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.

Today I got a massage.  Oh man did it hurt!  But, you know, in a good way.

For Mother’s Day all I wanted was a chance to redeem both hour long massage gift certificates that’ve been sitting on my desk for well over a year.

And, if it wasn’t too expensive, I wanted to tack on an extra 1/2 hour.

Today was day one of two massages this summer.  And boy did I need it.

Throughout the years I’ve had many different massage gifts given to me.  So I’ve experienced experienced a wide variety of massage styles.  My least favorite is the catch all Swedish Massage.  I’m of the opinion that when I pay you a large sum of money for a service, I want to actually feel the massage.  And often a Swedish massage ends up being nothing more than a soft rub of the body.

So I always encourage the masseuse to massage as hard as she wishes.

And this lady stepped up to my challenge.

Apparently I have a ton of knots in my back, specifically  on my right shoulder.  Can you guess why?  That’s right, I carry the ever growing baby eighteen month old around on my right hip.

So today was a fantastic hour and a half break from the kids and house.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it was relaxing, but it sure was nice being able to have time dedicated just to me.  Without anyone talking.  No screaming, crying or phone ringing.  Silence.

And it was nice.

Tomorrow we leave for camping.  We’ll be back late Monday afternoon.  In the meantime my father will post a letter to BC that I wrote on Saturday.  And on Monday I’m participating in July’s Blog Exchange.   He’ll post that for me as well.

Last night my sisters-in-laws and I went out for some much needed time away from the kids! We went to a beading shop to exercise the creative side of our brain. Ok, I’m not too creative, but am happy with the necklace I made. It was actually really fun. I think the three of us could have easily spent 4 or 5 hours creating our necklaces.

I have enough beads left over to make earrings to go with this fine piece of art. Hopefully that’ll happen sooner rather than later!

After beading we went to Sushi. Nothing makes you feel older than going to a popular college sushi bar and watching a bunch of 21 year olds stand on chairs and shout, “Sakai—BOMB” and chug down a beer with a shot of Sakai at the bottom of it. By the end, I felt like I needed to whip out my collapsible cane and hobble on out of the restaurant. Old is 30. I just didn’t know it until last night. I think tonight I’ll go to the early bird special at Black Angus so I can feel young again.

From there we thought we’d really party it up and head over to a movie. We bought tickets for Georgia Rule, but after 4 minutes of Lindsey Lohan, we movie hopped to The Ex. It was cute, but not worth actually paying for in the movie. Unless you are trying to escape the mayhem of your children. Hell, then I’d recommend you seeing Georgia Rule!

I’m tired today, but really enjoyed getting out last night.

Now, for what you’ve been waiting for. Another installment of Kids Say the Darndest Things! Actually, this is the picture version, The World According to My Two Year Old. I’ll give you a sneak peek. It’s riveting!

Don’t bug Mommy, she’s blogging!

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Backing up two weeks…

eClaire was sick with the flu for a week straight. It was horrible. She had the runs and didn’t eat or drink virtually anything for a week. The last two major days of her flu, she threw up and was miserable. She just wanted to be held.

During this time, it was my job to organize and prepare for Steve’s promotion party. I bought a sexy new dress from Macy’s, bought a tie and button down shirt along with shiny black shoes for Bro. Cleaned the house, made 4 cheesecakes, star sugar cookies, which were delicious with a silverish frosting, to make them look like badges. Also, I made a double batch of cookies. I was on the edge of melt-down. But excited for the upcoming party. On Wednesday evening, eClaire had her first meal since the previous Sunday. On Thursday, Hubby got sick. And when I say sick, I mean “ring a bell and come help me” sick! It was not good. We ended up in Urgent Care on Thursday, canceled the promotion and the party scheduled for Friday and went back to the ER on Sunday. Finally on Tuesday, Hubby began feeling better. It’s been one hell of a ride.

Don’t worry, all cheesecakes were eaten. One by me, thank you very much! And all are feeling better. Aside from a snotty nose and cough, our kids and adults are healthy. Thank goodness.

For Valentine’s Day/Birthday, Hubby surprised me with a day away. Not only did he find me a friend to go eat lunch with at Lisa’s Tea Treasures, but he also scheduled a manicure and pedicure at a really nice spa called Burke William Spa. It was fantastic. But best of all, he organized all this and a babysitter to come watch the kids without me knowing. He then sent me off with cash to spend so this fun excursion wouldn’t show up on our credit card later. Now that, my friends, is sexy!!

There is nothing like a few hours of rejuvenation!

Now I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite current pictures of my babies. Enjoy!

Bro dressed up like a hero

eClaire, ready to fight!

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