Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we wish you a very Merry Christmas!  Hope that Santa treats everyone well (I'm hoping I get the cleaning lady -- who will come everyday; a personal chef and trainer; and a new wardrobe to fit the body!)

Wall E

We just bought this movie the other night and already, the kids have probably convinced us to play it 3 or 4 times. No, they don't watch the entire thing...but is has played in the background as the kids play.

I haven't really watched it. I missed the first part of it, but last night, when the kids were watching it and I walked into the second half of the movie, I found myself tearing up at how cute this robot was and the emotions he had towards the other robot, Eve.

Now this made me think one of two things: a) I'm overly sensitve and can really connect with characters, real or robotic, thereby allowing my inner feelings to expel from my heart in the form of tears or, 2) I'm starting menopause at at 31. What the deuce, people? Can I not watch ONE show, ONE movie, ONE commercial without wanting to cry? What is wrong with me?

But I think the best part of the movie, is actually hearing Ronan ask for it.

"Wall Wee" = Wall E

"Momma, I wah Wall Wee?" = Momma, can I please watch Wall E?

"Wall Wee, Pea?" = Put the damn movie in mom, I need to watch Wall E, please.

Gotta love it.

Now, I have to go, back to crying about a robot wanting to hold another robot's hand, even though they don't really have hands. Do robots even have feelings? And why does Wall E give puppy dog eyes? He shouldn't even have eyes. Robots don't have eyes. Or do they? I don't know.

A convo with Riley

Me: Hey Riley, did you know that the Victoria's Secret fashion show was on last night when you were sleeping?

Riley: Awesome! Uhhhh, what's a fashion show?

Me: It's when these girls come out and model the latest fashions for a certain designer or store.

Riley: Cool. Were you in it?

Me: No, Riley, I wasn't. I was home watching it.

Riley: (Silent and staring at me like I had three heads.)

Okay, so let's just rewind and evaluate this conversation. Me, in a fashion show? Ha ha. And not just any fashion show, a VS one. Right. I mean, I guess it IS feasible...if I were like 9 inches taller, 25 pounds lighter, had abs that weren't in the shape of Michelob Ultra beer bottles and could walk in heels on glittery gravel in front of millions of people. It's not completely unrealistic.

I know y'all are laughing right now.

And the menu continues to expand...

That's right, friends, Ronan had a veggie AND a fruit...all in one homemade muffin. I baked it. Can you believe it? It's got carrots and apples in it and he ate it. Got the recipe from the Disney Family Cookbook.

He ate two in one day and now has taken a break...but it's better than nothing, right?

Holidays don't always bring out the best...

I have learned that abruptly since I started working at Victoria's Secret.

I know how frustrating retail is for people. I know how frustrating shopping can be, too...I mean let's face it, I'm still a consumer despite the fact I stand behind the register at VS. But, I'm also human and the lowest stump on the totem pole at that store, so I do as I'm told. I don't make the rules there, I follow them.

As the holiday season started on "Pink" Friday, it was clear to me that the economic hardships people are facing have come through by how they treat others. We are all suffering in some way. But do I take it out on some stranger in a store? No.

We can't combine coupons. I'm sorry. We just can't. Every coupon states that it cannot be combined with any other discount, special promotion or offer. Yet, 7 out of 10 clients will come up and try to combine their coupons and when I tell them I can't, they literally throw fits and demand that all their items be rung up individually. All 20 items. I have learned to grin and bear it.

I can't say that the first dozen customers who have yelled at me and talked to me as if I were a piece of shit didn't hurt my feelings. I would turn my back to grab a bag and bite my tongue to fight back the tears. Who are they to tell ME what to do and how to do it? I get my direction from the managers there and personally, I'd like to keep my job and not lose it because some PMS-crazed woman couldn't get a free pair of panties with all 8 of her transactions. One pair of free panties per day, lady. Get over it, it's underwear and bras.

But it didn't stop there. If you have read my blog, you know a couple of friends and I started a side-business making cards/albums. It's going well...staying relatively steady. I decided to put an ad in Riley's school newsletter, hoping to drum up some new clientele. We had a bite. A lady contacted us via e-mail wanting a "sticker book." Long story short, we sent emails back and forth and agreed upon an album for the same price we quoted for the sticker book, $45. To you, it might sound steep, but after the cost of products and time, we were essentially giving her this album at a net loss. After explaining to her that due to the price, we were going to have to be very basic with the pages (and I provided her a sample picture), she didn't appear pleased and wanted more embellishments. It wasn't going to happen for that price.

So, with lots of consideration and collaboration, we opted to pass on the project and professionally declined via email to this customer. She became irate and composed an extremely rude email and actually threatened to take out an ad in the newsletter (if she saw another one of mine) and tell everyone how awful we were.

I was shocked. And when I say that, I mean that I really felt sick to my stomach and couldn't believe that someone would actually get that angry and vindictive over PAPER. If you know me, you know that I don't turn down anything. I'm a "yes" person. Even if it means sacrificing time, I will do everything I can to help anyone. So, even this was hard for me to do...and now I know why it was the best thing for me to do. I would've never made this woman happy...and I probably would have never gotten my money for making it.

What's scary is that she walks among us somewhere...her step-daughter goes to Riley's school and I have no idea what she looks like. For all I know, she could be standing right next to me when I pick Riley up at school. It's just repulsive that someone could be so vulgar and over nothing of huge importance. It's a scrapbook. It's not a mortgage payment or a traffic violation. It's paper and glue. Chill out, right?

But the big thing is that all this reminded me of how I want to live my life each day. Do I want to spread that negative energy all over? Absolutely not. The actions of these idiots just reiterates to me how I need to be a good example for my kids that we must respect each other. And if you don't like someone, you don't need to torture them...just take a deep breath, turn around and walk away.

I could end this post with a deep thought or quote, but I can't think of any good ones. I know Shelley mentioned something about 'silence being golden' or something about an owl and being wise and not talking or something like that. See, I told you, I can't think of one. So just know that maybe when you are shopping this holiday season and someone frustrates you, before you tear them a new one, think about what kind of example you are being for others and know that it isn't their fault they can't combine coupons and give away free panties all the time because it's only until supplies last.

Our Riley...

I'm her mom, so I guess I'm biased, but man...she's so pretty...
She's been so photogenic since the first day she was born...and it hasn't changed. I wish she wasn't so shy so she could do some modeling and make us the big bucks. Haha.

Instead, we are currently rearing her to be a plastic surgeon. She says she wants to be an artist or a teacher or a person who bakes cakes. We tell her that plastic surgeons ARE artists. She isn't quite convinced of that just yet.

But man, don't you just love that face of hers?

Poor Poor Baby...

Ronan's birthday, part two:

After we returned to Shades of Green for the night, we all hopped into bed for some much needed sleep. I awoke to a scorching pair of tiny, sized 7 toddler, feet on my back. In my haze, I reached for Ronan's forehead and he was burning up. The little man had a fever. I didn't have my thermometer, but if I could estimate, he was probably close to 102 degrees, if not warmer.

Lucky for me, I had a bottle of Infant Tylenol in my bag and gave him a dose (of what he would swallow because now, he likes to spit everything out) and fortunately, within an hour his fever broke.

As soon as we woke in the morning, I called the pediatrician and made our appointment for that morning. We had to leave Disney right after feeding the Koi fish to make it back for Ronan's doctor appointment. Turns out he has/had croup.

They checked his oxygen levels and they were not where they needed to be, so they made us nebulize him in the office...


So sad.

The treatment didn't bring the level up fast enough, so he was given an antibiotic steroid injection -- within 10 minutes, his levels went up and we were free to go home. What a way to spend the day after your birthday, huh?

He's getting better, I guess. The doc said his fever would be on and off for the next few days. Well, it's onto the 5th day and his fevers keep coming back. Doesn't help that he refuses any medication. But now, he's peacefully asleep and hopefully within the next day or so, he'll be rid of the fevers altogether.

Buddha Bear turned the big TWO...

That was then....(December 4th, 2006 and mid-December, 2006)

And this is now: (December 3rd, 2008, at Pump It Up and December 4th, 2008 at Magic Kingdom.)

We started Ronan's birthday celebration by hosting a party for 20, I mean 19, I mean 15, I mean 9 of Ronan's closest friends (the list deteriorated from 20 that morning to 9...how 'bout that!) at Pump It Up of Brandon. We decided to have it there because we knew Ronan would have a blast and that it was the safest place for him to play. Not only is it just bouncy houses and slides, but they have their parties set-up so that it's just YOUR party in a room during a set amount of time and it's virtually impossible to misplace your kid...unlike at Chuck-E-Cheese where when you turn your head, your kid is gone (or asking you for a handful of tokens!)

What was awesome about this party was that when I say Ronan's friends came, I really mean it )mind you, all were girls except for one and Ronan!) Everyone that came was someone that actually cares about Ronan and that he loves right back. It was great to have our "family" there to see the little dude having fun, all while having fun (or sweating their butts off) themselves!

Joni and Shelley made it to the celebration and from what I was told...Joni made a trip down one of the slides...I think you have to see Shelley's blog for the proof!

The biggest flop of the night wasn't Ronan or Riley flying off the slide, it was the fact that when the party was ready to move to the pizza room, they didn't have our pizza ready! Mind you, it was almost 8 p.m. and we were all starved from jumping around and not having had dinner yet...so we waited about 10 minutes before it came. Apparently the Pizza Hut next door forgot to put in our order! Anyway, Ronan opened his presents...or should I say, I opened his presents and then we chomped on pizza -- Ronan only ate the crust -- and cookie cake! [If you aren't sure why we didn't do traditional cake, it's because last year, we found out Ronan has allergies to the icing...]

We got a rare family photo that night... and here's a picture of all the kids that made it (and passed out on the way home, I'm sure!)

And then the next day, we decided that we would head over to Disney and check out the Christmas lights they had up. Because of my poor planning (or misreading of the Disney calendar), we ended up having to buy tickets for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Although it was an added expense we weren't planning, it was worth every penny. We sat for the parades, stopped in our tracks for the fireworks, and took the lighting of Cinderella's Castle in. Absolutely breathtaking. Looking at it that night, it was definitely our Disney dollars at work. I have never seen such a sight.

We stayed at Shades of Green and they had a beautiful tree that I will peg as our own. (I have no picture of our tree at home, so for those that want to see it, this is what it would look like):

During the day, we stopped at Downtown Disney and Ryan took a cute picture of the three of us...wish Ryan was in it, though...

And here is our little dude completely exhausted from the festivities...

Oh, oh, oh...I completely forgot to mention...

We had the chance to eat at CINDERELLA'S ROYAL TABLE! I know what you are thinking...whoopdie doo. But anyone who knows about Disney, knows how hard it is to get a reservation there. Most people who know they want to eat there, call 180 days in advance and even then, aren't guaranteed they can get in.

As we were walking by, Ryan joked that we should eat there. I said to him, "you should just go up and see if we can get in. I know we won't, but might as well ask." He happily obliged, thinking we would have no chance at all of getting a table. BUT, I crap you not, the girls at the desk said there was a cancellation and we could get seated right away. I have to tell you, I didn't believe them. I stood there with my mouth wide open in complete shock. Could it be that we would get to see Cinderella?! I asked the girls if they were joking and whether or not we were on Candid Camera. They assured me we weren't and off we were...into the Castle for dinner and a meeting with the Princess herself...

They gave us a photo they took and once I get it scanned, I'll post it, but it was pretty awesome to be inside that Castle. The food was delicious and the Fairy Godmother (along with those cute little mice) were there for singing and dancing. It was so cool!

Ronan and Riley seemed to have a great time and guess what...we didn't buy ONE souvenier. Not one pin, not one toy, not one shirt or pen or car or crown or jewel or sword...nothing. Our souveniers are the memories we have...