What's a Bachelor's Degree?

The following conversation happened in my car yesterday. The 8 year old boy I watch was bragging that his mother (who happens to be divorced), is graduating tonight with her Bachelor's degree. He was so proud of her and he had every right. Then my daughter asked him what a Bachelor's Degree was.

His answer:

"Someone who goes to school without a husband."

His poor mom...she deserves so much more credit for her accomplishment! lol

One little bit of information changes everything...

It's amazing how one tiny tidbit of knowledge can change your entire attitude. That is what has happened in our household this morning.

Melia, my 2 1/2 year old, has been a bear lately. She's always been prone to phases of....um....high maintenance? But these last 3 weeks have been quite a doozy. It started off with some crankiness and a cold/cough. This cold has now been going on for 3 weeks, although for the most part she doesn't really "act" sick. She's been waking at night...alot. She's clingy during the day. She can be perfectly happy sitting on my lap, but if I dare try to walk away, she screams as if the world is ending.

Quite frankly, it's grating on my nerves. A couple days ago I just let her scream. She promplty responded to that tactic by throwing up all over my bedroom floor. Ear infection maybe? She doesn't have a fever. She doesn't pick or pull at her ears. I just didn't get the ear infection "vibe". But, since we didn't know what was going on, I was all ready to call first thing this morning and make an appointment for her. That is until...

Last night I was talking with a few friends. They both have one year olds and were sharing the woes of teething babies. That's when it dawned on me. 2-year molars! Sure enough, when I stuck my finger in her mouth this morning, two nice big fat molars have peeked through the surface. I'm sure there are 2 more working their way down up top. I bet that explains it.

I mean, it could just be that I have a tempermental, cranky and high maintenence child. But for now, I have some molars to blame it on. It's much easier to handle the clinginess when you know a possible cause.

Grateful to be alone.

You might think I'm going to talk about the truly heavenly bliss that comes from having some alone time, but I'm not. I'm going to talk about those moments that you are truly grateful that you are alone, because otherwise someone would see you acting like a complete idiot.

Take, for example, me. I'm in my room today, cleaning (gasp! Yes, CLEANING my room. There you go Mom and Dad, it only took me 28 years). I'm sweeping along the side of my bed when this THING....this small black and really, really, really fast thing comes running at my feet. This sucker was coming straight for me and I screamed like there was no tomorrow and leaped up onto my bed, jumping and screaming and basically freaking out. Then that nasty little critter ran into the wall and began running back to where it came from.

As I watched the little purple/black bead roll to a stop in the middle of the floor, it dawned on me that with my zealous sweeping, I had sent the bead flying, bouncing off a wall, and rolling straight back at me. But in my defense, it was moving so fast there was no way I could tell it was a harmless little piece of necklace and not some creepy, hairy, eight legged ball of terror. It probably took me a full 5 minutes to quick breathing heavily.

See, this is why you don't clean. I really don't think it's good for your health.

After 7 long years....

I finally did it. I splurged. And I don't just mean "oh, I just spent $40 on a pair of shoes"...I mean I SPLURGED.

I just spent $400 on a blender. Yes...but not just any old blender, on a Vita-Mix! The blender of all blenders! This thing can puree anything. You can make a smoothie and just peel an orange and stick the whole thing in there, seeds and all. I made soup the other day...all I had to do was stick an entire tomatoe in there, an stalk of celery, a slice of onion, green pepper and squash, a garlic clove and some seasonings. No slicing, no dicing. I didn't even have to use the stove or microwave, the Vita-mix heated it up for me! In the end I threw in some canned corn, black beans, chicken and tortillas to make it chunky and I had the most delicious soup. And best of all, I didn't have to chop anything or cook anything and it took me all of 5 minutes to make. And, since all those yummy vegetables were obliterated by the VItamix into a liquid, my kids were none the wiser! They also haven't realized that while Mommy has made them fruit smoothies and milkshakes ever day this week, I've snuck cabbage, kale and carrots into their daily "treat" becasue it blends so well it completely liquifies it and you can't tell they're in there!

Can you tell I'm happy with it? I've longed for one for the last 7 years. But I always let my head rule and would walk away. I decided to go for it this year, however and I couldn't be happier. And the best part is that it will pay for itself since I am now making my husband his rice milk, which costs about $4.50 a gallon from Costco but only about $.30 a gallon in my Vita-mix!

They should pay me for advertising.