These days

Today was one of those days.

This is what my day looked like:

1am--Can't sleep, up watching a horrible show called "Excused"-- Think Blind Date, only douchier--is that even a word? **Edit, "douchier" not recognized by spell check.

2am--Fall in and out of sleep

5am--Winnie our Shih Tzu starts barking. I run downstairs to let her out before she wakes the whole house. I open her kennel and she doesn't move. Instead of going out, she looks up at me with a look that says, "Just kidding!" I am not amused. I am not a morning person. If you wake me up too early, I may cut you---you've been warned.

5:05am--Get back upstairs and stub my toe on the bed frame. Yell obscenities that wake my husband. Mumble an apology and fall back asleep.

6:30am--Alarm goes off. I go to wake F up for school and realize that he's wet the bed.

6:35am--Put sheets in the washer.

6:40am--Get F dressed/Make his breakfast/Remind him to put on his shoes/Fill his water bottle/Remind him to eat his breakfast for the next 5 minutes

6:45am--Husband comes down the stairs, instructs me to go back to bed. I kiss him and F goodbye and go back upstairs to try to get some sleep

6:47am--Neighbors dogs all start barking. ALL start barking.

7:30am--Finally drift off to sleep

8:00am--My alarm goes off

8:05am--Quick shower. While in the shower I hear the garbage trucks and hope my husband remembered to put out the trash.I then realize I had trash in the garage that my husband didn't know about.

8:25am--Get kids fed/dressed/snacks packed/Break up fights between M and J.

9:25am--Load kids in the car to go to pick up F

9:30am--Pick up F

9:40am--Stop at Starbucks because I need a "treat"

9:45am--Arrive at M's ballet class

9:46am--M doesn't want to do ballet and goes in and out of ballet class/Boys fight/M cries

10:15am--We leave ballet

10:30am--We get home and I unlock the front door. F comes up to tell me that J called him a jerk.

10:31am--Ask J about it and he says he called F a jerk bc F hit him at ballet. F calls J a jerk bc J hit him last night

10:32am--Everyone cries

10:45am--We pull ourselves together for an early lunch/nap. J can't pull it together so he skips lunch and takes an early nap.

As you can see, the first part of my day was a little less than ideal. Instead of being frustrated or annoyed with today, I am going to choose to be grateful.

I am grateful for a television.
I am grateful for a dog (questionable).
I am grateful for F and that he has a bed to wet with sheets to wash and a machine to wash them in. I am grateful that we have food even if he doesn't want to eat it and that he has a school to go to.
I am grateful for my husband who sends me back to bed in the morning and goes to work for our family each day and who did remember to put out the trash!
I am grateful for garbage pick-up.
I am grateful for a bed to stub my toe on and for a home in a neighborhood that has barking dogs in it.
I am grateful for ballet classes that my daughter normally enjoys.
I am grateful for 3 children who have language skills and muscle coordination--even if they are not using them kindly.

I am grateful, because I am blessed.

Two by Four

I have decided that I want to get fit again. I want to be healthy for my kids. I want to be healthy for myself. I want to be sexy, I mean healthy for my husband. Most importantly, I don't want to become a zombie. 'Cause let's face it, when the Zombie Apocalypse comes (and it will) the fatties are gonna be the first to go.

Okay, I know I am not really a "fatty". Despite what my thoughts may be about my current appearance, I can in fact fit through the kitchen door. I am probably average in weight right now, but I would like to be more toned and to eat healthier.

I always say that I am going to get fit. I start off pretty strong and then things taper off. I don't really have any excuses except that I'm pretty lazy, don't like to exercise and I like to eat junk food. Wait, those all seem like perfectly valid excuses...Well, they're not going to be anymore. I'm going to kick my own butt into shape.

I think I am going to start running again and maybe try to eat a vegetable. Who's with me?

Moms Be Shoppin'

I love shopping. I love to buy gifts for other people. I love to help other people pick out things. I love to window shop. I love to shop online.

A new pair of shoes, or a new dress can always put me in a good mood. My sister used to call it my "retail therapy."

As a single girl, I would shop every payday and if things got a little out of hand, I would just eat PB&J's til the next payday.

As a D.I.N.K. I think I went shopping like every day. I didn't always buy something...wait--yeah I totally did. I always bought something, even if it was just socks.

Having three kids means that if I shop, I feel I have to buy for all three of them.

Having a daughter means that I just want to buy everything. Seriously, have you seen how cute little girl's clothes are?

It doesn't help that M loves clothes and accessories as much as I do. If she is misbehaving, I'll threaten to take her hair bow or purse away. It almost always results in her doing a complete 180.

The boys love clothes too right now. I am so enjoying being that terrible mom that matches her son's clothes which makes everyone ask if they are twins despite their age/height differences. I can't help it. It's just so stinkin' cute.

I have also been known to coordinate M's and my outfits. If I can figure out what William is wearing, I may try to match the whole family. I may have a problem here. Hey, I figure they're only going to be little for a short time and that I may as well enjoy it while I can.

I do have some rules for shopping though. I only buy items for myself if they are on sale and if I am indifferent to something I carry it in my hand and not in the basket. I like to give it a chance to bond with me, to see if we're going to be friends. If I am about to checkout and I'm just not feelin' it, then I put it back.

I used to just buy the item anyway and then say I'd take it back and then I never would. I ended up with a buncha stuff and a broken heart--I trusted those items. I brought them into my home!

I know as mom's we're always trying to find great products. I am going to start posting a few reviews or favorite things. These posts will be from clothes, to cleaning products, make up, furniture, etc. As I said, I love shopping :) Stay tuned!

'Member When I Said There Would Be PG-13 Posts?

I was raised in such a way that my husband refers to me as a "free range" child. My parents both worked and we were given a lot of freedom. Mostly, this just meant that as a kid I watched way too much TV. Which also meant that between all of the television watching and the lack of sex education from my parents, I was left to form my own thoughts about what love and sex were.

I grew up thinking that one day I would meet a boy. A boy who would spot my wavy locks of Prell body enhanced hair from across the amusement park. I would smile at him and he would see my gleaming white teeth courtesy of my Close-Up toothpaste. As he approached he would notice my lack of body odor thanks to my Arrid Extra Dry deodorant. This boy would buy me a Coca-Cola and demonstrate his talents by winning me a giant teddy bear. He'd then offer me a stick of Big Red gum, thus indicating that he wanted to kiss me. Underneath the Ferris wheel lights he would lean in and right there in front of God and that giant teddy bear he would squish his face into mine.

Then we'd get married. On our wedding night we would take off our clothes climb into bed and squish our faces together some more. And then maybe we'd have a baby or something.

As you can see, my views of love and sex were pretty tame. I had no idea that there was more to it. I knew that there was mutual attraction, courting, removal of clothing, and to me, that was about it. In fact, I didn't understand that there was any exchange of fluids or body parts until I was much older.

Living in a house full of sisters, my knowledge of male anatomy was limited to what I saw when I looked down my Ken doll's pants. Imagine my surprise when in middle school my girlfriend got her hands on a Playgirl magazine. Which by the way, is not just a magazine of boys with their shirts off like on the posters they sold at Spencer's. There are p-e-n-i-s-es in that magazine...like I think that's all that's in that magazine. At least that's all I saw the one time I ever looked at one. The magazine, not a penis.

Fast forward through some awkward dating years and I'm a married woman with a very different view about what love and sex are. I now understand what all of the hoopla is about. Love and sex are wonderful. But, they are not not interchangeable. As I said I had a pretty tame view about love and sex, but by today's standards I was completely naive.

We now live in a world where you see more flesh and innuendo in a hamburger commercial than I ever saw on late night television as a kid. Nowadays, watching TV before late night isn't even safe, because the advertisements for the shows that are coming on in a few hours leave little to the imagination. I've already addressed what I think these messages are doing to our children, but what are they doing to our husbands?

Let me first say that my husband has never ever given me reason to doubt his faithfulness, nor have I to him. However, knowing that there are constant temptations--not just on television, but in the real world, and given that under the right circumstances anyone can be tempted. We have found that by enforcing one rule, we have effectively eliminated what could be the biggest threat to our marriage. Wanna know what that rule is? My husband and I do not hang out with members of the opposite sex alone. That's all there is to it, really it's not profound. It's simple, yet it's extremely effective.

It's actually not even a very difficult rule to follow because most of our friends are married and frankly, we do not keep many single friends. It's not just because at our age we meet more couples than singles, but because as a single person I think it's hard to understand the sacredness of marriage and to keep appropriate boundaries.

Some may find this "rule" extreme, but when you consider what's at stake, we're not willing to take any chances.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone!

Smells Like Teen Spirit with a Hint of Racism

I grew up in a small town that was primarily Caucasian. I think there were one and a half African-American families and I believe we were the only AmerAsian family for a while. I remember my nicknames were things like "Sammi the Siamese Cat" and "Eggroll." When I read aloud in class kids would say, "Ching chong! We can't understand you because you don't speak American!"

I also remember being serenaded with the words, "And we don't know what we're singing 'cause Sammi is Korean" sung to the tune of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.

I can laugh about it now, because it really is quite humorous and also demonstrates their ignorance. I'm not Siamese or Korean and we speak English, not "American".

That's part of being a kid, though. As a kid, you are ignorant. I made fun of kids too. I made fun of a girl for having red hair and I made fun of a kid who smelled bad. I'm not proud. It's just proof that kids are a buncha jerks and make fun of other kids. I would have been made fun of had I been fat, worn glasses, etc.

It just so happens that I was teased relentlessly over being a different color and to me because I was different, I was ugly. Sadly, it's far worse now than it ever has been.

As a mother, it really strikes a chord with me that we are constantly bombarded with images of of sex and perfection. We are teaching our children that if you do not look a certain way, that you have no place in society. We are teaching a daughters from a young age to be admired for their bodies and encouraging them to show more and more skin. We are teaching our son's to have unrealistic expectations about what women should look like and what they should be used for.

We parents only have this small amount of time that our children are innocent. There is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve their innocence by instilling in them values that may contradict societal norms. My children know that they are beautiful, they are (and it's not bragging because I didn't make them!) But they also know that their self worth is not measured by their beauty.

Pretty Is As Pretty Does

This article really has my thoughts jumbling around in my head. I decided that the best way for me to organize them would be to break them down into separate posts. I am thinking I will look at it from different perspectives, say as a woman, wife, mother, etc.

Before we get too deep into this, I feel it appropriate to give fair warning as some of these posts will get deeply personal and some will be on the PG13 scale level.

You've been warned.

Most of the time this blog will be upbeat and meant to be humorous but sometimes I try to stifle my urge to make everything a joke--don't worry it doesn't happen often.

Also, these are just my opinions and my thoughts so if you are looking for qualifications, you won't find any. What qualifies me to speak on these matters is what qualifies an elephant born in a tree to be a bird.

And while I'm here, if you haven't noticed--I ain't the most elloquencial and edumacated writer, so no taking digs at my grammar or punctuation, please. Most of these are posts are written with children underfoot, or while they are napping so I'm working fast to finish before they wake up.

Again, You've been warned!

Okay, let's get started...

As a woman--and I know I am one because I've seen me naked. I can tell you that though my initial reaction to this article was to mock it, "Oh no, I'm too pretty! My wallet is too small for my hundred dollar bills and my diamond shoes scuff when I walk in them!" Immediately, though my thoughts shifted to the old adage, "Pretty is as pretty does."

You see, never once in this article does Samantha Brick really address how she treats other women. Is she kind to them? Is she maybe a little too flirty with their husbands or boyfriends? She admits that her looks have helped her advance. Do other women see this as her using her sexuality to advance? Is there value or merit to her work or is she just skating by on her good looks? Do they feel she is flaunting her beauty and trying to make them feel insecure?

Some of what Samantha Brick may be experiencing is probably related to the projections of other women's insecurities onto her. Which can happen in any friendship with our keeping up with the Jones' mentality. Is Samantha the type of woman who sees that and tries to accommodate or exploit those feelings?

I had a friend who I secretly referred to as "The One-Upper" because everything I did, she did better. It used to really make me angry because I never felt I could share good news with her without her raining on my parade. You notice, I wrote that I "had" a friend. We're not friends anymore. Maybe Samantha is that friend. A friend who makes you feel bad about yourself isn't a friend and certainly not someone you make one of your bridesmaids.

Obviously, I don't know this woman, but she certainly comes across as conceited and narcissistic in her article. Judging from the pictures I've seen I would agree that Samantha Brick is attractive, but just because someone is good looking, does not mean that they are a good person.

Oh, I just realized that this one was more G than PG so, cat anus, cat anus, cat anus. That should cover it.