Sweet Home… Virginia November 10, 2009

I can’t believe we are down to less than two weeks in the good ol’ state of Virginia!  We have spent 12 years here, 6 in Williamsburg, 6 in Richmond.  We have had 2 kids in each place.  We have so many fun memories (and a few not so good ones) and I’ve spent a lot of time lately relishing what we have.

So here are a few things I will miss about the “South”…

• friends
• sweet tea
• warm days… all year long…
• southern drawls
• flowers blooming in February
• grits (yeah, that’s right.  even if i swore i would never eat them, i ended up loving them.)
• seafood that doesn’t come from Red Lobster
• Trader Joe’s (yes, i realize that’s not southern… but it’s here and not where i’m going!)
• sweet old men, with their southern accents, being gentlemen
• did i mention, FRIENDS??!!

Things I won’t miss…

• mosquitoes all year long
• spiders and bugs in my house
• caring where I am in relation to the Mason-Dixon line

Things I have to look forward to…

• living close to my sisters
• my kids being close to their cousins- and for me getting to be close to my nieces and nephews!
• seeing old friends, making new ones
• walking to the library, ice skating rink, pizza joint (when it’s not freakin’ freezing outside, of course- that month will be LOVELY!)
• having beautiful, rolling hills, right outside my door
• being near the Finger Lakes… the wineries there don’t hurt either!
• did i mention the pizza??  the BEST pizza in the world!
• Soulful Cup coffee
• did I mention my SISTERS??!!

I just noticed how many things on both lists have to do with food… yeah.  There’s no surprise there!

I can’t decide whether to be sad or happy… probably because I am both, all the time.  I have had 12 amazing years, filled with many amazing friends and experiences.  Virginia will always have a special place in my heart.  But soon I’ll be going home!

Yelling November 7, 2009

Over the last few years (or maybe over the last few kids) I’ve become a yelling mom.  It doesn’t happen all the time.  In fact, most of my friends would probably say that they’ve never seen me yell at my kids.  I think my neighbors would disagree.  But sometimes I totally lose it and yell.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that this isn’t a good thing.  In fact, I think it’s extremely detrimental to my kids.  I don’t approve of my behavior, because frankly, it says 1. I’m out of control and 2. I’m selfish enough to know it, and yet do it anyway.  So, I’ve been trying really hard to stop yelling.  And when I do, I have been having to apologize to my kids… which usually results in them thinking that whatever behavior they were doing in the first place to get yelled at suddenly became okay to do because mom was the one apologizing, not them.  So then I’ve had to go back and fix that too.  It’s really a lot more work on my part in the long run to yell.

Well, I came upon this blog this morning from a reformed yelling mom.  It’s such basic information, but it’s a good reminder for me.  Plus it’s just nice to know that I’m not the only mom who has or does struggle with this.

Welcome to my Brain

And here’s her “How to Stop Yelling” post

Spam November 7, 2009

Okay, so I don’t know if this is the kind of post that makes up for not blogging for a couple of months, but I just laughed so hard!  Every once in awhile, spam gets through on my comments.  Thankfully, I have to approve all new commentors before they are posted.  The spam has gotten to the point where it looks like someone is making a sincere comment about your blog, but it’s totally generic and fake.  Well, here’s the latest one I just got:

“Hi!  Maybe you no see Jenna Jamison nude???”

Yeah.  There are no words.