Happy New Year!

Today is the last day of the year. I don't have any major plans. We'll go over to a our neighbor's house after dinner. They have kids the same age as ours so the kids can play and the grown-ups can drink play.

New Year's day was never anything special, until I got married. My husband is from Japan. In Japan New Year's a major holiday. And not just for drinking! Companies close down for up to 2 weeks. People travel to visit their relatives. Families gather and spend a few days together. Yes, you read that right, a few days. They prepare special New Year's dishes the day before so that they don't have to do much cooking during those days of celebration.

Since we're not in Japan, my husband's company doesn't close down for a few weeks. And it's not possible for us to spend every New Year's with his family. But we can still enjoy those traditional New Year's dishes. So today my husband is cooking. He will be cooking most of the day. And tomorrow we will be eating. We will be eating most of the day.

Happy New Year!

Go Eagles!

The Philadelphia Eagles made it to the playoffs!

GO EAGLES!

Oh, and for you Broncos fans... so sorry :P

11 Days

That's how long it takes the town I live in to plow the road in front of my house. It started snowing 11 days ago and today was the first and only day that a snow plow came by. Now if only the garbage truck would return.

What Kind of Game is That?

This afternoon, my husband and I were working on a jigsaw puzzle. The kids were in the same playing Wii Play. I heard the kids talking about how they were going to be on the same team. Then I heard my six year old say, "I'm just going to stay here and wait for him to blow me." The 5 year old responded, "I'm gonna blow him first."

I looked at my husband and said, "What kind of game did you get them?"

The kids left out the word, "up." They are playing a game with tanks. The tanks blow each other up. I just hope they don't talk about this game to their grandparents or at school. I can imagine getting a call from the principal. "Mrs. Cookie, your son has been brought to my office because he was bragging on the playground about how he blew everyone."

"So sorry, Mr. Principal."

A New Do

I finally got out of the house today. The roads in my neighborhood were awful. The car skidded all the way down the hill. But once we got out, the rest of the roads weren't too bad.

Where did I go after being stuck at home for a week? I went to the library. The kids were happy to get some new books. In fact they didn't want to stop reading one book when it was bed time. Or maybe they just didn't want to go to bed...

I also went to get my hair cut. I got about 4 inches cut off, so it's pretty noticeable. When I came home, my husband looked at it and said, "do you like it?" That's not exactly the reaction I had expected. When a woman does something different when her hair, she expects her significant other to say something like, "Wow! How can you continue to look even more beautiful all the time?" Ok, maybe that's stretching things a little. But still, my husband's comment didn't exactly make me feel good. But I guess after being married for 12 years, my husband has learned to make sure that I am happy with the change before he comments, like a wise old bird.

Cabin Fever

I haven't left my house since Saturday. Tomorrow it will be exactly one week. They said it would rain today and all of the snow would melt. It didn't rain. It snowed. They say tomorrow will be in the 40's. I'm not holding my breath. I'm going to start making tick marks on the wall. How many more days till spring anyway????

Hazardous Shopping

I don't usually wait until the Saturday before Christmas to do my Christmas shopping. And no, I don't wait until the 24th either. It's usually all done at least the week before Christmas. Of course having all my relatives living far away is a help. I need to have their packages sent out at least the week before Christmas, so that becomes my deadline.

This year I went shopping on the Saturday before Christmas. I had planned to go out earlier in the week but with all this snow and the kids not having school all week, it never happened.

Saturday I made my lists and headed out. I got about 2 miles from the mall when I saw a huge backup on the highway. Yes, that was the line of cars waiting to enter the mall parking lot. But I was alone with no kids screaming in the car, so I didn't mind the wait.

After about 30 minutes, I finally entered the mall parking lot. I figured that I would at least try to find a parking spot before I ventured across the street to park. If I parked across the street, I wasn't prepared to walk through snow or ice. After waiting a few minutes, some people entered their car in front of me. I put on my turn signal and waited for them to pull out. Then another car pulled into the same aisle of the parking lot facing me. He also turned on his turn signal. The car pulled out. I started to pull in when the other car snuck in first! I was mad! WTH?! I beeped my horn for a few seconds (that's the New Jersey in me) and backed away. The guy got out of his car and yelled, "I don't f*ing care!" At this point, I knew I was dealing with a psycho. I started to drive away. But with a full parking lot, I didn't go very fast.

He then started shouting, "You don't know who I am, do you?"

"Uhh the crazy guy who stole my parking space? " I thought.

"You're a nobody!" He continued to shout.

Luckily by now I had managed to drive far enough away that I could no longer make out his ramblings. I'm sure the other shoppers on the sidewalk enjoyed his monologue. What a way to make the season merry and bright.



BTW today is day 7 of being snowed in my house while we enjoy some "special" family time.

Where Do Igloos Grow?

Tell me where you think this picture was taken. Does it look like the North Pole? Alaska? Alberta?


Do you recognize this boy?


How about this one?

Yup, those are my kids and that's an igloo in my front yard. We've been snowed in for toooo long. Tomorrow I might try walking to the liquor store.

More Snow

On Wednesday the kids didn't have any school because it was supposed to snow. It finally did snow on Wednesday night. So there was no school on Thursday because of actual snow. The roads were still icy and snow covered so there was no school on Friday either. So the kids missed the last week of school before Christmas vacation. In other words, I missed my last chance to go shopping or get anything done without the kids before Christmas.

The kids still had fun. Here are some pictures of them sledding in our neighborhood :)

Now it's snowing again!

A Snow Day?

Today was a snow day for my kids. Usually that means no school because of snow. Today there wasn't any snow. And there wasn't any school. The weather guessers forecasters predicted that we might get 1-6 inches (Hey! Shut up. I heard that snickering!). Yup, just the possibility of a little bit of snow shut everything down.

Around 4pm we finally got a little sleet. for about 10 minutes. Then we got a few flurries. It's now 5:30 and the total accumulation isn't even one inch!

If they are going to keep canceling school like this at the mere mention of snow, then I'm going to need to stock up at the liquor store! I can't take any more days being trapped inside with 2 kids!

The Case of the Missing Finger

This weekend my 4 year old put on his gloves and there was empty space where a finger should be. He was very surprised. He looked at me and shouted, "Mom! Look! There's one extra one!" He took off his glove and immediately started counting his fingers. Then he counted the number of fingers on the glove (how analytical of him). His happy face turned sad when he realized his mistake. What a cutie!

First Snow

I grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia. When I was first married, we lived in New Jersey. So I'm used to snow in the winter. When I moved to Seattle almost 3 years ago, the people told me that it doesn't snow here. I'm not sure if they are all liars or in denial. It has snowed every year so far. It hasn't been a lot of snow. But everything shuts down when it snows. They don't' plow the secondary roads. No one owns a snow shovel. They just wait for it to melt! Yes, that i their snow emergency plan, to wait for it to melt.

Saturday night we went into downtown Seattle and took a bus tour of the best Christmas lights in Seattle. It was festive and nice to be able to sit back and relax with the kids and look outside. Then it started snowing! It was like a movie scene. Then Santa got on our bus and lead the bus riders in singing a few Christmas carols. It was perfect! The kids' favorite part was when some people threw snowball at our bus! All in good fun of course.

Yesterday morning the kids got to play in the snow. Here are some pictures :)

What Would You Do?

Today my husband picked up our mail from our mailbox at the bottom of our street. It's a mailbox like you might see at an apartment complex. Each resident has their own box with a key. Today there was something in our mailbox by mistake. It was addressed to a house on our street with one digit different than ours. Normally I would just walk over and give it to the person. But this was different. This was a Playboy magazine.

My husband asked me why we received it in the mail. As if it were my fault. (Yeah right!) I looked at the address and discovered the mistake right away. But I wasn't going to ring their doorbell! I thought about throwing it in the trash. And I didn't want to leave it on my kitchen counter waiting for the next time that I go to the mailbox.

I decided to make a special trip to the mail box and drop it in the "outgoing mail" slot. As I stepped out my front door with the magazine in my hands, I sawmy 6 year old neighbor. I tried to hide the magazine in my coat. How embarrassing! Then I saw my neighbor across the street. It was the wife of the man whose magazine I was hiding under my coat! I waved and couldn't help but giggle and made my way to the mailbox with only having to pass one more elderly neighbor out walking her dog. That seemed like the longest one block walk of my entire life!

I'm so glad that magazine is gone. What would you do?

My Baby is Sick Again

This time is the big baby, my husband. He's been home sick for the last 2 days. He's moping around the house and coughing up all kinds of stuff. I'm not a very good nurse. I give him some medicine and that's about it. I've never been much of a nurturing type.

What this means is that I have managed to survive the week without any help (until today when he started feeling a little better). So I haven't had much time to blog. I feel like a single parent with 3 kids!

I have 6 packages of Christmas presents ready to mail tomorrow and I think everything is ready for my son's birthday party on Sunday. So I'll be feeling a lot less stressed on Sunday night when everything is done!

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,



I've been a very good girl this year. I have bought cooked junk healthy dinners for my family almost every day. I have done most of my chores. I have been a mean nice mom to my kids. I dragged 2 ungrateful kids drove them to various activities including swimming lessons, T-ball, Chess Club, Cub Scouts, Summer Concerts, Birthday Parties, and Soccer. I read in the parent manual, that trips to Chuck E. Cheese were optional and worth extra points. I did survive one trip to Chuck E. Cheese this year. I also took my 2 kids angels on a trip across the country to Detroit and Virginia for 10 days. alone. I didn't see this in the manual, but I believe that should be worth even more points.



I would like to redeem my points this year for the following:



1. A personal assistant (preferably a cutie)



2. A vacation (I mean a real vacation without kids and somewhere that has a bar in a pool and serves drinks with cute umbrellas.)



3. A nanny (and not one of those who will flirt with my husband)



4. A new car (ideally a car where the kids can ride as far away from me as possible)



5. A new bank account (mine is missing a few zeros at the end)



6. A maid (again, not someone too good looking who will flirt with my husband)



7. A vacation (the stress gets to me sometimes and causes me to lose my memory)



8. A new computer (while typing this, I am realizing how slow my computer is!)



9. A masseuse (another cutie would be nice)

10. That smell in the bathroom to go away (this may be solved by getting a toilet that is so big the kids can't miss it!)

11. World Peace and an end to Global Warming

12. 3 more wishes

13. A partridge in a pear tree

Where Does the Time Go?

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. My son did have strept throat. He's on antibiotics now and feeling much better. It's amazing how fast kids can get sick!

Last night we hired a babysitter. My husband and I went to his office's Christmas party. I'm not sure why they decided to have it on a Sunday. My guess is that someone forgot to make a reservation? Or maybe they are trying to cut costs?

It was a nice party. The sushi bar there was a big hit! I spent most of the time chatting with another mom of 2 boys. Her kids were a little older than mine but we still had a lot in common. Both of our husbands are from other countries and we share similar experiences dealing with it. So it was nice to chat with her.

I can't believe it's Monday already! I feel like I lost all of last week! With everyone being sick and so much to do the time just flies by!

My Baby is Sick

Yup, my baby is sick... again. This time it's the 6 year old. He went to school today. He played outside and rode his bike after school. He went to a friend's birthday party. He came home and decorated the Christmas tree. Then he sat down to watch TV and started complaining at bedtime because he wanted to stay up later.

We went through the normal bedtime routine. He went to the bathroom and brushed his teeth. I read him a story and tucked him in. Then I gave him a goodnight kiss. When I kissed his forehead, I could tell immediately that he was burning up! I took his temperature and it was 103.4! And he never said anything about not feeling well!

I gave him some Motrin and he's asleep now. I'll take him to the pediatrician in the morning. I just can't believe that his fever was so high and I had no idea!

Make Your Own Bingo

My son is having his 5th birthday party soon. I need to come up with some games that can played indoors for 10 kids ages 4-7. Pokemon is the party theme. I thought it would be fun to have a Pokemon Bingo game for the kids to play. I found this great website. I printed out 10 different Pokemon bingo cards. They look great!

I've had a hard time finding Pokemon party items in stores. I did order a pinata, cups, plates etc. online already. I think I'm almost ready. And thanks to that great website for letting me print my own Pokemon bingo game. The website has lots of other ideas, including Christmas bingo too. So go and check it out!

Grey's Anatomy Anyone?

We went to a friend's house after dinner on Thanksgiving. We ate, drank, played guitar hero and drank some more. It was a lot of fun.

Later in the week, I mentioned to my husband that I missed my favorite show, "Grey's Anatomy." I didn't get to watch the episode that aired on Thanksgiving night (not that I would have chosen to watch TV instead of going to our friend's house). I know this show is getting a little cheesy and a little unbelievable lately, but I'm still addicted.

Last night my husband downloaded the entire season of "Grey's Anatomy" for me. How sweet!

Now if I could just find a few hours to sit and watch TV.

Do You Have a Roof?

When walking to the bus stop, I said to my 4 year old, "It looks like it's going to rain."

"Do you have a roof?" was his reply.

I was totally stumped. "huh?" was the best I could come up with.

"I mean do you have a hood?" He was talking about my jacket.

A hood for your jacket is kinda like having a portable roof. I guess it's all in how you look at things.

It's Not a Holiday Until Somebody Gets Sick!

I had barely put away Thanksgiving dishes. I still have some leftover stuffing and cranberry sauce in the fridge. My 4 year gets a fever of 102.7! Yikes! I give him some Motrin and ask what hurts. He points to his throat and tells me, "my neck hurts."

Poor baby. My heart breaks to see him to sick. But being that it's the Saturday after Thanksgiving, no doctor's offices are open. His fever goes down and he sleeps through the night.

Sunday morning his fever is 99.5. I think he's getting better. He's up and playing like normal. I take his temperature after lunch. It's back up to 99.7. So he's not really getting better. He's also started to say that his neck hurts again.

I take him to the clinic that's open on Sundays. Yup, he has strept throat. He's now on antibiotics for 10 days. And all I can do is wait for my 6 year to get sick. It just wouldn't' be an official holiday if no one got sick :(

The Perfect Man

I stopped by the library today and checked out the shelf of "New Fiction." I saw a book called "The Perfect Man." It looked interesting so I picked it up to read what it was about. It said, "The Perfect Man, a novel." I think that says it all.