And the prize goes to...

What does Gracie get for finally branching out at school, playing with the toys and making new friends????

Her very own stomach virus... complete with 36 hours (and counting) of high fever and sore throat! Yea!!

A day in the life...

Every month, a local magazine features a working or stay-at-home mom that journals a typical day for her. I thought this would be fun to do sometime. Today should definitely make the cut...

6:45 a.m. I am awakened by a sweet voice saying, "goldbish? goldbish?" That would be Gracie, up an hour earlier than usual, requesting the healthiest of breakfasts. I'm so sleepy, I roll out of bed, give her the goldfish crackers, give Lainey her request of yogurt, and get back in bed for a very short 5 minutes.

6:55 a.m. "MOMMY!! We want to watch Max & Ruby!!" Turn on their show, and start getting ready for the day.

7:30 a.m. Took a calgon bath last night (needed a few minutes of peace) so no need to shower. No washing hair on Tuesdays. No time for that. Put on a little bit of make-up and put my hair in a ponytail. I do try to atleast dress semi-cute to make up for the lack of hairstyle.

7:45 a.m. Join the girls in the kitchen with a bowl of cereal. As part of my recent attempt at a health kick, put some fresh blueberries on top. Not my cup of tea. But I eat them anyway, telling the girls how FUN it is to try new things. They each take a berry and shove it to the bottom of what little yogurt they have left.

8:00 Spend the next 30 minutes gathering their clothes, fighting Gracie to get dressed, reminding Lainey to hurry and put on her gymnastics suit. We are always late... and my goal is to be ON TIME today.

8:30 Head out to the car. Getting us all loaded and buckled in is an event in itself. Finally pull out about 20 till 9. Yea!! We will be on time!!

9:00 Pull into parking lot. Unusually busy, its hard to find a place to park. Oh yeah, voting going on here today. Wonder what they're voting on? (I kid, I kid)

9:05 Run through the 30 mph winds and 40 degree chill... and make it into the gymnastics center. Out of habit, I look up at the clock to see how late we are. Oh yeah... not late today! But I wonder why the clock says 9:05? Its 10:05. Hmmm guess it must be broken. Walk Lainey in, and I don't recognize any of the little tots. Wait a minute. Its not 10:05, is it? Oh. My. Gosh. We are a freakin hour EARLY. We have been coming to the 10:00 class for over a year... what the heck?! I give my sob story to the teacher... she says Lainey can stay... thank you! Oh my gosh, I want to sneak out to my car and avoid all other mommies I will have to admit this to. But I don't. I get caught, and a good laugh is had by all. Deep down I know its funny too, but it was such a beating (as always) to get out the door... we had another HOUR?!

10:00 Head home to change Lainey for school. I let them watch a little tv while I do a little laundry. Lunch plans won't change, even after my major mix-up. I promised Lainey pizza, so....

11:00 Out the door to CiCi's. Very convenient, right next to her school, so no need to rush them eating. We get halfway there. I look in the backseat (I have no idea why) and see we've let her backpack at home. Cuss word under my breath. Lainey thinks its soooo funny we're going back for her backpack. Kids can seriously find the humor in anything.

11:25 Make it into Cici's... get the girls a pizza and myself what they call a salad and a little bit of so-so-pizza. The girls eat it up.. they love the stuff... and are rewarded with a brownie for eating so well.

12:00 Time to go to the restroom before we leave, as Lainey cannot go out to eat without really having to go to the potty. Gracie touches anything and everything in there, so I have to wash both their hands. Gracie sees the games on the way out of the restroom and we leave with her kicking and screaming to play. As always, we're now in a rush and have to get Lainey to school. Sorry Grace!

12:20 Drop Lainey off and head to the grocery store. This has become relatively easy because Gracie loves to ride and request things. She got the chocolate donuts she asked for, and off we head for home.

1:15 I turn on the tv for Gracie to watch one of her little shows... after the hecticness of the morning I need a few minutes to watch a little of one of my shows. Though I know its complete waste of 30 minutes, I love every minute of it.

2:00 Get off my rear, get Gracie a snack, and continue on the laundry. I also check emails and nosy around the internet a bit. Gracie and I play with her Little People.

3:00 Leave a couple minutes early as my fuel light came on coming home from the grocery store. Get gas and head to pick up Lainey.

3:30 Lainey in the car, we head to Target for some soccer shoes for her. The inevitable question, "WHY do you love Target SO much, Mommy?" Well, dear, this time its for YOUR soccer shoes... do you want them or not? She wants them. We go in.

4:00 After wandering around the store for a while, and being reminded we need to get the shoes, we find them. They're black and gray. She wants pink. I have to admit, they weren't the cutest things. I promise her we'll go somewhere else tomorrow and try to find some more girly ones.

4:15 We are now heading home, and the suggestion of a pajama party comes up. I love pajama party days... we change into our pj's, I turn the girls on a movie, and dinner is usually whatever can be eaten in the living room floor. I agree to it, and off we go.

6:00 All in our pj's, Cinderella on the tv, and a cold glass of wine in my right hand. Not a bad way to wind down from the crazy day. I cut the girls some strawberries and peaches. Since they're into the movie, I can sneak fruit in and they won't ever know what hit em. They eat every bite, and are content to lay around till bed time.

7:30 Time to go upstairs and read books. No baths tonight... some nights I just gotta skip!

8:00 Tuck the girls in, we talk about our favorite parts of the day, and I kiss them good night. With any luck, this will stick and I'll only have to go upstairs if someone needs a drink or loses a stuffed animal under the 100's they sleep with. Lots of giggling going on, but as long as they are in bed and not tackling each other, they can giggle all they want. Any more wine and I'll be giggling too.

8:15 Get all situated in bed to watch my Tuesday shows... big brother, american idol, millionaire matchmaker. Yes, all a waste of my life, I am aware. :) I save all chores for during the day... after all, that is my job, isn't it?! (According to Jeff) Once they're in bed, so am I!


Riveting, isn't it? I'm a little long-winded, and I even left some gaps as I'm getting tired of typing!

When it rains...

Jeff and I have spent the last several Saturdays with not a thing to do. With our crazy weekday schedule of two completely different school schedules, my two nights of tutoring, his one night of church responsibilities, and all the other stuff in-between... we enjoy our lazy Saturday mornings just lounging around, letting the girls watch way too much tv. Well, yesterday that all changed as we actually had TOO much to do... and as hectic as we thought it would be to sqeeze it all in... it was way more fun than I had anticipated. Some highlights...

First up was Lainey's first soccer practice. I have to say, for the past 4 years, we drive by the soccer playing fields and just shake our heads at all of "those" parents who spend their Saturdays at their kids' soccer games. "Not us," we say, "We won't ever spend our weekends that way!" Um, yeah, just like all the things we said we'd never do as parents... we are eating our words. For most of her life, Lainey has loved kicking a soccer ball around. So much to the point that her teacher at school said we should really look into placing her on a team. After Lainey's resounding "YES!" that she would like to give it a try, I signed her up and the first practice was yesterday. I think it was a little different than she had thought it would be, as she was much more nervous about the whole thing once we got there. In her defense, it could be that she, at best, came up to the other girls' shoulders. She looked so little compared to most of the other girls. And Lainey is tall for her age. We decided those girls must be closer to 6... so Lainey's going to have to step it up so she can hang! Lots of practice at home is in her (and my) future. Anyway, having said all this, the highlight of the practice was one of the moms who has... for the last 24 hours anyway... given Jeff something to hang over my head. It was colder on the fields than I had anticipated, so I left my jacket in the car. We are all standing there and I comment to my friend Julie how cold it is. Jeff chimes in with an offer to go get my jacket out of the car. I tell him "No, I think I"ll be alright."... and don't think anything else of it. Well, this very nice mommy beside us says, "Oh my gosh, that was sooooo nice. My husband would never have offered to go get me my coat! He would have told me to go get it myself! Or that that's what I get for leaving it in the car. He never would have gone to get it for me!" Yes, she really did say all this. On and on. Within Jeff's earshot. Now, I do know that this was nice of him to offer. And after she said that, I realized that I hadn't really thanked him for offering, and perhaps I should. So I did. That wasn't a big deal, I never thought about it again. But Jeff has. How many times since her comments has he brought it up? Tooting his own horn over how thoughtful he is? I can't even count. I keep having to remind him that I do many, many nice things for him too... and will be sure to mention one in front of this new soccer mommy who probably thinks I am the most unappreciative thing around!

After soccer, we rush off to the Sesame Street show. First, must grab drive-thru for the girls. Make the 45-minute drive with plenty of time to spare, and change them out in the car. Oh yeah, after we paid the $12 parking fee. Is it just me, or did we totally get bent over on that deal? Maybe I need to get out more, or maybe I don't since I obviously need to take on yet another job to pay for all this entertainment! Anyway, we get into the auditorium and are easily outnumbered by all the little people running around with their $4 cotton candy and $15 spinners. Yes, I do know how much they cost because my girls had to have both after seeing the smiling faces of all other 1000 children with cotton candy and spinners. I did draw the line, though, on the $10 elmo balloons. I want my kids to enjoy themselves, but within reason! And I do pity the poor parents who paid the $10 for the balloon, only to watch it float to the very top of the auditorium. And I also pity the two mommies I saw on the way out to the car whose balloons popped on a sticking out part of the fence. You could see it in their eyes. It made them sick. Anyway, back to the show. Considering we were only 6 rows from the front, the girls did great. The first 15 minutes were a little nerve-racking, as Big Bird and Elmo that close-up even scared me just a little! But they really got into it, and it was fun to see. Don't ask me how many times Jeff and I made goofy grins at each other b/c we could tell they were having so much fun. (He'll kill me for saying that.)

After the show we met up with some friends who had also taken their little one to the show (hi LA and N!) and shared a couple cold ones over good mexican food (what else?). It was a perfect way to wind down from the day. It felt so late as we were heading home, and as we passed a country bar we had gone to when we were dating, I told Jeff that they must be closed down now b/c there were no cars there. Amanda, its only 6:45. Oh yeah. It feels like 10:45. Dang, we're old.

Closing these little stories of mine has never been my strong suit. I prefer to open, write a little, then get lazy on the closing. This one will be no exception, especially since it is such a long post... is anyone still even with me?! Have a great week... I will be back soon!

I've been duped!

... by my easy-going/eager to please/always the rule-follower 4 year old. I've been having the most frustrating battle with Lainey lately... over taking her vitamin. Flintstones, no less. The same vitamin my sister and I almost od'd on when we were tots because we thought they were sooooo yummy.

Long story short, we have been having this battle for weeks, maybe even months. She just doesn't like them. To the point that she's agreed to eat broccoli every day if it means she can avoid the vitamin. Funny, that hasn't come to fruition either. Anyway, this morning I had had it with watching her flick it around her plate, gag on it and chase it with milk, etc. So when she asked for her second waffle, I told her she could have it as soon as she ate her vitamin. After much whining, she asked if she could pleeeeease have another color b/c I alllllways give her a pink one. Fine, I'll eat the pink one, here's a purple. I leave the room for 1 minute, no more, and come back to her telling me she ate it and she's ready for her next waffle. I knew this was too good to be true. I hadn't heard her gagging it down, whining, crying... We had a few words, all of which I won't even share, and the truth came out.

"Well, Mommy, maybe its under the couch."

I was speechless. You, Lainey, lied to me, and hid it under the couch?! Not you!! Yes, her. I bee-lined for the bottle of flintstone's, gave her another, and told her I would stand there till she ate it. We may miss gymnastics today, maybe even school, till she ate it. (Of course I was hoping she wouldn't call my bluff there!) Sure enough, she gagged it down and chased it with milk. After some time had passed and we made our ammends, I told her she had two choices. Either go retrieve the vitamin from under the couch and throw it away, or we would tell Daddy about it and he could go get it from under the couch. She ran to the couch. The far end, where I never would have looked. I have to admit, it was kind of cute seeing her being so sneaky. Until she came back with it. I mean them. THREE vitamins. She's been doing this for 3 days!!! I couldn't even get on to her at that point. I was so blown away that she was so sneaky... only b/c she lives to please, and hardly ever, ever disobeys. Deep, and I mean deep down inside, I was a little tickled that she did break a rule and got by with it for a little while. I would never let her know this, but for her benefit I just shook my head and had her throw them away. And then told Jeff the story as quick as I could.... I knew he wouldn't believe it either... and once he did, he would love it too.

So there you have it... hiding vitamins under the couch today... sneaking out of the house tomorrow. I'll look back on this someday and wish hiding vitamins from me was ALL she was doing behind my back!

The Wiggles Challenge... and other stuff

Gracie will soon be 3, and she is set on having a Wiggles party. I was able to bypass the Wiggles w/ Lainey... I don't think she even knew what they were until (somehow) Gracie discovered them. When you ask her what she wants for her birthday, all she can say is "Wiggles!" So there you have it, we will have a Wiggles party. Which wouldn't be worth even mentioning, if these 4 dudes from Australia weren't so hard to find! I've been busy bidding on ebay, getting at least the bare minimum to make her little party a success. One highlight for me is that she didn't pick Dora. I've done Dora 2 years in a row at Lainey's request, and I'm just about out of ideas on making it original. So ADIOS, Dora cake pan!

I was speechless for at least a little while earlier today. I was getting a manicure, and two high school seniors who looked and talked like they should be college seniors, discussed very openly their big night out last night. This wasn't a big deal, until they started talking about who the latest people in their little group are to have STD's. (Their words exactly) They talked about it like it was an everyday occurence. I tried not to eaves drop, but you mention STD's and OOOOH GROSS in a manicure place, and my ears perk up. Writing what they said won't do it justice, so I won't try. Their inflections on words and how they pause every other sentence to check a text message, it is just not the same if you don't hear me say it. But I'll give you a summary. In a nut shell, Jordan got an STD from Natalie... definitely not from Ashley because she broke up with him before he got it... and he won't tell what it is exactly as his mom doesn't want people to know... but she's pretty sure its AIDS or something "gross" like that. Um. Yeah. Something gross like that. Please, please, please don't let my girls grow up if this is how it is! And is it too much to ask that if they do grow up to be what is unfortunately probably "the norm" these days, please let them have the respect and courtesy not to talk about it while you're rubbing elbows with 10 other women (mostly older women) getting their nails done! Keep that information to yourself, please! I wish this weren't all true, but this stuff is too good to make up.

No, Gracie isn't potty trained, and we are nowhere closer than we were a week ago. Or a year ago for that matter. I didn't even try. Jeff gave it one shot each day, but I think he's beat-down on the idea too. She's so very stubborn, and we are so very tired... not a good combination for success!

Here we go, getting ready for another crazy week. It was a fun weekend that went by way too fast. Getting ready now for Sesame Street Live next weekend. Don't rush to grow up too fast, kids. Aerosmith concert one day, and the next thing you know you're getting excited to go see Elmo dance around onstage. I really do need to get out more.

Heart Day

Well lets see... I've been out of the loop for over a week now... this abstaining from both target and sweets has really got me down! Not really, but even though I have cut out the two, there is still....no....time.

Valentine's Day was different - in a good way - this year. Instead of wondering days in advance what, or if, Jeff would do anything, it was all about the girls. Lainey had been looking forward to it since Christmas, and they had really talked it up at her school. She was counting down the days. Honestly, I was glad to see it come and go so we could stop talking about valentine's day for a while! When we got home from picking her up, Jeff had put each of them a balloon on their chairs and a little cupcake for each of them. You would have thought Santa had come! I wish he could have seen it, but he was on a call. Lainey first gave me all the credit for the goodies, but I had to quickly fess up that it wasn't me. After all, there was a *little* something at mommy's seat too. Anyway, as they are sitting there, eating what was probably their 18th cup of sugar for the day, she said, "I think this is the best surprise ever." Ahhhhhh.

Then today, when she got in the car from school, she quickly opened her backpack; said she had a surprise in it. Oh really, for who I ask her? For Daddy and Gracie! Do the mommies always get the shaft or what???

Well, all are asleep so I better go join them. Gracie has improved greatly on her sleeping. Only one time of night waking this entire week. Yea! Jeff says tomorrow is the big day for potty training. Gracie has already said NO. Good thing I've got a few plans away from the house... I don't care to see how that's going to go down!

My (not so) Fat Tuesday

In the last month or so, we have started going to church regularly again. I'm ashamed to say just how long we didn't go regulary, so I won't. For quite some time, it turned into a wrestling match... trying to keep the girls from bothering the people around us, running the aisles, and spilling goldfish at our feet. I have never really cared for the daycare there, so we always took them with us. Whether it was more of a hassle b/c of the girls young ages, or we were just too lazy, we took a hiatus. However, in the last month we haven't missed yet and its been kind of nice. The girls are great, as long as we feed them and give them lots to color. Okay, so I've strayed just a but in what I was going to talk about, but it is related I promise! Since we've been going to church, I knew exactly when ash wednesday would be this year. Normally I don't know till I get the phone call from my mom the day of... "You do know what today is, don't you?" Uh-huh.

I decided this year, for the first time ever, to give up something I really really like and go all out for fat tuesday. This year I decided to give up sweets. Not that I'm even a big fan of sweets, but lately I've been eating more than my fair share, and its starting to show. Still can't shake those damn holiday pounds. The girls get one sweet treat every day, and I've been sneaking bites here and there. Or two or three bites. Of oreos. And ice cream. Hello fat. So, in my somewhat selfish motive to lose a few pounds, I decided this would be my motivation to do it. I had great plans for fat tuesday. Cookie dough. Brownie batter. Baskin Robbins peanut butter chocolate ice cream. Those are my 3 faves. I was going to go all out, make myself sick about it, then give it up for 40 days!! About 4 a.m. tuesday morning, someone else had other ideas.

I was awakened to Lainey being awakened by the stomach bug we've been hearing so much about. Poor thing was up for the next few hours not able to keep anything down. This went on allll day Tuesday. I have a tremendous amount of mommy guilt over lots of things, and stealing away from my very sick child to go make some cookie dough... I just couldn't do it! The fact that she was sick and couldn't eat some too didn't help my conscience. She LOVES sweets. SO... I didn't have my fat tuesday, my big hurrah, that I had planned. However, once all was quiet that night and she was tucked neatly in my bed, I snuck into the kitchen to get the carton of baskin robbins... I HAD to have a little something after all. As I was eating it, I was trying not to think of where the fat and calories would be going. I loved every bite. Then I threw it away. There was enough left for one more bowl, and I couldn't have that sitting around in my freezer, teasing me. Tempting me. I hear that it takes about 21 days to break a habit, and I hope these 3 weeks pass quickly enough that I can break the habit. No more just one oreo while the girls eat theirs. And no more chocolate peanut butter ice cream in the house... ever! I'm the only one who likes it anyway, so we don't need it!

So, my fat tuesday didn't end up being nearly as big of a sugar party as I had planned, but that's okay. Hopefully the scale will thank me for it. The girls did have a cookie today, and I passed. It was actually easy. Just 38 (or is it 39?!) more days to go!

I might just be addicted...

It was recently brought to my attention, first by a very smart 4-year old, then by my husband, that I might have a problem. I first started noticing something might be up last week, when I told Lainey where we would be stopping in after school, and she replied, "Not TARGET AGAIN!!! Mommy, can I PLEASE stay in the car???!!!"

Gasp! You, my little flesh and blood, don't want to go into Target?! How can this be??

Yes friends, maybe just maybe, I am addicted to Target.

I talked her into running in very quickly with me with the promise of a cookie and popcorn, and just yesterday decided to look at my charge card online to see where in the world she came up with the idea that we go to Target too often. Lets just say, what I saw nearly brought tears to my eyes! Out of 30 or so transactions this past month, about half were from there. Doesn't sound like much, till you see that that's in about a 4 week time span. Atleast 15 trips to target. And truth be told, I don't always buy something when I go in, so I definitely went more than 15 times. Sad, sad, sad!

As long as I'm admitting my problem, I might as well go all out. On one particular day, there were 4, yes FOUR, transactions. Now, in my defense, two were from the concession area... which is how I get the girls to sit oh so nicely in the basket for hours at a time. $1 popcorn and fifty-cent cookies, what a bargain for the time it buys me.

What do I possibly buy, and spend practically alllll my tutoring money on? Sadly, nothing I can't live without. Usually, new workout clothes... I like to buy these since I don't currently buy work clothes, and Target has some cute ones. I love the kids clothes and almost always buy the girls something. Other than that, maybe a few little toys or books here and there, an outfit or two, and whatever else I see that I think I just have to have. (If the price is right... I can be a real cheap-o... which is why my balance at Target blows my mind!)

Having said all that, I made the decision last night that I will be banning myself for a week. Its out of hand! Actually, I looked at the bill yesterday afternoon... then made one more quick trip there to get Lainey a box of beads that she had been asking for and was promised for good behavior. THEN, no more visits for a week!

I will miss it, but I need to do this. Just as badly as Britney needs to stay in the psych ward! Wish me luck. :)