Boring post about fantastic laundry soap. Confused?

Ok. Happy housewife moment, here. I am shamelessly plugging my new favorite product: S20 All-In-One laundry sheets (found here) http://home-solutions.hsn.com/s2o-110-all-in-one-laundry-sheets-fresh-scent-autoship_p-6649302_xp.aspx?web_id=6649302&sourcemailid=EMSHIPWEB201201&cm_mmc=Email-_-Transactional-_-EMSHIPWEB201201-_-purchaseditem

I was watching HSN one night. I guess I was at a vulnerable moment, or feeling the need to be clean, or something. Anyway, they were pitching these laundry sheets. They are actually used in place of laundry soap.

Well, I bought some. Heck, I thought I'd try it and see if it really does what they say it does. It is supposed to be really good at getting grease out, even set in grease. Also, it is apparenty a very good fabric softener, color protector, and non-irritating.

I just got my first load out of the dryer. I had one shirt that has had two huge grease spots on the front for months now. No, I don't wear it in public...very often. My usual way to get set in grease stains out is by spraying the stain with WD40, rubbing it in but being careful to not get ANY of it on any other part of the shirt. Then rubbing in dish detergent with grease fighter, and letting it sit. Most often this works, but not always. It didn't work on this shirt.

In comes the new stuff. I grabbed a laundry sheet, rubbed it right on the dry shirt with the grease stains, then tossed it in the wash. Did I think it would work, absolutely not. Did it work? Absolutely!!! Not only did it work, but my clothes are softer then they've ever been, and they smell good, too.

So there you have it, my shameless advertisement. I will state it claims to get out grease stains, but doesn't say anything about other stains. I assume you have to treat those like any other stains you treat. However, I seem to get more grease stains than anything, and this worked great. And I love how soft my clothes are!

One container has 110 sheets. You use about 2 sheets per large load. I usually cram every stitch of clothing into one load I possibly can, and 2 seemed to work great. You can choose autoship and choose how often it is shipped, as well. (I chose every two months- there's only 3 of us here.)

Well, that's all I got to say about that. Take it or leave it.

If I am dreaming, please don't wake me.

I didn't have to drive the carpool this morning.

My hubby quietly told me to turn off my alarm clock when it went of...the first time, (I have it set to go off every 9 minutes and I know I can let it go off 3 times before I absolutely have to get up, and I always let it go off the full 3 times, and hubby hates it) and offered to get the kid up and ready.

My son was so quiet getting ready I never heard him leave.

My hubby was so quiet getting ready I thought he had left, but he hadn't yet.

I lay like a slug in my 4 pillows (yes 4, every girl needs several pillows) until guilt took over and I made myself get up.

My hubby came in and kissed me goodbye.

Son off to school without a hitch,(with his science project, I might add- which is a miracle in itself!)
Hubby off to work.
Mommy got a full night's sleep.

This day is starting off like a dream! Reality: I hope you take the day off.

My uber brilliant billion dollar idea!

My husband is always looking for ways for me to make us our millions so he can quit working. Well, I should say, he encourages me to look for ways to make millions- he doesn't do much "looking" himself.

Well, the search is over. I have found the answer.

Ever since movies have been made with sound, it seems there have always been movies made about teenagers desire to dance and how misunderstood they are, right? I mean, you have "Flash Dance" (which I've never seen, but my husband has- several times, though he would never admit it in public. Sorry, hun. In his defense, it was when he was very young at a slumber party with a friend and he wasn't allowed to watch it at home so it was kind of a kid-rebels-against-parents-by-watching-a-teen-rebel-against-society kind of party. You get it.) Then there's "Footloose" which I watched over and over about 7 times in one crazy night at my own slumber party with a bunch of screaming girls and their mom who was absolutely in love with Kevin Bacon, which was kind of Creepy since her husband was just in the other room shushing us to be quiet. Then there's "Dirty Dancing" which will forever be one of my favorites because it was filmed at my most favorite place on earth- Lake Lure, in North Carolina. I won't name all the others- there are way too many, and I think I've made my point: Kids want to dance, and adults just don't understand.

However, there is a HUGE missing piece in this teen-angst, forbidden dancer drama genre. What about those poor kids who desperately wanted to dance the new and scandelous waltz when it first appeared? Thus enters my brilliant idea. Are you ready for it?

Picture this: satin-toed feet rushing through the dewy wet grass behind a large and sprawling estate. Giggling and hushed laughing. Anxious suitors await in a secret hideaway for the ladies to arrive. A violin begins. The partners bow. The forbidden waltzing begins!

Isnt your heart just pounding with the anticipation of it all? Will they be found out? Will the girls' reputations be ruined forever? Will their fathers demand pistols at dawn to any young suitor caught waltzing with their prized daughter?

My husband looked at me like I had worms crawling out of my nose when I told him my idea. Apparently pistols at dawn isn't enough of a draw for the male population's attention. Or maybe it was the satin-toed shoes that turned him off.

Well, I think it is a gripping idea, and I am going to call Robert Redford and pitch it to him right now. I'll even let him play one of the angry grandfathers, if he so wishes.

Let the waltzing begin!

Yearnin' for the land o'the green...and needing the green to go.

This morning as I went to take my son to school, the weather was absolutely beautiful. Now, when I say "beautiful" I don't mean your usual sunny, warm, birds chirping kind of beautiful. No, to me beautiful is rainy, not too cold, misty. It made me think of the weather in March. (Yes, it is January, but we're having freakish end-of-the-world weather in Utah right now. IT's kind of creepy, actually.)

The weather made my bones yearn. My ancestral bones from Ireland, Scottland, Wales. They yearn for this:

I've only been to Wales, but I felt I was going home. Really! It was kind of strange, actually, but I really felt like I belonged there.

So, today I am listening to celtic music, loving the rain, and dreaming of greener places.
Oh, this is a picture of my ancestral castle in Scottland. Buchannan Castle- pretty cool, huh?

Erin go Bragh!!! (my name does mean Ireland, you know.)

My list of what I haven't done this whole year

What I haven't done yet this year:

-taken down the Christmas trees and decorations
-made any new year resolutions to better myself
-gotten rid of all the nasty junk food laying around since Christmas
-gotten on the treadmill (since 2 days before Christmas. eek!)
-felt guilty about any of the above! (for the most part...sort of...)

I have decided I am not in a race, so why feel rushed? Let's face it, the junk food will either go away because it went to my hips, or go away because I eventually decided to toss it. My trees will eventually come down. I will eventually do something to better myself whether I make a goal to do so on paper or just keep it floating around in my head. And I will eventually get back on the treadmill because my guilt won't let me sit and do nothing for a whole year. See? There's hope already!

I am a good mother, dangit!

I hate making breakfast most mornings. I mean,I want to be a good mom and not just throw a bowl of sugar cereal at my kid with some milk and call it good, but getting up, prodding my kid over and over to get out of bed, figuring out something healthy and filling to make for breakfast, actually making it... well, it just a little too much for me most mornings. So, I decided to solve my problem once and for all.

So, today I am cooking up 30 sausage patties, 30 scrambled egg rounds with cheese, and 30 toasted english muffins. I will put them together and Voila! Instant breakfast sandwiches with eggs, protein, dairy, grains; I am a good mom again! I'll just freeze them, and zap them for a minute every morning. My kid will be happy and well fed, I will be happy and not have to cook every morning- it's a win/win!

Yes, I AM a good mother!

The longest run-on sentence of the year... so far.

The funny thing about being a parent is when you have to give your kid a pep-talk about jumping back into school after the long Christmas break, and how he will get back into the groove of things in no time, and how great it is to be back on a schedule; when all the while you are on the verge of breaking into tears and having a nervous breakdown because the pile of laundry you didn't do the week after Christmas is growing by the day, the dishes need to be done, the Christmas trees are still up and you curse yourself for insisting you needed two up to begin with, your resolve to toss out all leftover candy and junk food from the holidays the day after new year's day has turned into purchasing a package of oreos and consuming 1/3 of it in one sitting with a cold glass of milk while watching Dr. Who and avoiding the mountain of laundry mentioned earlier, and the only reason you have gotten out of bed at all is because you have to put on the facade that you have jumped back into normal life with both feet and are doing just fine so your kid can continue "getting on" with his normal life again without having his own after-holidays melt-down, and you realize you aren't fooling anyone when your kid throws his arms around you and tells you you'll be ok soon and it'll all be back to normal in no time- the very words you used his first morning back to school as you both climbed into the cold car before the sun was up for the first time in two weeks, and you dread getting on that scale in the bathroom knowing it isn't going to say kind things to you, but that you need to face reality sooner or later if you are going to attempt your new year's resolutions sometime in the near future when you have really and truly faced the fact that the holidays are over and life really has to get back to normal, and there really is no other way than to do just as you have told your trusting 10 year old and jump in with both feet, facing the new year head on with eyes of steel and an unwavering resolve, just as soon as you polish off the last of the cherry chocolates and triple cream brie cheese, and that last 2/3rds package of oreos. Yep. It's pretty funny.