Smiling Mom

This has been quite a year month for us.  Boy, what a year month!  Aside from a party, anniversary, and general summer hoopla, we had to up and buy a bran spankin’ new refrigerator. Ouch.

Um…Hello, unexpected cost!!  Didn’t see you coming!

The day our fridge died was the hottest of the year thus far.

107 degrees in the shade.

And 65 degrees in our freezer.

Not a good thing.

Our past year has been much like our past month, Unexpected:  To date we’ve:

Replaced:

oven/stove, parts of our heater, our water heater, part of our fence, found a crack in the pipe under our house that must get repaired (not done yet), a big computer issue (read, would no longer turn on)

Paid and need to pay for:

a new master’s program, a new year of preschool, an upcoming vacation, and a myriad of other small unexpected expenses

Worked through:

a torn shoulder, a repaired shoulder, an almost vasectomy, an actual vasectomy, and most recently my grandma’s immanent death of ovarian cancer.

Wow.  Just typing makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and suck my thumb.

I’m tired.  And when I get tired, I retreat.  When I retreat, I become a bad mom.  When I’m a bad mom, I get angry.  When I’m angry, I become a bad wife.  And when I’m a bad wife, I become tired all. over. again.

On Thursday our family leaves for our first camping trip of the summer.  And it couldn’t come at a better time.  I hope to use my time to refocus on the important pieces of my life, (read: family and friends) and not sweat the huge glaring, pending CRAZINESS going on back an home small stuff.  I hope to remind myself this to shall pass and some day we’ll look back on these years fondly as we remember how we relied on love burritos and cheap wine and not much more to raise our kids to the best of our ability.

Someday when my Master’s program is done, I’m back to work full time, and am armed with more knowledge and maturity, I’ll probably see that I didn’t have to have heart palpitations, weeks of anxiety, and sleepless nights worry as much as I did.

But for now, I’m in need of a few good vacations.  And a whole lotta margarita!

First up: Our second annual camping trip with our good friends.

Second up:  BlogHer BABY!!  Hey Roomies!!  So excited!

Third up: My dad’s conference. Where I not only hope to enjoy the pool, but also learn more about being a good leader.

Fourth up: An adult Caribbean vacation WITHOUT KIDS. people.  without kids.  (Thank you air miles and nice stimulus check!)

Fifth up:  More camping with Hubby’s family.

Ya.  So like I said, I’m in need of a vacation, or five.

This is an email I received by my friend. She’s about as pregnant as you can be without actually giving birth. And she’s freaking hilarious! She really needs to start a blog, hint-hint.

So here’s reason # 100 why Cash’s Mom should really start a blog…

So V (her sister) and I (Cash’s Mom) went to the mall today- and I stopped by the Benefit eyebrow bar, because seriously the caterpillar had to go!!

 

They were having some sort of MEGA event and one of the super fierce little Benefit hotties conned V into getting her eye makeup done.

 

So I’m sitting there waiting (with super hot bad ass eyebrows) and this really fun spunky Benefit gal convinces me to hop in a chair and shows me some “hot mom” makeup tips.

 

The entire time I’m getting my makeup done, people are flocking around. This lady asks them to get this they run and get it they are all commenting on, “how fab this looks on me,” and yadda yadda…

 

Now at first I thought I was getting the hard sell, but after quite a while of people stopping and watching (gawking even) I realized it’s because I’m a super fierce hot mom. Heidi Klum watch your ass, because when I drop this truck load of baby off… I’m hitting the runway. HOLLA!!

 

Anyway as I’m checking out (I bought some bad ass eye shadow) V says, “You know that was like Miss Benefit herself right??” This lady is the REASON for the big Benefit event!!

 

WHA WHA WHAT???

 

All the girls in the store were gushing and couldn’t believe that Arianne Damboise, known as Benefit Cosmetics’ “Makeup Maven” just did my make up….

 

PRO: I look AMAZING and this is the first time I’ve felt hot in WAY too long..

 

CON: All those people gazing on at how absolutely stunning I am… yeah they were there watching her.

And that folks, is why I love her. Please Cash’s Mom, start a blog! Please!

Play Date #1

So today was packed full of play dates for us.  In the morning Lia from Freitas Family and her daughter LG came over.  It’s been so long since we have had a time to catch up.  Frankly I’m always nervous to get together with people one on one….  This was no exception.

A few years back Lia and I were teaching partners for almost three years and shared over many hours together before school.  We rarely talked about school related items during this time.  She often caught me up on the celebrity gossip and I caught her up on real life gossip.  We’ve always got along great.  But that’s in the work place, not in real life.

The truth is that I’m not a great friend in real life.  I don’t keep in touch.  I get quiet and shy and often don’t know how to carry the conversation to the next level.  I often feel inadequate.  The list goes on and on.

But today we had a blast.  We chatted it up as if we never stopped working together.  All was great!  But, damn, who invited the kids?  They kept interrupting our conversation!  Just kidding!

Play Date #2

Hubby and I went out to see Ocean’s 13 tonight.  Mmmm.  I love me those men in the Oceans movies. This one did not disappoint.  It was great!

When we got home we had a play date of our own.  It was way better than Oceans 13!

Lia wrote and account of this morning’s fun.  And frankly I think she’s just buttering me up, as she said some pretty nice things about me.  Go on over and tell her that she’s wrong.  I’m not as great as she said I was!

Today I was given a gift. The gift of time. My good friend AM and I have been switching childcare for about a year now. I watch her daughter about 4 hours a week and she watches my kids when Hubby gets called into work on one of his days off. Our kids play so nicely together so it’s worked out quite well!

Since Hubby’s promotion, his hours have become more stable, which is very nice for me! But that means that I don’t ask AM to watch our kids as often. So… this week I decided to ask her if she wouldn’t mind me bringing my little terrors adorable children over to her house once a week for a couple hours so I can sit in my empty house and work on our finances, in total and complete silence!

Nice huh? She agreed. So, today I was fortunate enough to have a 2 ½ hour chunk, all to myself, in the morning, to sit down and focus on our finances.

I was able to pay bills, reconcile our savings and checking accounts, and get us back up and running on this whole managing our money thing.

The gift of time.

It feels good. As much as the thought of working on and doing our finances paralyzes me, being organized and up to date seems to free me!

Funny, huh?

I feel fortunate enough to have a set of spectacular friends who have shown me support in the last days.

Thank you AM for your willingness to take my kids, and J-Doc for your kind, kind email. I am so lucky!

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