Ah, there we go. It's taken me 20 minutes to be able to post UNDER the video, and have it at the top! Anyway, that's what I've been singing at the top of my lungs for the past two days, ever since watching The Princess and The Frog. I LOVE it!! I had been considering auditioning for a woman's chorale here in town, even though I'm skeered to death of auditioning... until I realized there just wouldn't be time for it in our schedule right now. So I'll just have to content myself with singing at home, for my own benefit. I'll probably save a few dozen pairs of ears that way, at least.
So imagine these boobies all deflated, with nothing but the empty skin, and then you pretty much have what I'm staring down at right now. Sad and gross, right? That's my next project, after I get my abdominoplasty. Hopefully next year, unless any of you want to buy me new mams!
Anyway. Sunday was a pretty great day. Rob took the kiddos to church in the morning, while I stayed home to continue nursing my horrible migraine. It really sucks now, because there is not too much I can take (no NSAIDS), and I can't go too crazy on the Tylenol, either, because I get rebound headaches. So I was popping them one at a time, every 8 hours or so. Not too effective, and I can feel another one coming on right now. Suckage, especially since I really wanted to go to church. A new series is starting on various world religions (or as I jokingly called it, "International Jesuses," which both shocked and amused my husband, and it promises to be interesting. I keep forgetting to ask Rob how this first one went, though, so I dunno.
When they came home, we quickly got ready to go out for a mystery shop at one of the local Tex Mex places. I think Rob likes it even better than Moe's (Welcome to Moe's!), but maybe that's just because we haven't been there in a while. Jack whined all the way there that he doesn't like that place, and he didn't want to eat, and wah wah wah. I secretly ordered him a nothing-but-chicken burrito anyway, and when I put it in front of him, he said nothing. Just ate it until he was full. Maybe that's the trick, just ignore him and leave it in front of him? Well, we have tried that with varying success over the years, and I guess this was just our lucky day.
It was such a beautiful day out when we came home from lunch, I wanted to get outside and do some exercisin'. I haven't felt much like running since my post about it a week ago, but suddenly I wanted to go even faster and get my wheels down from the closet where they've been in hiding for the last, oh, 5 or 7 years. I used to rollerblade everywhere when I was in college, so I was pretty good at it, but it's been sooo long... so Rob was bemused when I said that not only did I want to go out, I wanted to take the dog with me, too!
Our dog is notoriously not good on a leash. She's used to just being let out in the backyard to roam to go potty, and we haven't walked her on a leash anywhere near as much as we ought.
So on second thought, the whole family went across the street with me to the lake, and Rob walked Tiger Lily while I got my skating legs back. I did about four laps around the lake, with my iPod on full blast to the tunes of Fergie and the rest of the Peas, before finally taking the reigns leash from Rob. The old girl didn't do too badly! She slowed me down, but I kept her running, and she kept going and didn't stop to smell every other blade of grass. Once around the lake with her was enough, though. I passed her back to her daddy and did several more laps around, until I had the fire in my lungs and the weakness in my ankles. I was thoroughly exhausted, and it felt great! I really pushed myself, and I plan to do it again soon, too.
After we showered and got ready to go (for everyone was hot and sweaty; they'd all done numerous passes around the lake, too), we had another mystery shop for dinner. This time, it was at a local upscale Italian eatery that we've been to many times for dates. I didn't want to pay a babysitter - short fundage right now - so we took the kids along and made them behave their best. They did okay, but they kept wanting to lie down on the benches, and Sophie's dres was too short. Her undies kept showing! So that's the end of that dress. She's going through clothes SO fast right now... but I digress. Dinner was excellent, although I had to run and puke mine up in the fancy bathroom! Sometimes things still just don't sit right in the ol' pouch. The kids wanted strawberries for dessert, so I ordered this zabaglione, and they absolutely devoured it. You can't tell from the iPhone pic, but it was lovely! Before the forks attacked, anyway...
And that was the very end of Spring Break. The kids got a bath and went to bed, and it was back to school this Monday morning.
I had fallen asleep early, but I woke up around midnight and stayed up past 0200 to book Sophia's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I tried like hell to talk her into going to the bouncy place, Kangaroo Jac's, instead, but no, she insisted on the giant mouse. And I promised her a party if she behaved better lately, and she really has. You only turn five once, after all! Five is big. BIG! I'm dying that she's five...
So then I had to make the invitations for all her school friends, because the party is this coming Sunday afternoon. I haven't heard from anyone yet, so I am hoping that they will RSVP. I booked for 12, but I can change the number up to 24 hours in advance. I know three will be there, for sure, right?
In the end, though, I found those invites still sitting on my desk after I put the kids on the bus this morning. Doh! Shoulda put them on the kitchen table.
The first thing I did was finish my reports for the previous day's lunch and dinner shops, and then I had to head out and do a coffeeshop one. Everything was great about the shop - except for the coffee. It was bland as anything, tasted just like hot water. I really needed the caffeine, too, but I ended up tossing out my cup halfway through. Bah!
On the way back, I stopped at Sophia's school to give the invitations to her teachers. They asked me if I was going to come in on Tuesday (now, her fifth birthday), and do something, since I still owed one more hour of service to the preschool. (Everyone is required to fulfill 10 hours by the end of this month.) I was planning to come in anyway, with cupcakes, but I didn't know it would count as my hour! So that was cool. We set it up.
After that, I had to go home and read up on my next shop, a new one for a paper company around the corner. It was a lot of work, a lot of details, so I hope I did all right. Haven't heard back from them yet... But I did manage to get a lot of good papers, some for CARE Package work, that will all be reimbursed. I love papers! Too bad it wasn't a scrapbooking store...
Back at home again, I'd planned to get my reports done right away for the coffee and paper shops, but I suddenly felt completely exhausted. I still had a few hours before the kids came home, or two at least, so I hoped to get a quick power nap in and then get back to work. Ho, ho, ho, there is no such thing as a power nap in the Land of Mel. I napped right up until I had to run to the bus stop to get the kids. Hate that! I had/have too much to do for naps! I wish I could never sleep, just stay up all the time... but sleep is pretty awesome. Waking up sucks, though, doesn't it?! I'm always disoriented and... babbling, that's what I'm doing here.
Sophia's long-hoped-for present arrived today, and it was on the porch when she came home from the bus. I opene the box to make sure of what it was, but I warned her not to look in it. Well, that was stupid, wasn't it? The first thing she did was look in it when I wasn't watching. She said she didn't, but then she was downstairs playing and talking to herself, and I heard her say something about, "I know I didn't get a Barbie for my birthday." Ha! She always rats herself out that way. So I figured, what the hell, now's as good a time as any! She didn't know about the CAR in the box with Barbie, which was what she really wanted, so it would still be a surprise. And it was, and she was thrilled, and yay!
Later, both sisters had their Barbies - after a long time of driving them around in Barbie's new car, which even Jack has been playing with because, of course, it has wheels - doing backbends on the dog's dirty-hairy-gross sleeping mat by the dirty-muddy-gross back doors. But don't look at that. Instead, look at the sisters playing sweetly together. See? They DO love each other!
I had to duck out for yet another mystery shop, this time at a far-away party store in Norfolk. I was given a "hero" citation for doing this shop, which is the only reason I went. I'm such a hero. But also, I wanted to bring balloons to school with tomorrow's cupcakes - the teachers said it was okay - and get Soapy an "I'm 5!" pin to wear on her birthday shirt, and this way, it was all free. I did the shop and collected my balloons, and then I snuck them into the coat closet when Soap wasn't looking. Hopefully I won't forget them when the time comes, tomorrow!
Rob was getting The Boy ready for his weekly Tiger Scout meeting when I got home, so it was just the girls and me. I don't know what they worked on tonight, but here he is looking pretty handsome in his uniform and leading the Tigers in the Cub Scout Promise. But oops, I just noticed all his beads are missing...
The girls and I had to run to the grocery store while they menfolk were gone. Farm Fresh is doing Double Dollar coupons all WEEK, and I have tons of coupons that give us free yogurt, so I've been way stocking up. So much so that when I sent Rob out for more later in the evening, I had to Freecycle it. We just don't have the room for more, and it apparently doesn't freeze well. Eat up, kids!
I also had to buy cupcakes, since they can't be homemade at the preschool "for my protection," and then while we were at the bakery, Sophia spotted a coconut cake with six cherries on top. My girl LOVES cherries, so she insisted that she wanted THAT cake and that she was going to eat ALL the cherries. Chloë kept pouting and saying that wasn't fair, and though I kept reminding her that it wasn't her birthday, her occasionally-benevolent baby sister decided that, okay, she would eat three and Chloë could eat the other three. And when they shared this news later with Jack, he declared it wasn't fair to him, either. Maybe I should just go buy a jar of cherries and cover the whole damn cake with them?!
Also, we bought some Almond Milk, since I had two $1 coupons for those, making them just 99¢ each. None of us had ever had almond milk before, but we were eager to try it. We opened the vanilla one as soon as we got home, and it was SO good! The kids must have had four glasses of it each, and I had a couple swigs myself. Good stuff! Have you had it? Do you like it?
I'd picked up some challah from the "Oops, We Baked Too Much" shelf at the store, and a couple dozen eggs, so I decided at the last minute that instead of leftovers, I was going to cook up some French toast for dinner. I had a few bites, so I knew that it turned out mmm, mmmm good. So good. Even without syrup, it was sweet and tasty and flavorful. I wish I could have eaten more, but then I would seriously have been in Dump City. And so I ate turkey and watched everyone else with their yummy breakfasty dinner.
So now it's 0100 and I really need to get into bed. I have a million things that I really MUST do, but staying up all night again just isn't an option. I guess I'll make some coffee in the morning and get right into things. At least I don't have to bake cupcakes. So have a good night, and I'll tell you all about Sophia's birthday on the morrow.
Fin.
Recent Comments