.....and the winner is.....

Okay, all you all who have been on the edgiest of edges of your seats, the wait is finally over! I did a highly scientific tallying system (using pen and paper) to make sure every commenter that had a second entry got their fair number of entries. (This was necessary as some folks especially messed me up with the nonsequential comments. You'll recall, I have nary a wit nor marble, as any previously in my possession are chillaxing with my autographed dreamboat pictures off in the storage unit...) Then I went over to Random.org as Kiddo is already long since asleep (thanks to an afternoon of fresh air and "scootering" as she calls it, along with helping Hubby do some early-season yard work - anything to improve curb appeal, eh?) and typed in my numbers. And the winner is..............




Number 11, who by my careful, highly mathematical and scientific method, is

Carma!

Carma, I'll be dropping by your blog a lot in the next few days to come up with ideas for your song/video that will undoubtedly include the ever-dreamy Alec Baldwin and possibly the Garden State. I will beg for your patience in this video-making process, with a twofold excuse: (1) the house showing stuff means I have to abandon my computer for unknown stretches at a time (NB - is it wrong to lurk in the neighbor's bushes and spy on the folks checking out our house? Shoot, I thought so...) and (2) having a whole day of fresh air inside and out (yay for almost-Spring and open windows) has rendered me incapable of breathing, much less singing. I'm Rudolph the Red-Nosed Allergy Chick right now. So, I will get my blood levels of Claritin up to a tolerable percentage and then belt out your very own, customized, full of pizazz and possibly jazz hands song and create a video just for you very, very soon!

Thanks to all who entered. If you're terribly, horribly distraught and devastated that you weren't the lucky winner, take heart! My blogaversary and 300th post are both coming up in the next few weeks, maybe I'll do another video giveaway for one of those Very Special Occasions!

In the meantime, please think good thoughts on the house hunting thing for us; we have an offer in that they're supposed to respond to by tomorrow at 10 (Hubby thinks they may just not respond - isn't that rude? Or is that how it goes if you don't like an offer, you just ignore it 'til it expires?) and we had two showings this weekend, so maybe, hopefully one of those showings turns into an offer for us.....

Off to make some nachos and watch the Race that always Amazes - woo-hoo!

Oh yeah, right, the Spring Fling giveaway results.....

Oooookay, the video giveaway winner was supposed to be announced this morning, which I totally would've done if we hadn't had our first showing set for today, which meant that instead of hanging out on the computer, figuring out who had how many entries and then determining a winner, I spent the morning racing around like a crazy chick and making sure everything was all spiffy and sparkly and shiny and spotless.

Then, this afternoon I had to chauffeur Kiddo to a birthday party and then we had to hightail it out of here for the showing, and then after the showing was over, we had just enough time to get home and get Kiddo bathed and fed when her grandparents came over and Hubby and I went out. As in to socialize with other adults, no kids, for an evening. Seriously, I cannot remember the last time this happened, so I was pretty much running around like a crazy chick to get ready and go out and not giving my blog a second thought.

And now? Now I'm back and it is past my bedtime (I came home first - yes, I am *that* socially pathetic that I took a separate car because I knew I wouldn't be able to stay up/out as late as Hubby) and I can barely type straight.

So, that's my great, big pile of Clofu - erm, I mean excuses - for why I didn't pick a winner yet.

I promise I'll get to it by tomorrow night. If I'd made it easier, I could've done it tonight but folks actually followed me so that gets an extra entry and after playing poker all night, my brain cannot do any more complex math (what? I'm the big blind? and the blinds just went up? How many red chips does that mean I need to throw in? Is an ace high or low? ) (Okay, seriously I'm not that bad, I do actually know my way around a poker table, I'm just trying to gain sympathy for my lameness at breaking the rules I set for announcing the winner.) (Maybe it would be better if I just threw myself on the mercy of all the other parents out there - we had the chance for a NIGHT OUT, with OTHER ADULTS, with FREE BABYSITTING, even. I mean, come on, that's enough to make anyone's head spin, right?)

So, by tomorrow night, the winner will be figured out with the lovely assistance of either Kiddo or Random.org - whichever one will cooperate better at the time. I can't promise an announcement any earlier tomorrow because we've got another showing at 11:30 so we're going to have to make ourselves scarce again.

And there you have it. Hope everyone's having a great weekend and stay tuned for the big announcement (I mean, you're all on the very edgiest edges of your seats, holding your breath right now, right?) tomorrow night!

SITS Spring Fling.... Better Late than Never (hey, it's a giveaway)

In the "better late than never" category, I present my post for the SITS Spring Fling. Anyone who happens by my blog on a regular basis knows that I am a huge SITS supporter. SITS is just a fantabulous website. If you don't know about SITS and you are a blogger, go check them out. (Doesn't matter if you're a chick or a dude - there are BITS to go with the SITStas. Holla, Preston!)

Now, every so often, SITS has a blogathon type thing. First, there was Blogathon. Then, SITSmas. Now, it is Spring Fling and it is even better than ever - every single post linked up to the Spring Fling is having some sort of giveaway! They're well over 300 now, and hey, that's a LOT of prizes. SITS is giving away a prize an hour as well, by the way. (Told you they're fantabulous!) More enterprising SITStas and BITS have no doubt been glued to their computers all day, entering the hundreds of giveaways and going fuzzy eyed with delight.

Me? I'm a bit ashamed to admit it, but I've been a slacker SITSta of late. Between Project Get the House On the Market '09 (which, as you may or may not be aware, it is as of yesterday. Hallelujah!) which has now morphed into Project Find a New House that Doesn't Totally Suck and also Project Keep the House Showing-Ready 24-7 and then toss a little Daylight Saving Time Adjustment Issues (which, when multiplied by a factor of Kid with SPD and Mom with PMS and egads, it gets extra-extra ugly!) and well, I just haven't had much time to surf the blogosphere, leave commenty love or anything else. Even my Wordscraper games list is under 10 active games over on Facebook (it usually is a much more robust tally somewhere in the 30s). It's bad, folks, this whole "real life interfering with computer time" thing I've been living. *shudder*

Anyhow, I finally decided about 10 minutes ago that I can't just skip Spring Fling, as had been my original plan once I realized that I had nothing to give away nor the time to hang on the computer checking everyone else out. Again, hanging my head in shame. Everything I could pass along for a prize is most likely here:



along with my long-gone wits and marbles. I was thinking I could bake something for a prize (I am world-famous for my chocolate chip cookies, especially) but most of my baking things, like my beloved, cobalt blue KitchenAid, are also all here:



Dang, I miss my stuff. *sniff*

So, finally it hit me. Something I could give away.... You see, back when SITS had their original Blogathon, the grand prize was an autographed picture of George Clooney. I tried like heck to win it. I failed.

NikkiCrumpet, mom of two of the most adorable dogs on the planet (and some dang adorable kids as well) won my picture of George. You might remember hearing some chest pounding and wails of grief coming from the general vicinity of upstate New York that day....

But then.... a little while later, Nikki, in her infinite wisdom, decided to rehome George. She had a contest to figure out who was most deserving of the autographed picture. And of course, I entered. I didn't just enter, I wrote a song. I wrote a song and posted the lyrics in her comments section for the contest and sorta kinda promised that I would make a video of myself singing the song should I be the winner. I even kinda sorta mentioned that I'd wear a tiara to do the video.

Well, I won. (And there was much rejoicing.)

Thinking back on that glorious event - me finally winning the autographed picture of George Clooney - made me figure out what I could give away now.

Heck to the NO, I'm not giving away George! Even if I wanted to, he's here:



along with my wits, marbles, KitchenAid and everything else, including my other prized autographed possession, my ginormous Harry Connick Jr poster that I had framed after he autographed it for me the year I was a total HCJr groupie and went to a ton of his shows. That poster has been gathering dust in the basement and Hubby tells me the frame is cracked, but I still made him put it in storage instead of tossing it. Hopefully the new house will have a room with a wall on which I can hang my autographed men.

But I digress. As I do.

You are not going to get the George or Harry autographed pictures. Uh-uh. Nope. But what you, the lucky winner of my giveaway, WILL get is......................... a customized song and video of said song performed by me about you and your blog.

Ta da!

If you want a preview of what such an exclusive video could be like, I shall refer you to this, the video of me making an utter fool of myself, wearing a tiara and singing my ode to George Clooney (set to the tune of The Rainbow Connection):

Oh heck, it's gone, gone, gone again....... Drat those limited editions!

What do you have to do to enter? Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. Leave me a comment for one entry. For a second entry, either grab my button (over yonder in the sidebar) or follow me on Twitter and let me know in the comments, 'cause like I said, I am witless and have lost my marbles, so I need reminding. Deadline for this one-of-a-kind contest will be Friday the 13th at midnight, with a winner announced Saturday morning.

Happy Flinging!

Fishful thinking and a Target gift card giveaway, too!

One of my blogosphere friends, Tiffany (she's one of the fantabulous women behind SITS, among other things), is part of a cool, new initiative by Pepperidge Farms called "Fishful Thinking" that is all about fostering optimism and resilience in children. To put it more succinctly, I shall quote their website: "The Goldfish® brand cares about kids and wants to help inspire them to become the successes they were born to be. Through the Fishful Thinking^SM program, Goldfish provides parents with tools to help teach their kids how to navigate obstacles, overcome failure and achieve what they want." How cool is that? Anyhow, Tiffany is participating in the program and to celebrate that fact, she is doing a giveaway of not one, but TWO $100 Target gift cards over on her blog. Now, I know a lot of y'all who read my little corner of the internet are parents, and what parent wouldn't want their child to have good skills in the areas of resilience and positive thinking? Also, (even if you aren't a parent), who wouldn't want a $100 Target gift card? I managed to spend that in my mind in about 15 seconds flat!

So, if you are interested in learning more about Fishful Thinking or entering the giveaway, pop over to Tiffany's blog and check it out! (And if you blog but aren't a member of SITS, you might want to check that site out too; they've got big doings in the works for next week and it is a great way to discover new and fabulous bloggers!)

I am pretty much barking mad, so why not get $250 to spend at Target?

We all know I'm pretty much crazy, and this whole "getting the house ready to list on the market" thing has essentially helped push me that teensy bit left to go over The Edge. I seriously have lost those few remaining marbles I once had. (I'm guessing they're off in the 10x10 storage unit we've rented and jam-packed full of things I am not sure I can really live without. Either that or I accidentally Freecycled them. Don't think they were in any of the lots I sold on Craigslist, but if someone did give me any money for my wits, the joke's on them. Ha!)

Annnnyhow, I hopped on the computer this afternoon whilst the miniblinds from the guest room were soaking in a lukewarm, Top Job bath per helpful instruction guide Hubby found and emailed me on "How to Clean Miniblinds in Fifty Not-Terribly-Easy Steps Guaranteed to Drive You Crazy, Unless You're Already There" and as my fingers were cramping from Step Thirty-Six: Individual Slat Wipedown, I thought I'd stretch them out over my keyboard for a few moments. Kiddo is presently buried in the packing paper we received from a fellow Freecycler and I think that Crazy Cat may be down there in the paper too. (See my previous post for more on that. Well, more in the "pictures are worth a thousand words" sort of way.)

As I was doing a quick blogsurf in a vain attempt to catch up on all the posts logjamming my blog reader (the number is getting daunting and I've barely left a comment in days - sorry everyone!), I came across a contest over at Auds' blog, Barking Mad. It is a lovely, All About Me kind of a contest. All one has to do is grab her badge (woot, blog bling!), give links to five to ten of one's favorite posts - posts on one's very own blog! - and then link up and voila, you're in and could possibly win a $250 gift card to Target! (Cue choir o' angels!)

I want that gift card, y'all. I'm sick TO DEATH of Walmart, where I've been eleventy billion times in the past two weeks, and where I need to go in just a few more minutes to return the curtain rods I bought in the wrong size and the guest towels I bought in the wrong color yesterday. See, that's where the Target gift card would come in handy - new guest towels for the brand-spanking new, Tear Drop blue painted (it's a REALLY pretty color and I wish we'd slapped it up about nine years ago so I could've enjoyed it more) downstairs powder room. Also, some new throw rugs for the kitchen, new welcome mats for the front and back door and all manner of other little "staging" type things.

So, without further ado, here's my list of my top five posts. Yeah, they look suspiciously like posts I've got listed over yonder in the sidebar. Think of them as Heather's Greatest Hits, if you haven't read them already.......................


Hey Karma, I think we're even now!
A Public Restroom Nightmare
Hair-raising Matters
If you're reading this in the buff, I don't want to know...
100 things about me

Here's the kewl blog bling that goes with the giveaway.....



And now, back to the miniblinds and then Walmart. My life, it is SO exciting. At least tonight is American Idol (go Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai, Alexis Grace and Ann Marie Boskovich!) and Lost (go back to the Island, wherever and whenever it is RIGHT NOW Oceanic Six!)..........

Blogosphere friend doing a Good Thing (along with a giveaway, even!) - check her out!

My blogosphere friend EM over at Life, Liberty and the Pursuit... has a post here in which she is donating one nonperishable item to a food bank for each comment she receives on this post. She's also giving away a Target Gift Card, but that's not as important as the food bank donations. (Besides, I'm busily trying to figure out the perfect bribe for her random number generator - aka her oldest son - so that *I* get the gift card, 'cause after all my birthday is just days away!)

Anyhow, you have until midnight tonight to check out EM's post (which also features pictures of her gorgeously decorated-for-the-holidays home) and leave her a comment for the donation, yeah, and for the chance to win the gift card. Please stop by - her blog is worth checking out even without giveaways!

Saturday stuff, including the giveaway winner!

First things first, the giveaway winner! I found that random number generator thingamabob and duly entered the numbers in, and it told me the lucky winner is:


Number 7 would be Annikke, who has a blog called Mom is in the Fishbowl that is very cute and fun to read (although Kiddo thought it was about Nemo based on her header). Congratulations, Annikke! I hope you and your family enjoy the Jazzy Fairy Tales CD! For those of you who didn't win, the Jazz For Young Children website has a shop with all their offerings, so I strongly encourage you to check them out for the kids on your holiday shopping list! It's a great, unique gift idea that helps introduce kids to some new genres of music in a fun and entertaining way. My daughter is positively hooked!

Oh, and another quick Kiddo-school update: the woman who was my top choice has accepted the position as Kiddo's sensory diet aide and begins on Wednesday. WOO-HOOOOOO!!!! I'm so hopeful that she will be a great match and will do an excellent job with everything! She is a grad student with an ultimate goal of becoming an elementary school psychologist, and while she makes me feel quite old in comparison (how can a grad student look so young?!?), she seemed to be kind, smart, energetic and quick on the uptake, all good things for working with Kiddo. She said she is familiar with SPD and also took the handout I'd prepared for the school about SPD (specifically, Kiddo's subtype thereof) so that should help her hit the ground running, at least in terms of the "whys" even if she needs to be trained from scratch in the "hows" of the sensory diet. I am feeling more confident about this young woman than I have about any of the folks I've met thus far who have been in the position. Fingers crossed that it all goes well from now until June!!

In other business, my Down-Under friend Givinya De Elba did a meme and threw it out there for anyone who chooses, so I'm choosing! I actually had chosen to do this yesterday, then we had a power outage or surge or something that knocked the computer and cable out for just long enough for this to disappear, but I'm redoing it because it was fun! I also am rolling an emailed meme into this one as they had some overlapping questions but also some unique ones. Here goes the combomeme!

Ten Years Ago I:

* was working in a job that I loved at a non-profit agency with a great team of coworkers, a fantastic boss and hardly any pay.
* last went on a European vacation - Hubby and I spent the first half of our trip driving around the UK in a rental car (and out of that period, I drove for approximately 20 minutes, being utterly unable to get the hang of the whole "wrong side of the road" thing - I kept fouling up the turns especially and was utterly confounded by the one roundabout I encountered while behind the wheel) and the second half in London, where we crashed on a friend's pull-out couch and did all the touristy stuff, like the Changing of the Guard and visiting the Tower of London. All stuff I'd done on previous trips but still quite enjoyable to do again, especially as it was just me and Hubby and not me as a teenager jammed into the back seat of a two-door car with my two younger sisters and all of our assorted luggage like it was the previous time I did the "driving around the UK" trip.
* got a royal flush while playing poker at the Orleans Casino in Las Vegas.
* met my BFF (not counting Hubby, of course) while taking a creative writing course.
* saw The Lion King on Broadway and was totally blown away.

Five Years Ago I:

* became a mother.
* stopped working a paying job for the first time since I was 19 years old.
* went on my last childless vacation, which ended abruptly when Kiddo was born a little over five weeks early.
* appeared as a contestant on Jeopardy!.
* wrote my first will.

Five Things on Tomorrow's To-Do List:

* take Kiddo to a playdate after church while Hubby goes on a "playdate" of his own - he's been invited to a card game and I believe there is also some football watching involved...
* finish the ambitious closet purge I began a couple of weeks ago and managed to abandon about a third of the way through.
* put away all the laundry I did yesterday, that is now towering in a clean and folded mountain atop my dresser and/or in laundry baskets waiting to go into Kiddo's room.
* sort through massive piles of paperwork that I keep shifting from one spot to another without actually ever quite sorting through.
* finish the Christmas gifts I'm working on for the grandparents.

Five Snacks I Enjoy:

* popcorn (preferably air-popped, with butter and salt)
* pretzels
* fresh fruit - in the summer, nothing beats berries of any sort. In the fall, apples - espcially Jonagolds which are my favorite. This time of year, I will eat Clementine oranges until I am literally sick to my stomach. Oh, how I love Clementines!
* Cheez Doodles (puffed, not "crunchy" or "crispy" or whatever that other kind is called)
* chocolate (pretty much in any way, shape or form)

Five Things I Would Do if I Were a Millionaire (I'm going to assume by this that I have millionS - plural, I mean, if I'm going to dream, might as well dream big, eh?):

* Ensure that Kiddo's educational fund is sufficiently large.
* Buy a new house, that has a playroom/rec room for all Kiddo's stuff so we can have a coffee table instead of a mini-trampoline in the living room, for example, and my picture display table instead of her ginormous easel, that sort of thing. Basically, a room so that my living room is no longer decorated in "Fisher Price" or "Little Tykes" with accents of "Disney Princess" and "Dinosaurs-n-Safari Animals" too. Also big enough so that we have a separate home office and guest room, so there's no need to snake your way carefully through all the computer equipment to get to sleep if you are visiting us...
* Ensure that our parents are able to retire comfortably.
* Support the charities and foundations I care about.
* Share the wealth with my siblings to help my nieces' and nephews' educational funds, etc.

Five Places I Have Lived:

* Branchburg, New Jersey
* Lakewood, New York
* Lebanon, New Hampshire
* Zoagli, Italy
* Biddeford Pool, Maine

Five Jobs I've Had:

* Production Office Manager for a video/tv/film production company
* Nanny
* Secretary/Administrative Assistant
* Clerk in the gourmet foods section of a grocery store
* Job Developer for a supported employment program

Five Places I've Never Been That I'd Like to Visit Someday:

* Hawaii
* Australia
* Scandinavia
* Africa
* Greece

Five of my Favorite Holiday Songs:

* O Holy Night (especially the version done by the Oak Ridge Boys)
* Silent Night (again, love the Oak Ridge Boys version, complete with the reading of the Christmas story from Luke - one of my favorite readings from the Bible)
* The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) (nobody does this better than the Velvet Fog himself, Mel Torme)
* Have Yourself a Merry, Little Christmas (Ella Fitzgerald does an amazing rendition of this, and Judy Garland's version is pretty dang amazing too)
* Happy Holidays/The Holiday Season (done by none other than Andy Williams - any other version just sounds wrong somehow!)

Five Books I've Read Over and Over Again:

* A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
* The Autobiography of King Henry VIII by Margaret George
* the entire Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
* Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
* The Bible

Ten Movies I'll Watch Over and Over Again (not sure why this one is 10 and not 5 but I'll take it!):

* The Princess Bride
* The Sting
* Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
* Goodfellas
* Braveheart
* Out of Africa
* Sense and Sensibility (the Emma Thompson version)
* Truly, Madly, Deeply
* any of the Monty Python movies but especially Holy Grail and Life of Brian
* since this is the holiday season, I'll give a shout-out to A Christmas Story

Anyone else want to give this one a shot? Consider yourselves tagged! I shall leave you with a little snippet of one of my top ten movies, then I'm off to eat some of the turkey and rice soup Hubby has been making today with some of the leftovers from our Thanksgiving turkey - it was 16 pounds which is a lot for three people (well two and a half as Kiddo doesn't eat much turkey) so we had a lot of leftovers to freeze and use later! The soup smells soooo delicious that it has had my stomach rumbling all afternoon. Not even four Clementines have taken the edge off - my belly wants SOUP!

Friday follow-up and some fun

First of all, thanks for the good thoughts and well wishes regarding the aide interviews, parent-teacher conferences and my infernal migraine. I survived the day on Wednesday and by yesterday afternoon, the headache was gone, whew. There were two clear favorites among the four candidates, a third candidate who would probably be fine as well, and a fourth that would've been a great choice had the position been "hostess or bartender at Hooters" instead of "aide to work with a five year old kindergartner" ....... Let's just say that the skirt was in the "micro-mini" realm and the top was in the "revealingly tight and low cut/unbuttoned" realm and the hair, make-up and nails all in the "large and heavy" realm and that it was very difficult to get beyond the appearance and presentation to picture the candidate actually, you know, down on the floor in the OT/PT room doing yoga or deep pressure with Kiddo. Hoo boy.

Anyhow, there were definitive top choices, and the process is underway to get one all vetted and hired, and there is a slim chance that things could move quickly enough for her to start on Monday (she said she'd be available to start then, at any rate, so it's all a matter of the hiring process moving forward). Failing that, we're supposedly to have the same substitute who was hired for last week (yes, another new person to Kiddo, I've lost track of how many folks this has been now since September to work with her...) but that person no-show/no-called on Wednesday, so not sure what the story is there. Just one more reason to hope that the permanent aide can be in place for Monday.

I felt very good about the top two candidates and so am hopeful that things will go well if everything works out with the rest of the hiring process. A cautiously optimistic WOO-HOO for that!! (Also, the parent-teacher conference went very well, and Kiddo's excellent work even at the kindergarten level made Hubby and I quite proud of her, so woo-hoo for that too. She's a little smarty-pants, our kid!)

It's funny, the dressed-for-Hooters candidate totally gave me flashbacks to my pre-SAH mom days job. See, I worked in "vocational rehabilitation" for individuals with disabilities. That's a fancy, official sounding way of saying my department helped folks with disabilities (of any sort) find and keep jobs in the community. One of our main programs was a "supported employment program" which involved job development and job coaching. Part of the SEP was a weekly "job club" in which we taught various resume creation, interviewing and other job-related skills to the program participants in a group setting. We had a few program participants with rather interesting ideas about interview-appropriate clothing, and more than once I arrived to pick up a client to take him/her to an interview and had to request that he/she go back into their home and change into something more appropriate before going to the interview. For that one candidate in the "I'm going clubbing right after this interview" ensemble, I would totally have recommended a clothing change, I can assure you.

On a completely different note, I've been tagged in meme land. The fantabulous Vickie issued a photo challenge, in which I should go to the fourth photo folder on my computer and then post the fourth picture therein. Here 'tis:



This picture was taken on June 20, 2003, the weekend after Kiddo was released from the NICU and home with us. She was almost one month old (so this is still before her actual due date) and she was about 4 pounds, 10 ounces. (To give you an idea of how not-very-big she was, the onesie she is wearing is a "newborn" sized onesie and you'll note it is a wee bit large for her! We had a heck of a time finding preemie-sized clothing at the time - there were just a few places that had preemie sizes for reasonable cost. I was so happy when she was finally large enough to fit in newborn sizes so she didn't look like a baby David Byrne...



Oh HECK, we just lost power for the briefest of moments and yet it was enough to lose about 500 words of this blog post! ARGH! And now, of course, I'm out of time and must get on with my day, so I'll be back later to do the rest in another post. Perhaps it was the universe's way of saying "Ahem, Heather, your post is getting too dang long already!" ...... Before I go, though, please don't forget there is still ONE MORE DAY to enter my very first giveaway for a terrific CD that we have been enjoying (in between rounds of Christmas music) here quite a lot! Click here to enter and good luck!

Merry SITSmas!

Woo-hoo, Merry SITSmas!! First of all, if you aren't here via SITS today, get right over there and check them out! It's the most fantabulous blogging networking community around, I'm telling you! Go now, I'll wait, but then please come back....

Okay, everyone all SITSified? Excellent. Where was I? Right, SITSmas. I'm already doing one giveaway (see post below, please - it is an excellent holiday gift kind of a giveaway!) but for SITSmas, I wanted to do a little something more. So, I made a little bloggy stocking stuffer, if you will - a little blog bling you can use to decorate your corner of the interwebz for the holidays.



If you want it, please help yourself to the code below my card!

Oh yes, the card. Now, I know that most folks are doing something along the photo card line, but I'm doing a little bit more.

It isn't that I didn't want to deck the halls, I mean, we decked our halls the day after Thanksgiving...





We even took Kiddo to see Santa (armed with her list, spelled entirely on her own, so she proceeded to read it to him to be sure there was no miscommunication)...



It's just that I felt a wee bit bad about the whole George Clooney video thing, with how I only kept that up for 24 hours. So, I decided to do another video as my SITSmas greeting card to all of you. I shot this one myself which means it is pretty shoddy camera work, and I did it in one take, so it's not perfection, but I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless. (Oh yeah, and while I may be able to jam one of Kiddo's tiaras on my ginormous head pretty well, it turns out that borrowing her itsy-bitsy Santa hat doesn't work as well on my big ole noggin. It's more "resting precariously atop" than "being worn upon" as you might notice...) Here, therefore, is my holiday greeting to all my SITStas and BITS!




(SITSmas blog bling code:)
<a href="http://nobody-but-yourself.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img border="0" alt="blog button" src="http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m143/hcesmith/SITSmasbling.jpg" /></a>

(PS - Don't forget to check out the giveaway going on in the post below this one!)

Giveaway time!

I am SO excited because this is my very first giveaway! The prize is really cool, too - perfect for a holiday gift for the special kid(s) in your life, or even for you to enjoy yourself.

What's the prize? It is this:



the Jazzy Fairy Tales CD from Jazz for Young Children. Now, we have our own copy of this CD (thanks Rachel!) and it gets an enthusiastic thumbs up from every member of our family. Kiddo's favorite is the 3 Jazzy Little Pigs, but they're all spectacular. (The storyteller's voice reminds me a bit of Cleo from Between the Lions on PBS, which is just another plus in my book, as we are big Between the Lions fans here too.) Anyhow, it is a great CD that blends great music into familiar fairy tales to give them a fresh, exciting twist, and I'm giving a copy away to one lucky reader! All you need to do to enter is leave a comment here on this post and tell me your favorite fairy tale, or if you don't have one, your favorite jazz song/artist/group. I will randomly draw a winner from the comments received on Saturday afternoon (that'd be December 6th), so you have until noon on Saturday to enter. Please be sure I have a way of contacting you (so if your profile information on the comment doesn't give me an email address, please leave it in your comment) to get your information if you are the lucky winner! Good luck!

(Oh, and if you are within driving distance of the NYC area, check out the Jazz for Young Children website because they do performances and conferences that you can attend live and in person! I wonder if my corner of upstate counts as "driving distance" hmmm.......)

More Monday Musings, including Giveaway Goodness

Hey y'all, doing my best to type here with my grievously injured finger. "What?!" you say? "Grievously injured?! Oh no!!"

Indeed, grievously injured. Sliced from the tip of my finger right down to the first joint. Sliced on the corner of a packing tape dispenser's cutting thingamabob, so it was nicely serrated and sharp. Yee-OUCH! (Which was decidedly not the word that came out of my mouth at the moment it happened. I was listening to Christmas music at the time and I think I made the reindeer blush brighter than Rudolph's nose with the bomb I dropped in that initial blaze of pain.) It cut deeply, too. Deeply enough that it began bleeding like the proverbial stuck pig and would. not. STOP. I wrapped it in a bandage wound tighter than a tourniquet and tried to get on with my day. Danged if it doesn't turn out that this finger is rather essential to my daily functioning.... I mean, it's on my dominant hand, but still, it isn't like my thumb or index finger. Nope, 'tis my middle finger. So not good. It does come in handy with the whole "enabling me to flip Hubby the bird whilst innocently pointing out my injury" though... When bandage number one fell off as I was shampooing Kiddo's hair, I noticed that it began bleeding again. Dagnabit. I was tempted to treat it with some Krazy Glue (in lieu of that actual liquid bandage stuff, of which we have a bottle but I couldn't find it anywhere) but refrained and re-dressed it with a Cinderella, waterproof bandage instead.

That was just the crowning glory of my later afternoon, mind you. I also had cat hairball barfings, grumpy and overtired Kiddo meltdowns and dirty kitty litter boxes to contend with. So not the way I'd envisioned my day going, I can assure you. Humph.

Annnnnyhoo, I had a craving for some chicken pot pie, so I whipped up a batch for dinner. I have a crazy easy recipe which I feel I must share because it is soooo delicious. Yes, even with my injured, essential-to-maintaining-a-decent-typing-speed finger, I will give you the recipe. THAT is how good this is! Here 'tis:

2 chicken breasts, diced into bite-sized pieces
1 can cream o' chicken soup (I use the reduced fat kind that is 98% fat free)
1 small bag of frozen mixed veggies (I mean, you could use fresh veggies, but I'm giving you the EASY-n-LAZY way to do this)
1 box of cornbread mix (I usually use the Jiffy brand, but you know, any brand will do - cheap is good)

Okay, here's how you do it:

Saute the chicken pieces until cooked. (I do this with a little garlic and onion powder and a dash or two of pepper, plus a tbs or two of olive oil. However you want to season/cook your chicken boobs, go for it.) Nuke the veggies per cooking instructions, if they are slightly underdone that is fine. Heck, I've even done it with them still frozen.

In a glass baking dish (I use the 8x8 square, or double the recipe and do it in a lasagna pan), combine cooked chicken, can of soup and veggies, mixing well.

In a separate bowl, make the cornbread batter, adding a little extra milk (the recipe on the Jiffy box calls for 1/3 cup, I usually add closer to 2/3 cup) so the batter is slightly runnier than usual.

Pour the cornbread batter over the chicken/veggie mixture and bake at 400 deg (or whatever temp the cornbread box calls for) for 20ish minutes - you want the cornbread to be golden brown on the top and cooked all the way through.

Serve it up and it is a one dish meal of deliciousness! You can see where substitutions can be made to the basic recipe, it is quite forgiving that way.

During dinner, we listened to my copy of the giveaway prize for my big giveaway tomorrow. More about that at midnight! Yes, it is a musical prize, and it earned major thumbs up from Kiddo and parents alike!

So, after the delicious dinner, I gently carried my injured finger upstairs to finish up my SITSmas card for tomorrow's big event. I popped over to SITS to see what was up and lo and behold, I found out that the grand prize for tomorrow's big SITSmas event is

a $200 Target gift card!!!

WOO!

Now, I had the giveaway mojo going on strong for a while there, earlier this summer. That's what won me that adorable camera (love it!) and a Target gift card in back-to-back weeks. Then, I lost my mojo. Yes, I offered to pass it on to many of my less-winning SITStas, but when SITS did a big Blogathon back in October, I tried my hardest to conjure up my mojo again so I could win the grand prize that day. You know the prize.... a certain autographed photo of a certain George Clooney..... Yeah, that would be the prize I did NOT win. (sob sob) However, my mojo seems to've returned to me, as I eventually did win George when the Blogathon winner gave the picture away a couple weeks ago. So, now that George is safely home with me, I am hoping to crank up my mojo and win that gift card! I've spent every last penny already in my mind... So, if you haven't joined SITS already, hustle yourself over there and join up so you can participate in the SITSmas event with giveaways every hour tomorrow, all day long! Just don't win the Target card, 'cause that is mine, mmmkay?

Anyhow, I've finished up my SITSmas card and my giveaway post, so they'll be going live at midnight. Now I'm off to nurse my injured birdman with a bowl of ice cream. At least it'll numb my pain... See you in a few hours!

Monday musings

I sat down to write a post at least a half dozen times yesterday, but never could gather the various strands of thought into anything coherent, so each time I found myself playing Wordscraper or looking at lolcats instead.

There are Big Doings going on here tomorrow though, so I want to get all the rambly bits out of the way for that. By Big Doings, I mean my very first giveaway as well as a special holiday greeting for The Secret is in the Sauce's first ever SITSmas Celebration. So, if you want to skip the mindless meanderings, feel free to just pop by tomorrow instead!!

And now on with the ramblings. Probably going to be a long one, just so you're warned....

We went to church yesterday for the first time in a while. We are in a sort of church limbo right now, as we want to find a new church home that better meets our needs than where we have been members but we can't find a new, permanent church home yet because we aren't sure where exactly we'll be living in the spring. We don't want to find a new church and then discover it is nowhere near our home in six months, but we don't want to just not go to church for the next six months either. So, we decided we'd go back to the church we belonged to when we first moved to town. We'd left that church ultimately because of the pastor, not because of the people in the congregation or anything else. Well, that pastor is no longer there and we'd heard from friends that still belong there that the new pastor is great, so we decided to give the new pastor a try. Yesterday was the first time we'd been back there to worship in several years, and it wasn't nearly as weird or awkward as we'd thought it might be. We stumbled about a bit in trying to explain to the new pastor (who was eager to welcome potential new members, as pastors usually are) what our exact situation is - "Hello, we used to belong here but haven't for several years and now we're planning to worship here for the next 5 or 6 months, but then we'll be moving and aren't sure whether we will keep attending here or where as that will depend on where we move exactly..." But as we'd figured, the folks that remembered us welcomed us back with open arms, the pastor and his wife greeted us warmly, the service was much more satisfying and uplifting than any service we've attended in ages, and I even was offered my old spot in the choir back. There also were several other children Kiddo's age so when she went to the "Discovery Center" following the Children's Moment during the service (you know, where they take the kids out so they don't sit through the sermon and do an activity with them elsewhere), she wasn't the only kid her age - there even is another kindergartner from her school who goes there. That was one of our issues with the church we've belonged to for the past few years - there are very few children and even fewer who are close in age to Kiddo. It has been hard to make the decision that we were not going to continue worshiping at the church we've belonged to for the past several years (I miss the choir and the people in the congregation especially), but it got to the point where we had to do something, and I'm glad we finally did, even if it is just a temporary stop until we settle in to a new home in the spring. At that point, we will begin to look for a church home that will meet all our needs and hopefully be close to our new neighborhood as well. I grew up going to church every Sunday and our family was very involved in the church. I went to Sunday School and was in the youth group and the choir and all that good stuff as a kid. However, the church we went to was a few towns over, so there was always a bit of a disconnect for my siblings and me, as the kids we were in Sunday School and youth group with at church all went to school together in a different school district than the one we attended. I'd very much like it if Kiddo could go to Sunday school with the same kids she goes to regular school with, so she doesn't have to have "church friends" and "school friends" the way we did. So, we'll see where we end up in the spring, but for now, I'm just glad we have someplace we can attend until that point. Especially so since Advent started yesterday - Advent and Christmas are my favorite times of the year. I mean, yes, Easter is definitely a more important holiday, but I love the anticipation and joy of Advent and Christmas. I especially love singing the Christmas hymns each week and seeing the sanctuary all decorated for the holiday.

Speaking of the holidays, today marks the beginning of the countdown to Heather's Holiday Extravaganza. You see, my birthday, Christmas and my wedding anniversary all fall within the next six weeks. While the bloom is well off the rose with my age rapidly advancing towards the big 4-0, I still enjoy my birthday nonetheless. I am wondering if I can still claim to be in my "mid-thirties" once my birthday rolls around this year, as I will be 37, which could go either way - mid or late. Hmmm. I suppose I can get away with "mid-thirties" for one more year, dontcha think? Mostly, I'm looking forward to the birthday cake. This year I've chosen a carrot cake from a local establishment known for two things: cheesecake and carrot cake. Kiddo and Hubby love this carrot cake as much as I do, so I am sure that there will not be leftovers for long after the candles are extinguished. Hubby has made all sorts of fantabulous cakes for my birthday in years past, everything from chocolate wonders with a delectable ganache to lemon and raspberry confections complete with homemade lemon curd and raspberry coulis. While I have always appreciated his heartfelt and amazingly tasty efforts, this year we're going store-bought and as my birthday is less than two weeks before Christmas, having one less thing to worry about doing is always a good thing. (Oh and PS to LL Bean: if you feel like sending me one of these for any one or all of my upcoming holiday celebrations combined, I will gladly mention it with raves and exclamations of joy even more than I mention George Clooney, okay? Pretty please? I've been drooling over it for ages now, but can't justify such an expenditure for a purse with our budget, so I will happily be a walking advertisement for this bag if only you'd send me one, preferably in the brown leather... Well, a girl can dream, can't she?)

Kiddo is presently obsessed with all things Christmas. She spends most of her spare time making new ornaments for our tree, which we put up on Friday. The cat also is obsessed with the Christmas tree, in that she enjoys climbing it, batting ornaments off of it faster than Kiddo can create and hang them, and sleeping on the tree skirt underneath it (which is made of a cozy felt...) when she needs a rest from her tree-destroying labors.



When Kiddo isn't creating masterworks of art for the Christmas tree, she is in her room playing with her VeggieTales nativity set. I wouldn't have a problem with that at all - better she plays with the set that is made to be a child's toy than the way I used to like to play with my mother's antique, porcelain, fragile nativity set when I was young - except that when one presses the Christmas Star at the top of the stable, one hears a little song, and that little song is more annoying than any other song one could imagine at this time of year, especially when repeated over and over and over again. Seriously, it is worse than The Christmas Shoes, which is my all-time least favorite Christmas song. *shudder* Oh the treacly, overwrought melisma of that song, ew ew ew! I'd rather listen to Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer on repeat than hear The Christmas Shoes just once. By the time the angelic children's choir joins in, I'm ready to start throwing elves or jamming candy canes in my ears. And the little ditty that bursts forth (sung by Junior Asparagus in a tinnier-than-usual voice) from the VT Nativity? Worse than The Christmas Shoes, I tell you! It turns me positively Grinchy Green after enough listenings...

Which reminds me, I have all the Christmas specials set to record this week so Kiddo and I can gorge on Rudolph, Frosty, Charlie Brown and the gang for the rest of the season. We own the Grinch (I mean the *real* Grinch, the original, animated version) on DVD so we can watch that over and over without having to FF through the commercials as well. Kiddo's still a few years away from being old enough for A Christmas Story, though I can't wait until she's old enough to watch that with us (we own that on DVD too). This is the 25th anniversary of A Christmas Story's release, which I saw for the first time for my birthday, along with several of my friends and my dad (Mom stayed home with the too-young-for-the-movie young'uns). I still remember how hard we all laughed, especially my dad, that first time we saw it. Hubby and I quote lines from the movie year-round, too, I mean, doesn't everyone?

In non-holiday related items, Kiddo's principal called me this morning to say there are four candidates for the sensory diet aide position, and she hopes to have interviews scheduled for this week. This is a short week with no school Thursday or Friday because of conferences, and there is supposed to be a substitute in place until the permanent position is filled, so hopefully Kiddo gets her full sensory diet in the interim...

Well, I need to get to the post office and mail off the final batch of holiday cards (I never can figure out the proper postage for international mail, so I need the post office employees to tell me) and also to mail the ornament to my Christmas ornament exchange person, as well as running a hundred and three other errands, like returning books at the library, doing some Christmas shopping, getting the oil changed on the car, etc. Since I have such a busy Monday ahead of me, I'd better stop rambling here and get to it! Congratulations if you've read this far and please do come back tomorrow for all the excitement!

Coming soon... my first giveaway!

Pssssst.....I'm going to be having my very first giveaway sometime next week! (Hopefully Tuesday!) It involves something wonderful from this site, in case you want to peek ahead of time... Stay tuned - oooh, and that's totally a hint, too, since the giveaway is music related!

A Call to Arms

Okay, first of all, you have to keep this just between us, 'kay? I don't want nikkicrumpet to hear. See, here's the thing. Nikki won a prize in the SITS Blogathon last month. Not so much "a" prize as "THE" prize, the grand prize of the whole huge giveaway event. That prize was my - whoops, I mean an - autographed picture of George Clooney.

Let me repeat that (just because I like typing his name):

GEORGE CLOONEY.
(*choir of angels singing the Hallelujah chorus*)

I'll pause to let you (okay, myself) wipe the drool off your (okay, my) face.

Are we all back now? Great.

Here's the thing. Nikki has decided that George needs a new home.

!!!!!

She is having a contest over on her (hilarious, well-written and gosh-darn cute - have you seen her doggies?) blog in which she will award the best commenter with the picture of George.

!!!!!

Now, we all KNOW I need this picture. Okay, I just really, really, really WANT this picture. I mean, I actually saw (as in, paid money to see) Solaris IN THE THEATER (the movie from which it appears this picture was taken), folks. I saw From Dusk 'Til Dawn. Even Batman & Robin. I watched The Facts of Life and Roseanne and that first, lesser-known, not-very-good E/R.

Now, some other (more rapacious, covetous, and willing to cast aspersion type) gals have already commented in their quest to keep George from his rightful home. Some (and they shall remain nameless *cough*wherearemyangels*cough*) have gone so far as to sling a bit of mud in my direction.

This is why I need your help! Anyone who doesn't want the George picture for herself (not that I get that, but hey, whatever floats yer boat), could you please help me out? Could you pop by Blah, blah, blah, Blog and leave a comment in support of my quest? Pretty, pretty please? Remember, it takes a village, people, it takes a village...

In the meantime, I'm going to work on my official entry comment. It needs to be a masterpiece and frankly I haven't had enough caffeine to get my synapses firing yet this morning. I have to think about how to word my comment so that it is so eloquent, so fantastic, so funny, with just the right hint of desperation (as if this post doesn't already reek of it) that Nikki will see the light and send George to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

So please, take a moment, drop by Nikki's contest and put in a good word for me, will ya? I'd be ever so obliged! But.... if you want George for yourself, forget you ever read this post, mmmkay? 'Cause one thing I *don't* need is more competition!

UPDATE: I just finished my comment. You can read it here. I appreciate those of you who have already chimed in over there with your support. You are the BESTEST!!!! *mwah* Now, I just have to wait ONE WHOLE WEEK until Nikki makes her top five selections, after which is when one of her two ridiculously cute dogs, Ozzie, will choose the winner.

I'm just going to dash off to PetCo for some gourmet doggie treats to send as a bribe - whoops, I mean in appreciation of - a certain mini-Schnauzer...

This giveaway really sucks ;)

No, really, it does. In the absolute, BEST way, mind you...

The fantabulous folks over at SITS have posted November's giveaway a week early, 'cause that's the kind of wonderful chicks they are. And the prize?

A Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum Cleaner.

No, wait, let me try that again (sorry, I'm still waking up here):

A BISSELL HEALTHY HOME VACUUM CLEANER!!!!!
(*cue choir of cherubim and seraphim*)

Seriously, y'all, I could really, really use this prize. You see, we kill vacuums in this house. I'm not kidding. Our very first vacuum cleaner, a bridal shower present from my beloved Nana, was a behemoth of a machine. That thing had more horsepower than our car at the time (which, granted, was a 10 year old Ford Festiva, but still). It had headlights. It had attachments of every shape and size. I was in love. (Um, mostly with my soon-to-be Hubby, of course, but more than a little bit with the vacuum, I must admit.) I was sure that this would be the vacuum I'd be using for years and years to come. Not so much - it was dead a mere 5 years later. Like, smoking dead. I wish I could tell you that the next vacuum we bought, the one to replace that Bridal Behemoth, is still with us. Nope. Not even its replacement. I am pretty sure we're on vacuum #5 since the early 90s. And our present vac? It's starting to whir ominously and make scary sounds. Plus, (and I shall not name the brand, but suffice it to say it ain't Bissell!), it has a major design flaw that has driven me batty for the past 3 years - the hose is so easily knocked out of place (theoretically, it is "easy to remove the hose for adding attachments") when vacuuming with the machine that one winds up vacuuming an entire area of carpet and wondering why the suck isn't sucking, then one notices the hose has been knocked loose/out of its spot and one starts cursing while re-vacuuming with hose now firmly reattached. One doesn't want to curse when one is the mother of a preschooler, y'all. It isn't pretty or appropriate. Also, when one doesn't want to be vacuuming in the first place, particularly, because vacuuming cannot be done while blogging, or reading blogs, or commenting on blogs, so the last thing one wants to do is have to vacuum the house twice. Oy.

So, what I'm saying here is, we desperately need a new vacuum. One that really, really sucks. And this one? Oh, *swooooooooon* it would be amazing. Plus, the giveaway will be announced on December 1, mere days before my birthday. What could make me happier? (Well, winning the George Clooney picture that was given away during the Blogathon would really have made me happy, I'll admit, but this vacuum would definitely be better for the overall state of my house and family........) So, I must work very hard to summon up my SITS Giveaway Mojo once more and win this vac!!!

As I really, really, reaaaaalllllllly want to win this vacuum cleaner, I shouldn't tell you this, but I will, because SITS is so terrific that you really need to become a part of it if you aren't already. You too can win the vacuum cleaner. Yep, you have as much of a chance as I do, alas. Just go right over here and check out the post, then go here to read the community rules, then toss a leopard-n-pink button onto your sidebar and join the fun!

I'm Too Sexy! No, really!

So, while browsing around new-to-me blogs of SITStas I met during the Blogathon yesterday, I came across a post on NJDecorator's blog that linked to the quiz "What is your Karaoke Theme Song?"

Of course I had to take it immediately! I've been known (albeit in my much younger, pre-parenthood days) to go out to bars explicitly because they had karaoke, and I've been known to get up and sing - without a drop of alcohol in me, by the way. I think karaoke is fun (should I not be admitting this in public? Hmmmm...) and I enjoy watching it as well as doing it. Anyhow, this is what my quiz results told me:

Your Karaoke Theme Song is "I'm Too Sexy"

You're a total goof ball and a bit of a nut job. You don't take yourself seriously at all. And while you may not be the greatest singer, you're the first to volunteer for karaoke. You have a wild and unpredictable sense of humor that always gets people cracking up. Irreverent and rebellious, your humor knows no bounds or limits. You enjoy shocking people. You might also sing: "Like a Virgin," "Ice Ice Baby," and "Hey Ya!" Stay away from people who sing: "Sweet Home Alabama"

What's Your Karaoke Theme Song?

Whaddya think? Sound at all like me? I never have actually sung I'm Too Sexy for karaoke before, but if I ever have the chance for karaoke again, I might have to give it a shot! (My usual karaoke songs - if I'm singing alone vs with a group of friends - are Desperado and Copacabana, by the way...) Oh, and for the record: I actually kinda dig Sweet Home Alabama. I definitely wouldn't avoid someone who was singing it...

While I'm on the subject of the Blogathon, I want to officially congratulate all the mega-giveaway winners yesterday! Most of all, I want to send out my deepest congratulations to Nikki Crumpet for winning the one thing I wanted to win most of all.... the autographed George Clooney picture! (*stifling a sob*) Whoops, did I turn a teensy bit green with envy there? What can I say, of all the fantabulous prizes offered in the giveaway, I wanted George's picture most of all...

The blogathon was really fun (if an utter time-suck in terms of productivity for, you know, my real life) and I've now extended my blogroll significantly. I really need to figure out the whole "blog reader" concept because the list of blogs I check out on a daily basis is getting out of control! Anyone with hints in that regard, please share!

I shall leave you with this, since it's now running through my head:

SITS Blogathon

(To the tune of My Favorite Things, with apologies to the Von Trapps and Julie Andrews...)

Comments on blog posts
so cleverly written
Heartfelt and cheering
and thoughtfully given
Seeing my site meter soar
like a bird on the wing,
These are a few of my favorite things!

Finding new blogs created by wonderful women
Laughing and crying from what they have written
Women whose playlists can cause me to sing,
These are a few of my favorite things!

When there's housework,
Or my kid is whining,
Or when my hair's gone mad...
I simply escape to my computer and SITS
and then I don't feel so bad!

Givinya de Elba is an Aussie with zing!
Hot Tub Lizzy's campaign's quite a thing!
Eudea-Mamia is a new friend and Ronnica is too
If I ever need a laugh, I read HappyHourSue!

All of these bloggers have a Secret they share
(No, not a "secret" - that's a capital S up there)
The Secret? I'll tell you, so no need to fuss!
It's a fantabulous website made for comment junkies like us!

The Secret is in the Sauce brings us bloggers together
No matter how messy our homes are or how bad the weather
They feature great reads and great giveaways too
(I've even won twice, no, really, it's true!)

So if you are blogging and feel all alone
No need to burn through all your minutes on your cell phone
Just become a SITSta (guys are welcome too!)
And soon heaps of saucy comment love will head right to you!

Featured bloggers and saucy blogs galore!
Contests and giveaways, too.
If you're looking for great reads (or avoiding your chores)
then SITS is the site for you!

***
I love SITS! (And not just for the chance to win an autographed photo of George Clooney, either!) Once again, let me give a shout out to the creators of SITS, Heather and Tiffany - you guys ROCK!

Of memories and manatees: meandering miscellany

Well, we're two thirds of the way through a three day weekend, and I have lots of odds and ends rattling about in my brain, none of which in and of themselves feel worthy of an entire post. I shall, therefore, collect them all here in what is guaranteed to be a long-n-rambly entry. Without further ado, let the rambling commence!

***
First things first: want some fun-n-exciting bling for your blog? Check out the brand spankin' new button I made over there in my sidebar on the left! You can copy the code to your own blog and be the first on your block to have my spiffy button!

***
Kiddo fell the other morning, on our way to the bus stop. She was, as per usual, ignoring my repeated suggestions that she walk, not run, down the sidewalk and BAM, down she went, tearing a hole in her pants and skinning knees and palms. She was more upset by missing the bus and having to have Mommy drive her to school than she was upset about her injuries. (I was more upset about the ruining of an almost-new pair of khakis, myself.) To cheer her up, I told her the following story, something I'd forgotten about for years but that popped into my mind as I was comforting her and getting her cleaned up:

When I was in kindergarten through second grade, I walked to school along with a group of other children in the neighborhood. One day in mid-October when I was in first grade, my grandmother (who was staying with us as my parents were unavoidably out of town) decided she would drive us instead of having us walk. It was cold and rainy and we had school pictures, so we were all dressed up and looking spiffy. This was a treat regardless of the situation, so the six or seven of us kids gleefully crowded into her old, boat-like sedan. (I'm not sure what the car was - I'd have to ask my dad or my uncle. I just recall it was dark green, large, four door and had those fins on the tail lights that have always struck me as really cool. Remember, this was the mid-70s.) Two girls sat up front, leaving the other four or five of us plus my younger sister to jam into the back seat. This being back in the era before seat belt laws were mandatory and also due to the large number of grade schoolers wedged into the back, none of us were secured by any means other than by being squished in place by our companions. I was on the far right, up against the door. Nana pulled out of our driveway and headed through town to school. As she steered around curves or turned corners, the row of us in the back would sway against each other, and we exaggerated the amount of "tipping" as kids are wont to do in such cases. Well, a little more than halfway to school, we turned and everyone shoved over into me, and the next thing I knew, the door I was pressed up against opened up and I went tumbling out of the car! I landed face down in a drainage ditch full of sodden, muddy leaves at the side of the road. I scrambled up in time to see the door swing shut as Nana completed the turn and then kept on driving. Convinced that she would stop at any second and back up to retrieve me, I stayed put. I was unhurt, but my dress and tights were filthy and I was covered in bits of leaves from my hair on down to my shoes. I was amazed when Nana didn't stop or turn around to come back for me and instead drove on out of sight. I later learned that even though all the girls were screaming for Nana to stop, that I'd fallen out of the car, when she glanced in the rearview mirror, all she saw was that the door was closed and that there were a bunch of heads in her view. She was convinced that we were playing a trick on her and that I was just hiding. It wasn't until she pulled up at the school, several blocks later, that she realized I was not, in fact, still in the car. She dropped off the rest of the girls and circled back to find me, pissed off and shocked beyond tears to have been deserted as I was, standing on the side of the road. She collected me and brought me home to change, and then proceeded to add insult to injury by making me wear an outfit that was not the one my mother had carefully selected before her trip for class picture day, and one that I didn't even much like. Inexorable as my grandmother was, she didn't even have the good grace to either apologize or allow herself to be guilted into a trip to the 5 & 10 for consolation candy, either.

Kiddo was shocked by this story, mostly by the fact that none of us had seatbelts or were in booster seats like the first graders she knows use today. It was one of the first times that she ever truly seemed to get the concept of "back in the day" - to her the seventies are the equivalent of Little House on the Prairie to me, I guess!

***
We've been enjoying some serious Indian summer weather this weekend, so how did Kiddo and I take advantage of it today? By going to the movies, of course! (In my defense, we were outside for a good portion of the day yesterday and plan to be outside all day tomorrow as well, and she played in the back yard for a decent amount of time today too.) Hubby had some work to do (being in the financial services industry, needless to say, there is never an end to the work in these ridiculous and scary economic times), so I took Kiddo over to the local IMAX theater where the movie Dolphins and Whales 3D: Tribes of the Ocean is playing to give him some peace and quiet in which to concentrate on his work. I'd seen an ad for it in the paper earlier in the week, and Kiddo is all into 3D movies after our trip to Disney World, where we saw "the Donald Duck movie" and the Muppets 3D movie more than once, so I thought this would be a cool, albeit expensive, thing to check out. Turns out it was indeed cool - at times it seemed like the gigantic whales were coming right at us and we really got the feeling of being underwater with the various animals - and educational as well. The fact that stuck with Kiddo the most? Manatees, due to their diet consisting mainly of vegetation, are very flatulent creatures. Yes, we were treated to the sight of manatees farting (oh sorry, "tooting" in Kiddo parlance) underwater, in glorious, 3D technicolor. The gas bubbles - they're coming right at us! (And yes, Kiddo tried to pop the bubbles, as she also reached out to pet various dolphins and whales and she even squeaked back in "dolphin talk" to the pods on the screen a few times.)

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Kiddo broke her glasses on Friday. I'm not sure when the actual breaking occurred, but while she was washing up before dinner, she looked down at her hands and - clink! - a lens popped out. The frame itself was broken, right at the temple, which is a first. I chose these specific frames for their super-bendy properties, and as we've been in to the optician's office about once a week since August when she got her glasses for adjustments, I think it was a good investment since this was the first actual break. Luckily for us, the frames are under warranty so replacing them will only cost us $5, and even luckier, the optician put Kiddo's lenses into one of the "demo" frames so she has glasses to wear in the interim. The loaner pair were the runner-up choice when Kiddo was picking out her frames; they're the same frames except in purple (hers are pink) and seeing them on her as we have since yesterday morning, I'm very happy we did choose the pink, as the purple are much more "HELLO! WE'RE HERE! ON KIDDO'S FACE! YOO-HOO!" than her regular frames. Once we find out if she will need glasses for the long term (we go back to the eye doc next month), I think I'll get a spare pair for a back-up just in case they can't do a loaner pair the next time her frames break. I remember all too well from my own childhood how often glasses break, so I'm sure there will be a next time!

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I'm presently in reality TV heaven, with my three favorite reality shows all on right now. I am addicted to The Amazing Race (and seriously, are these teams the stupidest contestants ever on the current race? The mistakes they make, it's like they've never seen the show before - read the flippin' clues, folks, yeesh!), Project Runway (I'm totally rooting for Leanne and absolutely cannot stand Kenley) and America's Next Top Model (McKey is my favorite, though Marjorie and Elina are both possible contenders). I'd love to do The Amazing Race, but never, ever could. Number one, I'm not in nearly good enough shape; number two, I have that whole issue with heights which always is at least one of the Detours or Road Blocks; and number three - the big one - I couldn't bear to be away from Kiddo for a whole month (I don't think they allow families to join teams down in Sequesterville, so even if we were the first team eliminated, I still wouldn't see her for way too long). Maybe if they do another Family Edition someday, the three of us could compete together...

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Just so you don't think my brain is entirely rotted by reality TV viewing, I've been reading, too - grown-up books, not just my beloved Entertainment Weekly and Ramona the Pest (Kiddo's developed a penchant for "chapter" books thanks to her kindergarten teacher reading them Junie B. Jones books at school). The book I'm reading right now is quite interesting - My Lobotomy: A Memoir. (The link takes you to an NPR story about the author.) As the title says, the book is the memoir of a man who had a lobotomy as a child, and as an adult, gained access to his medical records while on a quest to learn why he was lobotomized (there was no valid reason, his stepmother who hated him was the driving force behind the whole idea!) and how his father could have let it happen. It is hard to read in some places, but from the preface, I know there will be a good outcome at the end - as good an outcome as there can be for someone who had to endure such a horrible miscarriage of medicine and justice, so I'm going to finish it.

***
Last week, Kiddo went on her first kindergarten field trip, and I was one of the moms who chaperoned. (The other two chaperones are the class moms, and boy, was I bummed to learn that I'd missed out on the opportunity to be the class mom myself! I totally wanted to be the classroom parent - actually, I'd always dreamed that I would be the classroom parent when my children were in school, the way my mom was for me and for my sisters when we were little.) Anyhow, we were standing in the classroom while the kids were sitting at their tables before the field trip, and one of the other moms asked me which kid was mine. I pointed Kiddo out to her and she looked from Kiddo to me, then said "Oh yes, you two look like each other, I should've been able to figure it out." I responded "Well, it's actually purely coincidental that we resemble each other at all, because Kiddo was adopted." I didn't say this with any snark or tone, mind you, I said it easily with a smile on my face, but sure enough, the other mom looked quite discomfited by hearing this and began to stumble over herself in an attempt to correct what she perceived to be her faux pas. As I sincerely took no offense and didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable, I went on to say that I too was adopted, and growing up, I didn't in fact resemble my family - they're all tall, light haired, light eyed WASPy looking people, and I'm not particularly tall, and am dark haired and dark eyed. I also told her that Kiddo's birthmother and I have some resemblance to each other, and that even though Hubby and I were completely prepared for our child to not resemble either of us at all, by pure chance, we do "blend" as a family. I mean, no one has ever questioned whether she is our child or commented on Kiddo not looking like she "matches" us, anyhow... So, I tried to put her at ease, but I guess the larger world is still unused to the world of adoption and views it therefore as some Big Deal, so as soon as she could, she excused herself and went to the other side of the room, and then didn't really speak to me directly again the rest of the day.

Here's the thing: it isn't a Big Deal. I grew up with this, the "sticky issue" of genes and resemblance, and I know it can make people uncomfortable to discuss. But, what is the alternative? Should I just have nodded and changed the subject? Ignored the comment altogether? Lied? I don't think so. Throughout my life as an adoptee, I never avoided the subject when it came up, and I refuse to treat it like the elephant in the room it can otherwise become. So, since Kiddo was born, I've chosen to always take the honest route, even if it is the less comfortable route, and give credit where credit is due. (Kiddo certainly does NOT get her artistic abilities from me, for example, but from her birthfather, who is quite talented artistically. Likewise, her gorgeous brown eyes, while they may look similar to my own, come from her birthmother, who looked like a cross between Catherine Zeta-Jones and Valerie Bertinelli back when Kiddo was born.) I don't want Kiddo growing up thinking that there's anything wrong with her genes, wrong with her heritage. I guess I haven't figured out the proper amount of finesse yet, but I will continue to be open about giving credit where credit is due when it comes to Kiddo's biological family - they are the ones who created her as she is, after all.

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Finally, thanks to everyone for your comments of support and encouragement with the ongoing struggle to ensure Kiddo's needs are being met per her IEP at school. The latest is that I've been assured that there will be a temporary sub who will be trained by Kiddo's occupational therapist in the classroom for the coming week to do her sensory diet, and then the permanent person is supposed to start next week. I've been asked to come to school next Monday morning to meet with the OT and the new aide to make sure everyone's on the same page about what needs to be done for her sensory diet. I didn't think it was so vague or unclear, what with it being spelled out step by step and having a checklist and all, but apparently the lack of compliance with the IEP is being chalked up to a "miscommunication issue" between me, the annoying parent, and the school/school district. I'm a little annoyed (as befits my title, right?) about the buck-passing and refusal to accept responsibility that is going on at their end. I'm frustrated because they really seem more concerned about not getting in trouble or taking the blame for the noncompliance, rather than being concerned about failing the children for whom they are responsible, which should be the priority, you know... it really isn't a miscommunication at all, but whatever - so long as Kiddo's needs are being met, that's all that matters. Right?

Okay, that's enough for now. I guess this was enough for a couple separate posts - hope your eyes aren't crossing with fatigue! I'll end by saying keep an eye out for my blog on Tuesday when I'll be taking part in something exciting that is happening over at the fantabulous SITS - it's going to be wild and even includes chance to win an autographed picture of George Clooney, be still, my beating heart!