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Sign Graveyard
Originally uploaded by Kimba No Limba.

I had been meaning to stop and photograph this neon-sign graveyard for awhile but just got around to it. These massive tombstones are still advertising for their businesses, but now they say "eat here" while discarded and laying on their sides. I like the old Taco Bell logo- I wouldn't mind putting it in my garage.

Ahhh! A two- headed toad monster! If you look closely (click for larger image), you'll see that Toad is in the midst of tossing the Candyland cards at me. Mister T. is really good with Monster- he plays Candyland with him and even spray-painted his swingset so it is no longer pink (coincidentally, Monster now wants his new room painted those same colors. can we spray paint a whole room?). Thanks Toad- yer the shiat.

Today, I give you the gift of the "I don't want to" card. You may use it whenever someone asks you to do something to day and you just don't feel like it. You don't need a reason, just hand them the card and be on your way. I found this when I was emptying out a box of junk. It was from back in Monster's 3 yr old days when his speech was delayed and his teacher thought his acting out was because he didn't have the tools to communicate. He had a multitude of cards that read "I'm mad", "I'm happy", etc. but my fave is "I don't want to."

As adults, it seems most of us have problems uttering these four simple words. We make excuses, we say yes when we don't want to and heap more stress onto our overfilled plates. Take a tip from a 3 yr old- just say "I don't want to".

i just want you all to know that i just devoured an entire pint of butter pecan ice cream in one sitting.

Mike eats often and very quickly. He has the metabolism of a squirrel. Here, I captured photographic evidence of him devouring a turkey leg faster than the speed of light. So fast, in fact, that only high speed photography could have clearly captured the image. Amazing, no?

after all the invisible hoops i had to jump through, paper work to shuffle through and my best academic procrastination and b.s.'ing.... i just checked my grades and i pulled through with 1 A, 2 B+'s (okay, since when do they give +/- grades in college?) and 1 C. i'm particularly happy that the c u next tuesday teacher for my teaching lab class gave me a C. i was worried she was going to give me a D and i would have had to take the class over again. you see, that class was horrible. it required 42 hours of observation/mentoring in addition to the four hours of class each week and the tremendous amount of homework. for three credit hours and a 200 level class. i hated it. i only managed 25 hours of the observations and that is why i was afraid she was going to get all self-righteous and give me a D. but i have plenty of excuses- the school was an hour away and i usually went after i took monster to pre-school at 1:00 so by the time i got there, their school day was almost over. oh, and i found out about the triplets. yeah, i'm using it as an excuse- i felt sick all the time and didn't feel like sitting in a fifth grade classroom. triplets are now my excuse for everything. hey, may as well use it.
so, in the end, i still have an 3.8 cumulative GPA (it used to be a 4.0) which is still higher than i ever had in my previous 17 years of schooling. i am taking a leave of absence from graduate school for at least a year. who knows if i am going to want to teach after the triple threat are born. i may be so sick of kids that i want to run screaming to an office job with adults. but, i doubt it. i don't want these past three semesters and all of my hard work (and having to go to that damned teaching lab class) to be in vain. so, i'll probably take two classes at a time- not one since you have to take 6 hrs. as a grad. student to get financial aid- once the babes are a year old. two nights a week away from the house may be a god send anyway.
so, that's my acadmemic plan. one day, i'll tell the babes "oh yes you are going to college, i finished grad. school with an A average as a mother of four- including you triplets! now, get your ass in there and finish your harvard application".

oh. well this explains the german spam. why do right-wing germans think i care about their politics? i don't!

you know, i like the kids down the street. i do. they don't live in the court but they are constantly outside and very helpful (in fact, one of them was the kid that helped me with the garage sale). but i'm about to go outside and knock the older one off his scooter with largest, heaviest round object i can find. you see, their parents keep buying them new and louder motorized kid-vehicles. gas- powered scooters, pocket-bikes, motorbikes, lawnmowers (you think i'm kidding? they souped one up and race it). they keep racing their damned motorized things as fast as they can down our court. they don't live in the court- why do they get to use it as a race track? the "reeeeee, reeeeeee" noises as they accelerate their little asses down the street is driving me mad. i have seriously daydreamed about sabotaging their little wheels. or calling the cops. i know the damn things are illegal in our city. all of them. except maybe the lawnmower. but, i won't because that would just be too crochety old woman of me. one of these days, however, pow, bam- to the moon. or maybe i'll just steal their little toys. and their little dog too.

Here is the only group shot we got at the shower. We aren't all in it because some had already left. Shoulda thought of it earlier. And shoulda had the server take one with the flash because this one is all fuzzy-like. From bottom left: Joy, April, Michelle, Rachel, Dena, Shannon, Me, Shawna, Anna & Dawn. Whhooooo!



We received lots of great loot and a good time was had by all. Everyone else got to drink pineapple and malibu and other exotic drinks but I had pink lemonade and decaf. cofffee. Such are the woes of a pregnant woman.

Okay, I don't know what in Samhain is going on but my gmail has become degluged with German spam. Some are in German, and some are in English with subject lines like "The Whore Who Lived Like A German" (which sounds like a great spamusement title). I never had spam on my gmail account and now I'm getting socked with 30 German Spams a day? Why must the Germans spam me- whhhyyyyyy?

P.S.- It is 1:32 and I'm eating left over wedding shower cake. And it's good.




more on my rockin' shower later...

p.p.s: blog yoda has.
(yesterday anna said she doesn't "do blogs" in such a manner as to equate them with wal-mart or government cheese. yeah, she doesn't do walmart either. but then again, i've been boycotting the evil wally world for seven months now but more on principle than snobbery. i blow raspberries at your snobby non-blog reading. at least i learned to use a computer before i was in college. so there.)

well this is just too much. but i like this one.

have i mentioned how much i love this site? yeah, it is catty celebrity gossip but it is funny, catty celebrity gossip.

I've been getting showered this week. No, not golden showers, I've had two wedding showers and a third is coming up on Sunday. Getting all sorts of new stuff for our house has been very fun if not a little exhausting. I think my favorite gifts so far are: A whole new set of pots and pans, A new vacuum cleaner (Not the Dyson but a good one. One day, dammit, I will have the $500, super-cyclone, announcer with the great accent that convinced me I need it Dyson Cyclone Vacuum Cleaner), New Dishes, All new Oxo Good Grips Kitchen Gadgets, This cool bamboo non-skid cutting board, And of course- the new towels. I am so excited about having matching stuff for the first time in my life. Mike doesn't quite get the magnitude of this but I would guess most straight men don't. Nate Berkus says you need matching towels and I'm getting matching towels.

Not surprisingly, however, the focus of the parties has been the babies. I have told the same story of how we found out at least ten times. That's okay though, everyone is curious but supportive. My Uncle Tom came in and gave me a big hug saying, "It isn't often you get to hug four people at once". Which is true.

I'm an oddity- rather like a circus freak. I guess I should get used to it. Once I have the babies, I've been told strangers will attack you with questions about whether of not you used fertility drugs or IVF (which sounds pretty rude if you ask me) and will try to touch your babies. I remember that with Monster- people suddenly think it is okay to touch your child just because they are there. Maybe I'll get shirts for them made that say "Don't touch me" and "Mommy didn't use fertility drugs" and finally "If you give Mom money, she'll answer all of your questions".

Busch
Originally uploaded by Kimba No Limba.

Busch Stadium is going to be torn down after this season. That makes me sad. They are making way for a new "retro" stadium and I say "Bah!". I like the existing stadium- it has character. The St. Louis Cardinals fans are some very fervent fans. We likes our baseball.
I thought this was a cute shot of the family in front of us at the game. It was a fun time- lots of hits (I think 25) and quite a few home runs but in the end, we lost to the Dodgers.

BTW

Hurraaaaayyyy for Joyce and Uchenna winning The Amazing Race. We were so hoping they would win. Way to go guys. Whooooo! If you don't watch The Amazing Race, you should. It is easily the best reality show on television. It is so good, it shouldn't even be lumped in with those other reality shows.

"Did you know Jacob is my friend at school? He's not Andrew's friend anymore. We sat in the same chair even though it was silly. We're silly all the time. When we see each other we say "Hey, what you lookin at?" and it cracks my head up. Jacob doesn't like Andrew anymore because he always tries to hug him and he's like stop it. So Jacob likes me better. It cracks my head up. I bet Brandon had a good time watching Star Wars. When I was four, Star Wars scared me but now I'm five."

That my mom tells me to put make up on every time I see her. Actually, sometimes she mixes it up with "Do you ever wear make up?" and every once in a while, "Oh, you are breaking out. You should put on some make up".

would it be terrible to name one of the kids in such a way that its initals would be LOL?

true to all the sterotypes... i have eaten four pickles in the last hour. truth be told, i've always liked pickles but this may be a bit excessive.

Today, the kids in Monster's pre-school class started studying castles and royalty. They each got to give themselves a royal title. He named himself King Apple. Later, he named me Queen Grapes and Mike became King Hippopatomus. The dog became Prince Stinky Breath.

Later, while we laid in bed and watched Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, he told me if I kiss him on the head, it makes him not be scared and that I'm the best mommy in the universe. Then he told me that the scary parts "freak me out and make my brain feel all flippy".

When it was over, he quizzed me on what 6+6 equals and what 90+ 300 + 10,000 + 5,000 makes. I thought about it a while and then made up an answer. Then he told me, "Zillion McZillerson is the highest number ever."

Fashion Don't
Originally uploaded by Kimba No Limba.

You know, at first I thought it was rude to post this picture. But then I thought, it was rude for her to subject me to seeing this amount of back fat. Hint, if you have lots of back fat, DON'T WEAR SKIMPY, BACK-FAT REVEALING SHIRTS. I think this actually qualifies as back boobs (or back cleavage if you prefer). A definite fashion don't.

Big Read
Originally uploaded by Kimba No Limba.

I have to tell you a secret. I'm horribly, compulsively addicted to Big Red gum. It isn't just that I buy it and chew it like a normal person. My problem is that I chew a piece for about one minute, spit it out and put a new piece in my mouth until the whole pack is gone- usually within 30 minutes. For a big pack. I can't get enough of the spicy cinnamon fresh piece of Big Red taste that fades all too quickly. It is like Fruit Stripe but spicy and not quite as flavorless after one minute. This may sound amusing but I must look like a compete freak unwrapping a piece of gum, spitting out a used piece into the previous wrapper and repeating the process till it is all gone. I think I need an intervention.

now this is exciting. i loved the chronicles of narnia as a kid and read them more than once. i can't wait to see this. it better not suck (but the previews make it look pretty damn cool). is that an orc in narnia?

I love emails like this. This kind I read at 2:25 AM when I should be sleeping for four. For four. God that freaks me out.

Michelle, my old school St. Charles by way of Southern California friend, sent me this upon hearing that we are doubling the size of our family:

"In honor of you, I am requesting that the UN hereby replace all known fertility goddesses in other nations with your likeness. In an attempt tomaintain your anonymity so that the Weekly World News photographers don't hound you at every step, I further recommend that the goddess be called Vagi. Vagi the Fertility Goddess...You have hereby been named...."