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August 26, 2009
Karma totally owes me one
Yesterday, Rex, Katie, Owen and I spent the morning running errands. The trip ended, as all good trips do, at Target. I needed to pick up some stuff to make Bakerella's Cream Cheese Pound Cake, including a properly sized loaf pan.
Rex helped with the bags and the kids and such, and I didn't even realize until today that the loaf pan and the checkout impulse buy apparently didn't make it home.
Well, crap. There's $6 bucks I'll never recover.
I really wanted that pound cake, so Katie and I ran out to (a different) Target to pick up another pan. I went ahead and got two, so I wouldn't have to halve the recipe. The pans were nested together, and the checkout lady didn't notice.
She was putting my two-pans-for-the-price-of-one into the bag, and I stopped her.
Shouldn't I get some kind of Nobel Prize for this?
Posted by me at 8:42 PM | Comments (0)
I'm totally going to take the credit for her
Ahhh, the kids are in bed. My favorite time of the day.
Today was Jamie's third day of school, and I think I'm mostly adjusted to the fact that on one random day, then for the next nine months, I shove her out the door at earlyfreakingthirty in the morning to play and learn with others for the next seven hours. Somehow, that seemed even odder to me this year than last. What I haven't adjusted to is the crazy early wake-up we've had to return to. For the first time since I had kids, I was finally getting to sleep in a reasonable amount almost every day, thanks to the combination of summer vacation, PBS and Owen's ability to actually sleep in if he's tired.
I finally understand why parents like summer break.
Back to Jamie's first day. Jamie loves school. The kids, the teachers, the special activities. She has no hesitation or nervousness or social anxiety. She actually said, "and tomorrow I get to wake up EARLY!"
Had I not heaved her from my body, I would not believe that child is mine.
I cried every night before the first day of school. Would my friends still like me? What if I didn't know anybody? What if everything I knew about school was different this year.
It's a wonder I'm not on mood enhancers.
I still have the same issues today. If I'm invited to a girl's night, I worry no one else will show up. (The horror is just as bad if I'm hosting, since I've actually *had* no one show up.) The house isn't lit like a Christmas tree? Maybe I came on the wrong night. What if no one wants to talk to me? What if I say something incredibly stupid? (Again, I have precedent.)
Jamie is so confident that she just assumes that everyone will like her, that they will want to play her games, her way, and listen to her go on and on with all the rules. I keep worrying that some mean kid (or let's face it, one that just gets fed up with her bossy bossiness) is going to take her down a peg, but I'm not entirely sure Jamie has any pegs below freakishly overconfident.
I'm so glad that she doesn't seem to have many worries, that her fears are usually simple and short-lived. I'm not sure how I created that creature, through my amazing genetics or my stellar parenting or through sheer dumb luck, but I'm so grateful that she's mine.
Posted by me at 8:03 PM | Comments (0)
August 24, 2009
First day, First Grade
Posted by me at 10:21 PM | Comments (0)
August 23, 2009
Summer's last hurrah
We spent last week in Gulf Shores, Al, enjoying the sand, surf and Tropical Storm Claudette with family friends. Rather than try to recap a whole lot of laying around and hole digging, I'm just going to do a The Numbers: Gulf Shores 2009 a la Chris.
Without further ado:
States visited: 5
Hours in the car: 25
Days spent in swimsuits: 7
Tropical storms headed our way: 1
Times we ordered pizza for dinner: 2
Pounds gained (by me): 4
Days the kids slept in: 1
Days the kids claimed they slept in: 7
Times kids got up in middle of night: 0
Sand castles built: 4
Pictures taken: 487
Clams caught: 1,386
Clams released alive: 1,385
Clams found the next day in the beach bag: 1
Times we talked about doing this again next year: 6
Hours spent talking to other adults while Apple products entertained the children: 9
Hours enjoyed: All of them
Next up: Jamie's first day of 1st grade. Sometimes I can't believe that kid is mine!
Posted by me at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)
August 9, 2009
Mmmm, clover
Posted by me at 10:57 AM | Comments (0)
August 7, 2009
Tulip the Turtle
Posted by me at 8:57 PM | Comments (0)
August 6, 2009
How do you befriend a popular internet personality without seeming like a stalker?
I had fully intended to send an invite to a couple of bloggers I follow to my dad's annual BBQ. They live near where my dad is, seem to be people that would be good friends if we lived nearby, have kids near in ages to our own and have occasionally replied to my comments.
But seriously, I think one of them makes a point to reply to almost all of his commenters. And the other, while less trafficked comment-wise, has a definite following of her own.
So who am I to them but one more of those freaks on the internet who got a little too wrapped up in their lives, and should therefore be kept at arm's length.
So, yeah, I totally wussed out. Much like the way Rex is willing to send me to Blogher every year, and I come up with some reason (ok, lots of times they really are good reasons) to not go to a conference where I will know not ONE SINGLE PERSON in real life, and in fact don't have much of an online relationship beyond readership with any of them. And judging by my stat counter, not a one of them has even that shallow of a relationship with me. What would I say to them?
So does sending an invite make me a crazy? Does thinking that they might actually come make me delusional?
Guess I'll never know.
Posted by me at 9:35 PM | Comments (3)