My Real Life

September 26, 2011

Why I Love Him

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:17 am
Tags:

It’s important to be married to someone who gets you.

Someone who not only knows your strange, little quirks, but embraces them.

When we moved into this house, the downstairs bathroom was broken.  Not the whole bathroom…just the toilet.

We tried to fix it, but it turned out the problem was bigger than we originally thought, and so it’s taken some time.

On Sunday, Real Man went to Sears Hardware to pick up the last (hopefully) part to make it right.

Now, over the summer, I started picking up a few items here and there to decorate said bathroom in a beach theme.

Real Man thought I was a little silly with the beach theme and registered his…concerns…however, he let me run with it.

So, imagine my surprise when, on Sunday, Real Man came home and called out, “Aim?  Can you come here for a minute?”

I followed him out to the garage where he was standing behind his Jeep, opening the trunk.

“I made an impulse buy today, and I can return it if you don’t like it, but I think you will.”

It’s the most godawful, cheesiest thing I have ever seen in my entire life and I love it more than I can say.

Does that guy know me, or what?

September 20, 2011

Five Question Friday on a Tuesday

Filed under: Five Question Friday — Amy @ 6:05 am
Tags:

Friday…Tuesday…Whatever

1. If you had a weekly newspaper column, what would you name it?

I think I’d probably go with “…and THAT’S How I Roll.”

2. Who is your mentor/inspiration?

It would depend on of what aspect of my life you are speaking.

In general, though, I am inspired by those who don’t take themselves too seriously and enjoy their lives.  Who embrace their inner awesome at all times.

3. What is your wake up beverage of choice?

Decaf tea.
Doesn’t help you “wake up” but there’s nothing like it in the morning!
4. Would you wear your mom’s clothes?

No.

Sorry, Mom.

She knows we don’t share style sense.

It’s all good.

5. When you were a kid, did you put posters on your wall? If so, what were they of?

My posters were all out of Tiger Beat or Teen Beat or Young Miss, etc.  I devoured those magazines, and seemed to have passed that on to Monkey Girl.

My earliest poster was Shaun Cassidy.  I covered it in kiss marks.  Then the 80’s rolled around…

Jon Bon Jovi

Kirk Cameron

Michael J. Fox

Scott Baio…cuz Chachi really loved me.

A big, huge one of Dolph Lundgren…you know, the Russian who fought Rocky and said “I will break you.”  I thought he was SO hot.  Now I see him and I’m like “Really, Amy?  Really?”

Hindsight.  20/20 and all that.

Ricky Schroeder…sorry, the Ricker…sorry, Rick Schroeder, sorry…the has been.

Rob Lowe…St. Elmo’s Fire, that saxophone…Lord, have mercy!

Corey Haim…RIP…Lost Boys, Goonies…loved him.

Christopher Atkins…the dude from the Blue Lagoon which I was way too young to see, but we had HBO and I was a latchkey kid for awhile and HBO wasn’t always thinking when they put their “R” movies on.

Donnie Wahlberg.  Loved those New Kids…if you know my friend, Kim, ask her to do the New Kids dance for you.  She used to totally rock it in her basement. With regards to Donnie, though, I would soon trade him for his bro, “Marky” Mark Wahlberg, and never look back.

Oh, and the guy from 16 Candles…Jake Ryan…who never really did anything else, but that was fine with me because I was left with the image of him leaning against his car saying “Yeah you.”

Because, he was talking to me…you know that, right?  He was talking directly to me.

September 18, 2011

Success

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:24 am
Tags:

We are puzzle people.

We love crossword puzzles, word search puzzles, mystery puzzles, logic puzzles.

Basically, if it’s a puzzle, we are in.

We particularly love jigsaw puzzles.

We all will work on them, but Monkey in the Middle is really the puzzler, out of the kids. He can focus on a puzzle for hours if an adult is working with him. Not sure if it’s the puzzle he loves or the adult one-to-one interaction that keeps him there, but the puzzle stamina is impressive.

When we are on vacation at the beach, we usually have a puzzle going on. we arrive with about five for the week and buy more while we are there.

This past summer, toward the end of our last beach week, I went to the Ben Franklin and picked up n awesome looking, 750 piece puzzle.

However, time got away from us and we only got to start it. So, we broke it down and brought or home.

We were still moving in and unpacking, so we didn’t open it ip again for about a week.

It’s been almost a month now and yesterday morning, we finished it. The two of us were so happy, we were jumping up and giving each other hugs and high fives.

It was tricky, but we stuck with it and were successful and learned some lessons along the way.

1. You cannot work a jigsaw puzzle while holding a baby.

2. It is impossible to not lose pieces to a 750 piece jigsaw puzzle when you have four children. it’s complete, but there are three holes where the missing pieces belong.

3. Completing a project with one of your children is a great, great feeling.

4. Monkey in the Middle is a freaking spacial relations phenom. He can pick up any random piece and see exactly where it goes.

5. I need a jigsaw puzzle table.

6. I need a new prescription for my glasses.

September 17, 2011

Deep Peace

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 7:27 am
Tags:

Jeff, a friend of mine, signs off many of his posts on Facebook with the words “Deep Peace.”

I think about that phrase, often, and try to associate it with certain moments in my life.

Two nights ago, I went looking for the monkeys.

It was close to bedtime and I couldn’t hear them, so I wondered what they were “right in the middle of, Mom!” so that bedtime would have to be postponed by 15 minutes.

I walked into Monkey Girl’s room and found this scene.

Deep Peace.

September 13, 2011

Waking up Full of Awesome

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:26 am
Tags:

I love this post.

I love it.

I love it.

I love it.

September 12, 2011

Threats and Promises

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:18 am
Tags: ,

My cardinal rule of parenting (other than love the heck outta your babies) is “Never make a threat or a promise you don’t intend to keep.”

This means that I work very hard at holding my tongue when I’m angry before I ground someone for a week or take away the xBox for 5 months.

Because once I say it, I hold to it, no matter how hard it is.

So, there’s a lotta tongue biting around here.

However, I believe it is just as important to keep your promises to your kids.

They need to know that they can count on you to do what you say you will do.

So, imagine my moment of panic when Monkey in the Middle reminded me two days before school started that, back in late June when school first got out, I promised to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese before school started again in the fall.

As soon as he said it, I remembered saying it, and in this house, a promise is a promise.

So, on Labor Day, Real Man and I loaded those monkeys up in the car and headed out to Chuck E. Cheese.

And. We. Had. Fun.

Like, serious fun.

I say it twice because CEC is not known for being fun for parents.

For kids, yes.

For parents, it’s more like a nuclear stress test.

This time, not so bad.

Not everyone was totally into it…

But most of us were.

This was one promise I was happy to keep.

September 9, 2011

Rise Up

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 3:30 pm
Tags:

Spending my weekend holding family and friends close to my heart.

Never forget.

September 7, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

Filed under: Wordless Wednesday — Amy @ 6:21 am
Tags:

September 6, 2011

FEMA

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 6:26 am
Tags:

So, insurance, with their crafty wording that would put William Shakespeare to shame, rather swiftly denied our claim for the damage in the basement.

Next step, now that President Obama has declared our county one of the federal disaster areas as a result of Irene’s path of destruction, was to call FEMA.

Real Man filled out the required paperwork online and was contacted to say they’d be by “sometime.”

Imagine our surprise when the doorbell rang today with a FEMA inspector.

I answered the door, and there he stood.

Real Man needed to get some paperwork for him, so the FEMA guy and I chatted for a few minutes.

This guy is from Florida, and has been assigned to NJ.  He’s been up here since the hurricane and is working 7 days a week, about 18 hours a day, going to houses, inspecting and taking photos of the damage and sending them on to the people who either accept or deny the claims.

He’s exhausted, he misses his family, he’s been through his own hardships with hurricanes and tropical storms.

He certainly had the right to be grumpy, short-tempered, attitude-y, and unfriendly.

He was, quite simply, delightful.

FEMA should be proud of this guy as their representative.

I can imagine that for people who lost everything, this man would be an incredible comfort, and that is the kind of representative that SHOULD be working for this organization.

So, kudos to FEMA for swift attention and for hiring such a man as the one who showed up at our door.

For some people, I can see that he would have been absolutely what they needed at this time of their lives.

September 5, 2011

Summers End

Filed under: Uncategorized — Amy @ 8:18 am
Tags:

What I’ll Miss:

Kisses On Demand

Sweaty little heads running in for a snack or four

Coming across mid-day snoozers curled up together on the couch

Inhaling baby goodness anytime I want

The possibility of going to the pool

Daylight until 8

What I Look Forward To:

After-school chatter about their days

After-school walks in the crisp, autumn air

Halloween

Bonding with my new students and becoming immersed in the world of the teenager, once again

Hot meals on cool evenings

My tv shows coming back!

 

I’m ready for fall.

I know people say Spring brings with it the promise of new things, but for me, Fall is the time of family and home and hearth and good things.

Bring it on!

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Theme: Rubric. Get a free blog at WordPress.com