you know, we all have our little vices to get us through the day. i’m sure others out there share one of mine – reading blogs.

here is another. it started out simple enough. just a quick purchase at the register at the checkout. I love me some altoids, and these looked pretty tasty. so i bought some.

Altoids Tangerine Sours. They are goooooood. I pop one in my mouth 2 or 3 times a day, and they last a week or two. Yum.

So, the next time I stood in line at the register and saw these, I grabbed a tin. I mean, who can resist altoids? They’re curiously strong!

Mmmmmm, Mango! Yummy yummy mango! How did they know? Mango is my very favorite fruit!

Of course, when those were gone, more were purchased.

I was hooked. And so of course, came these:

Now, I must say, that these aren’t actually my favorite. (Mango holds that title.) But they do seem to be more readily available at the checkout line. So my raspberry tin collection grew.

Now, I must confess, that these have been bought and consumed over several months, some probably were eaten back in 2006 and I just never threw away the tin. (Surely something crafty and cool can be done with these empty tins, right? RIGHT!)

But a few days ago.. I found something new.

Something truly irresistable.

Something chocolatey and altoidy all at the same time.

Oh, beautiful tasty dark chocolate dipped mints. You are the first brown altoid tin to take up residence on my desk, and I know you won’t be the last. OMGWTFBBQ this is the best altoid idea EVER! And they make them in 3 different flavors. Peppermint (shown blurrily above), ginger and cinnamon!

I know I will have to resist buying more of these right away.. I bought this tin just a few days ago.. and already..

… ALL GONE. Oh altoids, I CAN’T QUIT YOU! Since I obviously cannot practice restraint with these about, I’ll have to practice restraint in their purchase.

Oh, but they’re so very good.

So, this leaves me to confess another way I pass the time during the day.

Occasionally, I take camera phone pictures of the random shit on my desk during lunch and post them on the internet.

-amy is the originally celebrated curiously strong AMY.

Oh boy, where to begin? What a fantastic weekend it was.

EVERYONE’S FINE

The weekend actually started for the kids, on Thursday. Jocelyn was up all night coughing and fiddling around Wednesday night, so much that I thought she must be really sick. So James took the kids in to school and let both teachers know that I would be picking them up around noon to take Jocelyn to the doctor. Well, it turned out our pediatrician was only open until 11am, which meant I needed to get Jocelyn there by 10.30, which meant I needed to pick them up by 10. The only reason we sent them in anyway was because Jocelyn had her Easter party and we didn’t want her to miss it. So I took them to the doctor, Jocelyn got examined and she’s fine, just a cold. Their school was closed on Good Friday (James stayed home with them then), so they had a very long weekend!

SINGING

Friday night performance was fantastic. Oh, can I tell you how much I love the music we sang? So beautiful! It’s sooooo good. I’m so sad that it’s over and now we won’t be working on it in rehearsal anymore. We had a pretty good turnout, and it went really well.

SATURDAY CRAFTINESS

Saturday Jocelyn and I went and did some errands in the morning, and James took Ethan to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum (it’s near Dulles airport in VA instead of downtown DC). All accounts given pointed to them having a fabulous time, with a stop at an ice cream shop before getting back home to top it off. Jocelyn and I did some boring things. Bank. Pick up pictures. Stop at grocery store. I made the mistake of commenting to her earlier that morning, that her dress-up dress was getting too small, and we’d have to get a bigger one. One should never say this until one is ready to go out THAT MOMENT to get a new dress, because everywhere half hour, she said, “Will they have a bigger dress here?” “Are we going to get me a bigger dress now?” etc. I decided that if I waited until after Easter, then all those fancy easter dresses would be on sale, I could get her one that is too big (perfect for dressup) and I should wait until then. Plus, I bought a little girl dress pattern with a gift certificate that Anna gave me for my birthday (ain’t she sweet??) and I thought I should get busy on that as well.

So we got back home (sans new bigger dress) and put up some Jocelyn photographs in her room. I had some up long ago, took them down when we painted it, and then the pictures got carried off, taken out of the frames, and otherwise mangled, so it was time to get those back up. Jocelyn loves to look up at the photos and say, “That’s me, JOCELYN!”

Then I started on another project I’ve had in the back of my mind for a long time. I’ve wanted to try freezer stenciling, and even had bought blank tshirts for the kids in preparation for it. So today was the day. I traced the stencil onto freezer paper, cut it out with a kitchen knife (oh exacto! where art thou?) ironed it on to her shirt, and then we both sat down and painted it in. I reread all the directions later, and found that I actually did the painting wrong – you’re supposed to DAB, not STROKE, and Jocelyn and I stroked. You’re also supposed to use very thin layers, and well, we just globbed it on. It turned out fantasticly though, and I set it in the dryer the next morning, and then Jocelyn wore it all morning until she spilled water all down the front. It is just the cutest little shirt ever, in my opinion. I may make one for me. I don’t have a picture of her wearing it yet, but here is the stencil:

When Ethan was home, I asked him what he wanted on a shirt for him, and he kind of gave me a blank look.

“boys rock?” I asked.
more blank looks.
Jocelyn has a shirt that says, ‘My daddy loves me,’ so then I suggested, “How about ‘I love my Daddy?”
Finally, an opinion, “NO, I love TRUCKS!”

So an “I love trucks” shirt is in the works next. I have the stencil all cut out ready to be ironed on, but I need to get a blank shirt for him. The one I had was deemed unacceptable, because it is yellow. “BLANK MEANS WHITE MOMMY!”

Sunday was more crazy project fun. On a much bigger scale. Earlier that week, Ethan verbalized some thought processes to me, while we were in Jocelyn’s room.

ROOM SWAPPEROO

Ethan: “I slept in this room with Jocelyn before.”
Mommy: “You mean when Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Larry visited?”
E: “Yeah. In a SLEEPING BAG!” (they didn’t visit in a sleeping bag. he slept in a sleeping bag. because uncle larry was in his bed)
M: “Ahhh, yup.”
E: “And this room used to be mine.”
M: “Yes, it was, when you were a little little boy.”
E: “I could sleep in here with Jocelyn again. We could share it.”
M: “You mean move your bed in here?”
E: “YEAH! Like CHARLIE AND LOLA!”
m: “Then what would we do in your room?”
e thought about this a minute.
e: “We could make it a toy room!”
m: “You know, I could really go for this idea.”

I mentioned it a few more times to both Jocelyn and Ethan, told them maybe we could try it out for a while and see how it goes, brought up other “problems” as I thought of them, just to see what solution Ethan would think of (“What about naptime?” “I can be very quiet mommy, I can sleep during naptime”). Sunday morning, I thought, “Why not?” and so me and the kids got to work re-arrancing Jocelyn’s room to accomodate Ethan’s bed. We left his dresser in his room, cleared out 2 drawers in Jocelyn’s dresser, moved in his bed and his clothes. They were SO excited and pleased to have both their beds in the same room, and they had a blast in the new “toy room.” Jocelyn brought her dress up clothes, and we put them in the closet, and said, “Now it’s your dress up closet!” Ethan hauled his geotrax train stuff up the stairs all by himself (and let me tell you, it’s a lot, and it’s heavy) and got straight to work making a train layout. James and I got a bunch of laundry folded in relative peace while they played to their hearts content.

It reminded me of when I was younger and my sister and I rearranged our rooms on a weekly basis, sometimes even switching rooms with each other for a few weeks and then switching back. Of course, I was 14 and my sister Susan was 10, not the toddlers my kids are, but it was fun, and why not? 🙂

CLEAN CLEAN CLEAN

Sunday night we had some frantic house cleaning on the main level and I’m happy to say my sanity is saved for yet another week becuase it’s all relatively clean. If we get it clean Sunday night, then it usually stays pretty clean all week. On the other hand, if we DON’T get it clean, it’s a disaster, and it stays a disaster all week, and it really makes me pretty depressed.

Today Jocelyn starts in a new classroom. She moves up from the 2 year old class to the 3 year old class, which means not only a new teacher, new friends, etc. but she gets to go play on the BIG playground! She is very excited about this, and Ethan is too. He has already told her how he will show her all around the playground and play with her. It’s very sweet. Sunday evening, she came over to me and said, “I want to go to school,” and was somewhat distraught that she would have to wait all the way until MORNING to go to her new class.

Ahhhh.. it was a lovely weekend. The lovliest I’ve had in a long time.

-amy: established 1873, natural spring amy.

The choir I joined at the beginning of the year is performing for Good Friday. I am very excited. The music is so stunning. So moving. It is by Dale Wood, called “Service of Darkness.” We will be performing at the Manassas Presbyterian Church, Friday at 7:30pm. You can look at the chorale’s website (which was built by yours truly) for more information, and if you’re in the area, I hope you’ll consider coming. We had a rehearsal in the church this evening, and it is a beautiful space. I was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS, or mormon, as it’s more likely to be called) and while they do have some more modern beautiful buildings, they’re usually kind of boring. This church isn’t super old, but it was still just beautiful. There’s something about singing in a church that is just satisfying. Good acoustics.

Now, I’m not a church-goer, but I’m SO excited about this performance. The music is incredible, and it is so wonderful to perform. James will be there with the kids, and it will be their first experience in a church, so THAT will be interesting. But it’s important to me that they’ll be there. I may have to get Ethan some nice clothes. Jocelyn has plenty of pretty dresses, but Ethan has got nothing nice. If it doesn’t have a monster truck or a race car or a construction machine on it, he turns up his nose, thus, nothing suitable for a church.

Again, if you’re in the area, and feel like hearing a beautiful piece of music, I hope you’ll come.

I’ll be the one with the pink hair.

-amy

So I thought I’d do it all over, and first lighten the roots so that it would “take.”

So, I bought some lightener.. started on the roots.. and well, I quickly mixed the bleach in all over, not just on the roots. What can I say.. it all kind of snowballed. I got enthusiastic! I didn’t go SO crazy as to leave it in for very long.. 20 minutes was PLENTY, and after I rinsed the bleach out and blew it dry, it was scary, I tell you, SCARY!

However, the pink went on much better in round 2. Very pink. Very vibrant.

So here we are, Pink 2 (otherwise known as “final” pink or PINK!):

I’m still kind of processing my own thoughts on it. I was a little aghast after seeing the results of Pink 2. I mean, pink 1 was nice and all, but pink 2 is hardcore. Pink 2 is not kidding around. Pink 2 isn’t all mimsy pimsy about being pink, it is all pink, all the time, and it is not ANYTHING else! I wasn’t sure how I felt about being that hardcore pink. However, after a day of being PINK! and getting all kinds of reactions (all surprisingly very very positive!) the PINK! is growing on me 🙂

the #1 question is, why? the easiest answer is why not? or I thought it would be fun. Which is true 🙂 But a more honest answer is probably that I felt like I needed a change, something to jolt me in people’s perceptions of surburban working mom.. I think I needed to jolt myself as well. Sometimes, you need a little jolt, don’t you think?

I’m keeping it for at least a week, to see how it goes, if it fades or sticks around, and then I’ll reevaluate. I don’t think I’ll be a pink haired mom forever, and last night, I was pretty sure a week sounded like a bit too long.. but tonight I feel like I could be PINK! for a whole month 🙂 I guess we’ll see.

-pink amy doesn’t really even like pink that much.

ps: the “category” is “amy’s head.” get it? it’s literally amy’s head!!!

Pink 1 went like this:

(Please disregard that stilted, crazed, frozen look on my face. that is the look one gets when one is staring at the camera in someone elses’ hands wondering how it will turn out and when are they going to click the button already? Yeah. not the best expression, but the best hair picture. ohwell.)

I thought it would be cool to just do the top pink. I liked the idea of having the brown show through. And I did quite like it in the back.. however, from the front it just looked kind of dopey. Plus, it didn’t take on the roots at all.

All in all…. I wanted a do-over.

… but I grabbed the wrong cord on my way out the door this morning, which means while I can plug my IPOD into my computer just fine, I have no way to get the pictures off my camera. Doh. I’m not going to subject anyone to crappy cameraphone pictures, so you’ll just have to wait.

I will say that we went through Pink 1: top only, and we are now at Pink 2: All Pink, All the time.

Tomorrow. I promise more tomorrow.

-amy

So, Sunday night I posted that I felt like I was going to be sick. My throat had that scratchy feeling that made a taunting sing songy bully voice in my head sing over and over, “You’re going to be siiiiiiick!”

And it was correct. Oh boy was it correct.

Monday morning.. I don’t remember the morning. I vaguely remembering saying something about not going to work to James. That’s it. I don’t remember James showering or getting dressed, or the kids running around or anything. I do remember the weird vivid fever dreams I had. I woke up to stillness all around me and that weird feeling you get when you wake up not knowing what time it is or what’s going on. I went back to sleep. Around 10am I dragged myself out of bed, left a message on my boss’ voicemail that I wouldn’t be in that day, did a shot of Dayquil, and got myself into a steaming hot bath hoping that would stop the fever-shivering. It did, but when I managed to drag my carcass out of it an hour later, the shivering came back. I stayed in bed all day, not really sleeping, more like drifting along on a cloud of feverish unconsciousness. I don’t like it there. I dreamed about my raspberry bushes taking over the entire yard. I dreamed about digging huge trenches around them, and putting in cement gardening blocks to try to contain their growth. I dreamed about other things too, but they’ve now faded from memory. Luckily, no nightmares. Fever nightmares are the worst. I vaguely grew aware of the time and the parched state of my throat, and so I made a white-knuckles on the bannister trip down the stairs to get a glass of water, and then back in bed I called James and asked if he could pick up the kids. He did, but warned me that I’d have to actually supervise them, and make sure they get dinner and jammies and get put into bed, because he had class that night. I had remembered, but wasn’t relishing the idea.

When they got home, Ethan and Jocelyn were so cute. They came over and asked me if I was feeling sick, and why and assured me that they’d take care of me. Ethan is especially cute when someone is sick. He gets the victim his warmest blankey, and even offers them his treasured Pookie bear. I let them watch TV all night, eat PBJs on the couch, got them both dressed in their jammies in the living room, and then packed them to bed one by one with (very short) stories. The really sucky part about being in bed all day with a fever is that late at night when the fever has finally broken and you’re exhausted and yet not really sleepy and the thought of going back to bed where you spent all day is depressing.

Tuesday was a little better. The fever abated with the help of the Dayquil, so that I actually ate food and ginger ale, but stayed pretty solidly on the couch for the duration of the day. I took the opportunity to catch up on Gilmore Girls. I watched a few of them last fall, but then got discouraged with the turn of events in Loralei’s love life and stopped watching them as the TiVo recorded them. I just let them build up, so now I’ve got about 10 episodes to watch. I like doing it that way better, because then I can watch a whole bunch in a row and get to where everything is better again (and I know they will be. I KNOW THEY WILL BE.)

I even managed to get up and make some dinner for everyone. I knew that today I’d be going in to work, but was still feeling pretty crummy.

And I must say, for being sick, it could have been much worse.. I could breath through my nose OK. My throat felt a little scratchy, but not like I was swallowing razor blades or anything. My symptoms all zeroed in on my nasal passages not actually part of my nose or throat. Right under my eyes and behind my nose, I felt like somehow, a deflated basketball had snuck in there and then inflated. I felt as if my brain was trying to ooze out my ears. My neck hurt like a mofo everytime I tried to turn my head. My head itself felt like it weighed 50 pounds and was impossible to hold up or move. My ears popped and crackled everything I even thought about swallowing or moving my jaw.

Tuesday night, I was feeling better (read: no fever), but as all the congestion in my sinus cavities started to finally loosen, I would cough up, what I described to James as, “bloody pieces of my brain.” It looked that way, and it felt that way, and since more dark green bloody spew the size of my top ring finger knuckle got spat out into the sink and shower this morning, I decided that even if I was feeling a bit better, I should probably seek professional assistance. I mean, if it IS my brain, I certainly don’t want to lose any MORE of it into the sink. I know though, that it’s not my brain, it’s nasty infected horribly compacted mucus that has set up it’s home in my sinuses (sinusi? sini?). However, it’s much more fun to point at the sink and exclaim, “MY BRAIN! THAT WAS THE PART THAT CONTROLLED MY ESP!”

Ahem. Sorry about that. I hope you weren’t eating or anything.

I got myself to a doctor this morning. I now have antibiotics, nasal spray, narcotic laced cough syrup for nighttime, and the label “sinus infection” to use on friends and colleagues in order to derive pity for my sad sorry state.

I just hope I stop horking up pieces of my brain.

In other not so good news, I’ve now used up all my sick time for the year and have started on vacation time. Yippee!

Saturday night at dinner, I made a big pot of broccoli for James and I, and planned on forcing the kids to have a bite too. I decided to wait until they wanted something yummy, and then pull the old, “after you’ve had a bite of broccoli” trick. Bribery and treats when eating vegetables are involved is the only way to go. Hell. Not even just vegetables. ANYTHING new.

I’m happy to say that after chipping away at Ethan’s stubborn refusal to eat ANYTHING that looks suspicious and foreign by eating it in front of him and making him taste it with cake and cookies for dessert as the reward, we have finally had success.

Unfornately I nearly wasn’t able to enjoy it because I about had a heart attack from the shock.

So I was happily eating my broccoli, when Jocelyn asked if she could have “a little tree broccoli.” It’s the first time she’s asked for it, but she’s eaten some before with little persuasion needed. This was a little shocking though, and it’s a good thing it happened, because maybe it helped cushion what was to come. “Sure,” I said, and handed over a little tree.

“Mommy,” Ethan asked politely, “could I have some broccoli please?”

My heart stopped. I mean STOPPED. But I kept moving my knife and fork the way I had already been moving it. I kept my eyes on my plate instead of letting them fly in shock from my son to my husband back to my son. I schooled my voice to keep a normal tone as I replied, “Sure,” in the same way I had said it to Jocelyn. I ignored the sharp tingling pain moving down my arm.

My. Son. Asked. For. Broccoli.

We did nothing, NOTHING to upset the precariousness of the situation. We remained totally blase through the actual experience, we didn’t even exchange a knowing look. Acknowledging a miracle, even to each other, may have forced the space-time continuum to jump back into alignment and then Ethan would have said, “Broccoli? BLECH! NEVER! I WILL NEVER! NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRR!!! This mouth? Never gonna open.” It wasn’t until an HOUR after they were safely IN BED that I freaked out about it. I yelped and screamed and had a major cow to James. He looked at me in confusion until I managed to spit out, “BROCCOLI! HE ASKED FOR BROCCOLI!” and then he joined in the cow birthing with his disbelief. We laughed, we cried, we sat and remembered with WONDER.

Our son. ASKED. for broccoli.

Just OPENING HIS MOUTH readily as a fork laden with broccoli soaring through the air whilst it’s holder made airplane jet noises would have been miracle enough.

HE ASKED FOR BROCCOLI.

I may never recover from the shock.

I can only say, that there is hope for everyone. If Ethan asked for broccoli, then there is hope for everyone. We have had so many fights, timeouts, even one case of spanking, over food and refusal to even try it. If my son asks for broccoli, you too, can experience this miracle. Perserverance, my friends, is key. My son is 4, and I’ve been working on him steadily for the past.. oh, 2 years, I’d say, with phrases like, “If you don’t taste it, you won’t know if you like it.” and replies like, “Ok, you only have to have 1 bite”, or “I’ll make you something else, but you have to try that first.” or “OK, you don’t have to eat any of it, but then you won’t get a cookie for dessert,” or “no yogurt until you have 1 bite,” (to the statement, “BLECH THAT LOOKS GROSS.” or “YUCK, PEAS, I HATE PEAS.” or “CHICKEN?!? NOT IN NUGGET FORM?!? I’D RATHER CHEW MY OWN ARM OFF.” or “I MIGHT DIE IF I PUT THAT IN MY MOUTH!” or “I WILL NEVER, NEVER EVER CHANGE MY MIND! EEEEEEEEVEEEERRRR!”)

Seriously. Hell? It must be might cold down there about now.

Not only because my son asked for broccoli.

And then he ate it.

things i have done this weekend:

• went for weekly weigh in at jenny craig (oh. gee. did i forget to mention that i joined jenny craig? whoopsies.) Down a total of 7 lbs.
• bought and set up my first ever grow lights. (this link also filled in some blanks in my head on why my seedlings didn’t do so wonderfully last year. I thought leggy meant “needs transplanting to bigger container” but really, my long leggy seedlings needed LIGHT! GLORIOUS LIGHT! which is now remedied!)
• started the following seeds:
  • lettuce (2 plants)
  • broccoli (4 plants)
  • squash (2)
  • zucchini (2)
  • cucumber (2)
  • african sunflowers (8 i think)
  • impatiens (10ish, from self harvested seeds
  • petunias (10ish, also from self harvested seeds
  • and last, Ethan and Jocelyn planted a sunflower each in their own little yogurt container
• the big big omission in this list is TOMOTOES. THOSE are the ones I really really want every summer. However, alas, I looked hither and yon, but could not find my tomato seeds anywhere 🙁 I’ve quite liked the sweetie cherry tomators I’ve planted the last 2 years, and this year I want to add a beefsteak plant, which are the big beefy tomatoes good for sandwiches, and a san marzano plant, which yields less juicy tomatoes that are supposed to make excellent sauce, and a heritage Brandywine, just ’cause. I’m going to have to hie me down to Lowes and get some tomato seeds. STAT! I’m not sure where all these plants are going (aside from the flowers) but i’ll figure it out sometime 🙂
• Planted some peas into the actual GROUND. it seems so shocking!
• went through and sorted both kids’ mountain of last summer clothes and outgrown winter clothes into keep, give away, and put away in the keepsake box piles. Ethan keepsake clothes: 2 3T shirts that were some of his favorites, one with construction machines on it. Jocelyn keepsake clothes: um… about 5 sweet little sundresses/skirts/shirts that are just SO CUTE that I wish she could stay that size forever MY BABY WAH ok finished with that moving on. faint twinges of guilt on being ho hum on the ethan clothes and totally teary eyed on the jocelyn clothes BUT THEY’RE JUST SO CUTE AND MY BABY GIRL IS SO BIG NOW WAAAAAAH. ok, the moving on obviously didn’t work.
• put away all of the leftover clean clothes from the laundray marathon LAST weekend that didn’t get put away.
• did a marathon of laundry
• put away all the laundry
• made many trips to lowes & target
• took jocelyn to her 3 year doctor’s checkup (she’s good. 97th percentile for just about everything)
• went out to brunch with the family
• cleaned cleaned cleaned cleaned the INSANELY messy main level, including vacuuming, and INCLUDING MOPPING THE KITCHEN FLOOR OMGWTFBBQ.
• played soccer with Jocelyn (that girl is going to be a STAR someday, mark my words
• talked to my mom for about 2 hours on various items including our upcoming trip to utah at the end of may. did i forget to mention that? oh yeah. we’re going to utah. over memorial day, for about 10 days. going to do some CAMPING! with lots and lots of my family! Ethan and Jocelyn are both going on and on about their cousins, whom I’ve posted pictures of on the fridge to help jog their memories. Ethan can’t wait to see the “other kids” and Jocelyn is sure that Clara will play dress up with her. I’m pretty sure she’s right. ooohhh i’m so excited. Going to need to buy luggage. Flying with 2 children. Have never done that. Should be interesting.
• gotten a sinking, taunting “you’re going to be sick tomorrow” feeling from the throat area which ijust came over me. it’s using a sing-song voice, too. wah. i used up too much sick time during all the back/carpel tunnel crap. guess i’d better go to bed.

Are you tired yet? Because it’s 10:30pm Sunday night, and I’m fuckin’ tired. and I think I’ve forgotten some stuff.

g’night series of tubes and tunnels!