Stupid Me #2

December is turning in to be the month of posts of stupid things I have done. If things don't turn around soon, I am going to be really fed up with myself by Christmas.


Saturday and Sunday I went on a fabulous girls shopping weekend with two of my friends. We did lots of shopping, saw a movie, wrapped gifts, stayed the night, and shopped some more. Oh, and I had my Chinese restaurant initiation. Here's proof of me at PF Changs, my very first experience at Chinese dining.

On to the stupid part...Saturday afternoon we made a trip to Beau Monde, where I stocked up on $70 worth of make-up. Later that day we unloaded the car (so we could shop some more) and carried everything to the hotel room, where the make-up sat untouched for the rest of the time.

Monday morning when I was getting ready, I couldn't find my precious bag of supplies. I looked around a little bit, but just assumed it must not have gotten unloaded at my house with all my other bags. So I called to check. No, no make-up there. So I called to check my second possibility. No, no make-up there. So I called the hotel. No, no make-up there. I have to admit, the first thought that went through my head was that the hotel cleaning lady just got a REALLY nice early Christmas present. It's terrible that I thought that, but I did.

For the next couple of hours I beat myself up that I had been so careless, why didn't we double check the room one more time, why have I become so irresponsible, blah, blah, blah.

Then I got the phone call. The people at the hotel found my bag. It was safe and waiting for the rightful owner.

Ahhhhh. The phone call didn't do anything to fix my stupidity, but it sure did make me feel better.

Don't Tell My Dad

I know my mom reads my blog sometimes, and my brother occasionally checks in, and even his mom will stop by, but I'm pretty sure my dad does not spend any of his time on the Internet. This is a good thing, because if my father would read this, he would either die from a stroke, or he would disown me as a daughter.

You see, my dad is a practical guy. I think I've written this before, but my father's picture has to be beside the term "risk management" in the dictionary. He's cautious, responsible, and as he would say, "simply a realist -- not a pessimist." That's still up for debate in the family.

My dad tried to teach me many lessons - turn off the lights, close the door behind you, don't leave your keys in the car...and fill up the gas tank when it hits half. Pretend the half mark is zero, and you will never have to worry that you might get into a situation where you'll run out of fuel.

One might say I've struggled with that last lesson. Two days ago I was in a town 20 miles away when my low fuel light came on. No problem, I thought, I'll just fill up after my son's doctor appointment. Turns out I didn't have any cash, or my checkbook, and I had for some silly reason taken my credit card out of my purse. Oh, and I hadn't yet activated my new debit card. More of dad's lessons down the drain...

That wasn't a huge issue at the time, because I had plenty of fuel to get home that afternoon. However, as I was backing out of the driveway to take my son to school the next morning, I realized I was now VERY low on fuel. According to my dash, I had 17 miles to empty. We live in the country, my son's school is in the "country" (a very small unincorporated, gas-station-less town), and we were on tight time constraints. The school is 5-6 miles from my house, so I did the math and off we went.

At first all seemed to be going well, but it soon became apparent that the "miles left" were decreasing at a much faster rate of speed than the miles driven. In the six (max) miles to school, I went from having "17 miles to empty" down to 5. Hmmm....

I tried to call my husband to let him know he might need to be on standby. His cell phone was off, and his work phone was down. Great. I got my son into school, grabbed the books I needed, and came back out to attempt the journey home. When I started the van, the little screen on the dashboard read "0 miles to empty". It's a mystery to me how I went from 5 to 0 while sitting in a parking lot, but you gotta love technology.

Wondering what I was going to do, I looked out my window to see Jamie driving in to drop off her daughter. I quickly tried my husband's phones one more time, to no avail, and then jumped out to see if she would rescue an idiotic friend. She said yes, she could take me home (like she really had a choice - what was she going to say, "No, I hope you brought a coat"?). Her concern about whether I was having car trouble quickly turned to laughter as I sadly entertained her with my story of stupidity.

The van stayed at school for the day until my very pleased husband (he actually handled it quite well) was able to take a gas can to its rescue. Of course, when we pulled into the school parking lot to fix this little issue, my boss was walking out the front door to his car. Just what I needed to feel even more like a fool. I very maturely asked my husband not to get out with the gas can until my boss drove away. It worked, and all is well again.

The morals of my story: Don't trust the technology in your vehicle. And...if you ever see me looking distraught on the side of the road, know that I still haven't learned my lesson, and please pull over to rescue me!

Because pictures are so much easier than words today...

Getting ready for Christmas...



Round one of Christmas cookies...as much fun as this was, there's sure to be more...



And fingerpainting gone mad....

Yep, he deserved it...

Black Friday

Today marked the first time in my 33 years of existence that I set my alarm to get up to go shopping on Black Friday. I've attempted shopping on this day before, but never at the sacrifice of sleep to make it happen. Before you think I've gone completely crazy, my alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., not 3:00 a.m. like many I saw today, but nonetheless, it still felt ridiculous to be driving to the mall before sunrise.


Never before have I experienced...

~So many females shopping who looked like they just rolled out of bed (me included...).

~People pushing three or four stuffed carts at one time.

~Making a decision to buy a TV in about 5 minutes time.

~Someone telling me that her husband has been searching all over town for a Leapster...at 7:30 in the morning.

~Having 10 hours of shopping time with my husband and no kids.

~Standing in a line to check out and not being able to see the register.

~Having this much of my Christmas shopping done before December 1. It was totally worth it!

Time to Breathe

I love days like this. I cannot remember the last time I was able to stay home all day. I haven't showered, I'm still in my pajamas, and the children are entertaining themselves. Sure, the house is a wreck, the laundry is not done, and my suitcase is still 1/2 packed from my trip last week, but I finally sat down and caught up on everyone's blogs and made it back to my own. I was seriously contemplating not returning here, because there are just moments when I can't fit in one.more.thing. But after catching up on everyone else, I realized this is a piece I'm not quite ready to let go of yet.

But I feel disconnected. I haven't watched TV in weeks, or read a book in months. I haven't talked to friends for days that I usually check in with regularly. In fact, one of my closest friends called this morning and she had moved to a new house since I talked to her a couple of weeks ago. WHAT?!?!

So, I must say, I am very thankful for few days of rest this week, and only three weeks to plow through before Christmas break is upon us.

I am going to try to take some time this week to enjoy the simple and overlooked things in life...such as...

~Enjoying the numerous and unique differences in my children (their pictures say it all).

~Times of complete silliness.

~Dreaming of what we might be someday...

~Celebrating successes, no matter how small.

~Gaining a little sweet revenge...all in fun of course (I had to get her back).

~Thanking God for the blessing of my family.

Did I say a couple of weeks ago that having a new person living with us was going well? Yeah, well, that was before she captured this shot of me attempting to prepare for my upcoming accreditation visit...not so successfully, obviously.

She posted this on her blog, and after I locked her in her room for a few days, I realized this picture quite appropriately portrays my life right now. I'm either working like crazy...or I'm dead.

So, unless something amazingly monumental occurs, I will return to my blog next week after my trip to Kansas City. And after I catch up on a little more of this.

Have a good week, my friends!

To say that the past week has been stressful is the understatement of the year. But, we're all busy and stressed at some level, so I'll spare you the details. Let's just say I haven't been all that pleasant to deal with, I've consumed copious amounts of sugar, and I actually felt a little giddy yesterday when my 2 yo came down with a fever because I was forced to clear my entire schedule for today. OK, maybe not giddy, but I sure haven't had any trouble seeing the "glass half full" of this situation.

In spite of the craziness, we continue to have Comedy Central - the 2 Year Old version - living right in our house. Here are some recent moments that have kept me smiling.

~The other night we were walking through Target and I noticed my two year old suddenly laying down spread eagle on his stomach on the floor. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, "Just licking the floor, mom." And I wonder why he's sick.

~After retrieving his Sonic slushy from the counter a few hours after it was purchased, he came running to me shouting, "Mom, the coldness has melted all out of my slushy!"

~Yesterday evening I was asked about going to play outside. I told him no he couldn't, because it was cold and windy outside and he was sick. He cried out, "I'm not sick, I just have a fever!!"

~And my personal favorite..."Mom, does Bob the Builder work?" "Yes," I said, "I think he does."
"No he doesn't. He just helps Wendy!" Right on, kid.