• Best Thing Ever,  Random Thoughts

    An Open Letter to the CEO of Jack Daniels Country Cocktails

    Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing today to inform you of a little snafu in your communications to the stores that carry your product. You see, I am a big fan of your Black Jack Cola: Big fan. It is the lazy girl’s Jack & Coke. It is also the “Mom-whose-kids-drink-up-all-the-coca-cola-before-mom-could-remotely-get-some-for-her-Jack”‘s Jack & Coke. You see, I’m not a big drinker (though this letter might suggest otherwise). I have the occasional mixed drink at a restaurant or party, but at home I stick with margaritas on Mexican Night or sometimes a glass or two of wine. Your product is my favorite, when I am able to enjoy it. Over…

  • UGH.

    I Heart My City, in Sickness and in Health.

    In the wake of Hurricane Ike, our area received a spectacular amount of rain, all the way up here in the midwest. Chicagoland got anywhere between 6-10 inches of rain, all in two days. Not like being in the eye of the storm, but for us it was really something; rivers in the area crested at record levels. Yesterday, the rain finally slowed to almost a complete stop by 3 p.m. and our family decided to head to the heart of our suburb (EDITED: Let me reiterate, we live in the Suburbs of Chicago; I’m not talking about the actual City of Chicago in this post…), the downtown area, to…

  • Random Thoughts,  Spreading the Bloggie Love

    Who Wants a Clean House?

    I do. But I don’t just want a Clean House (and believe me, if you are familiar with that show–one of my faves–you can rest assured that my house does not have nearly enough clutter to qualify, thank goodness), but I want a Cleaner-looking Blog. The look of my blog has been bothering me for a while and, though I’m not yet ready to put on my construction hat tiara and renovate completely, I have made a couple of fun (for me) changes. Rather than keep my basic blogroll and lovely awards that have been bestowed upon this page, I have packed them up and moved them to another page.…

  • Uncategorized

    Creative Parenting 101: The Tooth Fairy Makes Mistakes Too, You Know!

    A couple of weeks ago, I read this Twitter tweet from Soapbox Mom: feeling awful b/c the tooth fairy forgot to visit my son… 09:59 PM August 22, 2008 from web The same thing happened to us a few years back, when the now-13-year-old lost a tooth, and to make matters worse, it was only his second one. We couldn’t believe that this could happen; I mean, what was the tooth fairy doing with her time, just sitting on her lazy butt watching television and then going straight to bed right after the news, forgetting that this boy had that little white tooth packaged up for her, underneath his pillow?…

  • Family Fun,  Travels

    Savage Garden Was Right On. Or Something Like That.

    Anytime I need to see your face I just close my eyesAnd I am taken to a place where your crystal mind andMagenta feelings take up shelter in the base of my spineSweet like a chicka cherry cola(Savage Garden, “I Want You”) A couple of weeks ago we went on a very exciting roadtrip. It was the “last hurrah” before school started on Monday and we wanted to do something fun. Last month we were trying to figure out just what that “something fun” would be, when I discovered this exciting news on the Sprecher Brewery website: Seriously? They are now producing Cherry Cola? My favorite flavor? We were SO…

  • Family Fun,  Food,  My Sister Has Mad Skillz

    Bucking Tradition…’Cause That’s How We Roll.

    You know the drill: click on this for your Official Post Background Music: After one of the most overwhelming weeks in recent history (with no sense of anything letting up in the near future), I decided that I was going to write my freakin’ post about Labor Day Weekend, Part 2…because if I wait too long, it’ll be Thanksgiving or something. So, enjoy. And if you’re hungry, I apologize in advance, for this post is about the Fab Five Pizza Festival! (In case you’re a newbie here at the Scrawl, the Fab Five is made up of Jim, me, the 16-year-old, the 13-year-old, and my sister, who we call Julie…

  • Roxie

    My Furriest Baby, My Last Baby

    Some women go ga-ga over babies, long after their youngest is making his own breakfast or tying her own shoes. One visit to a friend who just had a baby and these women are gone; just smelling those little bundles of joy sometimes seems to wipe out any memories of the hours of “discomfort” during labor or the sleepless nights or the crying at the drop of the hat (baby AND mom). Often women will come home from a visit with a new baby and that familiar feeling of wanting another one–to start fresh–is so overpowering. Not me. Ugh. When I hear that a friend is pregnant, “Good for her!”…