I got home late tonight and found this note on the door:

Dear Steph,

I’m really tired, so I headed off to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow so please let me sleep.  Love you!

P.S. If you are a Robber, I’m actually just waiting inside the door with my shotgun across my lap.

Have you ever played the game Katamari Damacy?  It’s pretty much the reason my hubs bought a ps2.  The gameplay is simple– you roll around the house/the world accumulating stuff on your little ball.  The ball gets bigger and bigger and at the end of the level the king of the cosmos throws it into the sky to become a star.  To give you an idea:

Anyway.  Before he throws it into the sky he tells you what you collected the most of and the name of the star is based on that factor.  Maybe Japanese food is what you got the most of and your star is then named Blowfish Star.  When it’s toys he calls it Bratty Star. 

In my quest for organization, I have to wonder what it is that I have the most of all over my floors.  I think it just might be laundry.  My katamari would definitely be made up of dirty laundry.  What kind of star name would that be?  Tide Star?  Polyester Star?  No, Racing Stripes Star.  Yes that is it.

I promise this is a real ad I found.  Hilarious:(and I can’t make the font up here smaller)

AMAZING BEDSHEETS - EXFOLIATE YOUR SKIN WHILE YOU SLEEP!!!

These Queen sheets are incredible! Not only are they a putrid limey green color, they are so rough that I am sure they will exfoliate your skin while you sleep, so you will awaken from your beauty sleep with smooth, baby-soft skin! (that is, if you can fall asleep!) We bought them on sale, thinking that they would be smooth and soft (yeah I know, we’re such wimps!) since they are at least 300 thread count, but nope, I think they were designed for monks to sleep in as penance. Or here’s a thought, put them on your guest bed when your mother-in-law or unemployed brother or another undesirable guest who might overstay their welcome, is coming to visit. I’m sure it will be a subtle subliminal message to them not to get too comfortable, but to go home to their own beds as soon as possible! These would also be perfect for people trying to detox… all those detox diets that recommend scrubbing your skin with a dry brush daily, to stimulate your skin to detox… who has time for that? Save a step and sleep in these sheets! What a way to multi-task! Tired of your kids climbing into bed with you in the morning and waking you up? I bet they’d stay in their own little beds if you were sleeping on THESE sheets, leaving you in peace to enjoy your exfoliating detox scrubbing slumber! And here’s the best part… you can have these sheets for free! Just come and pick them up! I’m sure they will change your life, and I’m such a nice person that I will give them to you at absolutely no charge, just for the joy and satisfaction of doing a good turn.

No, you can’t return them if you don’t like them. You pick them up, you keep them!

I promise this is a real ad I found.  Hilarious:

One of my favorite things about Engineer right now is his writing.  I love seeing him write in his journal and I love seeing what he comes up with on his kindergarten homework.  I think this is my favorite set of sentences so far:

I love that he wrote: "I am over you."  He was supposed to use the word over in a sentence.  It cracks me up.  I am over you as in, I was totally in love with you and your paste eating ways little Cynthia, but then you broke my heart… those days are gone, I am so totally over you.

(I’m sure that’s not what he was thinking, but still….)

Ever get the feeling you are being watched?

75 googly eyes don’t go as far as I thought they would.

Yeah, it’s bad we all know.  But guess what?

Shut up.

Seriously, it’s not helping.  I watched the news tonight and everything was blah blah BAD ECONOMY  blah blah the ECONOMY  blah bloo ha ha ECONOMY SUCKS.

I am so totally convinced that talking about it makes it worse.  All it does is 1.)make people depressed, 2.) scare people into NOT spending money, thus 3.) making the economy bite even more.

To me, the word news would imply NEW information.  This is old stuff, stop talking about it, move on to something NEW.

And here’s another thing, the news reported that the Metro Bus rates were going up because of… you guessed it… the economy.  I am actually not convinced that this is the case because gas prices are lower than they have been, and bus ridership is probably not down.  (Maybe it is, I don’t really know.)  But I’ve never understood the mentality of, "we’re not selling enough because money for everyone is tight, so rather than enticing new customers let’s gouge the loyal customers we have by making them pay more so we have more money."  Can anyone else see the flawed logic here?

Are you picking up what I am laying down?

I now propose an OFFICIAL BAN ON THIS BLOG.  No talking about the economy.  Unless you want to talk about how magical and happy it is.

P.S.  I have a new favorite quote, it’s from the Horton Hears a Who movie: "In my world everyone is a pony who eats rainbows and poop butterflies."  You are allowed to say those kind of lovely things about the economy in this place. 

Do you ever make assumptions about people before you’ve met them?

Charming asked me the other day if we could have his friend (we’ll call him Bus Friend for our purposes) and his fiancee over for dinner.  I said fine, nonchalantly picked a date, rescheduled later due to flooding and we ended up holding the dinner last night.

In my mind, I was a little hesitant to play hostess for a couple of reasons, the first being that the only people that ever come to our house are under four feet tall and don’t really care if my house is covered in toys, or dirt or chocolate chips.   I was slightly worried that this kidless engaged couple would see my house and be kind of judgmental about the mess.  I was mostly nervous about meeting Bus Friend’s Fiancee though because not only does she not eat meat…

She is vegan.

Which is cool.  I totally respect people who have the strength to stick to their principles.  And I was told not to worry because Bus Friend’s fiancee was bringing her own dishes so we wouldn’ have to stress.  So no worries, right? But worry I did.  Was she going to watch me eat my meat and animal products and cringe?  Would she walk past the first two uniquely clean rooms in my house and feel the need to go home and wash? Would this?  Would that? What if?  Should I?  Shouldn’t I?

And so it went until Saturday when I cleaned as much of my house as I had time for.  I made a "vegan as possible" salad and served french dips.  (Meaty I know).  I was pretty sure it would be fine, but I didn’t know what to expect.

And so Bus Friend and his fiancee came to dinner.  We had a good time.  No, we had a great time.  I learned a little bit about Bus Friend’s Fiancee’s decision to be vegan and she was very cool about us not being vegan.  Bus Friend’s fiancee brought some really tasty vegan food, she helped in the kitchen and brought some really fun games to play (including my new favorite game ever).

And she saw my dirty house and didn’t cringe.  In fact, as I apologized to her about the state of my living space, she said something that was so totally awesome I almost cried– she said my house was "full of life."

Bus Friend’s fiancee, I now dub you "Cool Girl" and you are my new BFF.

Best night of the week ever.  I love making new friends.   

I sort of like being proven wrong sometimes. 

Yesterday was a good pre-Halloween day.  I am going to tell you what we did, but first, this picture, because my children are artists.  They did this to their pumpkins and then they photgraphed it.  I think they did a pretty good job, don’t you?  They’re still in trouble for nicking my camera but…

So like any crazy preschool teacher, I decided we would take a field trip to see the great pumpkins yesterday.  I would be alone with the children and we would be walking along a semi-busy street.  Fortunately for me, I had only four children instead of six and a very clever idea for keeping them all together.

But first, since we are finishing a unit on spiders, we decided to eat our snack the way that spiders do– by drinking it.  Some were thrilled.  Some were not.  It turned out to be more of an ordeal than I had anticipated.

But c’mon how could I not take pictures of that?

So then we rounded them up and made the trip to see the big pumpkins.

They did not want to leave.  For me, this was not that entertaining of a place.  Just a stop on the road with some hay bales and big jack-o-lanterns (which are cool, don’t get me wrong.)  But for them it was endless fascination and delight.  After much whining about it being time to go, they finally trudged home like a chain gang.

And then preschool was over and Halloween Eve festivities ceased until I realized I had some costumes to hem.  Beautiful costumes made by my dear and talented mother.  The pattern had made them too long and so like the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, I found myself surrounded by pink and blue fabric, a dangerous pair of scissors in my hand, making a mess of things. 

Where the heck did I put that magic wand? 

I met some ladies at Starbucks today to do some Mary Kay stuff.  I bought 2 strawberry and creme a ma bobs and wasted about 20 nerves on the children.  But I got to laugh on the way home as my children discussed pronunciation.

Eng: Next time we go to Star Box we are going to get a pink drink.

Sug: (who’s 4) No, Star BUCKS.

Eng: Star Books?

Sug: No Star BUCKS!

Eng: Mommy is it Star Box or Star Bugs? 

Me: It’s Star Bucks.

And then he erupted with riotous laughter.

So say the people.  We were making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies tonight, and when it came time to blend, both Sugar and Engineer suggested getting a stool so they could watch and also laugh.  And sure enough as soon as I started the mixer, they both spontaneously erupted with canned laughter. 

I never realized that making cookies was so funny.

I guess it’s been a long time since I was 5.