Tired

What a long day; left the house at 7am, didn't get home until 10pm. I met with 2 of my legislators in their offices (well, their staff people). Had an appointment with a third, but his office was dark and locked up. Rude. The public hearing started at 1pm and I didn't get to speak until about 5:30pm. It was a long afternoon. But it was awesome because us smoke free people outnumbered the opposition by at least 4 to 1. They were getting so frustrated, it was great!

Busy couple of days ahead of me. My sister's bridal shower and bach party on Saturday, then we are meeting some friends at the zoo on Sunday. Next week is just crazy at work. Monday night a seamstress is coming to my house to do the bridesmaids dress alterations. I did my first tanning session yesterday, was hoping to do another one tonight, but didn't get back to town in time. Will have to go tomorrow since I have a month unlimited, have to take advantage of it. I have to call my hairdresser to reschedule today's appointment (for the 2nd time, had to reschedule one from last week!). AGH! Also have to get a girdle/shaper thing for the wedding since the seamstress wants me to wear it on Monday when she does the alterations. The fun never ends. Oh and I have to make a dip for the shower on Saturday.

Had dinner last night with a couple of friends with my moms group. These two girls are super cool and I'm so glad we met and became friends. We're supposed to have a playdate tomorrow but I think I may cancel on it since life is so crazy right now, I need a day at home to veg. Well veg as much as I can chasing after an active 3 year old.

Off to bed!

The Classic Dames Test

This is me:

Your Score: Myrna Loy

You scored 16% grit, 19% wit, 28% flair, and 47% class!

You are class itself, the calm, confident "perfect woman." Men turn and look at you admiringly as you walk down the street, and even your rivals have a grudging respect for you. You always know the right thing to say, do and, of course, wear. You can take charge of a situation when things get out of hand, and you're a great help to your partner even if they don't immediately see or know it. You are one classy dame. Your screen partners include William Powell and Cary Grant, you little simmerpot, you.

Find out what kind of classic leading man you'd make by taking the Classic Leading Man Test.

Link: The Classic Dames Test written by gidgetgoes on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Fun!

I Got It

The Regent that is. Well I ordered it anyway. I can't believe I'm buying this huge ass car seat, but I have to. Paige is the size of an average 5 year old and has outgrown the Evenflo in Mike's car. She's close to outgrowing the Marathon in my car. So we're putting the Marathon in Mike's and the Regent in mine. After she outgrows the Marathon, I'm not really sure what we are doing. Evenflo is coming out with a convertible that is supposed to harness to 50 pounds and 50 inches in July; that's supposed to run about $100. Hopefully it will get good reviews because that might be my only option.

The weekend went well. Lots of driving, but Paige had a great time and was very well behaved overall. The packing and unpacking was a pain in the ass, but not as bad as I thought. I wish we wouldn't have had to drive 2.5 hours one way over to Mike's grandpa's house on Sunday for his brother's going away party (going into the Air Force) but we left Paige with my family and made the most of our time together. Wink Wink. Twice actually.

We got back in time to go to the Memorial Day Parade in town where Paige got a ton of candy! She had a blast picking it up and putting it in her wagon. She liked most of it except when the semis went by and honked their horns.

Now I'm back at work trying to catch up from being gone so much last week and my boss keeps dumping crap on me. I'm taking off Thursday to go testify at a hearing at our state capitol in favor of 100% smoke free workplaces throughout the state, including bars and restaurants. The Tavern League will be out in full force so it will get nasty, but I'm excited about it. It's so ridiculous that we have to pick and choose where we will eat because some places allow smoking. Sorry, your food may be good but I'm not exposing my child to that crap that comes out of your cigarette.

Stressed

Never again will I be a matron of honor. This is so stressful. And the kicker is that I know I'm making it more stressful than it needs to be. I feel like I have to be the activity director for the night, and I've never gone out in the town we are going to. So I have no clue which bars are fun, or even where they are. I just have this bad feeling people are going to be looking to me to direct them where to go. Why am I feeling like that? Adding to my stress is the fact that not only do people not respond in the first place, but they DON'T RETURN PHONE MESSAGES!!!! WTF people?!?! How hard is it to just take a minute out of your day and say yes I'm coming or no I'm not coming. You have my cell and home numbers. I have voicemail on both. Grrrrr.....

My period started today so we are going to be trying for our 8th month. I think that's all I'm going to say about that or I will start crying.

We are going up north this weekend to my sister's and her fiance's cabin and I guess it's still quite primitive. They have no stove, so we are bringing our little grill. We're basically camping in a cabin. We have to bring our own sheets, towels, blankets and all of our food. Also lawn chairs. This should be interesting. I'm so stressed about packing all of this stuff. Part of me just wants to stay home but then I know we'd get bored hanging around the house all weekend. I just hate packing and unpacking. Plus I'm such a homebody, sometimes going away for the weekend stresses me out. I have a bad feeling about Paige too. I'm sure she won't get enough sleep and be a real bear.

I don't know what to do about Paige. She is so defiant and just plain doesn't listen. What am I doing wrong? She makes everything difficult. I have to go pick her up soon from the sitter's and as awful as this sounds, I just plain don't want to. I wish I could sit here alone in peace and quiet until I go out for coffee with my mom's group tonight.

OK, off to enjoy about 10 minutes of peace and quiet.

5 AM

OK let's play a little game of Jeopardy. 5 AM is the answer, guess the correct question.
1. The time our coffeemaker kicked in this morning
2. A time I consider middle of the night
3. The time Paige woke up this morning

If you guessed option 3, you are correct! #2 would also be correct if the truth be told. Let's keep this little quiz game going. Paige's mood this morning was:
1. Full of sunshine and light, AKA my little ray of sunshine
2. Mellow and content to sit in front of the TV
3. Bucky and ornary as all hell demanding that dear old dad make pancakes

Again, option #3 would be correct.

After dear old dad said no to pancakes, what happened next?
1. Paige made them herself
2. She threw a holy fit and refused to fall back asleep until 6 am when Mike got up and released her from her jail cell aka her bedroom
3. She watched cartoons

That would be option #2. You would have thought we were pulling her toenails out one by one the way she was carrying on.

Last question. After Mike took Paige to the sitter's I woke up at:
1. 7am
2. 8am
3. 8:45 am

That would be #3. 8:45am. I am such a slacker! I love to sleep!!!!

OK, if anyone ever asks me again to be a matron of honor, I will run kicking and screaming like a bat out of hell. This bridal shower/bach party has turned into a nightmare. People just don't respond, it's so rude. So now I have to call 11 people, most of whom I don't know to ask if they are coming and are spending the night at the hotel I booked. Also how many people do you want to share the room with, 2 or 4? Last night was just awful. I had to look up 11 phone numbers online and over half are unlisted, so my sister is getting those numbers for me. Then be a weird coincidence, one of the girls invited calls me while I'm trying to check my cupboards and recipe books to plan my suppers for the week as Mike is on his way to Walmart and wants to know if I want to add anything to the grocery list. This chick (we'll just call her V) is firing questions at me left and right while Paige is sitting on the counter top eating raw egg noodles (or noo-noos as she calls them). How many people are coming? How many did you invite? When is the shower? Oh I wasn't invited to that (thanks Kristin for putting me in this awkward position BTW). When is check in time? How much is the room? Where are we eating? And the kicker, are we going to any strip clubs? WTF? Um no. I couldn't tell if she was serious or not, but after telling my sister that, I guess she was. I guess she likes to check out naked men. Whatever. Diferent strokes for different folks. So now I have to check with all the bridesmaids to make sure they are spending the night in the hotel and who do they want to share a room with? I have to call a tanning place so I don't look like an albino in the dress. I have to call a seamstress. I have to get a shaper thing to suck in my belly fat. AGH!!!! Calgon take me away!!!!!

Shout outs to my peeps:
Meredith: that website is disgusting. Thank god that perv is far away from us.
Koren: I have a swim dress. WTH, we're moms. Who do we have to impress?
Elisa: Allergies suck. You sound just miserable, I feel so bad for you.
Terri: Happy birthday Ellie!!!! How is she doing?
Linda: Happy birthday Rebecca!!! She is so darn cute!

OK, guess I should get some work done. I've been here for an hour and have accomplished nothing.

The Nanny Diaries

This is the book I'm currently reading. Well one of them. I got the Nanny Diaries at a rummage sale on Saturday and started reading it right away, even though I'm in the middle of another one called Night's Landing. The Nanny Diaries is hilarious! If you get a chance to read it, you really should. There are a couple of things that irritate me though: the nanny's name is Nanny, and the couple she nannies for has the last name of X. That's it. Just X. It's weird. Other than that it's really good. She nannies for a super rich couple in NYC and the authors really seem to be picking on rich, upscale families whose parents don't spend any time with the kids and name them hoity toity names like Grayer.

Ugh, I'm waiting for someone to quit using the copier so I can use it. I can hear it from my office and it's just cooking away. I need to go make some copies before I can talk to a coworker in the Extension office. Oh, it's quiet, maybe the Copy Hog is done.

Holy crap Desperate Housewives was so good last night. I can't believe I have to wait until September to find out of Edie is really dead, if Carlos and Gabby are going to get back together and if Bree can pull off the pregnancy/raising her grandchild thing.

Paige is now 39 pounds and 41 inches. I can't even believe it. She's the size of an average 4.5 to 5 year old.

I had a blast rummage saleling this weekend, especially on Saturday when I got to go alone. I took her on Friday and she was not so good. She kept taking stickers off of stuff and moving the toys all over. It's like control yourself child! I got her a ton of clothes for this summer and a bunch for this winter already too.

Friday was not such a good day. Krista and Linda heard all about it in chat on Friday...thanks for letting me vent girls! Paige was not good during the rummage sales. Then we went to the park for a playdate with my mom's group and she wouldn't let go of the death grip around my leg for almost an hour. Finally I gave up and hauled her out to the car with her screaming bloody murder. It was so embarrassing. Here I have like one of the only kids in daycare almost full time, and she can't leave my side to go play on the playground equipment? I just wanted to leave but I didn't because it was in Green Bay (a 40 minute drive) and I didn't want to waste the time and gas money to stay for 5 minutes. All of the other kids were playing and having a great time, but not mine. I could see if she was maybe 1 or so, but not at 3. It was awful. And her dr. apt. was at 3:30pm, I scheduled it for then because she had been waking up from her nap at 2:30 pm for months now like clockwork. She takes a while to wake up so I thought 3:30pm would be a good time. Well wouldn't you know, she parties in her room for almost an hour after I laid her down, and I ended up having to wake her from an almost comatose-like state at 3:20pm. I carried her out to the car and was about 5 minutes late for the apt.

We were gardening fools yesterday. Mike and Paige planted the garden and I planted about a million flowers. They all look really nice.

OK, my copies are done so I must get back to work. Good times!

Survivor

I know some of you may have already seen this, but it is just hilarious:
The Next Survivor Series - Mothers Day Series!



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THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES:

Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.

Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of "pretend" bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.

Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time.

Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment. He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Urgent Care (weekend, evening, on a holiday or right when they're about to leave for vacation).

He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function.

Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. There is only one TV between them, and a remote with dead batteries.

Each father will be required to know all of the words to every stupid song that comes on TV and the name of each and every character on cartoons.

The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, which they will apply to themselves either while driving or making three lunches.


Each man will have to make an Indian hut model with six toothpicks, a tortilla and one marker; and get a 4 year old to eat a serving of peas.


Each man must adorn himself wit h jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep their nails polished and eyebrows groomed.

The men must try to get through each day without snot, spit-up or barf on their clothing.

During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings, but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must try to explain what a tampon is for when the 6-yr old boy finds it in the purse.

They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.

He will need to read a book and then pray with the children each night without falling asleep, and then feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair each morning by 7:00.

They must leave the home with no food on their face or clothes.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name.

Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

They must clean up after their sick children at 2:00 a.m. and then spend the remainder of the day tending to that child and waiting on them hand and foot until they are better.

They must have a loving, age appropriate reply to, "You're not the boss of me."

The kids vote them off the island based on performance.

The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice.

If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years...eventually earning the right to be called Mother!

Is It OK...

to admit that I just really don't like my own child right now? I know a big part of it is that she's not sleeping well and is so tired. She's like her mama, when she doesn't get enough sleep she is a complete basket case. And the crankier she is, the more I avoid her. The more I avoid her, the more she wants to be by me and acts out to get my attention. The more she acts out, the more I avoid her. It's a vicious cycle. It's so frustrating, it's like if you are so damn tired, then SLEEP for crying out loud! There is no law stating you have to wake up at 6:30am every day or only nap for an hour or so. Sleep if you're tired!!!!!

Well I'll probably get the bad mom award for admitting that I actually enjoy a night or two away from my child on the BBC boards, but what are you going to do? I know what works for me and my family. Paige and I are not attached at the hip nor do I think that's healthy.

Oh I forgot to mention the Mother's Day presents that she made at Sandi's house last week. That Sandi must have the patience of a saint. Who else is willing to make 4 different Mother's Day crafts with a group of 2-4 year olds, mostly girls? UGH. Anyway I got a cute beaded keychain with a charm on the end that says "#1 Mom", a card with her handprint that she decorated with stickers, a windchime with a wooden flower that she colored and 4 chimes hanging off of it, and a flower made out of cupcake liners, her cut out handprints and a pipe cleaner for the stem. Her picture is in the middle of the cupcake liner. Too cute. I need to get a hope chest to start keeping all of these things. They are too nice to throw away.

Terri-I've been thinking about you so much these past few weeks. How's Ellie doing today? You guys are in my prayers.

Way Behind

It's May already...holy crap. I'm so behind on this blog. Between crazy work, Paige's party, my sister's bridal shower and her wedding, life is just nuts. At least Paige's party is over, so 1 down, 2 to go.

Thank you Meredith for the Happy Birthday to Paige on your blog. I tried to sign in and leave a comment, but blogger was acting funky. Happy belated birthday to Ella!!! And can I just say, you must have the biggest heart of anyone I know. Here you are already busy raising 4 kids of your own and you are willing to open your home to 2 more kids in need. I couldn't do it. Do you need more boys clothes? I can certainly hit some rummage sales for you!

Mike has had tendinitis in his wrist the past month. He's been doing PT 3 times/week and tomorrow is his last one. He's feeling much better thank goodness. He has been quite the crab since it happened. Can't say I blame him.

He was able to put new floor in our living room before the tendinitis developed and it looks so nice in there. We got new lamps too and the living room looks so much nicer. We just need to find an area rug.




Those were taken before the new lamps were up. I should take another one. The new lamps make a world of difference.

We had new neighbors move into the lower part of the duplex next door to us. They are a young boyfriend and girlfriend, mid to late twenties and probably some of the nicest people I've met. The girl has a 3 year old daughter from a previous marriage and her and Paige are best buddies already. It was in the 80's yesterday so I filled up Paige's pool when I got home from work, and Ava (the 3 year old) came over and they splashed around in the pool for at least an hour. Totally wore Paige out so she was crabby the rest of the night. The only thing is is that she has a huge meltdown whenever we have to go inside after playing with Ava...she wants to keep playing!!!!

I had a nice Mother's Day. Mike got me 4 hanging flower pots for outside and they are so pretty. He sort of gave me the day off too...took care of Paige as much as he could so I could sit around and read and be lazy. It was pretty nice. She has a cold and hasn't been sleeping well so she is so cranky and tired. I think we are entering the terrible 3's. She has been downright defiant and just sassy lately. Good times.

She got a 2 wheeler bike with training wheels for her birthday and has been just loving that. We're going to try to go for a bike ride/walk every night. She does pretty good on it!!!

If you get a chance, watch this video today. You might pee your pants!!