Congratulations to Karen for winning the $10 Starbucks give-away!
If you click over to her blog, you’ll see exactly why she’s deserving of a little extra caffeine to boost her day…
I hope your Halloween/Fall Festival activities are fun and your baskets are full of Take 5 bars.
Have a nice day.
P.S. In case you haven’t decided what to cook for Halloween dinner tonight, check out this idea.
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I had a couple of things on my to do list yesterday, one of which was to get the car inspected. Truth be told, “get car inspected” has been on the to do list since August, but it’s obviously not been high on my priority list, and it has thrown Mr. CPQ into a tizzy every time he’s driven my car and seen the expired inspection sticker.
I personally don’t see how he’s noticed it over the mountain of coffee cups, library books, bakugan cards and dried out banana in the floorboard, but he’s got a eye for detail.
I had never been to his car place before but the minute I walked in the door I knew they were good people who obviously had their priorities straight.
Looking at that Krispy Kreme sign made me crave coffee, so I swung by Starbucks to pick up a grande cup of my new favorite Skinny Cinnamon Dolce Latte, and while I was there I decided that it has been a while since I had a little giveaway so I’ve decided to share the love today because it’s Friday and it has been a long week.
And it’s coffee.
And I’m an enabler.
Leave a comment by midnight tonight and tell me your favorite hot beverage and I’ll draw a winner on Saturday for a $10 gift card to Starbucks (or Caribou, if it’s preferred).
Have a nice day.
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We have two kinds of people in this house. The early risers and the “it’s too early to rise”ers. I happen to fall into the latter category.
I’m sure it does not surprise you in the least to discover that Mr. CPQ belongs to the former.
Two of the boys have taken after their father. It’s not unusual to hear Baby B headed down the hallway at 5 a.m., and Baby C wakes up and immediately reaches for a nearby Lego and starts his day CHEERFULLY and ENERGETICALLY and with LOTS OF WORDS.
I now know why tigers eat their young.
But my sweet Baby A?
This morning at the breakfast table as I sat nursing the first life breathing cup of coffee and he stared blankly at his growing increasingly soggy bowl of Cap’n Crunch, he said “Mom, you know why I don’t like to get up in the morning? I’m just too weak.”
Amen, honey.
Amen.
Have a nice day.
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I took the boys to the library yesterday because I was getting tired of the daily calls from the automated voice lady saying that my books were overdue and telling me to Press 1 if I needed an application for the second mortgage to pay my fines.
My problem is that I’ve been checking out knitting books and I have three projects in differing stages of completion, none of which are within the library’s three week return policy which is driving me batty because all the books promised “knit in under an hour” and they lie! they lie!
Anyway, I went to return them and while I was there, I thought that maybe I could be more efficient with my time if I let Travis play on the computer while I searched for my next book. That was a wee bit of a mistake because I didn’t stop to think that the library computers don’t have sound and while I was happily searching the stacks thinking he was quietly engrossed in his favorite activity, turns out he was getting a little agitated about the no sound thing and turns out that the rest of the library patrons found out about it when OVER THE LOUDSPEAKER I hear “Will the parent of the child on Computer 19 please come help him?”
I knew that would be me, just as sure that I know that “cleanup on aisle 5″ involves one of my offspring.
Speaking of offspring, I was reminded yesterday that you never stop being your mama’s kid. My mom pulled me from the ledge yesterday with a well-timed phone call that I received when I was in the middle of spinning myself into an ugly state because I had misplaced a Very Important Prescription that I had picked up at the doctor’s office two weeks ago and had promptly misplaced in the house before I could get my ducks in a row to fill out the paperwork to mail it in and get it filled.
I had looked high and low for about 10 minutes an hour and it was nowhere to be found and Mom told me I just needed to call the doctor back and get another prescription and I was trying to tell her that was just going to be beyond painful for me to do because though my house is usually just shy of disastrous on most days, I have this need to appear perfect and on top of everything and calling the doctor to admit I had lost it was somehow going to turn me into a candidate for Worst Mother of the Year award.
And Mom gently told me that these things happen and just call them and get it over with and move on with important things in my life like calling my mother and telling her what charming things her grandchildren had said that day, and then she asked the magic question, “Have you looked in your purse?”
Looking in my purse is akin to going dumpster diving outside a Georgia-Pacific plant. Mr. CPQ says I have a little bit of a “problem” when it comes to organizing receipts, etc. and I have to agree with him on this one. Let’s hope he doesn’t read the blog today. Don’t want it going to his head that I said he’s right.
Anyway, wouldn’t you know? When she said “purse”, I remembered that I had placed it in there so I’d KNOW WHERE IT WAS and it wouldn’t get lost in the other piles of paper I have on the counter that sit there until they’re overtaken by events and I can then throw them away.
Hello, my name is Susan and my mother is still saving my bacon.
Speaking of bacon, I have eight pounds of it in the refrigerator. Mr. CPQ and I didn’t coordinate shopping schedules and we went to the warehouse club on the same day and both decided to buy bacon, and now I need to find recipes for bacon casseroles or it will go bad. I guess I can freeze it, right?
I think I better call Mom. She’ll know.
Have a nice day.
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1. I’m so glad my friend Gretchen chose Tuesday for Gladitudes. I didn’t have anything to blog about this morning.
2. I’m glad I have weird people at the gym who serve as amusement. Hearing today’s recitation of Larry’s IKEA purchases kept me on the bike for an additional fifteen minutes.
Who knew IKEA sold pickled cranberry herring?
3. I’m glad for confirmation of “next steps” I need to be taking. It never ceases to amaze me how God shows up at the right time – never early and never late, but exactly when I need to hear from Him.
4. I’m glad that Target stocks Jose Ole chicken taquitos.
5. I’m glad for signs of growth and maturity in my boys. In the past few weeks they have expressed sorrow over truly difficult situations instead of crying over who got the last brownie.
6. Speaking of crying, I’m glad I didn’t over the spilt milk on my freshly mopped kitchen floor.
Deep breaths.
7. I’m glad for the new food processor I got this week. There was something a little hinky about having to stick a knife blade into a little slot to make the old one work.
8. I’m glad for candles that mask the scent of cooked turnip greens.
9. I’m glad nothing fell out of the door when the kids got out at carpool this morning.
10. I’m glad that I haven’t heard the squirrels in a week and haven’t smelled anything dead in the walls, either.
What are YOU glad about today?
Have a nice day.
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It’s been a long time since I’ve had such a fun weekend. It’s not that I did a lot, but everything I DID do brought a lot of enjoyment. Friday night I went to bed earlier than my mother does, and slept for twelve hours straight. It was sheer bliss. I don’t think I’ve slept that long since, well, ever.
One would think that sleeping that long would make one productive the rest of the day, but one would be wrong.
I didn’t want to tax my energy because I had to get ready to go to Kellie’s Blogapalooza Party that she had planned for Saturday night. I managed to drag myself into the shower around 3:00 and got dressed in time to make a quick stop at the Philosophy makeup counter before heading to the restaurant. I rarely do makeup counter appointments because I have a hard time saying “no” to getting every little product they put on my face, but I had pre-decided on the purchases I wanted to make before getting there, and other than one additional impulse purchase, I walked out with what I needed, and a little more than what I had bargained for in terms of cheek color, but Kellie and our friend K2 told me that I didn’t look clownish, and I trusted they knew what they were talking about since I know nothing about makeup even though theoretically I was in cosmetic sales for five years.
That may be the longest sentence ever.
So we arrived at the party and I was so tickled to see so many people that I know and love IRL, and got to meet three new-to-me bloggers, and got to hang out with someone that I never thought I’d get the chance to meet, but I did, and it was the highlight of my little bloggy career.
But first, the food.
This was my plate and you will notice the complete and utter absence of vegetables.
This was Kellie’s plate and now you understand the obstacles we have to overcome in our friendship.
We have previously discussed in this space my complete lack of mad photography skillz, but I did manage to document the evening’s attendees.
l. to r. Faithful Reader/blogger “Sally“, my crafty buddy Gretchen, and June
l. to r. Janel and “I don’t have a blog but I just lurk on all of yours” K2, and not pictured because she left before I started taking pictures Jessica
l. to r. Rachel, Heather, Tracey, and Amy
I have previously discussed my love for all things June, and it was such a treat to get to meet her in all her Michigander accent glory. She’s delightfully self-deprecatingly funny, kind, good-natured, down to earth, and so not the blog star diva that she could be given the eighteen jillion people that read and comment on her blog.
Her take on the evening is in true, inimitable June fashion, and if you click on this link, you’ll see a much better picture of me when I hadn’t eaten my lipstick off and you’ll also learn that I have this habit of fixing people’s unmentionables.
Oh, yes, I did.
Have a nice day.
P.S. Be sure and click over to everyone else’s blogs….I promise they will have MUCH better pictures than I have!
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Put away your hankies – we’re not going to weep on the blog today.
Well, you, Dear Reader, are not going to cry. I, however, am still crying over my shopping experience on Wednesday when I learned the awful truth that Eddie Bauer has apparently not bought into vanity sizing.
That’s the truth I choose to believe.
Moving on.
Since I’ve been fairly worthless this week what with the whole coughing up a lung thing, Mr. CPQ volunteered to take us out to dinner last night. His dinner offer was not completely unconditional as it was issued with a pre-emptive Mexican strike because while he has been sympathetic to my plight, he knows full well that I would shamelessly use my weakened state to my complete advantage.
My love for the taquito knows no bounds.
He looked through the coupon book we’d received in the mail, and when I saw the gleam in his eye, I knew there was only one place it could be.
His love for the strip mall Chinese buffet knows no bounds.
Nothing says “fine dining” like patrolling security guards and a gold velour track suit.
Craig thought this one was five times better than the other ones he’s tried, which on the one hand frightened me and on the other hand released a lot of self-imposed pressure on what constitutes a quality meal at dinnertime at my house.
The boys also gave it two thumbs up, but I think it had nothing to do with the food and everything to do with the quarter they filched out of the koi pond to buy a gumball.
Have a nice day.
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I took the boys to ChickFilA yesterday to celebrate early dismissal from school, and I’ve decided I have to stop going there because something always happens that makes me cry.
She was dressed in a beautiful vibrant green maternity top with rosettes around the neckline. He was wearing glasses and a striped polo shirt and pressed pants. As they slid into the booth, I noticed that she seemed on the verge of tears. He was sitting opposite her and as he looked at her face, he scrunched his little nose and asked, “What’s wrong, Momma?”
Her voice trembled as she sadly explained, “Your shirt, honey. The little boy you were playing with had a pen in his hand and he got ink on your nice shirt. And we drove all the way to Raleigh to get pictures made, and your daddy took off work to be with us, and now your shirt is messed up. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get the ink out now, and it was my favorite one that you have, and…” Her voice trailed away and she put her hands to her face in a vain effort to hold back the tears that were already making their way down her cheeks.
Are you there?
The day the final insignificant straw carries a spirit-crushing weight?
I could tell that it wasn’t about the shirt. There were burdens in her life that went way beyond an ink stain that could be photoshopped out of the final portrait. My heart broke, not only for her, but also for my dear friends who bear up under loads that grow heavier each day. My first instinct is to try to shoulder the load with them, but sometimes the narrow trail on their journey means there’s not enough room for two.
How do I help?
I saw that little freckle-faced boy lean across the table, pucker his lips, and softly kiss her hands as they covered her face.
“I love you, Momma.”
Love.
Offered in response to pain.
Oh, dear hurting friend, do you know you are loved?
Extravagantly?
Completely?
Sometimes, love is all we’ve got to give.
Sometimes, it’s enough.
Have a nice day.
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Mr. CPQ (eating and frowning): Did you buy new rice?
Me: No.
Mr. CPQ: Is this jasmine rice?
Me: No.
Mr. CPQ (still trying to elicit stimulating dinner conversation): Maybe basmati?
Me (deciding to humor him enter into the discussion): Is there something wrong with the rice?
Mr. CPQ: I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but it tastes like Bounce.
Yep.
Note to self: Never store the rice on top of the dryer sheets.
Have a nice day.
P.S. Best wishes for a happy anniversary to ImNotNed and Momologuer, and a happy birthday to my (coffee) drinking buddy, Kellie. I’m blessed by your friendships.
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I’m still a little under the weather, as evidenced by the thoughts that crossed my mind as I lay on the couch, remote in hand, hacking out my lungs.
________________________________________________________
1. Maybe plastic surgery’s not such a bad option after all.
2. If I had half of Maury’s paternity test business, I’d be a rich woman.
3. Three letters. Q-V-C
4. Who knew that for two easy payments of $19.99 I could solve my little “problem” painlessly?
5. I bet Jeff Corwin could get the squirrels out of my attic.
6. 587 channels and I’m stuck on Cheaters?
7. I would not cross Judge Judy.
8. Where are my WKRP in Cincinnati reruns?
9. I love the Wonderpets theme song.
10. Bidding on the first showcase in such an amateur move.
If I’m still down tomorrow, we’re moving to Video on Demand.
Have a nice day.
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