Early Father's Day:

When I was in NM, I was watching infomercials (my Dad and I have done this since I was a kid. He gets me something from an infomercial every year for Christmas!) I was watching the one for the Jack Lalanne Juicer. WHen Jason and I were dating, I got him a juiceman for valentines, and he has used it a ton. When I saw this one was whisper quiet, had a nice big slot to out the food in, and had a no-drip spout, I was sold. Unfortunately, the dang thing was $150.00, plus S&H; which in the space of an hour they never mention the actual cost. So, I went to the website and still couldn't find out how much shipping was, but I knew there was no way I was going to spend almost $200. Thank goodness for e-bay! I got a brand new one, deluxe model for $120 with the shipping and everything- bye bye troll money!
When it was delivered to our house, I didn't want to put in the effort of hiding the big box, so I just wrote on it: (see picture). Of course this caused Jason to constantly guess what was inside the box. His first guess was a juicer, and I just said "Yep, that's what it is," no matter what he guessed, so he wasn't 100% sure.
Then today, we were cleaning and he picked up the box and said: "Where do you want me to put this juicer?" I was caught a little off guard and said "You looked in the box!?!?" He just started laughing while I stood there aghast and said, "I tricked you! Ha ha ha! I totally tricked you!" It took me a second to register that I was duped. Anyway, since the cat was out of the bag, I told him to just go ahead and open the damn thing. He has been juicing for both of us every morning, so I figured I benefit from this too. (Whisper-quiet motor= sleeping in).
Next time, I will hide the present when I get it.
(P.S. it is 3:00am, and I am up having an asthma attack or whatever the hell is wrong with me. Hopefully that whisper-quiet motor doesn't wake the kids up too early!)

So Tired...

So I am awake at almost 2:00. Unfortunately, I am not reading or enjoying myself in any way. A couple of months ago, I got sick, and I thought maybe I got a bad case of bronchitis, but now I am thinking it is asthma. I can't breathe, I cough all of the time, and feel like i am suffocating. I have been to the doctor, but she just told me to take some homeopathic stuff, robitussin if I needed it and sent me back home to die. HELP! If you have asthma, tell me what you do. I am kinda freaked out to have to take steroids, but anything is better than not being able to breathe. Anyway, if you have any suggestions let me know.

The Host

I just finished Stephanie Meyer's new novel "The Host." I kinda ignored my kids, and messy house, and laundry all day yesterday to finish it up. I really hate when I do that, but it is like some horrible addiction to plot.... I just can't stop in the middle of the story. I finished her other 3 books in 3 days. I feel like reading is my naughty pleasure. I will sneak my book all around the house and read it whenever I get a chance. I don't think it is normal. Oh well, a Stay-at-Home Mom needs something to entertain her during the day.
Oh, and the book was great! I really like her style of writing, and it was a bit sci-fi, so I liked it.
Does anyone have any good suggestions for books I should read next??

Psycho Troll Collectors:

Okay, I know this is going to be a long post, but if you need a good laugh, I recommend that you read it.
These are all e-mails that I received from one of the people who bought a bunch of trolls from me. Just so you know, I copied and pasted these right from the e-mails- I did not change a word or doctor them up or anything. I am not THAT creative. Anyway, she was a really nice lady, and I looked forward to her correspondence. I wish everyone on e-bay was this nice. Well, Enjoy!

Hi. I'm just curious...are these trolls yours from childhood? I'm just wondering why/how you have so many and why you are selling them. I'm 43 and love trolls! I have since I first saw one when I was about 8, and my cousin gave me an old little one from the 60's. Anyway...I have a bunch of big ones...and a handful of medium and small ones...but still love getting some here and there. They still make me happy. I did give a bunch away to a niece about 10 years ago...and now I feel like collecting some more small ones again. I am bidding on a couple of your big Troll Kidz cause I need girlfriends for some of my boy Troll Kidz! :) HAVE A GREAT DAY.

Yep....I will love them. I don't collect things for their collector's value or so I can resell things later. I actually adore trolls and put jewelry on them and sometimes blankets or put them on the couch or by the fish tank or whatever. I give them names...at least the big Troll Kidz ones get first and middle names. I tend to cut tags off of stuffed animals and dolls...their value is in my HEART, not in their money value or what others would pay. I always say that I would not take a million dollars for my favorite trolls...and that is TRUE! If I get one of your big ones (never know if I'll win the auctions or not), I will give one of the girls your name for their middle name. Thanks for sharing. As far as being an obsessive collector goes...I have bought mostly mallard duck stuff on ebay...I'm obsessive about them lately, since real ones have been landing in my yard! Some of my trolls have mallard duck blankets and pins on them! :)

OK.....all the little trollies that I bid on are mine!...once I pay for them. I will get a post office money order ASAP. Just let me know what the total is. I have a blue one that is just like your pink Tootsie night time troll...he will be so happy to see her! :)

I think you may have discounted me too much. I'll just send you $30. You are practically giving your trolls away anyway since I was the only bidder. I think you discounted me $2 for every item...not just the additional ones.
I won't get insurance since they aren't made of glass...that's all I really insure. Thanks so much. I am looking around my house for new places to put the little babies. I want them to be comfy!

Thanks. I think that the Red haired one has the cutest little outfit...and I am going to pair her up with a yellow haired boy troll who is wearing a blue and white stiped suit...I've had him for probably 12 years or so...and his name is Kenny David. I will name her Maria Brittany. I give all my big trolls first and middle names. And I have been buying trolls on ebay a lot the past couple weeks (usually I buy mallard duck decorations). Anyway....when I buy a Troll Kidz from someone, I like to give the child that person's name for a middle name.
THANKS A LOT. I will let you know when the babies arrive safely.

Hi Brittany. I just wanted to let you know that all the troll babies made it safely to Indy. I already paired Tootsie Trina and Maria Brittany up with their men. Khloe Jeanette is waiting for her Man to arrive...he is a blue haird Colorado Rockies troll who I think she will really like. I knew the babies would be beautiful but they are even better in person!
The little Indian trolls are by my fishtank....my boyfriend and I have actually noticed that the one fish seems to like to look at decorations around the tank...the other one is so active I don't know if he notices anything but the bubbles in the water! I may end up purchasing a little flower girl for the ringbearer boy, cause I've seen some on ebay. Thanks for the extra trolls...they are so cute! My big trolls like to play with the little trolls you know! :) I will take good care of your babies and we even will celebrate their birthdays...when we figure out what they should be. I have a b-day troll! Thanks!!!

Brittany, you were so sweet to give me the 2 free trolls. I wanted to let you know what I did with them. I made dresses for them!! I took the skeleton costume off the orange one and made her a tan dress and put beads around her neck....she looks like an Indian girl now. And I made a red dress for the red sign carrying troll. You can make dresses really easy for little trolls by cutting the top part of a stretchy type thick sock that goes up to your calves. Hard to explain but you can cut that part so it is like an apron dress that covers them from the chest down and you can tie it in the back. Thanks again for sending them to me....they look really adorable! By the way...I put a silver fancy cross necklace with an amethyst on the purple troll you sent me, Khloe Jeanette...and a gold necklace with several red ruby-like stones on the red-headed troll, Maria Brittany. Little Tootsie Trina is ready for bed so I didn't put anything on her, but I gave her a teddy bear. Thanks

Thomas the Train: The real Story:

I haven't yet blogged on the Boy's blog about our day out with Thomas the Tank, but I think I may have to sugar coat how it really was. So, here is the real story:

Fact: The tickets to this so-called "event" cost $18.00 plus a convenience fee of 3.50. That is $21.50 each for 2 year-olds and up. So, for us it was $61.50. Thank goodness we didn't pay full price! I think I would have to cry! As I looked around there, all I could think about is that this place was making more money than the porn industry- and we all know how successful that is. It was SO CROWDED!

Fact:This picture is Christian "enjoying" himself on the train. We are about 10 cars back from the actual Thomas Engine in an ancient boxcar with the tiniest seats in history. I had to ask a man to move so that we didn't have to sit outside in the cold. Um yeah, I forgot to bring a jacket for myself and I was freezing, plus we had Owen who would have died of hypothermia if we were to go outside. All of the kids didn't realize we were even on a train. I kept having to say: "Christian, we are on choo choo tracks- wow!" Afterward, I heard some kids say to their Mom that they wanted to go on the train. The Mom responded by saying "We just got off the train!"

Fact: My normally perfect child (Owen, not Christian) decided that it was cold and windy and boring- so he cried... a lot. The train ride was actually 10 minutes of Thomas backing up, and 10 minutes of him going forward to where we started from. He made it through the backing up part, but must have got sick f the views of people's back yards and cried the whole last part. I couldn't take him out of the car seat because the 4 of us were crammed in a place for 2 people and there just wasn't room! Choo Choo!

Fact: Christian has the same rotten face in almost all of the pictures. He would not look up or smile. So, this was one of the best pictures we got with Thomas after standing in line for about 40 minutes. As we were leaving, I told him that if he didn't smile I wouldn't give him lunch, and got a couple fake-smiles by the posters. Man, it is sad when you have to threaten starvation to get your kid to smile.

Fact: Jason almost called in sick to work. Thank goodness he didn't waste a sick day on this! But I must say, I was really grateful to have Kelli there. No matter what the situation, I always have fun with her. Plus, I couldn't find my small camera, so she carried the big one around for me (she also carried Owen and Christian at various times).
We made the best of a really horrible situation, and had fun being together! But this is the LAST TIME I will ever go and see Thomas the Jip Engine.

Graduating Inmates:

I read in the paper today about inmates at our local jail graduating from college. I truly think it is awesome that they can do that. I would rather have an ex-con get out of jail and have some sort of education rather than going back to whatever crime landed them in the clinker in the first place. What my point is at mentioning this is that I think Jason should rob a bank. If he doesn't get caught, we have all of that money. If he does we might be in an even better position:
-A free place to live.
-Free food.
-He wouldn't be able to leave so we would save thousands on gas.
-Free inmate gym membership.
-FREE COLLEGE!
What happened to the days when people committed a crime were punished?

American Idol:

Can you believe David Archuleta lost?? I was in shock, but I must say, I think that people are a little insane. I saw a picture in the newspaper with a 60-something year old lady freaking out at the sight of David. Not to mention all of the adults who went to the ESA and cried their eyes out when he lost. Really people. Who would have shed a tear over this kid 6 months ago? He was just a shy person who liked to sing. I hung out with kids like him in High School (I was a drama nerd, okay) and I will tell you right now that nobody ever gave any of us the time of day. Do you know who I am a big fan of? The average kid who trudges to school every day and has very few friends, but still manages to get along in life. Now that is a hard task! So, even though the more talented person lost.... I think I will survive. That is, until season 8.

Movie Mania!

Saturday night Jason's parents came over to watch the boys, and we decided to go to a movie. Big shock, there is nothing good in the theaters. But, being desperate to get out of the house, we decided to go see Iron Man. It was so strange, I kept falling asleep. It was like... "Oh, gee, I wonder if Iron Man, the star of the movie, will get killed this time.... Oh my goodness, he just dropped 4,000 feet to the ground and is still not dead. What an absolute shock!" It was just a little too cheesy and predictable. The worst part was not the actual movie.
A man and his teenage son sat by us, and the kid kept saying all of the one-liners right before the actors on screen said them! Do you know how annoying that is. I sit and think "should I say something, or is this kids burly Father going to beat my husband up?" I have said things before in this type of situation, but the kid was only about 8 years old, and she had a wimpy-looking Dad.
Well, I kept my mouth shut. (hard to believe... I know). I just can't imagine me sitting there with my kid and not telling them that that sort of behavior is rude and annoying. Come on people!
Please, share with me your horrible movie experiences- and vote on my poll.

New Blog:

Well, here it is. I have decided to start another blog. Why?? I mean, geez, my other blog is so witty and informative. Yes, I know, but sometimes... okay, most of the time I am holding back because I know that it is mainly about my kids, and I don't want them to think their mommy is a bitter and ill-disposed person. Not that this entire blog is going to be filled with sarcasm and negative thoughts, but don't we all feel that way sometimes?
Anyway, I sat here forever trying to think of a good blog address. I must be really unoriginal because all of my favorites were already taken. Which wouldn't be that bad except that people take the good names and don't even blog. I guess that is why I have had the same e-mail address for over 12 years, I just can't think of something new and original. I ended up choosing Mermaid in these Jeans. It if from a Tori Amos song. I am not a huge fan, but love the song it is from. Anyway, you can make your own meaning from it.
Well, enjoy... or don't. I really don't care what you think.
Okay, okay... I care what you think. So leave comments please.
(But only nice ones).