havocandmayhem.com

My favorite place to go in the summer is to my hometown, Wheeling, WV. We usually stay for 4-6 days. I get to eat my favorite Di Carlos' Pizza , stuff myself with pepperoni rolls, take my kids to my favorite local park , play mini golf and go paddle boating. We go the Cabela's and look at the fish and other animals & do some shopping.  We get to visit my parents and my brother & his family. My kids get to play with their cousins for several days and we usually all go to the Good Zoo .  The last couple of years my folks have rented a cabin at Oglebay Park for all of us & before that we crowded into their small house, that used to belong to my grandparents. This year though, we don't get to go. My parents now spend 11 months a year in Florida instead of 8-9. So they sold the house to my uncle and rent an efficiency apartment for a month while they are in town.  My dad organizes a couple baseball tournaments in July and he has to be there or they probably would

I've been scanning photos from my childhood.  This was taken on Easter Sunday in 1978.  I was 11, my brother was 8. If you know my brother, ask him about the suit. My hair looked 'good' in this photo. Or so I thought at the time.....

I've been working on these amigurumi dinosaurs since June.  I'm fast enough crocheting the wider parts but I'm not so good when the circle is only 8 stitches around. This is the brachiosaur and the stegosaurus I made. The stegosaurus is my own pattern creation.  I got the brachiosaur pattern from Claudia Vodermaier .  My dino does not include the back ridges because I was informed by my 4 year old "Brachiosaurs don't have plates Mama!" The boys like them though.  Havoc already has the brachiosaur fighting fires at the castle with the knights. (it has such a long neck it can blow mouthfulls of  water over the ramparts) I'm going to remake both of them, with some adjustments, in pink and yellow for my nieces. The brachiosaur's neck will be a couple stitches wider & slightly shorter & his body a maybe a couple of stitches narrower, plus I'll include the ridges.  The stegasaur will be bigger all over. But first I have to make a tri

Pretend is a game I never get tired of playing - even when I know I really should stop. Even when I know I am doing nobody, least of all myself, any favors by continuing to pretend. I've always played pretend. It didn't become a problem until I was 14 and took an interest in this boy. He was one of those dark, moody types who read obscure philosophers and wrote deep, tragic poetry. I was in love with him so I pretended to be dark and moody and to love philosophy. I pretended I knew what he was talking about and I pretended his poetry 'spoke to my soul'. But I'm a basically cheerful person who doesn't think she is being persecuted, and his poetry sucked. We broke up at some point, probably because I was desperate for a laugh. Later in high school I dated a guy who was a punk, in a new wave sort of way. I pretended I loved punk music (I like it but it was the 80's and I was more of a Bon Jovi girl) and I loved his blue mohawk (which felt like sandpaper)

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I've gotten out of the habit of posting my Project 365 photos here, but today I visited Sarcastic Mom's website and saw her Weekly Winners post. She is an awesome photographer, stop by & check her photos out. I'm not such a good photographer but I'm working on it. These are my favorite photos from this week. Thursday was the Allosaurs' birthday . They had banana muffins for their party. This is what happens when you run out of muffins at a dino party. It was a pool party & the dinos were not happy to have to wait 30 minutes to get in the pool after eating their muffins. Dino pool party This guy got put on time out for too much splashing We had a butterfly visit earlier in the week DH and the boys playing "pillow volcano"

The boys and I went to Target last night before meeting DH for dinner. They have been hoarding the loose change they find around the house and finally felt they had 'enough monies' to go shopping. Havoc had $1.56 and Mayhem had $2.82. They were hoping for some Legos or Hulk themed toys, or failing that a couple Take Along Thomas Trains. I did explain to them that most things cost much more than the $4.38 combined that they had. I tried to help them understand that they couldn't afford those things, that maybe they should be thinking about things from the 99 cent bins or the $1.99 bins, but they don't trust me to know how much things actually cost. (They don't trust me to know there are no cookies left either and always insist on seeing the inside of the jar) We walked up and down every toy aisle in Target, except the 'girl stuff' one. They pointed things out to me and I told them how much the things cost. They were not at all happy to learn that Mommy wa

There are entirely too many library books checked out right now. We currently have so many library books out that they don't all fit on the 'library book' shelf. I'm going to have to start setting limits, maybe just 7-8 books each. This time we checked out: Hooway for Wodney Wat Score One for the Sloths The Wingdingdilly Captain Underpants and the Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booker Boy - books 1 & 2 Discovering Dinosaurs with a Fossil Hunter Plaeteosaurus Dooby Dooby Moo The Jungle Baseball Game How I Became a Pirate Pirates Don't Change Diapers Ornithomimus Safari Dinosaur Dinosaur Dinosaurs All Aboard the Dinotrain The Big Book of Dinosaurs Berestain Bears Count Their Blessings Berestain Bears and Mama's Day The dino theme is still going strong with Mayhem, all those dino books were his selections. Havoc picked the others. Plus we have about 10 books that didn't get returned because they want to read them again. ******

Havoc has informed me that today is the allosaurus' birthday. ( We have about 20 plastic dinosaurs, 2 are allosaurs). They are 26 today and they would like banana muffins at their party. The orange crocodile was content with Cheerios at his party last month but I suppose allosaurs think big. I made muffins with the help of Havoc, Mayhem and 2 allosaurs. (the lighting in my kitchen sucks in the morning) There has never been such a mess making muffins before. Those allosaurs need to learn to control their tails. Melted butter got knocked over, the 'wet stuff' bowl had stuff sloshed out of it, molasses seeped slowly across the counter and pureed banana splattered everything when Havoc took the lid off the mixer too soon. Usually I just get flour all over the place. Other issues include - melted butter instead of softened butter, plus spilling it so it wasn't actually 1/2 cup, more yogurt than the recipe calls for, probably not enough flour due to humidity and an

Last week we were at the museum. We'd been there about 25 minutes or so, just leaving the dinosaur fossils and headed into the mammal section, when suddenly a small girl of about 4 comes running through and down the ramp. She was wailing/squealing in that way small children do when they are having a blast but know that they are BIG trouble when they get caught. Running after her was her mother, shouting the things mom shout in this situation. "STOP! You stop right now! Stand still!! I said STOP!!" She caught the girl right next to us and started in on the rest of the mom speech "I told you to stop. I told you to stay next to Mommy & Daddy. There is no running in here. We don't run indoors. There are too many people. You could get lost. You need to listen to the rules. If I have to chase you down again we are leaving." in that tone you get when you are frightened your child will be lost or hurt and angry that they are not listening to you. Stern Mom Voice

But I will still offer advice and in the case of 5 year olds insisting on wearing jeans, a heavy hoody AND a jacket outside when it is 96 degrees and sweltering with humidity, I will probably put my foot down and insist they change or stay inside. Am I stifling their creative minds, that are just beating to a different drummer, or am I saving them from unconsciousness and possible death? Does the one outweigh the other. Judging by what I saw at the park yesterday, I'm guessing it is a matter of opinion. Seriously, would you let your 5 year old run around an unshaded park in unbearable humidity and burning sun wearing jeans, snowboots, a sweatshirt and a denim jacket because he dressed himself & you didn't want to interfere with his freedom of expression? I've let my kids be seen in public in some decidedly odd outfits because they did the choosing, but I do insist on at least marginally weather appropriate wear. No flip flops in the snow and no snowsuits when the he

Today is my birthday!  I am 41.  41 is a rather dull birthday year, coming right after the big 4-0 and before the Ultimate Answer (42).  There really isn't much to say about it except - nope, no perimenopause yet. However, exactly 20 years ago was my favorite birthday year, the year I turned 21. There is more background story to why my 21st birthday was my favorite than just the alcohol I was now allowed to consume. There is the drama of offers made and reneged on repeatedly in the years prior to my birthday. While drinking is the focus of the story, it was never really about the drinking. It was about the sheer irritation and annoyance of constantly having the metaphoric rug pulled out from under you. The drinking age in West Virginia as of January 1985 was 18.  Yes, that is right, 18. The nationwide push to raise the drinking age back up to 21 was gaining steam but my home state had been holding out. They made a token gesture though around April or so. The state government an

I had a summer job all through my teen years. It was the same job, except for one memorable year. When I was 13 I started working in the concession stand at the lake of a local park. We sold pop, pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, ice cream and crackers. We also rented out peddleboats and clubs for mini golf. During festivals and large gatherings I would spend hours making cotton candy.  I was paid a whole $1.20 an hour that first year.  I was earning a whopping $3.35 my last year there, when I was 19. There was a core group of us who were there every year and we had a lot of fun those summers. When I was 18 I got a job at Walt Disney World for the summer. I sold ice cream at Epcot Center. It was the first time I had ever been really far away from home by myself. It was very exciting but I missed my friends back at the lake.  They wrote me group letters and I sent them postcards (this was back before email & the internet). The following year I was back at the lake for one last summer.

Apparently I am not the only person in the world not attending CHA in Chicago or BlogHer in SF this weekend. Who knew? Swistle has come up with a wonderful idea for a low pressure, very relaxing Blogger Conference complete with no early morning events . Check it out! Swistle: Blogstle

Adventure 1 - Getting Out of the Driveway - The day began much as I expected it would - with a late start due to numerous last minute things. The big one was refilling the car's air conditioner with freon or whatever comes in this can you hook up to a valve on the a/c unit.  My car a/c leaks and the repair was not part of the $2200 worth of work done last month.  This refill stuff costs $24 or so a can and lasts 4-5 months at a time, much cheaper than repair. Adventure 2 - Parking the Car - Eventually we get the a/c filled, the DVD player hooked up, everyone visits the bathroom one last time - again and we take off. We did miss most of the traffic, as planned, despite parts of the minor highway being blocked off for repair.  There was the usual slow down just before the first metro station. There always is a big slow down, if not complete stop, there. It's almost as if people are driving along at their usual 65MPH when all of the sudden SSCCRREEECCHHH!!! Holy shit! When did t

Shhhh... you didn't see me type this, because I don't want to jinx it, but assuming nothing dire happens at the office in the next 36 hours, DH is taking Wednesday off. We're headed to the metropolis 2 hours away. We're going to take the boys to the Natural History Museum so they can see actual dinosaur bones. Just getting there should be quite an adventure for them. We're rural folks & to get to the metropolis we have to drive through the bedroom communities, the exurbs, the suburbs and then get on the Metro and take it into the mysterious 'downtown'.  Our county's main 'town' has a half mile long street, with no cross streets as it's downtown. The larger town in the next county over has a cross street but we tend to stick to things on the edge of that town because the traffic is so bad at that stoplight.  So you can imagine what a thrill the boys are in for - bumper to bumper traffic on 8 lane highways! (ok, I admit they have sat in hon

I had my hair cut yesterday.  I think she cut it too long. I realize that I am probably the one woman in 10 who would say something like that. "it's just hair, it will grow back" has been my mantra since I was 27. I told her I wanted a couple inches cut off and she gave me that look stylist give women who say things like that. The look that says "You mean millimeters don't you?" because most women really do mean millimeters. She held up my hair and said "a couple of inches would be about here"; just to make sure I understood what she thought of when she heard 'a couple of inches'. I replied "Better make it 3 inches. I need all the damage off". We talked a bit more about just how short my well below the shoulders length hair would end up being once all the layers & things were done & I reassured her. "Even if it's shorter than I'm thinking, it's just hair. It'll grow back."  She seemed relieved b

My favorite place to go in the summer is to my hometown, Wheeling, WV. We usually stay for 4-6 days. I get to eat my favorite Di Carlos' Pizza , stuff myself with pepperoni rolls, take my kids to my favorite local park , play mini golf and go paddle boating. We go the Cabela's and look at the fish and other animals & do some shopping.  We get to visit my parents and my brother & his family. My kids get to play with their cousins for several days and we usually all go to the Good Zoo .  The last couple of years my folks have rented a cabin at Oglebay Park for all of us & before that we crowded into their small house, that used to belong to my grandparents. This year though, we don't get to go. My parents now spend 11 months a year in Florida instead of 8-9. So they sold the house to my uncle and rent an efficiency apartment for a month while they are in town.  My dad organizes a couple baseball tournaments in July and he has to be there or they probably would

I don't listen to music very often. I'd like to while I am on the computer, but it is in the family room and the kids make too much noise playing, or have a Wii game on, or someone is watching TV and I feel guilty wearing headphones to shut my kids out even more than I already am by being on the computer in the first place. Unless I am alone in the house, I don't listen to music very often at home.  I listen to audiobooks at the gym, which mostly leaves me with the car for music. I have a Zen Vision M mp3 player now. It has 40GB, holds a couple dozen audio books, my entire music collection, a ton of photos plus I don't know how many videos (I don't use the video function much).  I mostly use it to listen to audio books at the gym, waiting for appointments or when I am in the car. Problem is lately I'm listening to not family friendly books. Assorted curse words are heard, sexual situations, violence, etc. It was one thing when I was listening to A Bone of Cont

from the library The Runaway Dinner The Berenstain Bears Blaze a Trail The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Birthday The Berenstain Bears Report Card Trouble The Berenstain Bears and the Bully The Berenstain Bears and the Double Dare The Berenstain Bears and Big Question The Berenstain Bears and the Big Road Race Hurty Feelings Sheep in Wolf's Clothing Did Triceratops Have Polka Dots? My Favorite Dinosaurs We went a bit heavy on the Berenstain Bears books this time, but Havoc is into them at the moment.  DH is not thrilled. I don't blame him really. Papa Bear is an idiot in most of the books. He says & does dumb things, fails to listen, gets into endless trouble and Mama & the cubs have to save him or Mama has to make everything right. DH finds that really annoying and rightly points out that no way in hell would a series have Mama Bear acting that way with Papa saving her. Perhaps if the dumb actions, etc were spread out more amongst the family. 

Havoc has expressed an interest in learning to tie his shoes. He has one pair of tie shoes. It's the only pair of tie shoes he has ever owned in the entire 5 years and 9 months of his life. He's owned them for 5 months and has rarely worn them because they tie and Lazy Mommy usually won't deal with them.  They were bought in a moment of shoe desperation (the sole had come off his existing pair & he had school the next day) when they were the only shoes in his general size available. A week later they were replaced with shoes that velcro closed. He's had them on a few times since then and random attempts to learn to tie them have been made, but Lazy Mommy won't tie shoes very often, especially shoes that don't stay tied, even in a double knot. However, for the last couple of days he has come to me with the shoes and asked me to teach him how to tie them. He says "how do I make the bunny ears" and I say "bunny ears?". Mayhem adds "

I read 22 new books. I also reread 17 of them and 3 others. On April 1 I started keeping track of my reading as part of the 50 Book Challenge on Library Thing (the challenge being to read 50 books in a year).  I was 100% certain I'd meet the 50 book goal well before the 12 month mark.  I was not expecting it so early. As of June 30th I had read 56 new books and reread 20 more books in 3 months.  Granted, 40 of those new books would probably be called 'fluff' but still, I read them. I scrapped 14 layouts and earned a 40% discount at SSD. I cooked dinner 5 nights a week every week. I went to the gym at least 2x a week every week I patched 5 cat clawed holes in the pool ring, one of those holes I patched 4x before the patch actually held. I was accepted as a Hawt Freelancer on Traci Reed's CT. I was given a guest spot for August on Eva Kipler's CT The boys and I read 19 books, most with a dinosaur theme. DH bought a motorcycle I finished 3/4 of a cro