All Is Well

For the last several days, I've been in coasting mode. Life has been so smooth.

Friday night some friends took us to Ruth's Chris as a thank you for helping them with their taxes. I've never been there. Mmmm, did I say I wanted to be a vegetarian? I lied. The fillet I had Friday night was delicious. The broccoli, fries, creme brule and cheese cake were good too. But the fillet. Oh, the fillet in sizzling butter. After dinner, we went and watched Mall Cop. Pretty cheesy, but actually pretty funny too. And then, since we didn't have our kids and didn't have to pick them up, we went and played a game after the movie. It was lots and lots of fun. And I only took two pictures all night long. Awesome food, hilarious company and a night with Jason. It really was a great (and late!) night. Funniest comment of the night: probably after we all had A shrimp for an appetizer, the waiter asked Friend if he wanted a salad, he looked at the vacant shrimp plate and said, "Nope, I'm pretty stuffed".
Since we were going to be out late, my mom just let Clara spend the night so we could go to the temple early Saturday morning and pick her up on our way home. Jason had to work, but I still went. I went to get Clara and my mom ended up keeping her so I could go get ready for the Pinewood Derby. Then my mom met me at the Pinewood Derby with Clara, the activity she came up with in a few minutes (which, by the way, was a total hit) and treats for the kids for said activity. A potentially chaotic day went perfectly smooth thanks to my mom and Lily.

Monday night after work, Jason went to be Mr. Manual Labor again and I was dreading being alone all day and all night, again. But I didn't dread long, soon I was invited to enjoy dinner with a friend and her family. I felt a bit like a charity case, but I appreciated it despite.

The last several days have had me thinking how grateful I am for good friends, little side jobs, my mom, MY MOM, the temple and so much more. All is well, all is well.

PS Still not ready to talk about it...

I don't even want to talk about it

Efficiency

I am so proud.

I killed five birds with one walk today when Clara and I walked to Basha's to go grocery shopping.

This allowed me to (1) get a little exercise, (2) entertain Clara (if only for 40 minutes), (3) get my grocery shopping done, (4) take care of breakfast (that's right, we had donuts for breakfast) and (5) make a contribution to saving the environment, if only one ten minute walk at a time.

Days of the Week

Lately in our house, weeks don't consist of the typical days. Instead, it's kind of like this: Saturday * Tuesday * Wednesday * Saturday * Saturday * Saturday

Notice there are only two non-Saturdays? Yeah, well that's because Jason only worked two days this week. To me, it's kind of funny. Funny because I know that everything will work out or funny because the financial stress has driven me to insanity, I do not know.

Meanwhile, I've tried to make sure that instead of moping around, we enjoy this slow life because who knows how long it will last.

On Saturday (aka Monday) we went to the park to feed the ducks, slide, run and swing (does swinging ever get old?).
On Saturday (aka Thursday) we started cleaning our disastrous room then followed orders from Clara to flap our arms at the dinner table. She would flap her arms and then point to people she wanted to copy her.
Next, Clara got a horsey ride and I got a four-handed foot rub.

On Saturday (aka Friday) and Saturday (aka Saturday, the real one) Jason actually went and worked with a friend's brother (after I started this post), so I guess my week of four Saturdays isn't really funny anymore. Don't worry, next week is scheduled to have three Saturdays, so more family fun is scheduled accordingly.

Apparently parenthesis are my new best friend.

FOF - Resolutions

I haven't gotten around to making my 2009 resolutions. I guess having a resolution to procrastinate less isn't all that effective when you procrastinate making your resolutions and therefore, never actually make that resolution to procrastinate less. Also at the top of the list? Going to bed earlier. That one isn't panning out so well either. Obviously. It's nearly Midnight before I even think about going to bed and although I have been working a lot lately at night, I really could manage my time more wisely.

However, I have made note of a few (five, to be exact) less serious, but equally important things I'd like to resolve to do for 2009.

Eat more Pop Rocks with Clara
Bake more cookies for fun
Give more hugs
Have more tea parties
Break more rules (not the important ones, but those that prevent me from feeding myself and my child cake for breakfast)

Weeee!
Note: It was hot on Monday, but the real reason I have my pant legs scrunched up is because it's the first time I shaved in three months and I was so proud of myself.

Not-so-precious Moments

Remember this heartwarming experience? Well, last week, Clara and I were enjoying a similar moment. I was laying in bed, no energy to get up, and she was hugging me so I'd feel better. I was "play biting" her neck/chin when she laughed really hard. Upon so doing, something shot out of her nose onto my face. It was slimy, so I was pretty sure it was a booger (and what other slimy objects come out of noses?). I quickly picked it off my face, wiped the slobber off and left it in the wipe. It was disgusting. It seemed too large to be a booger, but she hadn't eaten anything that color all day. And again, what other items come rocketing out of noses? I didn't take the time to examine too closely for fear that my lunch might shoot out of my stomach.

Jason examined it when he got home and couldn't figure it out either.

Just before going to bed, I noticed "it" dried out and wasn't quite as repulsive. I took a better look and it became crystal clear as to what it was. It was a piece of napkin she must have shoved up her nose in the car earlier that day. She must've been mad that I took the rest of the napkin away. She had a stuffy nose, so when her breathing sounded stuffed, I didn't think twice. But why didn't I see it?? To think I didn't notice... To think it didn't bother her... As you can see, it's a rather large piece of napkin. And Clara's little nostrils are rather small.
Gross. But not as gross as it would've been if it were a raisin or a blueberry that had been in there for a few days!

It's been a while

It's late, I've finished my work (well, the chunk I told myself must get finished before retiring to bed), I'm tired, exhausted and still getting over my awesome cough but I don't wanna go to bed. I'm afraid when I go to bed, I'll have another horrifying dream like I did last night...

In the middle of the semester, I realized I didn't know my schedule. I had a total brain relapse and couldn't recall what classes I should be in at what times. In fact, I didn't even know what classes I was in. Going to ask my counselor was completely humiliating. Then I started wondering and worrying... what have I missed in these classes, can I still pass (with a good grade?), am I going to have the classes I need to graduate, etc., etc. I haven't stopped thinking about it all day. I'll catch myself feeling like I forgot something really important (like my schedule). That was worse than the dreams I had when I was pregnant about Jason leaving me. (Probably because a brain relapse is closer to reality than Jason leaving me (who would leave me?)).

People, I graduated from college over four years ago and I'm still having these dreams. Obviously I've got some paranoia issues to work out.

Other issues I've got to work on... not laughing when I smack Clara's bum, get down to remind her that she needs to mind me only to have her turn around and smack me in the face. Try harder not to laugh when she looks at me like, "Well, you hit me, I'll hit you back" after she hit me. Or when I was showing Jason what happened and accidentally hit him in the face.

PS Just ran spell checker and the two words I misspelled: graduate and graduated. That's awesome.

Woe Is Me

I've long thought there is a very delicate balance between reality and optimism. If you feel like your world is falling apart and someone asks how you're doing and you say good, are you lying, are you being optimistic or are you denying reality? To me, saying things are great when you feel like your world is falling apart is not being truthful. Which is why I answer the question "How's it going?" very honestly. But if I'm not careful (and I'm probably not), I sound like a complainer (especially lately). The truth is, things aren't great, and I'll tell you all about them, but I am happy. So I guess that's the point where reality and optimism meet. Reality is what we can't change, but optimism is the ability to be happy during reality, even when it's rotten. I will tell you about my reality, but know that I'm not complaining unless I'm not laughing at it. I talk about it so I can laugh about it. The only glitch in this system of mine is that when things get REALLY bad, I stop being so truthful when people ask how things are going. I give the standard answer because some things make me clam up (believe it or not, there is a way to get me to shut my mouth).

Here's to seeing the glass half-full (unless of course your at a tea party with Clara because she'll drink out of every cup... she needs no guests at her tea parties).

FOF - Shopping

Tonight, this lovely Friday night, found me shopping with Clara. I was going to give these five reasons it's not cool to go shopping with a 2-year old, without the husband, on Friday:

- Creepy Man stares at you.
- Creepy Man stares and smiles at your daughter the entire time he walks past you... and turns to continue to look and smile as he is ahead of you.
- It's a little depressing seeing all the other women shoppers who's husbands accompanied them.
- People look at you funny when you take a 2-year old into Victoria's Secret.
- Mr. Macho gives you a thumbs up, as in "thumbs up, you idiot", when you come around a corner in the parking lot and almost hit the car he's a passenger in. Oh, that's funny, I thought I lived in America and I thought in America, you drive on the right side of the road/parking lot lane. (PS She wasn't even in the middle, she was about one foot away from the cars on her left.)

But then I decided no one likes a frowny face, so I decided to give five reasons shopping on Friday night with a 2-year old is awesome:

- I wouldn't have wanted Jason to see the 16 year old boys in skinny jeans that had legs the size of my arms. I would've felt fat.
- 2-year olds don't care if you walk in circles because you have to go to some stores more than once before you make up your mind.
- Clara was ecstatic to see the pink dog with white polka dots (aka the Victoria Secret puppy)
- I realized I could be a hairstylist. This boy's haircut was significantly shorter on one side and all choppy and uneven. I could totally do that.
- In one store, Clara took something off the shelf and ran, as fast as she could, outside. I didn't catch up to her until she was completely outside. When the culprit is two, shoplifting is just funny. This was Clara's first time and hopefully her last.

The Scouts go marching one by one...

I now have 8 Scouts in my Wolf Den. 8 eight year old boys in my little house once a week for an hour. Often it's chaos, but it's also fun. Last week was our first week back after having a three week hiatus. As such, I decided to make a special treat for the boys' first week back. I made cupcake pops (like I did for Clara's birthday) but this time, they were little Scouts. I had so many of the balls leftover from Clara's birthday that I had frozen. I used those and it went much smoother and quicker than before. If you recall, I said it wasn't worth the effort. However, using the balls in a frozen state and already rolled, it was a cinch. It seriously took no more than ten minutes to dip them, add the "hats" and pain their faces. So I rescind my original statement. They are worth the effort (especially when the boys thought they were so cool). However, I will freeze the cupcake balls prior to dipping them instead of just refrigerating them. You can get really fancy with how you decorate them, but since I've been on a grocery store strike for over a month now, I wanted to use things I had at home. The eyes are simply melted milk chocolate that I dabbed on with a toothpick and the mouths were made with red candy melts (the things you melt to dip the balls in), applied the same way.Also, for those that had inquired, no way did I come up with this idea on my own. It is from Bakerella's blog. She invented these little treats and has made some amazing cupcake pops (click the button in her left side bar that says 'Pop Central'). When she's not blogging about those, she blogs about her other baking experiences in a totally hilarious way. Read her blog, you won't be disappointed.