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I got “ma’am-ed” y’all!

Published on February 21, 2011 in Uncategorized. View Comments

I got “ma’am-ed” y’all…

Not that it’s unusual. Growing up in the south I was raised using “yes ma’am”, “no ma’am”, “yes sir” and “no sir”. I still do it with my elders, with my peers, with my own children (I dream of bringing up polite, southern gentlemen). But it really hit me upside the head the other day – if you know what I mean.

Let me paint a quick picture for you. I had just picked up my toddler from preschool and was running through the Chic-Fil-A drive through as I hadn’t taken time to eat while big boy was at lunch bunch. Side note: the spicy chicken sandwich minus pickles is my new favorite from there! Deeee-lish! I have the new mom short hair ‘do, I was wearing my jumbo sunglasses to cover the circles under my eyes, I was in the quintessential (and stereotypical) mom mobile – the minivan, and I had two tots in car seats in the backseat with the sounds of the Toy Story movie filling the car.

The young lady at the window was just adorable. 15 or 16 years old, long wavy hair pulled into a ponytail, braces on newly straightened teeth, and a glorious handful of freckles. She carefully passed me my sandwich and lemonade, gave me my card and receipt and happily ended our transaction with “Have a good day, ma’am!” WhooooooooooooooSH! Right there. I saw it all clearly as the giant wave of “ohmygod I’m old” just knocked me over…All this happened inside my head of course, and in a matter of just a few brief seconds. But man. It was SO REAL right then. Almost made me miss a heartbeat, but I checked the boys in my rearview and all I could do was smile. I love my boys. I love my haircut. I will admit that I love my minivan. And my eye bags are badges of honor. I am doing something very hard and very worthwhile – someone has to raise two precious redheads!

So, to everyone out there with little ones who counts a good night of sleep as at least 4 straight hours, who sometimes may not know left from right, who may occasionally give their toddler waffles for dinner because it’s one of three things he’s guaranteed to eat and you’re just too darn tired to argue with him…Have a good day ma’am or sir!

Winter Favorites

Published on January 17, 2011 in Uncategorized. View Comments

~Winter Favorites~

Snow Days with my little ones ~ staying in pajamas all day, drinking hot chocolate and having picnics by the fireplace…

Warm scarves, earmuffs & cute hats in bright, fun colors!

Cozy nights with the hubby, catching up on”us time”.

“How I Met Your Mother” – love it!!!!

On that same note – I LOVE Netflix.

Yummy body lotions ~ love feeling all hydrated and fabulous when it’s dry & crisp outside.

PEDICURES! Yes – every month, all year ‘roud. I went with a dark pewter polish last week.

Getting photos from Christmas printed, labeled and mailed to extended family to keep them up to date on the little ones.

Baking. An indoor activity with the 2-year old that yields delicious results.

Things I don’t get: Thing 2

Published on January 16, 2011 in Uncategorized. View Comments

Things I don’t get: Thing 2

People who toss their Christmas trees out on the curb the night of or day after Christmas. Really, people? Really??? This tree grew for years and years to give you a few weeks of delicious smelling in-home sparkliciousness. The least and I repeat LEAST you can do is wait until New Year’s…or a respectable amount of time after Christmas day – 3 days minimum.

We usually like to wait till the week after New Year’s Eve. Technically, January 6th is King’s Day ~ the 12th and final day of Christmas. And we love the decor and the fuzzy, newly made Christmas memories so we try to postpone the cleanup as long as possible. But seeing trees on the street on December 26th is just sad. Let your tree fulfill its’ destiny and give it due appreciation for it’s purpose. 5-10 years of growth for 3-5 weeks of your happiness. Respect the tree, enjoy the glitter. Don’t be a grouch and get rid of/pack away everything holiday related AS SOON AS the clock strikes midnight on the 25th. Humbug to those who do, though I’m sure there are reasons, my personal opinion (and that’s all this is) is humbug to you.

I’m already counting the months till we get our tree for the 2011 Christmas season, and our two-year-old is noting each and every time we leave the house, “No more Christmas lights, no more Christmas trees – maybe later!” (meaning later this year). Yes, sir, little man! Definitely later!

The Great Christmas Cleanup of 2010

Published on December 30, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

The Great Christmas Cleanup of 2010

Good morning all! It is gray, which would normally make me feel kind of blah and lethargic, but since it’s not raining (and the snow has melted enough for me to get the minivan out & about) I believe I will tackle a few errands today with the little men…then begin the cleanup ~insert ominous music here~

I LOVE decorating, and truthfully I don’t mind putting everything away again, but with two little ones everything takes me seven times longer than normal so I have chosen today to begin the hunt. Looking for all the neat, sweet little Christmas doodads and thingamajiggies that I tucked in all nooks & crannies of almost every room in the house. It is inevitable that a few will be discovered sometime mid-January or later, but I do need to start gathering the bulk of the items in one spot to make for easy repacking. Since out tree is so large (over 16′ this year) I undecorate only what I can reach and wait for the hubby to be home to help with the 10′ ladder and retrieval of the highest ornaments. I even bought new tissue paper this year for packing our tree pretties! The stuff we had was completely a shambles! Wrinkled, worn and hole-y, the tissue had had a good multi-year run, and it was time for a fresh supply. I hope also, in my attempt at organizational paradise, to keep the tree ornaments separate from the other decor. Somehow things always get mixed in together….stockings with ornaments, ornaments with stuffed snowmen and glitter trees, etc.

So, beginning at naptime, I will fix some hot chocolate and begin the room to room hide-n-seek with the Christmas and holiday decor. Husband & I usually leave things out till the week after New Year’s Eve, but with my slowed-down process, I need to start now in order to get it together by then! Secretly…I’m already thinking about the countdown to the 2011 Decoration Extravaganza when I can get it all out again!

~ December Favorites ~

Published on December 27, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

~ December Favorites ~

The abundance of GLITTER!!! Lights, trees, twinkly stars, ribbons and bells.

Festive social events filling up our weekend calendars – 2 or more things every weekend so far and I’ve had to say no to a few things this year. What a lucky girl I am.

Christmas music on the radio. LOVE IT. Gonna listen to it till New Year’s. XM radio helps keep the songs & and the genres varied.

The Festival of Lights at Tanglewood. We took Evan for the first time, not knowing if he’d care or enjoy it and he had a ball! He sat in the front with daddy and hung out the window saying things like “wow”, “big tree, daddy”, “look at that!” We roasted marshmallows, picked out a special snowman ornament in the barn gift shop, and had a lovely evening.

The tree smell in the house from the GIANT tree in our living room.

Watching all the kiddos go nuts over the toys AND the tissue paper/boxes

Christmas Shenanigans…

Published on December 27, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

Christmas Shenanigans and New Year projects…

Wowza! 2010 Christmas Shenanigans are well underway…heck, nearly over ~ it went so fast I feel like we hit a time warp! I did feel more stressed this year than usual, we did host more parties than usual, I have another kiddo to look after…and that didn’t help with the speed with which the holidays slipped past me!

For the first time in 70-something years we had a white Christmas in Winston. As in, it actually started snowing right before noon on Christmas day and it snowed throughout the rest of the day and into the night, giving us quite an impressive pile up of glistening puffy snow. Family members were careful going home, little ones pressed their noses to the windows at various points in the day to ooh and ahh…it was lovely!

Matt cooked another beautiful turkey & we had a few sides, my brother made his famous carrot cake and icing (both from scratch!!) and we had a take-it-easy kind of day. No formal table settings, no scheduled timing for anything…the little ones ate, napped, and played and we enjoyed the company of those we love. A favorite of all three toddlers was a giant Thomas train that wheels all over the place or follows a special red flashlight thing as you aim it on the floor. Evan & Zeb’s playroom is twice as full today as it was just Friday, and Evan has gone a bit bonkers with all the new additions!

Sadly, the Christmas cleanup is an inevitable downer after the holidays and looms in my future…undoing the GIANT tree, organizing my ornament & decor boxes this year, and packing away the wreaths. Boo. At least I can drink hot chocolate while doing it! And Evan loves helping take things to the trash can, so he can be my little helper.

There are a few projects I’ll soon be tackling now that the holidays are winding down and they are – in no particular order:

1) Starting potty training with Evan

2) Transitioning Evan’s crib to toddler bed

3) Plugging in the wii again and using my new dance games

4) getting organized for our upcoming trip to Europe

5) BASEMENT project needs to be wrapped up, inspected, and then cleaned/put away/tidied up

What are some of your projects coming up in the new year?

So behind…

Published on December 2, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

So behind…

It’s December, Christmas is on the way and I’m in holiday high gear, but I’m already feeling behind ~ are you?

I am sure having an infant and a two year old has something to do with it! But I have decided to try not to stress to much about it this year. I can choose to be crazy, obsessed, frenzied and a total wreck. OR I can choose to accept that everything is not as precise as my Virgo perfectionist would like…gifts may be in bags with tissue instead of boxes with the elaborate bows I so love making, all my home decor may not be out, the roof leaks may not be totally invisible from inside the house, and we are not ~ as of yet ~ equal to the Griswold Family when it comes to outdoor lighting. But this is where I am letting go of the total control I sometimes crave and saying, “c’est la vie”. I have other things, and more importantly other people, especially my two little boys who need and deserve my nurturing and attention.

We all just really want to be together with the people we love who love us back, right? And that’s what I intend to do. We’ll go to a few shindigs ~ I do love getting gussied up, host a few of our own (somehow we’re having three bashes here, not including Christmas day lunch!) and it will be wonderful and perfect and no one will care if I rearranged the china cabinet.

FYI ~ Our tree stands officially 16′ 2.5″ high without angel or tree topper!

Favorite November Things ~

Published on November 9, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

Some of my favorite November Things ~

French Toast Coffee – yes, it does exist and it is deeeee-licious!

Waiting for the Christmas channels to start on XM radio (they’re coming on the 12th this year – can’t wait!)

Gingerbread lattes @ Starbucks…enough said!

FINALLY getting cooler temperatures around here and getting out all my fabulous sweaters and snuggly scarves!

Mailing out our Christmas party invitations! A big CHECK off my to-do list!

More sunshine in the morning. The way early sunset stinks, but the bright sun in the early hours helps me get up!

Seeing my breath in the air at night…

HARRY POTTER coming to theaters on the 18th! Excited about a date night with the hubbs!! Yes, I’m a nerd, I know. But H.P. is awesome.

My cherry red Christmas pedicure!

Starting the decorating process around the house

Eating chili on chilly evenings =)

The countdown till Christmas!!! 47 Days if I’m correct in my quick count!

B..bbb…Botox???

Published on November 6, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

B..bbb…Botox???

I recently went to my dermatologist to find a fix for some mild bumpies on my jawline that haven’t really gone away since they popped up during pregnancy. My little man is nearly three months old now, I figured it was time to banish the blemishes and I hoped to get the “good stuff” prescriptions that I was not able to take while preggy. Alas, I cannot have them while nursing either, so I will wait, and continue using the approved cream to prevent more extensive imperfections from appearing while my hormones go nutso and try to find balance after giving birth.

I decided to go ahead and ask about a few lines on my forehead that have bothered me a bit recently. They’re definitely full on lines when I wrinkly my forehead or raise my eyebrows, but there are faint traces of said lines when I am making no expression at all. The good news, the doc told me, is that they are not caused by aging or by sun damage *YAY*…the bad news is that they are caused by muscle movement and repetition and the only remedy now or later is….BOTOX. I stared at her. She looked right back at my stricken face. I was mildly panicked. I don’t really have an issue with Botox if that’s what makes a woman happy and makes her feel better about herself, but I had never in my mind applied that thought to myself. I mean, I JUST turned 30 in August!!! Me…Botoxed?!?!?! I scrambled to find my mental function again and told her I was hoping she could laser them off or acid peel my face or something. No, she explained calmly – those are options for aging and sun damage, which I am thankful I don’t have to deal with now.

I said okie dokie and left with my cream prescription, still puzzling the surprise B-word that came up at my appointment. I guess I always thought Botox was for older women with major grooves etched on their faces. I can’t define my idea of older, but I am not my definition of “older“…in my head I probably never will be, right? So for now I have my fine fine lines, that no one but be would probably give a second glance or even notice at all. I’ll keep thinking, and exploring the option for when I’m a little more mature…another 10-15 years from now. But for now, my lines are my lines and they don’t bother be enough to Botox myself at the age of 30. I’d rather have the ability to control my facial expressions and deal with the little tiny lines, than get Botox and maybe end up looking like her:

For now I will say cheers to aging, y’all!

Things I don’t get: Thing 1

Published on November 1, 2010 in Uncategorized. View Comments

THINGS I DON’T GET: THING 1

Wow – it’s been FOREVER! I’m a slacker, but now with two little men there is limited or no “me time”. My me time consists now of laundry, dishes, and maybe a shower if I’m lucky!! Before baby #2, I could still do those necessary house things and still have me time that didn’t involve housework.

I am starting a new series within my blog titled, “Things I Don’t Get”. Out and about in the everyday world, we see, hear, or experience things we simply don’t get and should probably look up on google or something. But I prefer to ponder, exclaim over and be amazed by odd, unusual, weird, crazy, or just plain stupid things/people.

So, Thing 1 on my list is people who jog/walk in the street when there is a sidewalk available 3 feet from them. Our neighborhood has a mixture of streets with and without sidewalks, some with sidewalks lining either side of the road. I continually wonder why on earth some exercisers must stay out in the road when there’s a daggum sidewalk RIGHT NEXT TO THEM. Joggers, walkers, men, women, people with dogs, people with strollers, multiple persons walking side by side who expect traffic to move way out of the way to navigate their cars around them….really??? It’s called a sideWALK for a reason and it was put there for y’all! If there isn’t one available, fine, I get that you should be in the road (do note that certain heavily trafficked, non-residential-y type roads should be reconsidered when judging appropriate exercise routes).

I came across a gentleman runner one evening, it was well after 10pm, it was obviously dark, it was raining, and he was jogging not only in the street, but on the wrong side of the street. I’m not 100% sure, but I believe pedestrian rules/etiquette says that you walk facing traffic so you will always see the traffic on your side as it approaches. This guy, out running in the rain in the dark, was in the road with his back to me. STUPID. Stupid, I say.

With all pedestrian traffic who choose not to use the provided sidewalks all I really want to do is lay on the horn the entire time I’m slowing up to go around them and rig a scrolling LED sign attached to the top of my car like the pizza delivery guys that says “GET OUT OF THE STREET!!! THERE’S A SIDEWALK JUST TO YOUR LEFT!!! TAX DOLLARS ARE WASTED MAINTAINING SOMETHING YOU AREN’T USING!!! WHY MUST YOU INSIST ON WALKING IN THE ROAD ANYWAY??” Maybe I’ll make the sign. My husband probably knows how. Then I can use it to notify other motorists that they forgot to use their turn signal, or that there is a lane divider and they need to stay on their side…or that the phone attached to their ear is hindering their driving performance (see previous post on driving while chatting).

So, that’s Thing 1.