Pottery Barn Kids

Because the teenager is moving out in a few months, we've decided to swap the girls' bedrooms.  The teenager is not happy about this and feels like she's being kicked out of the nest, but we feel that the baby needs more room.  Besides, I don't expect the teenarger to visit that much once she's acclimated.  That's my argument.

Anyway, this room-swapping business is turning into a major headache and a lot of work.  I found new bedding and curtains for the teenager's room pretty quickly and even found furniture for the baby's room (goodbye crib!).  However, finding bedding for the little one has turned into a nightmare.

Oh, I found bedding that I love, mind you, but I can't afford it.  Have you ever looked online at Pottery Barn Kids?  I swear their bedding must be gold-plated!  It is ridiculous.  I would not pay those prices for bedding in our master.  So, who are these parents who can afford $600 plus for a twin bedding set?  They aren't in education, I assure you.

Here is a picture of the set that I love.  Now you can see why I desire to replicate it for our little angel.  She would look so cute cuddled up in those pastel nautical colors!

I thought I would be able to replicate it, but I've had a terrible time finding anything similar.  I've been to the very end of the Internet and back, spent countless hours this past weekend bidding on odd pieces on eBay, been to every store (including fabric and decorator stores)....all to no avail.

I won't give up though.  I've come too far.  I've already procurred metal sand pails and commissioned an artist (Don) to "copy" the artwork Pottery Barn is using to accessorize this bed room.  Well, my quest continues.  If you happen across a bargain on any of these pieces (or something comparable), PLEASE let me know...

Rule #8: Have a Lark!

"All work and no play can leave any mother elbow-deep in the doldrums."  Maybe this is why I've been such a grouch lately.  I haven't been attending the "bi-annual rotary club meetings" or "joining my lady friends for a bridge game while the kids are napping".  Wow!  It all makes sense now.

Well, last night I attended a Delta Kappa Gamma meeting (my last meeting as president!) and afterwards I went out for drinks with the incoming president (to discuss DKG business, of course).  It helped.  I feel a lot better today.

Instead of dreading the houseful of company that will arrive late tonight and stay until Sunday, I am actually looking forward to seeing them.  Don't get me wrong, I love them.  I've just been tired and grumpy.  A couple of hours with a friend and two glasses of red wine really knocked the edge off.

I blogged yesterday about the guilt that I feel for not spending enough time with my daughters.  The fact is, I can't help it.  I have to work if we want to continue to live where we do, drive what we drive, eat what we eat, and play when and where we like to play.  I started to say no to that drink with my friend last night, but after a couple of minutes, decided that I needed it and deserved it.

Rule #8's wisdom still rings true today.  Moms need to make time to "have a lark" occasionally. After last night, I feel like I can survive the weekend.

Guilty, as charged...

I know I am beginning to sound like a broken record, but I feel overworked and pretty stressed out right now.  I have a Type-A personality, so I am always fretting about something, but this time of year (end of the semester) always gets me worked up.  I am finding it difficult to be funny, and I like being funny.

I've had all kinds of stuff going on at work this week.  We've been so busy that today was the first day that I actually got to take a lunch break (it, too, was stressful).  I had a meeting last night and didn't get home until after 8:00 p.m. and I have another one tonight.  Geez.  My poor kids.  The teenager is still in mourning (broken heart) and needs me to comfort her.  The little one just needs me to play with her.  I feel guilty.

To make matters worse, the baby has a field trip to the zoo tomorrow, but no one can accompany her so she has to stay behind at school.  I have a meeting and a class tomorrow (can't miss that - finals are around the corner!), so I'm stuck here at the office.  Maddie's stuck in the baby nursery at school.  Poor Maddie.

It's hard being a working mommy.

Date Night

I know you won't believe this, but I've been bitchy this week.  My plate is entirely too full and not many people within my arm's reach seem to have enough to do.  Take last night, for instance.  I arrived home at approximately 6:00 p.m., my usual time.  The house was empty, but everyone had been off work or home from school since around 2 p.m.  I changed into my pajamas (yes, I said it) and waited around for the rest of the family to get home.  They arrived within half an hour, congregating one by one, or two by two, around the kitchen island staring at me like hungry dogs.  Why were they staring at me?  Because they all had the same question, "What's for dinner, Mom?"

I quickly made taco salad (you can imagine what my pajamas smelled like when I finished).  By the time I sat down to eat, they had finished dinner and disappeared again into thin air.  The teenager did reappear to ask if I had located her shot record or had time to pick up her senior pictures today.

While in a meeting at noon today, I received a text message from Don that said something like, "My meeting ended sooner than expected.  Headed to the lake to drink beer.  See you this evening.  Love you."  For some reason, I became really irritated.  At Don, no, but at my situation vs. his situation.  I would love to eat lunch with friends everyday, get home before dark, and drink beer (lots and lots of it) on the lake.  I'm not saying that I work harder than he does, just that his schedule is more flexible and it does allow for more "free" time.  I'm bitter.

Anyway, he redeemed himself.  He called a few minutes ago to let me know that his mother had agreed to babysit Maddie for a couple of hours tonight and that he is taking me out to dinner. Its been a really long time since we've been to dinner alone.  I wish I could write an analogy of this "date" and the "Date Night" movie that we are eagerly awaiting to see (because we are every bit as funny as Steve Carrell and Tina Fey).  However, our date night won't last long enough to squeeze in a movie at the theater.  We have to wait until the video is released.

Overwhelmed

During the nine minutes between the first and second alarms on my clock and before the serotonin begins to clear from my brain, I am already anticipating the many tasks that await me at the office and I begin to feel overwhelmed.

This morning, my mental to-do list seemed a mile long and I debated driving past my building and continuing on, somewhere fun, where work doesn't exist.  Perhaps Galveston or New Oreans.  But, alas, I did not.  I pulled into the closest parking spot, put on a cheerful face, marched in and began working on those most pressing items on my list.  I love to work and I like to be busy, but sometimes there's just too much to do in a certain period of time.

I did not stop for lunch until just now.  My lunch was liquid, gulped down in three or four swallows.  I look around and others are still working.  Their doors have remained open all day as well.  When will the "slow" part of the academic year arrive? 

I just reviewed my to-do list and was able to cross out several items, but just as many tasks remain for tomorrow. On the bright side, I have a job to go to tomorrow where my work is valued, where I am valued!  I know many who would gladly trade places with me.  Instead of feeling overwhelmed, I should be counting by blessings!

Don't take a baby shopping for a prom dress...

We just returned from prom dress shopping.  I have dreaded this excursion for three months because I knew that it would be riddled with drama.  I was wrong.  We started shopping at 10 a.m. and were back home by noon with a dress, shoes, and accessories. She found several that she liked at Dillard's and had to decide on one, but overall it was pretty easy.

This mother-daughter day out wasn't fun though.  Don had some things he needed to work on, so we took the baby along.  The "terrible twos" kicked in as we backed out of the drive way. Her newest thing is to lament over some pain or nonexistent booboo.  These ailments shift around on and in her little body.  Today, her nose, eyes, mouth, feet, and tummy hurt.  When she wasn't complaining about these, she just cried or screamed for any random reason. The clerk assisting us gave her a graham cracker which she rubbed into several of the gowns before we caught her.  She escaped several times, once making it all the way to housewares.  She feel once trying to climb back into her stroller, leaving s huge goose egg on her forehead.  Then, she pooped her pants.  I was as crazy as a betsy beetle (bessie bug) before we checked out.  The moral of the story is simple: Don't take a baby shopping for a prom dress.          

Mommy "Me" Time Can Be Lonely

I admit it. I was looking forward to traveling out of town by myself for a few days. I am attending a conference in Louisville, KY and the prospect of sleeping alone in a king size bed was appealing to me.  We've been sleeping like the letter H at my house for the past two years, and call me selfish, but I thought it might be nice to go to dinner alone (without the interruption of having to change a diaper mid-meal), maybe sample a couple of local bourbons, visit a museum (time permitting), and finish the book I started on the cruise.

Well, due to a myriad of flight delays, eating wasn't even an option last night. I was lucky to make it to the Hyatt before registration opened this morning.  After several phone calls to ensure that all was well on the home front, I snuggled into my Garfield PJs (marital joke) and started reading. Insomnia began to creep in.  Why, why, why, couldn't my sleep-deprived body and brain shut down for a few hours and take advantage of this opportunity?  They are so few and far between these days....

After the last session ended today, I headed to the room to plan my only evening on the town.  IPad in hand, I awoke two hours later.  I know me; this nap will result in another sleepless night!  I was tempted to remain in bed until tomorrow, but I freshened up and headed out.  By that time, the Louisville Slugger Museum was closed (I peered through the windows at the factory workers still grinding away), and although I had planned to have dinner at Maker's Mark, I stumbled upon an Old Spaghetti Warehouse where I enjoyed crab raviolis with a professor from Fargo, ND.  Good times!

Now with my iPad as my only companion, I'm sitting at an Irish pub enjoying a tall Guinness and contemplating walking across the street to Howl at the Moon.  I wonder who will help me home if I decide to embark upon such an adventure?   I don't have to be responsible for anyone tonight, but who will be responsible for me? All of this "me" time is making me lonesome for my family and friends!

Don't worry followers.  I'll probably return to my room after I finish this beer and slip back into my Garfields...    

I hate Delta Airlines

I hate Delta Airlines.  I booked a business trip to Louisville, Kentucky over three months ago using Expedia.  The cheapest flight was with Delta.  You know that I am cheap, but after the cruise and this trip, I am convinced that you get what you pay for. Since booking, Delta has changed my flight six times, which completely screwed up my schedule! But I didn't complain too much (except to Expedia).

Well, I arrived almost two hours early to check in and was told that Delta had downsized the plane.  Twenty passengers were booted, self included!  So here I sit with a $200 voucher and a much later flight ticket, which pushed my destination arrival well past my bedtime.

This hatred of Delta is not new. I've experienced two very scary flights with them and one overnight flight cancellation, all due to technical problems. One landing was so rough, the Coke cart came loose, flew up the aisle, and injured two people! Delta bought lots of bus tickets that day.

Anyway, I have several hours to kill at the airport. Think I'll just sit here and drink.....

Confinement....

I am cheap.  Just ask Don.  He is always accusing me of being a tightwad.  Well, I refused to spring for a suite on this cruise because I really didn't think that we would spend that much time in our inside cabin.  Don begged me to upgrade several times, but I was sure that there would be plenty of space.

Boy, was I wrong.  Our room was approximately 185 square feet and consisted of two twin beds, pushed together to make a queen/king, a pull-down bunk bed, and a baby crib.  Add a teenager with dysentery, a baby in diapers, and a husband who was attempting to "get his money's worth" by eating as often as possible and suffering the consequences, and that severely limits the amount of oxygen in a room of any size.  By day three, I would have paid any price for a room with just a porthole!

The kids were pretty good, for our kids, who are seldom good.  The baby learned to lie and tattle.  She did both incessantly.  Even when no one else was in the room, she claimed that someone was hitting her or taking her eyebrows (yes, eyebrows).  She prowled in the low drawers and pilfered through the luggage zippers.  When asked what she was doing, in poor English, she would reply, "I ain't doing anything."

The teenager was a slob.  She refused to keep her clothes picked up and before long, the floor was littered with both clean and dirty discarded garments.  I just walked on them after awhile.  I refused to play housekeeper on my vacation.  I must acknowledge that she came in at a reasonable time each night and limited her perfume spraying within reason.  For the most part, she also held in any backtalk that threatened to surface during the trip (She knew it would be hard to escape me in such tight quarters).

My niece, who shared a cabin with my parents next door, found it necessary to get ready in our room twice a day so that she could use my hair straightener.  My husband became so sick of the girls that he began walking around the room in his underwear.  This grossed them out and helped to speed along their "primping" time. 

The kids were good, like I said before.  But after spending ten days in their continuous company...in the car...in the cabin....in the car again, I began to realize why some mother's eat their young.  Being confined with your children for that long is trying, to say the least.

This was our last big vacation with Skyler as "our child at home".  She will be leaving for college in a few months and we will never have to share another cruise cabin with her again.  It makes me kind of sad.  Maddie will grow up as Skyler did, as an only child.  My daugthers' relationship with one another will change.  As adults, they will most likely remember their individual childhoods, separate from one another.  The close confinement with one another during the cruise might have been miserable at times, but hopefully the togetherness that we shared will endure as a pleasant memory for us all.