Wednesday, February 28, 2007

A Great Start To The Day!

This day has started out beautifully…you know why? Because 1.) my lovely son slept through the night, and 2.) I got up and was at the Y by 5:30 this morning! I feel so good! And I did hubby a favor and took the kids this morning.

Not much happened last night, I made a meal from this that was wonderful! I also made tortilla soup that tasted great! For those of you that like to cook but don’t want to spend all night doing it, this cookbook is great! I know I’ve only made two recipes from it, but they were both great, and different from what we normally eat! It has already be well worth the $12 I paid for it on Amazon.

I actually put up some decorations…I had bought some black baskets that I filled with Eucalyptus and put them up on our plant ledge above our front door. Then my daughter and I finished watching “the bad kids” aka Supernanny, from the night before, and then we fell asleep.

Boring night I know, but I’m just so excited that I got my butt out of bed and worked out!!! Again!!!!

I’m going to try really hard to post that really long meme thingy today :)

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Confessions of a Working Mom

OK, I’m totally stealing this from Amy W. (I asked her if I could…I just didn’t wait for a response :) )

1.) Sometimes (OK, a lot of times) I’m so tired of fighting with my kids that I get lazy and don’t stand my ground. Like if my 3 year-old asks me to have something, and I say “no”, and she keeps asking, only in different ways and tries to trick me, there are a lot of times I give in and say “fine”

2.) My son has been in our bed for the last 3 nights.

3.) My daughter has stayed up with me until 10:30 each night that hubby has not been there because I want a friend to hang out with :)

4.) My kids drink juice. Granted, it’s watered down, even for my daughter, but I know everyone says juice is such a “no-no”

5.) Oh yeah, they drink chocolate milk too.

6.) They get a lot of treats

7.) BUT…they don’t get a treat until they eat apples, or bananas, or carrots or blueberries :)

8.) My son had whole milk starting when he was 10 months old because I was so tired of breastfeeding all.of.the.stinking.time.

9.) I buy my kids a lot of stuff. So much that my daughter will tell me I “can just by it the next time I’m at the store.” The $1 section at Target is dangerous.

10.)My kids watch a lot of TV. Mostly it happens at the sitter’s. But occasionally, when I don’t feel like playing house, again, I ask if they want to watch a movie or show and they scream “yes” and run for the TV.

11.)My daughter is obsessed with boobs. She has asked my about mine quite a number of times, and last night she informed me that she has been “educating” the 2 year-old that’s at the sitter’s with her about them. One boob has milk in it, the other one has juice in it (refer to number 4 above).

12.)When my sitter complains about something my kids have done, unless I feel it’s really bad, I usually ignore it right there in front of her and just give the kids lots of hugs and kisses. I learned this from hubby…I used to be all concerned with everything, but then he told me that he blows it off, so now I do it too.

13.)After hubby, I love my “two wonderful kids” (a) more than anything in this world!

(a) – this is what I call them. If they want me to pick them both up at the same time they’ll tell me (even my son) “do two wonderful kids!”

Monday, February 26, 2007

I'm Warning You, This Is Very Long and Somewhat Boring :)

I had a long weekend! Oh, and I’m ready to kill my son. But let’s start with Friday, shall we? Wait, Friday was boring…we just went to the Y and worked out, which was nice because there was hardly anyone there so we were free to “play” on the machines and try new things without looking stupid in front of a bunch of people :)

On Saturday we watched our friends’ little girls and worked around the house a little. Again, boring. But that afternoon we went to my friend’s wedding and it was…interesting. It was a very laid-back ceremony, which is just like my friend, so it was very appropriate. The reception is where it got interesting. We walked into the hall and were told that we could pick anywhere to sit, and that there were food tables set up all around the room. So we were to get food, sit down, eat, mingle, eat more food, etc. OOOOKKKK. So we sat with my one friend that has 2 kids as well and had a great time talking to them. The food was cheap, but good. There were bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, mini egg rolls, meatballs, prime rib for sandwiches, and a potato bar (a choice of either mashed or sweet potatoes with all of the toppings you could ever want), and like I said, it was a cheap meal, but at least the food was really good. The bride and groom came in and cut the cake right away (the only other wedding that I have ever been to where they did this was this past summer…it was the ex-boyfriend of the girl whose wedding I was at!). I spent a little time with each of my former roommates, but it’s really sad…we’re so different that there wasn’t much to talk about. I mean we were all polite and everything, but they had nothing to say about kids, and I have nothing to say about going out on the weekends. So hubby and I left at 8:00. That’s right. We figured we would have much more fun if we were home with our kids than staying at a wedding reception and just sitting there looking like idiots.

After we had been home a while, our friend called to ask if I could come over and sit at their house while she went to pick her husband up at the airport. My daughter wanted to go with me, so we trudged over there at 10:00. It was so icy out! We were careful, but it was dangerously slippery out there. We sat in the house until around 11:15 when they got home, made some small talk, and then headed out. It was so slippery that I decided that we would walk on the snow-covered grass to keep us from falling. Right about the time that I realized that getting home was going to be very difficult, our friends had shut their garage door. Now mind you, we live two houses down, and we are only separated by an empty lot right now (waiting for my parents to make some decisions and build on it!). My poor little girl was so scared…she was slipping all over the place. The worst part is that it was so icy that even me standing on top of the snow wouldn’t break it…it was like an ice rink. It got so bad that I had to stand in one spot for about a minute because I had no idea how in the world I was going to move without falling. My poor little girl was crying her eyes out - I almost had her get on my lap and I was going to scoot the rest of the way home. Thankfully I was able to move and my daughter became quite the encourager! I was so proud of her…she would say things like “Mommy, we’re here, we’re almost home” and “we’re going to make it Mommy, our house is so close!” 10 minutes later we were able to get up the driveway and into the garage. I felt bad because I later saw how hard I was holding her had to keep her from falling, and thankfully, she didn’t realize it until we got inside the house! My poor hubby felt so bad, but even if he had known we were out there, there really wasn’t anything he could do. He took us inside and we sat and watched Nick at Nite for a little bit and then headed to bed.

We didn’t go to church on Sunday because the roads were still pretty bad. Actually, we really didn’t do hardly anything yesterday except go grocery shopping. However, the events began yesterday that made me want to kill my son. He still takes 2 naps per day. Since he got to sleep in yesterday, his first nap didn’t end until around 12:00. We usually try to time his second nap with my daughter’s nap so that we can either 1.) take a nap too, or 2.) do something for ourselves. So hubby and my daughter went to take a nap. I thought I was going to be up with him since it still seemed early for him to be tired again, but he saw hubby and my daughter go into our room together and my son told me “daddy’s oom”. I asked him if he wanted to get paci and take a nap in Daddy’s room and he said “yes”. I was so excited! I ran up and got his paci and we laid down for a couple of seconds and he told me “papaw’s oom”. So I picked him up and took him to the guest room. He rolled around for a while, took his paci out and said “all done nap”. I took him downstairs to play with his trains (mind you, I’m really tired and could really use a nap right now) and after about 20 minutes he’s rubbing his eyes and acting tired, so I take him up to his crib and lay him down, and he goes to sleep!!! For 30 minutes. I couldn’t believe it and I was mad! So fast forward, we go grocery shopping, he’s a pistol, and we get home and I make dinner and hubby proceeds to watch the NASCAR race. After a while my daughter calls for me, and I ask her “what?” and she tells me that her brother was into the markers. I run downstairs and see his shirt covered with “coloring” and his train mat is the same way (which is no big deal because we were just using shelf liners for that). But there is also some on the carpet. And my son has no idea what he did wrong. No matter how many times we “yelled” at him, he just said “OOOOkay” So I took him up and gave him a bath and put him to bed at 7:45, which is really early for him. That should have been my first hint. We hang out and play, and hubby and I finally get to be around 11:15. My son wakes up at 1:00, and then again at 2:00, and then again at 3:00, and then finally at 6:15. My poor hubby was up with him, letting him scream his head off. And for my son, this is so abnormal…he normally NEVER wakes up when everything’s fine and normal. I think it had to do with the fact that he went to bed so early, and that he has at least 2 teeth coming in.

So I was supposed to go to the Y this morning, but there was no way I was going to be able to, so I’m planning on going tonight after work.

I know the story above was horribly written, but it was so long I just wanted to get it down so that it was down and you can read it and sympathize with me and take my son for a couple of days or years, whichever you prefer. Really, he has you fooled with his cute little face.

OK, I’m lying. No matter how mad I get at the little booger, I just have to look at his cute little smile and those big eyes, and I melt.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Panic Attacks Over Decorating?

OK, enough of the bad stuff…I don’t like being angry and this is not worth my energy to be angry about and I’m so ready to be happy again :)

Our designer came over last night and talked window treatments with me. Let me back-up and say, as I have said before, the gift of decorating was NEVER bestowed upon me. Seriously, the thought of picking out curtains and paint colors and decorating stuff makes me hyperventilate. I was trying to hard to save money by doing the rest of our window treatments myself (which = going to Target or JC Penney’s and ordering them there), but after a couple of weeks of agonizing over how I was ever going to pick anything out, hubby told me to call the designer and let her handle it. I met with her yesterday, and by the time hubby got home with the kids, he said he could just tell how much better I felt. He said it was like something was lifted off of me. Now please tell me, why does something as non-important as picking out what will be on my walls and windows make me so crazy?? I think it’s because I hate that I have such a weakness; an area that I suck at. I really don’t like feeling so dependent on someone else when in theory it seems like it should be so easy! I mean come on…I’ve been in a lot of my friends’ houses that are beautifully decorated by them! Why can’t I do that? I’m sure it’s because I’m totally left-brained (hence accounting being my career field of choice).

Anyway, we picked out some really neat things, and once she gets me the price quote (yikes!) and it’s finalized, I’ll put up some links to show the kinds of things I picked out. I’m very excited because she just happened to flip through to these two fabrics that matched all of the colors in our kitchen and family room and that would really tie the two rooms together.

I’m going to the wedding of my college roommate tomorrow. I’m excited yet nervous at the same time. Luckily the one other previous roommate that has kids will be there, so hopefully we will be able to talk for longer than 2 minutes :) I will also get to see some people that I haven’t seen since college, so I’m REALLY excited! I’m not sure if I will bring the camera or not, but if I do I will post some pictures!

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Wow, I can’t believe I’m going through this, but for the sake of my sanity, and to not be bullied, I have to write a post about this. Now I know some of you may already have sides on this, some of you have no idea what’s going on and will be surprised, and still others of you will not care (which is pretty much how I felt up until now). As a background and this may surprise some of you, I have a very hot temper. I fly off the handle very easily, at the littlest things. So I’m very proud of myself and how I’ve kept my cool regarding this whole thing.

There’s a blog that I used to read. I felt that I was always positive and supportive, although of all the blogs I read, I disagreed with the views and thoughts of this one the most. However, I always thought that I was polite and positive. Either I was wrong or this lady is just picking on me.

I visited this post and posted a comment regarding the post, and, at least in my opinion I just stated my thoughts while respecting other view points (please correct me if I’m wrong). Then the following comment was made:

“I know I resent very much being told I'm a lazy parent, taking the "Easy Way Out" by using time-outs. This was an agonizing decision for us, one that was well thought out and talked about extensively with professionals. My children do not need to be spanked to be productive citizens.”

I considered this a huge slap in the face and I couldn’t figure out why in the world someone would respond with such malice. I decided to just walk away (insert the fact here that she had sent me some e-mail about how I was wrong in my thoughts or something, I was too angry at this time to really pay attention to it). She also at this time made her blog password protected…I’m starting to think it was to keep me out? I have no idea, but I knew that I had no desire to read it anymore, so I went on with my life.

A couple of days ago I read this post. Now, no matter what someone has done to me, I would never wish anything bad on anyone, I was sad for her and I hated that I had no idea what was wrong, but I said a little prayer for her and her family and moved on.

Fast forward to today, during lunch, I was going through my blog favorites and accidentally clicked on her blog (I hadn't deleted if from my internet favorites yet...I'm a little behind in keeping those up), and was surprised when it came up without requiring a password. So I read through it wanting to know what was wrong and was very sad to see what she was dealing with in her life. I actually even almost commented about how sorry I was for her and what she was going through. But then I read her most recent post, and my sadness turned to pure anger.

This is the part of the post that really hurt me:

“We have got to figure out what our discipline style is going to be, especially since after long discussions with our therapist and with each other, we decided to try the “no spanking” route. How we arrived at that decision would be a post in itself but in a nutshell, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around telling my children not to hit (and both were hitting at school quite a bit) all the while I was hitting them. Luckily, HP is open minded enough to try this with me. It’s important for both parents to be on the same page, don’t you think? {Now, I was told in the comments on another blog, indirectly, that I am a lazy parent for using time outs instead of spanking. If you want to make that kind of comment here, let me invite you to take a flying leap off your nearest tall building so I don’t have to waste my time coming over and bitch-slapping you. Thanks so much.}”

What??? So, I decided I have had enough. I posted the following comment:

“I didn't reply to any of your comments or e-mails before because I was trying to be civil, but this is the last straw for me. You need to read everything that someone reads and not just take certain words out of context. If I were to do that I could make it look like the entire world was against me.

My exact quote was (which was not on your blog or directed at you in any way, and I have no idea why you would think it was): "I know I'll probably get attacked with this, but discipline, no matter what it is, is hard work. And sometimes I believe that parents take the easy way out with "time-outs". I'm definitely not saying this is the case with all parents, but I know quite a few that do the time-out thing just to get their child to stop and out of their hair. Did the child learn anything? Nope. They were doing it again an hour later. My kids equate bad behavior with spankings, and that punishment, for them, is a lot worse than a time-out."

What about the words "sometimes", and "I'm definitely not saying this is the case with all parents" did you not think pertained to you?

I could go on and on, but it's not worth my time. It's not fair for you to pick apart something I said when you either 1.) Didn't read the whole thing, or 2.) Chose to ignore my clarifications. And if something I said really bothered you, the adult thing to do would have been to confront me, not make offhanded comments about it that you knew I would read.

For those of you that would like to read my comment in its entirety and make your own judgment on what I was saying, here's the link:
https://www2.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=33536036&postID=7952776218960567732

I had a feeling she would delete the comment, so I went back to check, and surprise, surprise, the site is password protected again. I won’t be bullied and I wanted to state my case on my own blog, so that’s why I posted about it.

I’m honestly just in total shock because I’ve never been someone that people attack, I’m usually the peacekeeper. But if there’s someone out there that’s going to challenge my opinions when I’ve never tried to force them on anyone, well, I had to say my piece. No one should ever be attacked just because they don’t believe the same things as you do, and for goodness sakes, if you’re going to attack someone, at least read everything they have written so that your attack looks substantiated.

And now I’m done.

A Couple of Unrelated Thoughts From Yesterday

Again, another boring night :) We did go to the Y last night and the kids had a blast! There were actually a ton of kids in the care center and only a couple of adults, but since I was only going to working out for ½ hour, and the kids were looking forward to going in, I didn’t really care. Working out was great…I got to watch some of Grey’s Anatomy from like 4 weeks ago (please don’t tell me anything about tonight’s episode…I know someone is supposed to die, but I’ve don’t such a good job of not hearing anything that would ruin the past couple of episodes for me!). That is two days in a row of working out…go me! I took today off because I thought I would be really sore today, but surprisingly, I’m not very sore. I’ll go either tomorrow morning or take the kids tomorrow night. When I picked the kids up from the child care area the workers were so nice and apologetic that it was so chaotic in there. But I really didn’t mind…because I got ½ hour of a great workout and watching a great TV show…what more could I want?

I was going to write a post yesterday about how Vegas-trip-planning lady was actually very nice to me yesterday and came over and asked me if there was anything she could help me with because she knows we’re under a deadline. I gave her some work and was totally re-thinking what I thought of her. But then, the rest of the afternoon she proceeded to talk to our admin, away from her desk, and not do my stuff. She’s only here for a ½ day today because she leaves for Raleigh (Amy W. I really wish I could come with her to see you, but I think I would shoot myself if I actually had to be around her any more than I already am :)) so I really hope she finishes my work this morning before she leaves!

Last night I found out that our good friends that moved up with us, his grandfather fell and was in a coma and they pulled the plug yesterday morning. And on top of that his dad has cancer and is in the hospital because of stomach pains. I called their house yesterday and talked to his wife and the poor thing is so worried about putting us out…she needs someone to watch her girls because she has to work on Saturday and she was going to hire a sitter (because her hubby is down in Florida with his family). I told her that she had to bring them over and let us watch them! The girls are 6 and 8 and my daughter has a blast playing with them! The only downside is that she will be bringing them over at 7:30…we usually don’t get up until 9:00 on Saturdays people!!! But of course I would do anything to help a friend out! I just feel bad for her hubby…he has to be going through a lot right now.

Oh, and I know I was tagged for that huge meme…and I have started it (if copying and pasting it to Word to work on it later means starting it) and I promise I will post it!!! TGIAF (thank goodness it’s almost Friday!)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Boring Night = Pictures :)

Not much happened last night, so I’ll just post these pictures :) I didn’t get up and work out this morning because I had to take the kids to the sitter’s, so that already meant that I had to leave the house by 6:40 anyway, so trying to get to the Y by 5:30 when it opened and working out, and then rushing home to take a shower and get ready was just too much. So I decided that I would take the kids there after work…hubby has to work late and the kids have been begging me to take them there to play. So it works out for everyone!





OK, I know my son is in a tutu, BUT....he was so cute...my daughter and I were playing with the dress-up clothes last night while my son and hubby were playing trains. When he saw me pull that pink tutu out he immediately said "obbly oopsie" which for those of you who are not Doodlebop fans, means "Wobbly Woopsy," which is a song that Deedee sings in her birthday episode. He walked around singing it and dancing. Even hubby was smiling even though he did not like the tutu being on my son!



Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Neat Awards Luncheon

We had our annual awards luncheon today at this really nice Hilton by our office. The food was fantastic! There were about 425 of us there (we have a little over 900 people that work for our company around the country). We were actually there for almost 4 hours! The neatest part about the luncheon was that Jason Thomas of this and this, spoke to us because we did this. We presented him with a check for $30,000 and he spoke for probably a good 1/2 hour thanking us and telling us what a great product we have. He is such an amazing guy and truly grateful for everything that he has ever gotten. It was such an honor to have him at our lunch!

And Vegas-trip-planning girl is getting on my nerves. I wish I could put into words a description of her, but I just can't. She's trying too hard to look like she's upper-class...do you know the type? Talking about her BMW, always wears a ton of jewelry, tries to sound snotty when talking about certain things. OK, I'm doing a horrible job describing her, but I swear, she's annoying! She sat at our table for lunch, and, well, annoyed me.

5:30 People...In The Morning!!!!

I, yes I, who would trade sleep for just about anything, got up at 5:15 this morning and went to the YMCA to work out. I can't believe I did it! I am honestly so proud of myself!!! I only did the precor thing for 20 minutes, but it was a good first start. The bad thing was that I had bought the next two episodes of Grey's Anatomy on iTunes, but they must not have made it to my iPod because when I was on the machine looking for it, it wasn't there. Luckily hubby had put other things on it so I started watching the 40 year-old virgin. It definitely made the 20 minutes go by fast! And I was so surprised at how many people were there so early in the morning!

Now I'm hoping with this new routine I won't be so tired and out of energy at the end of the day. Bathing suits, here I come!!!

Not much else happened last night...just played with the kids and then tried to get to bed early since I new I was getting up early. Oh, and our son keeps getting up in the middle of the night. This is not like him at all and he was up twice last night! I think it's because he has a tooth coming in, at least I hope that's all it is since he's been the best sleeper since he was 8 months old!

I might post some stories about dumb Vegas trip-planning lady later today...she was planning another trip yesterday...down to Raleigh. I can't figure out if she does any work because she was on the phone for a long time with friends yesterday. And when she's not on the phone, she's talking to different people in the office. What a crock!

OK, time to work :)

Monday, February 19, 2007

Different...Not In a Bad Way...Just Different

On Saturday night hubby hit me with one of the worst comments you can make to a wife…“you’re different from the way you were in college. Not in a bad way, just different.” Do you understand how hard I have tried to never hear those words? And yet here I am, just after 6 ½ years of marriage, hearing those horrible words. Of course, he kept saying he wasn’t being mean, and he’s sure that he’s changed, and obviously I’m a mom, and that changes a lot, and yadda-yadda-yadda. Nope. Can’t undo that statement. He says I’m more introverted (weird, because I have found I have a lot more outgoingness since I’ve had kids) and that I wouldn’t try things now that I would have tried in college. It’s really hard; I have vowed that I will never turn into the typical “mom”. I will not grow into the typical “mom look” and I will try my hardest to not be too much of an embarrassment to my kids. So now I’m worried…am I heading that way? I know that hubby was not trying to start a fight, and of course I didn’t turn it into one…I just made a mental note to try to get back to the way I used to be. I know we all change, but at the same time, he fell in love with me the way I was back then…I don’t think it’s fair to change on him just because I want to (unless we’re talking obvious changes, i.e. no more staying out late with my friends…I have a hubby and kids! Etc.). And I felt bad because his comment to me saying “I’m sure I’ve changed too”…I can’t really think of a major way that he has changed…he’s still the great guy that I fell in love with 10 years ago, and actually, he’s gotten greater with now being a wonderful father.

So I guess I’m just going to be a little more careful about getting too “comfortable” in my life. If he married someone who liked to go out and have fun and meet new people (although I still swear that wasn’t me) then what right do I have to all of a sudden decide I just want to stay in and not do anything?

What about all of you? Have you changed a lot since your significant other met and fell in love with you?

Friday, February 16, 2007

No More Bitterness!

I saw something a couple of days ago that made me realize that I needed to rid myself of surrounding negativity. Remember this post? It kind of goes along the same lines, but I’m extending it into blogging.

Let me back up and give you some history. When I first started reading blogs, I read whatever I could find. There wasn’t near as much out there as there is now when I started reading them. Then I decided to start writing my own and they started getting more and more popular. The one trend I seemed to notice in the ones that I read back then and continue to read now is that the posts are/were always so negative. Reading some of these ladies I got the impression that there was nothing that they liked about their lives, and they always had so many problems. And I’m not talking about major, devastating problems, I’m talking about every post being a whine about everything from waking up with a stomach ache to complaining about the traffic and weather. A couple of months ago I asked myself why in the world I kept reading these, because I was so sick of “listening” to their whining. My answer was I thought that reading their blogs made my life seem so wonderful…and I would read about their “bad lives” and look at mine and feel like I had hit the jackpot when it came to the life department. So the other day I was reading something that related to one of these blogs that I had been reading and it hit me…stop reading all this negativity! It does nothing but bring me down, even if it’s subconsciously. I have felt so much better over the last few days! I read about all of your wonderful lives and you always have such wonderful, uplifting things to say in your comments, and I feel so much better! It really surprises me how many nice and wonderful ladies I have met through my blog, and for that I’m very thankful!

Please don’t think that any of these blogs belong to you, my wonderful readers…I never commented on any of them, so they have no idea who I am…I just stalked them :) And honestly, you guys would probably be very surprised if you even knew what types of blogs I was talking about!

I know we all have bad days, weeks, months; and we all have some type of devastation hit us at some point…that’s not what I’m talking about at all. I just realized that if you read through someone’s blog and 95% of each and every post is a complaint, then the only that I will get from it is depressed. The blogs I read generally like their lives, and love their kids, and have posts that are happy and upbeat (along with the sad ones of course).

Do I make any sense? I just want to make it clear that I know we all have bad times, and I like to read about what’s going on in your lives and support you as best as I can when bad things happen. But if nothing good is going on in your life, then there’s nothing I can do to help, and in these cases, the women just seem bitter (not depressed)…they act like the world revolves around them, and I hate to tell them, but it doesn’t. So I’m putting a stop to the bitterness entering my life right now!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

I just had to share...the lady that sits in the cube diagonal from me has been on the phone all day. She was on the phone for over an hour with her husband today fighting (that was juicy to listen to) and now she has been on the phone with someone else for about 1 1/2 hours planning a trip to Vegas. Oh yeah, she didn't come in until 9:00 this morning. Now I know I waste a lot of time (reading blogs, e-mailing, reading blogs, etc.), but at least I try to conceal it!!! I'm actually trying to get some work done before I leave in 15 minutes and I keep getting distracted with talk of The Venetian, The Paris Hotel, The Mirage...I love Vegas, and all of this talk is just making me sit here and think about it instead of tying out a 10-K!

I strongly dislike you Vegas-trip-planning-girl.

Another Great Day!

I got to have another snow day yesterday! And I actually did a lot of work :) I got up around 9:00 (much better than the 5:30 I had to get up today :) ) and got the kids breakfast. I then worked until 12:00 during which I answered 350 questions by my 3 1/2 year-old and put my 20 month-old down for a nap. Then I made lunch, and did more work, and then got ready for our Valentine's night. We got to go to a Blue Jackets (NHL) game and sit in my company's suite and eat free food! It was the cheapest Valentine's Day ever! Our babysitter is our daytime babysitter’s daughter, so we went over to pick her up and were lucky enough that she wanted to stay overnight with us (otherwise we would have had to take her home and now since we’ve moved she lives 25 minutes away). The kids were still up when we got home, which was great because we got to play with them a little and then get them ready for bed.

This morning kind of sucked though because even though I got up at 5:30, I didn’t get to work until 8:00. Why you ask? Because I had to take the kids to the sitter’s, and then my sitter talked and talked and talked to me about nothing. She has this bad habit about taking so much of your time telling you stories about her kids, and so much other nonsense when all you want to do is get out of there! But she’s great for the kids so I can’t complain…too much :)

I hope to catch up on all of your blogs today…it’s amazing how fast my days flew by when I was home with the kids. It’s scary how much I enjoyed being home too…I got so much stuff done around the house and I had a blast with the kids. It kind of makes me rethink what I want…working or staying home. It’s not like that’s ever happened before :)

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

A Much Needed Break!

This is what it looks like out our back and side windows:











So we'll be doing this today:



That's right! I've taken a snow day! Not exactly...I'm working from home because it's only supposed to get worse and it takes an hour to get the kids and get home on a normal day, so I didn't even want to try! I'll be working, napping and reading blogs today while playing with my two wonderful kids! And I don't think the PJs will be coming off! (Theirs, I did take a shower this morning :) )

Monday, February 12, 2007

Thank You!

First of all, I want to thank all of my readers. I put that post out there not trying to get sympathy or pity, but rather it was just another way to get my feelings out. The support that you gave me…well, I can’t describe how it made me feel and I really appreciate it. Thank you.

I’m doing much better…I went down to visit my family this weekend and I broke down Friday night, but my sister (ironically this sister) really supported me and the rest of the weekend was great.

For those of you that said that I always come off as being so happy…thanks. Honestly that’s a big goal in my life – to be positive and happy the majority of the time. When I was talking to hubby and relating everything that was bothering me in my life, he made a comment to me…“you need to be around more happy people”. He had no idea how right he was. I told him that it all made sense to me…I’m the happy person in a lot of the friendships that I’m in, which is OK. But sometimes I need to get away from all of the people that are draining from me and let someone else fill me up. Does this make sense? At my meeting the other night I was able to catch up with a friend that I hadn’t talked to in over a year. And she was one of those people that no matter what was going on in her life, she was always complimenting me and lifting me up. That is just her personality. She was a complete inspiration to me a couple of years ago, and that’s why I strive to be so positive…because I know how good she always made me feel. But as everyone knows, nobody’s life is perfect, and I think it’s very important that we let that side of ourselves show as well so that others see that we are all human, and we all have bad times along with the good times.

I really appreciate all of your support and uplifting words…I really needed that! And now I will go back to being happy and encouraging and “filling all of you up” with all of that love and encouragement that my wonderful friend AMK taught me just a couple short years ago!

Friday, February 09, 2007

It's Good To Cry

I haven’t cried in a while.

Last night the tears poured uncontrollably.

They poured because I never feel like I’m giving my kids enough.

They poured for this and this

They poured for the 21 month-old that was coming back from Disney that has brain cancer and has 2 weeks to live.

They poured because that same baby was going to miss a connecting flight to get it home, and it only had enough morphine to last until midnight. If they missed their plane, there wasn’t another one until today.

They poured because hubby and I haven’t talked in a long time and there’s a lot built up.

They poured because finally, at 11:30 last night hubby and I talked.

I told him about this and this

I told him about the little baby with brain cancer, and how he’s about the same age as our son.

I told him that I constantly battle whether or not I should work or stay home.

I told him that I don’t love my job enough to work at home…every night.

I told him that I feel like life could easily go on without me, but if anything ever happened to him, we would be screwed.

He held me.

He told me he needs to do a better job of showing appreciation towards me.

He held me.

I fell asleep without a heavy weight on my heart for the first time in months.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Ramblings

Wow, I had a fun time last night! There were 7 of us there for dinner and we got there at 7:00 and didn’t leave until 9:15 or so. It was so nice sitting around talking to everyone…and we get to do it again tonight because it’s our monthly moms meeting!

My poor daughter’s ankle hurts her again. I was bad and took her brace off a day early, because, honestly, she could walk and run on it just fine, and….well, it was just a pain to have to worry about wrapping it, and then arranging her clothes so that they fit over it, and she loves to wear skirts so it was killing her that she hasn’t been able to wear them. But I guess last night it was hurting really bad, so hubby put the brace back on and we plan on having her wear it at least through the weekend. The urgent care wanted me to take her to her pediatrician’s office for a follow-up tomorrow, but like the good mom I am I cancelled it because 1.) who goes to the doctor for a sprained ankle? I had like 15 of them when I was a kid, and the only time we went anywhere was to the hospital when they were really bad to make sure they weren’t broken; and 2.) my kids are going to my parents’ tonight because they watch them on Fridays. Again, winning mother of the year here.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell everyone!!!! Be sure to watch Extreme Makeover Home Edition this Sunday at 7:00 EST on ABC because it will be in my hometown featuring my company!! Finally I get to see the show! If you see anyone doing landscaping, you’re probably seeing the in-laws and me! Our shift did pretty much all of it! And afterwards if anyone has any questions about the show, feel free to ask!!!

Did I mention that for some reason my babysitter wants to stop my daughter’s naps?? She claims that since she’s almost 4 (ummmm she won’t be 4 until May). Of course hubby was like “whatever” but when he told me I screamed! Not only do I love those times on the weekend when they’re both napping, but she also still really needs those naps! So yesterday she didn’t take a nap, and yep, she fell asleep on the way home. She even stayed sleeping when I brought her in and laid her on the couch. She was up until midnight last night. Honestly I didn’t mind because I got to see her and watch her new Cinderella movie with her, but it’s still not good for her. So I made a huge deal in front of her sitter about how she HAS to take a nap everyday! I hope she got the hint!

OK, that’s about it for now…work is so crazy busy. I was going to take a picture of my desk like Amy W did but 1.) I keep forgetting my camera; and 2.) you can’t see my desk…all you see is paper, and binders, EVERYWHERE! Is it March 1 yet???

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

A New Guilt

I have a new guilt. Spending time with my friends. I feel guilty because I only get to see my kids in the evening as it is, so why on earth would I take one of those evenings and spend it with friends of mine as opposed to my kids?

This debate goes on in my head a lot. The first response to it is “of course you need a break…you work hard all week and everyone deserves to have friends”. But then I counter back and say “your friends aren’t looking to you to learn how to do things; your friends don’t need you to tuck them in at night; your friends don’t cry for you when they’re scared.” So what am I to do? I don’t spend a lot of time with my friends as it is…a couple of nights a month and maybe a couple of hours on a weekend. The truth is I have lost touch with a lot of my friends that don’t have kids because they don’t understand that my time is limited now…these little things that I’m raising are so important to me that I hate to miss out on any time with them. BUT…I do still need some girl time…with adults.

I’m going to dinner with some friends tonight. I’m feeling very guilty. Last night with the horrible snow we got we didn’t get home until 7:00, so by the time we ate dinner there was hardly any time left for playing. Am I being selfish? I hope not because I really want to go and hang out with them and have a nice dinner without having to worry about feeding everyone else before I get my food.

The logical part of me knows that my kids will be fine…spending time away from them will not kill them…and hubby is with them, so it’s not like they’re spending more time at the sitter’s or anything…right?

What about you other moms? Do you ever feel guilty for doing things for yourself instead of your kids?

Monday, February 05, 2007

Thank Goodness This Weekend Is Over!

***WARNING!!! This post is VERY long!!!****

Wow, I swear my weekend went from good, to bad, to worse.

Friday night we piled up and went to dinner at this Italian restaurant that I had always heard good things about. It was a cute little place that gives kids pizza dough to play with while they wait for their food. It started going downhill when I wanted to substitute alfredo sauce for the marinara sauce (I really don’t like red sauces). He said that would be fine, but it would be a $4 charge!!! $4!!! I was expecting maybe $1 or $2 like at Olive Garden, but not $4!! The waiter told me it’s because it’s homemade. I muttered under my breath that I make homemade alfredo sauce and the whole pot costs me just a little more than $4!!!! It wasn’t even that great…I like mine better.

After that we went to Bed, Bath & Beyond to get a present for my college roommate’s bridal shower that was Saturday. We ended up getting this really cool new coffee maker too. Now I don’t drink coffee, but it does heat up water for hot chocolate! It’s one of those that makes a single cup instead of a pot, but it has a thing that lets you use your own coffee instead of having to buy pre-made little thingys. The thing was not cheap, but I secretly didn’t care because our old coffee maker was white, and I have a very dark kitchen, with all black appliances, so it really stuck out like a sore thumb. Anyway, hubby is very excited about it and has used it about 15 times since we got it Friday night.

Saturday hubby had to go into work and I took the kids to Target to get hubby’s Valentine’s present (a box of Bailey’s candies!). So I got that, and two trains, a Curious George puzzle and Dora and Thomas sippy cups. I didn’t realize how long I had been in the store and all of a sudden realized that I had to be ready for the bridal shower in 1 hour, and I still had to drive home, take a shower and curl my hair. So I did all of that and managed to leave only about 15 minutes late.

One of my daughter’s little playmates from down where my parents live was up in Columbus for the day so she was at the house playing with my daughter. We decided to take the girls to Chuck E. Cheese’s while hubby stayed with my son and my dad. We got to Chuck E. Cheese’s and the line was out the door in the freezing cold! We had no intentions of staying and decided to head to the mall and play in the play area. We played for a long time and then took the girls to the food court. During dinner, my daughter said she had to go potty, and as we started walking she said her foot hurt and when she walked she fell down. I didn’t really think anything of it, but I carried her the rest of the way to the bathroom. I carried her back to our seat and then we all walked back to the valet desk to wait for our car. She kept saying her foot hurt, and I assumed it was because she was wearing new shoes. So I told her that once we got home she could take them off. Once we got in the car she was almost in tears, so I pulled her shoes off.

Once we were home hubby gave her a bath and she was screaming the whole time. Her foot was really hurting her…but we couldn’t see anything wrong and there was no “incident” that made us think something happened. She had to be carried everywhere that night, and we had her sleep in our bed with us so that she wouldn’t wake up screaming because of the pain. Our son decided he didn’t want to sleep through the night and at 3:00 woke me up and when I went in his room he told me “pay toys”. He freaking wanted to play and I could barely keep my eyes open! So hubby took him into the guest room and fell asleep with him. When we woke up Sunday morning the power was out. I still had to take a shower because we either were going to church (we were supposed to teach Sunday school) or to Urgent Care. I realized how dependent I am on my hair dryer and flat iron :) My daughter did not understand why we couldn’t watch TV. After her saying she had to go potty and my having to carry her and help her tremendously, I decided we were going to Urgent Care. The problem was that they didn’t open until noon and it was 9:00. So we fed the kids breakfast, got them dressed and then headed out. I ran into the grocery store to buy the food I was going to make for the super bowl party we were going to, and then headed to Urgent Care. We walked in and there were probably 7 people ahead of us…you know why? Because even though the doctors don’t get there until noon, they will still check you in and get you ready before that. I commented to the check-in lady (who was VERY nice) that we had been driving around because we knew they didn’t open until noon. Anyway, we sat our stuff down in the waiting area and two seconds later we were called back. I have no idea why we got to go back so quickly, but I was not complaining! They took x-rays of her ankle and thankfully it’s not broken, just sprained. It had actually swelled up a lot since the night before. They put her in a little splint and sent us on our way.

The kids fell asleep on the way home, so hubby and I decided that we would measure the laundry room and go get our shelves now while the kid were sleeping. See, The Container Store has these awesome shelf systems that we used for our pantry and garage, and I needed a shelf above my washer and dryer, and they were 30% off through today, so we had to go and pick them out yesterday and then I’ll pick the order up today. So we didn’t get back on our way home until 3:30. I had a lemon cake to make, cookies and spinach and artichoke dip to make in, oh, 45 minutes. That didn’t happen. I made the stuff and we ended up getting over there at 6:45 instead of 5:30. But we had a good time at our friends’ house and my daughter actually started walking on her ankle and playing on it, which was good because I had no idea what she was going to do there if she couldn’t get around.

We got home around 10:45 last night and my kitchen is still trashed because I was too tired to clean it up. Thanks for reading through my pages of rambling…I’m sorry if it didn’t make any sense :)

I really hope this week is better than this past weekend.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Update On Fraud....

Apparently our controller caught the fraud in time and they were able to stop the check from being cashed (since there's a certain number days they have to wait to make sure it clears). Phew! Even though she wouldn't have been liable, at least there's no worry about trying to get that money back!

I still would have dealt with this privately, but she deals with everything loudly with the door open, so why would this be different?

A Night of Playdough!

Last night hubby had to work late installing a server for one of his clients (he didn't get home until 11:30) so it was just the kids and me! I threw a pizza in the oven (I hate taking the time to cook when hubby isn't able to be playing with them at the same time) and we played dress up and trains until it was cooked. After we ate pizza I cleaned the table and brought out the playdough! We actually have a lot (I had no idea we had this much) because my brother-in-law bought each of the kids a ton of different colors along with the other gifts he got them. So we were making all kinds of things...I used this as a great opportunity to teach my son shapes and colors. I would ask him "do you want me to make you a star?" and he'd say "ais" (his version of "yes" since he can't make the "y" sound yet), so I would make it and hand it to him and he's say "dar". He's having a really hard time with his colors...what age do they learn these? I swear my daughter knew hers by now, but then again, she was a little smarter than my son at earlier ages. I thought at first he might be color blind, but he now can easily differentiate between Elmo and Cookie Monster (even without Cookie Monster holding any cookies). He used to have a hard time with this, so I was sure he was color blind...I mean, they do look identical except for the colors...but now he has no problem. What do you guys think? Is he normal? What ages did your kids learn their colors?

Here are the pictures...there are no pictures of my daughter because she conned me into not wearing any clothes (she loves to be naked and she had her Snow White costume on before dinner, so I had her take it off so she wouldn't get any pizza sauce on it, and then since we started playing playdough right away she had no clothes on). And then I put some playdough on my nose and my son had to copy me!












After playdough we took baths and played with my daughter's Ariel vanity thingy while my son looked at his train magazine (he would jump in a comb my daughter's hair every once in a while). Then I put him to bed and my daughter and I did our nails. We watched some of Santa Clause 2 (which I've never seen but my daughter loves to watch with hubby) and then she climbed into bed with me (secretly I love it when hubby has to work late because it's a great excuse to get to sleep with my daughter!). She said the funniest thing when I turned the TV on..."oh here we go again...you know if the TV's on and you watch it, I have to watch it". I just started laughing! I told her that I turn it on so that hubby can see when he comes into the room without turning the lights on. She wasn't doing a good job falling asleep with it on, so I did end up turning it off.
This weekend is one of my college roommates' bridal shower/bachelorette parties. We are having lunch at 2:00 tomorrow and then going back to her house for "cocktails and presents and games". Then they have a limo heading out at 9:00 to go out on the town. I will be skipping this part. Why? Because I'm old. Seriously, only one of us from college has kids, and I'm not sure if she's going either, but for the rest of them, this is a normal Saturday night activity...so they won't feel like crap the next day like I would, and even if they did, they would not have to run around after two little kids that don't know what a hangover is! Besides, since my parents will be here to babysit (hubby will be working) hubby and I will probably go to dinner and a movie tomorrow night. I'm really not a party pooper, am I? It's just amazing how these friends of mine and I are all the same age, but at such different chapters of life. Here I've been married 6 1/2 years and my friend is getting married. Sometimes I'm really jealous that they have gotten to enjoy their 20's with no kids, but only briefly. Hubby and I wanted kids so badly that even waiting until we were 23 was hard! Besides, we are really looking forward to being "young" when our kids leave home...so that when we actually have some money and can do things we will have the energy to do them! And hopefully at least one of my kids will have kids young so that I can be a young grandma and have a lot of energy to exert on my wonderful grandkids.

To prove that I am not too old I am about to call and reserve us a room at the hotel for the night of the wedding so that hubby and I can party all night! My parents are already planning on watching the kids that night :)
What about you guys? Can you still party like you used to?

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Update....

So I guess the account that the check was written out of was a home equity line of credit. This makes me feel better because it's a lot easier to have $250,000 of equity in your home (especially in her position) than it is to have it just sitting around in a checking account!

I guess there's been some funny things going on with her account lately and she actually has the phone number of someone that had called and tried to change the phone number on her account a couple of weeks ago. She called them! She told them that she knows what they did and they're going down. I guess they hung up on her.

Although this is a very bad situation, just listening to her cracks me up!

Do You Have $250,000 To Lose?

Again, not much to really post about, so here are some random things that I have encountered before 8:00 this morning:

-The biggest deal? I come into work this morning and our controller is screaming on the phone about a personal matter...that's really nothing new, she does this a lot. The bad thing about this particular time? I guess someone cashed a fradulent $250,000 check on her account (yes, I really meant $250,000). Yeah, I guess I would be screaming my head off about that too. I'll post updates as she screams them from her office :)

-What I would give to be able to have a $250,000 check even be able to be cashed on my account. If someone tried to do that to me the bank would be rolling on the floor laughing telling the crooks to pick someone that actually has money to rip off :)

-Actually, for the last statement, I wouldn't give anything for that to be able to happen...I love my life the way it is and wouldn't change it for anything! BUT if someone wanted to give me that kind of money I would GLADLY accept it! :)

-I'm fighting off some kind of cold...and at this time of the year I CANNOT take a sick day! Or feel miserable for that matter...I have too much to do! Wait, I probably should not be blogging if I have so much to do. Darn.

-My kids are adorable :) Last night I had a blast playing with both of them - which is now quite a challange because my son wants to play trains or football and my daughter wants to dress up or read a book. So as I'm playing princess with her, I quickly run over and tackly my son. It's a lot of work trying to play with boys and girls!

-I've heard the $250,000 story now 5 times...admin, my boss, and 3 other people she's calling on the phone.

-If anyone of you feel like listening into a very exciting, on the edge of your seats financial conference call, go here: http://www.mihomes.com/investor.asp# for the 4th quarter conference call at 4:00 pm EST today. This is all of the information that I am working on to file with the SEC.

-We file 1 month from today...that means another month of stressful working :(