Not Cool...

Hi Peeps...
WOW... so, I thought for a minute it would be funny to explain our horrible, sick with kids weekend...

NO MORE

I'm siiiiiiiiiiiick....

It's Sucks big time...

I need broth based soup and a massage... HELP

Just Plain Funny... HA!

How We Tried to Have Easter

If you take a gander at the previous post, well, you will see that Easter was far from festive around here. Nonetheless, we sure did try! We had the 5 boys make their own shirts... here are the few shots that I was able to catch

This is Aedan and Josh... Far background is Eli

Here's the actual Eli up close and Kool-Aide faced

Of course, here's Aedan again... If there's a camera there's an Aedan

Then of course, I also tried to make a good home-grown type of meal. We had a whole ham - pineapple and brownsugar covered! - mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, green bean casserole, crescent rolls, deviled eggs and creamy cucumbers. Check these out:

What is Hell???

So, have you ever stopped to think of what hell really is or where for that matter?

Well, everyone has their theories, beliefs and histories and such, however...

I have found it.

Hell is a small duplex home, with 2 adults and 6 children in it (plus 3 cats). They are all there over Easter weekend.

You would think that this is a pretty bad scenario, but OH NO... that's just uncomfortable, we haven't discovered hell yet.

Now... those 6 kids are 9, 8, 6, 4, 3, and nearly 2 (side note: 5 boys, 1 girl).

Today is Monday and of those 6 children 5 have been sick.

Now now now, boys and girls, no I don't mean the sniffles... I'm talkin' serious stomach flu sickness!!!

Yes... Yes, this is hell.

Randomness You Should Check Out

Sometimes you come across things that are just cool to know, or bargains worth checking out. Well, when I do, I love to pass it along.

So...here ya go:
Have you seen the Netbooks? Check out this deal from AT&T
http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/221/att-to-offer-50-netbooks/

Long story short, Netbook for dang cheap.

Your Car Keys Can Save Your LIfe!!!!!

Did you know that your car keys could one day save your life? Seriously! Want to know how?

Ok, let's all use our imaginations for a moment.

You're leaving KMart late at night. It's dark, with only a few of those lamps in the parking lot. You have your bags of merchandise (you just wiped out their clearance sale on Easter Candy). You're fumbling your way out to your car with the bags and purse, or whatever, and next thing you know, you hear someone moving up quickly behind you. What if he/she is coming to grab you? Hit you and steal your money? What will you do? If you're at all like me, right about now your heart is thumping in your chest.

Well, most of us have a keyring that has a few keys at least. Well, before you even walk out into the lot, take those keys and put one between each finger of one hand. This is as if you're putting knives on your fist. If someone were to try to grab you, you swing and keys will seriously cut like a knife! Not to mention, if someone grabs your purse off of your shoulder, at least you have your car and house keys in your hand already (I speak from personal experience).

Also, a lot of cars have key fobs with alarms on them... If yours does, read on...

Obviously, that alarm button could help with the above scenario if someone were trying to snatch you. But, what if you're walking to your car and slip on ice and are really hurt? Hit that panic button so someone will notice.

And finally...

Keep those keys by your bedside at night. If you hear anything unusual, or someone trying to access your house, hit that panic button! Send that alarm wailing and that potential burglar will want nothing more than to be gone!

I'm sure we can think of more if we try...but how cool is that!!?? To think... My keys could save me!

Easter: The Christian and the Pagan Holiday

It's pretty much common knowledge that Easter is a Christian celebration of Christ's rising, but this holiday also has pagan origins.

Easter falls in the spring, the yearly time of renewal, when the earth renews itself after a long, cold winter. The word Easter comes to us from the Norsemen's Eostur, Eastar, Ostara, and Ostar, and the pagan goddess Eostre, all of which involve the season of the growing sun and new birth. The Easter Bunny arose originally as a symbol of fertility, due to the rapid reproduction habits of the hare and rabbit.

The ancient Egyptians, Persians, Phoenicians, and Hindus all believed the world began with an enormous egg, thus the egg as a symbol of new life has been around for eons.

The egg is nature's perfect package. It has, during the span of history, represented mystery, magic, medicine, food and omen. It is the universal symbol of Easter celebrations throughout the world and has been dyed, painted, adorned and embellished in the celebration of its special symbolism.

Before the egg became closely entwined with the Christian Easter, it was honored during many rite-of-Spring festivals. The Romans, Gauls, Chinese, Egyptians and Persians all cherished the egg as a symbol of the universe. From ancient times eggs were dyed, exchanged and shown reverence.

Neato ....Huh?

Now, we have tons of hard-boiled, dyed, crayoned, stickered and painted eggs... what do we do with them all?

The Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs

Step 1: Place eggs in a saucepan in an even layer and cover in cold water, enough to reach the top of the shells.

Step 2: Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Remove from heat immediately and let stand for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 3: Drain off the hot water and cover in cold water along with a few ice cubes. Let stand until completely cooled.

Keep these helpful hints in mind when making your hard-boiled eggs:
Tip: Farm fresh eggs are much harder to peel, so opt for older eggs if you plan to hard boil.
Tip: Add a small amount of baking soda to the boiling water to help make peeling easier.
Tip: Try rolling hard-boiled eggs lightly against a counter for easier cracking and peeling.

The Best Deviled Eggs

Serves 6-8Total

Time: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 dozen hard-boiled eggs, peeled

3 heaping tablespoons reduced-fat mayonnaise

1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons fresh chives, finely chopped (plus more for garnish)

4 slices of cooked bacon, finely chopped (or bacon bits)

2 teaspoons dried tarragon

1/2 teaspoon dried mustard

1/2 teaspoon saltFreshly ground pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS
Take each of your peeled hard-boiled eggs and slice off the bottom (wide) end to expose the yolk. Cut a small sliver off of the top (pointed) end to help it sit up straight.
Scoop out the yolks into a medium-sized bowl and place the whites carefully into an empty egg carton with the hole-end up for filling purposes.
In your bowl, mash the yolks with a fork and add mayonnaise, lemon juice, chives, bacon, tarragon and mustard, then stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Use a pastry bag with a piping tip or a zip top plastic bag with a corner snipped at an angle to fill your egg whites with the yolk mixture. Add more mayo if the mixture is too thick to pass through. Garnish with chopped fresh chives.

Tip: You can buy piping tips in the cake decorating section of the grocery store. Try attaching one to your zip top bag for more precise and decorative filling.

Part II: “Blended Families" and Baggage

Rise and shine and meet the day! Smell the coffee sweeties… Baggage… we ALL have BAGGAGE! Unless of course you were fortunate to have perfect parents who never split or argued, who also had perfect parents who never split or argued and each of them had … well you get what I mean. That AND you married, are still with, happy and blissful together the very first person you dated seriously.

So, we all have baggage.

Here’s the thing, we bring this baggage everywhere we go, it begins to mold and shape us into what we are to the world; good and bad. Ultimately, when we go into this new relationship, new family, etc. we view things that this new partner does in the same way that we would have viewed these actions in our previous partner. So if they look a certain direction, sigh a certain way, and so on and so on, we automatically jump to the same reaction we would have given to the other partner. We become impatient, annoyed, and even argumentative. Heaven forbid that this new person have any of the same qualities as the old partner because then … well, it is all going to be amplified to say the least.

How do we handle this? How can one partner bring it to the attention of the other without inciting an argument? Is it impossible to move on in this new relationship yet drop the baggage?

I have no clue. Hell, if I did I’d be one of those so-called experts, Right? HA…

Part I: Blended Families - Fact or Fiction?

So, is it truly possible to take him and his, then add her and hers and blend them all together to make a blended family?

Let's say each of the divorced parents remarried to someone who had one child from a previous marriage. Now you each have to navigate 44 relationships. Your 2 children have to obey 6 different adults with differing ideas of right and wrong. They each have to be siblings to children from 3 other families with no one in final authority to settle disputes.

Think about that for a moment...

And we dare wonder why there are problems... children acting out... HA.... I jiggle like a bowl full of jelly with laughter...

How do we handle it? The "experts" say a lot about it - on a side note, am I the only one who's noticed a lot of the experts have absolutely no personal experience in these matters? - anyway, they always talk about consistency, word power, etc. Want to know what I think? Oooh...Come on...Sure you do, that's why you're here right? hehehehe

Ok... I've been a child of divorce, and remarriage... and a couple more of both too to be honest. And now, I too am one of the divorcee statistics. So... in som small way I'd like to think that this gives me a unique (ok, not so unique) or thorough perspective.

To summarize my opinion, it SUCKS, no ifs, ands or buts about it! From my adult (ha) perspective of today, it's truly difficult. I can see where being someone without children or being with someone without would make things so much more simple. However, it's not the real world...you don't meet a whole lot of people who are single and still have no children once you've reached a certain age bracket.

But, let's think about this... can you and this new person ever truly be partners then? Will you ever be a not single parent? The fact is that it really doesn't change an enormous amount. Here's the thing, this new person in your life is still going to be 100% in their kids lives, regardless of if they life with him/her or not. This means that while you and yours may have Monday night baseball, they and theirs have Monday night golf lessons....NOW WHAT?

This is a reality that sucks... it is when you realize that you're still a single parent... that you will ALWAYS and FOREVER MORE be a single parent. WOW... now that is some nasty crud huh!?!?!

They and theirs will certainly be going in a different direction than you and yours... again with the WOW factor. Now what?

Do you date only those without kids? That's kind of unrealistic... find a great partner with kids vs. find an OK partner without, which makes better long-term sense?

Do you never settle down (so to speak) until all the kids are old enough to where they don't want anything to do with you anyway? HA... well, that could get pretty sad and pretty lonely.

Date someone extraordinarily older or younger than yourself? Hm...possibilities...

Forget it all and crawl into a hole.... Yup... that's the one.

Ok, Ok, if you have kids, the hole crawling option isn't really an option. If you're anything like me, you're happy to find someone who cares for and about children. But it still answers NO QUESTIONS AT ALL.

Forever a single parent, even if I date, live with, marry or whatever with one person for the next 50 years... WOW... talk about a sucker punch.

Therefore, In reality, a truly blended family would be FICTION (unless of course one or more of the exes is "passed on" - not likely).

...

... .... Part I;

... ... ... ... Part II tomorrow...

Save the date

Save the date:

June 22 – 23

CureSearch REACH THE DAY 2009 will be the ninth annual gathering of the childhood cancer community in Washington, D.C.

The event provides an opportunity for those who care about children with cancer, to share their story with our nation’s leaders, and to impress upon them that critical funding for childhood cancer research is needed.

We come together in one place on one day to raise our voices for all children with cancer and for those who no longer have a voice..

EVERYONE is welcome and there is NO COST to register for this event. The only expense would be in travel and hotel.

For sign-up, or more information please contact me at:

Justwondering1997@yahoo.com

Or

Sabrinag191@myactv.net

**We are hoping to work together and fundraise in order to assist in covering the travel and hotel expense for our group – this will be a vital portion of our success in making it to this event**

SUPER IMPORTANT!!!!!

Save the date:
June 22 – 23

CureSearch REACH THE DAY 2009 will be the ninth annual gathering of the childhood cancer community in Washington, D.C.

The event provides an opportunity for those who care about children with cancer, to share their story with our nation’s leaders, and to impress upon them that critical funding for childhood cancer research is needed.

We come together in one place on one day to raise our voices for all children with cancer and for those who no longer have a voice.

EVERYONE is welcome and there is NO COST to register for this event. The only expense would be in travel and hotel.

For sign-up, or more information please contact me at:

Justwondering1997@yahoo.com
Or
Sabrinag191@myactv.net

**We are hoping to work together and fundraise in order to assist in covering the travel and hotel expense for our group – this will be a vital portion of our success in making it to this

event**