On the Road Again

So this has been a crazy 6 days. On Thursday I was in Orlando for a presentation Friday. On Sunday I left for Charlotte for a presentation this morning. On Tuesday night I will take a train to Princeton, back on Wednesday. I NEVER travel like this for work. Really. I usually travel 3x a year. This has been a little crazy. Looking forward to Wednesday when all is back to normal. But I am getting a lot of reading time in!

The First Debate - live blogging

My stream of consciousness while watching the debate.....

McCain says he will veto all out of control spending bills - really, like Defense??!

McCain says "people who are under indictment are in control" - do you think that includes Republican Senator Ted Stevens from Sarah Palin's home state??

McCain thinks our business taxes are too high and should be cut. Are there any real Americans who care about that - seriously, is he that out of touch??!!

They are fighting over their tax plans. McCain appears to think it is inappropriate for Obama to consider people making more than $250,000 rich. I'm sorry - DH and I make a lot of money - but I think $250,000 is a GENEROUS definition of rich...should be lower....

McCain is saying some defense spending is out of control...interesting.

I love when "liberal" is used as a vicious slur.

McCain just said he thinks we should freeze spending for all except DEFENSE, entitlements, and veterans care -- ahh, that's more like it!

Why does Obama's hair look kind of green?

oh dear LORD...McCain is still talking about victory in Iraq...we won't come home until we have victory. ARGGHHHHHH

Is there anyone who doesn't think that a President McCain would have us in Iran before next summer?

blah blah...who can name more foreign leaders/regions...

Apparently McCain wants us in Iraq forever.

FINALLY Obama starts talking about state of economy vs defense spending

And...its over

My Bad

I have been a bad blogger. This week has been crazy at work - and I have 3 trips in the next 7 days. I don't usually travel - but I have been doing a lot in the last few weeks. All is going good. I am LOVING my diet. I am down 28 lbs since July. 28 lbs!!!!! Woo hoo! And I don't feel all hungry or denied. I am also more committed to exercise - both running and that killer b$(*$ Jillian's 30-day shred video.

Was in Orlando this week for work and picked up some Disney Dollars to give the girls when we tell them about the trip. We plan to tell them around the 8th of October. (I am making a countdown calendar to help them see how far away it is.)

Our Crazy Fun Weekend

So this weekend was a little nuts. Saturday morning K and I get up and go to her first ballet class. It was really good, despite being only 30 minutes when it was advertised for 45. Then back home, after stopping at Goodwill so I could get a super short spandex miniskirt for my 80s outfit later. K also found a cute shirt and we got a ton of great books - all for like $12. Gotta love it. The girls then played their new Viva Pinata for a while. Its actually pretty cool - you build a garden which attracts all these animals and you have to make it work.

Then a quick lunch for everyone, and naps for the younger two. Then K and I went to her first soccer game. I will have to post some pictures later, but she really rocked. Given she couldn't name even one rule of soccer on the way to the game, I was somewhat concerned. But she did SOOOO good! She was ready to jump in there and try and get that ball. I was so happy for her.

Then back home (after the mandatory stop at the ice cream man), where I finally painted the hallway I had taped 4-5 days ago. Got the first coat up before I had to shower and change into my 80s clothes (oversized paisley blouse, black micro mini, black capri tights with lace on the bottom, white lace socks, saddle shoes, and big poofy hair with bow). I ran out to get money and chicken nuggets (we had a McD coupon), and back to find our friends and their 2 kids waiting. The babysitter was there and the four of us headed out. (BTW - my babysitter is awesome and nuts! For all five kids we usually pay her $25/hr..she sent an email last week saying that was too high and we should only pay her $20!!!) We went to dinner at a restaurant near the theater where the show was going to be. We were a few hours before the show so we got a few looks from diners at our outfits. By the time we left the place was full of 80s fanatics! Bon Jovi wigs, off the shoulder shirts, lace gloves with fingers cut out, pegged pants, etc! We headed to the Legwarmers show, which was totally awesome! We stayed until they finished - about 1:30!! WAAAAYYY past my bedtime.

We got home, and the kids were all sleeping! Hit the hay for a few hours, then dealt with 5 awake, slightly hyper, hungry kids. Got them fed and the 4 oldest to Sunday school. I went grocery shopping while they were there, then picked up my 2 (our friends picked up their kids from there). Home for a little bit, then off to the Nationals game. It was such a beautiful day for baseball. Kids got their cool free backpacks, and we stayed to let the kids run the bases.

By the time we got home we were all crashing. Quick dinner (turkey quesadillas - K had to sit there for 90 minutes to eat hers!), baths, and bed. I ran to Target to get new crocs for B (her current pair actually had a hole in the bottom of the shoe!), and some groceries we had missed. Home around 8:45, watched the Emmys until 10:30...then crashed.

A long weekend, but lots of fun! And now, back to my crazy overscheduled Monday!!

Things I LOVE About Parenting

One of my greatest joys of being a parent is seeing how my kids treat each other. Now, my kids are little, and I know the sibling wars are coming, but for now, it is so cute.

Big Man LOVES his big sisters - especially K. K can do no wrong in his eyes. And she knows it and loves it. She is the first to run and get him his blanky if he is getting upset. If he is crying she will go pick him up. They are sooo cute together.

B worships K as well. She is always wanting to do and say exactly what K is doing/saying. If K is wearing a dress, B wants to wear a dress. If K is jumping, B will jump. And K does a pretty good job of putting up with it. They share a room - and often a bed. I love when I come up to check on them and they are like puppies sleeping - all piled on top of each other - legs and arms all around. It is so cute.

K is really a great big sister. She is amazing with Big Man and puts up with B's following her every step. Not always - apparently yesterday morning she told B she hated her (which lead to a discussion about the use of the word hate), but usually she puts up with it and tries to help B when she is doing things beyond her skills.

It is really just great to watch.

Its the ECONOMY, stupid

Remember back when we had a surplus??!! It was only 7 years ago. Yes, 7 years ago. And now we are in more debt than ever, our economy is in ruin, and our financial markets are failing.

And John McCain is ahead in the polls. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE, PEOPLE??!!!

President Bill Clinton left office in 2001 with a federal budget surplus of $127 billion. Checkout this cool graphic my friend Dave did to show what the deficit looks like now: http://www.crunchland.com/users/dsf/9trillion.gif

Household median income (adjusted for inflation) fell between 2001 and 2006- to $48,200 from $49,158 in 2001. Now that is only a difference of $1000 - but that is alot of money if you are the family making $48,000!!! The number of Americans living in poverty has gone up nearly 5 million between 2001-2006. And these are only numbers from 2006!! Wait until the 2008 numbers come out!!! Nevermind the housing crisis, or the collapse of Wall Street.

How many more corporations will the government (ie taxpayers) have to bail out for people to want this to STOP?

Overscheduled

I am officially one of those moms. I have totally over scheduled my poor 6 year old. She has soccer (one practice a week, one game on the weekend), ballet (once a week), and swimming (once a week). So now on, she goes to school. At 6 (or hopefully a bit before) I pick her up at extended day, have her put on her shin guards and socks, and walk out to the soccer field. At 6:45 (15 minutes early) we get up and walk back to our house (thank GOD our house, the school, and the field are so close!). When we get there, B is waiting in her bathing suit, with a grilled cheese sandwich in her hand for K. We all climb in the car and drive like crazy to swimming across town. On the way K eats her "dinner". We run in, and both girls do swimming. Not sure when K puts her bathing suit on. Last night we managed it after Extended Day (under the soccer clothes). Too crazy.

Sadly, Saturdays may be the same way with Ballet 20 miles away, and Soccer games moving around in terms of time.

Meanwhile B only has swimming, and Big Man gets nothing.

Ah well....the joys of parenting!

How Can This Be???

I stole this from Minivan Mom. I LOVE it.

America is Scary

* If you grow up in Hawaii, raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."
* If you grow up in Alaska eating moose burgers, you're a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack, you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.
* If you name your kids Willow, Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* If you graduate from Harvard law School, you are unstable.
* If you attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.
* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.
* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system, while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant , you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate lawyer who gave up a position in a prestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America's.
* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Seriously. I read these polls and I cannot believe it. What is going on in this country??!!!

Yay for Me!

Courtney at Ramblings of a Working Wife and Mom gave me this sparkly award! This lets me highlight some wonderful blogs that I read.



Here are the rules:

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.
2. Link to the person you received your award from.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. (or however many you want - I did 5)
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

Now my turn to nominate others for the award:


1. Amy from A Family Story

2. Shelli from BagMomma

3. Minivan Mom

4. Pam at Random Thoughts

5. Laura at Lunatic Fringe

Countdown to Disney

So I am sooo excited to tell the girls about our Disney trip. I can't wait to see how happy they are going to be. But I know (and DH reminds me) that we can't tell them too early, cuz they don't really have such a great handle on time. And they will be asking when we are going every hour of every day.


But..last week I found a way to do it. I took a bunch of Mickey Mouse paint sample ears from my local home improvement store, and I am making a countdown calendar. That way they can rip off one mouse-ear a day and they will see how much time we have left. We also plan to use Disney's Enchanted Call to let them know. I can't wait. But we are still going to wait another month..and tell them 30 days before we go.


Can I wait that long??? We'll have to see. If anyone as any other ideas, I'd love them!

Racking Up the Frequent Flier Miles

I don't travel much for work. Usually 2-3 trips of 4-5 days per year. Not so much. But in the next 30 days I have 4 trips already scheduled. I am trying to keep them short (I was in Miami for 7 hours on Wednesday), but will definitely miss a few mornings or dinners. The good news is that I will be building up those frequent flier miles that I decimated when I went to Paris!

I hope to get a lot of reading done. Anyone else have plane time-killers? Although napping is appealing as well! Maybe catch up on all my ITunes Podcasts.... hmm maybe it will be nice to have some time to myself!

YES YES YES!

ok..i can't take it any more. My posts over the next few months will disappoint and upset my MIL. And for that I am very sorry. But I just can't keep quiet anymore. MIL -- please stop reading my blog for the next 60 days. thanks!

Please go read this article. She is so right on! Its Gloria Steinem on Sarah Palin. And it is awesome. "This isn't the first time a boss has picked an unqualified woman just because she agrees with him and opposes everything most other women want and need." YES YES YES

Cleaning Frenzy

Every once in a while I get a cleaning/organizing bug. I had finally had it with my pantry. Unfortunately I don't have any "before" pictures, but I promise you - it was a disaster. The doors did not close all the way, and when you opened it, stuff would fall out. EVERY SINGLE TIME. It was impossible to find things, and people we scared to open it.

Last Friday I went to nirvana the Container Store and got some great bins for less than $3 each!!! I know!!! Anyway, they fit my pantry perfectly. So we went home and the kids' activity was helping me empty the pantry and sort all the crap into piles by type - sauces, canned fruit/veggies, soups, snacks, etc. Fun for the whole family (actually the liked it). We put it back into the storage bins, and back in the pantry - tada - an organized pantry with doors that actually close!!!


After that success in the kitchen - I moved into other rooms. I started to deal with the hazardous waste site disaster we call our old bedroom, the closet in Big Man's room (which held all my too small clothes that I have now moved into my own spare closet), and the dvd's in our living room. I am still feeling the bug, so who knows what might be next!

wow!

Did you all notice that Tatiana de Rosnay, the author of Sarah's Key, commented on my post reviewing her book?!! Is that the coolest thing or what! She sure has some awesome publicists to come across my little blog with a review.

Customer Service Announcement

Did you have any line of open credit (car loan, mortgage, credit card, student loan?) between January 1, 1987 and May 28, 2008? If you didn't I would be SHOCKED. So - that means, basically everyone is entitled to 6-9 months of daily monitoring of your credit file plus unrestricted access to your credit report and your credit score!!!

Apparently there was a big national class-action lawsuit against on of the major the credit reporting agencies, and to settle they had to provide this service. But you have to sign up by September 24, 2008.

Do it - there is no reason not to. The website to sign up is www.listclassaction.com or call 866 416 3470.

The full article on it is here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/27/AR2008062700153_pf.html

My CRAZY girls

So here are my girls jamming to music at the last day at our pool. I swear there was music - even though you can't hear it here!

First Day of School

Look at my big girl -- off to 1st grade!

Book Review - great find!

So, given that I was just in Paris (have I mentioned that, hee hee), I have been reading a bunch of books that take place in Paris or have something to do with it. Before our recent family trip, I ran to our public library to grab a few books. In the "featured book" section I found a book called Sarah's Key. It was such a great read. It is a book about the French treatment of Jews in WW II. It was really fascinating, and took place in the neighborhood we stayed in - le Marais. I highly recommend it. I read it in one day - a day where I spent 10 hours in an amusement park with my kids. Probably got through the whole thing in 2 hours. I couldn't put it down. A bit sappy, perhaps, but I loved it.


frustratingly - it appears the author is French, and all her other books are yet to be translated....