Count Me In

Fellow Bloggers, do you obsess over your Number?  You know... your Followers?  I do.  For instance, right now I have one hundred fifteen (doesn't that look better than 115?)  But I know of a few people*
who read my blog on at least a kinda-sorta regular basis, but aren't Followers- seven I can think of off hand.  However, (and this is an embarrassing but true fact about me) five of my actual Followers are family members that I took the liberty of setting up myself.

I know, pathetic.

I've lost a total of three Followers- two on one day (right after I posted this post about Jim... maybe baby giraffes offend some people??  I had no way of knowing that!)  These losses saddened me for days as though I'd lost my most favorite pair of shoes.  (If any of you are thinking of leaving I hope I'm doing a good job of guilting you into sticking around.  I have no problem with a pity Follow).

Am I crazy?  Do you other Bloggers fret as I do over your Number?  Or have I completely laid my insecurities out there in the nude for the entire blogosphere (or at least 115 members of the blogosphere) to poke fun at?  Prod away, I'm embracing my vulnerabilities today!  Plus, I'm confident I can sway you to stay with this hi-lar-ious commercial that has become a favorite here at Ad Bits.  It was emailed to me today by an unofficial Follower and real life friend whom I adore, with the note that she and her kiddos love it.  That could go without saying because hello!  Who wouldn't love this ad?  Even I, with my weird rodent phobia love this commercial and may or may not be headed to Rhapsody as soon as this post is finished to download the soundtrack onto my MP3 player.  That's for me to know.


*I adore my unofficial Followers!  You guys give me faith that maybe there are others reading my blog too!  Maybe my number is more like 1,115!!! 

Shower Me With Fun

What an insanely busy few days!  Biz.  Ee.  But fun!  My whole family was in town for my sister-in-law to be's shower (which we DID have power for, God love you for your electrical wishes).  The shower was a success as far as I know.  The bride had a hefty stash to haul home so that's a good sign, right?  She also got to meet a lot of our family and she still seems to want to marry into our insanity so that's good news too.  Here is my brother, his fiance, and their little dog:

I spent today catching up with my kids.  While I've been prepping for the shower the last few days my dear girls have been shooed into the playroom, coaxed into bed early, given fake jobs to keep them out of my way occupied ("why don't you count you count tiles for me?  Done?  Okaaaay... now, count the eyelets on all these shoes.  That has to be done before any successful bridal shower.")  The end result is that I miss playing with my babies!  For all my talk about craving adult conversation, I was happy to be Molly's pet unicorn this afternoon.

This is my favorite commercial right now.  Travelers is becoming quite a contender in the advertising arena.  I think the soundtrack totally makes this one. 

My Day At School

I don't normally blog on Thursdays.  But even if I wanted to yesterday, all the Diet Cokes in the world could not have given me the energy to move my fingers about a keyboard.  Why?  Because November 4th was my day to be the parent volunteer in Molly's class.

I overcame my first hurdle with flying colors: Molly didn't even protest me going in with her!  She didn't excitedly drag me in by the hand and begin showing me her cubby, art area, and new friends of course, but I would never have expected that.  It was more like, "You're coming in?  Ok, I'll probably run into you at some point then."  Which was fine with me as I was expecting a full-fledged, "Preschool is just for children!" tantrum.

My first job was to help the kids locate their name tags and pin them on their shirts.  I did it!  Piece of cake!  I'd be a great teacher! 

The kids have ten minutes of free time before they congregate on the big circle.  I was a huge hit!  "Teacher!  Teacher!  [who me?! yes! me!] will you do this puzzle with me?  Will you play cheetahs with me? [??] I made you a pizza, I made you a cake!"  They vied for my attention and I began a speech to Jim in my head, "I think I want to get a degree in education.  I've missed my calling and it's a 3 year old voice saying, 'you shoulda been a preschool teacher!'"

Next is circle time, where M introduced me (unnecessary since I was already BFFs with these kiddos!); we sang songs, read a book, etc.  Kids wanted to sit on my lap and I felt like the Homecoming Queen of the Tuesday/Thursday morning preschool class.

I assisted my mini buddies with animal bingo (everyone wins!) and then it was time for snack (apparently parent volunteers just help serve- we don't actually partake in snack) and more free time.  My eye caught the clock.  Hm.  Earlier than I would have guessed.

The rest of the day is an exhausted blur.  I was starving.  I had the kind of headache that slams your brain against your skull every time you take a step.  The kids were not as cute getting a second wind and I could not keep up anymore.  I planted myself at the art table and repeated, "I like all the colors you used" and "You worked so hard on that" to whomever sat down beside me.

Finally, mercifully, it was recess and then!  "Thank you Molly's mommy!"  We were outta there.  Molly has asphalt burn down the side of her face from me dragging her, manically racing to my car.  When we got home I noticed another mom had snuck a note in her backpack about chipping in for the teachers' Christmas gifts.  Timely.  They will be getting a hefty gift from this non-teacher!

Chuck Norris.  Hah!  He's got NOTHING on the preschool teachers of the world.

Bonus Woo-hoo!

I have another woo-hoo!  I had the great honor of being a guest blogger (my first time!) at Hanging Off The Wire.  Hayley does a great job over there and is having a rockin' Bloggy Birthday Bash!  I highly recommend stopping by and joining in the fun!  Here's the link to my guest post: Let's Get Metaphysical.

WWW Wednesday

Whine: I've noticed the last few Wednesdays whenever I put something into my whine blurb, the issue magically goes away!  WWW Wednesdays are miraculous!  A couple examples:  I whined about my phone... I have a new phone that I love!  I whined about not reading any good books... please note the new recommendation in my sidebar!  Molly refused to wear the same outfit as Adrienne... as you can see from yesterday's picture, the identical sundresses I bought in next summer's sizes will NOT go to waste!  So I'm going to do a little experiment today and whine that I don't have a private jet and uh... my skin is crazy dry right now.  Let's see if these issues work themselves out in the coming week!

Wish: I wishy wish wish the bridal shower I'm having Saturday goes smoothly!  The last time I had a shower the power went off at my house the day before so I was trying to keep food cold and not give my guests salmonella.  I also had to follow everyone into the bathroom and dump water into the tank to flush for them.  And it was about 100 degrees and really, everybody just wanted to get the heck out of here.  Including me.  So all I wish for is power on Saturday.  Please send your very best bloggy wishes to me- I trust your wish power will keep my home electric.

Woo-hoo!  Elections are over!  Whatever your party, how thrilled are we that the political ads are off  our TVs and radios?!  I could NOT be happier!  I prefer my commercials to be manipulating me into buying an actual product thank you very much.  I've missed the usuals- the fast food ads, the insurance spots, the beer commercials.  Welcome back old friends!
Also (and I'm not sure this is exactly a woo-hoo; it actually freaked me right out), yesterday (Nov. 2nd) I noticed a fully stocked Christmas aisle at Wal-Mart.  Christmas?!  I love Christmas but wow!  Now I'm feeling a little panicky.  As I get more stressed out, this development may move into a whine, but for now I'm jumping on the bandwagon with a Christmasy commercial:

Matchers Again!

An update: Molly has stopped protesting matching outfits!!!  I know you were on pins and needles about this hot topic, so the news is good.  When I pulled out their matching cupcake jammies she squealed in delight and my heart soared (while my stomach growled and mouth watered at the sight of the cupcakes).  Here they are:

Speaking of Molly squealing in delight, I'm missing a chunk of my tongue today thanks to her enthusiasm.  Saturday night I tucked her in and reminded her the next day was Halloween.  Bad idea.  She threw her hands into the air and brought her knees to her chest.  On the way up they smacked my chin, I saw stars, and now I'm talking like some kind of freaky bad ventriloquist.  Kids can really put a hurtin' on their parents, right?  Adi has taken to yanking my hair in protest whenever I wipe food off her mouth.  Jeesh!  It's a good thing they're cute and still wear matching outfits for me.

Here's an irrelevant question, but I'm wondering what you guys think about this.  M ran up to a house to trick-or-treat the other day and the guy gave her some candy and then took her picture.  Would you be freaked out?  I'm confident he was harmless, but is that weird?  Did any strangers take your children's pictures?

Other things that weird me out?  Doorhandles in public restrooms.  Target speaks to my soul yet again.

Hello Dolly

Good news!  I wasn't mauled by a bear!  The weekend was lovely- relaxing and fun.  Of course, I'm happy to be back to civilization now with a considerably lower risk of wild animal attacks.

Did everyone have a fun Halloween?!  I do not remember Halloween stretching out so long when I was little!  I wish it would have!  It's fine with me though, because the girls got a ton of use out of their costumes. Practically $1 per wear!  (that's quite an exaggeration but typing it makes me feel like a rockstar bargain shopper!)  We have enough candy to tide us over until Halloween 2011 (Lie!  With my help it will be gone before you can say, "I'm a hungry, hungry goblin") so I think it was a successful year.

In other Haloweeny news, I arrived home late Saturday night from my very relaxing weekend, quickly put the girls in bed, tidied up a little and opened my pantry to put something away.  This is what I found:

Why in the world I would ever let my brother alone in my house is a mystery.  Do you remember last time I left him?  See this post.  What a punk!  So I did what any warped Mommy would do... left it in there and instructed Molly to get some crackers out of the pantry.  What did she do when she opened the door?  Giggled.  And kept looking for crackers.  I asked what was so funny and she laughed, "there's a baby doll in here!"  So much for scaring some curl into her hair.  My daughter is already braver at three than I will ever be.

Note: this doll is not ours.  We have friends who brought it over for the express purpose of putting it in Jim's truck to scare him.  The hilarious evil plan worked and after that he put it high, high up in our garage behind a bunch of junk so we'd never accidentally see it.  My point is this: if it were actually our property it would be in the dumpster.  Also, my sick brother went to great lengths to get this thing out and into my pantry.  If you have a brilliant idea how I could get him back, I'm accepting ideas!

This is a very busy week. I have lots going on and I'm hosting a bridal shower at my house Saturday.  I could use a dog like Harvey: