Irritable Blog Syndrome

I Love My Husband But...

Well we FINALLY figured out how to unlock the rest of the songs on Guitar Hero.  One of the newly unlocked songs is "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd.  When choosing that song to play Henry says "Lynyrd Skynyrd, yeah let's play that...everybody loves him."  HIM!?!?!

After 10 years together it appears I still have my work cut out for me.

Slave Driver

Naomi asked, no strike that, she BEGGED to wash some dishes the other day.   Of course, she is also the same child who told Henry and I that our bedroom was "really, really messy."  So I set aside a bunch of plastic stuff and let her go at it.  She was very, very thorough and really got into it.  She did take her shirt off after a while because it was getting just a tad wet.

Snow no mo'!

I'm sure our neighbors probably think we're part vampire at this point because we went out three nights in a row to play in the snow.  I am so very done with snow at this point.  I am never complaining about the rain again...well at least for this winter.

Naomi was very thrilled to have her own shovel.  Turns out it has an expandable handle.  Very clever.

Our one-eyed snowman stands about 7-feet-tall.  Why only one eye you ask?  We discovered Double-Stuff Oreos don't make good eyes.  They get soggy and fall off, but we were fresh out of coal so we made do.  The scarf is courtesy of a friend who crocheted it for me several years ago.  It was the only one we had that was long enough to go around his/her broad neck/shoulders.

Pretty right?  Well that was five days ago before the additional SIX inches or so fell, without which I acknowledge we could have never built such a huge snowman, but nonetheless I'm tired of it.  It has made everything a mess and kept me stuck at home because Henry has had to drive our van to work.  It is our only vehicle that has AWD that is actually running and/or has current tabs on it, because we're lame and forget to do those things.

The Informercial Nightmare Continues

Me:  [putting moisturizer on my face]

Naomi:  Ooooo...can I have some too?

Me:  No, this isn't my regular lotion it's a special kind just for my face.

Naomi:  OH!  You mean ProActiv?

Me:  Umm...no.

Seriously folks, it's gotten way out of hand.  She told me a few weeks ago that I should get ProActiv because I have SO MANY SPOTS ON MY FACE!!!  I then explained to her that you can't make freckles go away with medicine.

And...ANDDDDD...she is nagging me for a Snuggie.  It's a blanket contraption with arm-holes and you wrap it around your body twice and it's super warm or something like that.  Sadly, I just had to ask her what the name of it was again because I couldn't remember exactly.  She told me what it was called and that "we can get one for everyone in the family...even one for Grandma."

And don't even get me started on her passion for Pixos...

Happy Trees

Bob Ross would be so pleased.

Good Evening and Good Night

Sunday was the Winter Solstice...the longest day of the year.  I took this picture yesterday (the first "official" day of winter) and let me tell you..Monday wasn't much longer.  Behold, Washington at 4:22 p.m.

It just keeps coming!

It just keeps coming!, originally uploaded by gotanyrice.

Nose-Picking Gone Bad

So I had a massage therapy appointment today and as per normal I take the Nomster with me, portable DVD player in hand (such a lifesaver).  She sits through my appointment very quietly watching "The Aristocats" and giggling every now and then.  My massage is over and the therapist leaves the room so I can get dressed. I get off the table and glance over at Naomi...then I do the whole double-take thing. 

After what I can only assume is the result of the extremely dry air we've had for the last few days, coupled with some very vigorous nose-picking is my child...the apple of my eye...sitting there looking like she's the newest member of our local chapter of "Fight Club." 

Bloody nose is putting it lightly.  She had blood running out of her nose, down her lips and chin and onto her sweater.  She seems to have tried to use the cuffs of her sleeves at some point to attempt to stop the bleeding.  Was I upset?  Yes.  Why?  Well this is not the first, or second, or third time she has picked her nose to the point of bleeding.  She is repeatedly guilty of this and she always seems to do it in public places.  I guess I am partially to blame.  I am a "picker" as was my mother before me.  Not a picker of the nose persuasion (yeah I have never picked my nose, ever)  but just about everything else.

The aftermath:

Ka-chow!

Ok so a little background before I share this tidbit, Henry's real first name is Kyung.  His parents gave him an American name when they immigrated. 

Anyway, when I was at the mall the other day and letting Naomi play on the germ-infested playground I texted Henry about how beastie the kids were and how one kid was actual kicking other kids who climbed up onto the same toy he was on.

So Henry texts me back, "I"m just going to have to teach Naomi some 'Kyung Fu.'"

I don't care what you say, that's hilarious.

Rock Steady

Naomi has taken to Guitar Hero with a fury.  Is she good at it yet?  No.  Why?  Well she refuses to play at anything less then the expert level because she wants "all the dots" to show up on her side of the screen.  She has in the last few days though (not seen here in this video) started dancing, jumping up and down, kicking her leg in the air and turning in circles while playing. 

I was trying to figure out how/where she learned this because neither Henry or I do it while playing (we're too lazy to even stand up) and we don't sit around watching a lot of Classic VH1 or anything for her to pick it up from.  It just finally occurred to me that she's shadowing what her character on screen does.  Rock on.

A Rose is a Rose...

Friday Traffic in December

Friday Traffic in Novmber, originally uploaded by gotanyrice.

Still unsure as to why I decided to venture out so late in the afternoon.

Germ Fest

Germ Fest, originally uploaded by gotanyrice.

Public indoor playgrounds gross me out a little

I Kid You Not

For those of you who thought I might be joking about the lines at the "Midnight Madness" extravaganza/mistake, here's a picture I found on a equally crazy shoppers site of the line for the Coach store...well part of the line.  It just keeps going until its out of the picture. 

As she eloquently put it, it's one thing to stand in a huge line for possibly hours to be one of the first people into a store but it's another beast entirely to stand there and watch hundreds of people in front of you buy all the good stuff.

Adventures on Black Friday

So two of my sisters-in-law and I thought it would be "fun" to do some Black Friday shopping.  You know, just for kicks.  There is a very groovy outlet mall up north of Seattle that we chose as our target.  The supposedly coolest part about it was that it opened at MIDNIGHT.  So we left around 10:30 p.m., which gave us an hour and a half to get there (it's about an hour drive normally), find a parking spot, etc.

We didn't get there by midnight.  We didn't get there by 12:30 either.  Finally, TWO AND A HALF HOURS after leaving we rolled into a remarkably good parking spot at 1:00 a.m.  Bad traffic?  No, not really.  It took us about  the expected hour to get within a mile or so of the exit, we spent the rest of the time waiting to get off at the exit and park.  I thought I was going to die, mostly because I had drank a very large coffee before leaving and for about the last hour in the car I thought I was going to wet my pants.  Seriously.

We got into the mall (which is an outdoor mall and fortunately it wasn't raining) and it was packed...with ASIANS...teeny tiny Asians of all sorts.  I looked like an Amazon compared to 90% of the people there.  I was tempted to make my sisters-in-law carry around orange flags so I could find them if I got lost and desperate because they are Korean and petite and blend in very quickly.

So it was packed but oddly it didn't seem overwhelming, maybe because it was outdoors.  What was overwhelming was the lines.  Oh the lines!!!  There were lines just to get into some of the stores as well as to checkout.  There were lines at Disneyland that were shorter and/or moved faster.  The line to get into Banana Republic and Coach contained at least 200-300 people each.  I KID YOU NOT!

After that we proceeded to hit a Walmart and another outlet mall and got home around 8:30 a.m. looking like the walking dead.  Anyway, I have no real point to this story.  Was it an adventure?  Yes.  Was it fun?  Yes.  Will I ever do it again?  Not in a million years.

Proof I was there (note the time on the receipt):