Fully Alive…Ready to Smile

posted by erin on Apr 14

Have you ever wanted something so bad you would do just about anything to get it?  Come on, I know you have…

For me, it was a hot bath last night.  I was cold.  Shivering.  I had cleaned all day and had a supper fiasco (Let’s just say our house STILL smells like sesame oil after the bottle busted on the floor, I cut my toe in the process of the bottle falling and the taste of burnt broccoli lingers in my memory.  Pooey!) and ALL.I.WANTED.WAS.A.BATH!!!  Is that really too much to ask?

Well apparently it is!  This is now the THIRD time in the past 3 weeks that I have started a hot bath (and to clarify I like my baths hot.  Like pruning, turn you into a tomato hot…what’s the point of sitting in a lukewarm bath?  Ick!), climbed in only to discover that as the tub is filling, it’s getting cooler.  It seems when you do laundry all day, dishes, and give the children baths, much like Mommy’s energy supply is depleted, so is the hot water supply.  The other two times I just sighed heavily, complained a little and got out, knowing that it wasn’t going to happen.  In essence, the bath beat me. 

Last night…I wasn’t giving in.  It was me against the bath.  I was going to win.  I was going to have my hot bath.  I got creative.  Desperate.  Insane, really.

I jumped out, wrapped my shivering self in a towel and yelled for Jer to bring me the electric kettle.  He looks at me a little askance and says, “The kettle??!”  Mmmhmmm…you know the one you boil water with to make tea?  The one that makes water that is not hot…HOT?!  Yup, that one.  I know at that moment he thought I was crazy.  Another one of Erin’s hair-brained ideas.    

Well, I filled it up, plugged it in on the bathroom counter, waited for my water to boil and poured it into the tub.  One kettle-ful at a time.  Jer stood by, laughing at me and shaking his head.  He didn’t have any better ideas, so if I were him, I’d just shut it.  Just saying!    

It felt a little old fashioned, like I was drawing a bath.  It was quite the process, but it worked.  I got my hot bath and I was happy.  And really…that’s all that matters.  

posted by erin on Apr 9

I just found this website (ArtsCow.com) for printing pictures and their sign up offer…1200 free prints!!!  Sounds too good to be true.  They ARE spread out over the space of a few months, but what a great deal.  You can get 100 free 4×6 and 50 free 5×7 per month.  Their pricing seems really good too…4×6 for $0.06 and 5×7 for $0.12.  Sounds pretty reasonable to me, even if it is in USD, since you can get so many free pictures each month.  I have yet to order from them so I don’t know what their quality or service is like, but for those prices I think I’m going to find out.  Let’s put it this way…if I was going to order 400 prints at $0.06/print plus shipping it would come out to $42.00 (before applicable taxes).  Not bad  :)  Thought I’d pass my seemingly awesome finding on to all my friends out there.    

posted by erin on Apr 8

Okay, okay, okay, I have a story.  If you don’t want to hear about my bathroom farting incident, move along.  Just saying.

What, you are all still here?  Well, I know everyone loves to laugh at someone else’s expense, so here we go.  We stop at Target to make a bathroom/Starbucks pitstop.  Nikki and Sarah go into the washroom first and I come in after they’ve finished up their bidness and are in the hand washing process.  I move along to the furthest stall cause I know it’s gonna be a gooder and somehow it just feels safer to go to the last stall even though the accoustics are such that it makes no difference whatsoever.  

So I’m in there, you know…sitting on the toilet, when suddenly I, um…toot.  Okay so I let ‘er rip.  I’m not embarrassed because, let’s face it people, we all fart.  And when you’ve been in a vehicle with other people for however long and have been holding it in, it makes no difference who hears it.  It’s just plain goodness.  

Now some people may have coughed or shuffled feet or banged the toilet paper dispenser at this point, in an effort to cover up the bum expletive, but not I.  The two morons at the sink started giggling and Nikki says, “Excuse you!!” (snicker, snicker).  I wasn’t paying attention as I was obviously busy, so I tentatively said, “What?” and she repeated, “Excuse YOU!”  Oh, me?  ”Oh yeah right, excuse me.” and the laughing continued.

As an aside…is it proper public bathroom ettiquette to excuse yourself after farting?  I always feel like I should, but you know, it’s kind of uncharted territory. 

They calmed down and all of a sudden they were having a fit of laughter again and I didn’t have a clue what that was all about.  They left and I came out of the bathroom and they were looking at me and still howling.  I asked if they were still laughing at my flatulence.  

APPARENTLY, after our little exchange, they noticed that there was someone else in the bathroom stalls and Nikki was freaking out because she was hoping it was me that had farted and not the other person.  Inside sources tell me that Nikki was reportedly praying “Please let that be Erin’s fart…”  

So then when I came upon them outside freaking out, they told me that the lady who came out of the bathroom was an older lady and she was kind of hobbling like she had just had the best poo of her life and they were still unsure whether or not it had actually been me or her.  Not to worry, I told them, it was me and they could continue laughing at my expense.  I wasn’t sorry in the least!  :D 

posted by erin on Apr 8

So I survived the death virus cold thing that tried to take me out.  THREE WEEKS!!!  That’s how long it had its stranglehold on me  Stupid cold.  After my trip to the hospital I did manage to take it easy, thanks to some awesome people who helped me out (shoutout goes to my mom, Jer’s mom and Andrea!  Thanks guys)!  I managed to not cook for a whole week and I have to admit I tried to feel a bit guilty as I sat and read while my mom cleaned bathrooms and did laundry and helped out with my kids.  The afternoon that Andrea so sweetly offered to have my girls over I enjoyed 4 hours of Twilight complete with Pepsi and ketchup chips.  PERFECT!  I’m sure that’s what started the journey to health

This past weekend I went on a roadtrip with 3 of my girls, Jen (“Holla, BEST playlist ever!!”), Sarah (“Hey Bud!”), and Nikki (“it’s Britney, B&#%@”) to see Britney Spears and do some shopping in Minneapolis.  We stopped in Albertville along the way to spend some time at the outlet mall and then continued on to Sarah’s mom’s house (we were blessed to be able to stay there for the weekend).  

Friday we did the MOA and the Britney concert (more on that in a bit).  Saturday was the awesomest ever…The Cheesecake Factory.  I will openly admit that their cheesecake is about the best thing since, well since anything, really.  If I could create cheesecake like they do, I would die a happy woman.  Happy and fat.  And likely I would die sooner from the vast quantities of cheesecake I would have consumed over my short and ecstatic existence. 

Speaking of happy, I got makeup!  After spending a couple days on the road with these girls, I realized that I am SADLY lacking in the makeup department.  Big time!!!  Let’s just say that Nikki’s makeup bag was almost as big as the bag I brought for all my stuff for the whole weekend!  HA!  So I followed Jen around and she gave me some good advice and suddenly I have more than tripled my eyeshadow, lip gloss and blush/bronzer supply.  I have the colors of the rainbow and I’m on my way to looking like Mimi on the Drew Carey Show.

 Okay, maybe not, but I AM getting really brave with my makeup.  Today I shocked myself with teal eyeshadow that matched my shirt and I kept getting a glimpse of myself in the mirror and thinking, “Whoa!!  ’She’s a hottie, she’s a hottie, and just a little bit naughty…’”

And naughty would be about the right word to sum up Britney.  Wowzers…hot stuff.  Her singing sounded perfect and exactly like her cd…wait…right…okay, nevermind  She puts on a fabulous show though, lipsyncing or not.  I have to admire her use of cages, poles, whips and furniture.  Fancy stuff.  I sighed heavily a couple of times and imagined the throngs of screaming fans chanting, “ER-IN, ER-IN, ER-IN.”  But alas, I realize I’m not meant to be a pop sensation because my fear of heights would hinder great acrobatic feats like sailing through the air on a giant umbrella.

**Sorry, I didn’t take this picture as I was not sitting on the stage or by the stage or in fact anywhere near enough to take such a pic.  Picture from Hollywood.tv** 

Honestly though, it was great!  Well worth my $50CDN/$800USD.  The Pussycat Dolls opened up for Lady Spears (I giggled when Perez Hilton called her that during the opening video) and they were FANTASTIC live.  They have moves that I couldn’t do in my dreams (or anyone elses for that matter) and they can belt out a tune.  We were sitting up in the nosebleed section and I do wish I had brought some binoculars.  

Binoculars probably wouldn’t have helped me see through the drunk skull of the dancing guy in front of me.  I’m pretty sure he wanted to be a Pussycat Doll.  He kept turning around waving his two drinks, cell phone and random piece of paper while wiggling his drunk a$$, all like “Hey look at me guys, I’m awesome, aren’t I?”  Um, nope, didn’t pay money to see you.  He did eventually stay down by the railing because I think he just got too drunk to walk up the nauseatingly steep stairs.  To give him credit I was super happy that he was in the row below us and not behind us because as he teetered to his seat trying to multitask all his drinks and paraphernalia he spilled beer on the girls in front of him.  That sucks…I know.  Been there, done that, had the wet shirt to prove it.

The trip was fun and the girls were funner.  I know funner’s not a word, but I wanted to say it.  Funner…funner.  Okay, you grammer geeks can stop cringing now.  I’m done.  And for some reason I never did well in English class…heh. 

Anyway, so now I’m home and back to our regularly scheduled programming which includes children begging for snacks, insisting they are starving, refusing to eat meals, crying because it’s bedtime and they are SO hungry and all that fun stuff.  Hopefully I’ll find my inner zen before tomorrow because I’m starting my reflexology course in the evening (insert nervous sweats, palpitating heart and excited exclamations).

Peace out, Peeps.