Here's some Total Momsense

i win a lot

i seem to win a lot of stuff. when i tell people that i won those tickets to have lunch with Casting Crowns they all say WOW you win a lot of things. my friend deborah reminded me that 2 winters ago i won an all expense paid ski trip to beech mountain. and my sister reminded me that i once won a deli platter. (????) and i have won concert tickets, free tupperware, cd's, t-shirts, books, but so far no $$$. but i enter to win lots of stuff too. maybe that's the key to winning.

cathy said i should buy a lottery ticket.

so what have you won? or am i the only winner that you know? haha

I WON I WON I WON I WON I WON!!!

I won!!! a few weeks ago my friend cathy sent me a link to try to win tickets to have lunch with
Casting Crowns. she said if i win i will take you and if you win you can take me. well guess what!! ha ha. they called me yesterday and told me i won 4 tickets to have lunch with them.

now if you don't listen to contemporary Christian music you probably don't know who they are. but they are the big dogs in the arena. especially for someone who aspires to do what they are doing.

so friday at 12:30 i am taking DH, cathy and her DH tim to lunch. there were about 8 people who won so there should be about 32 people there. nice intimate setting. hopefully i can get some pix.

and i called deborah to tell her and she said oh yea i know. i was like how do you know i just found out! she said they said my name on the radio that i was a winner. and one of the pre-school teachers told her that she heard my name. so deborah knew before i did!

i won and i'm famous........makes my day!

hahahahahahaha!!!

how sad

this is how boring my life is. i have to post stuff that other people blog about. now that's sad

read this

it is hysterical!!

LOT OF POKEMON CARDS THAT MY KIDS TRIED TO SNEAK BY ME

I'm selling a bunch of Pokemon cards. Why? Because my kids sneaked them into my shopping cart while at the grocery store and I ended up buying them because I didn't notice they were there until we got home. How could I have possibly not noticed they were in my cart, you ask? Let me explain.

You haven’t lived until you’ve gone grocery shopping with six kids in tow. I would rather swim, covered in bait, through the English Channel, be a contestant on Fear Factor when they’re having pig brains for lunch, or do fourth grade math than to take my six kids to the grocery store. Because I absolutely detest grocery shopping, I tend to put it off as long as possible. There comes a time, however, when you’re peering into your fridge and thinking, ‘Hmmm, what can I make with ketchup, Italian dressing, and half an onion,’ that you decide you cannot avoid going to the grocery store any longer. Before beginning this most treacherous mission, I gather all the kids together and give them “The Lecture“.

“The Lecture“ goes like this…

MOM: “We have to go to the grocery store.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Hey, I don’t want to go either, but it’s either that or we’re eating cream of onion-ketchup soup and drinking Italian dressing for dinner tonight.”

KIDS: “Whine whine whine whine whine.“

MOM: “Now here are the rules: do not ask me for anything, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly, do not try to leave your brother at the store. Again.”

OK, the kids have been briefed. Time to go.

Once at the store, we grab not one, but two shopping carts. I wear the baby in a sling and the two little children sit in the carts while I push one cart and my oldest son pushes the other one. My oldest daughter is not allowed to push a cart. Ever. Why? Because the last time I let her push the cart, she smashed into my ankles so many times, my feet had to be amputated by the end of our shopping trip. This is not a good thing. You try running after a toddler with no feet sometime.

At this point, a woman looks at our two carts and asks me, “Are they all yours?” I answer good naturedly, “Yep!

“Oh my, you have your hands full.”

“Yes, I do, but it‘s fun!” I say smiling. I’ve heard all this before. In fact, I hear it every time I go anywhere with my brood.

We begin in the produce section where all these wonderfully, artistically arranged pyramids of fruit stand. There is something so irresistibly appealing about the apple on the bottom of the pile, that a child cannot help but try to touch it. Much like a bug to a zapper, the child is drawn to this piece of fruit. I turn around to the sounds of apples cascading down the display and onto the floor. Like Indiana Jones, there stands my son holding the all-consuming treasure that he just HAD to get and gazing at me with this dumbfounded look as if to say, “Did you see that??? Wow! I never thought that would happen!”

I give the offending child an exasperated sigh and say, “Didn’t I tell you, before we left, that I didn’t want you taking stuff from the bottom of the pile???”

“No. You said that you didn’t want us to take a can from the bottom of the pile. You didn’t say anything about apples.”

With superhuman effort, I resist the urge to send my child to the moon and instead focus on the positive - my child actually listened to me and remembered what I said!!! I make a mental note to be a little more specific the next time I give the kids The Grocery Store Lecture.

A little old man looks at all of us and says, “Are all of those your kids?”

Thinking about the apple incident, I reply, “Nope. They just started following me. I’ve never seen them before in my life.”

OK, now onto the bakery section where everything smells so good, I’m tempted to fill my cart with cookies and call it a day. Being on a perpetual diet, I try to hurry past the assortment of pies, cakes, breads, and pastries that have my children drooling. At this point the chorus of “Can we gets” begins.

“Can we get donuts?”

“No.”

“Can we get cupcakes?”

“No.”

“Can we get muffins?”

“No.”

“Can we get pie?”

“No.”

You’d think they’d catch on by this point, but no, they’re just getting started.

In the bakery, they’re giving away free samples of coffee cake and of course, my kids all take one. The toddler decides he doesn’t like it and proceeds to spit it out in my hand. (That’s what moms do. We put our hands in front of our children’s mouths so they can spit stuff into them. We’d rather carry around a handful of chewed up coffee cake, than to have the child spit it out onto the floor. I’m not sure why this is, but ask any mom and she’ll tell you the same.) Of course, there’s no garbage can around, so I continue shopping one-handed while searching for someplace to dispose of the regurgitated mess in my hand.

In the meat department, a mother with one small baby asks me, “Wow! Are all six yours?”

I answer her, “Yes, but I’m thinking of selling a couple of them.”

(Still searching for a garbage can at this point.)

Ok, after the meat department, my kids’ attention spans are spent. They’re done shopping at this point, but we aren’t even halfway through the store. This is about the time they like to start having shopping cart races. And who may I thank for teaching them this fun pastime? My seventh “child”, also known as my husband. While I’m picking out loaves of bread, the kids are running down the aisle behind the carts in an effort to get us kicked out of the store. I put to stop to that just as my son is about to crash head on into a giant cardboard cut-out of a Keebler elf stacked with packages of cookies.

Ah! Yes! I find a small trash can by the coffee machine in the cereal aisle and finally dump out the squishy contents of my hand. After standing in the cereal aisle for an hour and a half while the kids perused the various cereals, comparing the marshmallow and cheap, plastic toy content of each box, I broke down and let them each pick out a box. At any given time, we have twenty open boxes of cereal in my house.

As this is going on, my toddler is playing Houdini and maneuvering his little body out of the seat belt in an attempt to stand up in the cart. I’m amazed the kid made it to his second birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. In between trying to flip himself out of the cart, he sucks on the metal bars of the shopping cart. Mmmm, can you say “influenza”?

The shopping trip continues much like this. I break up fights between the kids now and then and stoop down to pick up items that the toddler has flung out of the cart. I desperately try to get everything on my list without adding too many other goodies to the carts.

Somehow I manage to complete my shopping in under four hours and head for the check-outs where my kids start in on a chorus of, “Can we have candy?” What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping with children.

As I unload the carts, I notice many extra items that my kids have sneaked in the carts unbeknownst to me. I remove a box of Twinkies, a package of cupcakes, a bag of candy, and a can of cat food (we don’t even have a cat!). I somehow missed the box of Pokemon cards however and ended up purchasing them unbeknownst to me. As I pay for my purchases, the clerk looks at me, indicates my kids, and asks, “Are they all yours?”

Frustrated, exhausted from my trip, sick to my stomach from writing out a check for $289.53, dreading unloading all the groceries and putting them away and tired of hearing that question, I look at the clerk and answer her in my most sarcastic voice, “No. They’re not mine. I just go around the neighborhood gathering up kids to take to the grocery store because it’s so much more fun that way.”

So, up for auction is an opened (they ripped open the box on the way home from the store) package of Pokemon cards. There are 44 cards total. They're in perfect condition, as I took them away from the kiddos as soon as we got home from the store. Many of them say "Energy". I tried carrying them around with me, but they didn't work. I definitely didn't have any more energy than usual. One of them is shiny. There are a few creature-like things on many of them. One is called Pupitar. Hee hee hee Pupitar! (Oh no! My kids' sense of humor is rubbing off on me!) Anyway, I don't there's anything special about any of these cards, but I'm very much not an authority on Pokemon cards. I just know that I'm not letting my kids keep these as a reward for their sneakiness.

Shipping is FREE on this item. Insurance is optional, but once I drop the package at the post office, it is no longer my responsibility. For example, if my son decides to pour a bottle of glue into the envelope, or my daughter spills a glass of juice on the package, that’s my responsibility and I will fully refund your money. If, however, I take the envelope to the post office and a disgruntled mail carrier sets fire to it, a pack of wild dogs rip into it, or a mail sorting machine shreds it, it’s out of my hands, so you may want to add insurance. I will leave feedback for you as soon as I’ve received your payment. I will be happy to combine shipping on multiple items won within three days. This comes from a smoke-free, pet-free, child-filled home. Please ask me any questions before placing your bid. Happy bidding! :)

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new car

i got a new car this weekend. but only b/c we could not afford the payments on the car of my dreams. i am so lucky. i got a new car. but i can only think about the one i had to give up. i have a horrible attitude. it's not like i can't ever have that car again. but for now if we want to pay our bills and keep big C in private school, we have to do what we have to do. and it is cute. and boy does it go fast. but it's smaller and doesn't have all the bells and whistles that my Toyota had. please send me something to make me smile. (did you notice i did not use one exclamation point? that's how sad i am)

rodents

#69. i used to bite my nails. badly. until they would bleed. (another downfall of my parents divorce.) when i was in the 3rd grade i wanted a hamster soooo bad!! i convinced myself that if i quit bitting my nails, the easter bunny would bring me a hamster. and a habitrail! well guess what. i quit bitting my nails but that damn easter bunny never came through with the hamster.

#68. when i moved out i got my own hamsters. (actually they were gerbils.) priscilla who was an albino and stump who only had 3 legs. i loved those guys! and we would let them out and run around in the living room and the cats never bothered them. they they died. so i had a kid instead! :)

tag from swishy

OK ... tag time!

Four Jobs You've Had in Your Life:
1. mcdonald's 3 years (yes i know)
2. rock-n-roll emporium - high priced t-shirts and shoes for the rich punk
3. a nanny
4. pharmacy tech 7 years- great job- lots of stress - old sick people suck

Four Movies You Could Watch Over and Over:
1. my big fat greek wedding
2. lord of the rings (all 3 of them)
3. the godfather
4. gone with the wind

Four Places You've Lived:
1. in a trailer/mobile home
2. tampa (i hate florida)
3. here
4. with my mom

Four Websites You Visit Daily:
1. this one
2. myspace
3. various blogs
4. pop sugar

Four TV Shows You Love To Watch:
1. iron chef
2. fairly odd parents
3. numbers
4. friends

Four of Your Favorite Foods:
1. ribs
2. chicken and dumplings
3. avocados
4. dark chocolate M&M's

Four Albums You Can't Live Without:
1. 1 the beatles
2. american beauty grateful dead
3. forrest gump soundtrack
4. tragic kingdom no doubt


Four Places You'd Rather Be:
1. party porch in new hampshire
2. my sisters
3. in bed sleeping
4. in bed reading

weekend

boring as usual. friday night went to jackson's java to see the band play before they leave for their mission trip this wednesday. it was really hard for me to be there and not be singing. and the girls tim has in my place can't hold a candle to me if i do say so myself! DH didn't get home until almost 1 then we stayed up talking. so it was a late night.

saturday i let him sleep in. i got up with monkey and we hung out. i always feel like i can't relax until the kitchen is clean so i cleaned it up while DH slept. we got ready and went to look at a new car. i don't want to sell mine but the payments are killing us. so we went to kia to look at a sedona. a lot like mine but cheaper payments. we told them we were NOT going to buy a car. i hate car salesmen. i know they are just doing their jobs but the pressure is unbelievable. but we left without getting one. then DH was on the phone with them all the rest of the afternoon trying to make a deal. i was so proud of him. he really stood his ground.

sunday was church. i love next level. i love the music and the preaching. i just wish i could meet some people. really only know the people from crossroad that are now going there. but still a great time. that harrison is an awesome worship leader. www.bankruptchristian.blogspot.com
then we came home put on the race and took naps. dinner then iron chef. i love that show.

boring. but big C and DH leave for their trip wednesday. please send up a prayer for them for safety. and one for me as i will be home with monkey for 5 straight days.!!!

...

#73. i am an over-rinser. washing dishes, hands, little people and in the shower i always feel like i still have stuff on me. and i don't have soft water. i have a ton of hair and it takes a long time to get it all rinsed out then it's all over my skin and i have to rinse again. just have to make sure. i think that is an OCD trait.

#72. last year i tried to stop procrastinating. if i had the thought "oh i need to do ______" then i made myself stop what i was doing and do that thing. it lasted about 2 months. then i got tired of getting stuff done like i was supposed to!

#71. when i was little, probably 6 or 8, we went to a carnival and i got lost in the house of mirrors. it was totally terrifying. i can still remember how freaked out i was. i have never been in one since.

#70. and i can't believe melissa forgot this one. our dad took us to disney world when we were about 7 and 8 and we went on the Haunted Mansion ride. towards the end you ride in front of these mirrors and there is a ghost in the mirror but it looks like it's sitting in your car. and they say "this ghost will be coming home with you..." bahh hahha. (that's a scary ghost noise) anyway melissa got really scared because she really thought it was coming home with us. too funny. so actually this is not about me but i was there.