Lauren first this morning: "I wancho (want your) neenies" and as an afterthought, "pease". I love nursing a toddler. ;o)

Oh what fun....we took Joey ice skating today for the first time. Almost didn't make it because just as we were about to go in a mom came out carrying her unconcious son. He had fallen and knocked himself out and had a big gash on his chin. He did regain conciousness and appeared to be ok but MAN was that scary seeing that little guys head rolling around. I am SO not good in bad situations. I almost didn't want to let Joey go after that.

But we did. And he had a great time. I'm so glad, because we had signed him up for ice skating lessons through our town starting in a few weeks. Unfortunately I couldn't skate because they didn't have skates small enough for Lauren, so I sat on the sidelines with her. I was almost glad...I haven't been on skates since before I got pregnant with Joey, so it's been at least 6 years or so. It's not that I think I forgot how, I don't think I would ever forget, I'm very comfortable on the ice....it's just that there is a whole lot more of me on the skates then there used to be. Whole lot more padding to break my fall I guess.

So Joey did fall and, believe it or not, busted his chin open too. But it wasn't that serious, and he was crying because we had to leave and not because he was scared or hurt badly. We promised him we'd take him again on Thursday. And we bought Lauren some double blades so she can come next time too. We'll be going out and buying him a hockey helmet with a cage and a chin strap so hopefully we'll keep the injuries to a minimum.

Ice skating is exercise, right?

My gram has sepsis. She has a pretty bad urinary tract infection and it apparently went into her blood as well. She isn't really responsive, although physically she seems to be responding well to the massive antibiotics they're giving her. I'm trying to prepare myself for the worst. I think I'm ok now, but I know I'll be a mess. I know she's ready to go. She told me she wasn't afraid. She told me she wants to see my grandfather and her parents again. She told me she'd be waiting there to see me again when the time comes. OK, apparently I'm not as ok as I thought I was.

You know, neither one of my children should get hurt while no one is with me because I go into freaky panic mode. And to think I wanted to be a nurse when I was younger.

I was loading the dishwasher this evening and Joey and Lauren were sitting right outside the kitchen doorway playing with Lauren's new "Bahbie" train. Joey had squished her finger in it accidentally earlier in the day, so when Lauren screamed and I looked, I thought he had managed to squish it again. After yelling at him for squishing her again, :o( , I went to pick her up and noticed a spot of blood on the floor. I looked at her hands and saw nothing and brought her into the kitchen at which point blood started pouring out of her nose and mouth. And then I panicked. I put a wet towel on her but the blood was literally pouring out of her. I finally made the decision to call 911 because I had NO idea what happened, she was bleeding profusely and frankly, I was scared out of my mind. By the time they got there it had started to slow down and then stopped. I *think* she did a face plant, but it must have been quick. She screamed and I immediately looked up and she was on her knees sitting back on her heals. So she didn't fall, and I can't imagine that if she did a face plant she got up that quickly but I think that's what happened. She had a small abrasion on her cheek and the EMT noticed a cut on the inside of her lip once she had her cleaned up. I also didn't hear her hit anything, so I'm really only guessing.

I felt like such a jerk for calling but it scared the daylights out of me. Next time I'll try to remember that the mouth bleeds a lot and it's probably not as bad as it looks.

After all that I left my mom a message about it. My mom called back, I thought returning my call, but she was calling to tell me she was in the car following the ambulance to the hospital. My gram is sick again.

It's been one heck of a day.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just wanted to quickly stop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Still have tons to do before we leave for the IL's in about 5 1/2 hours. This morning I did three loads of laundry, made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, a huge batch of almond roca, and cleaned and cubed 10 lbs. of chicken. I still need to gather up the gifts, clean up the kidlings, get our party clothes ready, bread, skewer and cook the 10 lbs. of chicken (what was I thinking????) and other miscellaneous things. My biggest dilemna will be finding something to wear, {sigh}. I should probably figure that out now so I'm not running around later trying to.

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas.

Big, big thanks to Biggie B for giving me a heads up about the show VH1 is running, I LOVE THE 80'S.

I am totally digging it. But then again, I'm a product of the 80's so that shouldn't be a surprise.

Two big thumbs up for Maid in Manhattan. Cute movie, and I got to look at Ralph Fiennes (and remember, it's pronounced Rafe, not Ralf!) for 2 hours. I want J-Lo's body, big booty and all.

Joey keeps bringing up my death lately. The other day he asked me if he could have a tree and ornaments when he was big and married. Then he asked me if I was still going to be there, and when I answered that I hoped so, he said, "Good. I don't want you to be dead.". A few days later, "Will you teach me how to cook when you're dead?". And today, "I don't want you to be dead for Christmas". ???? Something must be going on in that little head.

I have about two hours of peace in front of me. Ahhhhhh....the silence is lovely. Just the sound of my fingers tap, tap, tapping.

Bob took the kids with him to go Christmas shopping. Today has been quite long, so this quiet time is much needed. I made 12 dozen cookies today. Six for my SIL, six for us. And then I made Chicken Scarpiello from Lidia's cookbook for dinner. It wasn't exactly an easy undertaking. And then there's the mess from 12 dozen cookies, 12 pieces of chicken, 1/2 lb. of sausage and a dining room full of play-doh (had to keep the munchkins occupied!). I'm going to go crawl in my bathtub with a magazine or two and relax for a while.

I'm so psyched for the Survivor season finale on Thursday. I'll probably keep Lauren up all afternoon so she falls asleep early. Does that make me a bad mom? I've already planned our Survivor dinner. I bought the ingredients to make steak pizzaiola (also from Lidia's book). Can't wait!

I spent an hour last night watching one of the grossest shows I've ever seen. So disgusting, and yet I couldn't turn it off. It was called Eaten Alive and was shown on Animal Planet. It was all about parasites infecting humans. They showed dramatizations of people sitting on the toilet, pale, sweating, and pooping out tapeworms. They showed worms crawling around in peoples eye sockets. And a 6 inch fish that is attracted to humans who happen to be peeing in the river they're in. They head straight for the urine and right into the penis (or vagina). I had the willies all night.

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Something I learned today.....a tiny 21 lb. 18 month old can hold a LOT of poop.

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Tomorrow I'm making 4 dozen cookies for my SIL (and probably 2 or 3 dozen for our house while I'm at it). She's having a cookie exchange at work. She isn't exactly Betty Crocker so she asked me to make them for her. I just have to refrain from getting into those two bags of mini Reeses peanut butter cups tonight.

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I bought filet mignon today at the grocery store. It's normally $16.99 a pound but was on sale for $7.99/lb. If you used your store card it wrang up at $4.99. I had five $1 off coupons from web bucks, and used my 10% off coupon so I got 5 lbs. of filet mignon for $18.00. Woohoo! The butcher trimmed it nicely for me and cut it into steaks. He ground up the meat from the trimmings so I got some ground beef out of it too. I love it when nothing goes to waste. And there's nothing I love more than a good deal. I packaged it up and froze most of it for whatever special dinner comes down the line.

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Well I'm off....Animal Cops will be on in a few minutes.

I just KNEW mine was going to be about food.

Cookie Monster's Bulimia Nervosa Yes, cookies *are* good. But too much of anything is never a good thing. Instead of bingeing and purging, try to regulate your eating habits. Maybe instead of having two dozen cookies, you could have two. Also, you should slow down your eating. Chew each bite several times before swallowing. Eating more slowly makes it easier to tell when you are full. And don't worry about body image--people love you just the way you are, googly eyes and all.


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Had a wonderful evening last night. I had to do a mystery shop for a restaurant and since we lacked other child care arrangements (it specifically said no kids), I left Bob at home with the babies and took his friend Bobby instead. We had a great time (and it was free!), we were gone for five hours (if you know me that's totally unlike me!), and I even tried a red wine that I really enjoyed (an Australian Shiraz).

It was a nice change to go out with someone other than my husband or my girlfriends. I love any chance to go out with anyone I care about but with Bob or my friends (who are all moms), we inevitably spend a good deal of the time talking about our children! This was *almost* a no kids evening. Don't think I talked about the kids more than 3 or 4 times. ;o) I felt so positively adult and non-momish for a while, and it was fun. Came home and nursed my baby and slipped back into mom-mode. It was a really nice evening.

Everyone is doing IT:

Leggo my Renee!
Say it With Renee.
When it Absolutley, Positively Has to be Renee Overnight.
I Feel Like Renee tonight.
Renee-Lickin Good.
If You Like A Lot of Renee on Your Biscuit, Join Our Club.
Have a Break, Have a Renee.

What a great weekend so far. Our friends came over for dinner last night with their 3 kids. They have an eight year old and two year old twins. The kids played so well together. And you'd think the house would be a disaster but it really wasn't. Bonus! Our bachelor friend came over too and it was just such a nice evening. Good food, good wine, good company.

Today was the first day in a long while that Bob was home on the weekend. We lounged around and he cooked us a good old southern breakfast. Eggs, sausage & gravy, grits, toast.

He took the kids to see a train show while I finished up some last minute shopping. I had almost 3 hours to myself and it was wonderful! I was going to go see a movie but thought I better finish up some stuff instead. I hit the craft store and bought some more clear ornaments, different acrylic paint and some really cool powdered pigment. I made two ornaments just to get a feel for what I was doing before I had the kids help tomorrow. I tried the painted ornament thing a few weeks ago but bought the wrong type of acrylic paint (apparently I bought the thick, expensive "good stuff" when what I really needed was the cheap .76 a bottle stuff). So that project was a disaster but this worked just fine.

I bought Bob a DVD for Christmas and I got a free rental because of it. So I rented a movie and watched it tonight while Bob is at his company Christmas party that I refused to go to. The kids were asleep early so it's been a nice, quiet evening. And can I just say, Julia Stiles is absolutely adorable.

Tomorrow we're doing all things Christmas, purchasing the tree, putting up the outdoor lights, etc. Ho, ho, ho!

So I've been watching the new show Animal Cops on Animal Planet and I should know better.

I'm completely amazed by the number of people who think it's ok to torture animals. One owner beat their dog with a burning stick because he was barking. Another shoved a sharp tin can on their dogs nose to muzzle it because it was barking. One held her cats face to the stove and burned it for some offense. Then there are the people who just don't feed their animals. And then have the gall to say, "oh, they haven't felt like eating in a few days". Yeah, sure. The dog is emaciated from a few days of not being hungry. Riiiiight. You can see these dogs ribs, spine, hip bones and all. What the fuck are these people thinking?

And on tonight's episode? A crazy cat collector who had TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN feral cats in what looked like a little Cape Cod house. 247. Cats. TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY SEVEN. The man was living in his garage.

I can't stand to see people abuse animals. Which is why I should just keep surfing past that channel.

We're back after a 14 hour trip. Whoever designed the New Jersey Turnpike should be SHOT.