Wine Please

We have a baby gate separating our main floor in half. On one side we have The Pit of Despair, consisting of dining room, living room, bathroom, basement steps and steps up to the bedrooms; the Safety Zone areas of the kitchen, family room, and den/library/toy storage facility are on the other. We got home and I was on the phone with my cousin while starting to prepare dinner. Cooper followed Justin and Gavin into the bathroom and somehow managed to not stick his hands into the bathroom garbage, the toilet, and/or their pee streams (yes, we often have community bathroom visits in our house…I’ll bet you can’t wait to visit us now).

Once they were done in the bathroom and washed their hands, all three came through the gate. Except that Cooper was not happy about being placed in the Safety Zone. At all. He starts screeching and arching his back. As Justin sets him on the floor, Cooper begins the imploding. He starts shaking his head “no” and screams louder. The head-shaking causes him to lose his balance and he lands on his butt. Cooper is so angry about falling on his keyster that he flips himself onto his belly, still bellowing and turning various shades of red, and starts slapping the floor.

What did we do? I stifled my giggles and covered my mouth (mostly cuz I was still on the phone). Justin leaned over Cooper, pointed and laughed. I think I came off as the slightly better parent in that situation. But only slightly so. I kept wishing I had grabbed the camera–it was that funny. Gavin never threw a tantrum like that until he was three, so I’m looking forward to the years of entertainment to come with my Tasmanian Toddler.

I swear I have some of the best bloggy friends in the whole world. You guys are so sweet and so supportive (again). And frankly, in a really twisted way, it makes me feel a lot better that so many of you get the ridiculously overwhelmed feeling, too. Some days? This motherhood thing seems overrated. Then you have a day like today where you manage to get both kids laughing because you snorted at them. So thanks…to each and every one of you for your kind words and prayers and laughs. And I love all of you and your blogs (yes, I know I haven’t been there much lately…please see previous post). Please accept my love and lovely blog award that includes a MEME… I got it from another blogger I love and who has an equally fabulous name: Colleen over at Mommy Always Wins.

The rules are to answer the following questions with one word (don’t laugh…I can do it…I’m not that chatty) and then pass it on to seven others. I did nine cuz I’m an overachiever and haven’t learned to count.

Where is your cell phone? Purse

Where is your significant other? Couch

Your hair color? Blonde

Your mother? Nurse

Your father? Visiting

Your favorite thing? Undecided…

Your dream last night? None

Your dream/goal? Unfulfilled

The room you’re in? Cluttered

Your hobby? Reading

Your fear? Invasion

Where do you want to be in 6 years? Promoted

Where were you last night? Bed

What you’re not? Patient

One of your wish-list items? Housekeeper

Where you grew up? Chicago

The last thing you did? Scratched

What are you wearing? Jammies

Your TV? On

Your pet? Snoring

Your computer? Laptop

Your mood? Apprehensive

Missing someone? Grandma

Your car? Running

Something you’re not wearing? Socks

Favorite store? Target

Your summer? Nonexistent

Love someone? Justin

Your favorite color? Blue

When is the last time you laughed? Earlier

Last time you cried? Yesterday

That’s kind of a downer way to end that meme, eh? Well, I have family visiting this weekend and I’m so happy that they’re here (well, they’re at the hotel right now, but they’ll be here in about 12 hours). So while I’ll still be posting, it may be a bit on the light side.
Have a great weekend, everyone!

I cannot believe how tired I am. Of a lot of things. Seemingly everything.

• I’m tired of driving all over Creation to bring my kids to daycare so that I can drive even further to work each day.
• I’m tired of fighting my kids each morning to get out of the house, just to sit in the car for over an hour, so I can sit at work, then get back in the car for a 90-minute ride home at the end of the day.
• I’m tired of getting home so late that I am stuck making really crappy meals in 15 min or less so that I have a chance of having food on the table by 7pm.
• I’m tired of coming home after all day at work just so that as soon as the kids are in bed, I’m stuck working again on whatever day seems to suit the people who aren’t even involved in the work…whether it be one day a week or 4 days a week–they don’t seem to care that I have other responsibilities in my life outside of jumping through their last-minute hoops. Nor do they care that I have such very little time that actually belongs to me.
• I’m tired of my house looking like crap day-in-and-day-out because I’m stuck working in the evenings instead of being able to straighten-up my house.
• I’m tired of my husband being gone for a week at a time every other week. I miss him and the kids miss him.
• I’m tired of Gavin arguing with me; tired of him not “wanting” me and only wanting his father, even when there’s nothing I can do to bring his daddy home each night (due to Justin’s constant training schedule).
• I’m tired of Cooper throwing complete tantrums because he wants something to eat other than I’m offering at that time (that child has one nasty temper!).
• I’m tired of feeling rushed all the time: rushed to the ENT, rushed to work, rushed to Speech Therapy, rushed to get dinner on the table, just rushed, rushed rushed.
• I’m tired of being the only one taking the kids to all their appointments because I worry how it affects my job that I desparately need, and FMLA only covers so much (and doesn’t pay a dime).
• I’m tired of looking at my paystub each payday and wondering where the money is going and why we don’t have any leftover to save.
• I’m tired of trying to get my business back up on its feet–it never seemed to have recovered after Cooper was born since that’s when the cost of living skyrocketed and people’s mortgages jumped through the roof, leaving them with no money to spend on anything besides necessities.
• I’m tired of worrying how hard the billing departments of the people associated with Cooper’s surgery are going to laugh when I tell them I need to set up payment arrangements that will keep me indebted to them for probably at least a year.
• I’m tired of looking at my two options for health coverage for 2009 and wondering if I should allow myself to be wooed again by the cheaper premiums of the PPO and risk not having another outpatient procedure or ER visit that would cause us to be stuck making payments to cover their wretched deductible (which got worse since last year)? Or do I fall for the relative safety of the EPN that’s going to cost more than twice as much per month in premiums, but will cover nearly any medical situation we find ourselves?
• I’m tired of wondering how the company I work for can continually allow themselves to be financially bullied by the union, and tired of wondering how much longer the management is going to take the job cuts, the pay cuts, and the benefit cuts, all while the unionized employees get guaranteed pay raises and free health coverage for themselves and at least three dependents.
• I’m tired of taking a day off work for myself only to find all hell broke loose, leaving me with a mess and feeling as if I can’t take time off.
• I’m tired of taking time for myself to do something fun, only to come home to all these worries and frustrations.
• I’m tired of this that just decided after 6 peaceful, regular months to cause problems again and send me into another tizzy trying to find a product that WILL work.
• I’m tired of feeling like I can never make anyone happy, that I can’t just get ahead of things.
• I’m tired of being sleep deprived–partly because I can’t seem to fall asleep until well after midnight each night, and partly because I can’t seem to sleep soundly during the night.

Actually, I’m not even sure the word “tired” covers it; neither does “exhausted”. I think “done” would more adequately describe it.

Folks…I know we are our own worst critics, but all of you who know me IRL (in real life) never told me I make those faces all the time! GAAA!

Anyways…watch, point, laugh, mock. And thank you very much to Playtex for the opportunity–it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed watching the other women’s interviews (and yes, Andrew, I saw that part where I started smiling while you were trying to hold the door from the hordes of women on the other side–consider yourself lucky that you didn’t have to try to edit-out one of my witch cackles…ha ha).

I came, I saw, I kicked some…uh. Eh. I’ll start again.

I had a really really good time. I picked up some fun schwag and ate a ton of good food. I got to hang out with Caramama and ClumberKim all day. I picked up some interesting ideas while in the breakout sessions, did a YouTube interview with Playtex (yet to be posted, but check out the other bloggers’ interviews), and got to meet a ton of other women face-to-face, and I’d name them all except that I’m sure I’d forget someone. There were women from all age-ranges, levels of education, all levels on the bloggy star-level, and all levels of technology knowledge (I was definitely near the bottom in most categories…especially the tech knowledge since I couldn’t get online for the first half of the day). And while I was beyond excited to meet folks I’ve read/stalked/saw their comments on blogs I’ve been on, I was incredibly surprised to find that a few people recognized me! Hopefully they didn’t think too poorly of me when they saw me scarfing down mini-quiche after mini-quiche (holy crap, were those things good!). Or guzzling the coffee like some sort of fiend. Too bad I didn’t stay at the hotel again last night because they had an open bar and the wine was tasty (and the bartender generous…maybe he was thinking in a room full of tipsy ladies he might get lucky?).

Should finances allow, I’d love to go to “big” BlogHer next summer, too…but if not, I hope that they still do the Reach Out Tours because this was incredibly fun!

Oh, and if when I go again, I will remember to bring some business cards that only mention me/my blog. I only had my Cookie Lee business cards on-hand and used them to enter in the different raffles. Figured they would work since they have my name, my email, and my phone number on them on the extremely off-chance that I won something. And I did win something. A gorilla-pod from the fun folks at Saturn. Except that really, Cookie Lee won it because that’s whose name was announced. I yelled out “is there another name on the card?” but she didn’t hear me. By the time I thought to just walk up, too much time had passed and it would’ve been weird. Not that I’m not weird enough already, right?