Spring Break Lottery

Scenerio Number 1:

My family and I are leaving early this morning for Disney. We will be spending a glorious week in a fantastic hotel with pools and playgrounds and lots of amenities just for kids. We will be hangin' out with the big mouse and buddies, wearing ears with our names written on them, riding til' we puke, and laughing so hard our bellies hurt. We will come back tired, happy, with bags full of fun souveniers and lots of quality pictures for scrapping.



Scenerio Number 2:

My mom is keeping the kids for a week. This time tomorrow Brad and I will be at a swanky resort in Mexico. We will be eating at fancy restraunts by ourselves, no kids or ketchup or fights over the red crayon. Our drinks will be protected from the tropical sun by tiny umbrellas. We will sit on the beach at night and listen to waves crash on the shore. We will bring back sunburns and the most perfect of shells that we picked up while we walked hand-in-hand down the beach.



Scenerio Number 3:

Three of my best girlfriends and I are headed to Bliss Relaxation Spa for moms. We are flying first class to our getaway, where we will be pampered to no end. There will be massages. There will be manis and pedis. Our skin will glow from the most exotic of facial ingredients. We will come home to our families relaxed and beautiful, ready to take back our homes and whatever the kids and men did while we were gone-because it is worth it.


Scenerio Number 4:

We are hanging around our house this week. It is 10:00 and everyone is still in their pajamas. I have a couple of serious dates with the closets and the storage shed to do the old seasonal/sizes switcheroo. We might fish. I might take the boys to the movies. We could be eating pizza at some point. Noone is making bedtime. There is lots of Wii going on. And I am halfway through my second crazy-to-be-reading teen vampire love story (I started the first one last week.) It is pretty much anything goes. No big plans....just....us being us in our home.


So....one of these resembles our break. What about you?

March-Makin' me-Mad(ness)

Here it is. This time of year when basketball reigns in our home. Yippee.

I love me some Razorback basketball. We always try to make it up for a few games, and I will find myself callin' the Hogs with the rest of them.

But the Hogs are done this year. And now I my t.v. has been taken hostage by these other teams. Why is it that I can't make myself look at the games where there are colors like orange or green, no redeeming Razorback Red anywhere on the court.

And when Brad is into something, he is devoted. He doesn't watch much t.v. during the year-unless intermittent spells of the outdoor channel count as watching (it doesn't to me...in my mind it equals Nyquil.) I am allowed almost complete remote control (HA!) to my Grey's Anatomy or (regrettably) The Bachelor following. Pretty much he is an outside hunting, fishing kinda guy. Except for when the brackets come out and he totally loses his mind.

So now I only see his eyeballs when he stupors to the kitchen for sustenance. And it is remarkably quiet around here as he isn't on the bottom of a self-induced three kid dogpile. I guess a bonus was that I went to dinner and a movie with two friends last night, and I don't think he ever noticed I left the house. Not to mention I know this will all be over soon.

But if I hear the squeak of overpriced athletic shoes on a highly waxed wood floor one more time I may scream. It is literally the sound that keeps me awake at night and is haunting my dreams.

I totally caved...

So everyone has been going gaga over these silly vampire books. Now, I love trashy reading as much as the next person, but I was determined not to cave. Not when my teenage cousin told me I had to read it cause it is, like, the best book ever, and that guy is so hot. Not when all of my ADULT friends with fabulous taste (generally speaking) jumped on the bandwagon. I shall overcome.

And like just about everything else I ever said in my life I wouldn't do, I bought the book. Just the first one, and only because it was on sale and I needed something totally indulgent to read over spring break. And because I am feeling really left out of the hype and I like to be "in the know."

But I WILL NOT be one of those people who are coming into work in the morning with bloodshot eyes, a reading hangover with all of the tell-tale signs. However....I have only started reading it yesterday, and I am already a good ways through the book. And I will probably want to watch the movie after reading the book, but only to compare literature/cinema versions. Possibly I will want to read the next in the series if I have time over spring break. Because, after all, who doesn't want to be swept back to her sultry teenage years full of rainy northwestern small town life filled with hotty vampire love? I know it will take me back...I can relate.

Are you a reader (or will you admit it?) Do you get the hype? Even more importantly...do you have the next book?

Lessons learned in the Target checkout...

So there are many valuable lessons to be learned in Target. Target really knows how to put on a sale-once they decide they want it out of there, they don't play. The best bargains are found on the back endcaps of each aisle. If you really like something but have an aversion to paying full price, give it a week or two....it will be yours at a much more reasonable cost. Sometimes if something is already marked down, you will be delighted to find out that it is even less. Popcorn and a coke is less that $1.25 in the snack bar. The knowledge is endless.

Maddie has this baby. It is her thing, like Linus and his blankie. The baby is nothing special, something her Mamaw gave her for Christmas. I don't know what the appeal is, but this is the toy that stuck. It isn't cute. It used to make these creepy noises like it was possessed, and would even cry while it was alone in the crib. She loves this thing, and I don't mean kinda. She has toted the baby all over our house, on vacation, to Nana's. She even gave it a bath one night, which took care of the freaky sounds. Nevertheless, it is her thing. She loves it. We have come to call the baby Betty. As in, Ugly Betty. Not nice, but .....

She is seriously attached to this thing, and because I have waited for a little girl to wear bows and play dolls, I want her to have a pretty baby, one that I can put away as an heirloom one day to lovingly give to my grandaughter. This ain't that baby. So I have bought other dolls just knowing that she will find one that is nicer to tote around. She hasn't taken my bait.

Recently we have become afraid that something will happen to Betty, and Maddie will never sleep again. They have this whole bedtime routine. Maddie gathers her with her pacie and blanket, then tucks her in just right before she lays herself down. She is the first thing Maddie looks for when she gets up in the morning. Last week she cried to walk over to Papaw's, then made Papaw walk her home to get her "Bebe." We don't know how we would survive if Betty became lost or dismembered, and she does have two older brothers so that is entirely possible.

Yesterday Maddie and I had a girl's shopping day to Duck Duck Goose and Target. I was so proud, because she had a list of what she wanted to look for, and I am not kidding when I say that she came up with "shoes" on her own. Bestill my heart. We were shopping around Target when she spotted from across the aisle "my Bebe!" Only this one was clean, complete, and moved with the creepy noises. She would not let go. Daddy and I had talked about buying a spare "in case." Meet the newest member of our family...Betty the Second.

So we put her in the buggy and headed for the checkout. The girl who was checking had to pry the baby out of Maddie's hands. I jokingly said, "I don't know what's up with this baby. We are buying our second one because she is so attached to the first one. And she isn't even the cutest baby...I don't know why she loves this baby so much."

The checkout girl with all of her wisdom looked at me and said, "That just goes to show you that she doesn't decide who to love based on looks."

Whoa. Who new I was being so superficial about baby doll selection?!? So I paid for the baby, and we took her home. I won't say for sure, but we might be looking in the ol' baby name book for something new to call our little ones.

Have you ever had important life reminders in the most obscure places? Any suggestions for names?