Meaningless rantings of a cabin fevered Mom.

Can we just talk about Valentines? Seriously, UGH! The whole process looses it's charm when they are so stinkin expensive, and you can't make them for much cheaper, even if you kids were ok with being the ONE kid in the classroom with no pop character or candy, or tattoo, or sticker on theirs. You have to have one card for each kid in class, because we live in the age of, 'life isn't fair so we will bend over backwards to make sure you never know that until it's too late", and to be sure you don't miss anyone, you get a class list sent home to you at the beginning of the month. THANK YOU teachers! They obviously know their students, and that poor mom CANNOT rely on the child's memory to get every name in the room, and spelling, well, these days, that's a whole other post. Ok, buying, now we know how many, lets shop! I shop alone, no kids, my son is now 10, in 3rd grade, and thats how long it took me to get that part right. Yes, the idea of let...

My son is 10 now, and hungry, endlessly hungry. This is made evident by the way he continuously chatters on and on about how he is starving, how that last snack, that 5th one, it wasn't quite enough, and its only 5pm, how long must we wait for dinner!?!? Today i went on my bi-weekly "big shop" and tried in vain to stop this abuse my child is suffering under (yes, that was a joke, it's a first world problem, I am aware, relax people ... finish you chai tea) I walk through the store filling my cart to the brim, thinking, people must think I have a gaggle of munchkins at home, not two pre teens ..... (whoa ... pre-what's?!  *pauses for coffee*) Thankfully, I shop at Aldi, if you have one, USE IT! If not, i'm sorry, it really IS a lifesaver! The other saving grace is my son's aversion to high sugar content, Food Dye. Oh don't get me wrong, HE LOVES it, his body, however, is not overly fond of it. His attention span is reduced to that of a .......wait wh...

Pardon me for being redundant ...... but ...... remember this?!?!?! Say Wha Princess?? Yeeeeah, well, we are entering our second year of football / cheer. Thankfully my son is LOVING football, He wants to be Clay Matthews ..... hey, you gotta have a dream right?  Our team is back, and getting better and ready to take on the year with new energy. Aaaaaand, cheer ..... Samantha is cheering for the State Champs! The Undefeated WOJFC Bantam Champs of 2012. Ya, pretty amazing year last year! Somehow we were cut short on practices this year, and somehow, I .... me.... mommy...Yubby ..... am helping my daughter to learn her routine for Halftime. Yes, you read that correctly, it means what you think it means ...... I am actually DOING the routine, and naming the moves, High Vee, Broken Tee, shimmy shimmy, low Vee. yup, I'm doing that. I am also painting my toe nails in the car, so I don't show up with the wrong color on my feet, I am gluing glittery letters on her bucket so it ...

so, I have to make this quick, because, I have to go to football practice soon, which is really another entry all together, oh wait I think i already wrote that one .... It's been an odd 24 hours, it started last night when i walked downstairs, and found my children ...... wait for it .... sweeping the floor! TOGETHER! o.0 I actually called up to the hubs to double check the time and date, you know, in case I had somehow gotten zapped into an alternative universe or something ......... i still don't know WHY they were, i just smiled, said "WOW! Thanks!" and walked back up stairs ..... secretly wondering/ hoping that the dishes were next, hahah I so funny. Today ends my odd 24 hrs with the discovery of a heart shaped box of beads .....(probably stuffed away in my closet to get it away from a small toddler who would have tried to make "pretties" but would have only succeeding in giving mommy a reason to vacuum the bedrooms AGAIN. ) ...what's...

A little ditty I wrote last year, as we begin a new year, I have chills thinking about the fun ahead of us :) Football Fall October 21, 2012 at 4:26pm Public Friends Friends except Acquaintances Only Me Custom Close Friends Playa's See all lists... Football Gamers Vermonsters Boys POF PCP Limited Profile FUNfriends Family Church Lebanon, Ohio Area Family Island Paradise Old School Pharmaceutical Research Associates The Pampered Chef Grace Academy Grace Academy The Doenges Den Sears Acquaintances Go Back It's still a little too dark, and a little too early for being awake on a sunday morning. Uniforms are hanging, freshly laundered Maroon and Black with crisp white numbers and sparkling silver trim, there are pads and cleats, and cheer sneakers to lace up. Water jugs to fill, breakfast to grab and go, a truck to warm up and Caffeine to locate. A quick drive across town as the sky lights up, as we park the truck and see other families starting to arr...

March! Today I am sitting still. In anticipation of a very busy few weeks ahead. Tomorrow I officially throw my hat in for the Vermont Tough Mudder on Mt. Snow August 10th. Hubs and I will run it together, with a bunch of other siblings and friends. I am SUPER excited to do it one more time. Pretty sure I will be done with them after this, but who knows, I may get the urge again one day.  March 11th, my Dad goes into surgery for double knee replacement. It sounds so scary! I am really excited though, I know he will heal fast, and to see him mobile again will be awesome! it's hard to see someone so active so inhibited by pain.  Also, hubs will undergo Chemo. it's scary, but it's the last step to be sure it's all gone. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in early Dec. He had surgery, had the tumor removed, and all his scans and tests come back free and clear. This last step is just to make sure nothing comes back. It's the best option, so here we go. I...

In reading my past posts, i am so sad to see how old my kids have gotten! On a lighter note, Twelve days of Christmas by john Denver and the Muppets is playing as i type :) Christmas is coming, winter is commin'. Our life has taken a startling turn, it simplified my Christmas to-do list significantly  which is good, because i always try to do too much to make the Holiday super special and different every year. It's funny how easy it is to not worry so much about a dead string of lights, or how soon i get presents, or how many cookies i make. Just to sit, and look at the advent calendar  listen to the kids talk about what Santa is bringing, have cocoa with the first snow, and remember what is really important. My daughter is set on getting an Easy Bake oven, it's all she talks about, i asked yesterday, "what if you don't get it?" she looked at me like I just stabbed her stuffed animal ... eek ... then this morning she i...

Soo ... remember this? ... http://hagriddapig.blogspot.com/2011/11/whos-life-did-i-wake-up-in.html  ? Well, here we are in the middle of football season and I have a son playing, and a daughter cheering. Yup, me, Yubby, or Zubby ( my tiniest nieces new version of my name) I am a cheer mom. I even have two shirts that say so. My kids are LOVING it, my siblings are loving it, me being a cheer mom that it. Brats :P that's my mantle, my kiddos, aren't they cute? I have been pushed out of my comfort zone, and reside there comfortably :)

Today, as every year, we remember, and I don't even pretend anymore, I don't even try to shake the feeling, like shaking the dust off of you if you had been there. Even the dust itself is sacred. This past year I was at Ground Zero for the first time, and I am glad I saw it this way. I remember in my early 20's I visited the very spot with a group of my co-workers from a camp in northern NH. We had driven through the night to visit one girls family outside NYC, and to spend our Saturday off in the city, walking. We were poor Camp workers, not enough money to take a cab, or eat at a nice place, or even sight-see like some might. But, we had good walking shoes, time to kill, youth, and a spirit of adventure, so we walked the city, ate from food carts, one Chinese place, and even took pictures with the NYPD. We saw the towers, how big they were, and marveled at their presence, we came into the subway station under them, never imagining some...

internal Dialog while picking up after the morning pre-bus chaos......  "Where the heck is the cap to the Milk? Who on earth looses that kind of thing?" ..... "Oh, yeah ...that would be me ..." .... "wait ...... why haven't I lost one before?! That's sort of amazing ...." ... "Yay me for never loosing a milk jug cap till now!" .... -.- welcome to my brain .....

A rare look at them sharing oxygen in a friendly manner.... and then they once again proved they are indeed of my flesh and blood. :D 

Sometimes ........ everyone once in a while ... I wonder, how do they go from peppering me with questions 24-7 like I'm the encyclopedia Britannica ...... ( which I believe is now obsolete..) and then the minute I tell them a fact, or issue and order .... they question my very existence, and start talking down to me like I'm a teenager that just shoplifted. Why is it that the mornings I'm hopping out of bed ..... ( ok I NEVER HOP...but me chipper pre-10am, IS hopping ) I'm singing them out of bed, and they can't be woken even with the promise of ice cream for breakfast ...( no, we don't eat ice cream for breakfast..) I am ready to make Pancakes and muffins and bacon, and they can't even make it to the table in time to eat a bite of anything, not that they are hungry anyway. Then the days I'm barely alive and kicking, they are up, out of bed, in outfits that don't match and are inside out, inside down and backwards. Not to mention very weather inappr...

overheard this week .... Grant and his buddy ....    Grant ... "Mom, I need one of those strength bracelets, you know, Like Uncle Dominic has." Barrett ... "Special? How? Does it give you powers? Super strength? I want one!" Grant ...."Well, no, it doesn't GIVE you powers, it's just what they say so you buy them, it does look cool though .... and looking cool makes you cool, and strong, and gives you powers." **editor's note** o.0 .... that's either very deep, or very worrisome ..... or both?

Hey there, First off, Lemme splain, Haggie is a name I acquired from an online friend, don't totally remember the story, but it just stuck. YUBBY, is a nickname given to me by my younger brother David. He is 14 years younger than me, and I was more of a parent than sibling, this created a cool, weird, super strong Bond. He tried to call me "lovey" when he was very little, and it came out YUBBY, and it stuck, like crazy glue. When I met my husband, he kept calling me Sara, and it sounded so weird, my Family and friends had been calling me Yubby, or Yubs, or Yubmeister...etc. for so long, I forgot the sound of my own name. LOL! So, me, this post is about me. The year 2011 has been a breakthrough year for me. I have overcome many many many mental and physical obstacles, and I feel like, although it's taken me many years to get here, this year it all clicked, and I am a totally different person going into 2012. The first, and most obvious change, is my weight. I have batt...

Yuh, no joke dude ....... So, Thanksgiving, I just want to start by saying that DUDE, not only did it creep up on me this year, it smacked me upside the head with a cricket bat, then stomped on my comatose body while shouting through a bull horn. FALL BREAK!! Yesterday were my kids' harvest parties at school. For which i volunteered my services of course. I mean, they love it when Mom shows up in the classroom, and I have the time ..... i think ..... :P I was bringing, 2 doz cookies to Sam's party, and a Pumpkin Pie and 4 bags of candy corn to Grant's. Seems simple ya? The pumpkin pie, I already knew I would buy, I have not made one yet, and I am NOT experimenting on a classroom of kids, they don't care where I got it! I also, don't shoot me, decided last minute to BUY cookie dough. :o Do not shoot me! I don't bake .... oh wait .... hmm ... never mind, moving on. Same thought process, kids don't care, easy and fast, and yummy. Well, I was thinking there woul...

Rah Rah sis boom bah! ....... wait. .... what?? Cheerleader .... you could say spider, and i might cringe a little less. Lemme splain .... I am a tomboy. I grew up most of my life with two brothers, mostly boy cousins, and of course all my brothers friends, I had a choice, be the princess, or join in the merriment of being a boy, easy pick. Being a princess was too much work, and required uncomfortable shoes. :P I played Army, and basketball, baseball, tag, capture the flag, climbed trees, biked all summer, swam in creeks and rivers. I knew how to be a lady, I had manners, I could dress up, but only when it was absolutely necessary, i preferred flannel and blue jeans with a comfy pair of sneakers. I never wanted to be popular, never really gelled with the people who were. Cheerleaders to me, represented everything I did not want to be. When I was younger, I didn't even really know why, just that they always had perfect hair, and were co-ordinated, and skinny, and had perfect tans, ...

I have a son, his name is Grant, he is 8, he was born in Springfield Mass. while Hurricane Isabelle beat down on top of us. He was our first child, and he was 10lbs 10oz. He is adorable, and smart, and quick witted like me, he is also brilliant and outgoing like his Dad. He has a knack for sports, and a love of computers. His favorite food is Mac n Cheese, and he loves his dog. Grant is also my #1 challenge in Life right now. From the moment he started speaking and showing personality, it was clear that he was going to be one of a kind, and no walk in the park. He has problems with focus, if we took him to be examined by an expert, he would be "labeled" as ADHD, and who knows what else. Maybe at some point I will do that, just for the expert advice on how to deal with it better. For now though, we know him, we know how he is, and we know he is a GOOD kid and a SMART kid, he just has things about his little body he can't control. He can't sit still, he can't stay o...

Sometimes, I get sad, for no real reason. It's called depression, it makes no sense, it has no preference for body types, or personality types, it just exists. Too bad for me, it lives in me. It is not easy to talk about, I can here, because pretty much anyone who reads this, gets it. Today, and for a little while now, the voices are winning, they are winning in the weight loss fight, they are winning in the love fight, in the mommy fight, and yes, in the laundry fight. It's very unfair, but, the only way to get back on one's feet, is never to let them knock you off your feet. (if you can help it) This round, isn't as bad as some, so I can stay on my feet, and walk, one step a day, a shower here, an outing there, it all helps me "be normal" and once in a while the voices get drowned by life. **siiigh** that's all just had to write it down, another thing that helps me keep walking. something I wrote a while ago, in my Dark months ...... (early spring sucks ...

Today was my first "fast food Monday" My new schedule looks like this .... Volunteering at the church office in the am, while Sam is at school, Stop at store to get Ricotta cheese, to finish a lasagna dinner I am making for a neighbor with a new baby. It seems that ricotta cheese is not as common a thing as one might think, you can't stop at a quick IGA gas station, or even United Dairy Farmer, or even my discount grocer. That is what I get for trying to save time and money, next time, I will go all the way to Kroger, and pay whatever. :P So, no cheese, must rush home to meet the bus, then throw pizza at Sam, and go out to find cheese, which you can see wasn't as simple as I had planned, but I got it, I now have 45 minutes to start cooking pasta, and assembling, and baking the cookie brownie bars, then I have to get in the car again, and go pick up Jessie (babysitter being babysat by me) from the Jr. High school by 2:15. We get home, and I go into frenzy mode. I thro...

Yuh, you can pretty much find anything on the internet. I got a piece of artwork, the first piece I've bought for the new house. It was on clearance, (of course) and it says JAVA. It's really nice, in the colors I'm aiming at, it fits perfect in it's little nook, and my kids ..... are very confused. I expect in most houses, you would have to explain to the 5 yr old and the 7yr old, What exactly Java means ...... but in our house, not so much. I had to explain, Java is NOT a Hutt! Java is coffee, the Hutt is Jabba. They didn't quite get it, and they think it's pretty funny that I have a hutt coffee cup on my wall. I have to say though, I am quite proud. :)