R.I.P. Mr. Pickles

In an effort to liven up McKade’s first day of school, Mike decided to toss Mr. Pickles to his lunch sack.  I wasn’t sure about this at first but then decided McKade would probably get a big kick out of it.

So when McKade came home from school and I asked him if he found Mr. Pickles hiding in the lunch bag.  He had indeed found Mr. Pickles.  And mistakenly threw him away.  Of course this realization didn’t occur to McKade until I was checking his lunch bag for residual lunch debris and there was no Mr. Pickles to be found.

McKade SOBBED and SOBBED, bug huge tears running down his face.  I tried hard to comfort him and assure him that it was an innocent mistake and not a big deal.  I also told him I would email Kate to try to get another Mr. Pickles…Mr. Pickles, the 2nd!!

Am I in Training Now?

My friend Anne is looking for a friend to complete the running portion of a triathlon…I think I’ve got this right.  Anyway, I bit the bait and today began testing my limits and abilities.

Today the training goal was to run as much of a 3.1 mile distance as fast as I could.  Now I have no idea what a “good time” might be, I trust that Anne will let me know if I am even a contender.  I ran/walked the distance in 38 minutes.  I now at least have a time to beat.  And I will challenge myself to run the whole distance.

I don’t even know the  date of this event, and again I’m hoping that Anne fills in the details.  Regardless, I’m willing to at least try to train to improve!

The Stink Purse

I found and purchased a new purse from Target.  It fucking smelled like cat pee, or dog breath depending on which variety of odor you can relate to.  So I returned it, proceeded to try and find a non-stinky version of the same purse.  No luck.  They all stank.  The black ones, the tan ones…and all of the red ones.

Who the hell can figure this one out?  I tried to find a picture online so as to warn against the purchase of a stink purse, but no such luck there  either.

Mike said it was probably the faux leather, but you know what, there I stood sniffing purses at target and no other bag stank like this this.  If I could somehow link to the stink, I so would, because damn,  Shaniqua, yo’ purse stank!!

From Point A to Point B

It’s interesting to me how one thought can lead to another thought and then another thought and before you realize, you miss your hometown and the fact that you haven’t taken your children for a long enough visit to their maternal grandmother or the city you grew up in.  This sounds oddly specific doesn’t it?  Well, it is.

This morning it began innocently enough with a blackberry yogurt for Rogan.  I was trying to entice him a bit as it was a switch from his regular vanilla, and I explained that his favorite jelly is blackberry, and that there are even ice cream flavors like blackberry and black raspberry.  Suddenly I thought of Graeter’s Black Raspberry Mocha Chip, and the fact that my boys have not had it yet.  Nor have they been to the Cincinnati Zoo, nor have they been to the Museum at Union Terminal, nor have they been able to spend any quality time at my Mum’s house.

You see, the current issue with my Mum’s house is this: her only full bathroom on the second floor is relatively out of commission.  She’s been having it remodeled for what seems like 3 years now, and many times she has had to interrupt progress because of some other money-requiring emergency that can’t wait.  She has a shower in the dark, creepy, dungenous basement, 2 floors away, and she has a working 1/2 bath on the first floor, and I may sound like a spoiled brat, but when you throw kids into the mix you have to really think about bathrooms and stuff like that.  If it were just me, I wouldn’t really give a damn.

So I called my Mum and shared my sadness and the fact that I really want to get the boys there for a weekend, and surprisingly she has been planning to get that bathroom completely finished very soon.

The tentative plan is for a weekend in October.  And I can hardly wait.  Graeter’s, here we come!!

Brief Details

• At this very moment I am sitting in a very quiet, very empty house.  Mike took the boys camping with our friend Scott and their 3 girls.  The Dads and the kids HAD to vacate the premises because last night Gina and I hosted a Pure Romance party.  And you know what?  Despite the fact that only one other girl showed up, we had a great time.  I will refrain from going into details about what was purchased out of respect for those involved!
• Remember those pices of furnioture I pauinted for the fundraiser?  They each sold for $550.00 at the auction the other night…and the mini corn home game the kids painted?  $130.oo  I’m already planning what to paint for next year!
• Girls’ Weekend is slowly approaching…and I’m struggling with whether or not to go.  School starts soon and I hate that disconnected feeling I often have after returining from being away from the house and the kids.  It’s like I have a hard time getting bnack into the groove and that concerns me even more since school is starting.  Mike thinks I should go and I have not ruled it out yet.
• If feels like the summer temps have finally arrived!
• I’m extremely angry with my father right now.  Both my sister and I have told my father not to contact us until he goes to therapy.  He hasn’t.
• The boys are done with swimming lessons and they rocked it!!
• We got Rogan’s preschool papers in the mail the other day…he will attend on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 until 11:15.  We are both very very excited about this.
• Hang on, I need more coffee!
• Listen up!!!  I recently purchased jeans from BUCKLE.  They have so many freaking brands of jeans available and the sales associates are extremely helpful.  Granted the prices are a little high, however, I think we all know by now, great jeans are worth it.  Please be prepared to spend A LOT of time trying on jeans…we were there yesterday for about an hour and a half, and Gina came away with some HOT fucking jeans!!  It was worth it!
• The end.
• Goodbye!

Project Complete

I just finished this piece for the Benchmarks fund raiser.

This and the other other decoupage piece I did,  will go in to an auction that will help to raise funds for the Women’s Care Center.  

The boys also painted a mini corn hole set,  but sadly I forgot to take pictures before turning it in.  Next week is the auction, we’re getting a babysitter, and we’re going!  I can hardly wait.  At least I’ll be able to snap off a few pictures of their creation, along with countless amazing others!

Generic Clari*tin: My New Crack

I’ve noticed my readership is down.  Bwa-ha-ha-ha!  You know I can’t possibly be serious!  I just wanted to sound literary and important for a quick moment.  Did it work?

I’ve been absent from here, not really knowing what to write about.  All the usual is still happening…the kids fight a lot, Mike plays golf more, I still feel like I live at the gym, another freaking bladder infection!!  Same old crap.  I’ve spoken to my doctor again and she believes I don’t drink nearly enough water.  And I completely agree.  So in an effort to hydrate more efficiently I do hereby vow to carry water with me wherever I go.

It’s 5.29am on Thursday and I am awake for the day.  I had to take another 24 hour generic Clari*tin yesterday and I have a feeling it jolts me into complete alertness after 8 hours.  But seriously, I’d rather be awake at this time than the way I was yesterday before taking the meds!

The boys and I had just come home from getting some ice cream.  We sat outside, and all seemed well, even with the added drippage and stickiness that comes with little boys and ice cream.  As soon as we got home, my whole body just started to ITCH.  It was weird.  My nose became instantly stuffed up, I was ready to tear out my eyeballs, and my stomach felt icky too…although I’m not sure that was an allergic reaction to anything…I seriously could not get my watch off or my contacts out quickly enough.  I changed clothes and decided to take the allergy medicine despite the fact that the last time I took it, I felt felt all hopped up on um, crack maybe, or perhaps it was more of a symptom of withdrawal from crack.  I haven’t taken crack, but I sometimes talk like I have!!

The allergy meds kicked in thank gawd, but now I’m awake, and it is much too early to be awake.  I do see future opportunities for napping…we’re leaving today to head to the in-laws in Nicholasville, KY.  It’s about a 6 hour drive, and I get to not drive!  I’m looking forward to the trip!

Am I babbling?

I’m done for now, although I think I’ve just come up with a few more ideas for more blogs.

Hmmmm, perhaps this “hopped up” feeling isn’t so bad.  I wonder what else I can get done before the kids wake up!

Essay Review

I’ve discovered that I really enjoy reading the “Essay” feature on the last page of Time magazine.  (To be quite honest, it’s great bathroom material!)  I know, I know more than you need to know.  But regardless, I wanted to share a bit with you from the June 29th issue.)

This particular essay was written by Nancy Gibbs.  She addressed the the differences between men and women in regards to their parenting.  her main points being that 1) Men are increasingly more engaged in the parenting of our children, and 2) Men tend to parent in a more relaxed fashion, thereby providing women with am alternative to our more tense [my word, not hers] approach. A couple of interesting quotes caught my eye and seemed worth addressing in the blog forum.

“But the more engaged fathers become, the  more women reckon with what a true parenting partnership would look like.”

I completely agree with the aforementioned statement.  I have seen women fight tooth and nail against having to give up the rights as the primary caretaker.  Despite a very willing and capable partner.  Which in my opinion leads to the next quote I took note of:

“I avoid old friends on Facebook,” reads the post on Truemomconfessions.com, “because when I compare my life to theirs, I am so ashamed of where I am.”

Perhaps women are left feeling so damn sorry for themselves because we try, and fail, to do it all by ourselves.  We set these unrealistic goals and standards for ourselves, we don’t let anyone help us to achieve them, and then we feel disappointed in ourselves for not being able to reach what we think should have been our full potential.  Perhaps by allowing our men to shoulder a portion of the responsibility of rearing our children, we women might feel supported and inspired to fulfill our life’s dreams with other ventures, besides mothering.  It is possible that women have other interests outside the kids right?!?!?

Why I close my eyes when Rogan goes poopy!

When Rogan began potty training, I was willing to perform any little tricks that might have aided the process.

We tried reading books, singing songs, bribery with sweet treats, promises to call Spiderman, and “threats” of not being able to start preschool in the fall like all the other boys and girls his age.  It all finally paid off one wonderful day.  Where then might you be asking did the closing of Tanzie’s eyes come into play.

Well getting Rogan to pee in the potty was one thing.  Pooping on the potty, as we all know, is something very different.  On one occasion, I offered to leave the room so that he could, um, well…do his business.  That did not work.  Then I offered to stay in the bathroom with  him but offered to shut my eyes, in essence to provide him with the privacy that I though would result in success.  And it worked.

And this morning, as I crouched next to a pooping Rogan, with my eyes tightly shut, I thought to myself, “I have got to blog about this!”

The things we do for our children and their poop!

Lacking Literary Inspiration

So I’ll start with this:  As we were driving past a local pet supply shop, McKade pointed out a puppy,  he then says, “I think that’s one of those “poo-dohs”!  “Honey”, I say, “Do you mean a poodle?”  And he says, “Yes a poodle!”  I have to admit, I absolutely love it when, with all innocence, the boys say things wrong!  Oh, and he also asked me not to tell Gina about this because he didn’t want her laughing at it.  He didn’t tell me that I couldn’t blog about it!  Just to be on the safe side, don’t tell him I told you guys!

It’s been a busy week, and frankly, we are at home today trying to be lazy.  We did force ourselves to run for groceries which I have been putting off all week.  But today, luckily some funds were deposited into our account thereby lifting the ban on spending money.  Nice how that happens!

The boys have had swimming lessons all week, and they are kicking ass and taking names!  (Why would anyone “take names after an ass-kicking”?)  I just don’t get it!

I just finished a painting project I did for a local fundraiser.  It’s called Benchmarks.  They provide the naked pine furniture and volunteers then paint whatever piece they choose which then goes into a silent auctions to raise money for a local women’s care center.  Here’s a few pictures of what I did:

The top is découpaged.  This was my first experience with that art form and I really enjoyed it.  The auction is some time in August and between now and then, I think my piece might be placed in a local shop to draw attention to the fund raiser.  The boys also painted some mini corn hole boards.  And I just realized I forgot to take pictures before turning them in.  One of the perks of volunteering is that the artists receive two tickets top the function.  So I’ll be able to take pictures then!  I actually one more piece to work on.  It may not get done, but I can work on it all the way through until next year’s event!  This is a total low pressure volunteer project: the best kind!

OH I ALMOST FORGOT!!  I GOT MY BOOTS!!!!  I saved up and bought a pair and I am damn proud of myself for not using credit to pay!  I shamefully admit that these boots are fucking expensive!!  Here’s another picture:

It’s Friday and I am looking forward to spending some time with Mike this weekend.  It feels like it’s a busy week which did not seem to provide much time for couple time!

Well, that’s all I got!