The Ringlet Incident of 2005

It has been a while since I have bloged...I have not really been in the mood. We have all been sick and dirty white snow outside has been less than inspiring. Here are a few blogs that have been sitting around just waiting to be posted.

The other night I was washing Hannah's hair and I found a great big glob of hair sutck together by some unnatural substance. There wasn't a chance of getting the hair back to normal so I called Wes and he brought me the dreaded scissors and I cut the glob out of her hair. We were lucky that you can not even tell that she had impromptu hair surgery.

This seems to be a routine with Hannah, every few years she has to have some chunk of her hair cut off but thankfully she has stopped doing it herself. In 2005 when we were living in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada, I was at work and got a phone call from Wes telling me that she had cut off her most precious ringlet that hung perfectly in front of her face (Shirley Temple would have been jeleous). I was devastated. In 2007 when we had moved to New York, I took Audrey to get her bangs cut and Hannah must have felt left out because that night I found blond hair stuffed under the entertainment center. The crazy thing is that she did such a good job cutting her bangs you could not even tell.

Creme Puffs and the Flu

(I wrote this blog the week of my birthday...so just pretend it wasn't a few weeks ago)

I turned 32 this week. 31 seemed to go by very fast. Wes and I decided that we would celebrate the weekend before my birthday (thank goodness we did). We wnt to Rochester (45 minutes away) to a swanky mall. I got to go shopping for my own birthday gifts...love this!!!! Wes got me a pair of Jeans, Audrey got me my favorite Godiva Chocolates and Hannah bought me a beautiful Chinese tea set (50% off, which made it even more fabulous). We then went to dinner at Biaggis, an Italian restaurant. I was pleased with the food. We have had a really hard time finding good places to eat in Syracuse, it seems Rochester has them all. I had a wonderful birthday dinner with my family, they were so sweet and generous!!! On Sunday I made an assortment of Creme Puffs instead of a cake (I make cakes for everyone else, I wanted something different) and Lemon Riccota Cookies. A few friends came over and we stuffed ourselves with the yummy puffs, cookies and long stem strawberries. It was fun having everyone over...it was very low key and relaxed.

Wednesday night around 11:00 (an hour before my b-day) I started to feel quite sick. By the time I went to bed I was running a fever and so began my "Birthday Flu"!!! Wes stayed home from work and took care of me and the girls and I laid on the couch in a cold sweat moaning and groaning and wishing the day would just end. January 30th came and the flu was gone. I am thankful it only lasted 24hrs.

Thank you to everyone for the well wishes and gifts (you know how I love gifts) ... that is what makes my birthday so special: having family and friends as special as all of you!!! (That could be a Hallmark card) (Yes I know I am a dork).

The Rocky Economy

( Warning I'm about to rant and rave so read at own risk)

Wes and I have been together now for 10 yrs and it has only been the last couple of years that we have been financially comfortable, and I mean comfortable like I can buy the roast at the super market and not have to worry about using gas money. I can even occasionally buy a movie and not feel guilty.

I am getting really sick and tired about hearing how bad the economy is right now, like this is something new. Hello, there has been a majority of us who have had to scrimp and save just to make ends meet...we have already been living paycheck to paycheck. What really set me off is Hannah brought home a Parents & Child Magazine from school the other day and there is an article called "A Silver Lining - Our rocky economy offers timely opportunities for family bonding, life lessons, and yes, fun."
Such as; renting DVD's, going to the library or park or playing games at home. The article suggested that your child will become acclimated to these mundane activities and might actually start having fun. What the? I am sure there was a time when you gave your kid a stick, a rock, and a can and said knock yourself out. I mean, what have families been doing for together-time that I am not aware of...I am sorry they can't jet off to the Caribbean for the weekend. I have been hearing everywhere that families now have the opportunity to spend quality time together because they are broke.

Call me naive but why aren't families doing thse things no matter what economy we live in? I think there is a much bigger problem than just how much money they have in their wallets.

I am VERY thankful that Wes has a job that we do not have to worry about him losing and I am happy that we are moving up the financial ladder but I would like to think that no matter how much money we have we will always make time for our family and spend time together.

I have so much more to say on this topic but I am going to finish this rant for now.