Holy Mama Cow! Swimsuit Season Here We Come!

I've lost 18 pounds in the last two months. I was feeling pretty good about myself. That is when I went shopping for beachwear. Ever wanna feel like crap about yourself, just go swimsuit shopping! If the huge mirror showing off each fat roll isn't enough to set you over, then the florescent lighting sure is while it points out each skin flaw and cellulite bump.

Has anyone noticed that this year's swimsuits are super duper skimpy? I used to get all my suits at Target. I couldn't find anything. If it covered the torso it had a huge hole in the middle. If it covered the front, then the back dipped down enough to expose you to crack. We all know crack kills!

I think I'll wear my husband's trunks and a big, nasty t-shirt to the pool and beach this year! LOL Just kidding. Perhaps I'll find something eventually....

City Mouse and the Country Mouse

This week Curtis left for a business trip in New York City. For the first three days he was gone I didn't get to talk to him for more than 6 minutes total. I'm wondering if his head was ready to explode with all there was to see and do there. Being at home alone with 6 kids and with little adult contact or that break in the day when Daddy comes home was starting to get to me and I found myself resentful of the fact he was having the time of his life and I was sitting at home in a little town in Nebraska. Ogallala vs. New York City is not exactly screaming "Come See ME!"

He was offered a job out there, an "anyone wants to move out here, let me know" sort of thing. Immediately, I put my guard up and refuse to budge, even though I complain all the time of being here with nothing to do. It's New York City! Hollywood hasn't done the best job of portraying it as a city you want to raise a large family in. So, I laid in bed with the wind blowing, tornado watches blaring and shaking with fear of the weather, thinking, NYC probably never has stuff like this to live through. What else does NYC not have that we have here?

A newspaper that only comes out on Monday and Wednesday.

Garage sale competitions. It's almost a sport out here. People actually come, buy an item, have their own sale next week and you'll find your item put out, marked up. So you buy your item back because, well, you remember all the things you did with it and how could you have parted with it in the first place? Next year, it's back out on the table and the whole process starts over again.

A traffic jam is 10 cars at a stop light. Rush hour means you can't turn onto the main road for a good 3 minutes.

Wind. Constantly. Maybe there are 10 days a year it doesn't seem to blow. The next day it's a blizzard.

Your doctor is everyone else's doctor. We all know his mannerisms, his usual regime of care, but we all stop and listen if someone tells us what advice was given to them, because that's good stuff. Wanna know his advice for weight loss? Stop drinking soda.

The librarians are your personal friends. They ogle your baby, ask about your kids in school, share their lives with you, tell you about who they are dating, what state of array their house is in.

You have two grocery stores to shop from and three discount stores. Save your money...no high dollar shopping sprees here. Well, unless you buy a BBQ grill or patio furniture. Toys R Us, Target, Barnes and Noble: 2.5 hours away. Walmart: 1 hour away.

You know to buy gas at the little gas station in the middle of town. Leave the highway gas stations and "end of town" station for the desperate tourists.

Hot Spot: Not the club, the bar, the diner. It is the lake at night. Apparently night fishing is the place to be...even on cold, windy, nasty nights. (Why?!)

Everyone knows you by the car you drive. I mean, they know you by name.

"Inner city" is the 6 blocks that make up downtown.

Open 24 hours? Only the truck stop. Everything else closes down at 10, and be prepared for Summer hours vs. Winter hours. Summer hours start in May and some restaurants, like Taco Bell or Wendy's might be open till 1 a.m. Certainly keeps the night life short lived.

Olive Garden, Chili's, even Applebees? Nope. We have Golden Village, Mi Ranchito and the Golden Spur (steak house). 25 people fill them to capacity. Except maybe the steak house, which is next door to a bar. That pretty much makes up the nice, sit down restaurants. The rest are fast food.

Graffiti on the back wall of Safeway is enough to question if we have a gang problem.

Rent at 900.00 a month is considered outrageous. But, if you are paying 450.00 in rent, be prepared to pay 400.00 in gas to heat it.

So, take that NYC. But, I won't lie to you. I did look up housing in Connecticut (heard housing is cheaper there than in New York)last night. Just, you know, for information. Hey, we'd only be 9 hours vs. 16 hours from Shiloah!

Another "What Was I Thinking Moment"

See this "sand box"? I was at the store and saw colored sand. I figured I could make a sandbox inexpensively out of a baby pool and sand and that it would be so much fun! Visions of happily playing children ran through my mind. I wanted to be a "nice" mom.

What I should have remembered was doing these kinds of favors for the kids always seems to backfire. Guess what happened? (Insert little giggle)

They put colored sand all over my yard, in my pot plants, and anywhere else they could. Kids love to be creative. It was kind of funny watching Bella dig and dump the sand everywhere. She was being creative too.

Yet another "why did I buy this" moment....

Look What the Four Year Old Dragged In

Kitties!! I would post a picture of them, they were really cute, but Curtis is blowing up my computer at the moment and I can't get to the pictures. This morning Simeon got outside without our knowing. He made his happy way all the way to the neighbor's house, found a pile of kitties in a window well, and managed to haul all four of them back to our house. During this time their mother was eating breakfast inside the house. Imagine her grief when she came out to find all the babies gone. So, back to Simeon. He steps in the house holding some little furry creatures, their heads just barely popped up over his hands, and I freak out. These little kitties were only 2 weeks old! I freak out and so he drops them on the porch. We send the boys out to find out where he got them and came back in with two more. Everyone loved on them a bit, but we decided to put them back under the porch hoping the mother would find them. About 2 hours later the neighbor shows up with Pearl, the mother, in tow, frantic to find her babies. Simeon was really disappointed he had to give the kitties back. I think he was really proud of himself for finding them in a window well,just so easily accessible. I almost gave in to become the crazy cat family. Let's see, that would bring the total cat population in our house to 6.

I forgot how cute those kittens can be.

Mother's Day Gifts

I'm not quite to this point yet, but I'm anticipating the day I get the slew of homemade kid gifts and cards for Mother's Day. I have a few sentimental things from my kids, like Isaac's first self portrait, and a drawing of Mommy at Work I framed. Hannah sends me letters with "words" on them. Usually I can spot my name and hers, but I don't understand anything else in there. But other than these few things and a few journal entries, my kids aren't quite old enough yet to get to the gift giving stage. But my sister is.
She called me Sunday night to wish me Happy Mother's Day and relay our activities for the day. Bless her heart, she had to work, as a waitress at Olive Garden, on Mother's Day. She pretty much worked the whole day and didn't get to do anything really special for that day. Her four kids though found the "awesome-est garage sale ever" and did a little shopping.
My sister arrived home. The gifts for her were proudly displayed on the table, sparkling and...garage sale new.
Before her lay:
A stuffed cross eyed sheep
A bag o' golf balls WITH a tray to keep them in
A stuffed boxing kangaroo complete with cape
1 Beanie Baby Simease cat
A Wilbert (their weiner/terrier mix dog) look-alike dog with a recorder that has a new message on it every time she arrives home
Homemade cards
Bouquet of flowers in a home made vase
Flowers
and
A really nice jewelry box, but when she opened the lid, found a bird had pooped in it. Kind of anti-climatic, I'd say.

Treasures!

One day, I hope I can come back here and record my children's gifts, which I hope are as wonderful as my sisters.

I'm coveting that cross eyed sheep.

The Potty Dance

Simeon will turn 4 at the end of this month. He's resisted any kind of potty training up to this point, although I have to say the kid has some great control. Last night Curtis talked him into trying on undies. He did, and this time, he was happy about them. In the past he laid on the floor crying and immovable until we took pity on him and put on a diaper. After dinner, he had to go but wet on himself a bit, then ran in circles saying OH NO, OH NO, OH NO! Got him to the bathroom and after a few minutes of chit-chat, he finally peed, for the first time ever!! He didn't cry or scream or freak out! I'm so proud of him!

Then today after we got home from running errands, Isaac put some undies back on him. For whatever reason, he thinks if he is wearing undies, he cannot have any other clothes on. So he ran around most of the afternoon in some black Cars undies. At one point he made it outside and was running around in just those. That's probably not helping our image here in the neighborhood (only family with kids and they get accused of all kinds of things), but I don't care. My kid PEED in the toilet!!!

Olive Garden a.k.a. Hildegard

I dug my old Cabbage Patch doll out of storage a few months ago. I had had two of them, but I gave my Premie, Barlow, to my niece, which left Hildegard behind and I saved her for my daughter. Hannah already had one Cabbage Patch doll, Kate, so I thought I could play off Hildegard as her sister. For some reason, Hildegard didn't take to Hannah as Kate had. I think it had to do with the hair. Kate's is long and flowing and Hildegard's is short, curly and a little "pilled". This morning Hannah was trying to redress Kate in a beautiful peach chiffon dress. She came back to report Olive Garden got Kate's old blue dress with the pen ink on it. What? Olive Garden? "Yeah, you know, Olive Garden, my other doll you gave me?" Hildegard? It's like some evil stepmother scenario being played out in my daughter's bedroom. Hildegard is Cinderella, Kate and Jasmin (the baby sister) are the favored stepsisters and she's the Stepmother...although I don't think she is intentionally evil to Hildegard.

This got me to thinking about the Cabbage Patch dolls and I ran across this very interesting article about the history of them. Anyone want to share their Cabbage Patch doll adventures?

http://collectdolls.about.com/library/weekly/aa090101a.htm

Storage Solutions for grubby Paws

I'm excited about our tax return coming in soon and have been doing some online "pre-shopping." (I really should be packing boxes, but that's beside the point.) As I was browsing, I came across this storage solutions kit. At first I was drawn to the ease and convenience of it. That was in the first millisecond. Then in the second millisecond, visions of grubby four year old paws (yes, kids have paws) also loving the ease and immediate availability of what's inside.

What really had me screaming "Never will these enter my house!!" was the one with the chocolate chip cookies. It is really an open invitation that is four year old activated, to open "me" and eat the delicious contents.

Next, my mind was drawn to the scoops. -Ooooh, it comes with a scoop! Then I quickly remembered that the only measuring cups (or scoops) I have left from the two new sets are the one cup measuring cups. The 1/4 and 1/3 cups must be my children's favorites.

Then we have to think about the consequences of having a scoop inside the containers. Brown sugar is a favorite of the grubby paws. White sugar comes in at a close second. The children always want to creep into the pantry and steal a clump or two. If I added a "handy" scoop to the container, what ease and delicious accessibility it would give to the person wanting to scoop the sugar. You know that means a sneaky kid with an insatiable sweet tooth. Heaven forbid I add beans to one. It would become a new game- 1000 bean pick-up!

With a sigh, and after way to much deliberation, I clicked "back to the catalog". For now, containers like these will have to remain in grandma's cupboards.

Next, I looked at the kid's tents...

Make Over, Anyone?

About 4 years ago I was in a restaurant with my boss. It was buffet style, so I sat waiting for my turn and noticed a woman step over to the desert bar. She was hugely pregnant. You could tell she was tired and ready to have that baby. Do you want to know what I noticed and admired the most about her though? It was her clothes. On her feet were huge yellow ducky slippers. She had on some odd colored stretch pants. Her shirt was an old, ratty Disney character shirt, so worn there were holes around the bottom edge. Her hair was in a messy top knot. I admired her because she had the guts to leave the house looking like that. I commiserated with her because I had been huge and pregnant, tired beyond belief, uncomfortable and out of clothes because my belly was too big to remain covered up. I asked my boss if I could come to work like that in my last months. I must have had a wishful, hopeful "I know what she's going through" look on my face and he could see how I very well would have shown up like that if he didn't nix it right then and there. I didn't get the nickname Fruit Salad for nothing!
I'm 2 months postpartum now (wow, that time flew) and I'm still wearing my sweats because none of my pre-pregnancy pants fit yet. My hair looks even more out of control: dried out, frizzy, and somehow it's gotten even curlier than before. Weirdly, each pregnancy affects my hair this way. I'm still wearing it in a ponytail almost every day. Bor-ing!! My eyebrows are quickly becoming Unibrow, and I've not worn make up in months. Well, does chapstick count?
I used to watch What Not to Wear. I had to stop. I couldn't stomach the show. I would watch the beginning where they did the intro of the woman to get made over. The part where friends and family comment on the victim of fashion tragedy.
"She bought her pants in the junior section!!" and other comments of appalling behavior of these fashion misfits. I could handle that part. I couldn't handle watching them go through her closet.
"That was my favorite shirt from high school!" Never mind that she is now 32 years old.
"I wore this to a wedding five years ago. I know I'll use it again, sometime."
"My first kiss was while I was wearing that dress."
That's me. I bought a T-shirt in Italy. I loved it because it was colorful and had a design that reminded me of the Italian pottery. Isaac was 6 months old when I bought that shirt and I even have a picture of myself in Italy wearing the shirt. I wore the shirt 8 months pregnant with Jesse. I have another picture to prove that. At my baby shower for Simeon, I wore the shirt again. Unfortunately, my sister caught the trend looking through some old pictures.
"Hey! You wore this shirt 6 years ago?! Dawn...GET RID OF IT!!"
She tried to throw it away and I snuck it out of the trash.
I wore it two summers ago while on a walk with Joshua. I wore it last week with navy blue sweat pants. This June that shirt will be 9 years old. It's still good. It's not like it has holes or tears on it. It's just a little misshapen is all.
How does someone that thinks like this, dress like this, get a make over?! I've been wanting to get my hair cut, short, like in a bob. Except that Curtis says I'll look like Krusty the clown and calls rights to yell "Hey HEEEYYYYYY!" when I walk in the room. Hannah pressures me every morning to wear make up. But, I'll rub my eyes because of allergies today so I won't put any one. I rub my eyes every day, so I never wear make up. I won't go on about the clothes. I think you get the idea.

I do have to say though, good fitting bras are one thing that help a figure. I never realized that before. Jeans are another thing. Oprah's site has something up about good fitting jeans. Getting a little more toned up wouldn't be so bad on the figure either. Stay away from horizontal stripes. I got two shirts recently like that, and then I saw myself in a picture over the weekend and I look at least 2 times as big as I am. That's all the make over advice I have. Oh, and ditch the sweats, unless you're working out. Question: Does chasing kids around and cleaning my house count as working out? All the time?

What is the point of this blog entry? I don't know. I know we all can look at ourselves and see areas that need improvement. I guess it's best said to work on one area at a time. One step at a time.