Sandy, Oh Sandy!!

Well Sandy the Frankenstorm, came and tortured me. What to do with three kids when the power goes out? Well, luckily for me I didn’t have to find out. We did get trapped in the house for the day, but they were better than I expected.

The Xbox was brought back into the other room and they were given free reign over the games and Netflix.

We carved our pumpkin and Teddy wimped out and didn’t want to stick his hand in and scoop out any of the guts; but he had no problem eating the pumpkin seeds.

Seriously though, our day was really low key. I did make some Hurricane observations .

Going to the store as soon as the hurricane as soon as it was predicted was a brilliant idea on my part.

My neighbors don’t bring anything in from their backyards until the storm is in full swing.

When school is cancelled before the weather event starts, there will always be people who complain about it; yet those same people will be the ones to squawk the loudest if their kid was stuck at school during a severe weather event.

My kids will annoy each other before the storm is even on our radar.

Even if everyone is awake in the house, Alabama will wake me up from a nap to let her out so she can get a drink from a dump truck, not to go to the bathroom.

As long as there is power, Teddy will turn into a zombie as he plays Xbox and watches Netflix.

Stella can keep herself entertained for hours.

Maizie will complain about anything and everything.

Channel 12 news is a bunch of a$$h@les. After an entire day of news coverage, I was looking forward to watching my shows, not more of the EXACT SAME coverage.

Our hurricane tradition was tweaked a bit this year. Usually it’s just Teddy and I sleeping in the living room, this year all three slept in there.

Hope everyone stayed safe!!

A Week in My Life...Sunday

Well I have a goal for today; I’m going to stay in my pajamas all day. No shower, no brushing my hair, nothing, I’m going to be a skevortz today. Teddy Had hockey at 8IS and he was very excited because he leveled up and he is the youngest in his group now.

He's so proud of himself

Thankfully, Ted takes him on Sunday mornings and I get to sleep until I am dragged out of bed by Stella demanding breakfast. It wasn’t too bad; it was 8:15AM.

Hoping she'll get a piece of bacon

Sandy is making her way here so I am definitely not going to be part of any buying frenzy. Besides, Ted “hangs out” at the neighborhood gas station and they put supplies aside for the “regulars” if need be. We do need to put all our outside stuff in the garage, I did notice that our grill is still bungeed to the deck from Irene (we didn’t use it this year).

Knowing that school will most likely be cancelled is really giving me stress, extra days off are not good around here.

Walked in the living room to find a chair diving contest.

Chair Diving

I put a crock pot full of “tasty meatballs in a gravy” to cook (here's Stella's description of dinner)

 

Tasty meatballs in a gravy

and started to get my laundry done. The kids were creating mayhem in the house, absolute mayhem. According to one of my CIs, there was removal of all blankets and pillows, climbing on a four foot dresser and jumping off of that dresser. To top it off, this rebellious act came after a discussion about NOT climbing on the dresser. This is the recorded "confession".

Today is the last day of the week in my life; I hope you enjoyed your stay. If my doorbell doesn’t ring soon (okay a knock on the door because we can’t get the doorbell to work anymore) I completely understand.

 Head on over to Adventuroo for more Sundays.

Random Photo Challenge: Halloween

This is a difficult one because I have many great Halloween pictures. I decided to go with one from this year (Friday night actually). Maizie was very pleased with her costume, even though she wished I didn't dress up. And seriously can you beat Captain America and Holly Golightly?

October 2012 Captain America, Mad Scientist, Candy Corn and Holly Golightly

For more great photos, head over to Learning to Juggle.

A Week in My Life...Saturday

 

Since it's the weekend, it's a lot calmer around here. As a rule, I try not to go to stores on weekends. Why? I'm home all week while most others are working, and if I go right after I drop of Maizie it's a ghost town (pure heaven). 

But let's move on to Saturday.

 

Today was another day of not showering, and you know what? I don’t think I’ll take one tomorrow either. I was just too tired to even consider taking a shower and we needed to get ready to be at soccer for Stella’s 9:30AM “game”.

I don’t know how it happened, but we got there extremely early. (Maybe documenting all this is putting the pressure on me) She played her heart out. At one point she’s missed a goal by inches and let me tell you, I have never seen her so furious. She turned that fury into determination (My dad pays her $1 for every goal).

On our way

Stella trying to kick the ball at Daddy and Grampie

She loves soccer

Keeping CLCF in business through concession purchases

Look at how filthy she is

Later on I needed to start cleaning up the filth. The damage these kids can do to a house is utterly amazing. Ted was headed to BJs (good luck Sweetie). I was upstairs making my bed and Teddy came up to hang out with me, I look over and he’s under the covers of the bed I just made…COME ON DUDE!!!

A little while later, while Maizie was fitzing around the house I noticed it was really quiet…too quiet. This is what I found

A few minutes later when I went to put something away they looked like this

Ted came home so Maizie and I jetted out of the house to run to Rite Aid.

After the kids ate cereal for dinner (their request) Ted got them to clean the dining room and living room. I’ve been asking for days, he asks once and it’s done.

We all go up to tuck in and Ted has been reading The Hobbit to the and tonight was “act out night”. All I could hear was laughing and jumping. Apparently Stella takes direction really well, remembers her lines and rarely breaks character, Maizie takes her director duties very seriously and Teddy, well let’s just say he has no future in the biz.

 Head on over to Adventuroo for more Saturdays.

A Week in My Life...Friday

I woke up this morning with a banging headache. Really? I went to bed early; I was even asleep before 11PM. So why are the headache Gods blessing me with a headache today? I know why. Because tonight is the school Halloween party and I have two out of three kids that “are so excited” and have been telling me this for two days.

I did manage to shower today; I felt two days in arrow were a bit much, especially since I would be around other parents later this evening. (Although I could have weaved it into my costume, but I do have some standards)

Maizie once again made it to school on time. 

She may have been last in line, but she wasn't late!

Then Stella and I had more errands (Aldi and Shaw’s). 

 I wanted to get non refrigerated food before Sandy came. So I bought a bevy of assorted crackers. The pretzel rounds were still there so this time I bought two bags.

Teddy ate some pretzels on the couch,

I got the black vacuum to clean it up.

Fast forward to after school, Teddy and Stella are going bullshit over going to the Halloween party tonight and Maizie (as is her fashion) is nervous about going. I’m actually grateful for being on the committee, that way I need to be there an hour early. That means one less hour of them asking “When is the party?”

Maizie is not thrilled that I am wearing a costume. Every time I say something, she rolls her eyes. I DO NOT think she will be happy when she sees the end result.

I walked out of the bathroom with make up on and my hair teased and Maizie rolled her eyes. I then put on the lab coat, bow tie and glasses; she ran upstairs, she was NOT happy.

Getting ready to go is a difficult task. Everyone is anxious and impatient. I got Stella pulled together first because her costume is the most “elaborate”.  Maizie just needed to pull on tights and the dress. Teddy, well Teddy needed finesse and assistance to get into his costume. If not, it would be in pieces.

We are finally all pulled together and off we go (a whole 4 blocks to the high school).

At the party

Stella was in heaven, she danced up a storm; so much so that she looked like a hot mess. But she had the good sense to keep it pulled together until the lady from the Cranston Herald took her picture (Keep a look out for the Kraus sisters).

Dancing her heart (and hairdo out)

Maizie actually split her time between two boys; and Teddy couldn’t wait for his girlie to get there. They danced and danced and danced. I’m glad they had a good time and much better than last year. (We had to leave early; Maizie wasn’t having any of it). Let me just point out that she was not one bit happy when I put the glasses on during the party, she would walk away like she didn’t know me.

I can't believe she cut loose like that.

There was plenty of food and a phenomenal and delicious cupcake extravaganza courtesy of Cakes by Eboni. My kids must have had a total of eight, the buzz they had was epic. She made a red velvet cupcake that had frosting that looked like brains, genius!

They each decorated a snazzy gourd, which will probably end up food for the fat squirrels. 

None of them won any raffle prizes (which Maizie still doesn’t get the concept of) but they had a great time and that’s all that matters.

To top off the night, they got to come home and watch the new Tinkerbell movie, Secret of the Wings. I am exhausted and as soon as the movie is over it is up to bed. 

Relaxing after an eventful evening,

Head on over to Adventuroo for more Fridays.