My Real Life

November 16, 2012

Friday

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:21 am

Don’t forget to enter our contest for a chance to win an iTunes gift card, as well as $15 donated in your name to Hurricane Sandy Relief!
Daily Gratitude, Day 16

It may be trite, but this week, in particular, I am so very, very grateful that it is Friday.

November 15, 2012

Contest!!!

Filed under: Contest — Amy @ 6:00 am

So, we’ve decided to have another contest at the blog!

Doesn’t require any hard work…just good guessing!

This is our dice jar.

When the boredom whining begins, sometimes I pull out the dice jar and they make up games.

The cool thing about the dice in the dice jar is that they are all different shapes, sizes, and colors.

Some have 4 sides, some have 20.

What does this have to do with the contest?

We are asking you to guess how many dice are in the dice jar.

It’s tricky because of the variety of dice inside, but we have faith in you.

The winner will be the person who (just like in the Showcase Round on the Price is Right) is closest without going over.

So, please put your guesses in the comment section below.

Winner get a $15 iTunes gift card.  Might be a nice gift for the holidays!

The winner also gets $15 donated to Hurricane Sandy relief in their name.

A little something for you, a little something for someone else.

Contest closes Saturday night at midnight.  Tell your friends!

Daily Gratitude, Day 14

I am grateful that even though I love to plan, sometimes life throws me some pleasant surprises.  Example: Tiny

November 14, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:00 am

Daily Gratitude, Day 14

Today I am grateful for friendships that bloom and take you by surprise.

November 13, 2012

Insomnia

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:40 am

So, I didn’t sleep for even one second last night.

I had a migraine before bed, so I’m thinking the migraine pills may have been the culprit, considering they are essentially pain relievers plus caffeine pills, but Monday nights are always rough for me.

Anyway, I have a few observations.

First of all, apparently, if you are going to make a movie about the daughter of the President of the United States, the plot must go like this:

First Daughter goes to college, wants her freedom

POTUS puts a secret Secret ServiceMan who is young and gorgeous in her midst to quietly guard her.

They fall in love.

She finds out he’s a SS agent and is furious and breaks up with him and goes home.

They come back together  (inspired by a talk from Daddy) and live happily ever after.

I saw that movie twice last night.

It had two different names.

“Chasing Liberty” and “First Daughter.”

Mandy Moore and Katie Holmes as adorable/beautiful brunette first daughters.

Marc Blucas and Matthew Goode as gorgeous secret Secret Service agents.

Good flicks, but utterly predictable, even if you hadn’t already seen the other one.

However, watching those led me to another realization.

Matthew Goode,

who I absolutely have loved since I saw him in “Leap Year,”

should play the father to this kid:

Freddie Highmore, who starred opposite Emma Roberts in “The Art of Getting By,” which I also watched.

Another thing to note is that old episodes of “Friends” can still make me laugh out loud with glee.

Also, there are some truly horrifying movies out there.

I wound up getting sucked into a movie called “Mother’s Day” starring Rebecca DeMornay and let me tell you…it was insane.  Very much like “The Strangers” but even a bit more twisted.

And, finally, “Die Hard With a Vengeance” is still my all time favorite action movie.  There is nothing about that film that I don’t like.

Here’s hoping for some zzzz’s tonight!

Daily Gratitude, Day 13

Today I am grateful that the smallest problem I have in my life is one night of insomnia.  Small potatoes compared to what so many are dealing with in this world.

November 12, 2012

How We Spent our Weekend

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am

There were trains.

There were computer games.

There were (many) cups of tea and books.

There were (2) hockey games.

There were snacks.

There were catalogs to browse.

There was laundry to be done. (Isn’t there always?)

There were college football and pro football games. (Giants…what have you done?)

There were Russian nesting dolls to play with.

There was pizza, paper plates and candlelight.

It was a good weekend.

 

Daily Gratitude, Day 12

I’m so grateful for my husband.  I really, really love that guy.

November 11, 2012

Veteran’s Day

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 9:05 am

Never forget.

 

Daily Gratitude, Day 11

Today, I am grateful for the brave women and men who serve and have served in our armed forces.  Thank you.

November 9, 2012

Five Things I’m Digging These Days Friday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 7:24 am

The questions for today’s Five Question Friday were questions that I felt like I have already discussed here, multiple times in multiples ways, and so I decided to go rogue.

I live on the edge, my friends.

So, instead of Five Question Friday, I thought that, today, I’d share with you Five Things I’m Digging These Days.

1.  Monkey in the Middle came home from school yesterday with a card trick they had learned in math class.

He showed me, I read the directions and did it myself and then we just did it over and over again because it was pretty cool.

When Real Man came home, we showed him the trick.

Real Man has to know the inner workings of everything, so we played it many more times.

We tried to figure out how it works, why it works, but in the end, we just agreed that it was pretty cool and there was really no trickery involved.

2.  I am really enjoying the CW show Beauty and the Beast.

When I was growing up, my Mom and I used to watch the original with Linda Hamilton and Ron Pearlman and I loved it then.

It’s a little harder to swallow Kristin Kruek (aka Lana Lang from the CW’s Smallville) as a gritty, city cop, however, it has totally sucked me in.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I am a fan of forbidden love stories, and this one is a doozy.

Great show.

3.  Speaking of love stories, it’s that time of year.

Don’t worry, I’m not decorating the house or playing Christmas music, but it is that time of year for the sappy Christmas romance novels.

I love ’em.

Two people in love, but can’t be together for some reason, but it all resolves itself by Christmas Eve.

I just finished “The Bridge” by Karen Kingsbury who is not an author that I’ve ever read before, as she is a Christian fiction author and I don’t necessarily read that genre, but the story surrounded a bookstore and, seriously, how could I resist that.

Romance, Christmas, books.

Perfection.

4.  My fireplace.

There is nowhere I’d rather read one of my sappy Christmas romances than in front of the fire.

And I have been getting the most out of my fireplace this season.

The impending hurricane two weeks ago caused me to finally get it cleaned (after living here over a year) and while we were all recovering and hosting and doing Sandy-related things, I finally got around to lighting it.

Glorious.

5.  The flexibility and dedication of my colleagues.

We had to get the kids back to school.

It was time, if not simply to provide the hundreds of kids at our school who are still without power a bit of routine, structure and warmth.

However, our school is out of power.

None of the elementary schools are big enough to house over 1,000 middle schoolers, so we’re going to high school.

Again, however, it’s a big school, but not necessarily big enough for all of us.

So, we’re doing half-day sessions.

We are bussed to the HS from 7:30-11:30 and the high schoolers attend from 12-4.

It could be a disaster.

It’s not.

As with any situation, it is what you make of it, and for the most part, my colleagues and I have been doing our best to continue to make our time with the students educational and meaningful.

Business as usual in a most unusual situation, if you will.

And the students have been phenomenal, as well.

They see it as a grand adventure and are feeling pretty important getting to walk the halls of the HS.

Would things be better if we were in our own school?

Certainly.

Can we get it done in an alternate location?

Without a doubt.

 

Daily Gratitude, Day 9

Sounds cheesy, but I’m grateful that I am able to come up with 5 things I am digging today.  The things on my list show that I am warm, safe, and dry and am surrounded by people I like and admire.  It’s a good life.

November 8, 2012

Bedtime Songs

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am

With all of our children, we have always had a bedtime routine.

It’s worked for us and we’ve never really had bedtime issues and believe me…for that, we are grateful.

The routine is three books (which is negotiable, because depending on which books they pick, there can always be time for an extra book or two), three songs, and to sleep you go.

Monkey in the Middle and Monkey Girl are now reading on their own before bed, but Baby gets to pick his books that we read to him and we pick the books for Tiny.

Everybody, though…everybody loves to be sung to at bedtime.

Starting with Monkey Girl, however, the monkeys started making some…interesting bedtime song requests.

My default songs are Rockabye Baby, Lullabye, and one that my Mom used to sing to me which we just call Sleep My Child.

Oh, there’s also a little song that I sing that they all love and beg for as a 4th song which is just a little ditty that intersperses how much I love them with kisses all over their sweet little faces.

“I love my little Monkey Girl, she is so good to me,” kiss, kiss

“She’s sweet and kind and gentle, la-dee-dee-dee-dee,” kiss kiss

“I love my little Monkey Girl, she is so good to me,” kiss kiss

“She’s sweet and kind and gentle, la-dee-dee-dee-dee,” kiss kiss

However, one night, Monkey Girl (who couldn’t have been more than 3 at the time) said, “Can you please sing this song,” and then she launched into some weird dialogue:

“All aboard!”
“Britney, before you go, there’s something I want you to have.”
“Oh, it’s beautiful! But wait a minute, isn’t this… ?”
“Yeah, yes, it is.”
“But I thought the old lady dropped it into the ocean in the end…”
“Well, baby, I went down and got it for ya.”
“Aw, you shouldn’t have.”

Huh?

But, yep, that’s what she wanted.

Britney Spears.  “Oops, I Did It Again.”

And she was very clear that she wanted me to do the weird, random psuedo-Titanic dialogue in the middle of the song.

Baby Monkey (strangely also a fan of Britney Spears) wanted to hear Womanizer, the Batman Theme Song and the SpiderMan Theme Song.

Monkey in the Middle liked the defaults.

That was nice.

And now, Tiny has started with the requests.

He likes Rockabye Baby.

He requests it by saying, “Mom, mom, mom, mom…treetop.”

He likes Lullabye.

He requests that one by saying “Mom, mom, mom, mom…baby seeping.”

So, the other night, I’m rocking him and he says “Mom, mom, mom, mom…”Weahyoung.”

I said, “Sorry sweetie…I don’t understand what you want.”

So, he tried again.

“Mom, mom, mom, mom…Weahyoung.”

Then he kind of sang it a little.

“Weee aaahhh young.”

Then I realized what he wanted.

“We Are Young” by Fun.

Last years major graduation song.

“Tonight
We are young
So let’s set the world on fire
We can burn brighter
Than the sun”

My kids have it perpetually stuck in their head and go around the house singing it.

I am not a fan.

However, I wasn’t really a huge fan of “Womanizer” either.

But I sang it.

So, I sing this.

It doesn’t hurt anyone, it makes them happy.

I have to assume we aren’t the only family with strange bedtime song requests.

I have to assume it or else I’ll think we’re just weird.

So…any strange bedtime song requests you all would like to share?

 

Daily Gratitude, Day 8

Today I am grateful for warm beds in which to tuck my little sleepyheads.

November 7, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Uncategorized,Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:00 am

Daily Gratitude, Day 7

I am grateful to live in a republic where we, as a people, can choose our political leaders.  We may not all agree with the outcome of the election, but we should all agree how very lucky we are to have been able to have an election at all.

November 6, 2012

Preparation

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:00 am

I’m not a prepper.

I don’t think the end of the world is coming and I don’t have a secret room in my basement full of guns and canned vegetables.

However, I do believe that we need to face the fact that there is a new reality that we all need to adjust to.

One of the reasons we stayed in NJ was because we didn’t get earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, or other natural disasters that devastate other parts of the world.

No more.

So, after our second autumn in a row with a devastating hurricane, I feel like it’s time to listen to what Mother Nature is saying and start preparing a bit better.

When I was a kid, my Mom used to top off her tank regularly.

We’d pull into the gas station and she’d give the guy a $10 bill and say, “Just top it off, please.”

(When I was little, $10 worth of gas actually gave you a couple of gallons.)

I remember this from the early 80’s, and now that we, too, are sitting in gas lines, as she was in the late 70’s, I understand the impulse to “top it off, please.”

I know exactly how far below the empty mark my car can still run.

No more.

I think having a “bug out box” stored away in your house is not a terrible idea.

Keeping a stash of batteries separate from the gajillion batteries we have for toys…makes a little sense.

Having firewood cut, dry and ready to be burned?  I’m on it.

Last year, Hurricane Irene took us all by surprise.

This year, many more of us were prepared in many more ways.

Last year, you didn’t see the gas lines.

That’s because last year, very few of us had generators.

So, people prepared and bought the generators.

That were powered by gas.

Thus, the gas lines.

My guess is, if this happens again, the gas lines will be long in the days leading up to the hurricane, but after, the lines won’t get quite as out of control.

We learn a little more each time.

Disaster brings out the best and the worst of people.

I’ve seen some incredible acts of kindness over the past week, some of which I’ve shared here, on the blog, and some that I’ve witnessed in smaller ways.

I’ve also heard some stories about the very worst of human behavior.

Fights in gas lines, people starting rumors, neighbors stealing gas, stealing generators.

All I can hope is that when the next disaster rolls around, and it will, people learn from this one and behave better.

As for us, we will be a little more prepared than we were this year, and this year, I thought we were pretty well prepared.

Don’t just live and learn.

Live, learn and adapt.

 

Daily Gratitude, Day 6

Today I am grateful that I live in a country where I can vote for my leaders.  While I am disheartened by how very divided this nation has become, I am still grateful to live here.

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