Life With Frenchie

With buying Christmas gifts for MM and EP, that is. I all of a sudden realize I don’t know what to do! Well, I’ve got some stuff listed for MM:

• Nintendo DS (EP & I are still discussing this one)
• DVDs (3)
• Outfits (2)
• iTunes $$
• Books
  • A real dictionary. Her current one is a kid’s dictionary and frequently doesn’t have the words she’s asking us to spell.
  • The Daring Book for Girls
• Jewelry Box (already purchased on clearance)
• Jewelry (earrings & necklace set already purchased)

I need more little things now to fill in and for stocking stuffers. I’m just not sure what. EP doesn’t want her to get things like lip gloss, so that’s out. I’m thinking maybe lotions and powders or bath items.

As for EP, I’m at a loss, and since he browses the blog, I’m not listing my thoughts on what I would like to get him. No cheating EP!!

What are you guys giving? Anyone have suggestions for a 10-year-old girl who’s outgrown “toys”??

Stumble it!

It’s been a very busy 3 days for me. This year, we decided to spend our holidays here in Florida and do a little less traveling. We didn’t cut it out completely, but we decided that we didn’t want to spend our entire holiday driving all over the place. El Presidente’s grandparents live across the state and Grandpa is not doing so well, so we headed over there to spend the day with his family. But, of course, it could not be just a relaxing trip cause that would be downright un-American to have a holiday where you rested!

We were on the go from pretty much Wednesday. Along with EP’s Aunt and Uncles, we were all responsible for various parts of dinner, so I prepared a cake and sweet potato souffle Wednesday night along with doing laundry and running last minute errands. MM helped with the laundry and the cake (especially licking the bowl clean!). EP did his part by getting in 18 holes of golf and hitting the bed by 7:30 because he had a headache! We headed out early the next morning and spent the day cooking and playing musical countertops at his grandparents’ house as 5 adults attempted to put together a Thanksgiving meal. I’d say we were all on our feet from about 10:30 AM until we ate around 2:30. Again, after an extremely delicious and filling meal, we were all on our feet making sure the kitchen was clean so as not to leave anything for Nana to do. Of course, you know strong, independent women! There’s no telling them “no”, so she was there by our side making sure all dishes were washed, dried, and put away.

After dinner was had, and things were cleaned up, we sat down around Grandpa and enjoyed such a nice evening with the most wonderful people! Grandpa is not doing well these days and he was home for the day, taking a break from the rehab center he’s living at while he strengthens up his muscles and, hopefully, regains the ability to walk again. We spent several hours with Nana and Grandpa reminiscing about their lives lived all over the world. We laughed and we joked. It was truly an honor and pleasure being invited to spend this holiday with EP’s family. Even though it was only the second time that I have had the chance to meet everyone that was there this Thanksgiving, it felt like I had been a part of the family for years. Nana gave me a tight hug as we loaded up the car and Uncle made promises to MM that there was a paddle with her name on it waiting for her on her next visit.

Today, we did not get much more rest. EP and I headed to Target, at a decent hour, to check out some of their deals. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you’re my wallet), the deal we wanted was all sold out, so we scooped up a couple of DVDs to add to MM’s Christmas presents and headed home. After an hour or so of rest, MM and I headed out to gift wrap for our Girl Scout troop’s fundraising. Lucky me…I got to spend another 5 hours on my feet!

Now, it’s nearly 11 PM and I’m doing my best to do justice to the past 3 days that I got to spend with my family - both old and new. MM is off at a friend’s house for the night and, surprise, EP is in bed. Actually, he did all the driving and was on his feet all day yesterday and now he’s concerned he may have plantar faciitis, so he’s more than earned his rest. Me? I’m restless and still have a lot to do this weekend, so of course I’m staying up late!

 I am very happy with the wonderful Thanksgiving holiday that I got to spend with my family. I hope that you all had a great holiday, too!

Stumble it!

Halloween, that is! Well, Halloween came, and went. All in all, I’d say we had a good Halloween in our house.

After our pumpkin carving fun Sunday, we bought MM her costume for this year. Yes, I’m one of those parents that waits until the last minute! I didn’t even buy the candy until I was headed home yesterday evening. Anyways, we ended up at Target, which is where we began about a week earlier but I refused to spend $30 on a kid’s costume! Between the bookend trips to Target, we also visited iParty and some random Halloween shop across from the mall. Costumes were no cheaper there! So, where was I? Oh yeah, Target. One thing I discovered is that MM no longer fits into kids’ costumes. Even the ones that may have fit were not going anywhere near her body! There was no need for a child to be wearing something that tight and revealing. We moved over to the adult aisle. Now the dilemma was to find something both age-appropriate and size-appropriate. Oh, and lest we forget, cheap! We settled on a Twister costume. With the 30% sale, it was less than $20. VICTORY! I really wasn’t expecting much in way of excitement over the costume, but it turned out to be a hit– particularly among the “older” crowd.

The “big event” itself was also great. MM had a friend over from school and we set out with our neighbors and their kids. Normally, I wouldn’t consider our neighborhood of about 250 homes big. But, once you have to walk it and stop at every house, and then some, it becomes ginormous! Several of the kids had to dump their pumpkins out into Target bags multiple times. I’d say that the kids did very well. I, on the other hand, was beat! Today has been the longest day of my life. I’m glad this only happens once a year and hopefully, next year, MM can go out on her own.

Stumble it!

Anyone who’s known me for any length of time (like 5 minutes) knows that I am not the “arts & craft” type of mom. I break into a cold sweat whenever I get near a pair of scissors and glue! Well, this weekend MM and I attended a Publix Apron’s Cooking School and carved a pumpkin.

If I ever carved a pumpkin as a young child, I don’t remember it. After yesterday’s experience, I’m suspecting it is one of those suppressed memories. You know, when something so awful happens to you, you just completely put it out of your mind? Pumpkin carving would definitely fit into that category!

I knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t even cut the hole in the top of the pumpkin. After a good 5-minute struggle (and plenty of looks of pity from the surrounding families in their “cute” matching jack-o-lantern t-shirts), the top was finally off. Who knew that was the easy part?? Before we could even begin carving, we had to gut the pumpkin. I am not exactly the dainty type, but cleaning out the inside of this pumpkin nearly made me gag!I think that took us another 30 minutes alone. But, finally, we (read I) prevailed and Mr. Pumpkin had innards no longer.

Oh wait? You mean that’s not the end??? Nope! Apron’s was nice enough to provide us (included in our $40 fee) with a pumkin carving stencil kit. MM and I settled on a lovely window scene. There was a cat sitting next to a jack-o-lantern with a spider hanging down. It had a “2 pumpkin” difficulty rating. Piece of cake! Little did I know that meant “master carver”! Still, we forged ahead.

As with any carefully planned outing with mother and daughter….this one nearly ended in tears - MINE! The annoy– er, I mean lovely– families with their matching clones were busily creating masterpieces. One kid was busy prancing about announcing that, whilst I was still trying to tape the stencil to our pumpkin, his family had actually finished carving theirs (I figured out what the guts of the pumpkin were meant for!). Nevermind the annoying munchkins, MM & I had work to do!

After carefully marking the outline of our carving we actually began to cut. Carefully, I cut through the detail and sawed out the first part of a window pane. I pushed on the piece to let the light through and…NOTHING HAPPENED! Nobody told us that it was nearly impossible to actually get the pieces to come out of the pumpkin! Still, we forged ahead!

It took quite a while, and I don’t think my fingers will ever be right again, but we managed to get our pumpkin carved and we weren’t the last ones there! The cat actually looks like a cat. Our jack-o-lantern within the jack-o-lantern looks snaggled tooth, even for a jack-o-lantern. And can you call a spider a spider if it doesn’t have eight legs???

Well, we managed to get it home without dropping it and it is now sitting proudly by our front door.

What did I learn from this experience? I’m promptly converting to whatever religion does not endorse pumpkin carving for Halloween!

Stumble it!

So, last night was the Fall Festival at my daughter’s , henceforth referred to as MM (Mini-Me), school. I got roped into volunteering. Wisely, I chose to volunteer for set up duty. I ended up selling tickets during the first half hour of the festival. They sold tickets at $0.50 each, or 22 for $10. During the 30 minutes that I worked, we turned in $300 in $20 bills TWICE. This does not count the $1s, $5s, or $10s that we had in the cash box. This also does not include the “bouncies” that had their own ticket table at $5 per wristband! Methinks the school brought in quite a bit of money last night!

As a part of the festival, they also had a theme basket Chinese Auction, food, and talent show. MM participated in the talent show and played her guitar. Unfortunately, my camera is still new, so my picture of MM did not turn out all that well, but I still caught her performance for posterity.

I am very proud of her! She did very well! She has been playing guitar for little over two years now. We recently bought her a new, full-size guitar and she’s moved up to combining chords and notes. For her piece, she played My Country ‘Tis of Thee. She was a bit nervous, but still — she did a great job. GO MM!!!

As for the “food” at the festival, it left much to be desired! I was very happy to see that they had pretzels for sale since that is one of my most favoritist foods! I was, to say the least, disappointed when I was handed a soggy, still frozen in the middle, pretzel in exchange for my coveted 3 tickets! I had to settle for sharing some stale nachos and melted, processed cheese. The saving grace was the cotton candy for 1 ticket! We should have brought out the wallets and paid for the cash food - pork BBQ sandwiches and hot dogs. It was at least provided by a local restaurant.

 The games and “rides” were the typical school carnival fare - toss the bean bag into a variety of different holes, guess how many <insert item here> are in the bottle, fish for the prize, mini-golf. The best were the Roller Racers! My boyfriend (El Presidente - I’ll explain later!) and I even got in on the act!

All in all, it was a great night and a surprisingly fun start to the Halloween season!

Stumble it!