heyMamas

Torture or rather a trip to Claire's

When I am lucky enough to steal away on the weekend for a quick shop, the girls always come with me because we DO NOT separate on the weekend under any conditions.  We are a packaged deal.  Period. 

The only time I ever regret taking them with me is when they start fighting or pouting, or touching everything in the store and then I immediately regret my decision.

When they have indeed been good girls and allowed Mommy to shop quietly for a few minutes, there is always a little payback involved on their end and it is called torture Claire's.

This is Belle, and she spent twenty minutes looking at this eye shadow collection until she just casually moved away from it and onto something else.  TWENTY minutes and she didn't even commit to buying it.  I wish I had time to kill like that. 

If I look something over for twenty minutes, I mean we are practically married at that point and that thing, whatever it may be is coming home with me for better or worse.  Twenty minutes?  And to just walk away?  That is twenty minutes I will NEVER get back. 

And this is Lily, who spent HER twenty minutes in this part of the store trying on different glasses and then just like that aloof sister of hers, walked away WITHOUT even picking a pair!

Unfreakingbelievable.

These kids are nuts.

While I was privately thinking about their inability to commit to items they just spent so much time perusing, I realized that those twenty minutes they just wasted were ALSO MY TWENTY MINUTES WASTED!

Lily finally decided on a friendship bracelet that looked like a total piece of crap.  The latch didn't even close but since I know nothing and no one seems to heed my advice, she decided that would be her purchase. 

In case anyone reading this is thinking, what is wrong with that woman letting her daughter dictate the situation and buy something that was going to break momentarily, I ask that you just please keep reading.

So off we went to grab a bite to eat and within fifteen minutes we were back in that ever-loving store returning that  piece of crap friendship bracelet that didn't close properly. 

 

So, lesson learned and she is now one inch closer to realizing that Mom is usually right.  And oh, you bet I rubbed it in good while we were walking back to our car.  Real good. 

Beat of her own drum

Over the last two years I have described to you the unique nature of my first born child {see here and here}.  

 

She is Belle, and... 

 

She is different.

She is off-beat.

She is spirited.

She is quirky.

She can be hard to control.

She can be forceful, outspoken

and yet at the same time the sweetest and most loving little being I have ever met.

 

And I couldn't love her more if I tried.

 

Belle has decided to send this in as her homework assignment, with one letter going up and one going down on the line repeatedly over and over again...

Who am I to judge, I just seem to be along for the ride.

It's all about the golf balls

I came across this motivational story below and totally fell in love with it. 

The author is unknown, but he or she must have been an extremely wise person because the words and ideas laid out here are beyond amazing...I hope you think so too. 

A Professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the Professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The Professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous "yes."

The Professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the space between the grains of sand.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life."

"The golf balls are the important things, your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full."

"The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you."

"Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18."

"There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The Professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked.  It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

 

 

Personally, I would have switched the last part to read, no matter how full you life is, there is always room for important things, or something like, if you already feel like you have enough on your plate and you can't handle anything else, there is always room for more, sort of like the whole 'God only gives you what you can handle' saying.

I know, its a cliche and when you are going through a hard time and think you are about to be broken and some idiot like myself throws that one your way, you want to kill them or run them over with your car. 

But I do truly believe that whatever comes into your life does for a very specific reason and is there to provide you with a lesson, to allow you to obtain a higher level of understanding. 

Again, in the moment it is painful but hopefully if you have fully embraced that hardship you can come through the other side able to see its worth.

 

I wouldn't blame you if I lost you at Personally.

Great Conversations

I don't know what it is that makes the conversation flow so easily at night when we are supposed to be winding down and getting into bed. This happens without fail, every single night when talking should be at a minimum.

But since I don't see my girls until I get home from work, I can't resist hearing their little voices especially when they repeat the same sentence over and over and say um, and like about ten times to each real word. 

So last night we let the girls stay up until about 10pm which was a BIG mistake because we had a sitchuation that took about 15 minutes to squash and that put bed time to...oh, just a very late time and I don't even want to talk about it.  It wasn't good.

So in between all of my hysteria to get my girls into bed, because I literally start to unravel when the clock hits a certain hour and Lily tells me...

She is so glad that she is a girl because Mommy's are the bosses and Mommy's get to go into any store they want and Daddy's have to follow.

And Daddy's only get to go into the stores they want like two times a week. And maybe those times are when they are at work in the city but when they come home they have to go back to only following the Mommy's into stores.

She had barely finished catching her breath from that whole thought and she was off and running with...

"I have a brain tease and please hurry up with the answer because I am falling asleep. How many times a year do you brush your teeth if you do it twice a day?"

AND

Belle was screaming Mommy from the other side of the room because she wanted to tell me that...

She saw a video of a man today that was so large he had ripples in his skin and they had to lift folds of this skin to get underneath it and see other parts of his skin. 

And because it wouldn't be Belle without this part...

Through her hysterical laughter, she wondered, "how on earth anyone would every be able to find his penis under all that skin?"

 

And goodnight. 

 

Precious cargo

We had Chipotle for dinner tonight which is hands down my all time biggest obsession at the moment.  I know saying 'all time' makes it sound like my 'all time favorite' and then I contradict myself by saying, at the moment, but I think you get where I am going with this. 

I am currently obsessed for what will probably be many future dinners on many future nights for years to come with Chipotle.

And it doesn't stop at Chipotle, oh no it doesn't.  I am equally as obsessed with the vegetarian nachos at Moe's Southwest Grill.  Come to think of it, my Moe's veggie nachos might even mean more to me than my Chipotle veggie burrito bowl.

Whatever. 

My point is we love Chipotle and I am not alone in this, the girls and Drew are in on it too, although the only thing that Lily eats are the giant plain tortillas and tonight she ate two {2} giant plain tortillas and four {4} pancakes left over from breakfast this morning, so we made her take two additional fiber tablets so she doesn't blow a hole in her bottom if you catch my drift.

 

And this is how dinner traveled home from the restaurant this evening.  I think the girls payed more attention to our foods seat belt than their own.