Saturday, April 25, 2015

And don't forget to socialize

I read something today that rubbed me a little wrong today. In a very nice letter from one stay-at-home mom to another and one of the points was not to forget to socialize. I am a full time working mother and let me tell ya, finding time to socialize is definitely one of the hardest things to do. And yes, it can be very isolating.


Now truly I know what the woman was saying.  However, at the same time, in the context that it was written it made it seem like, now that you are no longer chained to your 40 hour a week job, you will be just home and find yourself never leaving the house and talking to only your children and your husband.  As someone who still works a modified full time job, my social interactions are extremely limited (unless you count Instagram and even that is questionable).  I work, so while I'm at work, you are not going to find me standing at the water cooler chatting away my day with minimal work.  I'm grinding.  I'm doing my job which happens to be one that doesn't involve much interaction with others unless I'm at a meeting or discussing work.  

We don't even have a water cooler at my job

After my day at the office commences, the next thing I do is fly over to pick up my daughter.  As we try to stick to a semi-schedule, I only get a few hours a night with my baby.  I cherish those moments.   I try to remember that the dishes will be there and the dog hair that needs to be swept up can wait until someone is fast asleep.  It is a struggle, I don't get to clean up from breakfast and prep lunch and dinner while a two hour nap happens.  All of those things get crammed into the few hours from when I get home from work before I have to send myself to bed for the next early morning.  

I never look this happy when I clean... may that's because my house is never this neat.  I need more cabinets!

I'm sure there are plenty of houses that are neater and cleaner than mine on a regular basis but sometimes things must wait until the weekend.  The weekend where society expects that since you aren't working that you must have time to do things like have breakfast with your closest girlfriends and dinners with your college pals.  Alas, you aren't doing those social things, you barely remember what your own phone ringtone sounds like because it's been so long since you've had a social call and all the unknown numbers in your phone have a different tone so that you know they are probably telemarketers.  

Man this looks fun... to bad my excitement for the day was going to the Laundromat to wash blankets.  
Woo hoo!!  You know you are jealous ;-)

Keeping friends as a working parent is no easy task and making new ones is nearly impossible.  I searched for months on end for a parent group to join up.  One of the criteria I tried to look for was one that had working parents.  There were plenty of groups that said, "yes, we have working parents."  However once you looked at the schedule of activities for times and days to meet up you may find that you could make it to one weekend meet up every two months.  Why is that you ask?  Well, my dear parents (and anyone else reading this), that is because the rest of the meeting times were Monday through Friday somewhere between the hours of 10am and 3pm.  I'm sorry, but what kind of working parents are you talking about??  I don't sell products through my social network or telecommute and make my own hours.  I am in an office most weekdays from 8:30am to 5pm.  

Grind!

So don't fret parents, it doesn't matter if you work or don't work you may find that you are feeling quite isolated.  Don't let your perception of someone else's life or their advice make you feel like you've done something wrong.  Being a parent is isolating until you realize that there are a bunch of other people just like you who did the best they could with the time they have and socialization was not at the top of their priority list.

Thursday, April 23, 2015

I Lost My Camera

I'm so annoyed with myself.

Sometimes, I can be such a tornado and lose things but I'm mad about this one.  I lost my point-and-shoot camera.  It didn't even make it a year.  So sad...


It's been missing for some time but I've finally decided that I've actually lost it.  I've accepted it.  If my brother were to read this he would think this is so like me.  I can be a tornado, he is the one who actually started calling me a tornado.  I've always been a little flighty when it comes to locating my stuff, I mean, I'm the person who found out that there is a limit to the number of insurance claims you can have on a cell phone when you lose them.  It's so bad.

I shouldn't really complain because I still have other cameras to use but I lost the memory card and everything.  I probably didn't have too much on the card but it still sucks I really like all the memories that I catch.  My phone is a perfectly capable of taking pictures but it's not always the fastest.  There is also my trusty Canon T2i which has been a great camera for many years but it's big and it is not the camera that you can take everywhere without looking like a tourist.  Oh well.



I'm really struggling with the idea of buying another camera but I'm not one of those people who easily justifies spending money.  Plus if I'm going to buy a new camera I need to do research and check to see what cameras are best, the pros and cons, battery life, memory cards...  Oh goodness I turn everything into a research project.  Gah!!

Part of me hopes that it is in my truck under a seat or something and I just overlooked it.  Hopefully my purse fell over and it just slipped under something.  I'm going to give my truck and my house a good once over (again) this weekend and hope that it just magically appears.  Keep your fingers crossed! 

More adventures of the girl who is a tornado...

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

I got my ring back...

This should be the time where I'm jumping through the roof with excitement because I've been waiting so long for this silly thing.  I'm not.  As a matter of fact, I could not be more disappointed.

I should be happier :-/

I got it back and before the ring was even on my finger I noticed that the diamond is smaller and the prongs are crooked.  WTF!!  I mean seriously, it looks like they sent this off to Janky Jimmy Discount Jewelry Repair and Oil Change Shop.  As I had the flu and was feeling much like standing at the counter was was the most monumental task I had done since Wednesday, I declined further argument with the man at the counter and dashed off to my car to sit and sip water with desperation.

I
I'm not asking for more than a whole version of this

The one thing the man at the counter said to me was, "you are the biggest critic of your ring."  He may have said some other things as well but that part stood out.  You are damn right sir.  I am the biggest critic of MY ring.  I've been wearing it since May of 2011.  I've stared at it for hours and I know the bubble inclusion in my ring.  So as I said before, this diamond is smaller.

I just want this back.  I loved my ring as it was!


I've since called Jared back informed them that I am unhappy with the work and the new gem.  My thoughts are this:

  1. It's not like I was trying to get over on you.  I brought my ring in when it broke thinking the head would just get soldered back onto the band and wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am we'd be done
  2. The original diamond probably has a laser inscription with the serial number on the damn diamond as it was certified
  3. I immediately could see that the prongs on the new head are not set straight (with my naked eye)!
  4. I'm not expecting to get a two carat diamond out of the deal, I just don't want to be downgraded
  5. How does this happen?? and how do I prove that they are wrong??!!
  6. I'm so frustrated
  7. I still have the flu and this is taking too much of my energy

Hopefully this all gets sorted out.  I've got my fingers crossed... maybe it's a sign, I should look into other colored gems...

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

My Baby Has the Flu

My daughter has only been sick a few times (thankfully) but when she does get sick it is bad.  As a parent I never want my child to be sick but they're little humans that touch everything then try to put it in their mouth, they're going to get sick.  Well this time my daughter has the flu.

Monday, April 6, 2015

3 Things I never knew I needed until I became a mom

We have all looked at items in the store and thought, "that's silly, why would I buy that.  That is just a waste of money."  Then you became a mom and realized how foolish you were to think that you didn't need that before.  I mean, as someone who is not independently wealthy, I do not have extra money to waste.  Seriously, I am the person that doesn't like to buy shredded cheese because I think it is a waste of money and doesn't taste as good as freshly shredded cheese.  Then I became a mom...

Here are a few things that I currently own that in the past I thought were a complete waste of money and only for people who had money to throw away:

1. A fruit corer - now you may be thinking (as a cheapie, I don't like cheap skate, like me, can't you just cut around the core?  The answer to that is yes.  However, I do like the corer to do a few things such as core fruit while leaving the fruit whole so that it doesn't yellow before we can eat it.

It also makes for some really cool shapes in bigger fruit like melon.  I'm a sucker for anything that can make food fun and pretty.  You can also use it to create holes in fruit fill them and bake them.  Did anyone say stuffed apples?  Or make holes in cupcakes to fill them with jellies, caramel, chocolate, etc.?  How about stuffing a potato with cheese, bacon and chives just to cut into it to see a wonderfully filled spud?  Cucumber cups filled with goodies sounds good to me.  I could go on but I'll just leave it there.
KitchenAid Fruit Corer, Red

2. Phone apps you have to pay for.  No only am I talking about the apps that you use to keep your child content and quiet in places such as church or while dining out but also the apps that you use as a parent.  I used an app called Feed Baby Pro to track everything from feedings, diaper changes and naps in the beginning.  It even synced up with other phones if they have your pass phrase, so even my husband used it.  I don't use it nearly as much as I used to but my daughter has picked up some kind of bug and I've been using it to track her temperature and medicine.  It was $4.99 has been totally worth it.  At the time I purchased it I had to justify it to myself by saying that it was less than the price of two tall fancy Starbucks drinks.  There is a free version also.

Cover art

3. Frozen fruits and vegetables.  I am the kind of person that is going to buy vegetables fresh as much as possible but that was also before I had to consider how much work it would be to shop with a child.  Even if I'm on my way home from work and need to pick up just one little thing, I consider if it is worth the trouble of actually stopping, unloading my child (who may or may not have fallen asleep), trudging into the store, getting what I need, convincing my child to get back into her carseat, then going home.  What would have been a 5 minute stop before children just turned into a 25 minute job.  I'm not all about that.  I will even go as far as dicing my own potatoes into cubes and freezing them for a quick mashed potato side for dinner.  Some of the other staples that I keep in my freezer: peas, carrots, bell peppers, corn, spinach, broccoli, strawberries, pineapple, mango, blueberries, and raspberries.  






I'm certain there are more things that I've purchased since becoming a mother that I would have never bought before but these are the ones that I have really been using lately that I've been loving.  What are somethings that you have justified purchasing since becoming a parent?

Thursday, April 2, 2015

They found a diamond!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness!  (I know that is way, way too many exclamation marks but I'm beyond excited)

I just called Jared about my ring and they finally located a diamond!  It hasn't made it onto my ring yet but they located a diamond.  Call all the presses, this is wonderful.  I've missed my ring.  I was starting to feel like I was never going to get it back (you can read more about that here).  I am definitely not impressed with Jared and this process but hey maybe I'll never have to deal with this again if they quit breaking my stuff.

My husband bought the ring from a larger well known store because he wanted a warranty.  I'm sure he was buying the warranty as a just-in-case type thing (definitely not because his wife is extremely hard on everything and totally full of grace).  Well, lucky for me he did buy it and we have had to use it quite a few times, including my on the day of the wedding (maybe a story for the future).  I never in my life thought that it was going to be this ridiculous process of eventually calling the store nearly every week, complaining on twitter and even phone stalking the corporate offices to get it fixed.

Yup, that happened today while I was trying to remove the seed from an avocado.  Smooth I tell ya, smooth.

Not only was I disappointed in the process of how long it took to get some kind of resolution but I am not thrilled with the customer service.  The people at the store where I dropped it off were great but the people at the corporate office were not.  I swear they figured that since they already have my property that I am at their mercy (well, they were right about that).  From the corporate office people not returning my messages to the lack of an update, I mean that is just crap.

What happened to really listening to the customer?  Part of me wishes that we would have bought my ring from somewhere smaller with someone we could really talk to and see but maybe they wouldn't have provided a warranty.  At this point, I'm not sure that the warranty is worth the trouble that they put you through to keep it.

Enough with the complaining.  This is a happy time!  We are going to get a ring back soon... not sure when but I'll have a better estimate once I get a phone call later today or tomorrow regarding the timing of it.  Woo hoo!!

Welcome back (soon) dear

St John Ambulance The Chokeables advert: save a choking baby

8 week update

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

This is no April Fool's joke, we are almost 8 weeks pregnant!! According to the ultrasound we got today we are measuring at 7 weeks 6 days.  Woo hoo!!  That means we are going to probably have a November baby.  I wish we were going to have a summer baby, but hey we're having a baby and as long as that little thing is healthy, we're good.

Today we actually looked at a little peanut instead of a grain or rice.  I know an ultrasound doesn't show much but it makes me so happy to see a little heartbeat chugging along at 167 beats per minute.
I wish I felt better on a daily basis but hey I get through the day and I'm no where near the nausea that causes people to get on medication.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

I don't remember this either last time...

March 31, 2015

It just occurred to me that I don't remember going to appointments like two weeks apart in the beginning.  Maybe my doctor is just being cautious with me.  I'm not sure.

I've had pregnancy complications in the past so I understand that my doctor is a little more cautious with me.  I don't however remember seeing the doctor every two weeks.  I also don't remember getting an ultrasound every two weeks in the beginning.

On Monday (yesterday), I went to the doctor.  Luckily she did change our next appointment to be in 4 weeks but I am having an ultrasound tomorrow.  I just had one two weeks ago.  Don't get me wrong, I love getting to see the blob turn into something but it was a tiny blob last time... I'm pretty sure it will be a slightly larger blob tomorrow.

Oh well, maybe the doctor is just checking something else out and doesn't want to unnecessarily alarm me about something that may turn out to be nothing.  We'll see.

I don't remember this last time

March 24, 2015

This pregnancy has been different than before... or maybe I conveniently don't remember it being this way.  Who knows.  Either way this pregnancy is kicking my ass.

My poor husband is probably so tired of hearing me say the following:
  • I'm tired.
  • Why am I so exhausted?
  • I just need to take a nap
  • Let let me lie down for 10 minutes
  • Do you need dinner tonight?
  • I don't feel good
  • My stomach hurts
  • No I'm just tired
The one thing I do remember is being moody.  Not like lash out and go all Kanye West on paparazzi crazy but emotional like, "everything is making me cry" moody. 

I am however am extremely lucky that I don't have worse symptoms and I acknowledge that but I am not going to sit here and type that it's all hunky-dory, sunshine and lollipops.  It's hard.  It's especially hard to be this way when you haven't told but a few people.  

It's kind of like self torture.  You don't want to tell anyone how you are feeling but the beginning of the pregnancy is usually when you feel the worst.  Your body hasn't morphed into a giant fetus hotel yet so you just look chunkier or more bloated than usual.  To top it off, you are most likely too scared to tell anyone what the issue is for fear that, God forbid, you send a little angel to heaven.

Why? Why must we torture ourselves.  

Pregnancy is not perfect.  If anyone says it is, they are lying and you should distance yourself from them.  For the most part, I like being pregnant as I generally feel pretty good but we all have our days.  We miss things like: 
  • Not looking like we're smuggling different types of balls under our shirts 
  • Pants that fit for more than a month at a time
  • Feet that fit our "fun" shoes (because our feet have widened and we fear they may never shrink again!)
  • Wine, beer, spirits, etc.
  • Not having aches in more places than you'd ever like to count
  • Sleeping a full eight hours waking feeling refreshed not like you've gone to an all night rave and drank too much
  • Sushi
  • Lunch meat
  • etc.
So if you are pregnant, get pregnant or have been pregnant remember that you are doing something incredible.  Something that doesn't seem possible.  Something that deserves praise.  

It's a hard job and the boys just can't handle it.  Haha! 

First Ultrasound

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Today we went for our first ultrasound to see the newest baby Ford.  Although it was a mere grain of rice at a minute 2.5mm, it was there.  The little flicker of a heartbeat was pounding at 160 beats per minute.  I have never been so relieved to see something so tiny become so real.

I was a tad bit nervous since my doctor's appointment on Monday.  Unlike last time I got pregnant, I wasn't so sure that I was pregnant this time.  My period had kind of started but then it tapered off.  It was only after my weird period that I thought, "you know, let's just take a test to be sure that you're not pregnant."  Well, clearly when I took the test it came up positive.  I was a bit surprised.  When I told my doctor that my period had kind of started and then stopped she mentioned that I might have just had a miscarriage.  My heart fell out of my chest!  At least that isn't true for now.

Keep your fingers crossed that this little grain of rice grows strong and healthy!

First appointment

Monday, March 16, 2015

Today we went to the doctor for our first appointment.  It was pretty boring, she did some checks but really it was nothing to note.  We did however get to make an appointment for an ultrasound on Wednesday.  I'm always excited to get an ultrasound, even when all you can see in the beginning is a tiny blob.  

I am a bit nervous about being pregnant.  Not because I don't know what to expect because I do.  I've been down this path before.  The problem is that we have been down this path more than once before and although my daughter is a healthy strong rainbow baby!  I always worry that something could go wrong again.  I'm sure I'm worried about nothing but until the day I'm holding my baby in my arms I can't help but worry.

A few family members know already but I kinda wish we had waited a little longer to let the news out.  Oh well, even if something were to happen they would know any way so no biggie.  Some times I want to shout it from the roof tops and the rest of the time, I like to keep it as my special secret.  Obviously there comes a time when it's not so much a secret any more but whatever.

Wednesday we will hopefully be seeing out blob and ecstatic beyond belief.