A Few Things I'm Loving Right Now...

This Wonder Woman mug I scored at TJMaxx a few weeks ago. I'm so not a morning person but I can't help but smile (at least on the inside) when I stumble into the kitchen at dark thirty in the mornings and see it waiting for me.  

The Clarisonic Mia facial brush.  I kept hearing all these great things about it so I finally bought myself one about a month ago and love it!  It leaves my skin feeling so soft and smooth, almost like I've just had a facial. 

The Fifty Shades Trilogy by E L James that I'm currently reading on my Kindle.  I finished the first one, Fifty Shades of Grey, on Saturday and am already over halfway through the second one, Fifty Shades Darker. Very intriguing.  It reminds me of Twilight, only it's the adult version...minus the vampires and werewolves. 

Revenge on ABC.  I really did not expect to like this show starring Emily VanCamp from Brothers and Sisters, one of my favorite shows that I was upset to see cancelled last year, but I was immediately sucked in and addicted after watching the very first episode.

 Zone Perfect chocolate peanut butter bars.  I discovered these a couple of years ago but have been eating a lot more of them lately, since becoming a vegetarian.  They are one of the best tasting nutrition bars I've found and are high in protein.

Black bean burgers.  I had never even tried one before starting this vegetarian thing and was really surprised at how tasty they are.  I've made them twice already.  The first time I strictly followed this recipe but when I made them last week, I looked at a few different ones and just kinda winged it. The most amazing thing is, the boys like them! 

Kerastase Leave-in Treatment by L'Oreal for controlling "dry and rebellious hair".  I definitely have some rebellious hair and this stuff works wonders for controlling its frizz and volume.  

These hilarious e-cards people make and pin on Pinterest because I swear, it's like they were in my head when they made them...

  

If You Give a Mom a Break...

If you give a mom a break, chances are she's going to want a Diet Coke.


When she walks into the kitchen to get herself one, she will notice that someone has left the milk out.  


She will yell, "WHO LEFT THE MILK OUT?!"  but of course she will get no answer and will put the milk back in the refrigerator.  


When she opens the refrigerator, a bottle of red Gatorade that was crammed inside with the lid half off will come tumbling out and spilling all over the kitchen floor.  


She will mutter some words under her breath that would make a sailor blush as she cleans up the sticky Gatorade off her just recently cleaned kitchen floor.  


While she is down there cussing and cleaning the floor, one of the wiener dogs will scratch on the door wanting back in the house.  


When she goes to let him in, she sees that he has been digging AGAIN so she will take him to the boys' bathroom to give him his 15th bath for the week.  


After she bathes him, she will gather up the mountain of towels on the bathroom floor to put them in the washing machine.  


She will find the washing machine full of clothes that need to be put into the dryer that she discovers is also full of clothes that need to be folded which will cause her to use all the bad words she knows, plus some she made up.  


As she is sitting on the floor in front of the dryer folding the clothes that were in there, the wet wiener dog will jump up on her to apologize for his bad behavior by licking her in the face.  


The funk of his breath will nearly make her pass out so she will get up to go into the kitchen cabinet where she keeps the dog stuff in order to get him a Greenie to freshen his stanky breath.  


When she gets into the kitchen, she remembers that she was going to have a Diet Coke.  


Just as she is pouring her Diet Coke (the last one in the house) into a cup of ice, her 8 year old will burst through the door screaming, whining, and claiming that his brother beat him up on the trampoline with her 12 year old right behind him denying any such claim. 


She will be forced to play referee for the 859th time this week while trying her best not to use any more of the four letter words.


As she is giving them the third degree, complete with jerky hand movements, she accidentally knocks her Diet Coke off the counter...


And chances are pretty good that while she's cleaning it up? She's going to be reminded that she could really use a break! 


*This post inspired by the Writer's Workshop at Mama's Losin It.

Digesting Frogs...

It's never a good feeling when your phone rings in the middle of pilates class and you look over to see that it's the school calling.  I immediately picked it up and bolted out of the room, only to have the call disconnected.  I called right back to be put on hold for what seemed like forever before the teacher finally picked up the phone.  


She said it was Dracen who had called.  He wanted to remind me that he wanted to stay after school to dissect frogs which I had indeed forgotten all about.  It was a "reward" for those students who attended the Science Academy whether or not they actually completed a project or not.


Dracen did not because I'm not one of those parents who goes all gung ho crazy over completing an optional science project for my third grader and seeing as how Dracen is a free spirit who most of the time (as Charlie would say) doesn't care which way the wind blows, it just never happened.  His intentions were good though and had it not been optional I would have been on him like white on rice to get it done but I have enough battles to fight around here as it is and I really just didn't have the energy to take on one for extra credit.


I told her that was fine and went on back in to class to discover that I had missed the entire much-needed backside toning series and when I got home there was a message from Dracen on the machine (because he'd called the house first) telling me that he would be staying after school to "digest" frogs.  


And when I picked him up at 3:30, he went on and on about how cool it was and informed me, very proud-like, that he "accidentally" cut the frog's leg off.  Ugh. I can still recall the smell of the frogs, fetal pigs, earth worms and various other preserved creatures I had to dissect in high school and college and I can assure you, I never once thought of any of it as a reward.  


The first one was a frog in 10th grade Biology class and I will never forget, as I told Dracen yesterday, the orange/yellowish stuff inside that frog that the teacher said was fat tissue and that reminded me of my all-time favorite food, Kraft macaroni and cheese, and how, for the longest time, I could not eat it without thinking about frog guts. 


He did not understand in the least how I could be grossed out by something so utterly fascinating and when Charlie got home from work he started in about the frogs again, announcing that he had digested one today and wanted to know if Charlie had ever had the privilege of digesting one himself which turned the conversation to digesting, as in really digesting, frog legs.  


And that's when I blacked out...