In not sure what it is, but, lately RT has gotten quite chatty. The only problem with this new found "chattiness' is that it takes place at 4am.

As you may recall from many of my posts, for some reason, I wake up in the middle of the night.  I don't physically get up out of bed.  I just stay in bed and try to get back to sleep.  RT realizes I must be awake if I get up to go to the bathroom.  (I'm awake, but, sometimes tired enough to (maybe) fall back asleep).  RT doesn't see it that way.  He just starts talking to me.  It's like he's been waiting all night for me to wake up so he can talk to me.

I don't want to be rude.  I just want to get a little more sleep.  I try to mumble something, like I'm half asleep.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.  Unfortunately, my big dreams of falling back to sleep are broken, and I am wide awake until I finally roll out of bed.

You know me, I love a good conversation, but, not in the middle of the night when I still have a good few hours to sleep.

The lack of sleep makes me tired earlier in the evening.  Going to bed earlier would be nice, then I can catch up on the lost sleep.

Or, maybe RT can just have these conversations with me during my awake hours.

"Yes, officer, I realize I was speeding, but, I just picked my son up from basketball and he waits until he gets to the car to release his gas.  My car smells like a big fart.  I wanted to get home and breathe some fresh air.  I figured driving fast with the windows down would help get some fresh air in the car and get me home to safety faster."

Doesn't this happen to everyone?

I had a parent meeting at school.  Nothing bad.  It was for parents of the basketball players.  Yes.  Alex made the basketball team.  #proudmom

Alex asked me to bring his back pack to school so he could work on homework while I was in the parent meeting.  I thought nothing of it, until I tried to lift the bag.  I casually grabbed it and tried lifting and almost pulled my back out.  He claims it was his Algebra book.   I don't think an Algebra book can weigh THAT much.

I think he loaded it up with rocks before he left.

Bella has been asking me for candy (from her Halloween stash).  Yes, she still has some Halloween candy left.  I'm nice and say OK, even though I know she probably already has had a few pieces to eat.  She always denies sneaking candy.  Never mind the candy wrappers laying all over the floor of her room.

Today I was cleaning under the couch cushions and along with the quarter and comb I found, there was a bunch of candy wrappers.  I had to move the couch to make sure she didn't hide any under there.  The last time I moved the couch (oh, less than a week ago) there were quite a few wrappers.
Bella denied that the wrappers were hers.

OK, lets think about this for a minute.  Alex drops his empty wrappers on the floor of his bedroom right by his bed.  Nick didn't have any candy.  If he did, he would throw the wrapper in his wastebasket.  RT throws out his empty candy wrappers (he has a couple hidden stashes of candy that he doesn't think I know about).  If I have candy, I throw the wrapper out.  If the dogs got into the candy (which doesn't usually happen) they would just eat the wrapper. That leaves only one person that could be responsible for all of the empty wrappers laying around the house.

I should be a detective.

Even with all of this information, Bella would still deny any part of the candy and the empty wrapper and storm off yelling about how life is so unfair and she is always blamed.

So, to avoid all of the drama, I just clean the empty candy wrappers up and move on.

Birthday Beach Bash

Yes.  It's November.  Which means only one thing.  Bella's Birthday Party!

This year's birthday party theme was a Beach party.  Yes.  She should have been born in the summer, her favorite season.

For the party invitations, (I free handed) a flip-flop.  I typed out the party information, making sure that it was centered, and cut it out into the shape of a (smaller) flip flop.  I used two pieces of ribbon (maybe 2-2.5" long, each) as the straps and secured them at the top (for the toes) using a foam heart.  I made them so that they will fit inside a regular envelope.

The wording (and card idea) I found on a card on the Internet.

Please flip-flop, run or hop, surf or dash to Bella's Birthday Beach Bash.
When:
Where:
RSVP:
Beach attire encouraged

(turns out it was about 40F here...great weather for beach attire, huh?)

Our first activity was a craft (of course).  We decorated tote bags.  I had a few large foam stamps and bought some fabric paint and let the girls decorate their bag.  They brushed on the fabric paint (onto the stamp) using a foam sponge and then stamped their bag.  To keep it simple, I just designated a color for each stamp.  This eliminated the need to wash the stamp when one of the girls wanted to use a different color paint on the stamp.  I think in the end, they were mixing the colors (which looked pretty cool).

We played your usual beach birthday games.  Limbo, freeze dance, hula dancing*, (yes, we learned the hula) and the macarena.   We had a beach ball, which turned into a game of tossing the ball to each other.  With the music playing, I don't think they cared what they were doing, they were just having fun.

*I watched a few YouTube videos and learned a few basics for hula dancing.  It's pretty easy to learn.  I'm not a professional after a few viewings, but, maybe with practice?  Nah, it will never happen.

The girls loved doing the limbo.  I think we did this several times.  And, the Macarena was a HUGE hit.

Cupcakes:  Blue frosting (for the water) with a shark, ground up graham crackers (put them in the food processor until fine) for sand (island/beach) and a palm tree.

Decorations:  I had Bella make some signs to put up around the basement.  I wasn't feeling well and, figured that it's her party, let her help make the decorations, right?  Our signs:

No Lifeguard on Duty:  Swim at your own risk

Shark area

No Diving  Shallow area

Snorkeling area

We also put up our flower chain.  I cut out millions of flowers and taped them onto a ribbon that RT hung throughout the basement (and kitchen).

Goody bags:

The usual girly stuff.  Small bottle of nail polish (gotta have cute toes on the beach), a sparkly head band (gotta hold the hair back when catching those rays), sunglasses (need those too) and a flip flop note pad (found that one at Orientaltrading.com).  Oh, and I made some little flower hair clips.  I found the flowers at Dollar Tree, cut the wire stems and hot glued them onto little clips (purchased at Michael's).  

Breakfast started off with me burning my toast. 

We had game night at work and a few of us were playing a game called Xoom Cubes (pronounced, "Zoom Cubes").  I love games with letters/words.  Probably the reason why my family refuses to play Banana grams with me (I beat the pants off them every time).

Anyway, we decided to play 5 letter words.  The first round, my manager grabs the flag and says, "zoom."  One of my co-workers (who isn't playing) reads the words and says, "Is teets a word?"  The rest of us burst out laughing.  The manager said that the word is "teeth."  (she was using a wild card as the letter  "h."

The next round we went with two four letter words.  My manager won again.  One of her words was, "buns."

I think, "teets" and "buns" is all that we will remember when explaining the game to customers.

Parent of the Year

Apparently I won't be winning Parent of the Year this month.

I was out running errands all morning and got home after 12:00pm.  I decided to eat lunch.  I opened the refrigerator and realized that Bella forgot her lunch.  She eats lunch at 11:15am.  It was too late to bring it to school.  I wondered why no one called.  There were no calls to my cell phone.  I checked the home phone and Bella left two messages asking that her lunch be dropped off at school.

I promise to try harder next month.

I like how the dogs drink half a bowl of water. It's like they know I have to leave for work in ten minutes.