Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Our conversations don't get much better than this

Rich and I were out running errands today and the car in front of us had an advertisement on the back window that included the web address graciepa.com.

I assumed it was for the town of Gracie, PA so I asked Rich where Gracie, PA was. Because of course he knows every town in Pennsylvania by name and location since he grew up here, right? Just how he assumes I know every town in Michigan. Which I totally pretend to do by the way!

Anyway...once he got over his confusion about what the hell I was asking him and what it had to do with someone named Gracie he made some smart ass comment about it being a one person town.

And that led to this...

Me: *sigh* I always wanted to be my own one person town.

Rich: *weird look*

Me: I could be the town sheriff.

Rich: huh

Me: And the town mayor.

Rich: right

Me: And the town drunk!

Rich:

Me: And the town prostitute!

Rich:

Me: *sigh*

Rich: And you could do it all without leaving the house.

Me: I know! Life would be perfect!

Rich:



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Monday, October 19, 2009

New DVD reviews up on my review blog! Please check them out!

“Art House Volume 1: Basic Shapes and Animals” review

"Thomas and Friends: Hero of the Rails The Movie" review

"The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit" DVD review


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An open letter to Jennifer Weiner

Dear Jen,

First let me say that I love your books. I may have been a little bit late in finding them, but that's just me. I'm typically late to the party, if I even get there at all...

Anyway...like I said, I love your books. I love the characters in your books. I love that I can relate to them.  I love how you tackle subjects like weight and body image and dysfunctional families. I love that your books are set in the Philadelphia area. I love your story lines.

And I really love your snarky sense of humor. In fact, I think we'd make great friends. If I wasn't too shy and awkward to actually meet you in person that is. So no worries there.

But this letter isn't about blowing sunshine up your tuchus. This letter is about my hair.

You see, this weekend I read Certain Girls (and yes, I know, I'm a little behind on my reading - but I paid full price for the book, so I think that makes up for it - also, see above). And you made me fucking cry. The ugly cry! The LONG ugly cry. And then my eyes were all puffy the rest of the day and my contacts got all blurry and I had to put in new ones. And I took a Xanax.  And then I went to get my hair cut and colored and had a glass of wine while the color was on. And between the ugly puffy eyes highlighting my fat, makeup-less face, the Xanax, and the wine, I told the stylist I wanted a change and she could do whatever she wanted. And she did. And now I have SHORT hair, and it totally highlights my eyes, which are still red and puffy. See how it all relates? And how it is all your fault?

So yeah, seriously bitch, you could have warned me Peter was going to die. I totally DID NOT see that one coming. At. All.

Anyway...could you give me a bit of a heads up on Best Friends Forever?  Because if I'm going to do the ugly cry while reading that one I need to schedule it a bit better.

Thanks in advance and all that,

Mommy Needs Therapy



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Sunday, October 18, 2009

Where I finally confirm just how much of a dork I am.

I've never been a big concert goer.  Not even in high school or college.

Actually, I should clarify. I've never been a big rock concert goer. I've been to lots of jazz and classical concerts, but not "serious" rock concerts.

The first "real" concert I went to was to see Jack Wagner.  I vaguely remember it being a big deal that my parents even let me go.

Fine, go ahead, laugh. I'll wait.
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Rich on the other hand has been to more concerts than he can count. And more Springsteen concerts than I would have thought humanly possible.

In the ten years we have been together he has seen Springsteen in every tour he's had except one. And that was because we were in Russia adopting Noah. The last couple times Bruce has been in Philly Rich has gone at least twice.

So this week Bruce is back in Philly. And finally I agreed to go see him too.

We had great seats! And Rich was wearing his t-shirt from the 1981 River Tour. Everything Rich had told me about a Springsteen concert was true. He played for 3 hours and 20 minutes straight. The energy was amazing. Bruce fans are passionate!

But holy effing cow it was LOUD! Like painfully loud.

And this was the point that I realized I'm old. Or turning in to my mother kill me now.

So I went to the bathroom and stuffed some toilet paper in my ears.

Except the piece I put in my left ear was too small. So I put in another piece. Which promptly pushed the first, smaller piece, further into my ear canal.

Because I am a dork. A huge dork. (And I apologize to my children now for the horror I will provide them with in the future.)

So for a good 2/3's of the concert I worried that I had a wad of toilet paper stuck in my left ear canal and would have to go to the doctor to have it removed. Because I am a dork. And apparently not as smart as I always thought I was.

Fortunately, when the concert was over and we were in the car I was able to remove it with a combination head tilt, long pinky nail, head shake move.

I don't think Rich will be taking me to any Bruce concerts in the future.


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Monday, October 12, 2009

Next time I'm overwhelmed by Noah, remind me to come back here and read this.

It crossed my mind last night that I haven't written a post about Noah recently that wasn't mostly full of worry and complaining.  I know this is my place to vent, but it is also important to take time to focus on the positive too, and there really are plenty of positives when it comes to Noah.  Besides the fact that he's so darn cute!


I never intended this blog to be a "my kids are awesome" type of blog, and I'm pretty sure its safe to say I haven't done that. I think I'm pretty good at balancing the good stories with the funny and the down right "ughh" type. But bear with me here, because I really do need to do some bragging about Noah!

Like how well Noah is doing in soccer! Noah is a powerhouse when it comes to most sports, and I know I've said before that we think sports is going to be one of the things that will help focus him and give him some purpose as he gets older.

Yesterday Noah scored two of the four goals his team had during the game, and that was with him playing defense. He's a very good defense player! I have to say it surprises me because I assumed he would want to be in the middle of the "action" and be the one fighting for the ball. And that is the part of soccer that makes us nervous, because when he is that close to the other kids is when we worry about his aggression. But he actually seems to prefer to hang back a bit and play defense.  And his kicks are massively powerful for a six year old.

It is so awesome to see him able to focus during the games! And finally, be at a point where most of the time the other parents aren't looking at him, or us, with those "looks."



Probably the best thing about Noah is what a great big brother he is. He is very protective of Kiel. And he clearly adores him.


He's very tolerant of Kiel and loves nothing more than to play with him, which often ends up with Kiel on top of Noah, or wrestling Noah to the ground. He loves playing chase with Kiel and they have so much fun running around after each other.  They are very physical with each other, yet despite Noah's tendency towards aggression, he's usually very careful with Kiel.


Noah loves nothing more than making Kiel laugh and he has an awesome ability to do just that.

He's willing to sit with Kiel and watch Barney or Sesame Street and often suggests that over watching one of his older kid shows.

I really couldn't have imagined a better bond between the two of them if I had tried. It's amazing to me that they are almost five years apart in age but are still very close.


If Noah doesn't make it in sports I think he has a good chance at making it on the stage. He has quite the dramatic streak to him and a great memory. 

Noah is a smart kid too. Despite his behavior struggles he loves school and he loves learning. He's doing great in both math and reading. He has inclusion time every day in a regular first grade class for their science and social studies unit and he's doing great according to the teacher.


He's also a pretty darn good artist when he has someone helping him focus and giving him some direction. I framed a few of his pieces from his school art class and my boss actually asked if she could hang them up in our conference room. You can see them below. The piece just above I had made into note cards using Uprinting.com.

Noah is also very generous, and loves to give us things, like pencil erasers, lip balm, pencils, etc. All the things he obsessively collects. Sometimes I have to remind myself to not get frustrated by his "generosity."

And he's very empathetic, especially with Kiel. In fact, Noah will do almost anything so Kiel doesn't cry. And if Kiel hurts himself and Noah thinks he has something to do with it he gets extremely upset.

Noah can be so much fun to be with when he has control of his energy. His imagination is very entertaining. I love when he's playing with his animals or his cars and pretending to be the different characters. It's not only entertaining but gives me some insight into what he is thinking.

He's a pretty awesome apple picker and tree climber too!

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Sunday, October 11, 2009