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My Shining Star...
2008-01-15 15:54:00
My little Lauren has been doing gymnastics since she turned three (she's now "almost six and a half" as she puts it)(no, this isn't a picture of her - it's Olga Corbet from the Olympics in the 70's). Yesterday, we got a letter from her gym that said she had tested very well and was a candidate for their "competition program". She has longed to earn a trophy for about a year now and I think she would have a grand time "showing off". Eric, however, has a different view of this development. He thinks that she is too young to be focused on such things and wants her to be a kid. I agree with the kid part, but can't she be a kid and do what she loves to do? Part of me, though, doesn't want to blow an opportunity for her that could mean college scholarships, etc...We haven't told her about this yet, mostly because if we do tell her, she'll for sure want to compete. Of course, there's the money aspect...if she's competing, she'll have to go to the gym more than once a week and, o...
More About: Star , Shining

The Birthday Party...
2008-01-14 06:40:00
Yesterday was Collette's "official" Birthday Party . Now mind you this was not her first for this year, but it was her "official" one. She had one on Thursday evening (her actual birthday), we took her out to dinner and she was thrilled to death when the wait staff all came over and sang "Happy Birthday" to her. She had another one Saturday evening with both sets of Grandparents and her Nana (Great-Grandma). Her "official" party was held at the local kid hangout here. It's a great big warehouse filled with inflatable slides and jumping houses. They play music really loud and the kids get to jump and slide for 90 minutes. It turned out to be lots more fun than I had originally imagined, most of the adults got in on the act and were having just as much fun as the kids! After your jumping session, they herd you into a room filled with picnic tables and you get to have pizza and cupcakes and open gifts. Collette had a blast!We had the usual relatives come (cousins and their children, C...
More About: Birthday Party , The Birthday Party

Friday Free Stuff
2008-01-11 00:32:00
Welcome to the first edition of Pink Lemonade's Friday Free Stuff !If you're anything like me, getting free stuff in the mail is kind of fun (especially when it's useful). I actually send away for all the free stuff I can during the year and put it away, at Christmas I dole it out to my family - they always look forward to their special box of "free stuff". I've gotten everything from cookbooks, to shampoo samples to T-shirts, you name it, I've probably gotten it free. Why don't you start the same tradition (or just keep it and try all the stuff yourself!).Here are the weeks top freebies that I've found:Free sample of Purex Extra Concentrate Laundry DetergentFree 32oz Bottle of Clorox Cleanup from Real Simple MagazineFree Sample Quaker Simple Harvest Instant Oatmeal or Granola Bar (your choice) Don't miss a Friday Free Stuff! Subscribe to my Blog!

A Letter to my Daughter...
2008-01-10 15:44:00
Today is Collette's eleventh Birthday. She is walking around all smiles and happiness - today is HER day. I know of Moms who write their Daughter s a letter every year on their Birthday as a keepsake...I thought I'd do mine here.My Dearest Collette,Today is your eleventh Birthday. You woke up this morning with a huge smile on your face (as you usually do) ready to start your special day. The first thing you did was sit down at the kitchen table and "craft" yourself a Birthday card - a picture of a Birthday cake with you on the front.You are such a sweet girl - full of laughter and smiles. You have an inner joy that exudes from your being - you make everyone around you smile. You so do not deserve the hand that fate dealt you - a beautiful growing young lady trapped inside a very young child's mind. You have been through so very much in your short eleven years on this earth - countless medical tests, hours of various therapies each week, being poked and prodded; studied like you ar...
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Oh-No....Martha's not coming??!!!...
2007-11-10 18:12:00
I actually sent this out in my Thanksgiving invitations a couple of years back. I can't remember exactly where I got it from, but I thought it was pretty funny.To All Our Family and Friends:Just a note to let you know we are hoping to see you Thanksgiving Day. But? Martha Stewart will not be dining with us this Thanksgiving. I?m telling you in advance, so don?t act surprised. Since Ms. Stewart won?t be coming, I?ve made a few small changes:Our sidewalk will not be lined with homemade, paper bag luminaries. After a trial run, it was decided that no matter how cleverly done, rows of flaming lunch sacks do not have the desired welcoming effect.Once inside, our guests will note that the entry hall is not decorated with the swags of Indian corn and fall foliage I had planned to make. Instead, I?ve gotten the kids involved in the decorating by having them track in colorful autumn leaves from the front yard. The mud was their idea.The dining table will not be covered with expensive linen...

Soooo??
2007-11-10 00:46:00
How do you like the new "look"? Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Conquering the Mountain...
2007-11-09 15:16:00
There have been many great people who have challenged themselves and conquered "The Mount ain "...Sir Edmund Hillary conquered Mt Everest, Dr Michel-Gabriel Paccard conquered Mt. Blanc and Hermann Buhl conquered Nanga Parbat.Today, I will become among those brave enough to face my challenge head on. I will not be outside...or even at high altitudes...the mountain I have in my sights is none other than the famous "Mt. Washmore". Until about a year ago, I was fairly sure this household headache was at my home exclusively. That was until I became an official "flybaby" following our ever fearless Flylady. It became clearer and clearer to me that this "mountain" lives in many homes - especially in those with children in residence.My nemesis did not form through the movement of tectonic plates or volcanic eruption. Mine formed slowly...starting as a small bundle - not quite enough for a full load - "why waste water?" I'd think & vow to add more to this small bundle to make a full load tomo...
More About: The Mount , Erin

Thank you!
2007-11-09 04:53:00
I just wanted to take a moment to express my thanks to "Girl" who has been reading and commenting on my blog. I'd like to thank everyone else who has also been stopping by. It's so nice to know that someone besides my Mother is actually reading what I'm writing! (Thanks, Mom!) Tell your friends about us! In the next few days I will be premiering the new "official look" for Pink Lemonade (it's more of what I had planned in the beginning, but wanted to take my time getting it just right). I also have a little contest planned to begin in the next week or two so make sure you tell everyone about this blog so they can get in on it too!
More About: Hank

"To Sleep, Perchance to Dream..."
2007-11-08 15:03:00
Someday it will happen...I will actually get to sleep all night long for more than a couple of nights in a row.When Collette was born, almost eleven years ago, we were new parents - ready for any night-time wakings. Visions of rocking a snugly, cooing baby back to sleep and blissfully returning to bed to continue our own dreaming. The reality was that Collette loved to sleep. So much so, that she rarely woke during the night. She even slept through her "scheduled" feeding times (it's not easy to wake a sleeping baby - much less keep her awake to finish her feeding). We were finally advised by an old family practitioner to never wake a sleeping baby - she'd wake up when she was hungry. Aaahhhh....a parents dream - a baby who slept through the night and still to this day is a great sleeper.On the other end of the spectrum, we have little miss Lauren. When Lauren and I were in the hospital after her birth she rarely slept. This pattern did not change once we were home. I became very,...
More About: Dream , Sleep , Chan

What about a Guy's Point of View??...
2007-11-07 18:13:00
Eric thought starting a blog was insane when I first started, but I think he's realizing it's kind of cool now. He's asked if maybe he could come around once in a while and offer his point of view - what does everyone think?....I'll leave this poll up for a week to see what everyone thinks!
More About: View , Point , T A G

Who died and made YOU Room Mother???...
2007-11-06 15:59:00
When I was a kid in Elementary School, the Room Mother s magically appeared in our classrooms to throw our holiday parties. The extent of their duties consisted of baking cookies or cupcakes and ladling out punch during the festivities.Fast forward to 2007 - a time where the cookies are organic and the punch comes in little paper boxes or shiny silver pouches with tiny little straws. The Room Mothers of today are nothing like those of yesteryear either. They are the "Super Moms" of the class - reigning over the other lowly parents with endless emails, numerous calendar updates and countless notes home.At Lauren's school we have, not a solo "Super Mom", but a tag team of magnificent mommies who make decisions for the whole group...without consulting anyone but themselves first.The latest development from our classrooms fearless leaders came home today as a note. (Notes are the worst, because they bark out orders such as "Bake Sale in two days - every child MUST bring a baked good" or...
More About: Made , Died

Intolerance....It's not just for Lactose anymore...
2007-11-05 15:59:00
Saturday morning, Collette had a friend over to play. The girls are both ten years old, so it never occurred to me that the Mom (who shall henceforth be called "mumzy") would feel the need to stay the whole time (I might have done this when my kids were preschoolers - but 4th & 5th graders?) - don't get me wrong - I totally understand staying for a few minutes to check things out since they'd never been to our house before - just to make sure we weren't some kind of weirdos or something....but the whole two hours??Since Mumzy made it very obvious she was not going anywhere, I invited her to sit down & proceeded with the obligatory "cocktail party" kind of chat. Mumzy did not stop talking the entire time...which was okay with me because as she droned on, it became very obvious we had absolutely NOTHING in common. At one point, she started on about this concert she and her husband had gone to (five years ago). I finally got a word in and said that the only concerts Eric and I get t...
More About: Intolerance

"You must take care of yourself, before you can take care of others"...
2007-11-03 14:24:00
WOW....that's a pretty powerful message and one that I've heard other places before but have never had directed to me...until yesterday...Yesterday I went for a physical with my primary care doctor. The health insurance Eric has through his work is switching to some lame HMO beginning Jan 1st, so I thought I had better get a through going over by a doctor who knows me as a person and not just my medical card#.During my exam the doc was quizzing me on every health related issue ever known to man. During this "quiz" it became apparent that I spent the vast majority (if not all) of my time on my Kids, Husband and Home. My weight has slowly crept up (in a major way) over the last thirteen years and it has now become not only bothersome, but a health issue - raising my cholesterol and blood sugar. Doc and I chatted about how I could remedy these problems and it became very clear to both of us that I know what I need to do AND how to do it - I just need to take enough time out of taking...
More About: Care

The House Fairy...
2007-11-02 17:09:00
I wanted to share this little gem with you because it has be a HUGE help for me.My kids hated cleaning their rooms (don't most kids?). Until I found the House Fairy - www.housefairy.org - the premise of this is that the House Fairy is Santa Claus's sister and he sends her all around the world to check on the kids during the rest of the year when he's not watching them. If the kids rooms are neat then she leaves a sprinkling of "fairy dust" and maybe a little gift (anything from stickers or a pack of gum to movie tickets - whatever you decide).The House Fairy visits our house on a random basis (sometimes every week, sometimes every other week - the point is that they never know when she's coming so their rooms always have to be neat) and checks on their rooms. It's a fantastic program and has worked miracles at our house - thought I'd share it with others - give it a try - I know having clean kid rooms (especially around the holidays) is always one less thing to worry about.(Ju...

The Haunted Yard...
2007-11-01 14:48:00
I told you I would post the pics of the front yard so here it goes...The very last of the decorations went out yesterday afternoon. We spent the morning at Lauren's school watching her Halloween parade (too cute! - there was even a 2nd grader dressed as Elvis - love it!). Both Collette & Lauren's schools got out early so we had all afternoon to finish the final touches.Trick-or-treating last night was kind of odd.....maybe because the time usually changes the weekend before Halloween and this year it's the weekend after (whoever decided to change it certainly didn't have small kids who need to get to bed at a reasonable time). We didn't have nearly as many trick-or-treaters this year either. We usually give out about four or five big Costco size bags of candy and didn't even finish the second one last night. (This is not a good development because now we have two BIG bags of candy just sitting around...wayyy too tempting....maybe I can save them and use them in school...
More About: Yard , Haunted

I just dropped my playdough hand...
2007-10-31 13:58:00
The earth moved last night....nothing really new for us in California. There was a 5.6 earthquake about 75 miles south of us at about 8pm, and yes, we even shook pretty good that far away. Luckily, we Californians are so used to such things that unless our house is falling down, we pretty much just pickup whatever might have fallen off the shelf (actually, we have all our stuff kind of glued down with this stuff called Museum Wax) and go about whatever we were doing.The funny part of this whole thing is the little exchange that took place between Eric and I. I was in the Kitchen literally wrestling with these goofy monster hands that I had made on Monday out of coat hanger wire frames and duct tape and then covered them with some homemade baking soda playdough so they would look creepy.....well they turned out really awful. So I'm in the kitchen wresting with these goofy hands, trying to bend them to fit into plastic cauldrons and (they're pretty heavy mind you) I dropped one. Of ...
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Who built the Ark???
2007-10-30 14:49:00
Yesterday when Lauren came home after school she was telling me about all the things she did that day. Her eyes got really big and she said "Mom, did you know there was a guy named Yoda who built a big boat?...really, there was!" I'm sure the look on my face was priceless as I was wondering when Darth Vader or the Rebel Alliance started in the boat building business. She continued, "We learned a song about it today in music..I think the boat was called an Ark". So she starts singing her little song...."Who built the Ark......Yoda.......Yoda........Who built the Ark......why did Yoda build the Ark?". It was all I could do not to die laughing (but she's very touchy about things like that - she thinks you're laughing AT her). I quelled my laughter and asked her if maybe she meant Noah instead of Yoda....."Oh, yeah, that's him" she said. That kid is priceless!

I'm saving the world!?
2007-10-29 17:08:00
Okay, maybe not the whole world, but I'm doing my part.... Lauren goes to a private school (because the elementary school system totally stinks here). Every morning when I drive into the parking lot to take her to school, I'm still totally mystified by the "Parade of SUV's". Now, don't get me wrong, SUV's have their place but as a whole, I see one mom, and one or two kids driving an SUV the size of Nebraska. I drive a little Prius (I told you I was saving the world). When parking in the school parking lot I have to be careful because if I don't park in the front of the row, I will be boxed in by giganto SUV's. There have been times where I hadn't remembered where I parked because we were in a hurry and when I go to find the car, it's dwarfed by the others and I have to walk around the back sides of the aisles so I can see my tiny little car. I'm sure all the other Mothers are thinking "look at that poor worman...what's wrong with her....she dosen't even have an SUV...
More About: World , The World , Saving

Well.......That was fun!?
2007-10-28 17:22:00
So the girls had their "party" last night. I'm not really sure you can call it a party when everyone just sits around the room kind of staring at each other....Luckily, it only lasted about an hour and then we sent them all on their way home.This afternoon is the annual trek to the mall to take Halloween costume pictures. Collette is going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. I had a long blackish colored wig that I was going to put into pigtails for her but Eric said it was way too dark and made her look kind of like undead Dorothy. Eric and Lauren ran to the party store and came back with a brown pigtail wig....only it's not a Dorothy-type wig....it's an "Ellie Mae Clampett" type wig (poor Collette - good thing her school doesn't dress up for Halloween or else she'd be teased royally). So off we trek to the mall to take pictures of my little Elizabeth Swan and a "Farmers Daughter" kind of Dorothy.....this should be fun!?
More About: Well

The Sadest Halloween Party Ever!
2007-10-27 21:35:00
We usually host a big Halloween party the Saturday before Halloween.....except this year. Lauren's sixth Birthday Party was just two weeks ago and it was HUGE, complete with a Hula Dancer to entertain the kids. Throwing another big party just fourteen days later just seemed a little much. Of course, when we told the kids we weren't going to do a party this year they were totally disappointed so our compromise is to have their Grandparents and Nana over for a "kid-hosted" party. We've gone from a party of about 50 down to nine - totally sad.To top it all off, I now, have to scrub down the guest bathroom (even though it's already clean) because if it doesn't smell like cleaner, my Mother in Law instead of putting her pristine little bottom on the loo, will hover over it like a UFO from the planet pee-pee and I'll have double cleaning to do tomorrow. Don't ask me why she does this.....but it drives me CRAZY!!On the decorating front, Eric and the girls have now transformed the li...
More About: Allo

Crazy!
2007-10-26 20:27:00
Okay, today started out kind of crazy. My two girls (Collette 10 & Lauren 6) have this thing about "crafting" in the mornings (and I use the term crafting very, very loosely). Lauren is a great artist and is very meticulous about getting everything just right, but Collette is kind of a "free art" kiddo. She can spend hours just cutting up pieces of white paper and sticky taping them onto another white paper and calls it "art" - I guess, in a way it is (would probably look great in some minimalist gallery or something).Anyway, today after they finish breakfast they decide it's a marker kind of art morning and proceed to fight over who is going to use which marker (even though there are several of each color in the box). They end up fighting and Collette writes on Lauren's face with pink marker. This is all happening at about 6:45am mind you - WAAAY too early for me to want to deal with any of this. Lauren tries to wash the marker off her chin and, of course, it won't come all ...
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Now we're cooking
2007-10-26 00:22:00
I think I might just be getting the hang of this thing! One of these days I'll learn to use Photoshop and make a proper header, but in the meantime this one will do. Halloween is only six days away - I can't believe it - we don't even have our decorations out yet (okay, we're lousy parents for not getting into the spirit for our kids). Our house usually looks kind of like one of those Halloween stores exploded onto the front lawn (I'll post a picture when it's all up) - maybe this year we can tone it down....just a little......I mean I'm not looking for some "Martha Stewart" looking yard, but the Munsters...a little much.Hubbie and the kids are now outside trying to put out decorations - guess I better get out there and supervise.
More About: Cooking , Cookin

Starting Out
2007-10-25 04:43:00
I'm seriously trying to figure this blog thing out - I mean, It's not rocket science or anything - I'll get it working!
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