havocandmayhem.com

for a 3 year old. Me: We need to go to the post office and mail some packages Him: Should I pack a snack?

Last year at Xmas Havoc was disappointed in most of his gifts. The thing he really wanted was the last thing he opened & by the time he got to it he was feeling pretty unhappy. But he was ecstatic when he opened that gift. It's not like he rejected a large pile of gifts, he had 5. It's not that there was anything wrong with the gifts he had opened. They just were not the 'hot rod' he really really wanted and had asked for from Santa. By the time he had opened the other 4 gifts he was upset that he hadn't received the one thing he had asked for & wanted. I don't criticize him for this. I've felt the same myself.  The thing is.... in the long term, those other 4 gifts have seen far more use & provided far more enjoyment than the one he really really wanted. The hot rod was the toy of choice for 48 hours and was played with occasionally for a couple months after that.  It's been sitting untouched on the shelf since July.  The Leapster he was so

You know you have been stuck in a car with small children for too damn long when you and your spouse staring high fiving one another when you spot a McD's with a play area.  It took us 9 hours to get out of Florida, a trip that should only take 6. Traffic was moving at 20mph on I75 for nearly the whole time we were on it.  No reason for it. No construction, no accidents, no flat tire or cops having pulled someone over (why would they, we were 50mph under the speed limit). At one point I had to pull over so DH could hack his way into the underbrush & find a spot for Havoc to poop. I'd been hoping to reach an exit for 10 minutes by then & only gone a couple of miles.  I seem to have a ton of laundry to do.  I'm not sure how that happened because I did laundry the day before we left. There should only be 4 sets of clothing & 2 of Pjs from that day waiting for us when we got home. I did laundry the night before we left FL as well. So there should be 2 days of cloth

622 photos made the printing cut. Even with my parents' cable connection it took me almost an hour to upload them. I didn't go through all of them because I felt it more important to upload them while I had the faster connection. I can do some basic cropping online & that is all any of them really need. It'll be just over $76 to print them all and I only have 2 photo albums at the moment, so they will get printed in batches I did very little black Friday digi shopping. I got a template set by Teresa fergusson, and kits by ScrapKitchen Designs and Fee Jardine at Sweet Shopp and some some overlays by Stacey J Stahl & Birgit Kerr from DSAG. I did spend $140 at Amazon on assorted Christmas gifts & now only have to buy one game & something for DH & then I am done.

We started the morning off at 9am with what Mayhem calls a 'bike walk', where the kids ride their bikes and the adults walk along at some distance behind them.  My folks' community has all these walking/biking paths all over place, connected by humpback bridges. Havoc and cousin Mischief, rode their bikes, while Mayhem had his 3 wheeler and DH and went along. They can go fairly fast on the straightaways but they can't bike up or down the bridges so we can catch up with them at those points.  Mayhem discovered the thrill of a lifetime - riding his bike down the bridge. He lifts his feet and shout "Wooooo!" and flies down that hill. He keeps control of it the whole way & then does some gentle swerves to slow down. Impressive for a 3 year old going really really fast.  We went about a mile all told. Then we came home & everyone went in the pool.  Havoc stayed in the pool for about 2 hours or more.  Mayhem & Mischief were in and out. After lunch they w

I'd planned to spend part of my time here sorting through all my photos & pick out some to print. I have no printed photos. I haven't printed out a photo at all in the 21st century (professionally, I do print my own on my crappy printer for certain projects) . I thought I might end up with about 250 photos to print. But no. I selected almost that many just for the first 15 months of Havoc's life. And those are the ones I selected. I've easily got 5 times that many I'm not printing. I averaged about 125 for years 2004-2006. I have about 500 or so photos to print before I get to this year's, this will run me about $60-70 with shipping. I'm also going to need a few more photo albums. I have a couple nice ones that have a space on the side of sleeve to write information but they don't hold enough photos. I also don't recall where I bought them, World Market maybe. I still have to go through & crops some & fix the eyes & lighting on

Friday 9:15am - left with much wailing & whining & general grumpiness. This mental state would continue through the next 32 hours. 9:30am - stopped to mail a package, took 5 mintues 10:10am - realized plan to get oil change in C-ville was a forlorn hope. Why is everyone in C-ville getting their oil changed at 10am on a Friday morning? There was line of people waiting at Jiffy Lube. 11:45ish - got lost on a by pass & ended up 14 miles out of our way before realizing. According to the ladies at the Gas & Go, this is a common occurrence. 12:30pm - stop at McD's somewhere near the the North Carolina border. 1:30pm - cross into North Carolina heavy traffic on I77. Mayhem naps for 2 hours. 3:45pm - stop at a Love's rest stop for juice, water, chips & a race around the area for the boys.  We may have been in South Carolina at this point but I can't be sure. South Carolina did not announce itself the way North Carolina and Georgia do.  We just suddenly r

and wonder...did I pack everything? What necessary & irreplaceable item have I forgotten to put in the suitcase? What am I suddenly going to remember in South Carolina? I have lists of everything but the kids' toys and I'll have that once they pack them.  So far we have one giant suitcase, one overnight suitcase, one small dufflebag, 2 laptop cases, 2 sleeping bags, a soft sided cooler, a portable DVD player, a case of DVDs, 2 kiddy suitcases and a Wii. There will also be the winter coats we won't wear but feel obligated to bring with us in case it is really cold on our trip back (for the 5 second dash from car to restaurant or gas station bathroom).  I have my Zen loaded with about 14 audiobooks & am debating whether to bringmy crochet project along.  On the one hand 18 hours in a car with nothing to do is tedious. On the other hand there really is no room for a bag of yarn. Havoc's glasses are in. We go pick them up after school, grab lunch with Daddy, come

Mayhem has eaten 3 dinners in a row with a minimum of fuss. Not that they were fuss free or anything, but the fuss was more of a token fuss, a fuss because it is expected, not necessarily because he is actually upset. Sunday he had taquitos, which were his choice & therefore limited his fussing subjects. He complained about the size of the pieces I had cut for him and there was some grumbling about whether there were too many or not enough pieces on the plate.  Then he ate them and asked for more. Monday we had cream of veg soup - potato & spinach this time - plus a salad & bread. There was an immediate flurry of protest at this meal that ended with a request that I feed him the required one bite. He eventually ate all the soup, DH feeding him nearly all the bites. He ate the required one bite of lettuce and nibbled at the bread. Tuesday was noodle casserole with cheese and salad. Basically homemade mac & cheese with some pureed carrot for color.  There was much wail

As a result of scrapping all weekend I have overextended some muscles in my right shoulder (my mouse arm).  I have a hard time staying properly seated when I am scrapping & end up hunched up with my mouse arm straight out & a bit to the right.  Apparently doing this continuously will pull those muscles.  But I am about to take an enforced break from scrapping in a few days.  We'll be going on vacation and with 11 people in the house and a minimum of 5, maybe 6, laptops in use, I'll be lucky to find an out of the way outlet & bit of tabletop.  See, those other laptops are 'work' laptops and they take priority on electricity & work space.  My laptop is a 'play' laptop & is at the bottom of the power chain. Plus I really need my flatscreen monitor to scrap. I just can't work on my laptop monitor.  I've gotten a little to used to my dual monitor set up.  So instead of scrapping I will be going through my photos.  My sons have been compl

let alone alive? I don't wipe every surface in my house down with Clorox.  I've never, not once, sanitized their toys.  We've had other children over to play and I've never even sprayed Lysol around the play area when they left.  There isn't a single bottle of Purell in the house.  Why hasn't CPS arrived yet? The only thing, and I mean seriously, the ONLY THING, being marketed to me on TV currently is cleaning supplies.  No one is trying to sell me a mini van, (going by the soundtracks they are aiming toward moms 10 years younger than me) or investment advice (geared toward women with kids about to go to college), or even a burger.  Possibly they are trying to sell me Nutrisystem but that commercial featuring the woman who went from a size 8 to a size 2 just pisses me off (I've forced my body into unhealthy weight loss and so can you!), so it doesn't count. Which leaves Clorox, and Lysol and the billions upon billions of germs that I am wantonly and n

A couple of DH's co-workers own Wiis.  They have an office 'Wii night' every few weeks. They hook it up to the overhead projector in the conference room and play it on a 6 foot screen.  The boxing game in the favorite. DH comes home exhausted after 2 hours of having his butt kicked.  One of them offered to lend DH his Wii so the boys and I could try it out.  He has had it for about a year. It doesn't get much use apparently. It was popular in the house for about a month, with every day play, then dropped to a couple of times a week and now is only a couple time a month if that. Apparently there are not that many games and they have a sort of sameness.  No first person shooter or World of Warcraft type games, which are the games they play the most. I'm sure all that stuff will be available by the time we can afford and find a Wii (probably a used 2 versions out Wii2.0 at the rate we are going, maybe as a high school grad present).  Meantime, we're enjoying borrow

by mentioning how many toys we've had to return so far. We've been lucky.  My brother's family though has ended up returning about half their daughters' birthday presents. Personally I'm kinda freaked out by the whole thing and am glad I'd already decided to go with books & games this year.  I'm not alone in this.  There are a whole bunch of people over at The Parent Bloggers Network  sharing their thoughts & ideas about this as well. Havoc is getting a new game for his Leapster, the movie Ratatouille, a game like High Ho Cherry-O or kiddy Uno, a giant puzzle by Melissa & Doug, and some books. Mayhem is getting a new to him Imaginext pirate ship (Imaginext has not had any recalls), the Shrek 3 movie, a game to be determined. He wants Hungry Hungry Hippos, a set of Melissa & Doug wooden puzzles & some books. Both will probably get a random wooden truck to be purchased at some point from the local co-op. Both boys will get some Take Al

It's not as if they don't eat anything but goldfish crackers & pizza. They do like a variety of foods, some of them are even nutrition & many are vitamin fortified. Havoc will eat - whole grain bagels with honey, toast with butter or honey, peanut butter & jelly sandwiches (on soft bread), Tyson chicken patties, Mrs Paul's fish sticks, taquitos, apples, bananas, oranges, watermelon, sometimes mango, dried apricots, any type of pasta in any sort of sauce (as long as it isn't chunky), pretzel, yogurt pretzels, yogurt, scrambled eggs, pizza (any sauce but only cheese, though sometimes pepperoni is ok), assorted cookies that are not solid chocolate (he's not fond of chocolate baked goods), hot dogs, meatloaf, tater tots, curly fries, tempura fried veggies (except broccoli), rice, tamako sushi, chicken noodle soup, vanilla ice cream, most breakfast cereals, pancakes and applesauce Mayhem will eat - whole grain bagels with peanut butter, peanut butter sandwi

Finally! I have had a longish streak of non-scrapping but I've done 5 layouts in the last 3 days & I am working on a 6th.  Considering I did about 4 layouts in the past 6 weeks, that is pretty good. Check out my gallery at Digi Shop Talk  to see my latest stuff.  I'm trying to get it all in now while I can.  Next Friday we leave for my folks place for a week.  My brother & his family will be there at the same time. 6 adults, 4 preschoolers and a preteen in a 3 bedroom 1800sq ft echo chamber of a house. My ears already ache from the thought of the noise. I'll survive it. I always do, but I do get a bit bitchy about 3 nights into it. I love seeing my family & I love that my kids get to spend so much time with their cousins. But I am an introvert among extroverts. My family is gregarious & social & always going someplace & doing something and I left home eagerly at 18 because I like sitting quietly & reading and I can't do that around my famil

I haven't been scrapping much lately. I had little to no desire to do so for the last 6 weeks. I quit all my CTs but the PSP script one. I totally immersed myself in reading for 6 weeks. I re-read all of the Sarah Kelling mysteries (10), all the Mrs Pollifax mysteries (13), most of the Peter Wimsey mysteries (7, there is only so much Lord Peter I can put up with), some of the Amelia Peabody mysteries (8, again, only so much Amelia can be tolerated), all 4 for Hillary Tamar mysteries, several of the Mary Russel mysteries (Mary's personality is similar to Amelia & Peter's. I'd like to shut them all in a room together with a pot of tea & watch them all one up each other with thier knowledgeable smug superority.) and a half a dozen novels of historical fiction.  50 some books later I think I am as sated with reading as I am ever likely to be (though I have 2 more Polly Platt travel memoirs to go) .  And I'm in the mood to scrap. I've done 2 layouts in the p

Last night I made my chicken & sweet potato salad for dinner. It consists of chunks of grilled chicken, steamed sweet potatoes, avocados, & crumbled bacon in a mustardy vinaigrette on a bed of spinach. People seem to really like it. I get many requests to bring it to cook outs & pot lucks. Its good hot or cold. Adults & kids both eat it willingly. except my kids. All I really ask of them is they at least taste the food they are given before rejecting it. One bite of the stuff, that is it. In this case that means you have to eat a bite sized chunk of chicken & sweet potato. 2 bites of food, that you have eaten in the past without issue. If it has become hideous to you in the 5-6 weeks since you last ate it then fine, you don't have to finish it & can go have a mini bagel or an apple. Is that too much? Am I horrible parent for expecting this? 2 freaking bites of good tasting food you have eaten before? My kids don't seem to have figured or or like the tim

category of the Halloween costume contest is.... HAVOC & MAYHEM for their mother's last minute pirate costumes consisting of her belts, her workout bandanas and their father's T-shirts! And lets not forget to mention her fabulous camera work - taking a photo of kids in black T-shirts against a dark green bush in the dark! I honestly think it is fun to rummage around the house & see what sort of costume I can come up with.  That was one of the best parts of Halloween when I was kid.  I had some pre-made costumes when I was small but by the time I was 8 or so I was wearing rollers in my hair, had cold cream on my face and my mom's bathroom & claming to be dressed as a housewife. Or my dad's overcoat & old hat with a notebook and calling myself a detective. A cardboard box and aluminum foil made a robot. And there was always the ubiquitous white bed sheet ghost or toga.  As an adult I am still not inclined to spent $25 on a costume that will be worn f