Ready or not, the holidays are here!  This holiday season, Pillsbury is running a “Home Is Calling” campaign.  Not only does this campaign remind us of how wonderful it is to come home after a long day and spend time with loved ones, it is also helping out communities by stocking food banks across the nation.

And we can help too.  Click on this link to visit the “Home is Calling” campaign.

http://www.pillsbury.com/HomeIsCalling/Default.aspx?WT.mc_id=partner_blogs_hic

Forward this link from their website to your friends and family and Pillsbury will make a donation to help deliver food to the food banks.

They have also provided me with three wonderful “Home Is Calling” gift baskets to give away.

Each basket includes a coupon for Pillsbury refrigerated crescent rolls, a magnetic coupon holder, a house-shaped mouse pad, a pot holder, a cookie sheet,  a bread basket, and my kids favorite part… a Pillsbury Doughboy figurine.

This is a great basket!  The cookie sheet is excellent quality, very durable and non-stick!  The magnetic coupon holder is an awesome idea as well.  Now my coupons aren’t thrown in my purse anymore with a chip clip holding them together.

To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment on this post with either your favorite Pillsbury product or your favorite part of family meals by Friday December 5th 11:59pm EST.  Random.org will be used to pick the 3 winners.   Please understand that comments that do now follow the rules will be deleted.

I’m looking forward to reading your comments!  Happy Holidays!!

I feel like I shouldn’t even utter these words yet because it may be too good to be true, but I think we have finally broken the binky (or pacifier) habit!  SHH! What is that sound? Oh, it’s the angels singing “Alleluia.”

Here is how it all went down.

Friday night, my husband took the kids to his brother’s house while I went to a neighborhood gathering.  It was going to be a late night for my husband as he was engaging in some poker playing.  Being the smart man that he is, he packed the kids pajamas.  Along with pj’s comes AJ’s binky.  But we couldn’t find it anywhere.  A frantic search around the house turned up nothing.  Oh, well.  Poker calls with or without the binky.  By the time he got home, it was midnight.  AJ was fast asleep and never woke up to ask for the binky.  He actually made it through the whole night.  Of course, when he awoke, the first words out of his mouth were, “Where is my binky?”

I searched that morning for it and still couldn’t find it.  Saturday night rolled around and we still couldn’t find binky.  There were some tears but he managed to get to sleep.  But by 1am he was crying for his binky and I could’t get him to settle down.  I brought him in our bed to try to alleviate the situation.  Here I am trying to break one habit and in doing so support another!

Sunday morning we decide to paint the office.  As we were tearing it all apart, we find the binky.  I quickly stuffed it in my pocket and continued with the cleaning.  He has been doing so well, I hate to introduce it back to him.

Then he fell asleep on the couch last night.  Again he never woke up as we took him to his crib.  This time he slept through the night!  He did ask for it this morning but I just told him we still couldn’t find it.  I braced myself for the tantrum, but nothing!

So I think we can cross binky off the list of AJ’s vices.  Let’s face it, the boy is going to be 3 in just a couple of weeks.  We’re still nowhere close to being potty trained, but the big boy bed is in boxes in our foyer just waiting to be put together.  Slowly but surely we are getting there!

Need a gift idea for the people in your life this holiday season?  Well, Jo-Lynne over at Musings of a Housewife may have an answer for you.  She has put together a wonderful gift guide with ideas for just about anyone you may need to buy for!  I especially like the blogger shirt . Go check it out if you haven’t already!

I have to say that mornings around here are not all that horrible…YET!  At this point, I am only dealing with getting Kiki ready for school.  AJ still has the luxury of lounging around in his pjs for a better portion of the morning.  Lucky little kid!

Kiki gets up without too much grumbling and she still will wear the clothes that I pull out of her drawers for her.  I know that a few of my friends are already going through the whole fashion stuff with their six and seven year olds, but fortunately that has held off so far.

I knew this morning would be more difficult for Kiki (and myself) because the PTA at her school was hosting a Muffins For Mom event this morning from 7:15 - 8:15.  Just to give you a little insight here, I do not wake her until about 7:15 on a normal morning.  So not only would she need to be up and dressed by the time I usually pull her out of bed, we would need to be pretty darn close to leaving for the day.

I took a moment last night to explain to her that she would need to get up earlier this morning so we could get to the Muffins for Mom event.  It didn’t seem like a big deal because she was really excited for it.  But then she hesistantly asked me for a small request.  “Mom, when you wake me up in the morning, um, could you not say my name?”

“Um, well, Kiki, how would you like me to get you up?”

“Could you just rub my back or something, because I don’t like when I’m sleeping and you wake me up by saying my name.”

Seriously, I’m going to change the name of my blog to “Where do my kids come from?”  Both Kiki and AJ have a way of saying things that just leave me speechless.  I guess all parents feel this way.  I mean, they are not saying anything horrible or degrading, they are just saying things that I never thought to hear them say.  Well, it keeps it fun, right?

This morning I walked into her room and remembered not to say her name.  Although it was on the tip of my tongue, it did not even get uttered.  Instead I patted her shoulder…again, and again, and again.  I contemplated saying her name after the 3rd shoulder shake but she was so cute last night asking me that I didn’t want to upset her.  Finally she woke up and jumped right out of bed because she knew it was Muffins For Mom.

She might be in for a surprise tomorrow if she is that slow again to respond to non-verbal waking up methods.  As much as I may hate to do it, I may have to deny her request and actually say her name.  Can you imagine how she will react to that?  I’m sure it will be another post!

We’re ready for winter!

Let’s face it: Mondays are rarely great days.  But typically I get through Mondays uneventfully.  Except for yesterday!

I was actually on time getting out the door to get AJ to daycare.  Because of my work schedule (and an awesome and understanding daycare facility), I drop AJ off at noon.  Sometimes I push it later than that but I really try not to since nap time is at 12:30.

Into the garage at 11:50 - GREAT!  Open up the door to put AJ in his car seat and the car seat is not in - STRIKE ONE! We took it out on Saturday when we went to dinner with friends and forgot to put it back in.

Wrestle with the car seat for about 5 minutes - STRIKE TWO! I get him in his car seat without having to fight him - things are looking up!!

I start the car and notice that the radio is playing but I’m missing the sound of the engine.  Okay, that’s weird but I think nothing of it.  Turn the ignition again - nothing! This time not even the radio played for me.  STRIKE THREE - I’m OUT!!

I have a slight moment of panic.  What do I do??  Then I remember…I have On-Star!  I hit my little blue On-Star button and am connected with a representative in seconds.  I tell them my car won’t start and I’m stuck in my garage.  Apparently if my car would have started initially and then died, they could have run a diagnostic thing (technical, I know) and would have been able to tell me what exactly the problem was.  But I never was able to get it completely started so that option was not available to me.  Bummer!

But it didn’t matter.  “I’m sending for a tow truck now,” said the On-Star Rep.  SWEET.  Of course a situation such as this puts money right in the forefront of my thoughts.  “How much is this going to cost me once the tow truck gets here?”  The rep replies, “Nothing.  That’s why you pay us a monthly fee!” DOUBLE SWEET!

The tow truck arrived within 15 minutes!  The man brought a battery pack into the garage, jumped my car and I was off.  I had AJ to daycare by 1:00.  Nap time was well under way but fortunately he had fallen asleep in the car and went right to his mat to continue his slumber.

I received an automated phone call later from On-Star questioning how my experience was.  I gave them excellent marks.  Sometimes Mondays do stink, but this experience with On-Star turned my case of the Mondays into a happy day!

This past Saturday, the  Muzbee Crazy clan helped my sister and her husband move into their first house.  It was very exciting for them and it is the cutest house!  But I realized something.  If you are not the one moving, the moving process isn’t any fun!

My husband and I were leaving the kids with my parents that night so that we could have dinner with friends at one of my all-time favorite restaurants.  As we were getting in the car, Kiki was waving to us from my sister’s new porch.  She looked so cute standing up there waving.  Then out of nowhere, she started crying.  I knew it wasn’t because we were leaving.  She was just all smiles, plus she was with her favorite person in the world, her Aunt Heather.

Me: “What’s the matter?”

Kiki: “I got stung by a bee!”

Me: “No you didn’t.”

My logic was it’s November and all the bees are gone until warmer weather.  But sure enough, there was a bee walking on the railing of the porch.  I looked at Kiki’s finger and there was definitely a white bump forming where she had gotten stung.  Unbelievable!!  It’s November in Pennsylvania! There is probably one bee left in the whole state and he finds Kiki to feast on for his last bite!

For anyone who may be new to my world, this past summer Kiki got stung at orientation for school.  There was a gymnasium full of people and that bee settled on Kiki as well.  And just to make that situation worse, her one arm was broken and in a cast up past her elbow, and then she got stung on the other hand.  My poor little muffin!

Back to Saturday,  we took her inside and put some ice on it.  Now here is something interesting.  One of the people “helping” my sister move told us to find a cigarette, wet the tobacco, and put the wet tobacco on the site of the sting.  He insisted that it takes the sting away instantaneously.  Has anyone else ever heard of that? Unfortunately (but not really), there wasn’t a smoker in the house so we were not able to try it.  The ice did the trick though.

Once we calmed her down, we managed to leave successfully.  We spent a good portion of our ride home discussing Kiki’s luck (or lack there of) when it comes to injuries.  When we got home, I called to check in on her.  She was doing just fine.  So with that, I got myself ready for our nice dinner out.    The evening was fabulous…great friends, good food, and excellent wine! And with our wine we should have done a toast to the last of the bumblebees!

When I turned 16, along with my dreams of getting my license and a car of my own, came my father’s command: “Get a job!”  So I became a cashier at a local grocery store.  Coincidentally, I met my husband there.  It’s a really cute story that I will save for another day.

Anyway, during our training process, we were taught how to properly bag groceries.  I can still remember how to do it.  First you boxed out the sides, then you filled in the middle with cans and what not, and then you could put softer stuff on top of the cans.  And then there was the common sense stuff…keep cold items together, don’t put cleaning supplies in with food, don’t put eggs and bread on the bottom, and the list goes on.

Apparently, they have done away with that training program and they have stopped hiring people that have common sense!  Yesterday, I ran to the grocery store.  I always use the reusable grocery bags now and most of the time I pack my own.  But yesterday I was first in the check out lane so as I was unloading the cart, the cashier was ringing up.  One of her co-workers was bagging.  I hand him my stash of bags which includes some insulated ones as well.  He says, “Is there a heart or some kidneys in here I should know about it?”  HARDY-HAR buddy! Just pack my groceries please!

He bags the groceries, loads up my cart, I pay the bill, and I’m out of there like last year.  As I’m loading up my car I’m surveying the bags.  Let me ask you a question.  What would you put in the insulated grocery bags? My answer would be the cold items.  DING-DING-DING! I’m correct!  But Mr. Grocery Store Employee puts a pack of Pull-Ups in there.  That is the only item in the bag.  Now to be fair, they are the “Cooling Effect” Pull-ups so I can see the confusion.  Where are my cold things? They are in various other bags with various other things and not in insulated bags.  Then I find my frozen garlic bread snuggling up with my hair spray.  Glorious!!  I simply can’t wait to eat that garlic bread…garlicky with a hint of Suave.  That’s going to hit the spot!!

Where is the common sense? Where is the training course on how to properly bag groceries?  My old manager Lester would have had a coronary if we packed groceries in that fashion.  I stewed about it the whole way home and called my husband to share with him how our groceries were packed.  Having worked at the same grocery store with me, he felt my pain.    Now if anyone would like to come over for dinner tonight, I’m serving garlic bread!

It has been pretty hectic around here and I have found myself lacking the time to sit down and write a post.  The weekends seem to vanish in the blink of an eye and now that we are further into the school year, my evenings after work are dedicated to helping Kiki with her homework.

But I still found time to go on a girls night out this past weekend to Atlantic City.  Our mission was to take Kim from Situationally Single Mom out for her birthday.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Kim and her blog, she is “situationally single” because her husband is currently serving his second tour of duty in that fun little place called the Middle East.  He has been gone already for several months and unfortunately still has several months to go.  Kim is left behind with four kids and she works full time in a management position for a pharmaceutical company.  No time to be curled up in the fetal position waiting for her man to get home for that girl (which incidentally, is what I would be doing if my husband were in that situation!)

Friday night found myself, Kim, Jo-Lynne, and Danielle heading down to AC in some horrendous traffic.  But I guess we should have expected that since we were driving past Philly during Friday night rush hour!  We arrived, checked into our hotel, and rushed over to the Borgata because we had a meeting with Sara Bareilles at 9:00.  We were running pretty short on time but hunger called.  So we grabbed a delicious bite to eat at Wolfgang Puck’s American Grill.  Our waiter wanted nothing to do with us and by the time we left there it was 10:00.

Fortunately, it all worked out.  We found our seats at the concert just as the opening band was performing their last song.  Let me tell you, Sara Bareilles is so stinkin’ cute.  I loved her and promptly titled her my new best friend.  Although some of her songs were on the slower side which was putting my co-horts to sleep so we did sneak out as she was performing her last song and found our way to the bar.

It was about 2am when we called it a night.  That is huge for us because I can tell you from living on the same street as these girls that lights out is about 9:00.  We slept in until 9 am, got ourselves ready and headed on home.  It was a great time and I hope Kim had a great birthday get-away.  I know I did!  Although I still feel like I’m recovering from this weekend!!

Here we are.  I know we’re cute!! Jo-Lynne, I figured out the red eye thing so we don’t look as demonic!!

Kiki had a Halloween party at her school last Friday.  I signed up to bring the small bottles of water for the class.  And yes, I know I just did a vlog on not using plastic water bottles.  But in my defense, the homeroom mom asked specifically for the little bottles of water.  So I ran to the grocery store Friday morning, because I love waiting until the last minute, and then dropped the water off at school.  But I had to leave them in the office.  I wasn’t allowed to drop them off in the classroom myself.  The not-so-friendly office lady assured me that the water would find its way to Kiki’s classroom.

Friday after school, I asked Kiki if the bottles of water were in her classroom.  She replied that they were but that no one even had any because the “apple cider was too popular.”  Now here’s the part where I wonder when I will learn to use some censorship around 7 year old ears.  I say OUT LOUD, “Well then they should give me the water bottles back.”  Of course in my head I’m thinking, “All that running around this morning, plus there are twenty some kids in her class so I had to buy 3 packs of eight bottles which cost me over six dollars…”  But obviously I didn’t really mean that.  I figure they can hold on to them until the next party.

Well, the conversation ended with that and we went on with our busy weekend.  Then the school had off Monday and Tuesday, of which Kiki was sick with strep throat, and then it was back to school on Wednesday.  This morning Kiki says to me, “Mom, I spoke to Mr. F. and he said he will give the water bottles back to us today but he thinks they are too heavy for me to carry.”  GASP!!  At this point almost a week has passed since I uttered those stupid words and I didn’t even remember that conversation.  But not my Kiki! No, she stores it in her little brain and no amount of trick-or -treating or birthday parties or being sick with strep throat will dislodge it.  She holds on to it for five days and I’m sure the second she saw her teacher the words were out…”My mom said if no one drank the water bottles then you should give them back to us.”

GULP!  I explained to her that Mommy shouldn’t have said that because I didn’t really mean it and she shouldn’t have repeated it to Mr. F (who now probably thinks I’m the cheapest, rudest mom around!)  So I’m off to send him an email where I do some serious back-pedaling and tell him to please keep the bottles for the kids.  So wish me luck and pray that I remember to keep my mouth shut around little ears!!