Last Saturday, Jason, Asher and I flew to Washington D.C. to go the funeral of our good friends’ baby. After going full term and then some, he never got to take a breath on his own. The funeral was monday, and went as well as a funeral can go I suppose. The parents were very strong, and I’m so impressed and proud of them. I hated having to leave, but we had to hurry home for Tuesday.

My mom stayed here at our house, along with Miriam. She’s 2 now, and just old enough to know that something sad was going on, but not old enough to understand. She also has hit a very shy stage, and likes to have everything her way, immediately (we are working on that). So Jason and I decided it would be easier for everyone if she just stayed home and got special time with her Bubbie and Zaydie. Dad also stayed here, as he has for the last few weeks since being released from the hospital.

Tuesday, I took Jason to the oral surgeon’s to have all four of his wisdom teeth pulled. The surgery itself took about 45 minutes. It turned out there was a lot of infection back there, and as the doctor put it “it was messy”. The anesthesia made Jason really funny, and he took direction very well, which was nice for a bit.

However, the bleeding didn’t stop the way it should have. After a few hours of constant, continuous, copious bleeding, I called the doctor’s office again, and they had us go back in. They gave him two more stitches, and Jason finally clotted, after losing about 2 pints of blood.

We came home, and I got Jason to drink a bit of milkshake, and managed to keep him conscious until the fear of actually losing him passed.

He’s still incredibly weak and tired – mostly due to the blood loss.

Wednesday he slept most of the day. I drove dad to and from physical therapy, took care of the kids, and don’t remember much else from during the day. My sister came over after work to pick dad up and take him for the evening, as she does every Wednesday, and I was able to convince her to stay here, watch both wounded men, and my kids. I picked mom up, and she and I went for margaritas and then hit Stitch n Bitch.

Thursday is a blur of taking care of the guys, the kids, and the house.

Friday Jason tried to work from home, which really overdid it for him. He was exhausted. Everyone came over for Shabbat dinner. Mom made her famous stuffed cabbage, My sister made mashed potatoes and brownies, and I baked challah during the day. We woke Jason and made him come to the table for Shabbat dinner.

Tonight is Asher’s first birthday party, as tomorrow is his actual birthday, and Purim (a fun Jewish holiday involving costumes, noise makers, and getting drunk).

So yeah, I’m a little tired.

Twas Erev Christmas, and all through the bayit, not a creature was stirring? yeah you can forget it.
The Bubbie and Zaydie came over for dinner, but all Mommy wanted was to hire a sitter.
The daddy worked late, for Christians vacate
At this time of year, Jews don’t celebrate.
The kids both had colds, and one ear infection
Mommy was starting a bourbon obsession
The munchkins were snuggled all nice in their cots, and screaming their heads off
Is it time for shots?
Now afraid this is sounding like alcoholism, Momma has to admit
There has been a schism.
She dreams of the booze, but doesn’t partake
At least not while the kids are awake.
The parents were grateful for their new snow blower
but mostly because, their holiday was OVER!

My day began (if you can say yesterday ever ended) with my darling husband refusing to get up and help at 4:30 this morning when our daughter got sick, because he “only had an hour left to sleep before the alarm goes off”. He’d been asleep since 11 p.m. Unlike me, who again, for the third night in a row was up nearly all night with the boy.

My day got better when the boy woke again at 5 to eat.

I climbed back into bed 2 minutes before DH’s alarm went off. Of course, he has to hit the snooze button.

Then, at 6:15, boy wakes up again to eat, and won’t go back to sleep (again), so I brought him into bed with me in the hopes that he would play or something, and I could drift off a bit.

Instead, he throws up all over himself, the bed, and me. Third time I’d gotten thrown up on since returning from SnB last night.

So, I’m up, and dressed. All my comfy jeans are in the wash, so I’m wearing my “skinny” jeans. It goes without saying that today is not a “skinny” day.

Oh, and today is also daughter’s 2nd birthday. Funny, I’m not in a mood to celebrate. It’s a good thing all the celebrations are planned for Friday and Saturday, and that she is too young to know that today is the actual day.

Can I get a do-over on last night? And this morning? Please?

May 5770 find you happy, healthy, and loved.

Only 8 people entered my SunChips giveaway contest, so everyone’s odds of winning are really good!

I loaded up Random.org and plugged in that our numbers were minimum 1, maximum 8. Pushed the button, and low and behold, our winning comment is #2.

phyllis Says:
June 5th, 2009 at 9:45 am

It’s nice to see they’re living up to their name!!!!

Phyllis, come on down! I’ll be emailing you shortly for your mailing address so you can get your yummy SunChips and nifty reusable shopping bag.

Thanks to everyone who entered, and stay tuned – more giveaways are in the works!

SunChips are becoming increasingly “Earth Friendly”, which makes me happy.  In addition to using solar power at their facility in California to produce the chips, they are developing a compostable bag!  How cool is that?  It’ll be the very first truly compostable chip bag out there.

To get the word out, they are giving away full size bags of chips, and these really nifty reusable shopping bags!  I love it when my snack foods make me feel good.

So, do you want to win some goodies?

Juts comment on this post by midnight on the 7th, and you can win 2 full size bags of yummy SunChips AND a reusable shopping bag! Don’t miss out!

I know I haven’t blogged in way too long of a time, but folks, I need help.  Seriously.  Eternal gratitude to who so ever can help me.

I’ve forgotten how a song ends.  Heck, I may have forgotten most of the damn song.

So, pull out your scouting song books.  Dust off those old cobwebs.  Please, I beg of you, help me get through “When I first came to this land”

Here’s what I’ve got:

When I first came to this land
I was not a wealthy man
But the land was sweet and good,
And I did what I could.

I bought myself a farm
and I called it Muscle in my Arm

I built myself a shack
and I called it Ache in my Back

I bought myself a horse
and I called him Trouble of Course

I got myself a cow
and I called her No Milk Now

I found myself a wife
and I called her Light of my Life

We had ourselves a son
and I called him Son of a Gun

that’s it.

What comes after the son?

I know you remember this song, It repeats like The Farmer in the Dell.

The last full run through I have goes:

When I first came to this land
I was not a wealthy man
We had ourselves a son
And I called him Son of a Gun
And I called my wife – Light of my Life
And I called my cow – No Milk Now
And I called my horse – Trouble of Course
And I called my shack – Ache in my Back
And I called my farm – Muscle in my Arm
And the land was sweet and good,
And I did what I could.

So help me out here before I lose what little sanity I have left!  What’s the next verse?

Little girls like to play dress up! Oh no! The horror, the shame, the agony!

How dare parents let their little girls paint their nails, or horror of horrors, wear lip gloss?

Newsweek is full of crap.  I’m sorry, but it’s true.  I’ve never been so disgusted by an article in a so-called reputable publication.

the new normal: a generation that primps and dyes and pulls and shapes, younger and with more vigor. Girls today are salon vets before they enter elementary school.

Really?  How about some numbers to back this up? Hello?  Anything?  Nope.  Not a single statistic to show that little girls are going to salons at higher rates than in decades past.

If these trends continue, by the time your tween hits the Botox years, she’ll have spent thousands on the beauty treatments once reserved for the “Beverly Hills, 90210″ set, not junior highs in Madison, Wis.

I don’t know of any junior high kids who are in their “Botox years”, do you?  Hyperbole at it’s best.

According to market-research firm Experian, 43 percent of 6- to 9-year-olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss; 38 percent use hairstyling products; and 12 percent use other cosmetics.

Anyone out there remember tinkerbell lip gloss?  Oh, and folks, you better believe that I use a hairstyling product on my toddler’s curls.  It’s called a spray-in-detangler.  I dare you to find one mother with a curly haired child that doesn’t!   “Other cosmetics”, could that possible include nail polish? Hmm, how many of you women out there remember painting your nails as little girls? Or more correctly, having your mom or big sister paint your nails for you?  I know when my mom or babysitter painted mine, I felt so grown up! Then I’d put on my mom’s dress shoes,  throw a boa over my shoulder, put on a pith helmet, and announce my adventurous plans for the day.

Little girls play dress up. So do little boys. It’s a perfectly normal part of development.  Preschools have dress-up boxes!

Yes, tweens are “over sexualized” in our culture, but this kind of fear mongering, shock nonsense isn’t even fit for Fox News during sweeps month.  Much less Newsweek in March.

I know a lot of people out there, people I love and respect, are turning off their lights in 45 minutes for Earth Hour.  I just don’t see the point.

One hour of sitting in the dark, lit by candles, isn’t going to make any difference.

We do lots of “environmentally friendly” stuff, most of it because we are cheap.

We cloth diaper our kids. We use fluorescent light bulbs. We turn off lights when we leave a room. We line dry a lot of our clothes. We use re-usable bags for our shopping. We use cloth napkins instead of paper.  We drive a hybrid vehicle. I could go on, and on, and on until you want to smack me.

Sitting in the dark won’t make one bit of difference.

All it will do is add to my baby-blues.  We couldn’t turn off the server or Jason’s computer anyway as he is on call this weekend and must be connected, or risk losing his J-O-B.

The kids are already down for the night, which means this is my chance to sit, watch some t.v., read, knit, play a video game, what have you, and unwind.

Sorry politicos, but you can’t have my hour.  I need it. I need my lights. I need my time.

To those of you turning off your lights and sitting in the dark, more power to ya, and I hope you get the warm fuzzies from your “effort”.  Me, I’ll do something more effective for the planet than make myself miserable for an hour, thanks.

False alarm. Things got very scary for a little while, but everything is okay.