You know the thing, about how kids say the funniest things? Wait. Just wait, until around the time they hit middle school and attempt to use really "expensive" vocabulary words, in as many annoying ways, they can possibly think of. Especially, whenever you happen to be helping them study for a vocabulary test. Exuberance. Part of speech: Noun. Use exuberance in a sentence: "Your lack of exuberance in doing the laundry is obvious." Ha ha. Efficiency. Part of speech: Noun. Use efficiency in a sentence: "Aren't those supposed to be efficiency washers and dryers?" Dammit. Or, maybe it's just me.... Read more →

I often write about having a REAL special place in my heart for animal shelters and rescues, like our Doofus-Dawg, so I was invited out to Nashville, TN (along with 5 other animal-loving bloggers, last December) for a very special project with my new friends over at Pedigree to help feed shelter dogs while they wait for their forever homes and, well, how could I say no, right?!? Why Nashville, TN? That's me and my friend Jane of Mom Generations and...oh yeah...Miranda Lambert is a sassy kind of adorable in person, too! The psa was being filmed at the Humane... Read more →

#nofilter, just a really bad picture. This picture is a little grainy -- sort of like our eleventy-hundred-year-old dining room floor -- and kind of cool, too. Looking at it a little closer, it also reminds me a little of my childhood: watching Lucha Libre on UHF (look it up, youngsters!) and the awful television reception we sometimes had at our house. Today? It very well might be an app on someone's smartphone. Weird, right? Aaaaanyway, my son's wrestling team had their last meet, so I snapped off a quick pic of the last time the boy would wrestle for... Read more →

...enough said!!! Pssssst....other folks are going wordless, too: Wordless Wednesday HQ! © 2003 - 2013 This Full House Read more →

My 14-year-old son's voice has changed, quite a bit. He insisted that I allow him (FINALLY!) to change his voicemail, recorded about 4 years ago while he was still in elementary school and I reluctantly agreed. NOT before vlogging it, first -- with his permission, of course -- increasing my "break curfew and I show this to your girlfriend" arsenal by a hefty margin, because I am an expert multi-tasker, like that :) © 2003 - 2013 This Full House Read more →

Raising older kids, folks sometimes ask me about stuff I miss the most about their being...you know...not so little, anymore. That's easy. Naptime!!! Aaaaaand, those precious pre-naptime moments, when I would take them to the park, or drag them out into our backyard (2 out of 4 STILL hate bugs, me too) and just watch, as they race each other from tree to tree (protip for parents of younger kids: best distraction tactic ever, works EVERY blessed time!) with little or no fear of their running into a sharp corner...or a wall. Now, it's me they have to worry about... Read more →

We heard it was coming, a few days after experiencing our first earthquake and it was supposedly to be one of the biggest storms to hit Jersey in recent memory: Hurricane Irene blew in late Summer of 2011, which suddenly sounds like a really long time ago. Aaaaand, then Superstorm Sandy hit the east coast last October, nearly knocking us back into the stone ages, changing the face of New Jersey, forever. So, yeah, I was a little nervous when tracking our first major winter storm since even before the hurricanes hit, especially one named after a cheeky fish. Nemo... Read more →