My Kids Mom

I’ve been so busy since I started my new job. In fact, unless you follow me on twitter you didn’t even know I got a job. I am working at a bridal store selling wedding dresses 2 nights a week and all day Saturday. So far I really love it. All the girls are great, normal (not catty or b*tchy), and fun to talk to. It’s making for a crazy busy fall though. Lil’ Miss has dance class on Mondays, I have bible study on Tuesdays, work Wednesday and Thursday and Saturday. Not to mention all the running to school EVERYDAY with The Boy to school (grade 1 is such an adjustment!) and Lil’ Miss has preschool (at the same school, thankfully) on Monday and Wednesday mornings. I’m exhausted just typing all this!

I sold my infant car seat and matching stroller this weekend. I listed it on Kijiji on Friday night and it was sold and gone by Sunday afternoon. Apparently I should have asked more $ for it! I had like 5 inquiries too! I used the money to buy the shelf I’ve been wanting for the playroom to organize all the toys. Before, everything was just shoved against the walls on the outer perimeter of the wall in various types of boxes and storage containers. It was a total disaster, and hard to organize and keep organized. So, I sold the stroller on Sunday afternoon and about 1/2 hr later we left for Ikea! After the kids went to bed we took everything apart to build it and one of the boards was damaged. Ugh! It’s about a 35 minute drive to Ikea from my house, so it was slightly annoying. The store was a complete ZOO on Sunday so I wasn’t really looking forward to going back on holiday Monday. But 2 times in a row when we went the Smaland (kids playcenter) was full/closed so we planned to go first thing in the morning so the kids could play. At 10:15 (15 minutes after the store opened) when we arrived, the playcenter was ALREADY FULL. Holy crap people! AAAaaaanyways. I’m kind of dragging on here. We went to the as-is section to check to see what there was as we always do, and when we were there on Sunday they had NO shelves. Well on Monday, they had FOUR! So we decided instead to save our 50$ and buy a slightly beat up one. You can’t tell at all though. So my mom came with my step dad’s truck and we took the shelf home and then went back to Ikea AGAIN to return the other box of the brand  new shelf we had bought the day before. It was a lot of back and forth, but worth it to save some money. With the money we saved we were able to buy some more boxes to go in it! Yay! I only need 4 more before it’s full. About half way through cleaning and organizing it I realized I never took a picture of the “before” disaster. But, here’s the “after” picture anyways!!

Look at that! I figured out how to get photos into my blog without it being a thumbnail! Thanks Kait!

Today I’m making homemade chicken soup. I have a rotisserie chicken that we didn’t eat very much of so I’m boiling it and making soup. This is my first time doing it, so I hope it turns out yummy! Thanks to Jen and all her talk about homemade bread, I’m going to make some homemade buns to go with. I’ve been desperately wanting to make some cinnamon buns since I bought some yeast last time I was at the grocery store, but I’m trying to lose some weight and I’m afraid I’ll eat them all in one sitting one too many so I haven’t yet. I will get my yeasty baking fix by making buns!

I went for a run last night. I love that I live in a safe enough neighborhood now that I don’t fear for my life if I go for a run while it’s dark. It was terrific. Afterward I got home and did some exercise on our home gym that we never use. I have an old shoulder injury from Lil’ Miss’s 1st birthday party (read: 2.5 years ago!) and I totally hurt it trying to lift weight last night. And tonight I have to go lift heavy wedding dresses. Not fun! P.S. Why are wedding dresses so heavy?!

My neighbor just called and is on her way over, so I guess I better go put on a bra.

Seems a lot of people are talking about Michael Vick these days…

I read this, and just had to add my 10 cents. (I know the expression is 2 cents, but I wrote a bit of a long thing!)

This is what I commented:

I’m all about second chances. I believe everyone deserves one. However, I do believe that there should be severe and lasting punishments for crime. Just as drunk driver gets his license taken away, permanently after a certain number of offenses, so should there be lasting and permanent consequences for Michael Vick. And not just personally (such as ppl always remember his as the dog beater guy) he shouldn’t be allowed to play in the NFL again. The NFL and other elite professional sports organizations should be reserved for people of excellent moral character, people that can hold up to and deserve the title of role model. Michael Vick is none of those.
I’m glad that he is sorry for what he did, and he has now had an “awakening”. But this idea of not receiving consequences because of one’s life circumstances, childhood, or awareness is bullsh*t. We all know the law, regardless of social class, or how we were raised. People need to rise above their raising and choose to make the right choices and obey the law. There should not be an excuse or lack of blame because someone was “numb” or “unconcious” to their behaviors. That is just insanity.
I don’t think Michael Vick should be locked up forever or anything, I’m glad he served his time and that it did him well – as in, he is now remorseful. But I think he should be spending his time doing things for humane organizations and talking publicly about what he’s done and how he’s changed, rather than playing in the NFL.

What do you think?

For the (Canadian) long weekend we went to Prince George, BC for a family reunion. I love driving through the Alberta rockies. So pretty. I even love to stay in the mountains or mountain-y areas… for a while. I always end up missing the big prairie sky. I think the mountains are pretty and all, and if I had to chose a way to make my sky small, it would definitely be mountains (instead of trees, buildings, etc). But I’m really a prairie girl at heart. I love to be able to look out the window and see sky as far as I can see. I always find myself commenting on my way home from somewhere that I can’t wait for the Alberta sky.

The reunion was a great time had by all. Lots of laughs, lots of sun, lots of family. We need to have a close look at our air mattresses before we go camping again though, they kept deflating. My back STILL hurts. I feel oooooold. We’re leaving again next week to go to my friend’s wedding at a campsite near Fernie, B.C. It’s going to be beautiful. I’ve been working furiously on some favors, and they’re so cute! They’re getting married on a little beach, and it’s a very very very small wedding, and very casual. Here’s a pic of the favors:

For those of you who are crafty and curious, here’s what I used:

Indian Corn Blue CTMH cardstock for the boxes. I cut out the shape with my Tags, Bags, Boxes and more cricut cartridge. I used the Accent Essentials cartridge to cut out the heart in the front. I used a Stampin’ Up stamp for the “thanks SO much” on the front, and heat embossed it with some white and silver sparkly embossing powder. I used the heart tag from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and more cartridge and stamped A + A on it and put an eyelet on it to thread the white little ribbon! It was fun creating it. Inside is some homemade cookies, some saltwater taffy (yuummm) and 2 bottled water drink mixes. We’re giving 1 to each couple. I’m really excited for the wedding, but supposedly it’s going to rain. Fingers crossed that it won’t! I hate tenting in the rain!!

Update: I just realized today that I’m pretty sure I’m PMS-ing. Not a good time to be interviewing for jobs when I’m highly irritated and irrational!!

I’m having a blah day.

I went for an interview yesterday for that job I had mentioned in my last post. It wasn’t an epic fail or anything, but I didn’t feel confident about how the interview went. Partly it was nerves, being my first job interview in like, 7 years, and partly it was that I felt I didn’t fit in at the company. It just wasn’t my style. Anyways, he was supposed to email a yes or no answer by last night, and I guess maybe he just got too busy to let everyone know. I’m sure that means I didn’t get the job. I had a back up plan, another job for 10 days at the events going on around here, but the guy called today and he’s stuck in another city b/c his concession trailer broke, he’s having it repaired but he has no idea when he’ll get here. So I’m not counting on that either. I was really having my hopes up about being able to make some quick cash over the next week or so. I’m just having a negative day where everything is not working, I’m irritated about everything and all I want to do is go to bed and not get up for like, a month. Then hopefully when I wake up all my problems will be past. The fence guys are back (finally) today working on putting up the fence. One more thing to be irritated about. It would be nice to actually look forward to having a fence, but I am dreading it. SO ugly. Anyone want some kids for a while? They keep arguing and I’m about this close to bashing their heads together. My  mom used to tell my sister and I that all the time when we were arguing. I’ve yet to do it to them (I can remember my mom actually doing it to us) but seriously. This close. (Thanks, Mom.)

Maybe you’ve seen the ads on TV for these new miraculous hair removal system. It advertises that it is pain free, no mess, no chemicals, and a simple way to rid yourself of unwanted body hair. You simply rub this thing on your leg (or other desired body part) and the hair amazingly disappears. Maybe you haven’t seen them, but now you’ve heard.

Well, it’s all lies. It is not pain free, and the hair doesn’t disappear. I equate it to rubbing your leg with sandpaper to remove the hair. Sure, it sorta kinda works, but sandpaper on skin HURTS! The type I got was “Velvet Touch Natural Hair remover mitten…. gently removes hair, instantly and easily. No mess, no chemicals.”

So I pull one of these little “mittens” out to discover that it’s really just VERY fine sandpaper, colored, and “infused with the soft scent of cucumber and melon, and it is also coated with Aloe Vera”. I didn’t smell any “soft scents” while using it, and the coating of Aloe Vera only made it very very dusty while removing the hair. I was almost afraid to breathe in there was so much powder flying through the air. The one plus side of rubbing my leg with sandpaper, was that it probably removed some of the dead skin, so while all the hair is patchy and not gone, it is smoother. (yaaaaay.) The first time I used it last night, I just did one little patch, as I just wanted to see if it actually worked. It really did on that one little patch, I was quite impressed. Then today I decided to finish off the rest of my leg, and boy howdy did that hurt!!! I had to rub my leg, spot by spot all over for  about 15 minutes before I decided that it was good enough… meaning it was getting to painful to finish and there wasn’t as much hair as there was before. My legs were super hairy, so I figured a little left over is at least an improvement. Then I grabbed a wet cloth to wipe all the dust off my leg (as sandpaper inevitably creates dust!) and YEOWCH!!!!! It stung soooooo bad. It is still stinging, and this was about 20 minutes ago. I have little red bumps and total skin irritation. What was I thinking?? Did I not realize that RUBBING MY LEG WITH SANDPAPER would cause skin irritation and PAIN?! I feel like a total idiot. Plus now I’m scared to shave that leg, because I’m afraid that rubbing a blade against irritated red bumpy skin will hurt even worse. So now I have to wait. I took some pictures so you could see my “results”…

In other news, I applied for a part time events job (we’re having some major city events coming up) doing market research. I landed an interview! And the best part is that it pays TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS AN HOUR!!! I have been looking for part time jobs to work maybe 2 evenings a week and weekends, but a temporary job like this would be PERFECT. I really REALLY hope I get it, it would be SO awesome! Please be praying that I get it!!

It’s MyKidsDad’s 31st birthday today. Happy Birthday babe!!

Man! I am so frustrated with wordpress’s new picture formatting!! Not only can I just get a picture in here on it’s own, now I can’t seem to get the stupid gallery thing to insert!! AAAHHH I wish I knew more about all that coding stuff. Grrr.

I took MyKidsDad to see the new Transformer’s movie last night, he really REALLY wanted to see it. It turned out to be a total flop (I knew I wouldn’t like it) but he actually hated it too! It was so cheesy and lame, and I’m just really sick of all these computer done movies. Where nothing is real and it’s all made with computers. So boring. I’m sure it takes a lot of know how to make those movies, but I just find them to be so uncreative. The dialogue was awful too. So cheesy and predictable.

The Boy is getting another cavity filled today! They color them now, did you know that? Like for kids – his last one was BLUE. So now he has a chunk of blue in his tooth! Pretty nifty.

A final thought: This creeps me out. However my mom thinks it’s cute. And my kids thinks it’s hilarious and want to watch it over and over and over.

So, you know the expression an “unwritten rule”? Well, I’m officially making this a WRITTEN rule, so that everyone can see and hear.

Do NOT, ever, under any circumstance, ask a woman if she is pregnant. Unless she is so pregnant it looks like the baby could fall out at any moment, then maybe, MAYBE it’s ok. And especially, don’t touch her belly. At all. Even if she is pregnant. Being pregnant is not a license to invade a woman’s personal space.

I have always made this rule, only because I’m pretty sure it would be horrifying to ask a woman and have her tell me that she’s not pregnant.

In the past month, I’ve had 3 people flat out ask me if I was pregnant, and 1 person allude to it without asking. Don’t do that either, you may as well just be asking. Seriously people!! I know I carry a little extra weight on my belly, but THREE PEOPLE!! I don’t know if Little Man is just getting to that age where it might be expected that I have another one on the way…. but really, there’s no excuse. So yesterday, when it happened (again!!! ahh!!) I just turned and told the lady “No, I’m just fat”. I hope she felt like CRAP, because I certainly did! My weight has really been up and down and up and down since having Little Man. I played soccer and lost about 10 pounds, and then gained it all back plus about 5 when soccer ended. Then I started running, and lost 5 again, but gained it back over the last month or so when I haven’t been running. Time to get serious I guess, I really don’t want people thinking I’m pregnant all the time. NOT fun!

I think Little Man is officially walking. He is trying more and more everyday and getting better and better. It’s so nice! He is so heavy to cart around all the time.

So, I have this new friend. She is a neighbor of mine, and she’s really great. We have everything in common, get along awesome. The only thing is, her kids are out. of. control. They laugh and smile when they do something wrong, they are a little bit violent from time to time (often having scrapes and bruises from the other one beating the other one up), they are loud, obnoxious, rude, disrespectful, and everything wrong. They are cute, though, even through all that. Anyways. I really want to be friends with her, but our parenting styles are SO different. She really just does very little and gives empty threats, and I’m very much an action person, I deal with the things my kids do on the spot, in the moment. So, what do I do? They are starting to hurt my kids, laugh at ME when I end up being the one giving them a “talking to” when they’ve done something wrong, and I’m really losing my patience with their disrespect and disobedience. I have this really really great book that really helped me, and I want to give it to my friend and hopefully have a talk with her about what’s going on with her kids. It can’t be fun or rewarding as a parent to live like that. I think parenting is the one thing that no one ever wants to hear that they are doing wrong, or not good enough. No one wants criticism on their parenting, no one. But how do I remain friends with her… or do I have to give up on our friendship? It’s just really hard because we’re neighbors… so I can’t exactly avoid her. I feel like confrontation is my only option. Then if she hates me, so be it, but at least I didn’t end the friendship by ignoring her, right? I certainly don’t claim to know it all, but I know that I would be doing a lot of things differently, and I know that my kids are at very least more respectful than hers. Any input from the peanut gallery??

In other news, we went to the Canada day festivities yesterday. A parade, free kids activities, and finally the fireworks. They had these really huge ones go off, 2 of them. They were MASSIVE! And sooooo cool! The Boy asked me at lunch today why I didn’t bring the camera to take a video of it. Good question, my boy, good question. Too bad! Next time. I took a picture when we got home because all 3 kids were asleep in their seats leaning their heads the same way. It was so cute.

Is there any wordpress-ers out there who know how to insert photos without using this stupid gallery thing? I just want to insert photos normally!!

I walked into the kitchen today to find The Baby climbing the stove. The picture is in the gallery above. What a monkey! Guess I’m going to have to keep a closer watch on him. He also keeps trying to scale the ladder to The Boy’s bunk bed. He gets up the first step and then just stands there, but I’m sure it won’t be long before he goes up the whole thing. I’ve never had a climbing baby before! Also, I guess I need to change his name. He’s no longer “the baby” anymore, now that he’s walking almost all the time. He will always be my baby, as I don’t plan to have any more kids, but I’m going to call him Little Man from here on out. FYI! I’m thinking of changing Lil’ Miss’s screen name too, just haven’t come up with anything clever yet, besides THE MENACE. So, stay tuned.

**Edit: It just occurred to me I still had a winter header and page. It’s JULY for goodness sakes!! It’s changed now.