Tuesday, May 31, 2011

A Fun Day On Long Island!

Today was our extra day off for Memorial Day.  After all the snow we had this year, we still got to use up a day because our kids need more time off this time of year.  With the parents in town, I took advantage of the extra eyeballs to take the kids to the Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, New York.   It's been here on Long Island for 10 years and today was my first trip.  (Technically I was there 8 years ago, but, hubbs and I were at the animal rescue center visiting a friend that worked there and then we weren't "allowed" in the aquarium because we might get the animals "sick".) 
Any hooo,  the day started off great for the single fact alone that my girlfriend gets discount tickets through her union and she just happened to have had 5 laying around her house.  The price was right and we were ready to go (PS - any and all money that I had saved was spent on 2 THINGS at the gift shop). 
The ride out was smooth enough.  A lovely drive on the Long Island Expressway with minimal traffic - upside to a Tuesday trip.  Traffic was a little heavy in Riverhead as there is much construction going on right in front of the aquarium.  A gas station remodel as well as a hotel being built on either side of the aquarium made for a slow go. 
Once we finally found the parking down the street, we took a great strool to the entrance where you can watch seals while waiting to enter.  The downside to today - school field trips.  Atleast 3 different schools were there.  From elementary to crazed middle schoolers.  I just kept a tighter grip  closer eye on my kids. 
The stingrays are right up front when you get in.  On the other side of the interior is a great scene with shallow water and a beachy feeling.  You walk over a dock, look down and there's sand sharks.  That went over big!  We saw Japanese Spider Crabs (HOLY CRAP!! They were HUGE and very scary looking) and electric eels.  We even found Nemo.
Sharks, octopus, penguins, snow monkeys.  SNOW MONKEYS???  Isn't this an AQUARIUM???  oh, and 4 parrots.  Fish, lots of fish.  The boys loved the sea lion show.  It was short, but cute, none the less. 
2 1/2 hours of pure joy on my children's face.  No complaints other than the usual "I'm THRISTY!!" 
It truly was a picture perfect family day. 
Oh, and I held a snake. 

Friday, May 27, 2011

Over doing it....

Well, it truly has been a while since I've had anything to say.  Really, it's not that I haven't had anything to say, it was lack of time!!  When I get involved in something, I have a tendency to throw myself into it and kinda leave everything else in the dust for a while.  So, this lovely little blog of mine is the one that suffered.  BOO.....
Here I am at a holiday weekend, and I'm pretty sure that I"m going to be spending my daytimes catching up on the 3 GIANT piles of papers, mail and forms that have been waiting for me, so graciously catching the dust for me and leaving it's imprint on my couch cushions.  Anyone looking for rectangular cushions, let me know.  My butt is quite round and I don't know how it will fall in.  (Round butt, square seat???)
I digress, I really have taken on quite a bit lately.  My parents are visitng for the next 2 weeks.  So, in my own brilliance, I started spring cleaning 3 days before they got here.  REALLY??  Yes, I am that stupid.  SO, there's piles of outgrown clothes that I want to sell on ebay laying around.  There's piles of "stuff" to go into the basement - and they can't go down there because that needs it's own spring cleaning. 
Cake orders are booming, so, I'm really excited about that and I'm focusing a lot of time on my other blog to be helping out other mommas!!  PHEW - the neglect.  I am never without my cell phone so i don't miss an email - I still can't respond on time. 
I'm hoping when school ends, i'll be able to redirect my focus to the kids more and really just divide my time properly between internet, piano, cooking and playdates.  Thank goodness I have a very supportive husband who gets me and how I function - I think a lesser man would have imploded by now........

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Still catching up.........

This weekend was not as catch-up worthy as I wanted it to be.  I had some fun.  My cup runneth over but,  my plate is too full!!  Friday night I had the opportunity to go to the movies with my girlfriends.  That was a lovely night out.  Then, by the time I got to bed, my littlest person started crouping.  What child croups in May??  He was barking for an hour!! 
Finally, around midnight, I was able to start drifting.  3AM rolls around and he's calling out for us.  He wet the bed.  WHAT??  SO, that means we clean him up, change his clothes and let him come sleep next to me.  My husband still gets all the room in the world to sleep, but, my little person has to climb back into the womb when he lays next to me.  We have a stinking king sized bed and I'm the one hanging off the edge.  By 6AM the big little is awake and all hell starts breaking loose.  COME ON!!  Why do they do that??  Why must they wake this early.  We have room darkening shades in their room.  Their room is black!!!!  I can't stand it.  After that night, I was just miserable. 
So, I went to see my chiropractor first thing after finally getting motivated.  There's the upside to my day.  I love her.  She's an awesome friend. 
Saturday was a strange day.  My SIL's husband's best friend, Jimmy, is involved in what he's calling 52 Missions.  One mission each week for 52 weeks of stuff that he has never done before.  So, I was teaching him to play the piano and then teach him to play a song.  We spent 4 hours on and off doing that yesterday (my children suckered him into a few games of LEGO Star Wars - although, I don't think they had to try too hard - he's a Star Wars and Video Game junkie as it is-in between learning new notes)
The afternoon disappeared a bit.  I put off making the cake until this morning because I was worried about the cake's integrity in the swampy weather. 
Husband and I watched Scott Pilgrim VS the World last night - amazing how I stayed awake for it - it really held my attention.  Finally, a movie that was totally different.
This morning, I set out to put the cake together.  The whipped cream stayed the consistency of cream no matter what I did.  It was stinking ridiculous.  When the executive decision to make a buttercream instead came about, that also threw a wrench in the works because I didn't have enough powdered sugar. 
AHHHH!! Right down to the last second was I putting this cake together.  I wanted to add a starburst to it (it was a cake for a boy so I wanted to pass on flowers) and the buttercream was turning into cream itself and blah blah blah.  To make this long story slightly shorter, the cake was delivered.  I am kicking myself about it.  There is always so much to change after the fact.  I wish I had done the fondant.  I wish I had figured the name differently.  I wish it wasn't 1000% humidity.
Ah well.  Hubbs and I are going out to dinner tonight.  We'll see how that goes........

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Bridesmaids - The Movie

I believe one catch phrase that I saw was, "A chick flick that doesn't suck" and it was correct!!  Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph were hysterical together in this movie.  I wish SNL was this funny every week.  Yes, some of the humor was crude (I believe I had a screaming laugh going on at one point while crying at the same time - I should have been worried about bladder protection at that point!) 
A cute story about childhood friends.  One is struggling to keep her head above water financially and the other just got engaged.  So, you can see here where the craziness can kick in.  Kristen Wiig is just pure comic genious.  I don't know how she pulls off some of the stuff that she does.  The supporting cast (the bridesmaids) definately are scene stealers!  I gave such a glowing review to my husband, he is actually looking forward to it being available on netflix!  That's definately a thumbs up!

PS to my girls that went out last night.  My childhood friends.  I love you!

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Am I Ever Going to Catch Up??

I just don't understand.  Well, actually, I do.  So much going on now. 
My blogs really are becoming a full time job.  Now that it has been over a month, I am starting to be compensated for my Odd Jobs Momma stuff.  (http://www.oddjobsmomma.blogspot.com/) - you know I had to throw that in there!! 
More and more opportunities are coming my way and I couldn't be more excited! 
Life is still happening around me though and it's getting really tough to keep up.  My grandfather has been in and out of the hospital for 2 weeks now.  2 weeks ago he had a stint replacement in the city.  After he came home, I promised my uncle that I would be a good girl and stay home (I have a tendency to be a "mother hen").  My aunt has been wonderful and keeping me updated so I can keep my parents updated.  It's a good phone system for a large family.  Then, after being home for 2 days, Pop started having stroke symptoms.  Very minor - slight droop to the mouth, slight loss of motor function to the right hand and dragging the right foot as well.  So, off he went to the hospital again on Friday - fortuneately, this time it was local.  Now, you can't keep me away!  (I'm annoying like that too)
So, Saturday morning I parked myself in a chair next to his bed and stayed there until after lunch and the same on Sunday- Hey, Mother's day is about what mommy wants to do - that's what I wanted to do - while my children and husband did not set my kitchen on fire baking me a cake!
Through lots of therapy and much grumpiness for being there, my pop is home with my aunt temporarily.   YAY!!  So, in the meantime, not just because of that, (I have kids too, did I mention that???)  those demanding little buggers that want to be fed and played with sucked up a lot of my time too.  The wii bowling, the UNO games, the tickle tortures.  All in a days work.  oh yeah- That's what I was complaining about.  I can't keep up!!!!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Damn you Hot Coffee

It's starting off to be one of those days.....
As I was pouring Darling Husband's coffee this morning, the coffee decided to jump out of the pot and hang on to my knuckles for dear life.  How dare it!  I mean - I use those knuckles!  Quick witted and yet still half asleep, I whispered !@*$&*#^!&* and then turned the cold water on.  Gently, i placed the coffee mug down (haha sucker, that extra little guy that tried to escape?  MISSED ME!!)  and then i let my hand gently cool off in the frozen flowing fountain of healing. 
Crap - my hand hurts.  No blisters - just really red.  :(

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

A survey site for fun!

http://tryvindale.com/VudPPzjJ Survey Site!

This is Vindale Research! This survey site does both cash and points. This site will not make you rich, but, gives you lots of survey opportunities to make cash. I recommend setting up a paypal account if you don't have one already for these survey sites. Most of them will deposit directly to it. I use it kind of like a savings account!
Enjoy and as always, have fun!

Please check out my other blog, http://www.oddjobsmomma.blogspot.com/ for other opportunities like this!

Monday, May 2, 2011

And now for something completely different.........

Since I got that last rant out of my head, I can move on with life.
I kind of feel like life has been moving at warp speed lately. We came out of the winter doldrums into spring chaos and it has been non stop! I cannot get over the fact that it is May. Next weekend, it's going to be the 4th of July!
Hubby's birthday is this weekend right before Mother's Day. I have to give the guy atleast one day before I suck up all the love of the children again. THe children seem so confused as to what to celebrate and in what order. All the prep work that they are doing at school for Mother's day and then I try to remind them about Daddy, but, if you want to make all the presents for me, that's okay too!
And now the sad news - TV season is ending. THis month. It's over. I can't stand reality TV (unless it's a cooking competition!!) I have the most boring TV schedule for the summer. I'm so glad that we signed up for netflix. Soon my evenings will be filled with NIP/TUCK eye candy from Dr. TRoy and watching Heroes.
I have been on another mission too - a bit of a ridiculous one, but one none the less. I want to find "You Can't Do THat On Television" on DVD. Apparently it was available once, for about a day, on DVD. SO now people are selling them on DVD-Rs and my DVD doesn't play those. If you know of anyone that has a real DVD for sale, let me know so that I can show my children that BRAINSURGE isn't the originator of getting slimed! WHAT??
So, that's enough rambling for now. Nothing whitty this evening. Nothing of consequence. Good evening.....

***WARNING - THIS POST IS A RANT******

Okay. I'm a piano teacher. I have been a piano teacher for 20 years now. For the first time in 20 years, I had a student unprepared for NYSSMA. Ya know why? Because I SCREWED UP!! Not the kid. Not the parents. ME. I have taken full responsibility in not being ready for this child. Explained to the parents and the student that I wasn't comfortable sending him unprepared. They got it. They understood. Case closed, righT?
NO! I decided that I would try to get the student to finish preparing his piece and enroll him in another festival if there was availability and that he could get recognized for his performance. Music director was more than happy to allow the child into the festival. If we wanted to be formal about it though, we should go through his school district so he can be recognized and receive a medal for his performance (standard procedure). Well, I just got off the phone with his district and could not be more disgusted with the director of music. He will not formally register him or allow him to send his paperwork through because the student didn't show up to the festival. He's heard all the excuses before and will not allow it. THere is no more filing of paper work. There will not be any medal for my student. Now mind you, when signing up for these performance festivals, parents pay to allow their child in. So, now the district has an extra $19 for a no show. But that doesn't matter. I'm just so upset for my student. I can't remember being this upset in quite sometime. I really feel that I let him down even though mom tells me he's fine. I want to do right by him and allow him to partake and show off his hard work. Well, he's getting signed up through another district and I am going to buy him the biggest medal that I can find (within reason, of course) and we'll celebrate on our own.
Now that I have that out of my system, I now return you to your regularly scheduled lives.......Carry on!