not a good look

Now, I'm no fashionista. I can usually be seen sporting some seriously unfashionable mommy gear because it's comfortable, darn it. But today, I saw 2 outfits that stood out in their wrongness. One was a young woman sporting one of those trendy sweat suits. The pants were low-cut exposing her flat little belly because the jacket didn't quite meet the pants. But it was the shoes that got me. Bedazzled thong sandals with kitten heels. It just didn't look right, people.

But the wrongest (yes, I know that's not really a word, but it fits this situation) was the woman I saw running in my neighborhood. I imagine her mental checklist as she geared up for her run: Running shoes. Check. Running shorts. Check. Ipod. Check. Tube top. Check.

A tube top for running?! Seriously? That sounds like asking for an injury.

Disappearing teachers

L'il Sis had a preschool field trip last Thursday. I'm so thankful it is the last one of the year. Parents have to transport the kids. Not so unusual in a preschool setting. That's not the problem.

For this last field trip, there were 2 moms to chaperon and drive. Between us, we had 5 kids because 2 were not there that day. (Yes, it is a very small class!) The 2 teachers drove in a separate vehicle. We met another, larger class at a nature center and combined the 2 classes for the field trip because ours was so tiny. Not a problem. After the tour was over, the guide allowed the kids to go in the nature center display area. Shortly after that, the other class left. The other mom, the kids and I wandered into a side area with the guide who continued talking to us and the kids about things.

I was waiting for the teachers. Finally, I walked out to the entrance area, looked out the front doors and saw them walking in the parking lot to their vehicle. There were only 4 cars in the lot at this time. The director of the preschool was also getting into her car and leaving. The other 2 cars belonged to the other mom and me. By the time I was able to call the other mom's attention to the fact that the teachers were leaving and round up the kids to get them out to the cars, the teachers were gone. Seriously.

Back at the classroom, the other mom asked about it and the lead teacher said she didn't see us and thought we'd left. Hmm. Their car was parked between ours and our cars were still in the parking lot when they left the nature center. So, I'm not buying it.

The field trip before this one, we had more moms along but again, the teachers disappeared at the end. We all came back to the school and classroom because some of the kids needed to be picked up or were staying for extended care. The rest of us stood in that room waiting for the teachers who never showed. We theorized that they went to lunch and just never bothered to say anything to anyone.

Maybe I'm over-reacting. For the most part, I really like L'il Sis' teachers. But this seems to be a serious lack of communication.

*update: I had a chat with the Director of the preschool and she agreed it was an area of concern and that she would address it.

are we there yet?

It's the future...where's my flying car? Apparently, it's here but I can't afford it:

um...okay...

Seen when we took the kids to a BBQ place recently:
a car parked in front of the restaurant with a vegetarian bumper sticker.

Happy...um....what day is it?

I've already resigned myself to the fact that I will never be Mom of the Year. I know this. But then along comes my good friend Jody to really show me up!

I didn't even remember that today was St. Patrick's Day until the rest of L'il Sis' preschool class showed up in green shirts. She picked out her own clothes and was wearing a pink tank top and denim skort with pink ruffle. There were some tiny green embroidered leaves on the skort, but I don't think they counted since her teacher pinched her anyway.

Oh, and Big Sis and I weren't wearing anything green either. Then I read Jody's blog and see they've set out leprechaun traps... and almost caught some!

dancing raindrops

It was a busy morning. Big Sis and Stretch had their last games for Upward Bound basketball and L'il Sis had her first dance performance at a local festival. Stretch and Big Sis left for basketball after breakfast. I was so bummed to miss her last game. After they left, I still had to wrestle L'il Sis' hair into a bun. It wouldn't be so bad if I weren't so hair-challenged. I had to get another mom to tell me how to do it. L'il Sis didn't care for the gel, hair pins, or hairspray. I can't really say I blame her. She probably wouldn't have been too crazy about the hairnet either, if she'd known about it. But, miraculously, it all stopped hurting her after I gave her a few M&M's.

It's not the most beautiful thing up close, but it got the job done!

Waiting to go on.

Once the girls were ready to perform, my Flip froze up on me during the beginning of the routine. I managed to get it going again just after L'il Sis and the other raindrops began their part of the dance, collectively I guess they are a raincloud. L'il Sis is mostly to the far left of the screen, the tallest of the brunette raindrops:



The first thing L'il Sis said as she came off the stage was, "Do we get to try again?" with a smile. When I told her no, she asked sadly, "We only get one try?" She refused to take her costume off and wore it to the basketball game Stretch was coaching. She also provided some off-court entertainment by dancing on the side-lines. I don't think the cheerleaders' coaches were too pleased when half their girls were distracted by the little ballerina.

seriously?!

It's 5:20 p.m.
I'm in the midst of making dinner for my family when my cell phone rings.
It's the rental car company calling to tell me that today is the last day that my insurance will be paying for the rental.
What?!
(I'd taken my car in for repairs last week.)
Apparently, the repairs had been completed last Friday.
Again, WHAT?!
No one had called to inform me of this little nugget.
I ask when the rental office closes.
6:00.
Of course.
I call the repair office, confirm that the car is indeed ready and ask what time they close.
6:00.
By now it is 5:30.
And, oh, by the way, I live about 30 minutes away.
(The only good part was that both offices were located at the same dealership location.)
Fortunately, Stretch was home.
I told him how to finish dinner as I launched myself out of the garage.
Somehow, I made it to the repair shop in record time, with time to spare! Let's just say that I put those Korean driving skills to good use. Ahem.

I think I need a bubble bath ...or wine... or both...

yakka-wanna

Not only do girls want to have fun, this one has no shortage of confidence! When I showed her the video, her first words were,
"I have a cute voice!"

Hmm... I just noticed she's wearing the same outfit as the previous post. I swear it is a different day and it has been laundered! ;D

Punky Brewster

L'il Sis dressed herself today, as she does most days. The headband is supposed to make her hair look "fancy." I wondered a bit about some color choices but decided she was channeling Punky Brewster. So this is how she looked as we headed out the door to preschool this morning.

Just the fact that she would willingly choose to put on tights suggests she might not be my child after all. As a child, my sister was known to ask for tights and change her clothes several times a day (something else that L'il Sis does). Somehow I ended up with my sister's child.

At least I didn't see any scissors...

Suddenly, I realized, "Hmm, it's very quiet around here. A little TOO quiet..." Then I see doors closed, including the one to the girls' bathroom with light coming from in there. "What are you doing?" I ask as make my way to the door to open it. I hear my 8 year old answer, "Spa!"

'What?!' I'm thinking as I open the door to see my 4 year old standing in front of the mirror, staring at herself very seriously while holding a handtowel around her shoulders. I think her sister was wielding a brush. I don't know for sure, because I exited quickly. They're together and there's no screaming or blood-letting. I think I'll just enjoy the quiet.

Warning: another poop story

Unlike The Mrs., whose little ones are still quite little, my girls are 8 and 4. I potty-trained the last one around 1-1/2 years ago. One would think my days of poop stories are over. One would be wrong.

Trying to get either of the girls to close the door while in the bathroom seems to be a losing battle. This becomes more of an issue when we have a guest or are at someone else's home. But that's not what this post is about. The other morning, Big Sis was having some, ahem, issues with evacuation. Meanwhile, L'il Sis was in the outer chamber of their bathroom (door between them open, of course) cheering her on with, "Push it out! Push it out! Yay, Big Sis!"

I guess I should be grateful there was some sisterly solidarity there.

Just wait until she's hormonal...

L'il Sis is still 4 years old. Her birthday is still a few months away.

Tonight, L'il Sis had her dance class which meant dinner was pushed back almost an hour past the usual time. She was tired and hungry. Not a good combination. Stretch was doing his best to get her to eat her dinner, but she was in the midst of a major melt-down, crying and screaming. At one point, he asked her how she was feeling and she yelled, "How do you THINK I'm feeling?!"

Yeah, I'm looking forward to those teen years. Like a poke in the eye.

don't go in the water....

Last month there were over a thousand sharks off our shores near where we currently live. Apparently, it's an annual event, with the sharks following migratory fish. (You can see aerial pics here.) Then, there are the gators. I saw 2 from the highway when I drove to Orlando to pick up a friend who came to stay a few weeks ago. Last weekend, we drove to another part of Florida and saw some small alligators in a pond in our relatives' neighborhood. I kept my eyes peeled the whole way home at the canals lining the roads and eventually saw several more on our way home. Stretch laughed at me, asking, "Made the whole hour you spent looking worth it?"

Okay, so this particular alligator wasn't in the wild. I took this while on a field trip with my daughter's pre-K class. But still...

I'm just saying: This is NOT the state to get over your fear of water.

bugger!

I was shopping in one of those huge warehouse stores earlier today when I felt a tug on my shoe. I thought I'd stepped in something sticky (and I might have). But as I kept walking something just didn't feel right. I'd managed to break my shoe. Of course, I was at the back of the store when it happened. It wasn't a huge deal. The strap that went behind my heel had broken. But it was still a bit uncomfortable to walk around like that. Especially when the strap kept getting under my foot as I hobbled to the front to pay. I think my jeans were long enough that no one else noticed.


So, of course, my next stop was to pick up a cute pair of sandals that I'd noticed the day before but had talked myself out of buying. 'Cause I needed replacement shoes, of course! It was a sign. I'm sure of it!

seeing how the other half lives...

I don't get many date nights, but I guess this kind of makes up for that. This is where Stretch and I were Saturday night:



Who else was there? John Walsh, Anne Archer, Kyle Petty, and ambassadors from 8 countries. The wife of the ambassador from Monaco was very taken with Stretch's mess dress uniform (You can see it in the picture in the top right corner of this page). She told us she's been in Washington (D.C.) for 2 years but had not seen that uniform before. Then she concluded, "I guess I'm not getting invited to the right parties!"

Yo-bo-say-yo!

Remember this? We got another call from a telemarketer/fund-raiser tonight. Again, Stretch answered the phone, speaking Korean. He continued to speak Korean until the guy finally gave up with "I'll call back later." But before he got to that point, he was still trying, asking for Stretch and me by our first names (as if he was a friend, hah!), and Stretch was still talking at him in Korean. The funniest part was when he said, "I don't speak Spanish."

I thought I was going to hurt myself trying not to laugh out loud.

lookin' good!

Eww

...And today's celebrities think they get no privacy.

*Sign was on the wall of "Grossology" exhibit at our local science museum. L'il Sis PreK class had a field trip there last week.

week 2 of basketball and the shoe quest

Stretch left the state in the early hours of the morning (oh-dark thirty to the fellow milspouses out there) so I was solo-parenting today for the basketball game.

But first... we had to get new sneakers for Big Sis. *sigh*

I really hate shopping for anything that child has to wear. Really. It's no fun for anyone. I made Stretch go with us for the first 2 forays. Last Monday it resulted in Big Sis throwing herself onto the floor of a shoe store in the beginnings of a tantrum. She's 8. I thought it was a bit much. The 2nd try was yesterday. Right after school, we met Stretch and L'il Sis at the mall. We actually ended up buying a pair but that also led to much gnashing of teeth, etc. So this morning, much against my better judgment, I took her to another discount chain (that didn't go at all well) and then after lunch I spotted a small mom-and-pop type shoe store where the proprietor was apparently retiring. We actually found a pair of sneakers there that made her (somewhat) happy. I made her wear them out of the store and threw the disintegrating and stinky pair of not-really-sneakers-more-of-a-casual-shoes away.

Then it was time for the game. Did I mention I was doing all this solo today? L'il Sis was hyper. Dang! I knew I shouldn't have fed her! (that's a bit of sarcasm before you go off and report me) Thankfully, the church's gym lets out onto a playground that only has 2 outlets, only one of which was open during the game (the gym door) so she spent some time out there when she wasn't inside inhaling popcorn.

I was really proud of Big Sis and her team. They were down 8-20 at half-time but came back to tie the game at 28-28. By the end of the game, Big Sis' cheeks were rosy and she was so sweaty that her hair was dripping. She received the gold star for Sportsmanship but told her coach they needed a new color for Sweatiest! I think next week I need to remember to take a bottle of water for her to keep on the bench and a hand towel for her dry off!

Attacked by knife-wielding Lilliputians...

...or at least that's how it felt.

I went in to get waxed today and the technician talked me into trying threading. I'd heard of it but hadn't tried it and, admittedly, was curious to try it. Really, could it be any worse than having hot wax rubbed into your face only to have it ripped off moments later, taking hair and probably some of your epidermis with it? So I nervously said okay.

Holy ouch, Batman! It felt like my face was being attacked by tiny little knives! Hmm... is it supposed to feel like that? Or am I just a total wuss? Or just a hairy wuss? By the time the thread-wielding technician reached my lip, my eyes were welling with tears. (What really added insult to injury was the fact that I abetted in my own assault while she was attacking my eyebrows by holding my eyelid down and pulling my forehead up during part of the process.)

But the sickest part of the whole experience... while it was happening, I was thinking, "I'm so gonna blog about this!"

Anybody else out there try this method of hair removal? And, if so, what did you think? I liked the result but am not so sure I'm willing to go through that again.