My good friend Donna White designed and hosted a baby shower this past Sunday.
Feast your eyes on this baby girl cuteness!
Monday, June 25, 2012
Wake up call
Some teens are into sports and athletics. Others go for music or
theater. But there’s one thing that almost every teen loves to do: sleep
in.
Have you ever tried waking up a teen on a Saturday morning? Good luck with that. They’re like hibernating bears — nothing can shake them from their coma-like slumber.
If teens had their way, they’d stay up all night and sleep in past lunchtime. Their body clocks would synchronize with Mid East time zones while the rest of us stay on Pacific Standard Time.
Are you, too, having trouble getting your teen out of bed these days?
Here are some strategies you might consider:
• Try the “Zen mom” method.
Rub the teen’s feet. Pat their back. Say “good morning” in a cheery “happy mom” voice. If the teen actually opens one eye, give them a nice big smile. Side note: This is the most pleasant but least effective way to wake up a teen.
• Get serious.
Using your best “I mean business” voice, go to their room and say, “It is time to wake up, NOW.” Return to the teen’s bedroom every
3.5 minutes. Repeat until the teen is sitting up. Make sure the teen’s eyes are actually open when they do sit up.
• Send in the dogs.
Get the family dog to go into the teen’s room and start licking their face. If the dog can howl on command, that’s even better.
• Bring on the bacon.
Open the teen’s bedroom door and then start frying some bacon in the kitchen. No teen can resist the smell. They may sleepwalk to the kitchen, but at least they’ll be up.
• Pull the blankets off the teen and off the bed. Caution — beware when using “blanket removal.” This strategy is very effective but can backfire. It may wake up the teen but can put them in a really bad mood they’ll take hours to recover from.
In an attempt to wake up one particularly zombie-like teenager on a Sunday morning, I decided to get creative.
I climbed onto her bed and started bouncing up and down. Then I started singing. This is harder than it sounds.
First, twin beds are narrow. I could have fallen off and broken an arm.
Second, I could have broken one of her arms while I was jumping on her bed. How would I explain that in the ER?
Lastly, have you ever tried jumping and singing at the same time? Madonna and J-Lo make it look way easier than it is.
One day last summer I came home from work around 2 p.m. It was awfully quiet in the house. Too quiet. What did I find when I opened our teen’s bedroom door? You guessed it — a certain someone sawing logs.
I wish I could say I had a moment of motherly reflection while gazing at our daughter.
Nope. Her head and body were covered by three layers of blankets.
The only thing I could see was two bare feet.
Have you ever tried waking up a teen on a Saturday morning? Good luck with that. They’re like hibernating bears — nothing can shake them from their coma-like slumber.
If teens had their way, they’d stay up all night and sleep in past lunchtime. Their body clocks would synchronize with Mid East time zones while the rest of us stay on Pacific Standard Time.
Are you, too, having trouble getting your teen out of bed these days?
Here are some strategies you might consider:
• Try the “Zen mom” method.
Rub the teen’s feet. Pat their back. Say “good morning” in a cheery “happy mom” voice. If the teen actually opens one eye, give them a nice big smile. Side note: This is the most pleasant but least effective way to wake up a teen.
• Get serious.
Using your best “I mean business” voice, go to their room and say, “It is time to wake up, NOW.” Return to the teen’s bedroom every
3.5 minutes. Repeat until the teen is sitting up. Make sure the teen’s eyes are actually open when they do sit up.
• Send in the dogs.
Get the family dog to go into the teen’s room and start licking their face. If the dog can howl on command, that’s even better.
• Bring on the bacon.
Open the teen’s bedroom door and then start frying some bacon in the kitchen. No teen can resist the smell. They may sleepwalk to the kitchen, but at least they’ll be up.
• Pull the blankets off the teen and off the bed. Caution — beware when using “blanket removal.” This strategy is very effective but can backfire. It may wake up the teen but can put them in a really bad mood they’ll take hours to recover from.
In an attempt to wake up one particularly zombie-like teenager on a Sunday morning, I decided to get creative.
I climbed onto her bed and started bouncing up and down. Then I started singing. This is harder than it sounds.
First, twin beds are narrow. I could have fallen off and broken an arm.
Second, I could have broken one of her arms while I was jumping on her bed. How would I explain that in the ER?
Lastly, have you ever tried jumping and singing at the same time? Madonna and J-Lo make it look way easier than it is.
One day last summer I came home from work around 2 p.m. It was awfully quiet in the house. Too quiet. What did I find when I opened our teen’s bedroom door? You guessed it — a certain someone sawing logs.
I wish I could say I had a moment of motherly reflection while gazing at our daughter.
Nope. Her head and body were covered by three layers of blankets.
The only thing I could see was two bare feet.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
June 2012 Birchbox
I have loved almost every item received in my monthly Birchbox.
The June box was filled with SIX goodies!
This month's theme is "Jet Set."
Inside the tissue was the makeup tint, fragrance and shampoo and conditioner sample from Oribe. Perfect for an overnight stay somewhere this summer!
The one perfume sample is a roller ball -- my favorite.
The coolest item is the funky Cynthia Rowley bandaids! They are printed in cool patterns and photographs.
Super FUN!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Pam Reid on ticks
More from my biggest fan Pam Reid:
Jennifer Huffman:
Re your column in today's Register, we have to wonder why you, or anyone with a modicum of intelligence, would allow & tolerate any thing, person, or animal that brings lfeas & now ticks, into your home.
Your daughters' reactions are normal.
Your reactions are unbelievably abnormal.
You are putting your entire family in jeopardy by allowing them to make room for ticks, & then compounding the dangers by introducing poisons into the air everyone is breathing into their lungs.
In Napa, no one will dare to say dogs carry too many germs in addition to harboring fleas, ticks & who knows what else. Why the denial? Because humans have, outside of Napa State Hospital (Asylum), have gone off the deep end & now worship the flea-infested, tick-infested drooling, pooping dogs!
Pam Reid
Ticked off
Our girls are grossed out by many things — spiders, when a sister
chews with her mouth open, most cooked vegetables — but there’s one
thing they really hate: Ticks.
Unfortunately for them, we have a dog. A dog that likes to walk in grass and weeds. And we all know what ticks like to do when a dog walks through their neighborhood — hitch a ride.
It must be tick season, because our dog seems to be hosting a tick convention on his back. For the past few weeks, we’ve found a number of the little blood-suckers either on him or lounging nearby.
A recent tick sighting at the Huffman house went something like this:
“Ewwwwwwwww,” Daughter No. 1 howled. “What is that?”
“It’s a TICK,” Daughter No. 2 screamed.
“A tick?” yelped Daughter No. 3.
“Mooooommmmm!” they all yelled.
This is Dad’s clue to go buy a tick treatment called Frontline. The Frontline box is covered in all kinds of deadly warnings. Apparently just one drop of this poison is enough to exterminate an entire generation of the evil bugs.
Any tick hanging out on a dog treated with Frontline should write his tick will, make peace with his tick maker and say his tick prayers. He’s not long for this warm, furry world.
Within a day or two, the ticks start dropping from the dog. Finding a Frontline victim is not a pretty sight. For some reason, the tick swells up in a squishy purply-black ball.
When one of the girls finds such a tick, it’s like they’re witnessing the end of the world.
“It’s a tick and it looks like a grape!” they yell, while dancing around doing the heebee-jeebees.
They’ll go on and on about how gross it is, but they won’t stop looking at the tick, which only makes them wail even louder about how “disgusting” it is.
I don’t need to stare at a dead tick. I simply grab a big wad of paper towels, scoop it up and toss it in the trash. Then take out the trash immediately because ticks have something like 19 lives and they seem to find a way to crawl out of the trash in search of another warm body.
There’s only one thing worse than finding a tick on your dog or the floor. Finding one on your kid’s head.
If you do find a tick has clamped onto your child, do not panic. Do not scream in horror. Do not announce loudly, “You have a tick!”
Look at your spouse and mouth “She has a tick,” while pointing at her head and making a scrunchy “ewwwwww” face.
Some people get rid of a tick by drowning it in rubbing alcohol, burning it with a match tip or coating it with Vaseline. I’m not sure if any of these actually work. I just grab it with a pair of tweezers and yank the sucker off.
After that, we can drop it on the floor and let the dancing begin.
http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/columnists/jennifer-huffman/ticked-off/article_d09ea214-b36b-11e1-8dcb-001a4bcf887a.html?comment_form=true#comments
Unfortunately for them, we have a dog. A dog that likes to walk in grass and weeds. And we all know what ticks like to do when a dog walks through their neighborhood — hitch a ride.
It must be tick season, because our dog seems to be hosting a tick convention on his back. For the past few weeks, we’ve found a number of the little blood-suckers either on him or lounging nearby.
A recent tick sighting at the Huffman house went something like this:
“Ewwwwwwwww,” Daughter No. 1 howled. “What is that?”
“It’s a TICK,” Daughter No. 2 screamed.
“A tick?” yelped Daughter No. 3.
“Mooooommmmm!” they all yelled.
This is Dad’s clue to go buy a tick treatment called Frontline. The Frontline box is covered in all kinds of deadly warnings. Apparently just one drop of this poison is enough to exterminate an entire generation of the evil bugs.
Any tick hanging out on a dog treated with Frontline should write his tick will, make peace with his tick maker and say his tick prayers. He’s not long for this warm, furry world.
Within a day or two, the ticks start dropping from the dog. Finding a Frontline victim is not a pretty sight. For some reason, the tick swells up in a squishy purply-black ball.
When one of the girls finds such a tick, it’s like they’re witnessing the end of the world.
“It’s a tick and it looks like a grape!” they yell, while dancing around doing the heebee-jeebees.
They’ll go on and on about how gross it is, but they won’t stop looking at the tick, which only makes them wail even louder about how “disgusting” it is.
I don’t need to stare at a dead tick. I simply grab a big wad of paper towels, scoop it up and toss it in the trash. Then take out the trash immediately because ticks have something like 19 lives and they seem to find a way to crawl out of the trash in search of another warm body.
There’s only one thing worse than finding a tick on your dog or the floor. Finding one on your kid’s head.
If you do find a tick has clamped onto your child, do not panic. Do not scream in horror. Do not announce loudly, “You have a tick!”
Look at your spouse and mouth “She has a tick,” while pointing at her head and making a scrunchy “ewwwwww” face.
Some people get rid of a tick by drowning it in rubbing alcohol, burning it with a match tip or coating it with Vaseline. I’m not sure if any of these actually work. I just grab it with a pair of tweezers and yank the sucker off.
After that, we can drop it on the floor and let the dancing begin.
http://napavalleyregister.com/lifestyles/columnists/jennifer-huffman/ticked-off/article_d09ea214-b36b-11e1-8dcb-001a4bcf887a.html?comment_form=true#comments
Graduation
I'm waayyyyyy behind in blogging but I have one good excuse. Oldest Daughter graduated from high school earlier this month!
Other moms warned me how busy graduation and the end of high school was, but did I believe them?
Nope.
And then it happened to me.
Ceremonies, banquets, baccalaureate practic, baccalaureate, graduation practice, graduation, grad night, grad party, grad sleepover, DISNEYLAND!!!!
Yeah, it all wore me out.
Here are a few pics.
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