Boy, was my face RED!

So, I’m not going to say anything about how I’ve been MIA for like a year.  I’m just starting over and hopefully you’re still there. 

Today I’m reading a new blogger I just found called Hate You, Probably, and trying to put on my make-up at the same time.  I dip my brush in my mineral foundation and start the swirl, tap, buff of it all.  Look into the mirror and think man I am especially red today.  My Bare Minerals foundation usually covers just about anything my face throws at it but today… Red, very red.

Think, I’m not usually this red.  Was I out in the sun yesterday? no.  Am I maybe having an allergic reaction to something? No, haven’t changed anything that I know of.

That is when I notice.

I was using my blush as foundation!

Whew, and *sigh*

That just shows how good her blog was I guess.

An Update and a Vent

No, I didn’t die or fall off the face of the earth.  I am still here.  Life lately has just been a little crazy.  I’ll spare you the apologies.  Don’t know how often I’ll be posting.  But today I felt the need.  Quick update…

I moved!  Yep, I moved into a new home.  Bigger property, more square footage, and of course bigger payment.  The property includes a rental and so the income from the rental minus the mortgage actually makes the home affordable.  We are happy with this move.

My grandmother died in March.

My dad got very sick in April.  He ended up contracting Necrotizing Facitis (flesh-eating bacteria) while in the hospital and his leg had to be amputated above the knee.  Currently he is in a rehab facility about 120 miles away.  He is expected to have to rehab for 18 – 24 months.

He owns two fast food franchise restaurants in our city and so my sister and I have been running the stores for him in his absence.  This means that #1, it has been about 22 years since I last worked in the stores and I am now having to re-learn everything plus the management side.  #2, I now have two jobs!  #3, less family time and my kids and husband are feeling it.

Taylor graduated from High School!  I now officially have a college student.  Kennedy will be a sophomore, Addi will start middle school, and Zoie is on her last year of elementary school. 

The more I talk the older I sound.

I have been feeling pretty guilty about not being home lately.  I’ve been making sure that we have at least one family day a week where we all spend time together doing whatever, but…

I haven’t been to the grocery store in about 2-3 weeks.  We have officially run out of food.  Yesterday, before I left for my 2nd job, I asked Eric about dinner.  We are a little short on funds right now so I told him to just come and pick up some food from the store.  So, we are right in the middle of a big rush and my phone rings.  I ignore it and it rings again.  Ignore, ring, ignore, ring, ignore.  I finally answer it and tell them right in the middle of a rush and I would call back later.  I call back like 45 min – 1 hr later and Hubby is pissed!  He says that he doesn’t care what is going on when he calls, I answer the phone!  I told him I was in the middle of a rush and couldn’t.  He said that was bullshit and that I could have walked away for a minute to answer his phone call.

I just said fine, whatever (I wasn’t going to argue with him there at work) and asked him what he wanted.  He said when he called he happened to be in town and wanted to come pick up dinner but now he was already home.  I said fine, send Taylor or I would bring home food when I got off work.  He said just to bring home some food.

This makes me mad because just earlier that day, he had been teaching at the college and I had called and he didn’t answer.  I called him twice, texted him twice and no answer.  When he finally did call, he said he was in the middle of teaching and couldn’t answer the call.  It was kind of hard to do.  Let me ask you, what is the difference between what I did and what he did?  He is so upset with me right now that he didn’t even kiss me good-bye this morning.  He said that every time I start with one of my bullshit projects I forget about everything and everyone else.  I told him this was not a bullshit project since it looked like I was going to have to take over the stores permanently.

I’ve been trying to manage my time right and keep up with my duties to my family and work.  I’ve been making sure he has whatever clothes he needs for the next day.  I make sure to try to arrange dinner for that evening.  Try to talk to the kids and not shoo them out of my room even though I am dead tired.  I make sure to take care of my “wifely duties” even though I am dead tired.  The only thing I know I have slacked on is the grocery shopping.

I hate it when we fight and I especially hate it when he doesn’t kiss me good-bye.  My day just doesn’t feel right.  I feel depressed and bitchy the rest of the day.  It’s amazing what a kiss can do.  I guess that is why I felt the need to write today.  So I could vent a little.  It’s amazing what writing can do also. 

It’s still not as good as a kiss.

I Heart My…Day 2

Today, I got home from work, and got right back to work.  Helped Zoie with her homework, started cooking some ground turkey for tacos, and went to put a load of laundry in the washer.  While I’m in the laundry room I hear a loud CRASH!  I yelled to the kids and asked what they broke.  They, of course, yell back that it wasn’t them.

Yea, right.

So, I walk out of the laundry room, through the living room, everything ok there.  Then to the kitchen, which I can’t even walk into because there is glass EVERYWHERE.

And let me tell you that it actually wasn’t the kids this time that broke something.

It was me.

That’s right.  It was me.  I didn’t notice that the glass cutting board we keep on the counter right next to the stove had moved and must have been touching the burner. 

The glass heated. 

The board exploded. 

There was glass on the counters, on the stove, and on the floor.  Glass had even flown into the dining room and the back hall!

***BIG SIGH***

Which brings me to what I Heart about myself today.

I Heart My ability to laugh at myself.

Because what did I do before I started cleaning up all of that glass?  I laughed at myself.  At the complete absurdity of the situation. At all the glass on the floor.  About how I knew that this was just going to be one more story added to the list of stories about the total clumsiness that I call my cooking abilities.

And, of course, I immediately wanted to share with you.  Even more proof of my ability to laugh at myself.

So, are you joining me yet?  What do you Heart about yourself?

I Heart My

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilike/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0′ target=_blank>photo credit: I Like

I was reading my Fitness magazine today and they have started a body-confidence campaign on Twitter.  Participants send Twitter Love notes to their body starting with the tag #Iheartmy.  The idea that you always send cards, flowers, candy, etc to other people, but why not express love to yourself. 

I thought this was a great idea.  But while Fitness is relating this specifically to your body.  Why not do this for your entire self.  Your life, your job, your family, your accomplishments.  While my body deserves some love, so does my spirit in general.  I’m sure most of you, like me, don’t get enough of the credit we deserve. 

So, I’m going to try to do this as an experiment to my mental well being.  Kind of like looking at yourself in the mirror and telling yourself an encouraging statement.  Eventually, you start feeling good about yourself.  Instead of talking to myself in the mirror, I’m going to post this on my blog.

Starting today, I’m going to try to let you know one thing I Heart about myself until Valentines day.  That is only 14 nice things, should be easy right?  We’ll see.

I would like to invite you to do the same.  Starting today, write one thing you heart about yourself.  Comment to this post, Post on your own blog, Post on Twitter, Facebook, wherever you like.

Ready?

Here we go!

I Heart My…Eyes.  Big and brown with naturally long eyelashes.  They are one of my best assets.

What do you heart?

 

p.s. This blog was inspired by Fitness Magazine but in no way was I asked to promote, speak about, or review their magazine or any magazine articles, nor was I compensated in any way.  These are my opinions and thoughts only.

Facebook: How young is too young?

So  here it has been two weeks from my last post and I have already gone back on my committment to write 1 -2 blog posts per week.  Lot’s going on for me right now though.  I will tell more later.

But, what has me needing to write today is a question my youngest two kids have been bugging me about.  Addi and Zoie who are 9 and 10.  And they want a Facebook page.

I have a Facebook, one of my teens has a Facebook, most of our family has Facebook, and now they want one.  I’ve done a little looking around to see if their friends have one, but most don’t.  A few do, but most don’t.

I am undecided.

Are they too young to have a Facebook page?  When I asked why they mostly just want to play games and connect with some of the friends they have that are on.  Now that Facebook has changed their security settings I feel that may expose them too much to unwanted lurkers.  Although I could have them set their setting to have only friends view everything.  I kind of feel that they will still be too exposed.

I don’t know though.  In this digital time and age, I want them to be able to know their way around the internet.  I want them to connect with other people their age.

Then there is the problem with them being annoying to other people.  I already have a couple of family members like that.  They play every single game, take every quiz, and ask me to take part.  They hit me with pillows, and send me presents.  They are so annoying with all of their requests.  Are my kids going to do the same thing?  I don’t want them to be one of the annoying ones that do all that crap.  But, I think they are old enough to understand and obey me if I tell them not to do that.

What do you think?  How young is to young for Facebook?

Bloggy Thoughts

Sorry about the no posting thing lately.

I watched Julie & Julia about a month ago and it really made me think about my own blog.  What do I want out of it?  Is there a direction this is going?  Should I have some sort of organized thought or theme as to what goes into it? 

My final thoughts were… I don’t know.

I’ll tell you what I DO know.

1) I know that I definitely want a little more out of this blog as far as design and capabilities than what WordPress.com offers.  So I have decided that I want to stay with WordPress but transition this blog to a hosted site where I have more control.

2) I want to include lots more pictures.  I have discovered that I like taking pictures and when I go back to look at pictures from the past.  I realize that I missed much of my kids childhood.  I did not take pictures.  I did it on purpose.  I remember thinking when I would look back and I still remembered all (or at least most) of the situations in the pictures.  They were taking up space.  Space I don’t have.  I wasn’t taking care of them very well.  So they sat.  Not looked at.  In a box.  All lonely and stuff.  Then…

I went back.  I remembered.  I laughed. and I realized what I had missed by not taking pictures.  Because NOW I realized that I had forgotten many of the things and events that happened.  NOW my kids love to look at the pictures and don’t put their grubby hands all over them or put them in their mouth or tear them up.  Now we all look and remember and laugh.  Now I can store my pictures digitally and they won’t take up so much space.  So, I have vowed to take more so in the future I will remember when and laugh.

3)  I do like writing.  I like my blog.  It clears my head a little.  It helps me know that there are people out there who are interested in what I have to say.  And while I don’t think my blog will ever have one running theme as in Julie & Julia, I will still talk about me, about what is happening in my life.  This will inevitably involve my family, my work, my weight loss struggles, my aspirations.  I guess you could call all of this my quests in life.  I guess that is my theme.  That’s probably why I named my blog what I did.  If I think about it, that is really not very random at all.  Man, I am smart and didn’t even know it!  Ok, so my blog now has a theme, even though, really, it did all along.  (See, I told you this blog helps me clear my head and put things in perspective!  Thanks, y’all)

So, I was not going to post until I transitioned to a hosted site, but I’m afraid I will lose some of you if I don’t.  You will help me stay motivated.  Because, honestly, I don’t really know the first step to take to do this hosted thing.  Anyone know a good web designer that can help me with the transition?  For very little money?  Cause that is a factor also.

In the meantime, I am recommitting myself to regularly posting on this blog.  Superwomen are very busy as most of you Superwomen know.  So, I’m not going to be one of those everyday bloggers.  I’m shooting for 2x/week.  More when I feel like it, but not less than 1x/week.  I think that is reasonable.  I mean, I don’t want you to get tired of me or anything and there are some bloggers out there who post everyday, sometimes twice a day and honestly, sometimes I get tired of hearing from them.  Sometimes their content seems a little strained, like they are trying to hard.  I don’t want that to happen to me.

So, stick with me and I’ll stick with you.  And if any of you have any recommendations about my blog and blog transition, please let me know.

Chris aka Superwoman wannabe

All I want for Christmas is…

So, no time to blog lately because if you haven’t realized, Thanksgiving is TOMORROW!  And we have 12 people coming over to my very small house.  Including my six that means 16 people!

But, I’m trying to plan ahead a little this year and Hubby and I have decided to skip Black Friday and all that nonsense.  We are going shopping the weekend after that.  We are planning a little weekend get away for just the two of us and planning on doing some Christmas shopping at the same time.  This has become a little bit of a tradition for us for the last 5 years or so.

Anyway so the reason for this post is the babies gave me their Santa lists that I promised to mail to him and I had to share.  They are 9 and 10 and although I know they secretly suspect who the “real” Santa is.  They are not completely sure yet.  I am so happy to keep that magical spirit of Christmas alive in them still.  I’m not quite ready to let it go yet.  I realize that once they don’t believe anymore, there will be no more Santa in my home.  They are my youngest, my only hope, the only way I can still see the excitement Christmas morning to see what “Santa” brought them.  The two older kids are still excited to see what they received but it is just not quite the same type of excitement.

Anyhoo…Here are my babies Christmas List, complete with their own spellings.

Zoie (9)

1) Hot Cheeto Mashine

2) Skinny Jeans

3) Bobby Jack anything

4) mickel Jackson and Jackson 5 CD

5) 6 inch Hightops

6) 4 inch Hightops

7)webkinz purple monster

8) Pillow pet (monkey)

9) Jessie mckartny CD

10) monkey anything

11) awsome socks

12) laptop

13) 10 inch Hightops

14) awsome hodies

15) Candy machinins (machine)

16)DS

17)hamster

18) bunny

19) strawberry shortcake anything

20) mini frige

21) big screen TV

22)miley cyris gone

23) evryone happy and stuff

25) Artset

 

Addi (10)

1) D.S.I

2) mickel Jackson CD (now and when he was little)

3) skinny Jeans

4) some swetters

5) convers or convers hightops

6) a new stareo

7) and ipod

8) a camra

9) some shirts

10) pillow pet 🙂

11) Katty perry C.D.

12) spungeBob alarm clock

13) asowm socks

14) hodies

15) gumball mishean

16) Kennedy gone

17) hamster

18) bunny

19) minne frige

20) peace on earth

21) a mickel Jackson poster

22) A new T.V.

23) everyone happy

24) love

25)stuff

26) monsters vs. Alein video game for Wii

We had to have a little talk about how great it was to ask for peace and happiness but that they should never ask for people to be “gone” or for bad things to happen to other people, especially their own sister (Kennedy has been picking on them a lot lately, that is where that one came from).

Over all I thought their lists were pretty hilarious.  Especially if you knew how much Zoie LOVES Hot Cheetos.  I LOVE that they thought on their own to ask for everyone to be happy.  I LOVE that Addi knew that there was a W somewhere in awesome, but wasn’t sure exactly where to put it.  And I LOVE that except for the stuff that doesn’t exist and the stuff that is too expensive (TV & Mini fridge) Their lists are pretty handle-able

What funny things are your kids asking for this year?

To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo?

Hello all!  I know I have not been blogging lately but that is not to say I don’t miss it, miss you.  I think of you often but life likes to get in the way.  But, something happened last night and I really need a second opinion.

My oldest, Taylor, who officially turned 17 just two short weeks ago, was lying in my bed last night and we were talking.  She suddenly announces that she would really like to get a tattoo.

Me , pretending to think about it… Ummmm, no.

“But, Mom” she begins, “I already know what I want and I have been thinking about this for a long time!  I want a Japanese Cherry Blossom in rainbow colors with a peace sign in the middle.”

No brainer here…No, no, sounds gay, double no.

Look mom I’ll show you what I mean.  So, she starts looking up Japanese Cherry Blossoms on the internet and she is pulling up some very pretty pictures.  As she is looking at the photos, she says that maybe she won’t get rainbow colors, and after seeing the photos she doesn’t want the peace sign either.  She just wants a small, realistic looking, Japanese Cherry Blossom on her right ear.  Some examples below:

   

 

 

 

 

 

In a further effort to discourage her, I say “But, you realize that is what I want for my tatoo on my ankle?”

Oh, did I not mention that I want a tattoo also?  Yes, I do.  I have none, yet.  But I have wanted one for many years and finally chose the Japanese Cherry Blossom for its beauty and symbology.

She said, “Yes, I know.  How about we get mother/daughter tattoos!”

Uhhh…WTH! Did my 17 yo daughter, who usually does her dangedest to avoid doing anything with her family these days, just suggest spending an afternoon together getting tattoos?

Then she says, “What does a Japanese Cherry Blossom stand for anyway?”  I said, “Something about powerful women and beauty.  I don’t remember exactly, look it up!”

So, she does and this is what she finds:

The Meaning of Cherry Blossom Tattoos: Chinese

The Chinese feel that the cherry blossom is a flower that represent feminine power and beauty. They believe that the blossom is an example of extreme beauty. It is on the one hand very beautiful and even very delicate but yet it holds extreme power at the same time. In Chinese herbal lore the cherry blossom is symbolic of love and passion.

Japanese Cherry Blossom

For the Japanese the cherry blossom holds very different meaning. The cherry blossom is a very delicate flower that blooms for a very short time. For the Japanese this represents the transience of life. This concept ties in very deeply with the fundamental teachings of Buddhism that state all life is suffering and transitory. The Japanese have long-held strong to the Buddhist belief of the transitory nature of life and it is very noble to not get too attached to a particular outcome or not become emotional because it will all pass in time.

“Mom, this is so me!  This speaks to me!  Now I have to get it!”

We then talked about how painful it was going to be, especially on her ear and how tattoos were for life.  She is so young and was she sure this was something she wanted to have for the rest of her life?  What about what people will think in her career?  She wants to be a Dr. and she said on her ear, it would be something very easy to cover up if anyone had a problem with it.  It’s not a huge thing anyway about the size of maybe a dime or nickle at the largest.

I don’t know what it was, but all of the sudden, letting my 17 yo daughter get a tatoo doesn’t seem like a really big deal.  Especially because it’s small and pretty.  It also renewed my desire to get my tatoo.  It had never seemed like the right time in the past, but now?  Maybe is it because spending some one on one time with my daughter sounds good also?  I’m not sure, but right now, I am inclined to say yes.  Am I crazy for thinking this?  My husband is on the fence also so he is no help.

So, what do you think?

Mrs. DIY

I added another title to my long list of titles…  Mrs. DIY.  And I must say, I’m pretty darn proud of myself!

This last weekend, we ran out of hot water.  The water heater is only 4 years old so Hubby and I didn’t really think it was that.  Hubby kept messing with it and finally jury rigged it enough for us to have lukewarm water on Saturday.  Sunday it was back to not working again.  The breaker kept flipping so we thought maybe it was a bad breaker.  But, Hubby was on shift that day and Matt, my BIL, who usually does electrical stuff for us, was out of town.  Hubby said he would call is brother and see if he could come over and change out for him.  Now, if you know Hubbys brother, there is usually a slim to none chance that he comes over and does anything.

So, I started thinking.  (This is where Hubby would say “Uh-Oh”)

I’ve seen Matt change breakers out a couple of times.  It looks pretty easy.  I looked online and found a video on YouTube showing exactly how to do it.  Again, looks pretty easy.  I’m going to try it!

So, I bravely go to the electrical panel, turn off the main electrical breaker and proceed to take the bad breaker out.  And, Yay! It works and I am still alive!  I go to Home Depot with the bad breaker get one exactly like it.  On my way home, Hubby called and said that his brother was going to come over and change that out.  I said don’t bother, I was doing it myself.  He quizzed me a little to make sure I knew what I was doing then said to call him after I was done so that he knew I was still alive.  I know, such a nice Hubby.

Anyway, so I got home, connected the wires, popped the breaker back in the slot and Voila!  It was fixed!  AND I am still alive AND the house has not burned down!  Yay me!

Unfortunately, that did not fix our water heater problem.  Although now the breaker wasn’t flipping anymore, we still did not have hot water.  We called the plumber on Monday and he said we just need a new water heater.  So,  Hubby and I went back to Home Depot and got another water heater and installed it ourselves.  We now have hot water!

Anyone else have any DIY stories you are proud of?  Please, bend my ear!

You know It’s a Good Day when you don’t Pee your Pants

This last weekend I took the kids to the Fair.  They had been looking forward to it all week.  I had to take them by myself because Hubby was on shift.  The kids wanted to invite a friend to go with them and I agreed.  Addi took her fried Erin and Zoie met with her cousin Leah.  The big girls had gone the night before and I told them if they went then, they couldn’t go again.  So it was just me and the little ones.

My camera ran out of battery almost immediately but I did manage to get a few shots before it died.

Addi and friend on bumper cars

Zoie & Leah

Friend, Addi, & Leah on the Super Shot

 

Zoie decided she didn’t want to ride this one.  She was a little scared.  But after the other girls got off and after they rode a couple other rides, she was regretting not riding it.  So later, she talked Leah into riding it again.  The other two didn’t want to.  Once was enough for them.  I don’t blame them.

I wish my camera was working so I could show you the look on her face when she got off. 

It took her a minute to catch her breath and then she was trying really hard not to cry.  You know, had the big smile on her still scared looking face.  I asked her if she was ok and she still couldn’t even speak.  She just nodded her head.

When she finally calmed down and was able to talk, I asked,

“So was it really scary?”

“Yea”

“Well, are you at least glad you rode it?”

“I’m just glad I didn’t pee my pants.”