NEW WEBSITE

Hey everyone. Please Mom has moved to www.nicochic.com! Go check it out!!!

Feathers

Photo by Gwen Aucoin www.gwenaucoin.com

I know ther're about as trendy as beanie babies and I should probably leave them to 15 year old girls, but guess what..I love feathers in my hair. I've put in my order, so if you're in the mood for a splash of color in your hair (for just a few bucks), let me know. After all, Festival time is just around the corner folks:-)

Cavity

Photo by Gwen Aucoin www.gwenaucoin.com

We pile into our van and we head out.

We're going to the dentist.

I could think of a thousand things I would rather do on a sunny Friday morning, but it was times for new tooth brushes anyway.

Thankfully everyone was in a good mood. Good mood being no one had bitten, slapped or clawed at each other as of yet.

The bribing tactics I had used the night before seemed to be having a positive effect.

''You know Emmylou, if you're nice at the dentist’s office, mommy will go buy you that Lalaloopsy doll you've been asking for since Christmas!''

Hey, don't judge. You've done it too!

Miraculously, Joseph volunteered to go first.

(This is a new tactic I've been using to get them to do something they would normally otherwise run far far away from. I ask, ''Who wants to go first?''. They ALL want to go first just to aggravate each other. It works like a charm for things such as nail clipping, bathing and shots!:-))

Emmylou went second.

Luke went last and that's when the dreaded word was spoken.....cavity!

Luke had a cavity way back in one of his molars.

When I ask what could have possibly caused this cavity (as if I didn't know), she answers with the obvious, ''Well, does he eat a lot of candy?''. To which my husband replies,''Yes.''. Which translates in my head to, ''You're the absolute worse mom in the world, letting your kids eat all that candy that has eaten away at this poor innocent boy's baby tooth!''

(Often, this is how our conversations go......interpretation is not my friend!)

Yes, I admit my kids DO eat candy. But, I still insist that they don't necessarily eat A LOT of candy.

I like to think of their eating habits as more ''balanced''.

I try and make sure they eat their vegetables, but when your daughter tells you at the dinner table, ''I don't have to eat my vegetables to grow big, the hiccups will take care of that!'', what am I supposed to say? I mean really, who can argue with that:-)

My thought pattern is if I tell them NO to candy, then they'll just want it more. I've learned that the hard way:-) (Reverse psychology has also been a great tool in my child rearing tool box!)

I'm just not the mom giving away celery sticks at Halloween...not that there's anything wrong with that:-)

So anyway, the dental hygienist could obviously see the ''I hate myself for letting this happen to my child'' look in my eyes, so she nicely explained that sometimes these things just happen....even though we both knew that wasn’t true.

I appreciated the kind gesture.

So they all got light-up tooth brushes that seem to help the teeth brushing situation and hopefully another cavity situation.

That night, Emmylou asked me if I had special eyes that could see the little ''bugs'' that cause cavities. To which I answered, ''Of course! Now keep brushing!''

That also seems to help!

Today

Today I am thankful.

Today I am thankful for my 2 year old's dirty mouth rubbing on my cloth couch.

For stomach aches right before bedtime.

For poop on my floor...human poop.

For my 3 hour good night's sleep.

For runny noses..wiped on my pants.

For having little ''assistants'' who ''assist'' me at making dinner.

For the absence of solitude in my bathroom.

Today I am thankful because my home has not been taken away by the ocean or shaken to the ground.

Today I am thankful because I know where I will be sleeping tonight.

Carème

Lent

A time for sacrifice, repentance and self-denial.

This year, I started off this period of self-deprivation with a delectable crawfish stew, homemade macaroni and cheese, creamy potato salad and last but not least, deliciously tart key lime pie.

I love Lent in the deep south!

No meat on Fridays you say? Well how about a huge crawfish boil paired with fried catfish and shrimp étouffée.

Cajuns sure know the TRUE meaning of ''fasting''.

Growing up in a Catholic environment, Lent, or ''carème'' in French, was always a significant time of year.

I personally remember dreading it since I knew I would have to ''give-up'' something I really liked.

One year our parents made us give up watching English TV. We only had two channels and one TV in our house, so that pretty much left us with one French Canadian channel and no place to hide. And no offense to anyone, but if you happened to have watched French Canadian television in the late 80s then you can sympathize with us four deprived children:-)

I don't remember if we lasted until Easter, but I still remember it like it was yesterday...so I suppose the purpose of it all was attained.

My husband's most memorable Lent was when he and his family would say the rosary every single night.

Compared to that, not watching English TV would be a walk in the park:-)

So this year, instead of asking my kids to give up something (and due to the fact that I'm not a uber committed practicing Catholic), we are going to grow a garden. It's my attempt at getting Emmylou to appreciate vegetables and to lessen her gag reflex at the sight of a carrot.

As for me personally, I'm not sure what Lent is going to consist of.

But, maybe I'll start with depriving myself with a piece of scrumptious red velvet cake topped with divine cream cheese icing.

What happens in your house for Lent?

(Photo by Patrick CharpiatPatrick.charpiat at fr.wikipedia [CC-BY-SA-2.0-fr (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en) or CC-BY-SA-2.0-fr (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/fr/deed.en)], from Wikimedia Commons)

p.s Don't forget to click on the ''like'' below if you enjoy my jibber jabber:-) 

Post Mardi Gras!

Just leave me alone would you!

Mardi Gras Mohawk

 

It WILL grow back Gran:-)

It's Mardi Gras Brah!

It's Mardi Gras.

A time of year when I have a perfectly reasonable excuse for my disrespectful tardiness......the parade barricades!

An entire week when otherwise inexcusable behavior can be rationalized by the simple phrase, ''But it's Mardi Gras brah!''

A time where packing my kids in our van and driving in near torrential rains and wind to get to Keller's Bakery for the blueberry cream cheese king cake I had been dreaming of devouring for the past 2 months.....seems like a perfectly safe and sane thing to do. (In my defense, the tornado warnings only started AFTER we were already half way there!)

The few days a year when bands throughout Acadiana can play the same song, over and over again, and still be adored and praised with loud applaud and approving cheers every single time....

Les Mardi Gras s'en vient de tout partout,
Tout alentour le tour du moyeu,
Ça passe une fois par an, demandé la charité,
Quand-même ça c'est une patate, une patate ou des gratons....

Where I grew up, there was no Mardi Gras. Well, that's to say there was no Mardi Gras celebration. The closest thing to a Mardi Gras a celebration we had at home was my mom baking up a storm in our kitchen (she makes the yummiest chocolate eclairs) and having pancakes with lots of syrup for dinner.

When I first moved here, I have to admit, it took me a while to ''get it''.

I was all like, ''But boo, what the hell do you do with all these beads after you catch them?''

After I finally understood that it wasn’t what you did with the beads AFTER the parade, but rather just showing off to the people next to you how many beads YOU were able to catch, I too started my quest to become the world's best bead hoarder.

I have yet to do a courir de Mardi Gras in the country, but I'm guessing it's going to happen soon since my 4 year old Luke will stop at nothing to get the chance to chase a chicken around.

So anyway, I'm wishing you all a safe and happy Mardi Gras. And, remember, Johnston street to Cajundome Blvd is impossible and you have to take the back way to Keller's bakery because of construction on Jefferson street!

Cheers!

An Ounce of Charlie Sheen

So Tuesday I'm on my couch, it's 8:45 p.m and I'm contemplating going to bed since I knew in about 4 hours I'd be hearing those tiny footsteps coming down the stairs and then the whisper in my ear, ''Mommy, can you come sleep with me please?'' Which I would indulge and spend the next 4 hours with cold feet kicking me in the back. Fantastic.

But, as I'm about to turn off the TV, the 20/20 intro music starts and Elizabeth Vargas shoots me a look like, “You better sit your ass back down on the couch cause what you're about to witness is going to f&*#ing blow your socks off!”

So I sat and watched.

I watched much like I watch shows like TLC's Hoarders or Toddlers and Tiaras: peering from under my blanket since I can't decide if I really want to watch this insane debauchery or throw my bowl of ice cream at the TV screen.

I have to say, watching Charlie Sheen chain smoke, sip his pink drink (which I'm assuming was not cool aid) and rant incoherently for an hour was probably the most entertaining thing I've watched on TV since VH1's Flavor Of Love.

(Yes, I am a TV whore!)

I want to point out that I do realize that this was probably not entertaining to his friends and family. But for me, this kind of “entertaining” isn't the “hey let's see how fast we can drink all these beers without puking" type of "entertaining".

I am just totally baffled by the human mind and the fact that we are all just one 7 day crack binge away from totally losing touch with reality.

Personally, I have been too close for comfort to this metaphoric crack binge. After 2 months with no sleep, no booze and a screaming alien like creature hanging from by boobs constantly, I could have undeniably convinced myself that I was a “total bitchin' rock star from Mars!”

Although, I am still not completely convinced that this performance wasn’t just that...a performance. After all, the man is a bitchin' actor!

Whatever the cause or intention of this bizarre, erratic behavior, I would personally like to thank Charlie Sheen for gracing us with “the Charlie Sheen drug”, “Adonis DNA”, “ droopy eyed armless children” and last but not least, “tiger blood”.

Thank you for bestowing upon us a plethora of content for us ''human folk's” facebook status updates, twitter feeds, blogs and comedic acts!

(Image above from http://www.flickr.com/photos/sharongraphics/ )

Seminar

I'm going to a seminar and I feel great.

I'm dressed in something other than my husband's extra-large t-shirt and the sweatpants I've been wearing all week, and I feel like a million bucks.

It is the very first time, since my daughter's birth, 5 years ago, that I'm going to be mingling with adults and the words ''play date'' have not been spoken.

Ok, I'm exaggerating, but this much is true. I never thought going to a web optimization/internalization and social marketing seminar would get me all fired up!

But it did!

It's the first seminar or anything of the sort (that had nothing do to with child birth or breast feeding) that I was attending in the last half decade.

On my way over there, I feel great. My hair looks good, I'm bopping to my jams and I'm processing various business opportunities.

I feel alive again.

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=1499

In recent years, the lack of sleep, baby talk and me talking about myself in the third person... “Mommy needs to take a time out right now”.....have made me start to doubt my abilities in the ''work-place'' (I'm putting quotations because my house could also be considered a workplace!).

What's particularly scary for me is, theoretically, I have never been in the ''work-place''.

After I graduated from my second undergraduate degree (my first being a general science baccalaureate and my second a teaching degree), I moved here to Lafayette, got married and got pregnant 3 weeks later.

For the past 5 years I've been wiping butts and refereeing fights between irrational, unreasonable toddlers.

So, the thought of getting out into the big bad world scared me.

Until now. until this seminar.

I feel confident. I'm asking the right questions. The panel members seem to be genuinely interested in what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm a rock star (lol..as much a rock star as you can be in a web optimization/internalization and social marketing seminar).

The point is, I was not intimidated.

Quite the opposite, I felt surer of myself then I think I've ever felt in such an environment.

It finally dawned on me that maybe, these past 5 years, of staying up all night with fever and ear infections and of damage control after one kid picks the other one's toy, have made me a more confident, strong-willed person.

I guess that's what you call life experience.

And, experience is something I'm starting to have!