Wednesday, December 31, 2008

songs

Here is a song from the time when Andy and I got married.

The other one I wanted to post was Destiny's child, Independent Women--that is also from the same time (the song from Charlie's Angels)
Beyoncee has that one blocked from being embedded or something.
So here is a little treat. :)

Gross out alert:
Today at Food Lion I saw something so GROSS!!
There was a car that had been lifted up on big tires/rims etc.
It was an old Chevy or Oldsmobile or something.
Anyway, the rear axle was exposed and hanging from the Axle was a pair of
b@!!$.
DISGUSTING I say! Is this supposed to be a chick magnet of some sort?
Newsflash..B@!!$ are DISGUSTING TO LOOK AT! :)
So ugghhh...why would someone want them hanging from the back of their car??

Variety is the spice of life I guess.

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

ocho anyos! :)

Today is mine and Andy's anniversary!
The day we got married it snowed a little.
It was so cold.
What a sweet day! :)

I DID NOT WANT TO HAVE A WEDDING! I have always gone to them and thought--how embarrassing, how prepostorous (that is definitely not spelled correctly). I could not imagine, from the time I was a little girl, putting on a big, puffy, shiny white dress and walking down the center of the church with my Dad for him to GIVE ME AWAY!--i just always thought that was so --embarrassing! And kissing someone in front of my family--HELLO! YUck!
But then, when Andy and I were engaged my mama informed me that you really don't do everything b/c you want to. She said that some things like that you do for other people who want to watch. i.e. your family.
So a wedding we did have. It was excellent! I loved it. Simple of course.
She also insisted that we do the feeding eachother thing (another thing I had always dreaded) and the leg thing--garter or whatever--But Andy took that off in the hall of the church--not in front of everyone. :)

To celebrate? WE are going to go out to eat somewhere here in town. There are places we have not been b/c we do not get to go out much. :)
Then we are going to.....
Clean the rugs! YAY! we are going to rent a rug cleaner and get down to business. :)
Believe it or not, Andy and I actually have fun doing stuff like this. :)

Okay--off to hold babies.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Book Review, (so far)

For Christmas Andy's dad drew my name, which, I feel lucky that he did b/c he is a thoughtful gift buyer.
Last year he drew my name and he got me a Frida Kahlo book with pretty pictures.
This year he got me a book in Spanish.
I have never heard of the book or the Author, but I have been reading it obsessively for two days now, and I am completely absorbed into the world of this Domincan Family who has been cursed by el Fuku y los problemas le sigue por tres generaciones.
There is a big, fat nerdy boy with afro hair who loves Dungeons and Dragons and that TOlkien man, and all role-playing games (which I do not get b/c i know nothing about them).
There is the girl (la hermana) who was raped when she was 8, and became a fan of The Cure and being punk or goth or something when she was a teenager, and now I am on the part about the mother who is brutal, tall and ends up having breast cancer

The book is called La breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao y it's by Junot Diaz.
Now, i have never heard of the name Junot.
I cannot see, (or hear?) that name being easy to say in Spanish??
Nor is Wao usually a hispanic name...??

Anyway, the book is good so far.
It is sooooo much easier to read than what I usually try to read in Spanish.
I was trying to explain to Andy's dad that reading in Spanish is difficult for me.
Movies, there is context, and i can turn it up loud.
Conversation, you can explain y explain until everyone is on the same page.
Books, one must create the context purely from the words on the page--unless it is a picture book, so it is necessary to understand every single word, which means looking them up.
I think he got it after I explained it that way.

Interesting thing I learned so far: The US occupied, militarily, the Dominican Rebublic TWICE.
Never learned that in US history.
The Dominican Republic had a mean a** dicatator called, Trujillo (that was his last name) for many years, until someone killed him.
There was another famous Domincan named Portifirio Rubirosa who had a very large...hmm hmm. well, just guess, and in France they still call pepper grinders Rubirosas in some places.

I am off to settle a squabble b/t Elena and Andy about a movie.
She is being...three? and neither of us can understand what in the world she is wanting right now???
Something about a movie, actually, the problem is that she needs a nap. :)

Bethany, the present that andy had to have?
A pair of Red heart boxers! I have no idea where Elena got this idea, but it was hilarious to us all! :) She was so excited when he opened them up.
I will post of pic. of the drawers.

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas

Here are some pictures of our day so far:




So far two of the most wanted toys have been dudds--they came out of their boxes not working. Of course I have no receipt.
How could a believer in Murphy's law such as myself not keep receipts?
Let's see, the most fun toy--the play doh, of course! Always. :)
(also the cheapest)
Everytime a situation like this arises I sing to myself..."tis a gift to be simple..."
We had a nice ham lunch with peas and collards--out of someone's garden both veggies, and they were yummy! :)
The ham was sweet, though, and I am a salty-country ham girl myself.
This evening my sister and her two children are coming and we can have some fun with cousins.

Here is a picture of the sweetest gift so far:


OUr babysitter gave me a doily that was hand-embroidered. So sweet. The gift box was a goldfish box, and I immediately thought, "she is giving me a gag gift of an empty box of crackers!" Which would have been funny to me. Sometimes I am slack about bringing food for my children.
But no, it was a sweet gift with a sweet note.
Simple.

The things I remember from Christmas that are my favorite are 1. rides to look at lights
2.a brown bag with nuts and fruit that we used to get at church every year when we went to do our Christmas program

What I will remember from this year?
The smile on Elena's face the other night when she came running across the yard at my cousin's house to check out a yard decoration (one of those snowglobe ones)
Victor saying "ho ho ho"



Merry Christmas-- :)!

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

huh?

This post is going to be presented, once again, from my soap box.

I was just watching the V!ew and J@mie F0xx was up there talking about whatever he is selling these days.
Well, he started talking about how he likes "independent women." I thought, "okay he is trying to sound progressive or something" (not that anyone needs to do that it is 2008)
BUT then he went on to say, "da women dese days is working paying dey own ways buying dey own stuff, I like dat, I want a lady who will take me out"
..all I could think was, "and raise your kids, and....cook for you, and clean up after your lazy ass..." (the list goes on and on)
Now, I have no problem with the independent women thing.
My family has been full of us for three generations--women who graduated from college etc. even since 1915 or something.
BUT a woman's being independent is not a man's reason to be lazy piece of shit.
If I am independent it is so that I can care for my children, and myself.
Not buy a man some food at a restaurant b/c he prefers it that way.
I was just disgusted by this.

Now it should be remembered that i work closely with children and their families, which usually means their MAMAS and their grandparents. Most of the children I work with report to me regularly that, "i aint got no deddy, he iN jail" or, "i on know who my daddy is" or "my deddy got so many kids he can't ford buy me no shoe"

BUT j@mie fOxx is promoting, "independent women" b/c that is what he likes.
I think most of these women would love for some man to take some responsibility, be a dad, and get a fucking job. --ha!--
What a fUcking joke!


Maybe I should send Mr. Foxx a list of some of the impoverished little boys I work with who don't have a dad, or hardly any food, who were all excited about santa claus, who probably won't get shit for christmas.
I wonder if he would be attracted to any of their, "independent" mamas....hmmmm???

Merry Christmas! :)--I am off to put my soap box BEHIND the christmas tree, and maybe i wont get it out again until after the new year. :)

Friday, December 19, 2008

posting fool

i am catching up for my posting droughts.

Here is what I would like to be drinking right now:

Agua de Sevilla

1 liter pineapple juice or syrup
1 bottle of cava, a pink, sparkling, fizzy wine located in Spain (around .75 liters)
1 cup whiskey
1 cup cointreau (triplesec)
ice
Optional:

heavy cream
Some recipes call for an additional cup of rum, and others substitute cognac for cointreau. Some also call for shaved ice. Recipes instruct to crush the ice until it is shaved and serve in champagne glasses with a leaf of hierbabuena.

In a cute little hidden plaza in sevilla when it is warm y smelling jasmine..

That would be fun!

Here is a cute song: It is a Christmas Carol in Spanish sung by a little boy who is walking with his donkey to see the baby jesus.
My kids LOVE THIS SONG! We sing it all year round. :)



I could not find a youtUbe one that I liked the best...
There is one that is Spanish from 1978..

Let's just throw that one up here too. Enjoy, Bethany! :)

picture party, picture party

Picture this...
Do y'all watch M!ckey mou$se clubhouse?
Hee hee.
We did when we had cable. :)
Elena always called pete, "peke"

Here are the pics:
One is of the tamales I got today from the babysitter.
She (the babysitter) does not make them. The tamale lady does. Then the tamale lady brings them to the babysitter to sell, and SOMETIMES we manage to get some.
They are sooooo good! We all love them.
The others are of E in her Mary costume! :)
She was totally full of herself :)





picture this...

ready to go!!!

I am sitting at my desk.
No, they do not pay me to blog. :)
BUT, I am soooo ready to go home!
All of the children have left.
Now, we have to wait for the buses to return from their routes b/c it is inevitable that some children will return in the buses b/c no one was waiting for them at the bus stop.
We might be here until 2:00 is what I have been told.
COME AND GET YOUR CHILDREN PEOPLE! :)

Last night we had Elena's Christmas program at school/church (pre-school).
She was Mary. So cute! :)
I took a short video so Andy can watch it when he gets home.
After we all got in bed everyone started coughing.
Victor coughed until he vomited all over himself and me!!
He likes to be in his crib, though, so after some water and cough syrup he went back to bed.
Elena then crawled over to sleep on top of me, and she had a fever too.
So, who did not sleep last night?

I think the last time Andy went out of town last spring when we still lived in Graham both of my children had the throw up virus and they attacked me at once.
Then this time, the same thing.
This is one of the reasons he decided to change careers--out of town/puking/missing Christmas programs.

I will post pictures in a while of Elena with her sweet little costume on! :)
She looked like a miniature nun.

I guess I will go and do some planning for after the break now.
.....
Or maybe I will just stare at these nice cinder block walls painted dingy beige...

Monday, December 15, 2008

A full day






This post should have been done, well COULD have been done on Saturday. It is about Saturday.

When we woke up we went to see Tryon Palace. A recreation of a governor's mansion from the colonial times. When I was in seventh grade we went there and it was just gorgeous! So, I wanted to see it again.
It is a cool place to go, esp. if you are a history nerd (I am). However, someone has decided that the decorations were not authentic and so they no longer decorate liek they used to. These were all handmade wreaths with fruit and stuff...beautiful, and not plastic. No lights...just colonial seeming. (Turns out I guess they were not, or either they got tired of making all that stuff).

Then on the way home Andy and I split a frisco burger from H@ard**s. Those things are so d@mn good to me! They are huge so they are for splitting for sure.

On the way home Andy mentioned wanting oysters. When we lived in Durham we went out to eat oysters at a bare-bones restaurant downtown called f!shmongers. Fun Place. We got served oysters. We sat, ate, and left the mess there. Here, we have to cook them ourselves. There are places to eat oysters but we 1.don't know them, and 2. can't haul kids there. So, we rounded up all the stuff we needed. Then my daddy and Andy's parents came over and ate oysters.
It is funny to watch people eat cook-out style. My daddy was eating the oysters as if they were peanuts. snap pop, snap pop. no crackers. no horseradish. no butter. It was like a race. Cute.
The rest of us were popping them getting a cracker or bread and some horseradish or hot sauce and eating a cracker.
My children ran around and played the whole time and had a blast.

When we came in we sat down to relax. Parents were gone. Kids were in bed. I was just about to lament our lack of cable and I turned it to NB( and there was "Its a Wonderful LIfe" Which happens to be one of the only movies that I can watch every year. I love that movie! God, I do. :) My favorite scene: When Mary leans over the pharmacy counter and asks George if that is his bad ear, and then she says, "George, I love you. George Bailey, I'll love you til the day I die" I just love that scene. Little girl crushes are so sweet.
Andy and I watched that movie even with the commercials. And, of course, after you watch it your husband is your george bailey and you are his mary hatch--of course! :). Sweet.

I am posting pictures. I do not know where they will put themselves. Will they actually be a size that y'all can even see??? hmmm???

Friday, December 12, 2008

Flashback Friday


This picture is of Victor last year at this time.
He had just finished nursing.
We still lived in our house in Graham, which I still miss b/c it was the perfect house.
I called this the nurse-nurse face. He would nurse and then he would be pink and sleepy and I loved his chubby cheeks! He would throw his arm back like that and get into relax mode. :)
So sweet.

A funny: Every year for years-about five? Andy and I sing, "o holy night." at Christmas time, together. It is so fun and so hilarious!! We cannot sing and we both love to sing that song (it is loud, and your lungs fill up with air as you get ready to scream out parts of the song--well that is what people who cannot sing do anyway, hee hee). The first time we ever did it we were driving back to our house in Durham from somewhere and we started to sing that song, and we cracked up. So we just kept trying to sing it and get, "better and better" at it. We had our annual concert tonight in the kitchen. Victor and Elena love it. They do not get scared (that is what I would expect, as it sounds terrible) they laugh and laugh too!
HA.

Mas funny:
I am going to add a funny blog over to my list. When it gets there--check it out.
It is a spoof of blogging mommies, particularly to ones, I guess, who do not bother to spell correctly, and who are always blogging about their, "blessed" lives.
FUNNY! Thanks Bethany, --yep she found it first.

y'all have a good weekend! :)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful that I live in a country that was founded by people who, at least in their ideal minds and hearts, believed in liberty.
Liberty to practice a religion of one's choosing, and in the manner that one saw fit (vamos as long as you aren't hurting anyone).
That is why, in the coming of Winter, December, every year for the past five years or so me molesta un monton to listen to morons discuss how EVERYONE should say and be greeted with a hearty, "Merry Christmas"
This morning on the way to work I was already feeling nauseated--and I had to listen to two morning DJ idiots talk about their desire to greet everyone with, "Merry Christmas."
They were so adamant/angry about this non-issue. Every sentence they said puffed their feathers up a little bit more.

This is such a non-issue.
If you are a Christian, PUT A CHRISTMAS TREE IN YOUR HOUSE! :)
If you are a Christian, use the greeting, "Merry Christmas" among your Christian friends.
When you are out in public--Why do you even care about 1. signs in the store, 2. the decor in the library at UNC chapel hill (this is one of the places the DJ's discussed.)

I love Christmas trees. Christmas cards etc.
But my Jewish friends probably could not care less about seeing a decorated tree in the library.

I happen to think--along the lines of Jesus is the reason for the season--that Jesus would have been mortified that people were getting trampled over greed over a special at the store!!! YIKES people.

Get it? Liberty.
Get it? Do what you want in YOUR HOUSE, IN YOUR CHURCH. Don't get your dandruff in an uproar over what stores choose to do.
Finally, ask yourself, "would Jesus care what the card says?" Or would he care about the greetings and love people are sending out? hhmmm hhmm...????

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Thankful Thursday

Today I am thankful for:

Triscuits. I seem to be wanting a lot of these lately, with cheese and salsa.

Glitter. This week all of my students have been decorating mittens. In my therapy sessions if we are anywhere near a holiday (and we always are) I break out the glitter. I love it! When I was little, if we got to do something with glitter, I was excited for DAYS. So, we work with glitter a lot. ;).
Once I worked at a school where someone asked me was I almost finished with glitter, b/c the janitor was tired of cleaning it up. HUH? I would think the best thing to do in that situation would be not to clean it up--i love how glitter situates itself EVERYWHERE. I always loved it if a piece ended up in my hair--by accident. ooohhhh... Today I had a piece on my cheekbone. I saw it at 9:30 when I washed my hands, and I left it there all day. Just sparkling. I hope my students get as excited about our once a month glitter fests as I do. Some of them sure do need a bit of innocent excitement.

Friends. This afternoon I was talking to my favorite one on the phone and she could not get her bottle of wine open. NOw that she lives just up the road. I cruised over and took her some more wine, a new wine opener from my drawer, and some ginger ale (my wine-mixer of choice and hers). She was so excited! :).

Have a happy Friday tommorrow.

Spot on!

Spot is our family's chihuahua.  He is what we call, "an evil dictator/stuffed animal come to life".  Sometimes, after he has ...