The After Party

I survived Punkin's party and feeling like crap - between my back stiffening up, and feeling somewhat drunk before I'd had a drop of alcohol, I kinda felt like I was a mess yesterday. The party went fine, and there was actually fewer guests than usual. A last minute change to the amount of chicken ensured we had *just enough* leftover.

Mom and Dit were here with Lukas. Mom's talking about the stuff that Lukas does at this age, and I start saying "Oh yeah, my kids did that..." and I go on to tell the story. Afterwards, Mom says "Wow. I can't believe it." "What?" I say. "Well, you went through all the stuff we're going through (w/Lukas) and you never told us about it." I was dumbfounded. I HAD told them all about that. They just never listened.

I have the Shine All Night concert tonight (Martina McBride/Trace Adkins), but first I'm going to play "Cinderella" and get some chores/errands done. Not a problem. It'll make life easier tomorrow. I don't anticipate getting home much before 1am (the concert is in Milwaukee - at least 90 mins away). I plan on resting tomorrow - around other errands - a parent/teacher conference and taking the van in for an estimate on the bumper (after that 19 yr old tapped my ass* - LOL!)

Hubs is off on the motorcycle with friends - plans made before he realized I had the concert tonight. Thankfully, SIL offered to watch the clowns for us. (Thanks, Shelley!)

After the party last night, Shelley offered to take the kids down to her house for a sleepover, if that was ok with me. "Let me get this straight. You're going to take the kids with you. I'll have a house that's already clean, plans to have fun, and the kids will be gone. Unexpectedly and all at the same time? And, like *now*? Uh, yeah, I think I can handle that." (and my inner child whooped "Hell freakin yeah! Why are you still here?!")

So, here I sit this morning. My music blaring, washing machine and dryer working away, kids and Hubs taken care of. I like this. This 'after party' is better than I anticipated. It's not every day I can have cake for breakfast without guilt.


*That's from my SIL - "So, a 19 yr old tapped your ass, huh?" after hearing about the fender bender.

November 13th

Right now, it is 7:30pm on a Sunday evening. One clown is fast asleep - Sweet Pea put herself to bed nearly an hour ago. The girl who used to fight going to sleep now snores softly just upstairs. The boy clown had a difficult time earlier tonight, and was sent to his room. He's been talking to me from his room, but is now putting himself to bed. Punkin clown is checking her email before getting herself all tucked in.

It's been a busy weekend.

Friday night, Punkin had a couple of her friends over for a small birthday party. I ordered pizza from Domino's at the birthday girl's request. There were presents, we made sugar cookies and decorated them (in lieu of a cake), and I let them throw pink confetti around the living room. An hour later, it looked like our living room floor (and foyer and dining room) had the measels. The four big sugar cookies turned into two big sugar cookie blobs in the oven, but the girls did a great job of overcoming that (and hey, they were still pretty edible!)

Later, I took the three tweens to see Disney's "A Christmas Carol." (The animation is so well done in that movie, that it was easy to forget it was animation. Wow) Before we left, I had a talk with them. Because I was responsible for all three of them while they were in my care, there were certain rules. I wanted them to have fun, but I also wanted them to understand that they needed to listen to me. They were all very well-behaved, and I guess I really didn't need to worry.

One of the girls was unable to stay for a sleepover. I planned on taking her home after the movie. Her parents were pretty laid back, and felt she was in good hands. I appreciated that. This was the first time this particular girl had been over at our house.

The movie let out around 10:30pm, and I think we were all a little tired, but in good spirits. We were chatting about the movie as we made our way back home, sitting at a stoplight when suddenly, we were hit from behind.

Many things ran through my head at once:
Oh crap.
Is anyone hurt?
Oh no they did'n!
These girls' parents are never going to let them come over again.
I hope whoever hit me doesn't take off.

I remained calm, checked the girls - thankfully, we were all ok. I got my cell phone, got out of the van and met the driver of the other car. The driver was a 19 year old kid and his friend. I dialed 911 as the kid apologized over and over and over. There was minor damage on the bumper of the Mommyvan, and again, I was very grateful that's all there was.

And then the shakes kicked in. I was still able to keep my head about me, but I was shaking pretty badly.

After calling the police, I called home to let Hubby know what happened. Then, I had to call the parents of the girls in the van. I was also very grateful that I could call them with "Everyone is fine, but I wanted to let you know there's been a fender bender..." That sucked, even with the good news. Thankfully, the parents were understanding.

Of course, it was Friday the 13th. I'm not incredibly superstitious, but I will say that our last accident (several years ago on the way to Florida) was also on Friday the 13th. I've pretty much decided that future birthday parties will not involve "field trips" out of the house on Friday the 13th. I think it's just safer that way.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful - we got home, the girls stayed up too late and ate cookies until the wee hours of the morning. After our guest left the following day, Punkin and I pretty much crashed.

The family party for Punkin will be on the 21st, which will officially kick off our "busy season." Birthday parties and holidays and all the preparations for such things will take up most of our energy in the next six weeks.

I've already started my to-do lists, birthday lists, and Christmas lists. You can bet I'll be checking them all twice.

Thank goodness we're done with all the Friday the 13ths for the year.

Just like that

Later this week, I will become 41 years of age. Woo!

Remember last year?! Sure you do. EVERYONE does. WHY? Because I keep telling them about it. I have now become the person people think of when they hear or read about Trace Adkins. (And here I was afraid that I'd leave this world someday without any kind of legacy.)

Now, this year, there wasn't any Trace Chasin' goin' on. I will be attending a Martina McBride/Trace Adkins concert in November, but will most likely not be meeting Trace or Martina in person. With fifth row seats to the concert for Erika and I, I can be very happy with that.

Another thing I am VERY happy about -- Hubby bought me an iPod for my birthday! I've been collecting songs off my CDs for a while now so I could listen to them at work, and in anticipation of this gift. You see, a while back, I borrowed the iPod that Punkin got for her birthday last year so I could have music while I went for a walk. That little gadget came in pretty handy. I decided that I would/might work out more if I had "portable" music. (yeah, that's my story and I'm stickin to it). Since then, I've made it known that I would like an iPod for my birthday, and if I didn't get one as a gift, I was going to go buy one.

(tangent)
Yeah, I know... I can be a snot, but I've learned if I don't clearly announce my wishes, repeatedly, well, there's a chance I might be disappointed and angry because the people who love me apparently still can not read my mind. Clearly, this must be the case because I have to constantly ASK my children to clean their rooms. If they could read my mind, I wouldn't have to ask, now would I?
(/tangent)

Hubby sprang my shiney new iPod on me while we were tooling around with the kids in the family truckster. It made me very happy and I had to pass the still packaged iPod around so the kids could see all the new and shiney of my hot pink iPod. Punkin immediately had iPod envy. Hers is just purple with a smaller screen and it doesn't have a camera or video capabilities. Woo! Hot pink and shiney and new and all upgradey and stuff!

When we got home, Hubs set about to helping me load the songs on the miPod. He just started doing it and I got all flustered and announced that *I* could do that and I wasn't about to have to ask him to load my songs each time I wanted to add something (like he does for Punkin). After all, I'm not a complete idiot. It was very nice of him to help, though. As the songs were being all converted and what not, he wandered off with my iPod. "To charge it", he said. Cool. No problem, I'd just pile up more songs from my CDs while I waited. (I also cleaned up the kitchen and folded laundry while I waited. I wouldn't want y'all to think I was neglecting my chores for my new toy. Heaven forbid.)

After miPod was all charged, Hubs brought it back and set it on my desk. I was in the middle of preparing dinner, and Punkin asked to look at miPod. As long as the littles didn't begin to think miPod was community property, I was ok with that.

Over the next few minutes, Punkin clicked and scrolled and proclaimed she liked miPod better than hers. "Aw, bummer darlin'. That's MINE. Mommy loves you!" *smile*

She made a face at me, and continued to explore "Hey. There's a pedometer on here!"
Me: Really?! Cool! Now I'll have to get a holder thingy for the miPod. (Mental note: check out all the fun accessories available for miPod.)

For the next little while, Punkin played with leaving me voice messages and taking videos and just figuring out all the "extras" on miPod while I continued to make dinner.

The evening wore on and soon it was bedtime for the clowns. Punkin gave me hugs and kisses and said "Really, Mom. If you want to know anything about your iPod, just let me know. I'll be happy to show you how to work stuff."

And just like that, I became one of "those" parents who don't know anything about modern technology.

Damn Whippersnappers.

When Worlds Collide

I've said it before - Stay At Home Moms have my admiration. I just don't feel that I could be a very good SAHMom.

On the other hand, being a Working Out Of The House Mom has some major disadvantages -- like when the work world and the Mom world collide.

Case in point:
An event at the school for Sweet Pea and her class. Something she is looking forward to. Something I was able to attend when Punkin was involved. Something we worked on a project this weekend for. The event is planned for Friday.

This Friday.

At work, we have an all day meeting coming up. I take care of the meeting room set up, taking the notes, and arranging the catering for the event. There are typically about 50 people in this day-long meeting. The meeting is set for Friday.

This Friday.

Fun "Clown" event at the school.
All day meeting at work.

Responsibilities are tugging at me from two different directions.

With the Boss dealing with stressors, I really really really don't want to ask for two hours off work for any reason. He is, under regular circumstances, a fair and generous boss. (And no one wants to sit in this meeting taking notes for me)

I will put on my big girl panties and do the right thing, but I really do not like having to make choices like this. Not at all. Someone is always "disappointed" no matter what.

New 'do

It's been years since I've had a cut that was more than "just a trim"... and months since I've done even that. Can you tell?


I finally bit the bullet and got a cut AND highlights (I hardly ever color my hair).

I am very pleased with this! Thank you Dianne and Nu Age Hair!

All before/after photos can be seen here

Clownin' around

The other evening, we were watching televsion when some actress came on the screen, extolling the benefits of wrinkle-reducing beauty cream.
Buddy looks at me for a moment and says
"You should get that, Mom."
- - - - - - - - -
I asked Punkin to take a few photos of my hair tonight because I will be getting a new 'do in a couple of days. "Should I take a photo of the gray?" she asks. "Sure, why not." I say.
"Yeah, because that's not very difficult to do."
- - - - - - - - -
During a family drive last week, Hubs and I were throwing out acronyms.
OMG!
BFF
When Hubs says "LOL"
Sweet Pea, from the very back of the truck says
"Dad! Do you even *know* what that means?!"
I just busted out laughing while he assured our 7 year old that he did indeed know what LOL meant.
Hubs and I finished the game with a "WTF?", said under our breaths, of course.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Right now as I sit here
The dishwasher is swooshing and humming behind me
My music pours through these computer speakers
Buddy is 'napping' on the couch
I tried to encourage him to just go up and get ready for bed
but he declined
Sweet Pea is nestled in a chair with a poofy pillow and a cozy blanket reading a book
Hubby is catching up with some sports event downstairs, and
I'm not sure where Punkin is

In short
things are peaceful at the Big Top
right this moment

I thank God for that
because a half hour ago
all hell was breaking loose
nobody was listening to me, and
I was an evil Mom because I was "making" the clowns eat CORN!
oh. the. horror.

I don't know what that was, but I liked it

Earlier this week, I was having one of those "low battery" days. I just felt a bit run down, but was doing well overall.

I had a dentist appointment scheduled for the afternoon--something I never like doing. I also had to get a few time-sensitive tasks accomplished first thing at work. These were my thoughts when Buddy came into my room to tell me his eye hurt. The eyelid and surrounding skin was inflammed, but the eye itself looked ok--not goopy or crusty. I crossed my fingers and sent him to school. Now the need to get certain work tasks done first thing was even more urgent.

As the day progressed, I began dreading the dentist visit more and more. That was an underlying thought all morning. "I don't want to go to the dentist."

At lunchtime, I had made a decision to pick up something for lunch, but I kept thinking what I would really like something warm. Something like scrambled eggs. That was an underlying thought all morning ("I wish I had some scrambled eggs" that and "I wish I didn't have to go out in this weather"). On my way out of the building, I stopped in the lunchroom for a Coke and lo and behold, there were the castoff leftovers from a morning meeting -- a pan with several egg wraps from a local restaurant.

SCORE! I nuked two and my tummy was happy. The universe had delivered lunch to me! Woo!

The afternoon wore on, I made my way down my to-do list, and my dentist appointment got closer and closer. I had just returned to my desk after brushing my teeth when the phone rang. Buddy's after school teacher called to say that his eye is looking worse she thought I might want to have a doctor look at it.

Afraid that his eye would be worse the following morning, or that the school would tell me I needed to take him to the doctor before he could return the following day, I called the doctor. SCORE! I was able to get Buddy in within the hour -- IF I moved my dentist appointment. BONUS! Dentist appointment moved to Monday night where it won't interfere with my workday.

Doctor said Buddy didn't have pink eye, but maybe an allergic reaction. (Two days later and his eye looks completely recovered - YAY!). She gave us a note that he could return to school the following day. SCORE! He was going to be ok, there was a doctor's note to back that up, and I wouldn't have to take the following day off work. (I have to carefully budget my remaining paid time off for the rest of the year, and want to take as little time off for doctor appointments as possible.)

I'm not sure if the universe was just taking pity on me, if these unexpected blessings were the work of fate or God or what. All I knew was that it was all perfectly timed.

The kicker? I openly asked the universe for a cookie. I did not get a real cookie. I did, however, get an email from a coworker saying her daughter was going to be making chocolate bliss cupcakes this week, and would I want to place an order.

Amen, baby. Amen.