You know what really sucks? When a kid comes into your bed at night – AND PEES! I’m so sick of urine and feces! Shouldn’t 8 years be enough? By the time I’m done dealing with the kids’ bodily excretions, I’ll have to start dealing with Ben’s. Now THAT’s something to look forward to.
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Hello, my name is Lori and I’m a bagaholic. I love bags.

Tonight while I was hiding out at BJ’s waiting for the kids to fall asleep at home, I decided to replace my wallet. I really did need one since the coin purse part of my old one disintegrated. I went over to DSW (warehouse shoe store in case you’re not from around here) because they have a ton of wallets and the prices are pretty inexpensive. While I was there I took a stroll through the football-field of shoes. Nothing caught my eye but I could hear the bags calling out to me, “Lori…we’re over here…it can’t hurt to look…you can walk away whenever you want to…”

There were about 200 of the giant, shiny, gaudy bags that I hate, but I made a beeline for the dark pink suede hobo bag behind all the others. Originally $168, it was on clearance for a mere $66. As you have probably figured out, with me it’s not about the brand or what’s “in”. Recently someone asked if I grew up in Framingham and I said, “No, I’m from Vermont,” and he said, “That explains a lot.” I’m still not sure what that means but I’m way more Birkenstocks and tie-dye than Jimmy Choos and gold lamé.
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My fixation with bags has to do with the fresh start that they represent. Getting a new bag means that you can take just what you need from the old one and start again. I get so tired of having my bag full of loose Cheerios, craft projects, and everyone else’s crap. It was one thing when I was carrying around a diaper bag as my purse…at least I was the only one putting things into it. One day in the Cracker Barrel bathroom I literally cried when one of the kids went to my purse hanging on the back of the stall door and dumped in one of those little boxes of Froot Loops. Actual tears. “The Ugly Cry”, as Oprah says.

I was so excited about tonight’s fresh start that I moved all the important stuff to my new bag in the Shoppers World parking lot (still hiding). This is what I need in my bag:

A) wallet
B) Blackberry (brain)
C) camera
D) small spiral notebook & pen (backup brain)
E) sunglasses
F) keys
G) a very small make-up bag
H) photo wallet of the kids pics (all at least a year old but they haven’t changed THAT much)

I also need room for a book (for me) and a well-sealed snack and drink (for someone else). That’s it.

Last night (pre-new bag) I was talking to my friend, Cristina, who was saying that she can’t wait until she doesn’t have to carry a diaper bag around any more. I said that even when you get rid of the diaper bag you never really get control of your bag back. “I’m always carrying around a ton of random shit in here,” and I reached into my bag and pulled out the first thing I found – a plastic baggie holding the molds of the teeth on the right side of my jaw, plus my temporary crown in a little plastic box. The dentist gave it to me to put in a safe place, just in case we need to make another crown.

I currently have 4 old bags that still contain the stuff I left behind when I transitioned to each new bag. Here are some of the leave-behinds:

..an A/V cable, the DVD remote, and the power cord to our Coleman lantern
..a video wallet full of movies
..a pair of Norah’s socks (clean)
..1 of Ben’s socks (dirty)
..Singers Saving Grace soothing throat spray (karaoke, anyone?)
..1 diamond earring (the other one is still missing)
..2 sample jars of Benjamin Moore paint
..my number from jury duty on 7/30/2008
..a 1-inch-thick stack of unused napkins
..Norah’s hospital discharge papers (nursemaid’s elbow incident)
..an IKEA catalog and an IKEA gift card worth $42.25
..a Sponge Bob watch and a Hello Kitty watch
..a 25′ tape measure
..2 packages of pulverized oyster crackers
..a broken coin purse BELT (I used to wear it in the 80’s and Aliya found it)
..Pink Eye Remedy, Infant Tylenol, and 2 tubes of antibiotic ointment
..my flying/public speaking medication that expired in ’06
..4 size-5 diapers (Norah has been out of diapers for almost a year)
..countless receipts, coloring pages, notes, lists, pens and cough drops
..$7.67 in coins and $63 in small bills
..one of my favorites – a jar of Mini Noise Putty that you stick your thumb into to make a farting sound – which dates this archeological dig to Reece’s birthday party at Honeypot Hill

Now what the heck am I going to do with this pile of crap on the dining room table?
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It has been one year since Grampa B died. Hard to believe.

We still love you and miss you every day B. Wish you were here.

http://lockmommy.blogspot.com/2008/07/grampa-b.html
http://lockmommy.blogspot.com/2008/07/tribute_21.html
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When Adlani was a baby I celebrated every milestone…the last can of formula I would ever buy, the last jar of baby food, each clothing size immediately boxed up and given away along with the bouncy seat, infant car seat & stroller frame, boppy pillow, slings, co-sleeper, crib bumpers, exersaucer, jolly jumper, etc. I was counting the days until the end of bottles, diapers, and double-daycare. Then, January 4th, 2006…it was the shock of a lifetime when we found out that Norah was on her way and we needed to get our stuff back!

So now we are celebrating the milestones again…and taking extra precautions if you know what I mean. Last week we reached a milestone that has never been reached in the Greenabderrazak household – the end of the sippy cups. We have had sippy cups cluttering up the glass cabinet for almost 8 years. The other day I just couldn’t take them from the dishwasher to the cabinet one more time so I threw them all in a bag for one of the lucky recipients of our hand-me-downs. I felt so FREEEEEEE!!!!

With all that extra space in the glass cupboard I have plenty of room for the AWESOME snack containers I found at the Container Store. The top part goes in the freezer and the gel keeps drinks cold. There’s a flip up straw thingie on the top, and the snack container screws onto the bottom. Each part can be used separately too – the snack container is threaded on the open end for the lid and the other end to attach to the cold cup.

I guess when it comes right down to it, they’re not much different from sippy cups, BUT sometimes I fill the cold part with sangria so I can get through the bedtime routine with no spills. BRILLIANT!!

Here’s where to buy your own sangria cups.

While I’m on the subject of sangria…several people have asked for my recipe recently so here it is again: 1 bottle of red wine (I use Rioja), 3 cups orange juice, 1/3 cup Triple Sec, 1/3 cup Apricot Brandy, 1/3 cup sugar – mix it up and pour over ice and fruit. Or directly into your new sangria cup. The ice and fruit just take up space.

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After I read Firefly Summer I was hesitant to read any more Kristin Hannah books because the sobbing at the end is so embarrassing. Luckily, my friend Patti read some and said they weren’t all as sad so I got a few more from the library. Some of them were a little too Danielle Steel-ish for my current taste (although I do still have my DS collection from the 80’s), but I really liked Magic Hour.

When I first started reading the book I thought the story was a little far-fetched because it’s about a little girl who lived with wolves. The book uses the term “feral child” so I looked up more about that on the internet and amazingly there are quite a few cases of feral children – not usually raised by animals these days but victims of severe neglect.

http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php
http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2008/reports/danielle/
http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20081016-tows-perry-book
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=7A26D7B616FED6F4&search_query=feral+child+genie

I found the book really interesting and I couldn’t put it down. And I didn’t cry at the end. Much.

From Publishers Weekly: Hannah’s melodramatic 15th novel (after The Things We Do for Love) tells the addictive soap opera story of a feral child and the adults who rally to help her. The cast of stock characters is led by child psychiatrist Dr. Julia Cates, whose reputation was ruined when she failed to prevent a teen patient from staging a Columbine-style massacre. Her sister, Ellie Barton, a smalltown former homecoming queen–turned–chief of police, summons Julia from Los Angeles to their Pacific Northwest hometown of Rain Valley to take on the case of a mysterious lost child, who appeared one day on the edge of town, presumably raised by wolves. With the dashing doctor Dr. Max Cerrasin at her side, Julia works diligently to tame the mute girl, whom she names Alice. Max, like Julia, is running from demons of his own. Though she initially rebuffs his overtures (“When I love, I risk my heart. All or nothing,” Julia declares), their romance inevitably blossoms while they work to solve the mystery of Alice’s parentage. The novel’s real love story, though, is the passion between Alice and Julia, and it’s hard not to root for the vulnerable little Wolf Girl. (Mar.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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When I went to Amazon.com to get this review, the book recommendations for me were:
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Sippy Cups Are Not For Chardonnay
I Was A Really Good Mom Before I Had Kids
Naptime Is The New Happy Hour, and
I’d Trade My Husband for a Housekeeper

Shoud I be worried?
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