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Yeah, you...the guy that was honking incessently at me this morning as I was waiting to turn right on to Watt from Arden. What's the deal? Why are you in such a big hurry? It's not like I was daydreaming and there were no cars coming...the cars had a green and were wizzing by...I will turn when I feel it's safe.

Do you realize that you honking your horn had the opposite effect? That's right, I took my time. And, when we got to the left turn lane at Alta Arden and I was a head of you, I laughed, because all that honking didn't get you anywhere did it? And I laughed even harder when the two cars in front of me went on green and the light turned yellow really fast and I could have gone through it, but I didn't. I put on my brakes and laughed again. But the icing on the cake was when my light finally did turn green and at that very same second, you honked again at me. Are you really in that big of a hurry?

Slow down and relax, buddy...life's too short to be that wound up at 8:16 in the morning.

I feel a lot better now, thanks.

Monday cannot come soon enough for the kids to go back to school. They are at each other's throats and I'm at my wits end. The last straw happened today, when we were on our way home from a trip to the pool, and somehow the gum that I most generously shared with them ended up smack dab in daughter's hair, right in the middle of her forehead. Not an easy place to just cut it out...even bangs couldn't mask that.

So after letting it sit there for a while and weighing the option of making her stick her head in the freezer (isn't that how you get gum off a shoe?!). I simply googled "Removing gum from hair"...and lo and behold, ten seconds later, we were at the kitchen sink, slathering peanut butter in her hair until the gum came loose. It worked great. My friend Google then told me to rinse the hair with dish soap to get the greasy peanut butter out, and then rinse with water.

Plus, now her hair is super shiney...Gotta love Google!

Ok, I'm going to go out on a limb and ask for advice, and I'm hoping the mom in this scenario I'm about to share doesn't read this blog. I'll try to keep it short and concise...

At my daughter's girl scout meeting a few weeks ago, the mom of one of the girls, who I've really only talked to once (the girls also go to the same school, different classes), asked if she could talk to me for a minute. She pulled me aside to let me know that my daughter had hurt her daughter's feelings the week before. She didn't have a lot of specifics, but said that her daughter had come home from school a few days saying my daughter was mean to her.

I told her thanks for the heads up and I would ask my daughter about it. That night, she said the other girl had asked to go to my daughter's birthday party and she told the girl she couldn't talk about her party and she wasn't invited. (I had told her and her brother--they are twins--not to talk about their party because not everyone was invited, so my daugther probably was a little harsh with her). I'm sure it did hurt her feelings, but I'm sure there are parties my kids aren't invited too.

In any case, we had our daughter apologize to the girl and say she was sorry for hurting her feelings. I e-mailed the mom to let her know and she replied with a very long and detailed e-mail about how my daughter told her daughter that she didn't want to hear about the girl's new puppy and that my daughter repeatedly called her new puppy's name stupid.

Ok, my daughter is not an angel...but it is not characteristic of her to be mean to other kids like this. She has a lot of friends, and a lot of other moms tell me how nice she is.I came away from our little e-mail exchange feeling like she was calling my daughter a bully and suspecting that she was telling this to the other moms.

Maybe I don't need advice as much as I just needed to vent. I'm sorry her daughter got her feelings hurt. My daughter apologized. This has happened to my daughter as well and it never even occurred to me to confront the other girl's mother. I mean, if it was an ongoing problem I would, but not a seemingly isolated incident. Am I on track with this thinking or am I off my rocker? Honesty is appreciated.

Well, it happened this weekend....my sweet little seven-year-old officially turned in to a young man. He informed me as we were on the way to the store to get him some underwear that he would like to wear boxers. No more tighty whiteys with SpongeBob or Spider Man on them, he wants grown up boxers! I think I teared up at the vision of him walking around in boxers, just like his dad, and knowing that it wouldn't be too many more years until he really was a young man! It was very sobering...what's next, his twin sister wanting a bra?!

(BTW, he looked very cute in his boxers, and proudly wore them despite the fact that they feel "funny".)

While watching Celebrity Apprentice last night (it was the finale, and the first time I'd watched) my husband reminded me of some funny things by daughter has said, and why we think she's going to be the female version of Donald Trump....

About a year ago (she was 5 at the time), she and my husband were working around the yard and out of the blue she says to him, "Dad, can you own part of a business?" Although a little startled at her very grown-up question, he answered, "Well, as a matter of fact you can, it's called stock." As she pondered that for a minute, he said "Why do you ask?" She replied, "I don't know, I was just thinking about it." Okay, then.

A few months later, we went to Chevy's for dinner and as we were waiting for our food she asked us "Is it hard to run a business?" We told her it depended on the type of businesses but that generally, yes, running a restaurant is a lot of work. "Why do you ask?" we said. "I don't know, I was just thinking about it." Okay, then.

Her Trump-like spirit continued a few weeks later as I was clearing out some old toys and books from her room. She had the brilliant idea that instead of GIVING the toys and books away, we should make a sign and go out on the corner and SELL it. She was really, really disappointed that I didn't support her quest to run her own business. I hate to stifle her ambition, but I had to draw the line.

The world will just have to wait a few more years for the next Apprentice.

I just had to laugh at a story I saw under "Weird News"  on CNN's Web site

Moms Allegedly Brawl at Chuck E. Cheese

A child's birthday party at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant was cut short after a fight broke out between two mothers. Natick police said the mom of the 9-year-old birthday boy apparently became enraged because the other woman's son was "hogging" an arcade game.

Sgt. Paul Thompson said Catherine Aliaga, 38, and Tarsha Williams, 33, both of Boston, would be summoned into court to answer charges of simple assault and battery stemming from the scuffle.

I mean, really...Who is the adult here? What happened to common courtesy and decency?! Great example to set for your children.

On another note, and then I will end my rant, I was also reading today that Billy Ray Cyrus' goal as a parent is to be his daughter Miley's best friend. I'm sorry, but isn't what she really needs a PARENT!!  Especially since she seems to be the next up and coming star, (a la Lindsey Lohan) that girl needs a parent to guide her and keep her from a lot of the trappings of fame. Whatever, dude.

Rant over. Anyone care to weigh in?

I've been meaning to share this for a while...a cool Web site I stumbled upon called

hungry-girl.com

It's got a lot of great tips on how ot eat better to lose weight as well as a lot of product info on things you can buy at the store that are low in fat and high in satisfaction. Plus, there is a lot of restaurant info on how to eat out sensibly. Check it out and let me know what you think. I signed up for their daily e-mail and it's got some good info. Enjoy!

We don't go out to dinner with the kids too often, but last Friday after a long week I just couldn't bring myself to make something, so we took the kids to Macaroni Grill on Alta Arden. This is a great place because they have basic food everyone likes, and it's a little loud so if you do have kids that are fussy, you won't be disturbing anyone trying to have a nice quite meal. Plus, my kids (6 y.o. twins) like the opera singers!

Anyway, we got there around 5:30 and it wasn't too crowded but over the next hour or so it really filled up. There were other people in the tables around us, but not a lot of kids. We had a great dinner...Food was good, kids ate their dinner, good conversation with the kids about school, drew some pictures on the tableclothes (it's paper and they encourage it in case you haven't been there :)

When we got up to leave, I was putting on my jacket and getting ready to walk out when I noticed the older gentleman at the table behind us got up and walked over to my husband and whispered something in his ear. I just heard by husband say "Thanks!" and after we got outside (it was so loud in the restaurant by this time), I asked what the man had said,  He smiled and said "He just wanted to compliment us on how well behaved our children were in the restaurant. He said it was refreshing."

How nice that this man took the time to tell us that!! We told the kids what he said and how proud we are of them that they behaved so well and told them it makes us feel really good when people tell us how good our kids are. It was a great start to a great weekend!!

Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and kids...but I also miss the days of living alone and not having to take care of any other living, breathing human being other than myself.

I used to hate to be alone, or maybe I just never really got the chance after leaving home (2 parents, 2 siblings) and moving in with roommates for college and a few years after. When I bought a house on my own when I was 26, my first thought was "This sucks...there's no one around!" After a few months, though, I grew to LOOOVE being alone. That lasted for about 2 years until I met my husband and within 6 months I had moved in to his house...he traveled a lot for work, so I still had a lot of alone time.

Fast forward 9 years to parenthood with two almost-7-year-old twins. I'm never alone! I often tell my husband that I feel like the "brain" of the family...keeping track of what's going on a school, making sure they have lunch money, clothes to wear, food to eat. My husband helps a lot around the house, but for a number of reasons, his forte is not keeping track of things.

So you can imagine my elation when my husband told be today he was taking the kids to see his family over the long 3-day weekend next week. ROCK ON! I get to be by myself for 3 WHOLE DAYS!!! I can clean the house and have it stay that way....I can sleep in the middle of my bed! I can do whatever the heck I want!!

I have all these grand visions of doing a mini home makeover and catching up on all the projects I want to do around the house, but realistically, I'll probably get a good book or movie and veg on the couch for at least one day....I hope it rains!!

Is it bad that I'm so excited?!

Am I the only one who is just appalled at Britney Spears' behavior?! I completely understand that she likely has a legitimate mental illness, but someone in her position has every option available for treatment...so why isn't she being treated?'

After a few discussions around the water cooler, I haven't really come to a conclusion whether or not to feel sorry for her. On one hand I say, "Pull it together, sister, or you won't be able to see your kids!" The other hand says "Poor Britney, it must be hard living in the spotlight all the time."

I think the bottom line for me is that it looks like she brings most of this mess on herself. So for that, I don't feel sorry for her. I feel sorry for her kids, as ultimately, they will be the ones to pay the price.

As mothers, I think we can all agree that it's our worst nightmare to raise kids who think the rules don't apply to them, which seems to be the case for Britney. (Mental illness and poor judgement aside.) Although there are many child stars who let fame go to their head, there are some who don't, but you don't really hear much about them.

Since my kids are now High School Musical fanatics, I was reading an article about Zac Efron recently where he was being very modest about his fame. He said "If it weren't for one Disney audtion a few years ago, I'd be just like 2,000 other blue-eyed, brown-haired guys in Los Angeles." Well said, Zac...maybe next time you could come to Britney's bedside with your words of wisdom instead of Dr. Phil.

I'm just sayin'....