Finger lickin good

We are having a smorgasbord of food today in my office to celebrate this lovely holiday. My contribution was severed witch finger cookies. Heh heh heh! Everyone loves them!

Sasquatch sighting? For real?

The Cincinnati Enquirer has a story about Big Foot and an overly enthusiastic Big Foot investigator. I'm hoping this is some sort of Halloween farce. It seems to be written too tongue-in-cheek to be real, but then again, I'm not so sure. Read it here and tell me what you think.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Happy Halloween everyone! Halloween in the P house is sort of like Christmas Eve - last night I was feverishly trying to finish up making cookies and candies, and then I had to set out gifts! I was a little anxious when I went to bed, excited for today. I bought the girls some goodies and stuffed toys - Lydia got a stuffed owl and Arlene got a stuffed devil/vampire thing (not sure exactly what it is!). When they saw their stuff, Arlene said, "Mommy, this is the BEST Halloweenday EVER!" It was hard for them to understand that we couldn't go trick-or-treating right now - they thought because it was Halloween today that meant that it's time to go trick-or-treating right now. Tonight will be lots of fun! I will take pictures and post them tomorrow. Happy day! Have a spookishly delightful day everyone!

Hello, I'm Miss Cinnamon

As my blog readers know, I frequent Starbucks in the mornings and usually order a grande cinnamon dolce latte and a cinnamon sugar donut. I like to go to the Starbucks drive thru that is out of my way, because they are so stinkin' nice and friendly, as opposed to the Starbucks that is almost next door to my office, because they are uppity and rude. Friendly Starbucks employees are just such a great start of my day! Today, I went to the drive thru and decided to change it up a bit, I was in the fall mood for some pumpkin. I placed my order, "Grande pumpkin spice latte and a cinnamon sugar donut." The guy says, "What, no cinnamon dolce today?" I reply, "Nope, I'm in the mood for pumpkin today." The whole interaction put a smile on my face. The fact that a DIFFERENT Starbucks barista remembers who I am and what I like pleases me! I have blogged about this before, but that post was about a different guy at Starbucks. This guy that waited on me today is usually the one that is making the drinks, today he was taking orders. When I got to the window the guy hands me my donut and says, "Here's one half of your usual cinnamon, cinnamon order. We can't call you Miss Cinnamon today." I had to laugh ... do they really refer to me as "Miss Cinnamon"? How funny! And how cute.

Carving pumpkins!

Uncle Jeremy came over this Saturday and we carved pumpkins! We did five pumpkins in all. The girls were waaaaay excited. We have Halloween-lovin' kids!

Check out the photos in my Flicker page here.

ARLENE DID IT!

Look who got the Higgly Town Hero toy! Arlene did! She was awarded the toy Friday after a successful day with her Pull-Ups and a successful evening of wearing BIG GIRL UNDERWEAR! Way to go Arlene! She went ALL WEEKEND in BIG GIRL UNDERWEAR, and only had one tiny little accident, which is amazing, considering we went to a birthday party and a full day of shopping on Sunday. We don't know why all of a sudden Arlene just got it and it all clicked for her, but we do know that it is AWESOME!! What a big girl Arlene is!!! Lydia is next ...

(Is it possible for Arlene to look any cheesier in this picture?! What a silly kid.)

Cheers & Jeers

Cheers to:
* Fall and red leaves!
* Halloween being only a week away!
* October birthdays! This is a month of celebration in our house!
* Fresh hair cuts and new hair products!
* Mineral powder make up - have you used the stuff?! So light yet such great coverage!
* Heart medication: no more racing heart beat, no more skipped beats or palpitations. Hooray!
* Hand-dyed imported yarn!

Jeers to:
* Schools or churches calling Halloween parties "Harvest" parties. We all know what that means! Especially if you hold the party on October 31!
* Starbuck's "Song of the Day" free downloads. Most of the music stinks and is old.
* Not getting enough sleep!
* Crashed computers. Boo hoo.
* Mice in storage units. (Don't ask me to explain)
* Crashed computers. Deserving of double jeers.
* Bathroom stall doors that open in. All stall doors should open out.

* I shamelessly stole this blog theme from Write Here Write Now. Sorry Mrs. Stark.

Potty training update

I know everyone is on pins and needles waiting to hear about the progress of the girls' potty training. Hahaha just indulge me please! Writing about it helps ease my frustrations! Arlene is CLOSE but Lydia is not. I have placed that HigglyTown Hero toy I wrote about on top of the fridge and I told the girls that when they can keep their pullups completely dry for an entire day they can have it! Arlene will get it first, but it might be awhile. She does really good but then craps out (literally) toward the end of the day. I wish there was a potty-training academy that I could send them to. I'd pay. I'd pay lots. How awesome would it be to take them somewhere where someone can perform magic and suddenly, the girls say, "Mommy, I have to go pee-pee!" BEFORE they actually go and they actually MAKE it to the toilet and I don't have to change diapers or pull ups anymore and I don't have to buy diapers or pull ups or wipes any more and I don't have to keep asking, every 17 minutes, "do you have to go potty? do you? did you already go?!?!" Ooooo, sweet fantasies. Sweet, sweet fantasies.

Coulda shoulda saw this coming

For awhile now, as in, the 12 months or so, our computer has been running really slow and sluggish. We just kept ignoring it. I have a laptop from work that I bring home and we oftentimes use that instead of the desktop. We have a zillion photos on the desktop and a gazillion I-tunes songs. Maybe that's why it's so slow, 'eh? I had been telling myself for EVER to put the photos onto disks just to be safe. I planned on doing it two spring breaks ago when I still worked at the school district. Obviously never accomplished the task, and well, now our computer is just a black screen with an annoying cursor blinking in the upper left corner. Three days ago it worked, today is does not. I can't get it to boot. It acts like it wants to start, and then the black screen comes on. I have worked on it for almost three hours tonight, to no avail. I have searched the 'net for help and I just keep finding tips that are telling me to run a recovery program, but I can't find a recovery program anywhere on the 'net to help. We are going to make some calls to see if someone can fix it - might have to bring in the pros! If we don't recover what's on there I will be so so sad! I have the majority of photos of the girls saved onto disks, but not all of them. I know there's stuff on the computer that I will miss if it's gone for good. Plus Mike has a bunch of papers from graduate school on there, not to mention a ton of poems and short stories! Please let it our computer be saved!!!

While I'm blog-less ...

My apologies to my readers: I haven't been very blog-worthy lately. I haven't had too much to write about the past few days. Until I get back up to speed, why don't you check out these interesting blogs. The first one, called "The "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks" is about misinterpreting bad punctuation, with pictures! See it here. The next really curious blog is called "Lowercase L" - it's about how some people write signs with all capital letters, except for the letter L. With pictures too! See it here. Enjoy!

Hero Action Figures!

You can buy Higglytown Hero toys now! I bought the ice cream set pictured here. I can't decide if I'm going to keep it for myself or give it to the girls.

Notice to readers: a rant about potty training twins

Last week when I purchased a box of Huggies, I told the girls that was the last box. No more diapers. It's time to be big girls and wear big girl panties! I have been prepping them ever since, telling them that when the diapers are gone, it's time to be big girls! Last night we used the last of the diapers and I showed the girls - look, no more diapers! We picked out their outfit for today, and I had them pick out their panties. Arlene chose purple; Lydia chose princesses.

This morning when I got them dressed I told them - it's big girl day! They both remembered that today was the day to wear panties. Lydia even put hers on all by herself (after four attempts) and I told them - no pee-peeing in your panties! They have to stay dry! Okay mommy, they said.

In the car on the way to Grandma's house we talked about being big girls and they were all into it. Arlene told me she was going to make a "huge" poo-poo in Grandma's bathroom and Lydia told me she that if she felt like she had to go, she'd run and tell Grandma. Good plan!

Well, I called Grandma at lunch for a status update: they had been peeing their pants all morning! Arlene had poo'd in the toilet, but Lydia went in her panties. They had both been through three outfit changes. Noooooooooo!

They just aren't getting it yet. They go pee in their panties, it gets them all wet and their pants wet, and they don't care. They did it repeatedly this morning, and they just don't care. I am getting frustrated because I feel like they should be potty trained now that they are three, but I don't think they are ready yet! They could care less about it at this point. They don't want to wear diapers, but they don't want to keep their panties dry either. They want to wear pull-ups, but that's only because they know that they are sort of like diapers, they can go in them and it doesn't matter. Errrr!!

I am going to have to buy a "How-to" book for potty training. Up until now I've never had to refer to a book about how to care for the girls! But I'm at my wit's end! I don't know what else to try!

New friends from old friends

After much delay and trepidation, I finally got a MySpace page a few months ago. I wasn't sure about putting my info out there on MySpace because it seemed like it was more appropriate for the younger set. Well, now I'm really glad that I did, because I've re-met some of my old classmates from high school. It's been a lot of fun catching up with the girls from high school and finding out what people have been up to for the last 11 years. We are even planning a little reunion in March of next year. I'm looking forward to seeing them in person and catching up face-to-face. Cheers to new acquaintances who are really old acquaintances!

How funny is this!!

The real town of Scranton, PA is hosting an Office Convention! Many of the stars of the show are going ... I'd consider going, but my boyfriend Jim Halpert hasn't signed on yet. Once he is, I'm there! Check out the convention details here.

Mean Arlene

Arlene was in a funk this weekend. She is usually a slap happy little kid but for some reason this weekend she was a whiney mess! She kept it up all through the weekend and was even whining this morning. I hope she snaps out of it soon!

Mean Arlene (and Mike has his eyes shut)

I bribed her to smile.

Fun, fun, yum!

Happy camper

Mike is holding a crock pot traveling bag - and he's just sooo happy with himself! We were 3/4 of the way to the campground on Friday and realized that we had forgotten our crock pot, which was a necessary item since we were going to cook a ham on Saturday. So we had to stop at a Kmart to buy one. Mike was able to get a floor model crock pot (with a traveling case included!!) for almost half the regular price! And the crock pot is RED - way cool! He was so happy. I was happy for him. And the ham was really tasty.

Crafts as faaaar as the eye can see

Check out the picture - there are craft booths, and people, as far as you can see, lining the streets of Waynesville, Ohio at the Sauerkraut Festival this weekend. It was fun, but there were too many people! You couldn't walk at a steady pace, it was stop and go, stop and go. At one point we came to a complete stop and it was shoulder-to-shoulder people. I was able to fight the masses find some unique crafts though - I bought a ring made out of a silver spoon handle, and a stuffed witch head decoration (I'll have to take a picture of her) and little candy bags for the girls. I got a cup of 'kraut for $2 and a piece of the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted! I enjoyed the festival, but I'm not sure if I'd be ready to go back next year to fight the crowds again. I might need to take a year off.

Halloween Ha Ha

1.) Why don't skeletons date?

2.) Why can't mummies keep friends?

3.) Do zombies each candy with their fingers?

Anwers in the comments section (click on the 'comments' link below)

Do it yourself

I have been wanting to post this for awhile but just today figured out how to upload my pictures from my cell phone. I had did it once last month and then forgot how I did it. Anyway, the picture is of the front of a local automotive store. I had to go in there to buy tire cleaner and was shocked by how overly-stuffed their garbage cans were in front of the store. Then I realized why they were overly stuffed. It had rained that day, the first time it had rained in MONTHS, and both trash cans were overflowing with windshield wiper boxes. Obviously lots of people had bad wipers but didn't know it until it started to rain, so they rushed into the store to buy new ones and installed them right there in the parking lot, then disposed of the box. I don't know why that cracked me up, but it did.

A break is a break is a break

After much discussion, we have decided to stay put and have a break from all things real estate until 2008. For real this time. We cancelled our contract with our realtor back in September as I've rambled on about here in my blog. Since then, we've had a few interesting things come up. We had a realtor approach us that was confident that they could sell our house quickly. I checked them out - they don't specialize in our area, so I doubt they'd be able to learn the market and price our house correctly for a quick sale. No thanks.

I met with the builder of the house we want, and they aren't having much luck selling houses either, so they can't offer us any sort of special deals such as a guaranteed sale (where they'd guarantee the sale of our house in 120 days, or they'd buy it from us so we can buy their new house). They have good deals going on now - offering a free finished basement and free soaking tub in the master bathroom, but no deals on the buying/selling end of exising real estate. Everyone is in the same boat of not being able to sell - buyers are being way to choosy now because of the strained market.

Then, we talked to another realtor who had an impressive marketing plan and good credentials. Sounds like he'd be able to re-list for us and possibly even re-list now, but, we don't have extra house money on hand because we had to give back the money we had borrowed to help with our listing price.

So, now is just not the best time for a multitude of factors. Money being factor number one! If we had our house paid off completely we'd be in the clear! But we're an almost 30-something couple with two kids and two cars, so of course we don't have our house paid off. We need to be able to let the market correct itself and we need to be able to build up some cash reserves so that we can price it correctly the first time we list it. So, I promise, no more house talk until at least January!

14,000 pounds of sauerkraut!

My mouth is watering already! This weekend is the Ohio Sauerkraut Festival in Waynesville! I am SO EXCITED! I just read in the paper that 14,000 pounds of the cabbage goodness is being shipped in. Holy moly! Have you ever had sauerkraut fudge? Wonderful. How about sauerkraut sundaes? Yummy to my tummy! Oh, and don't let me forget to mention that the second main attraction to the festival are the 500+ arts and craft booths that line the streets! We went in 2005 and I bought the coolest bracelet made out of old typewriter keys. I'm anxious to check out this year's goods! We're camping at nearby Caesar Creek all weekend so maybe I can have sauerkraut for every meal ... Mmm Mmmm Mmmm ....

Property Ladder

Monopoly is back at McDonalds! I never win anything but stupid free hash browns with the actual game pieces, but I've been lucky with the online game! Last year, I won a bunch of free picture printouts from Snapfish. This year I've already won a game download from RealArcade. AND, I have Park Place! I need to score Boardwalk and I'm a millionaire (yeah right!) It's too bad I don't really like McDonald's food, because if I did I could get lots of pieces. I have been going and getting a pop at lunch just so that I can get 2 pieces. I'm going to go play my free game now!

Ticker is still tickin'

My heart is fast! It's so fast, it thinks that I'm running a marathon, even though I'm just sitting here typing on my blog! I went to the cardiologist today as a result of my heart monitoring session a few weeks back. For some reason my heart beats ultra fast, and when it tries to correct itself, it jumps and skips a beat. So the doc prescribed a medication to slow things down. Weird! Hopefully this medicine will help to correct things. I feel old! Sheesh.

Halloweenday

This week's favorite word is from Arlene. She doesn't just say "Halloween." It's "Halloweenday."

Happy Friday

Last month I made a comment about my poor Starbucks service. Well, I am very happy to report that I had the BEST Starbucks service of all time this morning! I used to go to the Starbucks near my office, but the unhappiness of the servers made me mad. So now I go out of my way to a drive-thru Starbucks (which is better from the get-go because I don't even have to get out of my car!) This morning, I pulled up to the microphone and the guy taking orders said, "The usual today? Cinnamon and Cinnamon?" I said, "Why YES! Thank you!" I was so ecstatic! He remembered that I get a grande cinnamon dolce latte and a Cinnamon donut! Yay! He handed me my delectables and said, "Have a fine time with your cinnamon products and a fantastic Friday!" I couldn't help but smile the rest of the way to work!

It's F-A-L-L

It's supposed to be 91 today! 92 on Sunday! It's OCTOBER! It's supposed to be fall! The leaves are falling off the trees not because of the chilly nights and cool days, oh no, they're falling off of the trees because they're being scorched off!! Does Mother Nature need a wake-up call or something? Maybe a slap in the face? Seriously!

Flying through the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane ...

... no, it's Mike, the newest Mason High School COMET! Mike is the newest addition to the Mason High School Wrestling organization! He will be the assistant freshman wrestling coach! Yay! Way to go Mike, bringin' back all of those skillz when you were a high school wrestler! I'm proud of you!

Photo sharing

I put the other five poses from the girls' photo session on my Flickr site - click on the link to the right if you want to see them!

Perfect pictures

Last night I took the girls to get their pictures taken. They did fabulous! We had six poses and we were done in six minutes. The photo above is my favorite! I had three pictures taken with the Halloween background, then three others taken with a plain background. For those family and friends who are on my mailing list, watch your mailbox for your copies!

Good night, night night

Arlene is such a big girl now! As promised, she threw her pacifier in the trash last night. We have been wanting her to give it up for awhile now, and she agreed to give it up for her birthday. So last night before bed we rounded up all of the pacificers, or "night nights" as she calls them, and she enthusiastically threw them away. Once she got into bed and realized she really couldn't have it, she got upset. I felt bad! She has had it for three years! But we kept telling her that she was a super big girl and that we were proud of her! She fell asleep just fine, and only woke up once in the night. This morning she was fine. It was like the night-nights never even happened! The resiliency of kids is amazing!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to our little sweeties!!! Three years old! These past three years have been the best ever. I laugh every single day - the girls bring joy into our lives in little unexpected ways with their silliness and their willingness to learn and be bright and do everything by themselves. We love you!!

P.S. The girls drew the flowers - Lydia's is to the right, Arlene to the left. How sweet!

One more party comment

I'm so glad we have twins, because I think I'd just about die if I had to host more than one birthday party a year.

Whirlwind weekend

Whew, I'm pooped. We had a crazy busy weekend! It started Thursday evening as I speed-cleaned the house and then Amber arrived at about 9. On Friday we had a day filled with shopping, shopping, more shopping, and Celtic symbols, then on Saturday we went to a craft show and a pumpkin patch and did more shopping and some crafting. Sunday was the big par-tay for the kiddies, which was a tornado of activity. We had 21 people in our house, six large pizzas, two Dairy Queen ice cream cakes, and a gazillion million presents. The only halfway decent picture that I got of the party is the picture posted here. The other ones have horrible red eye or they aren't in focus. Bummer! I don't think my camera could keep up with the pace of the action. The girls got AWESOME presents. They were in a toy craze and did not want to go to bed, even though they were both beyond the point of exhaustion. They insisted on going to sleep with one of their toys, so Lydia slept with her new Pound Puppy and Arlene slept with her My Little Pony ice cream truck. This morning when they woke up they bee-lined to the basement to get to their toys to start playing again.