Damn those informercials are GOOD!!!

I have always been a sucker for a good infomercial. I mean how many other 12 year olds that you knew asked for a Ronco food dehydrated for their birthday. True story that I asked for it, even better... I got it. I made fruit leather, beef jerky, bagel chips and a plethora of dried fruits for months. Now, I am pretty sure that it is sitting in my mom's basement. Either way, I have been sucked into the magic of infomercials from a young age. Heck, I was fighting sleep the other night to stay up and watch the Cricut Expressions one. It is a sickness, I swear. If I had a disposable income, I would own soooo much infomercial stuff. Rob has recently been suckered into a particular one. The ShamWOW! I mean how could you not? Vince (that is the guy who is selling it... Vince- I know because we are super tight like that.) is wearing a headset, for no real reason. He talks loud and fast (but not loud and obnoxiously like Billy Mays), and asks the camera guy if he is following him. The whole thing is hypnotic. Rob has even gone to the extent of quoting it on pretty much a daily basis "You are going to spend $20 a month on paper towels anyway." I have actually owned a ShamWow! and that shit is AWESOME!! One drunken night in my past a neighbor and I dumped a whole gallon of water on the floor to see if it would pick it up. (It did!!)
Rob is out picking up lunch today. He is coming up on the American Eagle superstore, it sells all sorts of random stuff... lots of as seen on TV stuff. He then sees a giant scrolling sign that seems as if it directly from the informercial gods. "SHAMWOW $10" What does he do?? He pulls in and goes and buys his precious ShamWow. He did admit that he was laughing hysterically to himself while buying. I am sure that the cashier thought that he was certifiably insane. The joy he got from coming home and presenting me with his new purchase was worth the $10. He then promptly went in the kitchen and dumped a couple cups of water on the floor, just to test it out.
We are seriously an advertisers dream.

Holiday Update

After being overwhelmed with the amount of holiday cheer I felt compelled to decompress by overwhelming you with my madness. TIA!

I have recently started picking up shifts back at the bar. At first, it was a "helping out while they are short handed" deal. Now, since I am enjoying the time away and the extra cash... I am thinking that I may be starting to head back on more of a permanent basis. I will say that it is kicking my ass though. My body hurts sooo bad. This 10 hours on your feet thing is really hard to get back in the swing of doing all the time. At least I am getting exercise though. This should help with losing a couple extra pounds. :)

My kids are spoiled rotten. I was so worried that they were going to feel jipped due to us having a very limited budget this year. Arabel enjoyed trying to eat the paper the most I think. She got some really great toys though. She was so well behaved at all the places we went. Emma was so thankful for everything that she received. Watching her face on Christmas morning was awesome. I wish that I would have had the camera out. I was too involved in watching the madness. Santa even left her a note thanking her for the cookies and oatmeal for the reindeer.

We are truly very blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. I can't stress that enough.

As Christmas nears...

As Christmas nears, I felt compelled to share the famous newspaper column from a sweet 8 year old girl named Virginia. It is a great reminder that Santa does exist. I will be showing this to my kids when they ask me if Santa is real.
Hard to imagine that this famous strip was printed Sept. 21st, 1897 and that it still holds true to this day. Enjoy, and Merry Christmas!

IS THERE A SANTA CLAUS?
We take pleasure in answering at once and thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the friends of THE SUN:

"Dear Editor: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Paps says 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"Virginia O'Hanlon.
"115 Ninety-fifth Street".

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, VIRGINIA, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exsits as certainly as love and generousity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how deary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as deary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no peotry, no romance to make tolerable this exsistence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, thought that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see whats makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, VIRGINIA, pay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday to my sweet Princess! She is 4 today!

Crazy couple days

Saturday morning we woke up to our furnace that quit working. Have any idea how cool a non-working furnace is in Michigan in Decemeber... really freaking uncool. We woke up a matienance guy from the apartment complex and he had it fixed within an hour or two. We headed up north, got lost going and ended up 20 miles out of our way. The evil step-witch didn't speak to me, or the kids. She yelled at Emma for something ridiculous and Em started bawling. My grandma jumped in and was comforting her and said, you didn't even do anything wrong. Snap, evil step-mom- sit the fuck down and butt the fuck out. We left and the roads were BAD. Like 35 on the highway bad. (Speed limit here is 70 on the highway, so that is hella slow.) My dad and evil witch left after us, but must have been flying down the highway b/c they passed us and then promptly plowed straight into a snow bank. Everyone was OK, thankfully and a tow truck was there to pull their dumbasses out of the snow. My brother reamed my dad a new asshole for driving like an ass. We finally made it home after waaaayyyy too many hours in the car.
Today was Emma's birthday party. She had a great time and got entirely too many gifts. :) She is very loved.

wow

Tonight was the start of a very busy weekend for us. Rob hasn't slept since Wednesday. He has been working 24 hours a day to make this game perfect. Tonight, we had a Christmas party with my mom's side of the family. Emma got a pink scarf and jumped up and down for a solid 5 minutes screaming, "It's pink!! It's pink!!!" She wanted to sleep in it! lol When we get together with my mom's family it is a blast. There are sooo many kids. Emma had such a great time playing with all of the cousins. Tomorrow, at noon we have to be out at my mom's house to pile into her van so the girls, Rob, me, my brother and his gf can drive 2 1/2 hours to go to my dad's family Christmas. None of us are very thrilled with the idea. Oh well. Sunday morning Rob is demoing his game at 9:30 an hour away. 1:00 is Emma's party.

Now, onto some very sad news. My friend who is pregnant called tonight. I feel terrible that I have ranted about her, and relished in the fact that she was having a boy. She got the worst news that any mother can ever possibly get. She woke up yesterday to bleeding, her unborn son had no heartbeat. She was put into labor and after 20 hours gave birth to their first son, Noah Jay. My heart is literally breaking for her. I cannot imagine the pain she is going through. I can only put every positive thought that I have for her heart to heal. Rest in peace sweet baby Noah Jay.

got to thinking

Money has been a serious issue for us. Thank God some miracle happened and everything is straightened out. We were in a serious pickle... like serious. As Rob wrote an insanely large rent check, he looked at me and said, "This is like 4-5 months of a mortgage payment." Uh DUH! No shit Sherlock, I have been trying to tell you that we have been dumping money into this shitty apartment complex for 5 damn years. Do you have any idea how much 5 years worth of rent is? $55,200... yeh, seriously. Did you know that we are looking into a house that is currently on the market for $49,900. Yeh, really. Rob and I are both very interested in the place. It is 3 bedrooms with an extra room (maybe a playroom... or office) and a basement. It looks like someone has tried to fix it up. Hardwood throughout the main areas and carpet in the bedrooms. I really want to go look at it and try to get it. I am DYING to get the hell outta here. Did I mention that it is in my home town, right across town from my parents, and a short walk from my best friend's house? Yeh. I am going to push for this.

Wordless Wednesday

I take these snow pictures for my dear friend, Kristin, who lives in Texas.

lunch time

We went out to lunch today. I never thought that it would be so nice to go out to lunch as a family. A sat in the high chair and was loving the attention and oohhs and aahs from on lookers. E got to choose whatever she wanted from the menu, and she picked a chicken sandwich with applesauce. She ate the entire thing, so we got her an Oreo shake. Both of the kids were so well behaved, I couldn't have been happier. It was the best hour we have had as a family lately.

E's birthday party is next weekend, and I haven't started on buying any gifts. I really hope that we are able to swing the money for gifts. I would feel like such a failure if we can't. We are kind of hurting right now, and it is very frightening for us. Rob is working like crazy to be able to make ends meet. I even thought about getting a part time job in retail (shoot me... seriously), but Rob doesn't want me to waste the time for minimum wage. It is times like this that I miss my bartending job, and the ability to make a couple hundred dollars a night with little to no effort. I am so not ready to be gone from my kids though. Belle is entirely too needy at the moment for me to be gone at all.

I really wish that I could really get into the holiday spirit this year. I need to surround myself with wrapping paper and Christmas songs and go to town. I honestly could care less if I got anything. I just want the girls to have a good time. OK, who am I kidding?? A will be happy with a box and some wrapping paper. I want E to have a great time. She is old enough now to be such a blast. I need to go take her to see Santa, this will be the first year... we will have to see how that goes. According to her, she thinks that Santa lives down the road at an old firehouse.

Wordless Wednesday

My reasons to keep smiling.



Beat that.