Day Thirty - A Confession

First though, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief because it's the last day of the thirty-day torture called NaBloPoMo and I get to take a break from struggling to think of something to post.
Now, onto the juicy stuff. Okay, so I'm not the most confident person, which carries over into my relationship with A. He dated a particular (local) girl for more than four years and every now and then I run into her around town. We both sort of act like we don't know each other when that happens and my heart races and I sneak peeks at her to see if she's having a better hair day, secretly hoping she's put on some weight. Well, today, I knew she would be at a certain place at a certain time in my building. So, I came up with a reason to be there then and I spent a little extra time on my makeup this morning and I picked out clothes that looked like a grown, married woman would wear that looked good on me. I only feel a tinge guilty for doing it because I know it makes her uncomfortable, but I can't help it. Something in me wants to make sure, at every opportunity, that she knows I won and he's all mine. I'm like a dog marking his territory.

Day Twenty-Nine

Found this video from Ali's blog. This video is such a great chronicle of this woman's life. I've mentioned on here that I scrapbook. I know a lot of people think it's just sticking pictures on a piece of paper in an album, but for me, scrapbooking is about so much more than that. It's about documenting my life and the lives of the people I hold dear. It's about reminding myself that I have an awesome life and remembering the good times. It's also about finding a way to deal with the bad, although pages like that don't usually make it into an album out on the shelf for everyone to look through. Ali Edwards has coined the phrase 'Life Artist' and I have decided that's what I am.

Day Twenty-Eight - #27

First person to guess what the significance of the second number in the title is wins a handmade greeting card (birthday, Christmas, whatever) designed by yours truly.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 184 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

Found this over on the Littleton's blog.

Day Twenty-Seven

I talked about dog-sitting for my co-worker and keeping her Schnoodle, Annie. Here's a picture of the lil' sweetie for everyone to ooh and ahh over. Isn't she a cutie?
I tried my best to persuade a certain someone to give me one of her sisters for Christmas, but it didn't work. *insert pouty lip and sad eyes*

Day Twenty-Six - Sorry

I was under the weather yesterday with what feels like strep throat and was running a mild fever, so please forgive me.

Day Twenty-Five - Tis' the Season

The countdown begins. Christmas music on the radio. Wrapping paper strewn about the living room. Plans to get the tree & decorations out of the attic and up tomorrow after church.
Lil' Annie is sleeping behind me on the couch and must be dreaming, because she's making little noises and twitching ever couple minutes. It's about time for me to be doing the same (the sleeping, not the twitching).

Day Twenty-Four - Black Friday

Hours of sleep given up: 3
Number of hairs lost: 0
Number of items stores were out of before we got there (within an hour of sales beginning): 2
Hours spent waiting in lines to check out: about 2.5
Excitement on Wesley's face Christmas morning: better be priceless :)

Day Twenty-Three - aka Turkey Day

*Yawn* The tryptophan is kicking in and my brain is slowing down. It must be moving at a snail's pace since I have decided to brave the maniac shoppers in the morning for a $50 portable DVD player. Wesley better appreciate it, because there's a chance I could lose an eye or maybe some hair for that thing. Seriously, I've never gotten up at the crack of dawn on Black Friday (never heard it called that until this year) to catch the early bird deals. I'm hoping it's worth it. I've scouted out a little bling-bling for myself that I otherwise wouldn't get, so that could possibly even the score. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and were equally annoyed with their odd, but endearing relatives.

Day Twenty-Two

Today's post is brought to you by the number twenty-two and the letter S. Know a word that starts with S? Well, there's a breed of dog called a Schnoodle (not recognized by the AKC) that is apparently growing in popularity. I didn't even know they existed until today. One of my co-workers made an impulse buy when we were out to lunch and purchased one for herself. She's traveling for the holiday so I and one of our other co-workers have been commissioned/coerced, however you want to say it, into sharing the duties of dog-sitting for her. I don't think I want to give her back.

Day Twenty-One

Don't know if I'll have time to post tonight so I'll just give you a picture to look at. This was from a day in October when Wesley was on fall break. I took the day off and we went to a pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins, then ate lunch at Wesley's favorite place, Old McDonalds as he calls it, and just had a grand time with each other.

Day Twenty - A Good Excuse

I know, I know, I missed yesterday. But, I have a good one this time. I had class last night, so I had planned on posting after I got home. So, I watched a little tv and worked on some Christmas presents and about the time I got ready to post, the power went out. It wasn't storming so I'm not sure what caused the outtage. I went and found a flashlight and tidied up the living room waiting for it to come back on. After about forty minutes, I decided I didn't want to wait any longer and went to bed. And guess what, the power came back on about the time that I was crawling under the warm, heavy quilt on my bed. So, I got up and turned off all the lights that were on when the power went out and did what any self-respecting human would do in a house that is about 55 degrees because the power has been out for almost an hour...I crawled into bed and said, forget about it, I'll post in the morning. Don't blame me, blame modern conveniences for spoiling me.

Day Nineteen - Batman Returns

When the alarm goes off this morning, Anthony protests that he's too tired to get up for church. I had stayed up late last night working on a scrapbook, so I don't put up much of a fight. So, we go back to sleep and doze on and off between Wesley coming in to ask for breakfast or jump on top of us wanting to wrestle. Finally, Anthony gets up to go work on the brakes on his 65' Rambler. I stay in bed and go back to sleep. Then, I guess about an hour later, he comes back in and walks around to the side of the bed I'm facing and whispers, "Wake up." I open one eye and look up at him, which he takes as a sign I'm awake. He launches into an update on how the brake work is coming - he's found yet another problem with them. I look up at him, face scrunched up, and say, "Did you wake me up just to tell me that?" He says, "No, I woke you up so you could see Wesley," and nods toward the other side of the bed where Wesley is playing a racing game on the playstation which is hooked up to the tv in our bedroom. I roll over and see Wesley in the cape & belt from his Batman costume (from last Halloween) and his red pajama pants with no shirt, deep in concentration trying to beat his opponents on Gran Tourismo. He's so cute when he plays video games because he not only pushes the buttons to steer; he also moves the controller back & forth through the air as if that will affect anything. I wish I had taken a picture so you could see how funny he looked. He's not one of those kids who likes to play dress-up a lot either, which makes it even funnier (at least to me). You'll have to settle for a picture of him from last year in full costume & just use your imagination from there.

Day Eighteen

The pumpkin situation has sort of been taken care of. The boy (see Delinquent Children - Day 15) decided to drop kick it this afternoon as we were on our way to the car...to go to a wedding shower for my SIL, aaaaand we were already running late. So now, pumpkin goo is splattered all over the front step and out into the yard, and I had to wipe it off his shoe with a wet wipe before we left. Yum!

Day Seventeen: Sick Kitty Update

Ace is much better. Thanks for the well wishes for him. He's back to being his lazy ol' self again.

Day Sixteen

I think it's time to throw away the jack o' lantern now that it's face is collapsing in on itself.

Short post tonight since I left my power cord at work and despise using our dinosaur of a desktop at home. It's older than Wesley!

Day Fifteen - Delinquent Children

I have a normal, unruly five-year-old lil' boy who has lately been getting into his fair share of trouble at school. Today, he got suspended from the bus for three days. You might be thinking he has, say, punched another kid or maybe shot spit-wads at the bus driver. Oh, no! His offense?...crawling around under his seat with two other little boys (he happened to be the only one lucky enough to get caught). Yes, I have to leave work at 2:00 the next three days to sit in a car line for ten minutes, pick him up, drive the less than two miles to his daycare, drop him off and go back to work for a couple more hours, which will mean I either have to work late or take work home with me to make up for the 30-45 mins. it will take to do this each day. Is that not ridiculous!? Excuse me for my ranting. I usually don't air dirty laundry on the internet, but I am just fed up with this school system and he's only been in it for three months. This is not the first thing, just the latest in a long list of other absurd policies/rules we have to go by. This is his second offense on the bus (first offense is a visit to the principal's office - second is three-day suspension from the bus). His first?...touching a boy (not hitting, not rough-housing, not in any kind of unfriendly or lewd way, just touching him) and not keeping his bottom firmly planted in his seat at all times (Hello! He's five). Am I just overreacting, or do the punishments not exactly fit the crimes? I rode the bus all thirteen years of K-12 and way worse things than touching someone or crawling under the seats happened with no consequences besides the bus driver yelling at you. Don't get me wrong. I understand the necessity of the rules and the reasons behind them, and have talked to Wesley so he understands why they have the rules they have, but this suspension is not a punishment for him (regardless of the fact that it's completely unnecessary), it's a punishment for me. He would like nothing more than for me to pick him up EVERYDAY. So, thank you, school system, for rewarding my son for behavior you want to punish. Thanks a lot!
Okay, rant over, you can now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Day Fourteen - Mommy Wars

I hesitate to even bring this up, because it ususally sends women on either side into heated arguments, but I'm curious what other women (moms or not) think about this. I read an old article on MSN about the ongoing debate of whether moms should go back to work or stay home after baby. You can read the article here. I'll go ahead and tell you my opinion...
First off, some background. I'm a working mom. I had Wesley during Christmas break between my first and second semesters of undergraduate and went back to school (and started a part-time job) when he was four weeks old (my mom stayed with me for the first couple weeks back at school until he could go to daycare at six weeks). If I had more options, I wouldn't have chosen to do it the way I did. But, I didn't. I did the best with what I had. I don't feel like Wesley is permanently scarred from going to daycare full-time since he was a baby. But, with my next child, I want to be able to stay home with them at least part-time, probably while I work from home. Quitting my job is just not an option for us.
So, now you know where I come from. My opinion on this whole thing is that every woman (and her husband) should decide what's best for their family. If staying home, taking care of your child would drive you over the deep end (not that you don't love your child, but the day in, day out care of children and likely all of the household chores that would fall on you can get to you) and you are satisfied by staying in the work force, by all means, return to work and find capable, caring people to take care of your child while you're there. If you are financially able (all of the women this article is talking about are) and you WANT to be the one who cares for your child, by all means, quit your job and stay home to take care of him/her. I don't agree with Ms. Hirshman that the trend of women quitting jobs to take care of their kids in an injustice. She has the audacity to say, in effect, that most of these "priveleged educated women" have not chosen to stay home because they enjoy caring for their children. She implies that they have made that choice based on a lie they've been fed by society that to be good mothers, you have to stay home or because they have found fighting for a "new, more just society" to be too hard. She says herself that these are all well-educated, accomplished women. And, what I think she's saying is that staying home is a waste of their talents, that they have a responsibility, a duty to stay in the workforce and pull their own weight to make things more equitable for women. In her opinion (talking about elite women in high-paying jobs), "Staying home should not be considered a choice." Isn't that the same as the line they fed our mothers & grandmothers, that working outside the home was not an option? A woman's place was inside the home. Now, apparently, a woman's place is in the workforce.
I know this might rub a few people the wrong way, but I'm interested to hear what other women & men think. You don't have to, but if you don't mind, when you comment on this, would you tell me what choice you would make/have made for yourself.

Day Thirteen

Today, on my blog, 5 random things.
1. Happy Birthday to my Daddy!
2. The view from my kitchen window this weekend...
3. I'm operating on three hours of sleep. Why, you ask. Well, because I had a test in my class tonight, and I'm a master procrastinator. I don't play around at procrastination. No, I waste an entire three day weekend doing nothing all that productive, not even cracking my Economics textbook until about 10:30 pm on Sunday night (which, incidentally, is my normal bedtime). Then, I drink caffeine and surf blogs for about thirty minutes before I finally start studying. I do that for about three hours before going to bed, where I lay awake for about an hour because the caffeine is still in my system.
4. I really want Mario to win Dancing with the Stars, although I think Emmit deserves it more.
5. I used to absolutely abhor the color pink...now it makes up approximately half of the new clothes I buy. Not sure what happened there.

Day Twelve - Ode to Ace

We have a very odd kitty. Ace is the cuddliest cat I've ever met. I found him & his brother on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere one night this summer. We found someone to adopt his brother, and Anthony finally gave in to keeping him after Wesley named him.
This is him playing in the pool table. If we don't close our bedroom door at night, he'll jump on the bed and walk around on our pillows at our head, all over our bodies and finally lay down on my chest with his fur tickling my nose. He'll lay there for all of 2.2 seconds before he'll almost violently rub his head against my hand trying to make me pet him. We can't get any sleep with him in there.

He usually won't let me use my laptop either, because he crawls all over my lap and tries to lay down on the keyboard. He's sick right now with a cold (yes, my cat has a cold). He's been sneezing for the past day. So, I thought I would post some pictures of him to share the cuteness with the world in the hopes that it might make him feel better to be a famous kitty :)

Day Eleven

I suppose I'm effectively disqualified for not posting yesterday. But, since I didn't sign up for the prizes, I'm going to keep posting. I signed up to make myself write more, so I'm just going to keep plugging along with a post a day. Funny thing is, I don't even have a good excuse. I slept in yesterday, made some cookies for breakfast, washed some laundry, went grocery shopping, took a nap, made dinner & watched a couple movies with Anthony. Just realized a few minutes ago that I forgot to post. Oh well. Can't say I didn't try.

Day Ten

Anthony & I just back from the late showing of the movie, Stranger Than Fiction, starring Will Farrell. Anthony said it was better than he thought it would be, and I have to agree. With a movie starring Will Farrell, you expect lots of crude humor, but there was very little of that. In fact, I'm sitting here trying to remember if there was any and I can't bring to mind any instances of it. It was a rather sweet movie and would have been a pleasant movie-going experience had it not been for the person sitting a couple rows down text messaging on her cell phone, it's bright light distracting me everytime she opened it, and for the two guys sitting directly behind me who had probably seen a few too many Will Farrell shows/movies, because they kept guffawing at every little thing that was the least bit funny. I found myself not laughing at some of the funny moments in the movie simply because the guys behind me were laughing so obnoxiously that all I wanted to do was get up, turn around and say, "Excuse me, but could you please tone it down a notch or two?! I'm trying to watch a movie here." I probably should have said something rather than sitting there fuming everytime they got louder and louder and louder. In moments like these, I sort of step outside myself and wonder, "How did I become such a grandma?"

Day Nine

Finally got my book, personally autographed by Mighty Girl herself. No. 18 in the book is titled Spill Everything and says, "Catalog the contents of a space that isn't ordinarily open to the public." I'm picking my purse...
Let's see...here's some:
keys
a cell phone
couple of pens
sunglasses
a checkbook
Then there's:
the notebook with Wesley's scribbles covering it (a dead giveaway that I'm a parent)
the planner that I forget to use (but feel better for having)
uh, some chewing gum
Kleenex
a nail file
Tylenol
feminine products
a hair band
chapstick
my Clinique lipstick in Tenderheart (about the only makeup item I buy at a dept. store)
a calculator
a scan card to get in Wesley's daycare
There's my staff ID for work, which comes in handy much too often since I apparently still look like a college student. I take great pleasure in whipping it out to show the lady in the traffic office that I am, in fact, entitled to a coveted staff parking sticker, thank-you-very-much.
Then there's:
various insurance cards
debit card
credit card
very little cash (burns a hole in my pocket if I have any)
some of those McDonald's Monopoly stickers for a free small soft drink. I went to Mickey D's nearly once a day for the month of October and all I won was some stinkin' fries and small soft drinks. I was really keeping my fingers crossed for that 5 mil. and I don't even really like eating there.
Here's a few sticky notes with things like the next lens I want to buy, reminders to catch up on paperwork at home, a quote or two
a bill for the payment on Anthony's Buell motorcycle.
Oh, here's one of my business cards that I have yet to have a reason to give to anyone. My job is mostly that of a bookeeper and the only people who need to call me already have my number. But, they make me feel important since I've never had a business card before.
Here's a business card for a consultant at our local small business development center where I went to talk to someone about starting my own business.
My favorite thing in here is a little notebook I picked up at Target a few months ago. It has sections for an Agenda & To Do list that I'm filling up with quotes and wish lists.
Some things on my wish list...the book Spilling Open by Sabrina Ward Harrison
a rotary cutter (for scrapbooking)
the Eucalyptus Spearmint shampoo that they discontinued from Bath & Body Works (oh, looks like they brought it back - yay for me).
Okay, I'm putting myself to sleep here so I'm going to bid you farewell and go crash.
ETA: I messed around with my blog template today to add the Flickr badge up there and seem to have screwed something up because it won't scroll down to the bottom of the page anymore. If anyone knows how to fix it or is at least willing to help me figure it out, puuhhhllease email me. I'm new to all this stuff and am trying real hard to get things the way I want them on here.

Day (8) Eight - Dorky Family Photos

Entirely off the subject of my post...why do they use the number and the word for the number in official documents (like in my title)? I've always wondered that.
Now, onto the subject of my post. We have made it a tradition to take a family photo every fall to put in our Christmas cards to friends and family. I despise the photos where everyone is wearing their Sunday best, all lined up with the kids behind the seated parents, with one of them laying their hand on Dad's shoulder and the fake smiles plastered on their faces. In an effort to avoid that type of picture, I tried some playful things with our pictures this year (Yes, I did dress us all in green sweaters...yes, I know that's almost as bad as the formal family photos). This was one of the results...
Go ahead, snicker/point finger at screen & laugh out loud, I can't hear you. I'm fully aware of how dorky it is. What cracks me up even more than the dorkiness factor is that Wesley has this clueless look on his face like, "Why did she make me stand here behind this stupid tree? I don't know when the camera is going to stop blinking like that. Am I supposed to smile?" While Anthony & have those goofy grins on. Okay, so enough making fun of us. Maybe I'll post the one I'm actually using after Christmas. Don't want to ruin the surprise for anyone who might get a Christmas card.

Day Seven

For some reason I was confused about the triplets' birthday and thought it was today instead of yesterday. In typical Mindy fashion, I'm a day late and a dollar short. So, Happy 1 year & 1 day to Kynsie, Braylen & Kyan. It's amazing to see how much they have grown in the past year. In honor of their birthday I borrowed a couple pictures from their parents' blog to post here.
















Here they are at five days old snuggled together in their isolette... (from left: Braylen, Kyan & Kynsie)















And here are their one-year pictures (from left: Braylen, Kynsie & Kyan).

Day Six

It's a Monday. Monday's are never my favorite day of the week. Today wasn't that bad, actually. But, it was long because on Mondays, I get up at 6 am and get the day started, drop Wesley off at school, go to work, work 8 hours, go straight to class, where my teacher lectures until his entire 3 hrs. 35 mins. are up and get home around 9 pm. So, needless to say, I am tired.
All I really want to say is this, if you are able and haven't already, you need to get out and vote. Regardless of whether you are conservative or liberal or somewhere in between, you should make your voice heard. Some people are so turned off by politics these days that they decide to just stay out of it. But, your vote still has a great deal of power and you should most definitely exercise your right to cast it tomorrow.

Mmmm...

That's me sighing out of happiness. My wonderful hubby drove straight through from Vegas and got home a day early. If you could see me, you would probably laugh at the goofy grin from ear to ear. I was texting him while I was sitting in church waiting for the service to get started (oh, don't start, I was too late for Sunday School so I sat in the sanctuary for about 30 mins.) to find out where he was. He said he would be home at 3:30 this afternoon. The first thought was, "Woohoo!" and that's what I responded with. The second thought was, "Oh crap! I haven't got the house cleaned yet." Don't ask me why, but every time Anthony is gone I clean the house like a madwoman right before he gets back. I don't know why I have the urge. Maybe I have some old-fashioned notion about being a "good wife" and having the house sparkling clean when I welcome him back home. I ran out of time today so there are still dirty dishes sitting in the oven (we don't have a dishwasher), but don't tell my husband. :)
I look forward to when Anthony gets back, not only because I've missed him like crazy, but also because he is more talkative for those first few days than he usually is in the period of a normal week. I married a man of few words (it's true what they say about women marrying men like their dads and men marrying women like their moms), but when he comes back from a trip he's just bursting with all the neat things he's seen and done; everything from seeing the band Aerosmith or the racecar driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. walking around SEMA (the show he was at), to the go-cart racing that requires a firesuit & helmet among other things. My favorite from this trip was the story about his interview with the host of a show for the Discovery Channel who kept mispronouncing his last name on tape. My husband is a movie star...well, kinda.

Número Cuatro

[Insert comment about not knowing what to write about.] [Think for a few minutes.] [Insert long paragraph about some subject you hope other people might identify with.] [End with witty comment about posting again tomorrow in the hopes that people will come back to read again.]

It could be a long week...

I just checked USPS for an update on when my book will get here. It left California yesterday and will take 2-9 days to get here. Let's hope it's closer to two than nine.
For those of you who are reading and don't know much about me, I'm in my early twenties (by early, I mean middle, of course). I'm just beginning to feel somewhat like an adult. Nevermind that I've been a mother for nearly six years, am working on my second degree, have more than one car payment, a mortgage, a retirement fund, and miscellaneous other "grown-up" things. What has made me start feeling old? Besides the fact that I'm developing arthritis in my knees (thanks, Dad's side of the family) and can now make pretty accurate predictions about when it will rain thanks to my deteriorating joints? Well, it's the fact that more of the people I know and socialize with than not are either married, parents or both. It seems like this has happened overnight. Like bam, all the people I graduated high school with are married and expecting their second child. I know it didn't really happen that way, but I don't live where I grew up anymore, and although I pass through there a couple times a month, I'm not up on the gossip (it's a VERY small town so everybody knows everybody else's business). But, I catch up on it when I go to the annual bonfire that one of my best friends from high school and early college organizes. We used to just hang out around the fire and eat whatever food people had remembered to bring, break a few laws by riding four wheelers on properties marked "no trespassing" and do other normal teenage things (yes, I'm from the South and I've rode ATV's for fun). But, this time, there were more wives in the group, which meant there was hamburgers (with cheese & the usual lettuce, tomatoes, mayo, etc.), plates, dessert, drinks for everyone, napkins even. After eating, we all sat around the fire reminiscing and boring the outsiders (i.e. the ones who didn't go to our h.s. or were a different year in school than us) with stories about the crazy/stupid things we did. I left everyone still sitting there around 11:00 to make the drive back home and was thinking on the way home, "Man, we have all gotten old. When did that happen?" Sitting here right now at the late, late hour of 8:3o, I would like nothing more than to crawl in bed, but out of stubbornness (and a commitment to a post a day), I'm going to hang in there until at least ten or so. Now that's I've posted something resembling writing, I'm going to put my brain in neutral and zone out in front of the tv for a while. See you tomorrow internet.

More Halloween fun

Here's Wesley again (as "Mr. Incredible") and me (as "Wesley's Mom"). I think I make a really good Wesley's mom. Don't you agree? Pardon the quality...I didn't get any of the both of us with my camera so this is a scan of the picture the church gave us (they put on Fall Fest every Halloween with lots of games, hayrides, dunking booth, etc. and lots of candy for the kiddos).

Can you tell I already don't know what to write about? Looks like it's going to be a long 30 days. All I can really think about lately is how very much I miss my husband and want for him to be home (he's on a business trip to Vegas, lucky guy). Most of the women I talk to about him being gone for business regularly have been married a lot longer than us and think the reason I miss him so much is just that we're still newlyweds, and I guess in some way, we are. But, when they say that, what I want to respond with is this, "I hope and pray that I feel the same in ten, twenty years when he is gone from me for a week at a time as I do now. I hope I still feel like a huge part of me is somewhere in Nevada and that I ache for him to be safe and sound at home with me. I hope I still have to sleep with pillows on both sides of me when he's gone just so I can get to sleep." I would never say those things out loud to them because it implies things about their marriage that might hurt them. I know somewhere inside them they want to have the same kind of fulfilling marriage that I want to have, but at some point along the way they gave up on a dynamic relationship and settled for something a little more ho-hum and a little more "realistic." I certainly don't judge them for their marriage, because if there's one thing I've learned over the past two years, it's that marriage is a LOT of work, no matter how prepared you are for it, no matter how well you know your spouse or how much you adore him/her, no matter what, it requires an enormous effort from both people to go beyond just working to flourishing. Well, I suppose I just went from having nothing to say, to having something to say...see you again tomorrow, same place but likely not the same time.

Happy Halloween a day late

Wesley was Mr. Incredible this year. His criteria for picking out a costume was that it had to have "muscles." In the last few years he's pretty much gone through all the superheroes; Spiderman, Batman and now Mr. Incredible. I guess he still has Superman left. When I picked him up from daycare yesterday he was already strung out on sugar and ready to go straight to trick-or-treating. On the way to the restaurant for supper he asked what I was going to be for Halloween. Me: "Wesley's mom." Wesley: "You can't go as that." "What, is that not good enough?" "No. What will you wear?" "What I have on." "(said with a laugh) You can't do that." "Oh well, I guess I won't go as anything then if I can't go as your mom."