Tuesdays with "MarMe" (#2)

I know it's kind of late but as I always say...
better late than never.

So here I go.

I have a "To Do" list and I know how to use it.

Here's my list.

1. Take down McBoy's closet door. Finally did that this afternoon.
2. Make curtain to cover McBoy's closet.
3. De-clutter McTwins closet. Lord help me now!
4. Remove door from their closet.
5. De-clutter McTwins entire bedroom. Heeelp meee.
6. Bathe the McDoggy. Oh, my spiney!
7. Go to Lowe's or Home Depot. Need 4 table legs for craft table project. (Will explain tomorrow)
8. Go to Wal-Mart and buy cheap but cute fabric to make curtain for girls' closet.
9. Post two blog posts in one day. Yeay! Finally did it! 

So that's it.

Not a huge list but that's because I like to feel like I accomplished something so I keep it small.

Few. I'm tired just thinking about it.

Well I'm off to sleep land. Talk to you later.

Happy Birthday to the Big McDaddy!!

Yes... it's the Big McDaddy's birthday!

That was him last year on my birthday weekend. 

He drives me crazy most times.... but I like him.

I like to bother him.

It's my duty and mission in life to poke him.

This must be done when he is extremely distracted. 

We bicker a lot.

We laugh at silly stuff a lot too.

It's my goal in life to tickle him someday. He's highly ticklish and guards his underarms like gold in Fort Knox. 

I like to hear him laugh... it makes me laugh.... even when I'm not in the mood to smile. 

Last year he was away with the Navy for his birthday.

I didn't get to see him or talk to him at all. I missed him much more than I expected. 

I went to church that weekend and being that it always falls on my church's anniversary there was a big celebration. 

I saw everyone with their families.

Husbands and wives together.

When I was about to go home that night it started to rain. 

I stood there alone...

and it finally hit me. I cried for the first time in forever. 

I am so thankful that I have him in my life. 

He's my BFF. 

Happy Birthday my love.

What's in YOUR purse???

After a whole week of writer's block and spending the time reading some of my fave blogs and new blogs I encountered, I was finally inspired to write. One such blog had a giveaway and part of the entry requirements was to describe what's in the bottom of your purse.

Well I went and got my purse... my only black purse... that I use for church most weekends.



It's part of my big purse collection.

In other words they're so big they can carry everything a mother needs AND the kitchen sink. (Just kidding about the sink!)

"Why not have a regular diaper bag?" you say. You see, I have a thing about matching or coordinating.

Blame my highly stylish mother who used to match even my underwear to my clothes when I was little.

So now I mostly match, coordinate or at the least blend from head to toe EVERYTHING that I'm wearing and or carrying... that includes purses. (This includes the family too... but trust me... that is a WHOLE other post.)

Early on, during my first year of motherhood, I quickly realized that the average diaper bag, with the cutesy clowns and all, does NOT go well with ANY outfit.


(Unless, that is, if YOU are dressed as a clown...


or just are too tired to care...


or don't give a rats behind because it's just a bag...


I feel ya.) 

Mind you, I'm not stuck up. I don't dress up all the time (I'm a jeans, T-shirt and flip-flops kind of gal). I'm not rich or well off in any way, shape, or form. Noooooo where close to it. Honestly, dirt poor is less than a hop, skip, and a jump away. However, Ma (my mom as I call her) also taught me that it doesn't take a lot of money to look stylish and classy.


(In my case, I'm sometimes hoping for "HOT"...


 a girl can dream can't she????)


This is why I have big purses. They were big enough to carry what a diaper bag would carry (when you realize you don't have to carry your whole ENTIRE nursery in it) and still look stylish.

Anyhow, back to the original point of this post. What was that again???
OH YEAH! What's in your purse?

Well, I picked up my purse, opened it and this is the first thing I saw...



Good old faithful. Nuff said.


And guess what??? There was another smaller one under it. It's the beat up looking thing in this coming photo. The McKids say it's small enough for mice to hold. Ma says it's small enough for mice to read.
Funny, ha ha... critics.



Ooooo, scroll back up. Did you see my pink pencil? I like it a lot. It's my fave. It has a pink eraser. It has flowers on it. It's only mine. I do not like to share wif it.

Okay I'm back from my little moment of regression to childhood.

Oooooo, wait!

Go back again.

Did you see the little travel pack of Kraft Strawberry Jelly?? I got it during a hotel stay. There's also a purple plastic butter knife right under it. There was also a bagel... but it didn't make it to church. I was hungry. It was part of my "I'm going to be at church ALL day," survival kit.
(I'll explain the all day at church thing in a later post)


There was more in there too. Did I mention that I forgot to clean out my purse after church last week?? Yeah.



Yes, that's a Ziploc bag with a Sharpie Highlighter, a mini stapler, and not visible in the photo are the two pens (one black, one purple) and a Black Sharpie Permanent Marker pen.

Could someone explain to me why do I have a Logitech headset in there???

Oh yeeeeaaah. I remember now!

See, my logic ...

(Haha! Excuse my pun... couldn't help myself)

... was that when I took my laptop to church with me (I sometimes download the church photos immediately while there) I might need it if I felt like listening to something after morning service in the afternoon. Did I forget I have three kids 8 and under?? Must have. Sigh.

Back to my purse.



So here's the list of the rest of what I found.

• A black pen and a blue pen with the pink pencil. (Yes, more pens.)
• Cherry scented oil. (Hey, a girl must smell good.)
• McBoy's "Do Rag." (For those of you who don't know, it's a type of "head/hair scarf" thingy for men/boys with "Afro" textured hair to tie it down so as not to mess up their finely coifed hairstyle. Ehem... liked the word "coifed" did ya.) 
• A handheld little gray mirror.
• A Charms Blow Pop that I took away from one of the McTwins... and completely forgot about it.
• An expired coupon (09/2009) for Children's Oscillococcinum (Homeopathic Flu meds) and Cold Calm (same for Colds)... I didn't need the coupon since they haven't been really sick for a long while. Now that's a blessing.
• A wad of brown paper towel from church.
• A used wipe. I think it was for my hands and I didn't have access to a garbage can at the moment. 
• My flash drive... just in case.
• A Cascadian Farms dark chocolate Chewy Granola bar wrapper. (It was part of my afore mentioned survival kit.)
• A pair of tweezers. 
• A decorative hair comb.
• My favorite "silver" "M" pin. 
• The wrapper for a band-aid. (McBoy fell outside on cement at church... twice... in a row... within 15 minutes.)
• My make-up and beauty kit bag. Don't get too excited. It's very small. I don't do foundation or anything. Don't like the mess and stains on clothes. It's only eye make up and lip gloss for when I feel like being very girly.... and possibly attempting to be "HOT" as was mentioned before. It also has two more tweezers... I think I can leave one at home now... and a nail file and nail clippers. Hey, broken nails are dangerous weapons.)
• Three First Class stamps. (Explain this to me. Is there a second class or third class of stamps I don't know about???)
• A ribbon napkin ring from my friend's sister's wedding.... LAST year May. Don't ask.
• Last but not least, a quarter and a penny!! WOOOHHOOO!! I'm not totally pennyless after all!! 

Can you believe that I clean my purse out quite often?? Somehow I missed the two things from last year...

....or did I just ignore them?

No clue.

The funny thing is that I DID take some things out when I went out with a smaller purse during the week, so, it's no where near as full as it would normally be.

Anyhow, I hope you can find your way out of the abyss that is my purse. 

Go find your purse. Take a look in it.... if you dare.

Then come back and share..."What's in YOUR purse??"

(By the way... here's the link to the blog, June Cleaver Nirvana, with the giveaway that inspired this post. The giveaway is for an Epiphanie women's camera bag. They're super cool, stylish, functional and PRETTY bags. Lola is sooooo calling my name... and Belle is chiming in with her! Don't forget to mention that I sent you when you go by and visit her blog!)

Blessings and love to you all!

Glass water bottles

Ok, so as I mentioned in the previous post of Tuesdays with MarMe, I went on a "get rid of all things plastic" rampage in my kitchen.

As I always do, I start any new trend with the littlest ones in the home and then work my way up to the grown ups.

It's cheaper that way. Trust me. (I'll explain later.)


I sent the McKids to school this week with glass bottles.

Recycled ones.

Noooo... I didn't get them from the garbage. All I did was buy two (actually three, in case of a mishap) items in glass bottles that I felt were heavy weight and sturdy enough to survive a couple bumps in a lunch bag.

Ok, SEVERAL bumps and bangs in a kindergartner's and two third grader's lunch bags.

Brave and daring mom aren't I.

Back to what I was saying. I got the bottles and emptied them, took the labels off and washed them.... Grandma and I drank Iced tea out of the two with the red caps... and the milk bottle looking one was a bottle of salad dressing that had finished that we washed and saved in a cabinet. It's been there for a few months waiting for a second life.

The two with the red caps belong to the girls and little man got the heavy duty "milk bottle" one. It's very solid and weighty so I figured it could handle a little rough handling better than the lighter Iced tea bottles. (By the way, the Iced Tea was organic and quite refreshing. Next time I post about the glass bottle chronicles I'll post a picture of the bottles in their original states... labels and all. ;-)) 

The bottles have been a hit with the kids. The water stay's cooler and fresher longer... well at least until backwash hits them. EEeeeuuuurrgghh!!
Hey, just keeping it real... they're kids.

I love the fact that I don't have to worry about their water as much now.

The funny thing is that now I walk around the grocery store looking at drinks and other food items in glass bottles thinking....
       "...hummmnn, I wonder if this would be a good drinking bottle??"

Oh and it hit me on Thursday that if after a week of going back and forth to school with them I feel the bottles aren't as clean as I'd like, I can STERILIZE them!! (Angels singing)
(the girls wash their own dishes..... yes Mam, they do.... I ain'ts no one's maid.)

(Boy did that thought bring back some memories of exhausting long nights sterilizing baby bottles.)

Whichever way, my world is a little bit happier now. Not only am I recycling but I'm also keeping my babies a little healthier. (((((Aaaaah))))) "I'm good."

Yep. I'm loving the glass.

Can't sleep...or don't want to??

It's late and I'm delirious soooo, this is going to be a short post... or at least I hope... (cuz I seriously need to get to bed).


I have been going to sleep extremely late every night this week. When you have to get up at 5:45am to get kids up and out of the house to get on the school bus in the morning, logically you SHOULD be going to sleep early. Well, such is not the case for me. I mean, it's not as if this is all that strange to be up at almost 2am.... not for me that is. I'm a night owl. Night is the only time I can get lost in another world, whether it be through the TV or visiting my favorite blogs. The problem is that I realize I do this more when hubby is away.

I can take a nap alone in my bed during the day without an issue (getting the chance to do so is a whole other story!) but at night it's just different. You see, Mr. McDaddy and I have been married for 10 years now and in those ten years we never spent more than a short weekend away from each other... until he joined the Navy Reserves. Everything has changed drastically since. This is why he's away. He's doing the two week requirement thingy. One weekend every month is required also and then of course the two week thing I just mentioned. I know, he's "only" a Reservist, but it still requires a huge sacrifice... from all of us. (Like when he was in boot camp and I felt as if I had been abandoned.... we'll chat about that later.)

Over the years our relationship has been tested through many trials... no real honeymoon, unexpected twin pregnancy after only 15 months of marriage. Me having to be on home bed rest and eventually hospitalized due to pre-term labor during said pregnancy. Having to give up our little apartment and move back in with my mother to deal with the rising hospital bills from having to stay there from March through June. This was all in the first two years of marriage. Things continued to be relentlessly challenging to this day. In spite of it all, we stuck it through. We took marriage very seriously (and still do) as a lifetime covenant.

(Ok, so this is turning into a long post... Lord help me!)

Like any other long term relationships, there are the ups and downs but the ups are what keep you going. Ups can be the simplest and silliest little things. For example, I like to pester him sometimes (who am I kidding...most times) when he's on his laptop every night. You know, "accidentally" bump into him as I walk by wherever he's sitting (usually the floor) or lying down. Occasionally, (ok, ok, almost always) I tap the back of his neatly shaved bald head. It's there.... right in my face... just calling me to tap it... or old school "mush" it. (lol) I also like to poke him. Any part of him that I can quickly poke as I'm walking by will do. Underarms are my faves though....(although he's very serious and the strong and silent type, he's also highly ticklish). He doesn't like being tickled....I love his reaction though... my hand can't come within two feet of those underarms without the manly "don't tickle me giggle" coming out along with the serious face trying to scare me off. Punk!  (Tickle me half to death both won't let me near yah? Ok, fine! Count your days buddy.... your time is almost up!)


Anyhow, back to my point. I realize now that I'm still working through this whole change. No matter how many hours he has ever worked (and anyone of my close friends knows he's worked some crazy long hours... esp when he was in his MBA program and working two jobs) he has always come home at some point at night. Now for the independent, raised by a single mom and was a latchkey kid in the 80's who had to grow up fast and take care of herself and do everything at home that a boy would normally do, kind of girl that I am realizing that I'm dependent on somebody is a very hard pill to swallow. I realize, it's not that I can't go to sleep on nights like these... I guess, subconsciously, I don't want to. Don't get me wrong, I can tighten my belt and hold down the fort extremely efficiently myself... including mowing the lawn myself. But I have to admit, I sleep more soundly when he's here. I can feel my spirit is at ease at night just by his physical presence. I feel safer. I even admit to having had a nightmare and upon waking from it I have scooted  over to his side of the bed to make body contact... and then I can sleep again.

My high school BFF and I were just talking about this last month.... how she felt the same way. Ironically her hubby is also a Navy Reservist. When she told me that he was getting deployed to the Middle East I felt a lump in my throat. I felt her pain. We talked on the phone, texted, emailed, Facebooked, Fb-mailed... anything to deal with the impending feeling of doom. Hey, just keeping it real. I know there are families facing worse situations than ours, but it still doesn't make our pain any less valid.

As for now, I go to face my eerily silent room and empty bed. Who would have thought that I would actually miss having to poke him (yet more poking...lol) when he snores occassionally, or when I realized there was an elbow by my head. Nope, nothing.... just a bunch of pillows and me. Pure exhaustion will put me out so I won't have to think about it much. At least it's only two weeks.

Some day a real deployment may come for McDaddy... it's almost inevitable. I just pray for strength for whenever that day comes.

Thanks for listening...
Goodnight/good morning, God bless...
Sincerely,
Sleepless in Florida

It's just a plain white bowl

In my kitchen is a pair of white serving bowls. They're very heavy... old school type that can go from oven to table.

It's amazing how something so simple can be so beautiful. It's just a plain white bowl.

Sometimes I put one out on the table or island in my kitchen to display it. Not for anyone in particular. Just for my own enjoyment.

Every now and then when I pass by it I stop to stare at it.

I like to tap it too just to hear the sound it makes. A soft resonating "clink" that seems to travel along it's lines.

Why does it fascinate me so??

Maybe, with all the "busy" things in my life that have so many sounds, colors, buttons and graphics, something as simple as a plain white unassuming bowl speaks to my soul.

Quiet, simple, still, serene.

Sigh...where'd my newborn go????

(*Disclaimer.... Old photos were shot with basic point and shoot digicam... LONG before I owned my Canon DSLRs.)

"Oh where, oh where did my newborn go????" Wasn't it just YESTERDAY that he was born??

Here in Florida school starts in August and for us that meant that McBoy's first official day of Kindergarten would also fall on his 5th birthday. His teacher is very sweet and thoughtful so she gave him a crown to wear in school all day. He was sooooo very proud of it!

When I got home from dropping him off I downloaded this photo along with the others I took. While scrolling through the photos, I took a look at his baby photos and took a deep sigh. Where did all the time go? Seriously... I just had him no more than a year ago! He tells me, "I'm 5 now Mama! And I'm a BIG boy....not a baby!

I hear nothing....

all I see is this...

... my little 5 day old McBaby Boy.

He tells me "I'm a man now Mama!" (lol)

I understand nothing....

I think of this...

.... my 5 week old McChunky Monkey.

Yes, I said 5 weeks. I breastfed and made enough milk to feed triplets... he tried to consume it all.

Sigh. It was only yesterday.

Tuesdays with "MarMe"

Ironically, as I wrote the title to my new page, attempting to pay homage to "Tuesday's with Morrie," I realized I nicknamed myself "MarMe", which reminds me of what the girls in "Little Women" called their mom. It happens to be one of my all time favorite movies.

Anyhoooo, back from the whirlwind that is my mind.... I have a few thoughts to share this morning.

1. I'm sooooo very tired, SLEEPY and won't for the life of me go back to sleep. My mind will not just SHUT UP so I can sleep. Maybe staying up till 3 am didn't help when I knew dern well that I had to get up at 6 am to get the McKids off to school on the bus this morning. Just a thought. (Yes, d-e-rn, I know it's misspelled but it just has a better ring that way. ;-))
2. The McDaddy is off for his two week Reservists duty. What does that mean for us? Two weeks without a Daddy or a car. ((((SIGH)))) Having one car really sucks sometimes.... who am I kidding, it sucks ALL the time. Urgh. Lord PLEEEEEEEEEASE provide our family with a second vehicle (van/suv) that fits our entire family (with some extra room), is reliable, safe to drive and if at all possible, fun to drive and by some form of a miracle PAID OFF.
3. The McFishies have some form of a fungal infection. Poor Scarfish has been holding on for weeks now meanwhile his broke human mama can't do a thing for him. Uuuuurgh, hate seeing any creature suffer (unless it's a spider or roach... but that's a whole other story).
4. This economy is killing me... need help. Calling on Jesus.
5. Plastic, Plastic, PLASTIC!! It's everywhere. You know, the more you read, research and learn, the more you end up wanting to scream. Take a look at this article, "5 Ways to Keep BPA Out of Your Food," and we'll chat more about it in a later post. But in the meantime, guess what?? I went on a plastic raid in my kitchen and dumped most of it. I will eventually weed the rest out. Oh and the McKids now have glass bottles for their water. I'll see how it goes. I threatened their very existence this weekend and this morning about not playing with the bottles, kicking or dropping their lunch bags, or letting anyone else do any of the afore mentioned things. Yes, I know you're thinking about the whole aluminum bottles rave, but those are a whole other evil. "What about the steel ones?" you say. Well, that would be nice but then they cost an arm and a leg and water sitting on metal for hours on end doesn't sound too "Kosher" to me either. Like I said, I'll see how the whole glass bottles thing goes this week and since health and toxins is a HUGE issue for me we'll have to chat more about it later.
6. Got to give the McDoggy a bath today.....((((((((((((((((SIGH)))))))))))))))). My spine is seizing up at the mere thought of it. (She won't be too thrilled about it either. Refer to the "Nah ah, not me" face above. lol!)
7. I have so much to do today but I will not let it get me down. One thing at a time.... one accomplishment at a time.

I may actually post more than one post today (huge GASP! lol). Oh and I promise to write every single day, even if it's only a short little hello note. I'm glad to be back in the swing of things and I'm looking forward to a great relationship with all of you out there.