113 hours...

I am a work-a-holic by nature, I must admit I get this from my parents and I want to be a proud mother who can say my son knows I bust my butt for him. Can I just say working 113 hours over the last two weeks has really gotten to me this time? I am so exhausted that I honestly can say I can not think straight.

Why do I work this hard? You mean other than the work ethics my parents have put into me? It is because I don't want to be one of those people that just has things handed to them. I know I should accept the help when it is offered but I just can't get it through my head, I would rather me be the one who does or gets what I want. This is my down fall when it comes to guys in my life, they don't seem to want a girl who can do it on their own and as much as I might regret it I would prefer to call my dad to help me over a guy.

Oh I am sure there is a man out there that is willing to put up with this but he has yet to be found. Can I say though the boy is willing and ready for me to date, he has directed me to web dating and thinks that is a good thing, it will come with time I just need to get the work out of me.

Christmas treats, yum, yum...

I am really bummed I won't get to eat any tonight and the boy can't wait himself. I need to make a few packages to send out to som of my employees out of the state, I want to make sure it gets to them in time and before they take time off for the holidays.

I love these chocolate haystacks that we had as growing up, I remember helping my mom make them and they would really only be made over the Christmas holiday. As I was making them tonight H yelled out "I know what you're making, they are sooooo good, you're making extra for us right?". And I also made some chocolate covered pretzels.

I am excited to have some tomorrow, hopefully we are able to package some up before we eat them all.

Megamind Mega Fun Night...

Code can Dreamworks make a bad movie? Code I don't think so. Even what you would call their worst (other's opinion not my own) it was Cars and really I think that was a great movie too. H wants to see a few movies before his upcoming trip, tonight was Megamind. It was in 3D and the boy loves the 3D, I have come to like it. They have come a very long way since I went to the theatres for 3D with the red and green plastic film glasses. I even got a kiss from the boy at the end when Megamind and the girl are together *love it*. We even got pictures of us in our "gansta hats and glass" as it was put. We had fun, it was a great movie and if you haven't seen it the code go out and see the movie, you won't regret it.

Thanksgiving Story on Black Friday...

Last year was the first time I have ever gone out for actual shopping on "Black Friday" I must say I really don't see the hype for it, sure I got all my Christmas shopping done on that day but really I wouldn't say I had a good deal that it was worth my while. I must say it was fun just to go out and hang with my sister and friends, I will do it again but it will really be for the company. When I have my son I don't go out for shopping then, no offense but I would prefer to spend time with him. I must thank my family for picking up a few things for me and looking for others.

I got the joy of serving Thanksgiving dinner, a week before the holiday I had realized I didn't have anything bought yet. I got it all bought and was working on cleaning the house then. I know it's family but I need to be able to feel comfortable in my house if we will have everyone over, clean is the only way. It was not the cleanest but survivable.

The night before I was working on cleaning when I get the call from my sister, "Hey, you coming over to help tonight?", yes that's right I forgot about the race day packets and helping with the race. If I didn't have enough to do already, but we made it over to help after we got the boy's room cleaned. We worked on the packets got them done and had to head home and worked on cleaning more. My wonderful young son saw me getting more stressed and was willing to work on cleaning so I could prep food for the next day. He cleaned until 2 in the morning with me prepping food. I must tell you I was never more proud of him then him stepping up to help me out, I love these moments when I see what a wonderful young man he is becoming. I let him sleep in as long as he needed the next morning while I got the turkey and food cooking. I want to thank my sister for letting me get out of helping on race day (I promise next time I will be more prepared) so I could finish cooking and cleaning.

Usually my dad comes over and gets the turkey prepped and in the roaster the night before but he didn't come down this year. I woke up and was getting it ready. I remembered to wash it off and the the innards bag pulled out and the neck. While I was covering it in homemade rosemary butter I was looking at it and wondering first, which was the breast side and second where were the drumsticks because don't they normally stick out? I got all confused and didn't know what I was doing so I went to the back of the turkey. Oh wait there is the drumsticks tied up with a plastic thing. Yes, I realize I am not a cook by nature but come on I should have credit for taking the bag and neck out.

I am sure it is easier to remove the plastic from the turkey if it is not all buttered up and in a roaster but why would I make things easy on myself. The turkey was not done in time, when we pulled it out it was still not cooked all the way, I felt that I had ruined it all but they all made me feel better about it (yep I over react and still I wonder where the boy gets it from).

My family usually never eats my stuffing/dressing (call it what you will I call it stuffing) and H will usually eat it with me. This year just to please us two we decided we would upgrade Stove Top, we added in fresh onions, celery and dried cranberries. We did use half a package of bread chunks too, but my family gobbled up the whole pan! Who knew!

I appreciate my mom for bringing me a bottle of wine, it was wonderful.

Then we were watching tv going through ads and talking, we got all worked up because of an actor on the tv and who he was and what he was in. It was all good fun though. I couldn't have asked for a better day.

The boy will not be here for Christmas, he will be celebrating Chanukkah (harmonica according to the boy)with his father and step family. H said they say a prayer all the time and his dad says he does not need to say a prayer because he is Christian but that he should try anyway, I let him know that a prayer comes from your heart and it doesn't matter who you are praying to as long as it comes from your heart so he can pray with them to share their holiday.

State Capital Field Trip and Mean Mom Story...

One of the few things I get to do as a working mother is find the time to go on field trips with the boy and his class. This was one part of a two part trip that was taken about 3 months ago, I just have not had anytime to blog about it. The boy loves learning about history and politics but our non-religious side came out as we were pulling up to the state capital, "mom, that's the temple." It took the remainder of the time explaining to him the difference between a temple and a capital building.

Our first stop was to the knock off Liberty Bell, yes it has the crack and all. They allowed the children to touch and "ring" the bell, the ring is in quotes because they rang it by just hitting it with their hands, with close to 30 children it made some noise.

Then we made our way to the representative room, they took us to the upstairs and sat us in seats. The old woman who was our guide, bless her heart, wanted only questions about the room itself because she could answer those, but the kids were not interested in that at all they wanted to ask about the rules and laws. The actually thought this was the court itself but we finally got them to understand this is where they make the laws.

This room is much smaller than I expected, when you see it on the tv it does look so much larger.

Then there was the "gold" room, I really didn't get to hear much about this room because one little, young man decided to throw some attitude (ratatouille style) and got pulled out into the hall. We spent the remainder of the time fighting with each other.

But the view was great!

We got a class picture on the stairs, can you find H?

There he is with a mean smile because he and his mom were fighting.

I am just reminded of our parent-teacher conference though and H had to write a story about what has been bothering him, his was not of the weather or peer pressure or anything as interesting as that, no his was about his mean mother. What has been bothering him is I have taken away video games from him for a very long time because he has not earned them back yet, he has not liked this very much. So he said how this bothers him that I have grounded him but at the very end he let me know that he knows that I still love him even if he is grounded for it. What more could a mother ask?

It's already October... Eeks...

I can't believe it is already October, so much needs to be done this month. H is wanting to get the decorations out but me being a mom I want the house cleaned first. I am off to a good start got the living room cleaned, next up we tackle the kitchen.

Hopefully we get it all done and then the boy will be just as happy as mom.

No punch reward...

I always feel like I have to explain the whole punch comment to everyone because I don't want them to think I am like hitting the boy or not, they have a punch card at school we are treated like a demerit so the teacher will paper punch their sheet. My wonderful young boy finally go 0, which really is more of an accomplishment for me because I finally signed all of the 100 papers that are sent home for me to go through and sign then return (I don't think I have signed so much in the k - 3 as I have this first month in 4th).

Knowing that he wanted to go to the fair and honestly not going with my family I was really not wanting to go there this year without them, I gave the boy the option of going to Boondocks or to the fair. He excitedly wanted Boondocks.

We went to Costco and got discounted passes and made our way there (I know me at Costco on a Saturday, yikes, but I survived).

It started off really fun, he wanted to do miniature golf first. Of course he got all annoyed because I was beating him so then I had to pull the "oops guess some how I have lost my skills at playing mini golf just so my son is happy today" trick and quickly he started liking the game again.

He got to go to the smaller track to race, he wanted to do the bigger one but he is still about 8 inches too small. While standing in line there were two boys that were being very obnoxious and then they started to beat each other up, I had to step in to break them up because I guess their parents were no where to be found to stop them from fighting. When it was finally their turn to race H was with them, the reason why this story is significant is because H finally passed them after he got on stuck on the course and there was a small part of me that was really rooting him on.
We then went to the arcade, of course, it is like his favorite part of going to places like this is playing whatever he can. The problem with him being an only child and having me as a single parent is I don't necessarily just let him win, I just get to the point where I really don't care to win so I let him win frequently. This is bad, very bad. Why is it bad???? Well because when he does start to lose he gets extremely upset and frustrated and "the game totally cheats" attitude comes out. He was so upset that I almost made us leave at this point but I decided I wanted to drive one of the go carts first so I would give him the chance to chill out before then.

As we get in line for the go carts where I would drive he would ride, if did everything I could to get him to cheer up... guess what it worked. I was rather proud of myself because I don't normally succeed, picture below for proof.
We got to ride and I chicken out of letting step on the gas from the get go but I think we did pretty good of catching up to everyone and we even passed quite a few. He enjoyed every minute of it.


Last time we were at Boondocks my experience on the bumper boats was less than desirable, I was ready to scream at one kid and I actually think I did, but I had the boy convince me to get on this time. He was so ready to take me down.

He was so happy I got so wet, he tried to hide back his smile. I enjoyed it this time, even if I still got soaking wet from other punk kids, including my own this time.

But I think I did pretty good getting him wet too.

And don't forget prizes, he was so happy to get this inflatable hammer and yes it squeaks (oh joy for me)...

And of course the LARGEST smarties I have ever seen, the are like a quarter size around! Seriously freakishly large.

When all is said and done I am proud of my son, it is not easy being my kid but he does a pretty good job most of the time. I love him and am really glad we could spend the day together having so much fun.