Good Luck Red Sox!

I love the Red Sox. More than I should, but I can't help myself. When I was a little girl I used to watch the Sox with my dad and that's a memory that I will never forget. I love them because I love him. For those who don't know the Sox just barely made the playoffs. They've been making me sweat it out for 5 days now, but it's fine they're in the playoffs and they will win the World Series. There is not a doubt in my mind. My girls love the Sox too. It's not like they had a choice in this regard. We've taken them to a few games and it was great. They ask to go every year. In fact the first time we took them I think they were 5 and 9. They sat through the whole game and loved every inch of the experience. The man behind us told us at the end of the game that they were the best behaved kids he had ever seen at a baseball game. I'll tell you why Fenway Park is magical. They were good because they wanted to be there. Beckett threw a shut out and Manny Ramirez hit a home run for a 1 to nothing win. This was appreciated because it can be a bummer to got to a game and have the team lose. Luckily this was not the case. I love the Red Sox and my girls do too. So Go Sox go get us another World Series victory. We believe in you.

Laundry the Endless Nightmare

Well calling it a nightmare may be a little extreme, but it's definitely never ending. I start the day by throwing in a wash followed by another. Have to separate the lights and darks after all. When it's finished I have to fold it put it away and then iron anything that may need to be ironed. My husband's work shirts and my daughter's uniforms all need to be ironed. I get all that taken care of well for the most part sometimes I don't always get all the laundry put away immediately. I feel pretty good about myself getting all that done and then the girls come home from school. The uniforms go in the hamper and play clothes or casual clothes go on. If they have dance they have to change clothes again. Time for bed clothes in hamper PJs on. Wake up the next morning PJs in hamper uniforms on. Great they head off to school I look at the hamper and it's overflowing. The vicious cycle starts all over again. Oh and lets not forget about the day that there is another load of wash do to on "clean sheet night" which I do have to say is one of my favorite days of the week. I love getting into bed when it's "clean sheet night." The sheets smell wonderful and they're all neat and perfect. Even my girls love "clean sheet night" because they destroy their beds when they sleep at night. I go in to wake them in the morning and the sheet is on one side, blanket on the other and the comforter is pulled up over their heads. Honestly I have no idea what they do during the night. It's crazy. They are in charge of making their own beds except on "clean sheet night" when I go in and put them back together. So all hail "clean sheet night". However that means another load of laundry. Oh and let us not forget if I happen to not do laundry for a day for whatever reason then it all piles up into an endless mountain that even the best climber would be afraid to attempt. That mountain won't go away unless I make it go away. Bottom line I don't like laundry and it doesn't like me. It is an endless, endless night mare. Yeah, I changed my mind calling it a nightmare is right on the money.

Picking Out Your First Bra.

Okay here's the deal. My daughter who is now 12 has been wearing these sports bra's for the past 2 years. It's really all she's needed up to this point. She has suddenly grown over night at least it seems that way. So we had a talk about going to the mall and getting some real bra's. I was a little stressed out and I have to say she wasn't to happy about it either. We went to Aerie at the mall. I told the girl I wanted to have her measured so I could be sure we were getting the right size. She took us to the dressing room and very discretely measured her. It was definitely time for a cup sized bra. The sales girl gave us a tray of all the different styles of bras they carried at the store. It made things so easy. She tried on all the different types and there were 2 that she liked the best. I believe they were the Hannah and the Katie. The girl had said that those were the most comfortable for girls my daughters age. We then went out and she picked out the ones that she wanted. I send out my thanks to the sales girl who helped us. She was great. I would tell any mom out there that this is a great place to take young girls to get their first real bra. All and all it was a no stress experience and after all isn't that what we want. My daughter was very grown up about the whole thing. Of course she wanted one of the ribbons that they hook on the bag when you leave. They're one of her favorite things about going to Aerie. My younger daughter was given one as well and we left with smiles. I was pretty sure I was going to leave with a child telling me I'm not going to wear them but she didn't say that at all. Sometimes they surprise you and sometimes that surprise makes me realize that my little girl is growing up and I have no choice but to let her. No one ever told me how hard that would be.

Twilight Barbies!

Yes, it's true they are releasing Barbies of Bella and Edward from Twilight. I know for a fact that my tween who is 12 and really has no interest in Barbies anymore is going to want these for Christmas. She would consider these collector dolls. Two years ago she asked for a Barbie of Rose from Titanic. She is a beautiful doll and it still sits on her desk today. Honestly though who wouldn't want a miniature of Edward. I'm thinking this is going to be big around Christmas time. Many tweens still love Barbies and I know most of them are obsessed with Twilight so it's a win win in my book. They are available for preorder at Amazon.com. They're only $24.99. I'm all over this.

Fame is Great For Tweens.

I took both of my girls to see Fame last night and they loved it and so did I. I remember the original movie Fame from 1980 and even though it was rated R I saw the edited version on TV and I loved it. The music, the dancing, the characters I loved it all. I wanted to be a student at the School For Performing Arts. When I was younger I took dance class and I loved it for the most part. Dancing made me feel free and alive. I never did care for performing in front of a crowd, but I did love to dance. In fact I would go to my room and crank up the music and dance till I couldn't move. There was nothing better except maybe when my family would go out and I was by myself and could use the larger family room to let loose. Occasionally I still do it. Both of my girls take dance now and my youngest in particular was thrilled with Fame. She asked me when it was over. Mom could I be one of those kids. I said if that's really what you want, but you can see how hard it is. The movie really brought back memories. I don't think I liked it as much as the original, but never the less it was still wonderful. It showed the ups and downs of striving for your dreams. There were funny scenes and there were scenes that brought tears to my eyes. One scene in particular was a little scary. I hate to put a spoiler about the movie here but I think if you're a mom and taking your younger daughter you may want to be aware. The character Kevin who wants nothing more than to be a ballet dancer is told that he just doesn't have what it takes and in a moment of complete depression he almost jumped in front of a train. Luckily his friends were there and pulled him back in time. I was very nervous because I could see it coming so I told my 8 year old to look away. My friend who was with me looked at me like oh no. Thankfully it was only a scare because honestly I wasn't expecting anything like that with a PG rating.

The music in the movie was wonderful. The kids in it were really talented. I particularly loved Marco who was played by Asher Book. He was adorable too. My oldest daughter seemed to really relate to the Jenny character as she was shy and quiet just like her. My girls will most likely want the Fame soundtrack. I actually want to get the original Fame Soundtrack I bet they will like the music just as much as I did. Only 2 songs were the same. I have to say I was disappointed that the song Fame was only played in the credits. I was hoping someone would perform it during the movie but no such luck. The music for the most part was updated but in a good way. When looking for the soundtracks I was also thrilled to find that they now have both Fame Seasons 1 & 2 as a set on DVD. I didn't think I would ever see that show again. That may be something my girls might like to check out. All in all a great show and if you have girls that are dreamers this is the movie to take them to.

One final note. The movie starts with the best line ever by Debbie Allen. She said it in the opening credits of the 80's TV show. "You got big dreams. You want fame. Well fame costs and right here's were you start paying with sweat." I love that quote. Now I can only hope they will start a new TV series. Fingers crossed.

Is IM Okay For Tweens?

Honestly, I wrestled with this question for several months before I let my daughter use it. She was 11 at the time and I honestly didn't get the point. My thought was if you want to talk to your friend call them on the phone. A few of her friends were using it and they said it was fun but I wasn't convinced. I had been warned by a mother to stay away from it as long as possible her daughter had a very bad experience with it. Someone was saying terrible things about her daughter and caused her terrible stress. I have heard this from a few other mothers as well. The problem is that kids feel like they can say anything they want through IM. It's easy when you aren't speaking to anyone face to face. They may even be kidding but you really can't tell unless you hear someones voice or they come out and say it was a joke. Bottom line you can't take back what you type and send. I really want to protect my daughters from everything but in this case it was easily figured out. I allowed her to join with the knowledge that I would keep an eye on what was going on and if anyone said anything inappropriate to her to tell me immediately. She agreed and to be honest now that she can use it she really doesn't use it all that much. So my advice for anyone who is wrestling with this as well is just like anything else if you keep an eye on what they're doing and saying on the IM it's fine. Otherwise things can get out of hand. My daughter has heard from a few friends that girls who they thought were their friends suddenly started to say very cruel things to them on the IM. It's just better safe than sorry.

New Moon!

Unless you're living under a rock you've heard about Twilight. This series of books written by Stephanie Myers has captivated tweens to adults. There are 4 books total in the series. I picked the first book up on a whim. I was looking for something interesting and ended up geting hooked on the story. I quickly read through the first 3. The last one wasn't out yet. It was a series that just sucks you in. I would not call myself a "twilightmom" as I'm not obsessed, but I do like the story and my daughters do as well. My oldest is a huge Edward fan and has a poster in her room. She is all about Romeo and Juliet type stories and this fits the bill a vampire and a regular girl fall in love. Her favorite movie of all time is Titanic. She is such a romantic it's cute. My youngest has seen the movie and thought it was cool. Now we are getting closer and closer to the opening of the New Moon movie and I have to say I'm really looking forward to it. The Volturi scene is one of my favorites in the books and from the trailors it looks amazing. Bring on the evil vampires. My daughter and all her friends want to go and I will be more than happy to take them. It's a tough task. I honestly don't know how I'll make it through a 2 hour movie with hot vampires. Whatever shall I do?

I found this trailor on Youtube Please enjoy! I thank Youtube user clevverTV for sharing this.

An A- is Good Right?

Of course the very idea of a child not telling everyone in sight that they got 100% on a test is ridiculous. They are going to brag they can't help themselves and they should feel good about themselves. However what about the kid who didn't do as well? How do they feel? I'll tell you. They feel pretty crumby. My daughter who's in third grade got her math test back today and she got 90%. Last time I checked that was an A- and a very good grade. She didn't see it that way. Apparently everyone else got 100% or at least that's what she was told. For a moment I didn't know what to say. I thought her grade was great. My theory has always been if you try your best I will always be proud of you. I told her just that. Who cares if she got 1 or 2 wrong. She did because apparently there is another child in the class who feels it's necessary to make a big deal out of her grades and makes some of the other kids feel they're not good enough if they don't do as well. This makes me crazy. Self-esteem is such a hard thing to build in any child I don't want anyone knocking her down over something as silly as this. I've told my daughter not to let this girl know her grades. Grades are private and should remain that way. No one has the right to make you feel bad when you've worked hard. I reinforced that and told her again and again how great I thought she did and that she may get 100% next time and if she does that's great, but no matter what if she's tried her best I'm happy and she should be too. She's happy now and she should be.

Cool Question

Every morning, I ride my bike past the same intersection. In Florida, some intersections have traffic cops who patrol particular lights to protect the pedestrians walking by, because they are right beside public schools.

So, I see this same officer almost every day of the week. Most days we just pass by and say hi.

This morning, he says ... "Hey, do you ride your bike all day? I saw you riding around last night too."

It shocked me a little bit.
Of course, I ride to work, and then back home again at the end of the day.


Anyhow, I told him ... "Nope, just riding home from work. But ..." I added "that would a GREAT job."


Mostly - I thought it was one of the coolest questions anyone has ever asked me before. I was thrilled to be asked. Not to shabby!


It's given me a new mission to pursue ... how to ride my bike and make money at it. I probably won't let you know how it goes, though ... because I don't figure it'll be happening anytime soon.

Al

Picture Day Take 2!

Okay I thought today would be the easier day. I hate being wrong so often it really makes things crazy. Anyway my 8 year old doesn't usually give me any trouble about what she wears but today was a little different. Again no uniforms for picture day. She's had her outfit picked out for well over a month. We got it at the GAP and she loved it. Actually Grandma took her to the store and she picked it out. She was very happy with that and it was short sleeved so no need to worry about the weather. Which by the way is going to be 80 which is a little high for this time of year. Anyway it wasn't the clothes it was the shoes. I just figured she'd wear her sneakers or school shoes which match the outfit perfect as they are blue. Oh no she dug through the closet looking for anything and everything else. She tried them all on and when she discovered none of them were comfortable the pout appeared on the face. I felt terrible because I didn't think it was a big deal. I was wrong. I promised we would look into shoes for the future. This seemed to appease her and the smile returned. We then went through every headband we had before finding the right one. Apparently she's on the verge of turning into my older daughter rather quickly. Thank goodness she still loves her American Girl dolls and Barbies.

Oh and a quick note about yesterday's picture day. It went fine but someone else was wearing the same shirt as my daughter. I tried to brush it under the rug and it seemed to work but she said there was some pointing and whispering by the other girl and her friends. I just told her it looked much better on her and we moved on. No point dwelling on it. There's nothing you can do and she seemed to be okay so we're going with that. Hopefully that won't happen today, but if it does I think it's just a case of my children having good taste and others like the same look.

Picture Day!

It's picture day and that means my daughter who usually has to wear a uniform gets to wear regular clothes. Of course we also live in New England so you never know what the weather is going to be like. It was cool most of last week but it has decided to warm up again. Typical, I know and for the most part the warm weather is most welcome. However, the outfit she picked out for pictures was a long sleeve sweater so this would not do on a day when it will be in the upper 80's so that means wardrobe change. Luckily she found something after an hour or so yesterday. Thank goodness I made her get the outfit ready yesterday or she wouldn't have made it to school. Seriously I love school uniforms. I couldn't go through this everyday.

Oh and then there's the pimple that decided to manifest itself over the weekend. So she's been freaked out about that being in the picture. Of course if she would stop touching her face maybe it wouldn't have happened. Oh and the fact that her little sister who is only 8 wanted to know what the big red thing on her sister's chin was. She thought it was a bug bite. It was just so great because that set the older one off. Apparently it's the end of the world again and it's her little sister's fault. The only good thing is it wasn't my fault. I had to explain to the little one that it was a pimple and not to say another thing about it because she would be getting them one day too. She apologized and the storm passed and things went back to normal. She left for school looking very adorable or should I say cool. She was happy and I had a headache.

Another Fabulous Day!

Okay well yesterday started with tears and ended with laughter. Yesterday was the day I was dreading even though I knew it would be fine, but of course mother's stress. My oldest was going back to ballet class after being gone since she was 7. She is now 12. Anyway she's not into sports, but I like her to get some kind of activity in her life so I told her she had to pick something. She did jazz last year and loved it so this year she decided to do both ballet and Jazz. Well she was nervous because the classes were from 6:15 to 8:45 with a half hour break in between. She gets quite a bit of homework so there was stress because heaven forbid she doesn't get to watch TV. The TV is her favorite part of the day. She was trying to do some homework before school that was due the next day and she was taking to long so I had to yell to get her butt in the car so she wouldn't be late for school. So the tears came. My fault I shouldn't have yelled but she wasn't listening. She calmed and got to school, but after school would come the dance class.

Her best friend was taking the class with her so life should be good right. Wrong. She saw her dance teacher from last year and she told her that she put her in a class with older girls as last year she had a few that were younger and it made things difficult. Again she should be happy with this news. Right. No, sorry wrong. She starts to panic and say that she may not want to keep going with the class. Some of the girls may be in High School. She's not comfortable with that. Well she doesn't complain about the class again, but she does complain about the homework and how she has so much and the class may be something she can't handle. Moving on she goes to the class and I have to worry until I pick her up at 8:45 which I agree is really late. Well what does she do she comes out laughing and smiling and couldn't stop telling me what a great time she had in class. There were girls she knew from other things and they had a great time. We get home and she watches Glee! with us. More on that show later. She was so happy. So again I worry all day and for nothing because as usual things work out and she's happy and at the end of the day that's all that really matters.

Remembering Patrick Swayze!

I woke up this morning and called my mother as I always do and she gave me the sad news. Patrick Swayze had passed away. I was so upset upon hearing this news. I knew it was coming from the news reports, but I couldn't help being affected. He was such a huge part of my tween years. After Dirty Dancing came out on video my best friend would come over after school and we would watch it over and over. Honestly I can not tell you how many times I've seen that movie. I loved it and it will be one of my favorites forever. My oldest daughter has seen the movie and enjoyed it very much as well. This film will be remembered for a long time and will be loved by tween girls generation after generation. So thank you Patrick Swayze for sharing your wonderful abilities with us and I send my thoughts and prayers out to his family.

"No one puts baby in a corner." This was one of those great lines that everyone knows.

Pimples, Pimples They Need Soap!

Oh, it can be so frustrating when my daughter complains about a few blackheads or pimples on her face. Then I ask her. Did you wash your face after school? She looks at me like I have ten heads. Which apparently I do. I think I've got her drilled for the most part. You need to wash your face with soap or actually she uses that Neutrogena Wave or Neutrogena Deep Facial Cleanser which works really well for her. I have her do this 3 times a day. When she gets up, after school, and before bed. I also have her put some rubbing alcohol on after washing. My mother always had me do that when I was younger and it dries out those oily pores. Then there are the days when she gives me the "in a minute". I hate that because what it really means is, if I keep pushing it off you'll forget. News flash moms don't forget. My thought is if she isn't diligent with her cleanliness she's going to break out. Oh and for heavens sake she needs to stop touching her face. That makes it worse. She's been lucky so far but some of her friends are having a harder time. If she really starts to break out she's off to the dermatologist. They have the prescription stuff, but she'll still need to wash her face with some type of soap 3 times a day. I realize that no matter what you do you're going to get pimples and other fun face blemishes. I still get them and I'm never happy about it, but I think you need to at least try to hold them at bay. I may drive her crazy now but maybe just maybe she'll thank me someday.

Backpack Woes.

Backpacks have got to be some kind of torture device for kids. It's only the first week of school and both of the girls come out and drop the bags off their backs as fast as they can. I pick them up and I can't believe how heavy they are. Homework I get it they're going to have it and for the most part it's manageable. It's the fact that many of the books are heavy and I'm worried about them being on my daughter's backs. When I was younger I carried an extremely heavy backpack and my mom swears it's the reason I ended up with scoliosis. I can not confirm that that's the reason but the shoulder I carried my backpack on is lower than the other. So needless to say I don't want my daughters to have a similar issue all because they're carrying heavy books for school. I have been able to come up with some tips so I will share. First off I think it's important to make sure that the backpack they have is appropriate for their age. This is easier than you would think. Both L.L. Bean and Landsend have great backpacks and they tell you both in their catalogs and web pages the age of the child who should carry the backpack. Next they should be wearing them correctly. My third grader comes out with both straps on her shoulders the right way. She doesn't care about the cool look factor. My seventh grader the one with the much heavier books will not do it right. She just slings it on one shoulder which is exactly what I don't want her to do. Luckily for her the school has put two of the larger books on the school website so they don't need to take them home as long as they have access to a computer which she does. The ones that are not on line well if I see that they come home a lot I'm going to order them from half.com or amazon using the ISBN number in the front of the book. You can usually get the textbooks for a very reasonable price used and then there is no more worries about the backpacks and another bonus is I don't have to worry about them forgetting the book which has already happened once. So there you have it a few helpful hits to ease the girls backs.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

It's back to school week. My kids actually went back last week for 2 half days on Wed. and Thur. then had Friday off for the long weekend so It doesn't really start until this week. The drop off is always fun. The parking lot was crazy full of parents some happy, but many sad and in tears. I'd say I was on the happy and worried list. I worry for my girls 24/7. I was happy to see them start school as they were beginning to drive me crazy, but then I worry how school will be. They always get so much homework and then I have to worry about the social aspect. Is everyone being nice to you are you being nice to them? There is so much pressure both socially and academically. My husband doesn't really understand this. He's always like don't worry they'll be fine, but not me. I'm the one who picks them up and sometimes they're in tears because so and so said I'm weird or no one would sit with me at lunch or hang out with me at recess. What do you say to this? I tell them to stick up for themselves in a nice polite way no one should be mean and to hang out with someone who will be nice to them. If things are really bad I tell them to get a teacher. Though that's a hard one because you don't want them to be called a tattle tale. Then I make them a nice snack and we take a little break before we hit the homework. I go to sleep and hope the next day will be better and I hope it will.

The great Vanilla experment

So today I(Chris)started an experiment. I have read about making your own vanilla extract and how much better it tastes than the stuff that you buy in the store. So, today I took the plunge and started soaking some vanilla beans in vodka. Thankfully I had a bottle of vodka on hand when the beans came in the mail today. I also put a bean in some sugar to make Vanilla infused sugar! Can't wait to try that. Yummy!
Here are the beautiful beans!
And here is day one of the soaking.
The unfortunate thing is that it takes 8 weeks until it is usable. But then it will last for a very long time and I can just keep topping it off with vodka and letting it soak for an unlimited amount of vanilla. And it costs a ton less than the stuff that you can buy in the store. Really pennies a bottle! Can't beat that.
How this all started was a couple of years ago we were given a big bottle of vanilla extract that came from Mexico. It was so wonderful! Such a wonderful taste and smell. It has made all of my baking even better tasting. It is unlike anything that you can buy here and I just used the last of it a couple weeks ago So after much crying about not having any more of the good stuff I started looking into making my own. I am hopeful that it will taste as good as the stuff from Mexico. From what I have read it is really really good!
I got the vanilla beans from this site. http://www.organic-vanilla.com/servlet/StoreFront
Looking at the site there is nothing in stock but I e-mailed them and they had some packs that were not listed on the site yet. Also she told me that they will have lots more listed in a week or two! I think that they are priced great! They are a wonderful quality and she was so great to work with. Excellent customer service! I highly recommend them! I got 10 7inch beans for $8.10. So a good deal. Now I have heard that there are some good deals on ebay for vanilla beans as well. But I wanted to go with this place because looking at the site there was a lot that I liked about it.
I will keep you updated on the process! I can't wait!

First Blog

Okay so this is my first blog. I actually can't believe that I'm blogging. This is something I never thought I would do but here we go. I am the mother of two tween girls and the bottom line is life with them is like being on a roller coaster. One minute everything is wonderful and the next it's the end of the world and if it's the end of the world it's always my fault. I try to remember if I was like this and my mother reminds me that I had my moments. However, she doesn't remember it starting this early. Apparently 11 is the new 14. Well no one told me that but I'm telling anyone who will listen. These poor kids are still little girls, but they are being pushed by everyone including their parents to grow up much more quickly than they should. One minute they're having play dates with their friends and playing with Barbie Dolls and the next they're attached to their cell phones and ipods. So I'm going to share my experiences past, present and future in the hopes that it will help someone and if it doesn't help at least you'll know you're not alone.

More on the Cargo Bike Redo

I just posted about this bike a couple minutes ago, and then I found this article with more pictures ... so I HAD to post these up.

I'll keep it short and sweet.

clipped from bikehugger.com The Bullitt: Danish Cargo Bike What sets this bike apart from many other long-wheelbase cargo bikes is the use of aluminium in large diameter tubes as opposed to steel. Much as I like the ride of a good steel bike, a cargo bike is a great opportunity to allow aluminium to shine, especially when a manufacturer can really engineer the shapes and diameters of tubing. A lot of cargo bikes are begging for some extra rigidity. The Bullitt comes in 13 versions, with disc brakes and choice of internally geared rear hubs or derailleurs. The lightest version weighs 48lbs. As far as I can tell, there might be only one frame size, but I so want one.

Grocery Bike Redo

I was talking about bikes that you can use to gather up grocery supplies when you go shopping.

And then I saw this new bike concept ... designed to let you carry stuff on the front end. It's a pretty cool idea. It has what looks like a skate board deck mounted on the front frame of the bike. Apparently wide enough to hold a bag of groceries.

clipped from dvice.com Bullitt bike puts cargo space on two wheels there's basically no storage room on a bike. It's very difficult to go to the grocery store on your bike, for example. That's not the case with the Bullitt. Bullitt is a bike, sure, but it doesn't look much like any bike I've seen before. In front it's got a huge cargo space, enough to hold all sorts of groceries if you so desired. Sure, it's probably difficult to store and not as maneuverable as a normal bike, but what are your priorities?

Here's a Cutting Edge Electric Bike

Here's another example of the direction that electric bicycles are going. This one is a space aged example of the future.

It reminds me of something you might see from an old Star Wars show, or something like that.

I thought it was intriguing. I hope you like it.

OF course, rather than buy the $5000 bike, I think I'd rather pick up a scooter ... like a Vespa or something like that. Maybe even a motorcycle.
I guess you wouldn't have to pay for licensing on something like this though.

clipped from www.trendhunter.com Electric Mini-Two Wheelers Edit The question of urban mobility has always been “how am I going to get from reasonably close point A to reasonably close point B?” The solution is the Yike Bike. The strange looking Yike Bike is a foldable, electric powered, and carbon frame high seated mini two wheeler. Weighing in at 22 lbs., the Yike Bike is easily maneuvered, and features electric brakes with an anti-skid system. Aside from looking thoroughly silly on one, the only other draw back is the hefty price tag of $4,900. And you can’t even pop a wheelie on it. clipped from www.trendhunter.com clipped from www.trendhunter.com clipped from www.trendhunter.com