I love all things vintage: clothes, fabric, jewelry, my cherry hat. So after watching season one of “Mad Men,” and seeing “Revolutionary Road,” I am liking my 1950’s kitchen a whole lot more! I even have a built in flour sifter in one of the cabinets and I think it is filled with vintage flour.   I would even venture to say that my husband would agree that I could benefit from having a little 50’s housewife in me…

Did you know that if you call 911 by accident they still have to come to your house just to make sure everything is okay?  Just in case you were being robbed and called them and then the robber had a gun to your head and made you say you dialed by mistake..

We learned this yesterday when my nine year old “misdialed” his friend’s number, which by the way, doesn’t even have a 9 or a 1 in it.  He told me he accidently called 9-1-1 and told them he had the wrong number and that they were sending someone out.   I just didn’t believe him until the police officer rang our doorbell.   I made my son explain what had happened and thankfully the officer gave him a little talk about this call taking him away from a “real” emergency.  Did I mention that the officer was h-o-t?

My husband and I sat through  ”Paul Blart, mall cop” with our now nine-year-old and three of his friends. Sadly, this was the number one movie at the box office.  Sure, there are some funny parts but is also pretty scary with one character threatening to “put a bullet” in another’s head. Ham was sad that she wasn’t invited to his birthday celebration but now I am so relieved we didn’t bring her with us. I think she would have been scared to death of the creepy characters dressed in black who take over the mall.  I’m sure she would have had nightmares for weeks.  And more importantly,  as my mother pointed out, she’d never want to go shopping with me again!

I am afraid to open my inbox at yahoo. Everytime I do lately, I have a message from facebook that someone is trying to reach me, and more than once it has been an old boyfriend.  I’m not sure how this has happened since I don’t even have a page on facebook. I did respond ONCE to an email from someone adding me as a “friend” and in registering to do that, I seem to have opened up a whole can of worms.

I know, I know, I am way behind the times and everyone is connecting with everyone all the time. But I just got a digital camera last year and like to take these things slow.   I don’t think I’m ready for random reminders from my past..or am I missing out?

I thought back problems only happened to old people, but here I am heading to the local rehab center for some physical therapy.   And if I have any illusions that I am too young to have this problem, I have my dear friend Laurie to remind me that I am “middle aged” afterall.  It must have been the seven hour drive taking my niece back to the University of Missouri. That, and helping her move her four pairs of Ugg boots and 17 pairs of Juicy Couture sweat pants, mini fridge, flat screen tv, laptop and printer.  I’m not kidding, they are a fashionable group of young ladies and their room has quite the set-up. 

It was fun to be along for the ride but I’m glad to be home with my girls, spending two days on the couch- Ham with a fever and me with my back.  I’m happy to report that babe-o’s can say the president’s full name.

My mom is visiting us for few days which is always nice. She is full of helpful suggestions like, “these kids are old enough to pick up after themselves.” I guess she noticed that we seem to have a breakdown in the laundry system. When it gets done it sits in the baskets for days. She suggested I get them each their own laundry basket and when the clothes are clean, they come down to the laundry room grab their basket and put their own clothes away.   It’s worth a try.

And when grandma comes to town we try to eat dinner in the dining room with candlelight and our best manners.  After eating spaghetti, which I made,  babe-o’s announced, “you’re a good cooker grandma!”  So last night I decided to pass off Costco’s rotisserie chicken as grandma’s special recipe so all would eat it.  It worked on the girls but not on my third grader.  He forgot his best manners and announced that he still hates chicken.

It’s way too early in 2009 to be making trips to the emergency room but that’s where I found myself with Ham this afternoon. She has a scary infection on her leg and had we been to a birthday party at a popular “inflatable” party zone yesterday instead of today, I would swear that’s where the germs came from.  I wonder why if someone in our family is going to have some weird illness or injury it’s always Ham.

I am also wondering how do you put a positive spin on a miserable experience? As she awaited a painful proceedure and asked me if it was going to hurt, I was considering telling her the truth: “actually sweet pea, it’s going to hurt like hell and I will have to pin you down and you will probably scream your head off.”  But instead I told her it may pinch and then she could have a slushie.  In the end she was braver that I expected.

As I was getting the reward,  I spied our pastor in the hall talking to the doctor.  I called out her name  and waved, hoping for moral support but then I realized that she was there as a mom, and not on the clock. Sometimes being there is all we can do.

New Year’s eve we had some friends over for a little dinner party. It was great fun just talking and cooking together. Since we all had our kids with us we rang in the new year at 11pm (the beauty of living in the Central time zone)by watching the ball drop in Times Square. We were having so much fun that our guests were still around to celebrate the Chicago new year as well. Too many toasts later, we said goodnite.

In the morning I found the whipped cream in the fridge that was meant to go with the delicious angel food cake and chocolate covered strawberries that my friend made. So, I just had to make a pie to go with all that whipped cream. Too bad my pie didn’t taste as good as the whip.