The Art of Dressing Up

Is it a lost art in modern America? Certainly not in my mind but I have been stunned on several occasions on what others chose to wear to what I would consider semi-formal events.

Last weekend hubby and I attended a bull and oyster roast put on by the PTA from our children's elementary school. The event was held at the local Elk's lodge (not necessarily formal but can be dressed up) and we paid $35 per person for dinner and unlimited drinks.

This is what we wore and we were by far the most dressed up people at the event:

Here is what the other people wore (not actual pictures of people from the event):

The dressed up jeans and t-shirt. I don't have a problem with this look if you are picking your kid up from school or taking them to soccer but to a $35 per person event? (Photo credit Google images)

There was one other guy wearing a sport coat and tie besides hubby. The third best dressed guy had a dress shirt on and cargo pants and army boots. I am not trying to rag on anyone, cargo pants and army boots are ok but for a $35 per person event? And he was the third best dressed guy in there. (Photo credit Signal One)


The woman were especially lacking. I don't think anyone else was even wearing a casual dress. I saw 2 women with outfits like this, dress slacks, nice top, accessories, well pulled together. This I can live with for the type of event we were at. (Photo credit Express)

Is fashion like politics were everything is local? I didn't grow up here so maybe no one dresses up but I have run into this all over the country as well. When I lived in Colorado I was appalled how few people wore dresses to annual work Christmas parties, although everyone did look very nice and no one wore jeans. Last year hubby and I spent a long weekend in New York City and while there saw a Broadway show. Hubby wore almost the same outfit, I substituted a knee length black halter dress with gold shoes and accessories. We were some of the most dressed up people at the show! On Broadway for goodness sakes. If no one dresses up for a Broadway play these days, when do they dress up?

It isn't about cost either. Both the dresses I described cost $20 each, 1 from Dress Barn and 1 from Target. With both outfits I spent more money on my shoes, $40 each pair from Off Broadway. After investing say $80 total with dress, shoes, and accessories, I have worn each outfit at least 5 times and will continue to wear the outfits for years to come.

So what is it? Am I old fashioned? Has dressing up gone "out of style"? I feel like in my everyday life as a mom and nanny I don't spend much time on myself. I relish the few opportunities a year that I get to get dolled up and truly look pretty. Do other people not feel this way?

Don't even get me started about people wearing jeans to weddings and funerals. That also makes me crazy but is a whole other blog post.

The Woes of a Traveling Husband

As I write this my hubby is up in the air, scheduled to be landing in Baltimore soon. He left Sunday for a business trip to San Diego. He has been at his current job for 15 months now and has to travel several times for a night or two but this was his first week long trip and boy did I miss him!



Before when other people would complain about their husbands having to travel I would think, "yeah, yeah, it's no fun, but can it really be that bad?" Now I know first hand what they have to deal with. With his job I know this is just something I have to deal with but it doesn't mean I have to like it.



The day-to-day things aren't all that bad. I am used to taking the kids to activities, workbooks, chores, play time, errands, but on normal days hubby is home in time for dinner. We hang out in the evening and talk and spend time together. I miss that time!



Then comes bedtime. He was on the west coast and I am on the east coast which did not make for easy communication. He was at the office until past 8pm most nights and often didn't get back to his hotel until closer to 10pm. 10pm pacific time is 1am eastern so I did my talking to him in the middle of the night when I should've been sleeping. He also had no cell service in the building he was working in so I couldn't even text him during the day. I didn't get to sleep until 2am most days this week and ended up sleeping in until after 9am most days. This left me groggy and feeling like I wasted entire mornings. I don't like that feeling!



I sleep horribly when he isn't here. I can't fall asleep and then I wake several times during the night. Every little noise makes me think a robber is going to break in and get me and the kids. Once I hear something I psych myself out and continue getting more and more worried. I really wonder how I functioned as a single mom but I did it for many years and still managed to sleep, at least on occasion.



Hubby's current project lasts through at least the end of the year and will most likely include up to 50% travel. I suppose I should get used to it. The dates of his travel are always changing and often aren't finalized until 2-3 days in advance. This makes a planner like me crazy but I am trying to let it go, as it is out of my hands.

So all you bloggers out there with traveling husbands what do you do to make it easier on yourself. How do you sleep? How do you make yourself feel safe without your hubby there to protect you?

Dear Old Man Winter

Dear Old Man Winter,

I have a bone to pick with you. While I have thoroughly enjoyed being holed up in the house with my family and having a pajama day, you have really thrown a wrench in my friend and her children's travel plans.

You see, we were going to the Air and Space Museum annex tomorrow, and Monday we have reservations to tour the United States Capitol building. The problem is she is still in North Carolina because it has been snowing all day. Hard to drive 400 miles in the middle of a blizzard. By 2pm we had 13 inches and it hasn't stopped since. You know I still haven't forgiven you for Christmas 2006 when you trapped me in an RTD bus for nearly 7 hours and then holed me up in a hotel with a complete stranger for two days. You really are pushing your luck with this latest stunt!

I suppose it could be worse. Everyone is safe and I even made it Target before the snow started last night for the requisite Baltimore snow storm essentials: milk, bread, and toilet paper. Really who has to stock up on toilet paper before a storm? In Colorado when a winter storm warning is issued no one bats an eye. Half the time the forecasted snow never amounts to anything.

But you better watch out Old Man Winter, you are on my list. I will give you another chance but you better not continue on like this all season. If so, living somewhere warm and sunny like San Diego is going to seem more and more appealing by the end of this winter.

For now we will stay home, play in the snow, drink hot chocolate, watch movies, play board games, and of course blog. Thank the Lord the power hasn't gone out! As for my friend she is hoping for better weather and clear interstate highways tomorrow. Only time will tell!

Please keep your disruptions to a minimum, Old Man Winter. Especially in places like Baltimore that aren't used to the snow. Maybe you could just send the snow where people want it, like the ski resorts? That would really help me out.

Thanks,

Michelle

Wyn after snow "swimming"

Our back deck

When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Lemonade!

A quick peek into my life this evening:





I leave work at a reasonable hour (around 5:30pm), kids in tow head home to make dinner. I start chopping onions and cooking ground beef for chili. I put the chili pot on the stove, add the tomatoes, grab the kidney beans, and wait where are the chili and pinto beans? I am positive I had them since I put chili on the menu this week. You guessed it, they aren't there.





My next thought is crap, dinner is half ready and I need to run to the store real quick. Too bad hubby in traveling for business. I better modify. Thanks Rachel Ray for teaching me that cooking is approximate not an exact science. No need to measure, substitutions welcome.

So my crisis turned into this yummy dinner:

Chili Mac

Cell phone camera picture sorry hubby took real camera on his trip.

I quickly doubled the diced tomatoes, doubled the green chilies, doubled the spices, boiled some elbow macaroni, and added some water to make up from the liquid that would have came from the other two bean cans.

I was delicious! I am so proud of myself!

And how was your evening?

Not That There is Ever a Good Time to be Sick...

FiFi is my kid who always seems to get sick. It starts like this, perfectly fine, and then bam high fever and not really any other symptoms. She obviously has a weak immune system but they have done tests and can't find anything wrong. As soon as it seems really bad, it takes a break for awhile. My husband thinks we may be on Mystery Diagnosis in 10 years from now. I usually wait out the fever for 3 or 4 days when I finally break down and take her to the doctor almost certain they are going to tell me it is a virus and there is nothing they can do. She has had strep several times in the past 2 years and 1 ear infection so my trips to the doctor are not always in vain though they mostly are.

Friday FiFi comes home from school acting fine. All of sudden, bam 103 fever. I give her Motrin. She sleeps through dinner. Wakes up acting fine. I call Motrin the child wonder drug because it can make a very sick child appear completely fine for hours at a time. I know it is only masking the symptoms and then I have to wrangle a sick child, acting well, into actually resting. I know how crappy I feel with a fever so I tend to give Motrin if the fever is over 101.

So there is never a good time to be sick. My kids were last sick on spring break. Convenient that they did not miss school. Disappointing that my spring break plans did not come to fruition. FiFi is now sick. It put a wrench in our plans for today but we still had a great day. She also missed her first birthday party in Maryland but she never talked about the kid so she will get over it. Now for the drama. The weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow. Low 70's, no chance of rain. We really wanted to go to the beach. It is 3 hours away but I have not been to the beach in 9 months and I am itching to go. Not to mention my kids haven't been in 2 1/2 years.

I tried to convince myself that she was not acting too sick and she would be feeling better later today. Surely by tomorrow she would be well. Now it is 9pm and she once again has a 102.4 fever. Rats! I guess I will not be soaking up the sun and frigid I mean beautiful water. My husband has promised breakfast in bed and that they will dig out my garden while I sit in a chair and watch. Considering the full blown ant warfare (for another post) going on in my house right now I may take my breakfast on the deck instead of in bed. I would hate to get a trail of ants right into my bed. Hubby already had a beautiful arrangement of 2 dozen multi-colored roses and a box of chocolates delivered Friday for Mother's Day so I think he is off the hook but someone doing my yard work while I watch may come in a close second to a day at the beach.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you have a great day!

A Mother's Guilt

Why is it that moms always feel guilty. You feel guilty that you bottlefed instead of breastfed, you felt guilty because you went back to work, you feel guilty because you didn't go back to work, you feel guilty for an endless number of reasons.



Maybe it is because we love our kids so much and only want what is best for them. Last night the guilt hit me and my first big wave of missing Colorado came with it.



I have been adjusting to our move well. I never thought I wanted to live in Colorado forever and was up for the adventure of moving. I always thought I would move West not East but sometimes God has other plans for our lives.



I had conferences with all the kids teachers Thursday and Friday. Both the girls got glowing reports and seem to be adjusting well and being appropriately challenged. B was a whole other story. Socially he seems to be doing well but as soon as I saw his teacher I knew she had something on her mind. B is this really smart kid with this sparkling personality but likes to push the limits with authority and is quite bossy (I wonder where he gets that from). Actually the more my husband has pointed it out, B is quite the mini-me of me personality-wise (of course I am not bossy or controlling). He has been talking during quiet work time A LOT and his teacher did not seem pleased. She seemed understanding of his adjustment period and even pointed out that it is some sort of bad habit for him because he doesn't even seem to notice he is doing it until she points it out. So I know talking is a problem for him (another trait he gets from his mother). He continuously got in trouble for talking when he went to private school in kindergarten and 1st grade. Lucky for him his teachers loved him and we worked together to get his talking under control. In 2nd grade he teacher also really liked him and was quite lax with B. As far as I could tell their were several more naughty kids in his class and his talking was the least of her concerns. Then this year in Colorado B was in the full-time G/T class with his G/T teacher from last year who loved him to death. She would just go on and on about how smart and sweet and kind B was. I know teachers are not supposed to have favorite kids but I could tell B was hers. She was legally blind and had only very limited sight in one eye. B was her helper and her technology assistant as she put it. He set up the laptop, and Smart Board and generally took care of technical problems. She had a class of advanced 3/4 graders who seemed all like talkers and generally unruly when I was in the class. She got on B occasionally for talking but I don't think that often. Now comes the hard part. B needs to stop talking and disrupting but it really is a bad habit for him at this point. I am going to work with his teacher and enforce punishment at home when he is getting in trouble at school and rewarding him at the end of every week when he is good. I will also be rewarding the girls at the end of a each good week simply to be fair but their behavior at school has rarely been a problem.



B new teacher also proceeds to tell me that B is rushing through all his work and doing a poor job. He is in the G/T reading class since he reads so high but he is still in the average math class because he scored 75% on the only math test she gave him so far. Both B and Wyn are somewhat disadvantaged in the math area of this mid-year move. They both do well in math but I am finding the school here has covered topics in math they have not and vice-versa. It is not that they can't learn what has been taught there it is just that they are in this limbo stage right now. They are currently on spring break but when they go back it is a new quarter and I believe new math lessons. I am going to check with both of their teachers after the break and try to get both of them up to speed. Wyn teacher did send home her math book for her to practice over break.



I am disappointed that B is not in G/T math as well. At the end of last year he took a nationwide test in which he scored in the 99th percentile or above in both math and reading. That means he scored better than 99% of kids nationwide who took the test. I know he can do the math but I am keeping him with his regular teacher until he can prove to her that he can do well in math too.



Another piece to this puzzle is B's LOVE of reading. I have posted before how B is crazy about reading. He goes through 3 or 4 books a week and I have to take his book from him before bed or he won't stop reading. I am so excited about his love for reading but the child needs to be well-rounded. His teacher even said, " I can't force him to slow down and check his work, only encourage him, but I think he is so interested in getting back to reading his book that he rushes through everything else because he is dying to get back to his book." I hate to break it to the kid but that is not what school is about. School is not purely about pleasure reading but school is about learning. Reading is an important part of learning but not the only part.



I want B's teacher to see B for what he is and realize his true ability but she is not some miracle worker. He has to actually work to the best of his ability. His teacher is very sweet and understanding. I guess at some point in his life B was going to come across a teacher that did not think he was so great and wanted to whip him into shape. I think it is good for him and he needs it.



It is hard for me because nothing is transferring over from their old school. Their old school had their own grading system, own standards, own curriculum. I know with time my kids will prove to their new teachers and new school how smart they are but their old teachers went to great lengths to provide an accurate sampling of assessments and their work. I just don't feel that the new teachers are investigating the information out there as much as I would like. I am going to contact B's old teacher and ask for advice. His new teacher asked if he had formally been labeled as G/T which I don't think he has but his old teacher seemed to think once they saw he was receiving G/T services plus his MAPS scores she would know right where he is. The problem I am finding is that their new school does not use the same assessments and the information sent over means nothing to them.



So how does my guilt factor into all this? I know B will settle in and do just fine. Even if he is in regular math not G/T math for a couple weeks it will not kill the child. Last night laying in bed, unable to sleep, I began to feel guilty. Why did I pull the kids out of their comfortable environments at their old school. They were all doing so well. They all had great friends, knew all the teachers and were excelling. And my poor B his teacher LOVED him and since it was G/T 3/4 she would be his teacher next year. I have never seen him advance as much academically as his did this year in Colorado. He jumped 4 grades in reading levels in the first half of the year and jumped up 3 levels in spelling in the first half of the year. I can only attribute it to being surrounded by other 3/4 grade high achievers and his wonderful teacher. Even as well as he was doing in Colorado his teacher there even thought he was not always applying him self to the best of his ability, especially in the area of writing.

Was the place we were living in Colorado the be all, end all greatest place on the earth to raise children? NO! While we all liked it and had adjusted to living there the only reason we were living on the Southeast part of the Denver metro area and not the western metro area or even northern Colorado is because we had an affordable house to rent and Max was already there when we met. If I owned a place when we met Max and the girls may have very well moved in with me. If we ever moved back to Colorado would anything draw me back to Southeast Aurora besides familiarity? Not really. I was not that excited about the middle school that their elementary fed to and was planning to move the kids school in two years at the latest before B started middle school.

Will we all get through this? YES. And be stronger because of this? YES. Am I a normal mom for second guessing myself, questioning my decision, and missing home? YES. On a positive note Max's first paycheck was TWICE the take home pay of his last job. Twice sure is nice. I am meeting with a connection I found in DC this week and someone at Max's job knows a Colorado congressman who is hiring. I really love politics and loved my internship working for a lobbying firm in Denver. This may turn out to be a great thing for our whole family. Are you ready to say hi congresswoman Michelle? OK just kidding but working on Capital Hill would be my dream job.

How many things can one person break in one day?

I am referring to myself not one of the children.

Today was relatively productive and I was feeling quite good about the day until Max got home.

Me: "Honey the handle on the bathroom door upstairs broke earlier can you look at it?

Max: "Sure" as he promptly fixes it.

Me: "The garbage disposal won't work and the kitchen sink won't drain, can you fix it?"

Max: "Nothing is stuck in it, it turns on, unless you want me to take the stupid thing apart call the property manager."

Me: (The beauty of renting. Uh, annoying, I have dishes to do).

Me: "Oh yeah hon, and the computer is broke. It won't re-start, crashed, and now it won't connect to the internet."

Max: "How did one person break so many things in one day?"

Me: "I don't know." (As I ponder how all this really did happen and how none of it really was my fault).

What Would You Do?

So what would you do?

I have a chronic medical condition and have been going to the same specialist doctor for 8 years now, who I really like. The problem is the last several times I have dealt with his nurse she has been very rude, and very short with me. I don't know if she is like this with everyone or just me but I don't think it is acceptable. I don't think my doctor would be happy if he knew some of his patients were unhappy with his nurse.

So here is my dilemma:
I faxed some paperwork to my doctor last Wednesday (approaching a week ago). I should have done it a week or two before so I take some blame for waiting to the last minute. I am moving next week and it needs to be taken care of ASAP. In my fax I asked to be called when it was completed. I have not received a call so I called today to politely follow up. The receptionist said it was not in my file so she transferred me to the nurse. I politely ask ed the nurse if she received the fax since the receptionist did not see it in my file. She immediately snapped back that she does not put faxes in the file. She said she got it but has not had a chance to look at it and does not know when she will. I am annoyed at this point by her lack of concern for my situation and explain calmly the need for this to be taken care of this week. She refuses to commit to even looking at it this week let alone taking the 5-10 minutes to complete the process even though I explain I am moving out of state next week. I pin her with the doctor's schedule and tell her I will call her Thursday morning to check the status. She is even more rude and I once again explain the urgency, indicating I know the doctor is busy and it may take him a day or two to look at it. This is not any ordinary doctor. He knows me. Several years back when I was very, very sick, I was in his office once if not twice a week over a period of several months. My mom was in his office for something unrelated yesterday and he told her to tell me hi. Come on, doctor office meany aka nurse, just show the doctor the stupid paper and move on with your unhappy life.

I am very upset at this point, of course not only by this but the stress of moving, and when I went to go pick up my paycheck from church it was not there. They have only managed to pay me on time about half the time and since I have to load and unload kids with each trip it is annoying.

I ask to be transferred back to the friendly receptionist to see if there is someone, anyone else I can talk to in this office who gives a crap about what I need or can leave a message for the doctor directly. I explain to her the situation, and how the nurse has been very rude and short with me on numerous occasions and I would like to either work with someone else or leave a message for the doctor directly. She gets all the background and says she will try to take care of it. She says she will see what she can do and if nothing else will leave a message directly for the doctor. I ask that she call me directly to update me on the status since I am sure the nurse won't be calling me.

I don't know if going above the nurse's head was appropriate. She made me so upset last time I almost told the doctor then but decided it was not worth the hassle. I guess I should have said something then since I still have to deal with her.

What would you have done? What do you do if you really like your doctor but their support staff is either rude or unhelpful? It seems like a change of doctor may be in order. Since I am moving across the country I suppose the doctor change is necessary regardless. I just need them to take care of my fax.

Sounds like meanies cannot be avoided! You find them in grocery stores, retail stores, and now doctor's offices. Why can't people just be nice or at least fake it to thier patients/customers?

Oh, How I Love the Gym!

When I left my full-time job in August we had to make some budget cuts. I still work 3 jobs of a total of 60-70 hours per week but I make a little more than 1/3 of what I did before. Before more than 1/3 of my income went to daycare and the rest was deductions so I almost break even but we still had to cut back. The gym was one of the first things to go since at that time we were going less than once a week. I wish my husband was much more motivated because it keeps me going.

We had put our gym membership on hold. The hold period was expiring but I was hoping we would know where Max's job would be. Tuesday night I decided who cares if we can afford it or if we may be moving in the next few weeks, I need the gym.

We went last night and did about 30 minutes of weight training and 20 minutes of cardio. I felt so much better than I had been feeling. It was a great stress reliever, I feel like I had more energy, and I slept better. As an added bonus my kids love the kids club and I only pay $15 per month membership for all 3 of my kids to go an unlimited number of times. I am officially in love with the gym!

My goal is to make it there 5 times a week, if only for my sanity!

What to do when kids lie?

FiFi is going through this lying phase. I don't mean the occasional fib here or there but the I got caught in the act, will look you right in the eye, and lie to your face, at least once sometimes twice a day phase. This phase also includes hiding things, being sneaky, and otherwise deceptive. So far this phase has been going on for a few months with reprieves of normal behavior in between.

Currently we are in a two week all out lying phase and mom is not sure how to get through to her. I know B went through this at a similar age as well as other challenging phase such as the terrible twos starting at 1 1/2 phase, the biting non-stop from 1 1/2-2 years old phase, etc. I know all these phases pass and all kids have them even if not the same phases. I cannot for the life of me remember what I did when B was in his lying phase or if it worked. It has been probably 4-5 years ago at this point and my memory just isn't that good.

So if anyone has gone through this and has any wonderful suggestions please let me know. If you just want to encourage me that I am not the only parent dealing with these type of things that would be wonderful too!

So far we have tried taking away privileges such as TV, DS, computer, etc., time-outs (quiet time alone in her room), and positive reinforcement (sticker chart) but she just cheated on the sticker chart to try to get the reward instead of it helping her to be honest.

Thanks! You ladies are great!

Grocery Store Nicey

Since Catherine @ Evolving Mommy posted about a grocery store meany last week I thought I would share my grocery store nicey story.

Tuesday is my shopping day. I have found the Grocery Game works best for me and my schedule if I clip coupons Sunday, print the list and match coupons Monday, menu plan and finalize the list Tuesday. This is my perfect scenario so usually it all tries to get crammed between dropping off the big kids at school and FiFi at kindergarten as well as shopping in a 3 hour window. Sometimes I go with Baby Boy alone after we drop off FiFi but it depends upon the day.

With my mom going to the hospital yesterday my routine was thrown off and my stress level was through the roof. She was discharged this morning and is doing better. We are going to visit her this evening and make dinner for her so that should be nice.

I left the hospital around 7pm last night. The drive took me over an hour (annoying)! Of course our fridge was EMPTY and the great sales were ending at midnight last night. I was halfway done with meal planning/coupon matching and no matter how tired I was I had to go.

I made it to the store at 10pm, which to start is past my bedtime, and with the stress of yesterday I am still amazed that I was able to focus on the task at hand. I busted out my list and was determined to get this shopping done and get home quickly! Imagine my surprise when I see no checker and the stupid self-check lanes only open. I have been in the store less than 5 minutes and begin cursing under my breath about how I don't want to freaking check myself out. I make it to the meat department where I was stocking up on ground beef and pork roast. Besides having to side step the stockers, the meat prices already reflect tomorrow's price ie. not on sale. I stock up anyways and make sure I see what they ring up for. I make it through the store ok and I will have to say despite my exhausted stupor the store is quite peaceful without many other customers.

I begrudgingly head to the self-check already looking for the person in charge to let them know I am going to need help. I have rain checks to cash in and 5 rain checks to get today (since I was shopping at 10pm) plus I don't know if my meat will ring up right and I have a ton of produce. At this point I am so tired I can barely function and I am not amused with the prospect of having to touch screen and weigh every item of produce.

But who comes to my rescue...the grocery store nicey! The manager grabs my buggy and insists to check me out at a regular lane. I practically praise this man since I am exhausted and have all the rain checks, coupons, etc. The other checker who was working the U-Scan even came and bagged my groceries. The manager did not seem the least bit annoyed about all my rain checks and coupons and even told me I really know how to save money! I told him I try to save at least 50% and he promptly looked at my receipt and said 47%, pretty good since you save $100+ dollars.

Isn't it nice when something as simple as excellent customer service makes your day. I will say I shop King Soopers (Kroger) because it is convenient and with double coupons and sales I save a lot of money but really it is because of their high level of customer service and helpful attitudes that keep bringing me back. This is not the first time someone has went out of their way to help me there.

So boo for the grocery store meanies and bring on the grocery store nice-ies.

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Sometimes a bad day does not always turn out bad

Last night I got less than 7 hours of sleep. I know to some of you sleep-deprived new mommies that sounds like a lot but I function so much better on 9-10 hours of sleep.



I get my butt out of bed and into the shower. While I am drying my hair Baby Boy arrives. I should not be surprised because it is 7:05am and he is scheduled to arrive at 7:00am. I always hope I can squeeze one last thing in before he arrives but it never happens.



Then I begin the process of hustling my kids out the door. The older two eat hot breakfast at school which begins promptly at 7:25am. This means we should leave by 7:15am or 7:20am at the latest. They have been getting to school at 7:30am lately and I really trying to show them the value of being prompt. (BTW I am ALWAYS late but hope my kids can avoid this fate).



Out to the car to squeeze the 4 kids into my Honda Accord. Buckling Baby Boy and then FiFi into her booster is a process and our garage is very tight! Then B is almost in tears because his Harry Potter book is inside, I almost cave and let him make us 2 minutes later when Wyn announces she left her school books inside too. I draw the line, "no books, no time, everyone stop unbuckling, and let's go." Now I have a pouty 8 year old which is always a good start to the day. We try to run a tight ship around here and if you can't be responsible for your own book you can do without for 7 hours until I pick you up.



Somehow I manage to get the older two to school before breakfast is over (and the trash barrels to the street too) and I am looking forward to my less chaotic morning with Baby Boy and FiFi. FiFi asks for a refill of her drink. I tell her to switch to water. So what do I see her doing, pouring a glass of milk. My kids listen so well. So I ask her in a calm but somewhat firm voice what she is doing? She bursts into a crying temper tantrum. Oh Lord, it isn't even 8am, I can tell today is going to be fabulous. I send FiFi to her room until she is done crying because at almost 6 years old I don't tolerate crying as a form of communication. At least Baby Boy didn't throw his breakfast at me :-)



I am happy to say the rest of my day has been somewhat uneventful. FiFi and Baby Boy ate lunch well. We got FiFi off to school on time (rare). Now Baby Boy is down for a nap. I hope the afternoon continues to be calm. We are headed to get B a haircut after school and once Baby Boy gets picked up B and FiFi have their physicals/check ups with their doctor. They shouldn't involve shots and should be relatively uneventful so I am hoping for a good rest of the day.

How the Hell do Pack N' Plays Break??? Really???

So Baby Boy's mom told me he woke up at 5am this morning which was sure to throw off his schedule and make him crankier. So around 8:45 or 9:00am when I go to put this sweet, angelic, tired baby down for a nap, what do I realize? The top rail of the Pack N' Play is snapped in two! Really! You have to be kidding me! Baby Boy is 15 months old but weighs a mere 19 pounds which should not be strong enough to break a Pack N' Play. Now I am completely baffled! To make matters worse I have plans to take the kids to the library and run into Sunflower Farmers Market for some $1.97 per pound chicken and being without a Pack N' Play throws a huge wrench into my nap time plans. After trying to see if it will somehow go back together and be safe enough for one nap I give up and realize there is no fixing the Pack N' Play. This Pack N' Play is borrowed from a friend, nearly 10 years old and has been used by a few babies but the rail is inch thick plastic and should not break.

Now I have to pack up the 4 kids in various stages of getting ready from still in PJ's to showered and run to the church where I work as a nursery attendant. Luck for me there are two Pack N' Plays in the nursery. One I keep set up and hardly ever use and another I have never even opened. Crisis averted. Once we return it is nearly 10:00am and besides another fresh diaper I also decide baby boy needs a snack before nap time. After all this fuss his he is finally asleep at 10:40am for his 8:45am nap. So much for a schedule today!