My Trend Spotter

I've blogged before how my kids are fascinated my infomercials and always tell me what and why I need the things that they see on tv. Logan has been telling me that I need a Snuggie for quite sometime now. I will admit that they look comfortable but I didn't really think it would do much more than the zillion blankets that we already have around here. Fast forward to yesterday as I sat child free listening to CNN while working on some paperwork. (Paperwork sounds better than reading Face book doesn't it?!) On comes a blurb on the popularity of the Snuggie. I guess it has hit America by storm. So either Logan has a real talent for spotting trends or the whole country in one of the biggest recessions are purchasing things like a 6 year old!? I cut and pasted an article from USA today also for your reading enjoyment. Hmmm I wonder how long it takes for shipping....?

By Maria Puente, USA TODAY
The Cult of the Snuggie threatens to take over America! Or at least, a substantial number — 4 million — of late-night couch spuds.
The Snuggie, an oversized fleece blanket with sleeves, stars in a ubiquitous TV ad so cheesy it's practically art, and apparently wildly entertaining. The ad shows people wearing Snuggies at a sporting event, cheering and high-fiving each other while dressed … sort of like medieval monks.

"Every once in a while, a product transcends advertising to become part of pop culture," says Scott Boilen, president and CEO of Allstar Products Group of Hawthorne, N.Y., which conceived and markets the China-made Snuggie.

Indeed, Snuggies seem to be everywhere. See them on Facebook — nearly 250 groups, pro and con; one fan club lists 5,999 members. Watch them on YouTube — nearly 300 parody videos posted, including one titled "The Cult of the Snuggie," with 146,000 views as of Tuesday.

My own bookworm

Every day Logan brings home two books from the school library. He loves to go there and was so excited last year when he got the privlege of two books rather than one. Each night we read them and he studies them thoroughly. His typical choices are non-fiction resource books about science, rocks or birds etc. Not easy read selections at all. Poor Steve gets the bulk of the job of reading those. I tend to take on the bedtime reading of Boxcar Children etc to all the boys. Much more fun! Now Logan is also a big thinker...this morning as we were leaving and he packed up his backpack with yesterdays selection he said "Mom...do you think I will read all of the books in the LMC before I leave Steck?" I told him he has a good chance!! Wait until I tell Steve about that one! I did some checking when I ran into the LMC director this morning at drop off and he will have to read 14,000 books...wow! Get reading Logan!

My companion of the week

Poor Lake has been the last victim of the germs that have hit our house over the last two weeks. He has been a good sport though and isn't as high maintenance as some of his brothers. Today he told me he wants to be my "helper" so I let him! I think he may have a future in cleaning...

The New Math Method

This is what I found when coming into the kitchen yesterday. Lawson and Landon had a pile of Hershey Kiss Chocolates lined up on a little wagon and were counting them. I stopped listening after 89...I have to say I hadn't thought of practice oounting with chocolate but it makes sense! Now I know where all of the chocolate goes. I guess anything for an education!

You know you are living in 2009 when...

1. You accidentally enter your password on the microwave.

2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.

3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3.

4. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you.

5. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don't have e-mail addresses.

6. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries.

7.. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen.

8. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn't have the first 20 or 30 (or 60) years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it.

10. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee.

11. You start tilting your head sideways to smile. : )

12. You're reading this and nodding and laughing.

13. Even worse, you know exactly to whom you are going to forward this message.

14. You are too busy to notice there was no #9 on this list.

15. You actually scrolled back up to check that there wasn't a #9 on this list.

AND NOW U R LAUGHING AT YOURSELF

3 Down...1 to go...

Poor Lake was the latest victim of the bug that has hit our house for the last week. Lawson was first and missed 3 out of 4 days of school last week and ended up having pneumonia. Landon stayed home yesterday with a really bad cough and needed breathing treatments all weekend. He didn't want to go and pick up the boys after school...he thought they should just stay there! When we did pick them up yesterday Lake came home with a fever and fought it off all day today too. He spent most of the day just sitting on the sofa watching TV. He asked me about every half hour if it was time to pick "his" boys yet. When they were all home and the dust settled I heard Landon and Lawson searching for Lake and they asked me if I had seen him. I was working on a PTA project and didn't really pay much attention. Eventually as I heard them look some more I decided I had better investigate. Poor Lake had fallen asleep on the family room floor. Take a look...






The poor kid was so tired that he fell asleep while Logan played Star Wars Lego Wii Game on full volume and Logan was kind of trouncing on him!!

You're Fired!

Last week on the way home from school the boys got kind of loud and obnoxious and I guess I must have raised my voice louder than Landon felt was acceptable. He yelled out "Mommy...You are Fired!" I took all I could do not to laugh outloud. Logan was horrified that he would say such a thing and told him he couldn't do that. Maybe I have a mini Donald Trump here since he has the line down very well... If only getting a break from this thankless job was so easy...

Happy 9th Anniversary!

I have to force Steve to read my blog (maybe a good thing) so he probably won't see this but "Happy Anniversary" in case he does. Don't worry I got him a Hallmark card in case he doesn't see it! No big plans today. Lawson has pnenomia and we have no sitter lined up. What could be better than a January night spent at home with your kids anyway? Well...Maui maybe. When we got married we promised to go back to Maui every 5 years to celebrate. I know we both really believed it when we said it but 4 kids in 14 months really gets in the way of a lot of plans. Having 4 kids (especially triplets) never entered our minds 9 years ago either. Regardless...here we are and Hawaai will have to wait. Technically we have only missed one trip... Maybe next year right?

25 things about me

I've been hanging out on Facebook and got tagged by a friend. I thought since I'm tired and feeling lazy it would be a nice filler.

1. I am very competitive and love to win!
2. My whole life I planned on having only daughters but ended up with 4 sons and I'm glad.
3. I've always wanted to adopt a daughter from China.
4. My dad bought me a Kawasaki125 motorcyle in 8th grade as a bribe for moving.
5. My 1st job was detassleing corn.
6. I have a huge barbie doll collection from childhood.
7. I have studied Feng Shui.
8. Valentine's Day has always been my favorite holiday and my 1st son was born then.
9. I love Spring.
10. I got married on a beach in Maui.
11. I would love to move to Maui someday.
12. I fantasize about making my family go naked so I can catch up on laundry!
13. I'm often guilty of over-committing and I am such a joiner that even if I have no time available I volunteer anyway.
14. I love to garden.
15. I love color and use it freely in my decorating.
16. I am addicted to chocolate.
17. I make an awesome Chocolate Creme Brulee.
18. My boys tell me that they will live with me forever and I like the idea!
19. I had a huge crush on Shaun Cassidy as a pre-teen.
20. I love to shop...boutiques, grocery stores, gas stations, hospital gift shops...I can always find something to buy in any place.
21. I have bookshelves full of parenting books but never have had time to open even one.
22. I always wanted to name a son Wyatt after my maiden name. Steve disagreed.
23. I had my belly button pierced back in my 20's.
24. When I was growing up I wanted to be a fashion designer and ended being an interior designer.
25. I love it when things are organized but am not good at maintaining it.

My little artist

This weather is murder on your car! Dirt, salt and other misc. grime all over making my shiny black Yukon look dull, dusty grey. Well...apparently some little Picaso in my house thought it needed some sprucing up....Here is what I came out to today. A natural talent don't you think?! I think Lake is the culprit here.

A Historical Day through the eyes of a little kid...

We got up this morning and I told the boys that today is a very important day and that it is inaguration day. They were very curious and had lots of questions. First they wanted to know what an inaguration is. The best description that I could come up with on their level was that is a ceremony kind of like a wedding marrying the president to the country. That seemed to suffice for now. Then the questions started like how many stars the flag has...why do we have to wear red, white, and blue today? The questions go on and on. They were excited that he is coming to the Whitehouse from Illinois. My favorite though was when Logan said "If my dad were president he would make the whole country clean up!!" Then he said that he would vote for me for president and I asked him what I am good at and he said..."MEETINGS!!" I am not really sure what to think of that! I do know that I'm glad it is over because I'm tired of the boys fighting over how to pronounce Barack Obama and I would selfishly like more channels of tv for them to watch!

Hey 4 eyes!!!

I remember when I got glasses in 4th grade I hated how they looked! I hated those things (except loved finally being able to see!!) for years until in 11th grade I finally got contacts. When 3 of the boys were diagnosed with a need for glasses I was dissapointed although not surprised. THey have mainly been troopers and have had them for about 1 1/2 years now. They do look sweet in them although I still wish they didnt' need them. It isn't easy to keep track of and maintain 3 pairs. Well...yesterday we added another person in our family to wear glasses...Landon. Now if you are thinking that Landon is my favorite or anything because he gets more blog time than anyone else ...he isn't (none are!!) but he gives me A LOT of material!! We went for a glass adjustment yesteday and as we were finishing up Landon became pretty distressed. "WHAT ABOUT ME!!??" He really wanted glasses. We have gone through this every time but usually a quick pair of sunglasses suffice and we are on our way. Not yesterday!! We had a really nice lady who took pity on him and offered to sell us a non-prescription pair to satisfy him. We had thought of this before but they tried to charge us the full price. This lady just did frames only. He is in love. He insisted on wearing them to school today and when I picked him up I asked if he really wore them. YEP! ALL DAY LONG they reported! Go figure... I spent 7 years trying to get out of them and he has spent over a year begging to get them and he doesn't even need them! Here he is...what do you think?

We survived!

I thought I would check back in at the end of our 5 day "vacation" and let you all know we are still alive and kickin' (meaning that in more ways than one!) We hit church yesterday and that was the first time I had been outside since Wednesday! We then went out to lunch to Mongolian Barbecue (not a big hit with Logan of course) and then shopping for a new phone. Steve has been bugging me to get a new one for a couple of months so we went shopping. He wanted me to get a Blackberry and I wanted an I-phone or just keep the basic model that I had. After hours of shopping we finally took a look at the I-phone and I convinced him that was the best one! Now the funny part of the story...Landon loves electronic things...computers, phones, TVs, remote controls...if it electronic he is all over it. At the first store the boys picked up these little paper cards that looked like a phone. Landon went around talking into it the whole time and calling it his "phone." It really was just a photo of a Blackberry with all the info on the back. At the next store it got more interesting. Since Steve was the one who needed convinced on the phone choice he spent some time looking at it with the salesman. Landon was there listening to the whole thing. He and the salesman were best friends before we were done. It took forever but eventually the new phone was choicen, programmed and ready to go. I still had my old phone and of course Landon started eyeing it. He asked for it so I gave it to him. I can't believe that we wasted money on gifts for the boys at Christmas! They played with my old phone all night last night and all day today! Of course it doesn't make calls anymore but it still takes photos and has games on it. The funniest thing about it now? Tonight after bath time...Landon kept insisting tha the needed his "I-phone" before bed. Steve thinks that he is confused thinking it is "my"/I phone but I saw the way he was listening yesterday...he knows what an I-phone is and my guess is that he will be the next one around her getting one! That stubborn streak of his works for him and takes him places!!

We're on a 5 day "vacation!"

Vacation may not be exactly what I think of the next 5 days are going to feel like but but I'm hoping if I can think of it that way maybe it will be more enjoyable!! Today it is so cold in Chicagoland that school was cancelled. This means that the winter party from back in December got cancelled again. Besides the cancelled party a day off from school should be fun right? Well...the problem is that we already have tomorrow off for a teacher work day tomorrow and Monday off for Martin Luther King Day. That makes 5 days of cabin fever with 4 little bodies that will be running, jumping, talking, drawing, and generally just major mess making in my house! I broke down today and gave them a new Wii game to play. That did buy me some quiet time so I'm trying to think of some activites for tomorrow. If anyone comes up with anything please let me know!

Wordless Wednesday...

Got this from my friend Ellen!

YEA! School is back in session!!!

Enough said!!

Happy New Year!!

We ended 2008 with dinner at home and a movie. We had planned to go to some friends house for a party but they ended up sick. I'm feeling like skipping the sickness is a great start to 2009 for us!! Get well Wishes to Outnumbermommy! We saw Madagascar 2 awhile back so Lawson asked Santa for Madagascar 1 for Christmas. We watched it and once again Lake fell asleep in the middle and Landon right before the end. While in Iowa we went to bedtime stories and the same two boys fell asleep during that too! We ate our favorite dessert from Hugo Frog's and called it a night! I'm still contemplating my resolutions for 2009 so I will have to get back to you on those! Happy New Year!!