The LYOCBWS Law

I think I should approach Congress about a Leave Your Other Children Behind When Shopping law. Not only for other shoppers' sake, but the mother and her little outlaws.

It is hard enough shopping for groceries with one child, but taking TWO kids under the age of 4 to a dress shop? I was and it was insane.

Husband has his annual company retreat this Friday night. That means it is super sassy involving tricked up drinks and unrecognizable tiny food. I haven't bought a new dress in probably 4 years. (Yikes, writing that makes me sound even more pathetic!)

With time crunching on me, I dragged my poor darlings to Dillard's. And Banana Republic, followed by Ann Taylor. Then I gave up and took them somewhere I could bribe them with toys. TJ Maxx.

I don't believe in child leashes, or child muzzles, but yesterday both would've been helpful. I don't think I ever tried on a dress completely. I was too busy dragging tiny bodies from under the dressing room stalls or curtains. Every time Ava would see my dress start to come off, she'd screech out "Mama Meeyuk!" Bella wanted to chat with the dressing room attendants about the clothes, which meant she was peeking outside the stall every nano-second, leaving everyone privy to my half-dressed self.

CRAZY.

I made it through. Even long enough to zoom in on some super cute patent leather heels. However, I told Husband that if he wants me to look like a normal human being tomorrow evening, he'd better work a half day to keep the monkeys at bay.

I will definitely have some cheese with that wine! :)

Know Your Territory

Bella had a birthday celebration day at school today. I sent M&M cookies with festive napkins for all her friends. They sang Happy Birthday to her and she got to wear the Birthday Crown all day. Her birthday is in June. Can you imagine her confusion?

Confusion or not, she apparently turned into a birthday brat. When I picked her up at school, she was just waking up and asked to color, as the other kids were doing.

Her teacher said no. Em. Okay and why?

Teacher went on to explain how much Bella had misbehaved at naptime. That she refused to lay down and be quiet. The kids don't have to sleep but they do have to lay on their mats. Apparently, Bella was quite belligerent about it.

I took wailing Bella from class and we started to leave when I thought how this wasn't a good way to leave school. We talked a bit and agreed she should apologize.

Bella hugged both of her teachers and apologized for misbehaving. They hugged her back and told her they love her and want her to have happy days.

Not missing a beat, Bella said, "So can I color now?"

Just as quickly, Teacher chirped, "Maybe Thursday!"

Ew. That didn't go over well. We went on our wailing way to the car.

Hey, it is Teacher's territory, not mine. Her tough love is what has helped Bella most during this past year of school. Tough love for me too...

Our Home Is A Storage Unit

We are finally FINALLY going to put our house on the market. This is huge for us. Emotional, exciting and scary.

Nearly 8 years ago, a wonderful woman (Em) died and left us her home with everything in it. Everything. Not only that, but everything her best friend (Dee) who died 2 years before left HER. They were major packrats as well as collectors. We have collections ranging from stamps to belt buckles to books!

So this has been a crazy blessing, if there's such a thing. It has resulted in 7 years of sifting, sorting and boxing up. We've donated at least 25 truckloads to the Salvation Army and other charities!

How many truckloads of trash? Not much. Because we simply cannot decide what to do with all this! What on Earth does one do with other people's memories and treasures?

Our biggest issue seems to be finding family who will take the personal items of either women. Dee was an only child, Em just has a sister-in-law who only wants Em's brother's things. So that leaves us with boxes and boxes of photo albums, slides and movie reels.

It leaves me a little sad for both ladies. Neither had children (they viewed my husband as their own, in a way). However, they were really big into geneology, family history and family memories. I already donated all their geneology work back to the Geneological Society, so future seekers can find the research these women so diligently put together. There are numerous awards for both women. Who wants that though? I can't just throw it all away!

I have a nagging feeling that I must make sure everything in this house that we do not want to keep is carefully distributed to those who will continue to care for it.

Any suggestions? Dee's family seems to be the most difficult to find. Do we post something somewhere about it? Do we keep hanging on to her things? We have to do what is right!

***UPDATE***

Seriously, as I was finishing this up, my mother-in-law was able to locate Em's cousin! That is incredible! Whew!!! But we've still got Dee's stuff...

Seeing Is Believing

Or is it?

We have a very lovely, elegant Christian woman neighbor named Eve. Fitting, right?

Eve and her husband own a funeral home. They are very involved in their church and the community. I know this because she's always trying to recruit us to her gospel church. Eh, no thank you. I like to worship while mumbling, not shouting.

One early evening I saw a woman getting out of Eve's car. She looked like a cross between Tina Turner, Cher and Scary Spice. I couldn't help but stare and then she waved at me. No, wait, she was waving me over to her. As I got closer, it was Eve! Huge crazy black and gray striped wig, very loud leopard print rocker outfit, heels higher than stilts. She was waving some Emmy looking thing at me and proudly exclaiming she'd won Best Director. Ooookay.

Now when I see gentle Eve plucking weeds from her flower beds, I can't help but stare in bewilderment all over again. You truly never should believe in just what (or who) you see at that moment.

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As a mother, seeing is believing as well, right? I always thought that but as my kids get older and weirder things happen with them, I know that saying does not apply to children.

Ava had some strange blister thing going on her lip yesterday. I called the nurse to see what I could or should do. She had me come in to make sure no blisters were in Ava's throat.

After meeting with Dr. CurlyQ, there was immediate concern over tiny pinpoint dots all over Ava's left cheek. There was a rush on blood tests to determine if the petechiae (broken blood vessels) were caused by a number of things, the worst being Meningococcemia or Leukemia!

WHA?!!

That made for a VERY long day. Ava had the displeasure of her first needle in the arm to draw what appeared to be half the blood she owns and I had to hound the doctor's office all afternoon for the results. My mind was swirling from "It is nothing we can't handle" to "OMG, how are we going to deal with this?"

Thankfully, Ava is fine. Perhaps she broke those blood vessels by coughing too hard. Or it could be she was on the tail end of a virus (which I had last week) and it stressed her body.

How could I not know my child had a virus, you ask? Well, Bella had Strep a month ago and the only reason I thought anything was wrong is because that dangly thing in the back of her throat was in a swollen tonsil sandwich.

Part of me feels like a bad mom for not noticing things earlier. The other feels like I over-react and my kids are getting to know Dr. CurlyQ so well that she may one day be invited to their weddings.

I am learning that what you see isn't always what you believe it to be. Politics should have taught us all that! *snort*

I do want to say though...if you ever see pinpoint dots that look like blood, either purple or red, please take your little one to the doctor immediately. Though if your kid has just been finger painting, might check those speckles first. :)

Life In Pictures

A photo journal of the past week. ONE WEEK.

I'm exhausted :)

Family Reunion

Bella Scarfs Homemade Ice Cream

Ava Passes Out After Hoovering Homemade Ice Cream

Grandma's House

My Lil' Ladykins

Three Going on 13

Mayfest

Tea for Three....Wheeeeeeeeeeee!

Ava LOVED the rides at Mayfest. See the wheel she's gripping? She wouldn't let go when the ride was over. Lucky me got to pry her fat little fingers off, legs kicking, tears streaming while she wailed, "Weddy! Go! Weddy! Mah-meeeeeeee! Wide 'gin!"

She did the same thing on the Carousel (the pics from that were too scary to post) and the miniature train (no evidence of me crammed into a midget choo-choo, sorry).

My advice on festivals: Just don't look the Carny in the eyes.

Where Am I?

Oh my gosh! It has been so long since I've posted. That's weird because almost nightly I lay in bed thinking about that day's worth of blogging material.

Hubby and I had our first real date since Ava was born. It was AWESOME. We celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage with a fancy schmancy dinner complete with me in a dress and heels. I even drank a glass of wine which left my nose numb and my chatter giggly.

The highlight of the evening, other than uber romance, was the preteen boy who maybe didn't think I saw him in the window as he passed by and made goofy faces. His mom was horrified and apologized profusely which was cute.

Then we had a family reunion at a beautiful lake. The kids played until they couldn't play anymore and we took the Pinto of barges on a mini-tour of the water. I swear it was a trailer attached to two floating devices and a dinky motor. We had to sit close to the back so as not to appear we'd gone down Splash Mountain even after the snail's pace poke about the lake.

This past Monday, my girls and I drove to help take care of my mom. Let me take a moment to laugh about that...

First of all, my mom is a rock. She is the most determined human being I know. She had major surgery two weeks ago and she is kicking butt (slowly) in recovering. So how helpful was I? I got DOG SICK on Tues. I couldn't function. It was ridiculous! My mom proved once again who's boss and took care of her granddaughters as well as her kid.

I have to admit, selfish as it may seem, I enjoyed having my mommy take care of me! The next day was much better and I got to help her out which is good because I felt lame-O.

That brings us to today. We're back home, doing mountains of laundry and preparing to begin our journey into selling our home. Egads. That makes me excited as well as want to throw up.

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Kid Bits


At my grandmother's house for a visit yesterday, Bella pulled off the brown armchair cover and placed it on her head. Her face beaming, she exclaimed, "Mommy! Look! I'm Jesus!"

Fortunely, my grandmother found this to be cute and not blasphemous.


Parent Tip


If you simply must pull over onto the side of the road so your toddler can pee, I do not recommend choosing a patch of beautiful wildflowers to do so. Your toddler will squirm and squeal with glee trying to pick a flower while relieving herself all over your shoe (or toes in sandals, as it were).

Also, this all leads a 19 month old to believe she's getting jerked around because she's strapped into her carseat like a straight jacket while her sister gets to pick pretty flowers in the sunshine. Screaming will undoubtedly continue well past the time you leave the scene of your crime.

Big, But Not SOOO Big

Bella: Mom! What's that smeyul? (she has a Southern drawl at times)

Me: What smell? I don't smell anything.

Bella (waving unopened chocolate chip granola bar at me): Oh! I guess it must be THIS. We should open it and see!

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Bella got an invite from Austin in class. She doesn't particularly like him but I thought I'd check.

Me: Do you play with Austin? Is he your friend?

Bella: No. I don't play with him. Well, sometimes I play with him but I don't like him.

She laughed.

Bella: That doesn't make sense! I said I don't like him but I play with him! (rolls her eyes and chuckles, walking away)


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Bella had some fandangled exercise program at school. That involved loads of parents with video cameras there to capture their angel's 2 seconds of fame. After an entertaining rendition of Hokey Pokey, Bella and her class had to sit on the sidelines with their teachers for another 35 minutes. Do you realize how long 35 minutes is to a kid, especially when she can see her parents on the other side of the room?

You are bound to get some blubbering tears. I could only watch it unfold from where I was. All cheerful and proud of her performance, waving gleefully at us, then 20 minutes ticked by and boredom set in as other kids did their exercise show. Then the realization that her mama was over there holding baby sister and her beloved daddy was there too.

Wait a minute! (uh-oh...here it comes)

Her family is over THERE and she was over HERE.

Tears turned to sobs which turned to wails. I know Isabella very well and that she wasn't about to let us leave that building without her. She could care less at that moment about eating lunch with her friends and laying on a napmat pretending not to sleep.

She cried through the group picture. She cried as she put on her backpack. She cried until I got down and hugged her tight. She even cried as she waved goodbye to the friends who were staying for the rest of school. Ava grabbed the rolled up napmat and began dragging it behind her, she of course was ready for her big sis to come home. I held Bella's hand and I could see the total happiness on her tear-stained face that she was leaving with her family.

I have a highly sensitive child. She's been that way her whole life. So she's the crying kid in class. One day she'll grow out of it. Right now she doesn't care because she loves and needs her family more than she loves and needs her friends. And I'm okay with that. One day the friends may be seemingly more important. I'll just soak up all the Bella love I can for now.