I hate this time of year....

As some of you may recall, I have issues.

Here I sit, watching CBS when BAM! Not only do I have to see an ad for this:



but they've made this spawn of satan's loins NEW AND IMPROVED by digitizing it and making it HD compatible. As if it's not bad enough that I got a glimpse of those creepy bastards, now they are so crystal clear, I can see each little spec of hair on their evil, evil bodies!!!!!! My eyes - MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone call Dave and tell him he can find me in the closet in the fetal position, whimpering.

Here we go....

The busiest time of the year for the Bradford family. I will survive. That's my new mantra.

So, Thanksgiving did not go as planned. My friend's baby got very sick, poor thing. They were unable to come up and we didn't find out for sure until Wednesday. I still cooked dinner on Thursday and we had a lovely pajama-filled Thanksgiving. It was actually really nice. Definitely plan on cooking again - everything went smoothly and tasted great.

I worked on Friday night and Saturday night with many tips being bestowed upon my tired, waitressing ass. I'm pleased to report that I have all the spending money I was hoping to get for my New York trip on Friday. Zack's extremely excited to go (as am I). I'm a tad worried about snow, but hey, I'll still give it a shot.

Our 8th wedding anniversary is one week from tomorrow. It is also the 10th anniversary of our first date. Wow. 10 years. I just can't believe it. Incidentally, no one cares but my stalker self, but we share an anniversary with Chris Martin & Gwenyth Paltrow. Except we've been married longer hahaha. Appropriate? Yes, I think so ;) Anyway, I think that we will go to this well-reviewed French restaurant nearby for a nice dinner alone. I booked a hotel for a one-night getaway while my mother-in-law is visiting near Xmas as a late celebration. That will be a ton of fun - we'll be staying at the same place we went back in June. Wonderful!

I've reserved the indoor soccer field for Zack's birthday. He's very excited. I still need to get some more presents for him, but so far, I'm doing well. He got to see Santa today and he did great. He spoke very clearly to Santa and let him know that he wanted "one of those cars that spin around" (these remote controlled car that he was playing with at the mall - little does he know, I have already bought one of those for him, which I got for a STEAL last week) and a "Spider-man game" (got that for him too). I'll have to make sure that I save those two for Xmas and not his birthday so he thinks that Santa was listening very closely. He's such a sweetie. I need to scan the picture for you guys to see.

So, we get back from a wonderful breakfast together and visit to the mall, just the three of us (Alex is currently on his way back from his visit to grandma in Arizona and Cassie was, of course, with her friends). Suddenly, Zack started complaining about his ear hurting. Soon enough, he's wailing and sobbing that his ear hurt. Poor baby - he was miserable. I figure he's got an ear infection - he's never actually had an ear infection before. We got him some Motrin and that seemed to take all the pain away. He's sleeping now and hasn't complained since. I'm worried aobut him though - that's so unlike him to wail and cry like that unless he's really hurting. I'll go ahead and get him in to the doctor tomorrow, even if he doesn't complain again.

Needless to say, my one day off this weekend was not as stress-free as I would have liked, but still I've had a great holiday weekend.

So now, we start the busy season - if I fail to update on a regular basis, I apologize, but know you will forgive me ;)

Why is he such a parrot?

(me talking to Dave) "Hurry up, we don't want to wait behind all these people, damn!"

(Zack) "We don't wanna wait behind da people. (long pause) And damn!"

Conversations With an Almost 4-Year-Old

"Mommy, how many more sleeps until Halloween?"

"365, honey."

(wailing) "NOOOOOOOOOOO, that's not even a real number!!!!"

***************

"Mommy, Simba's in my carseat. Tell him to get out. He's not even a person!"

***************

"Zack, flush the potty, there's pee in there"

Zack (who didn't go to the bathroom, even though he tried) "No, there's not! You're LYING!"

***************

*Listening to The Scientist by Coldplay* "Mommy, why is Coldplay sad?"

"His name is Chris Martin, honey"

"Oh, why is Chris Martin sad, mommy?"

"I don't know, because his girlfriend left, I guess?"

"Where did she go?"

"Um, I don't know?"

"To the store, probably."

*****************

"Mommy, Cassie (or Alex, take your pick) is being mean to me. Will you hit her?"

*****************

(Talking to Cassie's friend, Brandon) "Um, you don't say shut up."

"Huh?"

"Only my mommy say shut up. It's only for girls."

******************

"Mommy, I wanna go to NY with you and chill."

"Do you know what chill means?"

"It means cuddle."

******************
"Mommy, when will I be older than Alex?"

"Honey, you will never be older than Alex because he was born before you."

"I won't never be older than Alex?"

"No, sweetie."

"Oh. When I'm 15 I will be older than Alex?"

"No, honey."

"Oh. When I'm 1, I'm older than Alex."

"No, Zacky, you're 3 now."

"I'm gonna be 4 in Bezember."

"That's right, 4 in December. December what?"

"Eleventeen."

**********************

"Mommy, I don't say that bad word right?"

(confused) "What bad word, honey?"

"Fuck out the house"

Ooops. No more Six Feet Under in the background ;)

Here it comes

The busy time.

Next week is Thanksgiving. I am having an Internet friend and her kids up for the long weekend. I'm so excited to meet her and hang out. Only problem? I got the schedule from hell at The Pot. Wednesday, Friday & Saturday. She's here from Tuesday to Saturday. She's not stressed about it, Dave's not stressed about it, so I guess I shouldn't be either. I'm excited because it will be great money and I need money for my trip to NY the following weekend. I just feel bad that I will be gone basically all weekend working, then the next weekend, I will be gone to NY. But, it's ok. Alex will be in Arizona for Thanksgiving, so Dave will have an easier time with only Zack & Cassie, that's for sure.

Our anniversary is coming up quickly as well and I don't know where we will go for dinner. I need to figure that out soon. 10 years. Wow!!!!

Then is Zack's birthday and Lorena's visit. Actually, Lorena will be here the day before Zack's birthday. I feel very unprepared for Xmas and such this year. I haven't bought any presents yet, really. I know a few things that I want to get. I already got Dave's present - tickets to see Alanis Morrisette live on December 15th. He's so excited! I have a few things for Alex already and know what I'm getting Cassie. I have nothing yet for Zack and need to buy double for him since it's his birthday AND Xmas next month.

The life of a busy mom - I'll be happy when the New Year is here!

Shocking, I Know

But I'm about to talk about Coldplay again. Yup. So, they are coming back in March - I'm so excited (of course). Pre-sale tickets go onsale Monday for AMEX holders and Tuesday is the fan pre-sale. My boss's girlfriend wants me to get them tickets too. Grrrr. I'm kind of annoyed because she wants us all to sit together (she's great, I really like her) but DAMN. I think this is going to affect my ability to get better seats. Ah well, I'll figure something out.

I miss my brother like crazy.

I'm exhausted this weekend but that's because I barely got any sleep last night haha. Zack decided he didn't want to go to soccer today for some reason, so we are relaxing. I might go back to bed for a bit. Yeah, that seems like a nice idea.

Click click click

As if it's not bad enough that I STILL don't know when Coldplay is coming back, they are being cruel. They are playing a little game with their fans. Once every 33,000 click on this site, they will reveal a new tour date.

So get to clicking and help me out - I MUST see them again!!!

http://www.talkthetour.com/main.html?r=879341612

SOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that it's finally a done deal, I can post about it :)

I'm going on a weekend girls' getaway to upstate NY in December!! I'm going with some online friends, one of whom I've already met. Stacey and Kim are bringing their babies and Lumpy (no, not her real name) is bringing her 4 year old daughter, Lemon (no, not her real name). I will be bringing Zack as well - he and Lemon will have a blast!!!!! It's going to be so much fun!!!! We have rooms reserved at a night hotel (adjoining rooms) and we're going to spend the weekend Xmas shopping!! I wonder if I will be able to get away with getting a few of Zack's gifts while we're up there. We'll have to see. I love that we will have adjoining rooms. We can put the kids to bed in one room and hang in the other, watching movies and stuff.

I will leave from work on a Friday and come home on Sunday. A short trip, but it's going to be a blast. Plus, free wine tasting - yippie!!!!

I'm so excited to meet Kim and Lumpy - they are really great. I consider Lumpy to be a good friend and I can't wait to finally meet her. I so need this break, it will be such a great time.

Now, I gotta start saving my tip money to take with me!

How is it possible?

Today I got a bug up my ass. Not literally. I decided that with the impending influx of birthday and Xmas presents next month, I ought to go through Zack's toys and weed out the old ones. Once I walked in from work, I was at it.

Between the living room and his bedroom, I filled up a giant black trash bag with broken toys or crappy toys. Those went in the trash.

Then I gathered up all the toys he doesn't play with anymore. I now have a huge pile of stuff in the computer room waiting to be sifted through by a friend before it goes to the 2nd hand shop to be sold. I can't believe this kid, who is not even 4 yet, has accumulated all of this crap. How is it possible??

After a few hours of work, we now have one toybox filled with toys, instead of two, and have reclaimed our living room as the tv room, not Zack's playroom. I'm actually excited to get this stuff out of my house - I'd give it away if I had to.

I need to go through all of his clothes too. I started to, but I got half way through and felt like crying because there's still so much more to do. So, I took a break. I will finish it up tomorrow. I already have two boxes full of clothes that he's outgrown.

Right now, Dave's transfering our camcorder stuff to videotape. All of the footage is from 2004 and it's really fun to see Zack at age 2, running around. Right now, it's his 3rd birthday. Zack's sitting next to me watching himself open presents and he's all excited - it's really funny. I can't believe he's going to be 4 next month! Gotta start planning his soccer party!!!