I know I posted this on facebook yesterday, but is just screaming to be a blog post as well.

Please know, I love the holidays and all that they bring.  Mostly just being with people I love and the spirit of the season.  I don’t mind shopping, or cooking, or socializing, or spreading joy near and far.  By goodness…I am not Ebenezer!

HOWEVER…..It being Nov. 1, Starbucks peeled the plastic wrap off the red holiday cups. I call b*llsh*t!  Seriously, 55 days until Christmas and they bust them out.  Can’t we look forward to the upcoming season?  By the time the big days finally arrive, we are so sick of the “season” that we often are relieved it is over.

Not sure what the answer is, other than a blog rant!  Sticking to my motto:  only worry about what you can control.  The Christmas season begins in my house after Thanksgiving. Looking forward to it.
I hope you are too!

PS.  I know it isn’t JUST Starbucks, they are just lucky enough to be in my crosshairs.   I happened to also get 10 holiday catalogs in the mail yesterday and saw my first “get them what they want” commercials last night. 

Well, let the craziness commence.

Already this morning I have outfitted my boys in ninja and Clone Troopers costumes and watched a Halloween parade.  Later today I will help “host” a Halloween party at preschool for 20+ four and five year olds.  Back home to rest, until off to dinner at friend’s and the grand finale of trick or treating! 

What are the pitfalls of this dreaded Halloween nigh for mothers?  Here are few from my highlight reel:

• small child with a fever of 101 puking all over the carpet as we ready to trick-or-treat
• same small child pees in not one- but two costumes in the same night.  (thank god for the dress up bin!)
• a toddler who doesn’t comprehend why you wouldn’t eat the candy as soon as someone hands it to you.  (No need for a trick or treat bag!)
• the perfect costume rips at a party days before Halloween-and I forget to mend it like I promised.  
• the most awesome Clone Trooper helmet won’t stay together and continually falls off.  (I guess the small velcro tabs were not a great design choice)

All in all, October 31 is all about the kids.  I know many adults LOVE to dress up.  Don’t count me as one of them.  The extent of my costume effort is a t-shirt and some crazy eyelashes.  Good luck to all of you tonight.

May your trick-or-treating be pee free and may your kids collect handfuls of your favorite candy (so you can eat it after they go to bed!)
Happy Halloween!

If you are like me….you love your iPhone.  And a new app is an easy way to liven up an otherwise boring, dull day.  I have found that I use my phone as my point and shoot camera almost exclusively now.  While the camera itself in the iPhone 4 is fairly decent, it lacks editing features.  Just found 2 apps that I wanted to share with you!  Just got them, but they both have excellent reviews. 

Camera+

“With Camera+ you’re able to use your iPhone to shoot the best photos you possibly can. Packed with several useful features that your standard camera app doesn’t include, your pics will improve the instant you start using Camera+.” ~ campl.us
Some of the added features:

• touch exposure and focus
• multiple shooting modes-including self portrait and burst (for action shots)
• photo flashlight
• 6x zoom
• cropping

ColorSplash

“You can create some pretty stunning photos with the Color Splash app ($0.99). The app converts a photo to black and white while keeping some parts of the image in color so they really pop. It takes a little practice to edit correctly, but a helpful red tint makes it easy to identify the borders between color and black-and-white sections.” about.com~Tanya Menoni

This is a screen shot with a jazzed picture in ColorSplash.  (I didn’t take it, but I think this app is uber-cool!)

(First and foremost, my grandest and most sincere apologies for taking a week off. I am pretty sure in the world of blogging that is a huge no-no.  But since I do this just for fun, I am almost certain you will all forgive me!)

Anyone need one of these buttons right about now?  Find yourself saying yes a little too often?

Some questions in life are met with a whole-hearted ..YES!  Would you like to go out?  Yes!  Would you like to travel to Italy?  Yes!  Will you marry me?  Yes!  Others, and those that most of us are faced with every day, also get a yes -but not an enthusiastic one.

In my world, being a parent of school aged children, yeses look something like this.  Yes, I can provide a peanut free snack.  Yes, I will chaperone a field trip in the pouring rain.  Yes, I will serve as room parent.  I would love to sit on a new PTA committee.  Sure, I’ll coach.  I guess I can volunteer more than 1 hour a week in the classroom.  You think I can organize a large family event? (notice that last one isn’t really a yes….but it is not a no.) Yes. Yes. Yes.

Your yeses could be very similar or very different.  But let’s face it, no is a four letter word masquerading as a two letter word. 

Why do we say yes when we really mean no?
Guilt.  We don’t want to disappoint anyone.  Peer pressure.  Keeping up.  Climbing a ladder headed somewhere.  Someone has to say yes.  No one else is saying yes.  Worried the boss might be pissed.  Guilt.

We know the phrase, but too often forget it.  It is OK to say no.  (Repeat that 3 times to your self.)

How do we solve this problem? Maybe it is as simple as this.  Say yes to things that interest you.  Say yes to something you are passionate about. Say yes for things that honestly add to the the well-being of your family.  Say yes to things that feed your soul.  Say yes to something that does not revolve around or involve your children.  Say yes to something that allows you to spend time with people you truly like.  Say yes, but be picky.

Say hell ya…to saying no!

In the spirit of Mad Men, a new show jumped onto the scene on Sunday.  Pan Am on ABC.
Catch the episode online if you missed it.
http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/pan-am

Watching the first show painfully brings to light how wonderful flying once was.  Full bars, fine dining, ample seat room, lounge areas, and complete customer service (including pillows and blankets).  No TSA, no full body scans, no cramped quarters, no starving passengers.  Ahhh, the good old days.

The Pan Am flight attendants were true pioneers.   Jet setting around the world, when most women their age were settling for “what was expected of them.”  Although still having to conform in the ways of the company, they were living life to the fullest. 

Oh, and am dying to have one of their carry on bags.  You are never going to believe what I found! 

 

How do you make a housewife happy?  Here are some ideas:

1. Surprise date night.  Everything planned, including finding the sitter.
2. A love note sent in the mail on a random Tuesday.
3. Coffee and her favorite pastry in bed.

OR could it be as easy as buying her a fridge for the garage?  This week it is!  Look what arrived at my house yesterday.  Isn’t she gorgeous?  All 18.2 cubic feet of her.

Keeping it real simple around here.
(The aforementioned would also be accepted!)

Oh, how I long to hear Jeff Probst say those words to me right before an immunity challenge.  Yes, I am a die hard Survivor fan.   But my obsession goes beyond just loving to watch from my couch every Wednesday night.  You see, I actually want to compete on Survivor.  Always have and always will! 

Some of you might find this a bit surprising.  I am not a rough and tumble girl, nor do I live off the land (or even go camping).  But I do love to compete.  The reward and immunity challenges would be the best days on location for me.  What I lack for in size, I make up for with heart.  Put quite simply I do not give up.

Outwit?
I, unfortunately, am not cunning or deceitful.  This poses a very large problem for me. As we all know, those who play with “integrity” are ousted, blindsided, or simply not given the million bucks.  I would have to play the social game like nobodies business.

Outplay?
At the beginning of my quest to be on Survivor I thought I would be the first one voted off.  Why?  My explosive personality would not bode well when surrounded by strangers looking for someone to boot.   However,  these days I am fairly confident I would not be the first to go.  I have a few more years under my belt (and a couple of kids) and I have been able to take charge of my darker side.  At least I keep it fairly well hidden. 

The one thing I still have no physical control over is my brow furrowing.  I have two wrinkles to show for it.  I may not utter a word, but my brows will say it all.  There is a simple solution for that.  Botox.  While not altogether ready to take the leap into cosmetic procedures, Botox would be a Survivor necessity if I want to at least make it onto the jury.  (And let’s be honest. If you don’t make it onto the jury, no one even remembers that you were on Survivor.)

Outlast!
Bug bites, annoying or disgusting people, rain, cold.  These would all be HUGE obstacles for me to overcome. But, BUT….if I could-  I might, possibly, be the soul survivor!  (Or maybe at least the fan favorite?)

Survivor: South Pacific premiers tonight at 8pm on CBS. 
You know where I will be!