Monday, monday, monday...

Monday morning. Always a difficult time. Yes, I don't have to "go" to work, but I always seem to have tons of work that piled up over the weekend waiting for me. And it's so hard to find the motivation necessary to get going. I don't want the weekend to be over!

This morning is especially tough. The winds are crazy, which means allergies have flared up again, making me headachy and generally miserable. Then James broke my glasses last night, which means I have to wear my contacts, which, as any contact-lens-wearer can tell you, is no fun during wind/allergies! Plus my house looks like its been hit by a hurricane...which I guess it has: Hurricane Joseph-James-Gabriella. And while I desperately want it to be clean, I don't want to have to do ALL the work necessary to get it to that state!

I really should get going. I got up and dressed on the early side and I need to start school, cleaning, life... ok, here I go................................

nope. Nice try. I am still sitting here drinking my coffee and eating my scone with French apricot jam that Robert bought me. He must really love me, because he hates apricots. And the French, for that matter. But their jam is delicious!!

Looks like the score is procrastination: 1, productivity: 0. At least for now.

How much $ am I wearing??

Ok, after reading this article, I was kind of interested. So I took inventory of what I'm wearing and decided to figure out how expensive my outfit is today:

jeans: $19.99 - from Cato (one of 2 pairs I own)

tank top: $9.99 (on sale) - ditto

button-up shirt: $9.99 (also on sale) - Cato again (can you tell I love that store?)

belt: $7 - ditto

unmentionables: $1 (Wal-mart) and $17.99 (Target - but again, one I wear every day)

hairclip: $3.99 WalMart

jewelry: earrings $5, WalMart

socks: $1.50 Target

Skechers: $39.99 (sale) and once again, I wear them every day

so far, $116.44 for my clothes (which is actually a little more than I expected...)

if you add in the accessories I always take with me, my cell phone, which I think was about $150, and my purse, which was a $5 find from Savers, and my diaper bag, which was a gift from a friend but let's say it cost $20, which is all I would spend on a diaper bag, I'm up to...

(hang on, crunching numbers....)

(ok, just kidding, I am using the computer's calculator!)

$291.44 to dress me and get me out the door. Wow, I'm expensive! At least that feels bad to me. And yet, it is not quite 1/5 of what they're saying the average woman in the UK wears every day. Yikes!

Of course, if you add in my most important accessories, namely...

Joseph

James

and Gabriella

well, let's see, they cost about $2000 apiece just for hospital/midwife fees while being born, then add in all the diapers, wipes, clothes, food over the last 3 years....

I am probably pushing more like 10K. Yup, I guess I am one expensive woman!

Sorry, honey. ;-)

a whole new meaning to "waxing your eyebrows"

Soooo....this morning we were about to leave for church - a bit on early side, since Robert and I had to sing in the choir today. All was well, we were all ready to go and doing the usual get-everything-in-the-car-and-shut-down-the-house routine when I noticed a candle burning in the bathroom. (unfortunately, not for any romantic reasons...more for odor.) Definitely not a good idea to leave burning, a) while we were gone and b) around small children at all. So I leaned over and blew it out.

Or rather, tried to blow it out. It was a particularly stubborn candle - kind of like those trick birthday candles that won't blow out. I tried again...and again....silly candle would not extinguish! Finally I leaned in really close and pouf! I blew it out - and hot wax splashed up all over my face! Luckily it was only really warm, not hot, so I didn't get burned. But I now had tiny beads of wax all over - my eyebrows , my eyelashes, my forehead. And Robert was yelling from outside the door "Come on we're going to be late let's go!"

I had to scrape/peel all the wax off, which also resulted in most of my makeup coming off. Which meant I had to apply a good bit of it. Unfortunately my eyebrows didn't end up looking any better even after being "waxed." I guess I'll stick to plucking.

Monster Repellent and Fairy Dust

I simply cannot understand my boys' obsessession with smearing deodorant all over the mirrored closet doors in our bedroom. I admit that I've never actually tried smearing deodorant on mirrors, but then, I fail to see the allure.

However, turnabout is fair play. My mom never understood why my sister and I had to sprinkle baby powder all over her room. We tried to explain that it was fairy dust and we had to throw it on ourselves as we jumped off her bed so we could fly like Peter Pan! All she saw was her room covered in a fine white layer that was, I'm sure now, a terrible mess to clean up. (sorry, Mom)

But for us, that hour was magical. We were Wendy and Tinkerbell on our way to Neverland to consort with Indians and pirates and mermaids and, of course, Peter.

Which is why I try not to yell too much at my kids when I discover that, yet again, they've besmeared my nice clean mirrors. Because who knows? They might need to cover those mirrors with monster repellent to keep out whatever scary thing lives behind those closet doors. Who am I to stand in their way?

the Mother's Day dress part 2

Okay, sorry for all the whining yesterday. Especially because of what happened today...
I made it back to JC Penny today. Found a parking space up close. Ran in and exchanged my outfit for the right size - was in and out in under 10 minutes. Super fast, super easy, didn't cost me a thing. Oh yes, and my suit was orignally marked at $70. I paid $26. Score!
Now my only problem is deciding what skirt to wear with my jacket...but I won't bore you with the details...I did enough of that yesterday.

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers!! And to those of you who will some day become mothers; you're in for a treat! (Yep, one big messy, sticky, you-can't-get-enough, emotionally satisfying, your-waistline-will-never-be-the-same treat! ;-) haha kids are a lot like chocolate, actually....

the Mother's Day outfit from...well, you know where...

Mother's Day is coming soon - 2 days, in fact - and while this is normally not a "huge" holiday in our house, since our kids are too little to cook breakfast or even realize anything is going on, this year we are doing Gabriella's baby dedication on Mother's Day (which is the only day our church does baby dedications...anyway...) and all our family is coming and we are going out to lunch afterward (and I am trying to rival Charles Dickens in paragraph-long sentences...). Sooo...the point is, I want to look nice, because I have to stand up in front of our whole church and family, and...well, I'm a girl. And a mom, but that's no reason why once in a while I can't look nice. I went through my whole closet and couldn't find any post-baby clothes that look good on me...and Robert said I could get a new dress for Mother's Day (probably just to stop having to listen to the whining), so I've went to the mall today. (at 4:00 on a Friday...yeah, that was a good idea. Bad economy, my foot!! I drove around for 20 minutes trying to find a parking space...)

I had a cupon for JC Penny and thought I'd run in, find a pretty dress or at least a yellow top to go with this skirt I'm making out of a dress with a broken zipper (sorry, different story...) I was having one of those "nothing looks good" days with a side of indecision and low-self-esteem on top...plus it doesn't help that buttoned shirts are in and, thanks to 3 babies in 3 years, nothing buttons across my chest anymore. I spent 2 hours and tried on lots and lots of clothes, to no avail. A pretty pink top, which would have gone with my white skirt and was on sale, was too small in medium and too big in large. A blue dress looked nice on me, but the color was too bright to look good on me and I didn't care for the slinky fabric. A pale pink dress was the perfect color for me and fit pretty well, but was a tad too short and very expensive. I got quite frustrated and fed up and was leaving when I spotted a skirt-and-jacket outfit I had tried on the week before and dismissed because I wanted a dress instead. It looked exactly like this:

except with large yellow flowers on the skirt instead of geometic patterns. I grabbed it, bought it, and brought it home. Perfect, I thought. The yellow jacket will go with 3 other skirts I have, including the one I'm making. I tried it on again. Well, it buttoned. But...it just buttoned. Who knows what will happen if I inhale! Now I remember why I didn't buy it last week when I actually tried it on. Sigh. I think I have to take it back. But I can't face shopping again. I will run in, exchange it for the next size, and run out.

And if that size doesn't fit, I will go naked. Everyone's going to be looking at the baby anyway, right??

choir practice (at last!)

We joined a new church back in December, and even before we joined, people in the congregation kept asking up to join the choir. We go to the "traditional" service, better known by it's unofficial name, the "old people service," so we are the youngest people there by about 30 years! But we both like the old hymns and we like the older people, so we are happy. We have been planning on and trying to go to the Wednesday night rehearsals for months now, but something always came up, or we would get sick or too tired or just forget it was Wednesday.

But last night we finally succeeded! We planned it all out, made dinner early, and actually made it to choir practice. It was really fun. It's been way too long since Robert and I have done any real singing. When we were dating, we were chorus members of Opera Southwest and we always had fun going to rehearsals and performances together, but since we got married, and especially since we had kids, we just couldn't find the time. This is the perfect compromise because reherasal is only 1 hour a week, and the choir only sings during the 2nd service, and not every week.

Everyone was very nice and welcomed us most enthusiastically. Probably because we were the youngest people there...I think it makes them happy that some young people still enjoy traditional music. I think our worship pastor (who is also the choir leader) welcomed us about 4 times. It was funny, because when he was closing in prayer, he said "and thank You for bringing Robert and...and...and...I can't remember her name..." which made me laugh. Story of my life. I told him not to worry cause God remembers my name and knew who he was talking about! (some days I think God is the ONLY person who remembers my name, but hey - He's the only one who matters, right?)

So I am excited about singing in the choir and can't wait for next week. It's nice to finally feel like we have a group we belong to. People who will notice if we're there and miss us if we're gone. Plus we are singing some great patriotic music for Armed Forces Day. I have had "Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord" running through my mind all day.

There is only one drawback. Our choir does not wear choir robes. ;-( Whatever shall we fight about??