2-for-1 Friday

Can you believe it? Two blog posts in one day. Guess I'm feeling chatty or inspired or something. It's been a bit since I've done a Friday Fragments post and I'm kind of missing Mrs. 4444s and all the friends I encounter via Friday Fragments so let's not waste any more time.

Halloween was fun -- how can endless flowing candy be otherwise? Robbie went as an Angry Bird (of course -- his latest obsession). Charlie went as a cereal killer. I made the hat myself with spray adhesive. I think I might be in love with spray adhesive. I'm tempted to use it to put the patches on Robbie's Cub Scout uniform.

Robbie was insistent that he carry a Nerf gun as part of his Angry Bird ensemble. Then he would walk up to the door of each house and say "Trick or treat. I'm just a Angry Bird...wif a gun." It was so funny. As we walked through the neighborhood, people would say "Look! An Angry Bird," to which Robbie would shout  while raising his hand in the air "wif a gun!"

We're 4 days into November already and I don't even have my Christmas shopping spreadsheet created yet. What's happening to me? This year instead of shopping in Cleveland, my mom, sisters and I are shopping here in Indy. I'm going to really try to make most of my purchases from independent stores and avoid the big box retailers as much as possible.

I'm still totally loving my green El Naturalista shoes. Look how nice they went with the mammogram robe I got at the breast center today! (It was the same soft, cozy robe I had last year too.) When the tech led me to the changing room, she offered hangers that I could use to hang my clothes up on. I thought it best not to say "Oh, that's ok, I just picked these clothes up off my bedroom floor 30 minutes ago."


How would you love to not have to cook Thanksgiving dinner, but still get to eat all the yummy deliciousness? FitCity Indianapolis and Avec Moi are giving away a free, healthy and still tasty Thanksgiving dinner for 8. If you're in the area and want to enter -- or if you live far away and want to enter and bring the meal to my house to eat -- visit the FitCity Facebook page.


Mike is wrapping up week 2 of the new job. He likes it, but its a transition for all of us. That's a whole 'nother blog post. So please come back to read again later. In the meantime, go visit Mrs. 4444s and all of the other Friday Fragmenters.

Sometimes I just can't help it

I know before going in that this is pointless. But my pride gets the better of me and I do it anyway.

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So clearly, I am insane. What other explanation is there?

Maybe, I tell myself, maybe this time will be different.

But it's never different. Always, I end up physically and emotionally tensed. Useless anger bubbling up under the surface. I hold my breath. I tighten the muscles in my back. And when I get the usual result, I go back for more.

Insanity, I tell you.

Seriously, though. Sometimes I just can't help myself. Hope springs eternal and this time might offer a different outcome.

Or not.

Who's angry now?

There's a 99-cent game on the iPhone called "Angry Birds." A bunch of green pigs tried to steal the birds' eggs and the birds are out for revenge. So they slingshot themselves (well, you slingshot them) into structures where the pigs are hiding in an attempt to get rid of the pigs once and for all. 

My boys love this game. Robbie especially is obsessed with Angry Birds. For the past month, he has been telling everyone that he's going to be an angry bird for Halloween. Specifically, he wanted to be the red angry bird. Unfortunately, despite the game's popularity -- it was the #1 downloaded app for a long time -- there is no angry bird costume in any store. 

So Mike and I thought about it and decided that we could use a red bean bag chair to create the round red body of Robbie's new favorite character. Too bad we recently got rid of one. So we bought a new giant red bean bag and after school today I went to work creating Robbie's angry bird costume. 

First, Annie helped me empty all the styrofoam pellets out of the bean bag and into a trash bag. That's how I learned that one bean bag chair can hold 39 gallons of pellets. Unfortunately, not all of those 39 gallons ended up in the garbage bag. If I had to guess, I'd say about 2-1/2 gallons spilled out onto my kitchen floor -- and quickly made their way to the dining room, the living room and who knows where else?

Once the bean bag was emptied, I cut a circle out of the base of the bag for Robbie's head. Then we slid the open zippered end of the bag over his body and popped his head through the hole I'd cut. I guestimated where to cut armholes and soon enough, he was wearing the bean bag. But the bean bag hung from Robbie's shoulders like a sack. It was time to plump it up, giving it the signature rotund look of the red angry bird.

I decided to stuff the costume with bedsheets. Six bedsheets later, Robbie looked a little like the angry bird he wanted and a whole lot like a pear-shaped apple. He wasn't at all convinced with the costume, but I told him to wait until we got his beak made. I made the beak from a yellow folder, cutting it to size and rolling it kind of like a party hat.

By the time I got the yarn taped to the beak to tie around his head, Robbie was starting to complain that the costume was too heavy, that he couldn't run in it, and that it was "too fat."

In fact, what he actually said was "Great...now I look like a fat, sad, angry bird!" 

A few minutes later, he declared that he didn't want to be an angry bird for Halloween anymore. What?! After hearing for weeks that he wanted to be an angry bird? After I tried to talk him into something a little easier to come up with ? After we spent $20 on the bean bag chair, then proceeded to cut it up so it can not  be re-used for its original purpose? 

"I think I'll just be Spiderman." 

If I'd had a mirror in front of me at that moment, I'm pretty sure I'm the one who would have looked like an angry bird.