, still put up on our tree.

We slowly started to collect ornaments, and every year we let the kids choose one ornament and we add it to the tree. Now we've got plenty of ornaments - so many that our tree is stuffed, which I love. There are, however, some ornaments that mean more to me than others.

This ornament is, I believe, the first ornament I received when I was little. It's one of the first ornaments I try to put up on the tree and it means a lot to me because it's my link to my Childhood Christmases.

This Weekend

Toad and Santa, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

Aside from a buttload of work and lots of cleaning, this was an awesomely amazing weekend.

On Saturday we took Toad and Babygirl down to our local little municipal building where we got to see a great clown show (and I use the word clown loosely, because he wasn't dressed like a clown, thankfully, but did have parts of his act that were definitely clown-like) and to visit Santa!

Babygirl decided that she had no desire to sit on Santa's lap. I'm going to remind her of that when she's older and wants to sit on a boys lap. "But honey, you didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, so why sit on that boy's lap?"

Toad, however, was excited and raced to the line. He asked (ie: BEGGED) Santa for a DS for Christmas. Santa's response? "We'll see how it goes." Good Santa. Actually, I'm pretty sure there's a DS in Toad and Babygirl's futures, but I'm not sure if it will be Santa providing the DS or mom and dad!

How awesome did that Santa look? Seriously! His outfit was gorgeous and his beard was home-grown! I wanted to go crawl on his lap and ask him if I could have a weekend getaway with the hubby as my Christmas present, but I'm pretty sure the folks who put the show and treat on would have ousted me immediately, which would've sucked because Toad and Babygirl both got ice cream, a cookie, a giant glass of milk, and two presents! We're definitely heading to visit Santa at thsi particular locale again next year.

We then headed up to cut our tree. We go to a place where you can choose and cut your own tree. This year it was $20. I've been told that in some places in the nation it cost over $80 to get a real Christmas Tree. Seriously?! That's nuts!!

Some friends that we haven't seen in awhile and their children popped up on Saturday and then Scott and I indulged in junk food and Batman. A pinch of cuddling was thrown in as well. A perfect recipe for a Saturday night.

Sunday we were all a bit lazy, but in between work and stuff we managed to get the house cleaned and Toad's floor cleaned. We even got the tree up when my SIL and her BF showed up. I have some great pics of that I can't wait to put up.

All in all it was an amazing weekend. One that I hope the children will remember for a very long time.

Takaani and Kamik

Takaani and Kamik, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

Remember when they were just puppies a year ago? Remember?! Remember all of the chewed up towels and the destroyed toys? Remember the poop and pee on the carpet and the mountains of food we went through (oh, wait, we still go through that). Remember how adorable they looked as puppies?

They're not puppies anymore. But damn do they look majestic.

I knew there was a reason we kept them around.

Snowy days anyone?

So last night Scott and I had a rather late night - I had a very stressful deadline to meet and he - well - he was just up for some reason or another. Anyway, around midnight we let the dogs out so that we could go to bed. This is what we saw on the back porch.


Nice, right? We'd gotten about four or so inches yesterday, but it kept snowing through the night. One reason I'm glad that I'm married is because I have someone I can browbeat into shoveling our fairly large driveway!

There are, however advantages to having a lot of snow - which I experienced first hand this morning.


And, of course, I had to get a pic of one of the mals in the snow, right? This is Kamik, begging me with his eyes to let him off the leash so that he could go run around in the snow!


And now I'm headed outside to enjoy some sledding time with the kids. Wait - let me correct that - they sled, I take pictures.

My Son

Tongue Bells, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

A few months ago I proved that Babygirl was my daughter due to the whole "jumping in the air and sticking out your tongue" thing.

At least Toad's feet were on the ground.

Too Early

Ice Fishing 2, originally uploaded by scootersbabygirl.

I was driving around yesterday running errands and I was glad that I had my camera in the car. A few times I've seen ice fishers out on the large lake that's near us - here's the thing: it's too early! The ice hasn't had enough time to freeze yet! in many places, there is still water showing through the ice!

These guys, however, don't care. They walk out, tiptoeing in many cases, hoping that the ice is strong enough to hold them. Yesterday Babygirl and I caught two of them out on the ice - and this is why I love the telephoto lens! I was able to sit in the car and to get some shots of the crazy ice fishers who are risking their lives to get a bite.

And they say that those guys who are on Deadliest Catch are doing dangerous things. These guys, however, are absolutely stupid.

She's Definitely My Daughter

In the car today, on the way to get the Christmas tree that we haven't yet gotten (dang tree place was closed until Thursday), I was trying to explain to Toad and Babygirl why we celebrate Christmas on the day we celebrate it on. Neither Scott nor I are huge church-goers, and we have our own beliefs. Our children are baptized protestant but that was really the first and only time they've been to church.

Anyway, I gave a brief explanation that Jesus was born in a stable (manger, whatever), and that the wise men gave him gifts when he was born, which is sort of why we get gifts on that day. At this point Toad pipes in, "So Jesus turned into Santa?!"

Um, no.

So I explained AGAIN and made it a bit more clear.

Randi: And then, when Jesus grew up, he became a great man. He helped a lot of people in a lot of ways.
Babygirl: How momma?
Randi: One time he cured a man who was blind and made it so that he could see.
Toad: How did he do that?
Babygirl: Duh - he gave him glasses.

And the Christmas Season Begins

We try to not put up any Christmas decorations until after Toad's birthday is over. This is because I don't think it's right for us to celebrate Christmas before Toad's birthday is done, as the day should be just about him.

Now that it's over, it's time to get ready for Christmas! This doesn't mean that I haven't purchased tons of presents already - we have - and they're steadily arriving via the UPS truck. Fortunately the UPS guy isn't scared of Duke - in fact, the other day he remarked "he's such a good dog." Gotta love a dog-loving UPS guy.

Yesterday my favorite sister-in-law came down and babysat for a few hours so that Scott and I could get some little things and we even went out to lunch! Huzzah! I had an excellent prime rib and some mashed potatoes, and I discovered that I like the little baby corn at the salad bar!

We also got some Christmas decorations for around the house - garland and stuff. We have tons of tree stuff, but for some reason I never put up other stuff. Now, however, we're going to! I'm hoping that the kids and I can get some of it up before Scott comes home.

Do you decorate a lot of stuff around your house for Christmas?

And Interesting Birthday Party

I had a few surprises at Toad's birthday party this year. The first was one of my best friends showing up. K said she'd pop in, but as she's got a 2 month old baby, you never know what will happen! She was able to stop by with her beautiful 3 year old daughter, Chickie, and her 2 month old son - whom has yet to have a nickname - and her significant other, C. They seemed like they had a good time! Chickie did the jumping game and the egg hunt (it was Yoshi's egg hunt - it was a Mario theme).

As she was there anyway, I cornered her and took a few shots of her and the baby. This is my favorite.


Isn't he cute?!

Another surprise was my father showing up. Yes, he's been upgraded (slightly) from the term sperm-donor to the term of father. He called and asked if he could bring Toad's birthday present down, and then called when he had to reschedule. He actually showed up and brought my little brother (who is 20) with him.

He played with Toad and me on the Wii and had a blast saying "my big sister". As we've never been raised together, it was interesting, and I really enjoyed it.

This afternoon my sister-in-law is babysitting so that we can go out and get stocking stuffers and go to lunch. We haven't gone out to eat in FOREVER, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Meanwhile, enjoy birthday candle blowing goodness.

The 8 Year Old

I've written about Toad's birth story before, so I won't do it again. Instead, I'll tell you about how awesome this kid is.

Toad is in second grade and is doing amazingly well. he's extremely intelligent and he loves to help his friends in school. he has tons of friends and is the most popular kid in his class (a class of 7), and he enjoys hanging out with his friends.

He also enjoys hanging out with his sister, although he'll never admit to it. I feel so fortunate that he is such an amazing big brother. I know that he'll fight with his little sister, but I also know that, when it comes down to it, he'll protect her at all times - hopefully he'll beat up any boy who tries to date her (because neither of them are dating until they're 30. Amen.)

He loves to play video games, and I hope that his dream of becoming a video game designer comes true. He loves to play the Wii, and I know he'll love the DS that he's getting for Christmas (I think he was a bit upset that he didn't get the DS for his birthday, but we'll make it up on Christmas.)

He has a very soft heart. He loves to mess around but when someone hurts his feelings he lets it be known very quickly. At the same time, he feels bad when others get hurt too, and tries to stick up for people all the time.

He's a very fussy eater, and for a long time both Scott and I thought that he would grow up eating only chicken nuggets and noodles, but once I asked him to put an effort into eating, he's been trying new foods, and making us both extremely proud.

I love both of my children, but as I've told Toad numerous times, I will always love him longest. He's my baby. He is the one who helped me to grow up.

I love you birthday boy, and I can't believe that you're already 8.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best son and big brother in the whole wide world.

WATER!

In case you weren't aware, we've got a household full of animals. The dogs usually take up the spotlight here on my blog, simply because they're CONSTANTLY underfoot. I realized yesterday that I don't talk much about our cats. We have two cats - Duchess and Holly. Duchess has been with us for almost 7 years, and Holly has been with us for about three. Wow - I just realized that she's getting up there in years!

Anyway, Holly's a Mouser, with a capital M. She loves to chase anything and to kill it and eat it (bleck). When the weather gets cold, she decides to chase after Duchess and annoy her, just for fun. Last night was a good round and we got mad at both cats.

In our house we have a routine - get up, let the dogs out, put water in the dog bowl so that the cats can get first dibs on it (we've tried having a "cat" bowl but that didn't work so well). Anyway, Holly always waits for the water - unlike Duchess, she considers herself too high brow to drink out of the bathroom tub faucet. She's very impatient to get her water. This morning, however, I was still ticked off at her for chasing and annoying Duchess last night so I skipped giving her water and went straight to watching a bit of Survivor from last night.

The kids got up, I did their normal morning routine and complete forgot about Holly. Until she reminded me.


Holly sat right in the dog's water bowl, making her needs very well known. Then she wouldn't get out of the bowl so that Scott could fill it! So he decided to offer her a drink out of a cup.


I should definitely take more pictures of our cats.

Friends from Afar

I should have written this yesterday but it took me a bit to pull myself away from work and the new TV in order to get a shot - and this post definitely deserves a shot. Remember a few weeks ago when I was lamenting about Babygirl not being challenged at school? How she flies through workbooks like nothing and how she loves anything academic? The wonderful, beautiful, extremely thoughtful Jaime decided to take matters into her own hands and sent the kids two workbooks!

One workbook is more trucks and boy stuff - because even though it looked a little young she didn't want Toad to feel left out, and the other is all animals (which Babygirl LOVES). The minute she opened the package she jumped up and down and ran to get some pencils to do the workbook! It's right up her alley too - the perfect level to challenge her and yet is simple enough that the majority of the time I don't have to stop what I'm doing every two minutes to explain what she's supposed to do (God bless you for THAT one Jaime!).


Toad has been doing the truck workbook, even though he is a bit old for it, but it keeps him busy and he enjoys it, so who am I to stop him?! Babygirl meanwhile, has FLOWN through the workbook and is almost done. She skipped a few pages so we'll go back and work on those together, but she absolutely loved it - not just having something to do, but knowing that someone sent something special just for her.

Jaime - you're wonderful, beautiful, absolutely AMAZING and I love you oh so much - you've made me remember why friends you meet online can be just as amazing as friends you meet IRL. Thank you!!

Be Still My Heart

Dear Mr. 46,

It hasn't even been two full days yet but I have to tell you that I am still completely enjoying being around you. I want to spend more and more time with you and find myself thinking of excuses as to why I can turn to you. I watched you play with the kids last night on the Wii and was fascinated by how well you worked with them and by how much you apparently wanted to play with them.

I am enjoying spending time with you so much that Babygirl and I spent a good portion of time yesterday moving things around and cleaning up the area that is expressly yours, so that you can not only look great but feel great.

I still love touching you. Your smooth surface is just too difficult to not touch, and even your sleek extensions are enjoyable to handle as well.

I'm not sure quite how to tell you this, but, Mr. 46, I think...I think...I think I love you.

Love,

Randi

P.S. Please don't tell my husband. He's got a fragile ego and, well, let's face it, he's not anywhere near as big as you are...

Why Scott Will Never Go to Deer Camp Again

So I'm sure you all heard that Scott went to deer camp - three weekends in a row. The first weekend was fun. The second weekend kinda sucked because of the massive migraine that I had.

The third weekend Scott learned why he shouldn't go to deer camp very often.

I would like to introduce you to a few people. First, please meet Mr. 27. Mr. 27 is the television that my grandmother gave us when we lived in our teeny, tiny trailer right after Toad was born. It saw us through switching from VHS to DVD, getting surround sound, and countless hours of children's television programming. Here is Mr. 27.


Here's what Mr. 27 looks like from the entrance to the living room. Please ignore the huge mess in the background - some of it is kids toys, and the big black thing? Well, that's the accessory to the next thing...


So Scott went to deer camp for three weekends in a row. Randi, however, was at home. With the kiddos. Dealing with Mr. 27, who's had better days. See, he's starting to slowly let us know that it's time for him to be put out to pasture. He's been flickering on bright screens and has been extremely annoying at the front connectors - if you touched it, hell, if you breathed on it, the connectors would cause the tv to lose all of the images.

So Randi took a trip to Sears and came home with a slip for Mr. 46. Hello Mr. 46!!!!


Mr. 46 is a 46" Samsung LCD HD HDMI/DVI 1080P PIP FUKME TV. Yes, yes it is. I informed Scott when he called that I'd used his name to get credit for a new television. Okay, okay, I had permission to get it with his name (his credit is better than mine right now - damn college loans), but *I* picked it out and *I* ordered it - it's the first time I've ever picked out anything that expensive by myself, and I feel pretty damn proud!

We went down the Wally World on Sunday and found the stand you see the television on. I'm actually kind of in love with the stand as well as with the television. I love that it holds the television up off of the stand, so that I don't have to worry that the kiddos or dogs (more likely dogs) will accidentally brush up against it and break it.

The thing is that we were going to buy a new television when our taxes came in, but since there was an awesome deal, and since Sears was offering a good "buy now - pay whenever the fuck you have money" thing, we decided to take it and give ourselves an early Christmas present. Here's what Mr. 46 looks like coming into the living room.


The mess is still there (damn kids - oh - wait - I can't blame them for the dust in my house? Crap!) but can you see how much room it has freed up? Sorta? Kinda?

Or maybe it just looks better because it's sleek and black and SHINY. I just love touching it - it feels so smooth...

We just picked it up this afternoon (it's Monday when I'm writing this), and it took us the better part of the evening to get the television secured onto the unit and all the cords plugged in - we still haven't tied them all down in the back yet, but we got sick of moving things around.

So now that I've got my great white hunter back in my bed where his arms can go around me, think it's be bad of me to sleep out on the couch so that I can be closer to Mr. 46?