Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Sew What

Jason and I were finishing up the Polar Express when I got to thinking about Jake's Boy Scouts uniform and how it needs its patches sewn on. Not well skilled in the way of sewing, I asked Jason if I should take it to a tailor to have his patches sewn on. He laughed at me. I don't sew. Never have, never will. Jason tried to sell me on "that's what Boy Scout Moms do", but not this mom, so I suggested that he do it. To which he replied:

Jason: "Do you want your boys to grow up to be boys?"
Cori: "Yes."
Jason: "Then don't let them watch Daddy sew."

I think I'll have Oma do it while she's here.

The Calm

The house is quiet, except for the sounds coming from my laundry room. The boys are at grandma's. Jason is at work. I am home to clean and prepare for the storm* that is my parents' arrival tonight.





*Don't get me wrong. I like storms and I love my parents. Just saying here people, is that my house is now quiet, but after tonight, with 5 more people in it for the next 10 days it won't be.

This is how you repay me?

Around midnight last night I threw in the towel on cleaning in preparation for my parents' arrival today. (I still have quite a bit to do today, but am currently debating a Starbucks run in my jammies to fuel up for today's workload.) Every night before bed, Jason or I go check on the boys to make sure they are warm enough, that they are facing the right direction on their beds and that they aren't sleeping on the floor or in the closet. Last night Jason was out with a friend, so I went in to make sure all was right in their world.

As soon as I opened the door, my nose went into overdrive. Sniff, sniff, is that what I think it is? I hope not, sniff sniff. I go straight to Harrison and stick my nose to his bum. Yep, poop. Super. I leave to get wipes and a new pullup. Turn the closet light on. Then go over to begin the hazmat process of cleaning him out of his own filth and into something fresh. (I did think about leaving him in it to make him sore the next day - that'll teach him - but it was midnight and I wasn't in the mood for teaching lessons about personal hygiene to my 4 year old.)

So Harrison is lying on his right side, facing me and is wearing a one piece footed sleeper with dinosaurs on it. These jammies make this even more of a pickle than it already is because now I can't just slide his pants off and clean him up discreetly, I have to unzip, pull his arms out, pull his legs out and tear off the pullup to keep the #2 in place. I do all of that, holding his legs in the air, I turn to grab some wipes and, what's that? My thigh suddenly feels warm and wet and NOW I can hear the ssssssss sound that is Harrison's PEE escaping in full force. Yep, I'm being peed on. While having flashbacks of his newborn days, I quickly react by covering his offending tool with the wipes. All this does is cause the pee to go down and get his jammies and his sheets all wet. (Now I'm rethinking letting him sleep in it next time.)

Harrison, in his half awake stupor, lets me finish wiping him, but then immediately gets in the fetal position and tries to roll over and go back to sleep. I grab a towel from the closet, pull the jammies away, Harrison rolls again to try to go to sleep, I pick him up, lay the towel down to cover the wet spot (I draw the line here - I am NOT going all out to change his sheets too.) and lay Harrison back down, he rolls again to try to go back to sleep, I put him back on his back to get his clean pullup on and I give up on putting new jammies on him, so I cover him with three layers of blankets and call it a night.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Got Gas?

"Mama, if you put gas in your pants, would it make you fly?"

--Jake

Monday, December 15, 2008

Watch Your Fingers

I finally mailed my Christmas cards today in the blue post office box and I got to thinking....

.....I wonder what is the weirdest thing a mailman has found in a mailbox.

I could think of some weird things to put in a mailbox.

Monday's Many Faces

Yesterday morning Harrison was a puppy dog in his underwear.
Yesterday afternoon Harrison was telling us he wanted to get a motorcycle (to Jason's dread), but that he would be very very careful on it.
Today Harrison stared at the washing machine, yelling at it to "stop" or "go" as though he had the magic to make it happen.
Then he built the "leaning tower of pisa" out of his legos until it collapsed into pisa rubble.
Ten minutes later he was a bat.

Now he's a 4 year old boy watching the Grinch.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Ridin' Dirty

I don't know how it escaped me. Not just for days or weeks, but months.....nearly six months to be exact.

I was enjoying a little chuckle from the hokey elves I created from the www.ElfYourself.com website today at work when my coworker, Nicole, walked by and asked if I knew my car registration and inspection were expired. She admitted that because hers were expired too that she's noticing that stuff on other people's cars too.

A conversation in my head went a little something like this:

NO! That can't be right. Jason always takes care of that stuff. I don't remember ever changing the sticker on my window or seeing the reminder come in the mail. Maybe Jason just did it and I never saw it. No that wouldn't happen either. Jason always makes a point to tell me when he's doing something for me, especially when it comes to my car, which isn't his and he doesn't feel he should have to take care of these things. I should go look at it. Nicole has admitted she has "old lady eyes".

I go outside to check my stickers. Sure enough - vehicle registration expired in JUNE! Inspection, thankfully, is still ok. It doesn't expire until the end of the month, so with the grace period I can still skirt by for about 3 more weeks on that one.

Back in the office Nicole is giving me the run down of where I need to go if I'm in Dallas County like her (which I am not) and that I can ride with her tomorrow when she goes to take care of her car registration. Since I am not in Dallas County and don't have a friendly sidekick to share my legal woes with, I research online where I need to go for Collin County and find that lo and behold! Its only 2.5 miles away! I'm excited by this, but also feel like even more of a loser for not doing this sooner since its in my back yard.

Upon announcing that fact, Joey, our copywriter, who has witnessed this discovery from his open office, encourages me to disappear to take care of it NOW because although I've gotten away with it for 6 months, now that I'm aware of it, I am GOING TO GET PULLED OVER. He's right. Its karma or dogma or murphy's law or whatever belief system you follow - its that.

I call the tax office to make sure the registration isn't paid and somehow my sticker just got lost in the mail. I'm still in disbelief that I've overlooked this very important annual update. Nope, I'm 100% expired, but with my insurance card and my checkbook (what? who uses a checkbook anymore?) I can get it taken care of prontisimo!

Now I'm thinking about my insurance card. Our insurance policy gets renewed every May and November. I don't remember putting a new card in my glove box. Ten bucks says that damn card is expired too! Back out to the car to confirm my suspicions........I pull out my recent oil change receipt, an old insurance card from May 2007, warranty receipt from my speaker replacement a few weeks ago (because getting a distorted speaker replaced is an URGENT matter), and yep, my most recent insurance card that expired on 11/20/08. DAMMIT!

Joey shakes his head at me and asks if my kids are still wearing burlap sacks as underwear. ???? I'm mildly embarrassed because this is shocking to me - I've never let this happen before (to this degree). Last time this happened, it was my expired inspection that was only about 3 months late and the nice policeman was the informant. He only charged me about $200 to tell me that.

Odds are he'll find me again in the morning when I'm on my way to the tax office on my way to work.

Friday, December 05, 2008

I'm Baaaaack

Thinking about getting back into blogging again. If you're receiving an email update about this post its because you've ridden my a%& in the past about not posting enough. 

If you've changed your mind, forgotten my number, forgotten my NAME or just decided that reading anything on the internet is a complete waste of time, please shoot me an email to "opt out" and I'll take you off my very long email list. Really its very long. I have a lot of readers and am very important. 

By the way, if you do want to "opt out", you won't hurt my feelings, so go ahead. Let me know. I can take it. Now's your chance. You've got about 12-24 hours before I press on, full speed ahead, so don't say I didn't warn you.

My Review of Fisher Price Imaginext Spike, the Ultra Dinosaur

Originally submitted at Toys R Us

He walks, he blinks, he growls: he's Spike, the Ultra Dinosaur! This remote-controlled robot dinosaur comes to life with the touch of a button. With the easy-to-use remote control, kids can make him stand on his hind legs, walk forward and turn right and left, open his mouth, and lie down. He ...

I Was Surprised

By Harrison's Mom from Dallas, TX on 12/5/2008

 

5out of 5

Pros: Realistic Movement, Multiple Functions, Easy to Control

Best Uses: Young Children

Describe Yourself: Education Oriented, Parent Of Two Or More Children, Working Parent

This was a grandparent gift for my son's 4th birthday. I honestly thought he would think it was cool for 5 seconds and get bored with it. I couldn't have been more wrong. He treats it like a pet and he's made a bed for it and he's given it a personality - who it likes, who it doesn't like, who it wants to bite, whether it wants its teeth brushed or not, etc.
The remote control is perfect for little hands and very easy to use. Its not so great for big hands. Really, people with big hands should stay away from this delicate plastic machinery and NOT make it chase your spouse, significant other, mother in law down the hallway threatening to have your left butt cheek for lunch. The rechargeable battery is nice and it does shut off automatically after a few minutes of inactivity (he starts to snore as he nods off to "sleep", or was that Jason when he was sick? I'll need to run a test of the "snoring" again. I think it snores.) to save battery life.
Though I never would have forked over the money for this gift, it does make a great grandparent gift if you're looking for the perfect wow present and a way to outdo the other grandparents. :)

(legalese)

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The Biggest Waste of Time

I'm sitting at the kitchen table, toggling between IM chatter, creating a sales presentation for a client and periodically checking my email, all the while I really have to go to the bathroom (#1, not #2 sickos), but can't seem to find a synchronous spot in my multitasking to break away.

I am dancing in my seat to music that doesn't exist. When I realize I look just like Harrison did about 3 hours earlier while he played with this toys on the floor, I put my grown up hat on and just go to the bathroom.

I sit down and I notice the very large mound of toilet paper that has been unwound from the roll and is lying in a heap on the ground just below the roll, held securely to the roll by several squares. I begin to reroll the toilet paper because its nearly a whole damn roll and as I'm re-rolling nearly an ENTIRE roll of toilet paper back onto the holder, I realize......

....this is the biggest waste of time ever. I have just lost 30 seconds of my life that I will never get back to save .75.

Wow.

My Latest Wo-mance

A coworker sent this link to me (click on the title) and I love this woman. 

Such a way with words.......

I think I should check my husband's trunk.

Not Rated E

Last week I received this comment about my blog from my good friend, Jennifer, "Oh my...almost peed myself reading your blogs...you are a great writer....very funny Cori! Love it!" (Sorry, Jen, for not obtaining your consent for the use of your comment as a blog testimonial, but well, these things just come to me and I gotta roll with it. I'll take it off if you really want to be a prude about it.)

Anyway, when I started this thing a couple of years ago, I had no idea I would develop a very short list of readers who actually email me looking for new material to read. The key to this post is that while the list is in fact, very short, these people get me and they encourage me to keep going. 

I really try not to offend people in my posts, but I do acknowledge that how I see (and write) things is not for everyone. While most of my posts do end up being about the boys, I try to twist it in a way that makes even people without kids want to read it, so its not just sappy mom speak that only my mother and me would appreciate. Who wants to read that crap?

I've been told I should be a writer and I have to admit I have contemplated the concept, fully knowing that NO ONE would really pay MONEY to read my thoughts, but its nevertheless a thought I haven't thrown out with the stinky garbage (just placed on a pile of "to look at later" material).  When my company launched a new corporate website, fully loaded with a blog that all employees were supposed to contribute to, I thought, well, I can do this.

So, I've written two posts, that remain as drafts, unpublished and now dusty. The first I tried to make it relevant to marketers and serious and professional and businesslike (even though we are promoting a new internal "antiboredom campaign"). The second, I wrote more like me, rants about my experiences as a consumer, but that too sits on the shelf. 

I try not to let it get to me, especially when comments like Jen's come through. It just makes me realize that I am not rated E (for everyone) and I don't really want to be.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Dr. Jake & Mr. Happy, Hug My Peet & Other Weekend Tidbits

Jake is a fantastic kid - smart, sweet, creative, quiet and imaginative. He has lots of friends and never seems to have trouble socializing in many kid friendly environments. This is why I was surprised to walk into El Fenix on Wednesday "enchilada night" and found Jake clinging in fear to Jason's leg, while he Jason and Harrison waited for our table. He only parted himself from Jason enough to move toward gripping my hips and hiding behind me. When I turned around to ask him what was wrong, his wide eyes would only look down until I forced him to look at me, and then he'd just look around me at the other groups of people waiting for their tables. He was very adamant that everyone was looking at him and it scared him. We only waited about five minutes before we had him secured in a booth, but he was so bothered by his trauma in the lobby that he wouldn't even eat. I had a hard time understanding this was the same kid who just the day before was leading his friends in pool races and fell down in silliness with his tongue hanging out when he got hit with a beach ball. Tonight Jake had Harrison laughing on the potty while he pretended to be a dog who kept running into the wall. Then he moved on to a new audience (Jason and me) while he threw his dirty socks in his closet, one at a time and said "score" both times. Jason and I laughed, both of us thinking, "where does he get this stuff?"

We know where Jake gets his potty mouth - definitely his mom. Yes, I'll admit it. I don't do much to filter my language around the kids. I'm trying to improve that parental failure, but we socialize so much at the house unexpectedly, it just comes out. I know, I know, bad excuse. So, this weekend when Jake was trying to turn the television on and couldn't do it, he blurted out, "This damn tv won't turn on." Jason corrected his colorful choice of words.....and then reminded me that "the boys are listening."

Harrison is a boy with spunk. He does his own thing and follows his own rules, which I keep trying to replace with my rules, but he's feisty and I dig it, because he's well, a mini me of me. Most of the time his energy is a Harrison-ized version of Jake's imagination, but sometimes he comes up with things on his own that make Jason and me look at each other in disbelief that he is really only 3 years old.  This afternoon we were all by the pool and someone wanted juice. Jason sent Harrison into the house to get juiceboxes for everyone. He didn't say how many, but just to get them. I was shocked when Harrison came out with 4 juices. I'm not claiming this makes him a genius or even on par with his peers, but it sure surprised me that he came out with 4 all at one time. I would have expected him to come out with two, hand them out and then realize he needed two more. Perhaps I don't give him enough credit. 

Then, on a lighter note, tonight at bedtime, Jason and I told the kids good night. We hugged, kissed and tucked Jake into bed and then moved over to Harrison. While Jake was lying head on pillow and body under covers, Harrison was lying on his back, crosswise on his bed with his legs in the air and he demanded that Jason and I give him "peet (feet) hugs" and "peet kisses". Then he wanted no covers and would not lie his head down on his pillow. His own rules......

Saturday, July 05, 2008

My house

Its Saturday, 9:37am. 

I am sitting on my very very comfortable couch, laptop in lap, jammies on listening to my house.

The boys are upstairs playing. Nicely I can only assume by the occasional scream of excitement that escapes Harrison from time to time. Don't hear anything from Jake, but he's likely doing something to squeeze those screams out of Harrison.

When I started this, Jason was asleep and the house was otherwise quiet. Now, he's in the kitchen, running water for coffee, banging cups together while his barefeet slap slap slap on the wood floors. He clears his throat. Puts the unused coffee grounds back in the fridge and takes a long swig straight from the opened gatorade bottle he started yesterday. He is in his "sexy" blue satin boxer shorts that at some point had light silver hula girls on it, but through many washings they are simply blue boxer shorts. The hula girls have gone. Closer inspection from the couch reveals that they are also, in fact, inside out. He calls them "sexy". There's nothing sexy about his junk swaying unrestricted all over the kitchen. More clothes please. Please! On he goes to get in the shower.

(Harrison is laughing a deep throaty laugh that make you want to check on him to make sure he's breathing ok.)

Behind me, outside I can hear hammering of nails to wood on a house that is being built behind me.

The coffee maker gurgles. Steam. More gurgles. I smell my morning cup in production.

"Dad-dy," Harrison comes down the stairs and whines. Back to laughing. 

The world is right again.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Harrison Columbus Discovers A New World

Harrison and Jake are great brothers, but as any parent of multiple children will tell you, no two siblings are alike. 

Jake is sweet and gentle. Harrison is aggressive and rough. 

Jake is artistic. Harrison is technology savvy. 

Jake never played with himself unless he was "holding it" from going potty. Harrison has been playing with himself since he was an infant. Anytime his diaper was off, his hand went south. Sitting in the tub, he'd have one hand on himself and the other on a toy. He especially likes wearing underwear now because he can get a hold of it now whenever he wants it and its usually so often, I think he has to go potty all day and is "holding it" like Jake did. 

Nope. He just likes to make sure its still there.

Recently after a bath, though, he explored a little further into the Old World and discovered a New World. I dried him off in his bedroom and scrounged in his closet for jammies. Then I knelt down to help him get dressed. He was squeezing and twisting and moving his junk around so much and then began to look up at the ceiling in deep thought. "Mama, this is my penis," Harrison reminds me. "Yes, buddy, that is your penis," I say to enforce that I heard him correctly. Still looking up at the ceiling he says, "Mama, there's um, there's BALLS in there!" "Yes," I say through giggles, "there ARE balls in there. Now go tell Daddy what you found. I think he would like to know about your discovery."

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Summon the Troops

The time is coming.

They are coming. 

We don't know how many or who they are, but it will be big.

Big driveway is coming soon. 

Kenny arrives on Saturday, March 29th from the Philippines.

Luke's arrival is imminent from Iraq outprocessing.

JJ is here from Pennsylvania and waiting.

The rest are waiting for the call. The call to action. The call to arrive.


Tuesday, February 26, 2008

iLove iPhone

I'm sitting here blogging, while watching Jay Leno's "headlines" and an iPhone commercial came on. 

I don't care how often I've seen the commercial, everytime an iPhone commercial comes on, I have to watch it from beginning to end. Its just a fascinating piece of technology.

I turned to Jason when the commercial was over and said, "I wonder how hard it is for people with fat fingers to use an iPhone. Wouldn't it get frustrating trying to push the little buttons if your fingers are fat? You know you would probably consistently push the wrong buttons by mistake."

Jason simply smiles and says, "Guess you won't be getting an iPhone."


Pee-ling the Paint

The time: 9:15 a.m. The place: our house. 

Harrison and I were packing up his backpack getting ready to leave for Harrison's speech class. Socks? Check. Shoes? Check. Keys? Check. Class folder and backpack? Check, check. Harrison go potty? Nope. 

"Harrison, you need to go potty before we leave."
"Ok." He walks into the bathroom. I go in after him to help him pull his pants down and subsequently pull his shirt up so it doesn't get in the way of his steady stream. He relaxed and released a stream that could have won a water shooting carnival game contest. Went nowhere near the toilet, in the toilet or even around the toilet. No, it hit the wall. By the time he redirected his hips down toward the toilet, he was virtually done. 

Super. So, my focus to save time and not have to change his peed on shirt, became an even bigger situation when I suddenly had to grab the paper towels and bleach cleaner, all the while I'm praying the cleaner won't discolor the green paint on the walls.

The time: 12:10 pm. The place: home again.

Lunch is over. I'm cleaning up the dishes and Harrison suddenly runs toward the bathroom, explaining, "I go potty real quick."

"Ok, Harrison, point your penis DOWN so you don't pee on the wall."

I believe Harrison only heard, "...pee on the wall." When I went in to check on him, he was pulling up his pants and grinning at the new yellow paint he added to the wall to the right of the toilet. He might as well have had his hands on his hips and his hips thrust out while he wrote his name - first and last - on the wall.

The clean up supplies and ritual played out earlier in the day was duplicated, with the same result - a newly cleaned bathroom........

........and bleach cleaner does NOT affect the color of latex wall paint. The silver lining to my Tuesday cloud.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

A Bold Move

Just want to give a shout out to Brian, the owner of Asado's Mexican Grill for agreeing to sponsor Harrison's blastball team, Orange Crush.

Brian introduced himself to Jason and me while we were having dinner there one night. He seemed like a really cool dude and when I found out our team needed a sponsor, he's the first person I thought of. So I called him Friday and he couldn't have been nicer. He said he sponsors six or seven other teams and would be happy to sponsor Harrison's team. 

If you haven't eaten at Asado's yet, I highly recommend it. The food is great and we really need to support Brian - we would hate to see a great local business disappear.




A Memory Recorded

Bedtime for the boys.

Jason and I are telling them good-night. Each taking turns with the boys. 

Jason's turn with Harrison. He lingers a bit while Harrison scratches Jason's face and immediately follows by wiping his own face (cheeks). Jason calls it "stealing his rough". Harrison likes to "steal Daddy's rough".


To Translate Literally

Jason and I took the boys to Dallas to meet Charlie and Kim for dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant, Alfredo's. (Alfredo's is closing and we're in the fetal position sucking our thumbs wondering where we're going to get great Italian food from now on, so if anyone has any suggestions, we're taking them. Please let me spare anyone from mentioning Olive Garden - that is NOT great Italian food - so let me just preface this request with REAL Italian food.)

Anyway, on to the point of this post.....

We were sitting at a round table which held all six of us comfortably. We were enjoying our bread, stuffed mushrooms, mussels, adult beverages and salad, visiting occasionally with Mario, the owner or someone else Charlie knew. Harrison was eating everything offered to him, with numerous extra helpings of bread. Jake wouldn't eat anything except the bread. I teased Jake a bit about Harrison eating all of his food and that he was going to get bigger than Jake. 

Jake never can quite wrap his brain around that concept - that his brother could potentially (and probably will) be bigger than he will - because he knows he is older and always will be older.

I continued to tease him a bit by saying, "Aw, come on, Jake, you're not going to let your brother eat you under the table, are you?" Jake had no clue what that really meant, but just shook his head in an effort to respond.

Meanwhile, Harrison had grabbed his bread, pushed his chair back and was sitting literally "under the table" eating his bread. I had no idea he was even listening to me.

I forgot 3 year olds are still just learning the English language. The literal parts are hard enough, but to throw in the slang phrases, its just too much. He didn't quite understand why Kim and I were laughing and pulling him out from under the table.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

St. Valentine Called The Tooth Fairy

Valentine's Day morning I slithered out of bed to the boys' bedroom to make sure they were awake. I was greeted by a newly snaggle toothed Jake who had lost a bottom front tooth that suddenly appeared loose just two days earlier. He showed the tooth to me, protected in a small toy treasure chest. Phew, according to Jake, he can now start 1st grade in the fall with his other snaggle toothed friends.

Meanwhile Harrison was parading around in the background in his pajama shirt and pull up, announcing his success at peeing in the toilet that morning.

A great day so far.......

......that ended with Jason installing my Valentine's present on my car - a flowmaster exhaust. He knows me so well - its actually what I wanted. 

(Note - On Monday evening, I walked into a local grocery store to find a man, possibly in his 60s, waiting for me. He said, "Miss, not only does your car look good, but it sounds good too. Really, it sounds great." After thanking him, he continued on, to do his shopping.)

Monday, February 11, 2008

The Humble Approach

I come to you, humbly, head bowed and silently apologizing, begging forgiveness for my neglect of this site. Hard to believe its been nearly two months since I've visited here and left my mark, but the holidays beat me down, sat on me and locked me in a closet to the point where I willingly wanted to hibernate until all things red and green were safely in hiding, boxed in the attic until Mix 102.9 starts playing Bing Crosby's White Christmas again.

So, what's new? Guess I'll break it down by person (for simplicity).

Jake
Jake liked the first week of his first Christmas break from school. As soon as Christmas was over he was begging to go back to school and see his friends. His New Year's resolution was to stay on green in 2008, which means good behavior. He's five weeks into the year and he's stayed on green every day. I told him it looks like a forest in his folder, so every day he comes home with a new green, we say he's added a new tree to the forest. Jason wants to do something special for him if he stays on green the whole six weeks......something kid focused, like Chuck E Cheese, mini golf, bowling or a movie. Luckily I usually decide and my pick is to taxi Jake to Target and let him buy a toy with his Christmas gift cards he hasn't spent yet. Quick, easy and Mama doesn't have to dodge 500 other people's kids, their germs, sticky hands and pizza sauce faces. Gross.

Side note - Jake also learned how to ride his two wheeler and its been fun to go on family bike rides while he rides along side of us. Hard to believe he'll be 7 this year. 

Harrison 
Harrison has started his speech classes through the Wylie School District to help get him caught up from spending his first two years hearing like he was under water. Its definitely my kind of therapy for him - small classes, close to home, preschool environment, free time for me while's he's there two days a week and free. He is the only boy among 7 other girls and seems to love going to the big school like Jake does. Jason and I have already seen tremendous improvement in him - so much we're ready to play the "let's see who can be quiet the longest" game. 

Side note - Harrison will be playing blastball (t-ball for 3-4 year olds) if I can convince Jason to step up and volunteer as a head coach. His league is short 4 volunteers.

Jason
Jason just turned 31. No huge celebrations this year though. He spends his nights in the driveway drinking beer with Kenny almost every night, so I've started calling them boyfriends. Bothers Jason, but when he's running to his cell phone every night when the routine text message from Kenny comes through asking him to come out and play, its a little bit odd. Jason is making bi monthly trips to NY for work and I jokingly accused him of having another family up there until New Year's came when he needed to go up and invited me to come along.

Cori
Jason took me with him on a business trip to NYC for New Year's. We stayed at a hotel in Times Square, but decided that on such a short trip, I'd rather do a little sight seeing than spend most of my time shoulder to shoulder with dirty strangers in Times Square for six hours waiting for the ball to drop. So, instead we saw Ground Zero, Rockefeller Center, Fifth Avenue and the Statue of Liberty. We ate a great dinner and turned the tv on during the countdown, muted it and opened the window to our room to listen to the noise live. It was different to be there and I would say I'd like to go back, but not with the kids for a long time. Too dirty, noisy and fast paced for small children. The cabbies are scary enough.

I finished up my stay at home mom career on January 20th. January 21st I began working for Vialuna Group (www.vialunagroup.com) in downtown Plano as an Account Manager. This is probably my dream job, next to working for BMW, and here's why:
>Office is 15 minutes from home
>I have been given the flexibility to get Harrison to his speech classes, so I am able to work from home two days a week
>I can wear ratty jeans and a baseball hat to work - even on Mondays - my boss gives me shit if I wear a suit to work - makes him nervous, like I have an interview or something
>Everyone is young, oldest person is like 36
>I get the week off between Christmas and New Year's and it doesn't count toward my annual vacation, Fridays off in July and August and office closes at 12 on Fridays in December
>My coworkers are friendly and helpful
>Office hours are 8:30"ish" to 5:30"ish", so there's no one taking mental notes of our whereabouts if someone is 20 minutes late
>My job itself is cool - my office is full of toys and cool objects from campaigns we've done in the past and are working on now
>I work with 4 aggies

Can't say enough great things about my job. Its quite a bit different than what I was doing before, but its fun and I'm lovin' it.

The only drawback is my gym schedule has dwindled.

Other News
My brother, JJ, is moving to Dallas!!!! We are all very excited about that. He'll be staying with us until he finds a job and then decide where he wants to live. Part of my master plan to get my parents down here too.

Got a new dryer. Its a fancy looking front loader, with the glass door and everything, but my old kenmore washer looks like an underdressed party crasher at a black tie affair. Jason is suspicious. If the washer turns up dead in the next 3 months, he's going to suspect sabotage. Anyone know of a dryer hit man for hire who knows how to keep his mouth shut and dispose of the evidence carefully?

I know these "catch up" emails are boring and I'll try to be better about blogging about the day to day stuff that I find humor in. A little late to the table, but perhaps that's my NY's resolution - at least weekly blog posts. We'll see if I can have the discipline my 6 year old has about his 2008 promise.

Will I get to go to Chuck E Cheese if I'm good?