These boots were made for walking

October 17, 2006 by Black Belt Mama · 10 Comments
Filed under: Just for Fun

At J’s request, the story of how the boots became mine and how I explained them to my husband. . .

I did not have any intention of buying these boots. I saw them last week. I searched on the internet for the best deal and found none. Last week, I purchased a coupon through Big I’s school for $5 which entitled me to 25% off all day today. Last night, my husband gave me a princess cut diamond solitaire necklace for our anniversary to match the earrings he bought me for Mother’s Day.

I was completely surprised (although I shouldn’t have been considering he was very very late getting home). He’s a last minute kind of guy. So, I really was having no urge to buy the boots today.

Then I saw them. I had just finished some Christmas shopping and I saw them in all their glory. They were calling to me, just waiting for me.

I asked to try them on, hoping that I would hate them. I hoped they wouldn’t be comfortable.

But they were. . .

I handed them back to the sales girl and told her "no thanks". I told her I was going to "think about it" and maybe come back later. She said, "O.k. but just so you know, we only got one in each size. . ."

I sat there while Lil C chowed on some cherry puffs and then I decided that I had to have them. And here they are. . .

Now I just need a denim skirt to go with them. . .

And as far as the explanation. . . it went something like this:

Me: I was bad today.
Him: Why?
Me: Well, let’s just say you already got me a Christmas present.
Him: Huh?
Me: (revealing large box from closet and showing him) Aren’t they awesome?
Him: What’s the damage?
Me: Well, they were on sale. . . and I got an additional 25% off.
Him: What’s the damage?
Me: $160
Him: AND THAT WAS ON SALE???
Me: I’m lying. They were $149, marked down to $139, and then I had the coupon, so I paid $104. That sounds so much better than $160, huh?
Him: (laughing)

Ta da! Good luck with your purchases ladies! That’s how its done!

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Three Things

October 17, 2006 by Black Belt Mama · 4 Comments
Filed under: Just for Fun

It’s been a while since I’ve done a meme. But, as per Junebee, I’ve been tagged.

1. Three people who make me laugh:

My husband (who has in past years done great interpretational dancing to theme songs from ER, Law & Order, etc.)
Karl whose birthday challenges had me holding my sides laughing
My girls

2. Three things I can do:

change a diaper with one hand while lying down in the dark
make chicken pie and chocolate cake from scratch
crochet baby blankets, hats and booties

3. Three things I can’t do:

go on a ferris wheel without completely freaking out
keep my mouth shut when someone says something rude to my kids or my mom
get the grill started (I know the games men play. . . folding laundry poorly so they’re not asked to do it again. I can’t get the grill started and I have a good reason why.)

4. Three things I’m doing right now:

trying to catch up on my blog reading
looking around my living room and wondering exactly how many tissues Lil C has shredded today
trying to ~~find a good deal on an awesome pair of boots I saw last week~~ figure out how I’m going to explain my boot purchase to my husband

5. Three things I want to do before I die:

become a black belt and then some
move into my dream home
visit the Florida Keys

6. Three things I hate the most:

political ads and phone calls (because I get at least four a day)
people who litter
people who are mean to people I love

7. Three things that scare me:

child predators (although if any of them come anywhere near me or my kids I am fully prepared to unleash BBM’s full fury on them)
the crazy countries in this world (N. Korea, Iran, etc.)
most dogs (I am not a fan.)

8. Three things I don’t understand:

why so many Americans hate their own country so much
why politicians don’t take all the money they spend on political ads and instead use it to find cures for diseases, improve our schools, etc. etc. etc.
school violence

9. Three skills I’d like to learn:

how to breathe properly through my kata’s
how to properly use joint locks. . . the first time
how to deliver a killer serve in the style of Venus Williams

10. Three ways to describe my personality:

Assertive
Thoughtful
Fun

11. Three things I think you should listen to:

your children
Alana Davis
Lil C and Big I playing together. . . their giggles are intoxicating

12. Three things you should never listen to:

political ads
political phone calls (like the stupid one I got today from Bill Clinton himself)
Hector & Victor from ESPN who give weekly projections on fantasy football players (Rex Grossman with a -7 for this week! ARGHHH!!)

13. Three favorite foods:

Tortilla soup from Max & Erma’s
Pollo Fundido from Cozumel in Pittsburgh
Wings from Johnny’s Place in Pittsburgh

14. Three beverages I drink regularly:

diet decaf iced tea
cherry vanilla hot tea
diet decaf coke

15. Three shows I watch a lot:

Lost
Gray’s Anatomy
The Unit
Just three????? Project Runway too!

16. Three people I’m tagging to do this:

Jenn from Maniacal Days
Karl from Secondhand Trypotophan
Jody from And Baby Makes 6

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Cess pools

October 16, 2006 by Black Belt Mama · 7 Comments
Filed under: Mental Strain for Mama

I think I have figured out a way to keep health care costs down in this country. It’s simple really and involves two steps:

All children will be schooled at home through home-schooling or cyber-schooling, thus avoiding the school buildings (cess pool #1) which are apparently teeming with germs.
Children will no longer go to doctor’s offices for well visits. Doctors will make house calls for well visits, thus helping children avoid cess pool #2.

I have learned in the last month and a half that Kindergarten is a cess pool of germs. I have never had so many colds/viruses in my life. Not even when I was a teacher, did I get sick this often. You see high school kids, for the most part, know how to blow their noses and keep their germs to themselves. I don’t think Kindergartener’s have learned this crucial skill yet. We’re currently running on a cycle something like this:

Day 1: Big I comes home and complains of slight sore throat and/or runny nose.
Day 2: Lil C starts sneezing.
Day 3: Mama starts sneezing and glands swell up big enough to make me look like a linebacker.
Day 4: Big I, Lil C, and me all break out in full fledged runny nose/achy body/sore throat hell.
Days 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 are all like Day 4
Day 11: We all start to feel better. I realize we’re not going through a box of tissues every half hour.
Day 12: Feeling great!
Days 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 are all good.
Day 18: See Day 1

I swear this is how it has been since Big I started school. Last week we added another germ cess pool to our daily routine with a well visit for Lil C. Every time the child gets a vaccine, she gets sick. She starts out fussy, feverish, and hating sleep. Now she has a full fledged cold, complete with "Mama, Mama, Mama" crying non-stop, except for the few precious hours when she sleeps, breathing through her mouth. And we don’t even get her all of the recommended vaccines.

During our visit to cess pool #2, the doctor said Lil C is doing very well and is ahead developmentally. Duh, she is the child of a valedictorian and a perfectionist after all. She is 31 1/4 inches tall (97th percentile). This marks the first time since birth that she is actually on the charts for her height. She weighs 20 lbs. 14 oz. (50th percentile), and her head is still 90th percentile.

In other news, Mr. BBM and I went out for our eight year anniversary (eight years of marriage-twelve years together)this weekend to a restaurant that was anything but a cess pool. We enjoyed crab stuffed mushrooms as an appetizer. Mr. BBM had kobe steak and I had sauteed crab cakes with green olive tartar sauce. It was delicious. I also had two glasses of the house Pinot Grigio which made walking in heels a bit of a challenge afterwards, but it was worth it anyway (Nine months of pregnancy plus 12 months of nursing makes for a dismal tolerance to any and all alcohol). We wrapped up dinner with a slice of pecan pie for Mr. BBM and a vanilla creme brulee for me, accompanied by an Ethiopian coffee in a french press that was so divine that neither of us even needed sugar.

It was wonderful to have dinner alone, without anyone requesting more chocolate milk for the 14th time or tossing a cup over the side of the high chair yet again. We talked about fantasy football, home improvements, our jobs, and funny things from our past. It was a great night out. I’m just glad that the full-fledged cold held off until Sunday so that we could enjoy our night out.

Back to the germs. I’m sure someone needs to blow her nose. . . again.

My latest post "Fantasy Football for Dummies" is up at Save the Soldiers, and is all about how my fantasy football season is going so far. Right now, the person who posts my entries made a boo-boo and the post says that it was written by Andrew something or other. It’s mine. It will be fixed. "Andrew" is probably not real happy that the first line says something about "my husband." If you like fantasy football or just football in general, you’ll especially like this weeks post. Actually, you’ll like it even more if you’re a Chicago Bears fan. Enjoy!

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Looking Ahead

October 12, 2006 by Black Belt Mama · 5 Comments
Filed under: Tales from the dojo

I must have scared off the teenage black belt with my mad sparring skills, because he hasn’t been in my advanced class for two weeks now. Either that or he’s sick of listening to me scream when I fling the nunchaku too close to my face. . . probably the latter.

I’m basically getting private lessons now which has been great. In two weeks, I’ve managed to learn two of the three kata’s (Odo No Nunchaku and Pinan Yondan) I’ll need for 2nd kyu and the waza as well. I’ve also learned a lot about the history of Okinawan Kenpo, which has been very interesting.

The other thing I’m learning? Being a brown belt is hard work. There is no such thing as casually letting a kata sink in anymore. Now it’s time to pound the kata’s into your head, relearn all the little things that you were doing incorrectly beforehand and learn how to apply the kata’s to real life situations. Everyone thinks that karate is physically demanding. But lately, I’m finding that it is more mentally trying.

Brown belt kata’s have all these techniques and preps that are unfamiliar. I was joking with my instructor this week that it was going to take me 40 minutes to complete one kata on my own. When parts were sticky, I had to stand there and think so hard it almost hurt, just to get my hands the right way and get into the right position.

The good news though, is that my instructor said that he saw improvement in my nunchaku swinging technique. I’m getting the hip motion down or starting to anyway, and hearing a compliment on that kata made me grin from ear to ear.

Big I won’t be grinning for a while about her kata though. Big I’s new kata is proving to be quite a challenge. Her kata for yellow belt is Wansu. Wansu is unique from the first Nai Hanchi kata’s because it does not move on a straight line. Wansu is all over the place. The best way to teach Big I kata is to mirror her. She does well if you can do the kata backwards. I’ve been able to help her this way with her first two, but Wansu doesn’t allow for such a teaching technique. While the rest of the class is facing the mirror, Big I is standing facing the back of the dojo, watching our instructor and doing all the moves backwards. Wansu is going to be a trying kata for Big I (and for her mama too.)

I am sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve had requests for a fantasy football update, and I have much to tell on the Kindergarten topic. However, along with your baby turning a year old comes a 1 year well visit which means a shot, which means a fussy baby with a fever. It also means that one particular BBM is super busy freaking out and wanting to spend every moment with my kids because MY GOD, they grow up too fast. Plus, we’re all sort of hanging out under the weather with yet another cold brought home from Kindergarten, etc. Things will get back to normal around here soon. I look forward to catching you up on my life and catching up on all of yours as well.

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Elmo-palooza

October 8, 2006 by Black Belt Mama · 14 Comments
Filed under: Growing Pains

I didn’t write about karate last week. I wanted to, but I just didn’t have any time to put anything coherent together. First, the gifts started arriving. . .

Then, I was too busy being all "wah, my baby is a year old"; and then came the baking. . . lots and lots of baking. First came the cookies in the shapes of C’s, 1’s, little hands and little feet. . .

Then came the cupcakes, complete with Elmo cupcake papers and Elmo icing decorations.

Then came the baby block cake that took 5.5 hours to complete from start to finish. It was four layers and took all kinds of patience and tools like a cake leveler (which is THE coolest baking invention EVER), and food coloring and Smoothie Skittles (which I don’t recommend eating although they are great for decorating).