On my own

I must confess there have been times since the Little One entered into the world where I daydream about the freedom of the old days. The days when …

• You could eat dinner in front of the TV without worrying if you are damaging your daughter’s psyche. 
• You can sleep past 8 am on a weekend morning.
• You only had to worry about entertaining / educating yourself on the weekends.

The daydreams are fleeting and nothing serious… just little fantasies such as having enough money to pay bills and go a trip around the world with a new wardrobe.

Guess what? Due to circumstances, I couldn’t accompany Hubby and the Little One to the south for a family reunion. This is the first trip of this length that separates me from my immediate family. Here I find myself home alone. There is nothing that I need to do other than take care of my stuff and some small household needs.

My feelings are complex about this whole experience. I miss them and wish I was with them. I’m glad that they are adventuring out so that the Little One can get to know that side of the family. This is a great bonding opportunity between Hubby and our daughter. I am reveling in the fact that I can have several nights of uninterrupted sleep.

Yet, I feel like I am at a loss. What is there to do? I think I can understand the whole “empty nest” syndrome that I’ve heard about. I’m about to state the obvious: Having children affects and changes your life so dramatically. My relationship with my friends and my general social calendar has changed dramatically as well. My social calendar has for the most part become the same as my daughter’s. It’s quite amazing for you don’t realize it is happening until you are given a moment to look at it (like I am now).

So, you may be wondering what I am going to do during this brief period of “freedom” of mine. To tell you the truth, I am not sure. There is some stuff that I do want to do around the house. I have a pile of books just waiting to whisk me away. I do plan on getting together with some friends.

We shall see.

The 30 Days Project: Day 20

What is "The 30 Days Project"? You might want to read this brief posting first.
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Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future


If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know that I am already married to The Hubby. Although he can be quite the stubborn and an offensive pain in the ass, I am glad that he is in my life. I am fully committed to him and to our family with no regrets.
 
Despite both of us coming from divorced families, I think it helped us to understand what we wanted out of marriage so we did not take that step blindly. We got married over 10 years ago after a long courtship through college and law school. I can not imagine my life without him ... well, no longer than a weekend without him. ;)
 

The 30 Days Project: Day 14

What is "The 30 Days Project"? You might want to read this brief posting first.
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Day 14- A picture of you and your family
 

** Not bad for an after-work self portrait!

Ten years ago

Yesterday marked our 10th year wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that it has been that long. This anniversary seemed to affect me more than any other one.

I found myself reminiscing about the actual date. I wish I could remember where we stored our wedding video. A good friend of ours at the time personally filmed the ceremony. Although, he was not a professional video-grapher, it was such a kind thoughtful gift. It would be nice to re-live the day... and show it to our Little One.

Some of the events / memories of the day, I can still remember like it just happened yesterday. I remember the Hubby looking so pale during rehearsal. In fact, I remember the Best Man telling me after the rehearsal that if the groom is going to faint, that they don’t plan on catching him. I remember that our limo couldn’t fit the whole wedding party as we were driving from the church to a nearby park for pictures. It didn’t bother us… we made everyone squeeze in with us as if it was a big party. I remember that one girl totally knocked another girl in the eye with her elbow in trying to catch the bouquet... or how the DJ came with funny props for The Hubby to wear at various points of the reception. Unfortunately, I remember some of the mistakes that the hotel made in setting up our reception room… such as the tables were set up so that our wedding guests could see our backs rather our faces.

I remember bits and pieces of the ceremony itself, a ceremony that the Hubby wrote himself. I also remember him looking scared for I think he truly believed that I would change into this whole different person once we said “I do”. I also remember that our minister reminded me of Armin Shimerman (the gentleman who played Quark from the TV series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).

I also remember that we were completely sick with a cold that we got from our Best Man as we headed off to our honeymoon to Alaska & Hawaii. We probably could have fended off that cold if it wasn’t for the lack of sleep and partying that took place the days leading up and including the wedding date.

Most of all, I remember looking over the happy faces of our friends and family throughout the ceremony and celebration. I remember the smiles and laughter that filled the room during our reception… especially those that embraced the inner child and played with his/her rainbow slinky (the favors).

I know that we are not where we wanted to be at this time in our lives. During our honeymoon, we had promised to head back to Hawaii and re-live our honeymoon for our 10 year wedding anniversary. Instead, we are finding ourselves going out to dinner and a movie for our anniversary celebration. Marriage is definitely hard work. There is no denying that. Despite the curve balls (or heck, the strike-outs), I think we have lived (and will continue to do so) a good life.

Despite everything, I couldn’t ask for a better partner in life. And, I believe that he feels the same way about me.

So, here’s to another 10 years!

Camping… let the family drama begin!

Personally, I like to go camping. I do not get a chance to go very often. Other plans or lack of funds tend to get in the way of going camping. Not to mention, The Hubby? He is not a camper… or even an outdoor type person. That’s okay. He doesn’t stop me from going and I don’t make him go. No problem! Both happy campers (pun intended!)

My dad does go camping during the long weekends. So, the second year in a row, the Little One and I joined my side of the family for a camping trip over Labor Day weekend.

Now, technically, this trip was not her first camping trip. However, I do not think the Little One remembered too much of her first trip last year. So, she was pretty excited to be going on a trip with Mommy and sleep inside a tent! Here is a picture of her hogging the “bed” in the tent. Between her stuffed friends and herself, mommy barely had room to sleep! (Sorry for the bad photo editing… the picture was really dark and I severely lack in the proper photo editing skills.)

To be honest, I had a lot of fun hanging out with my brother and his family. However, I am internally grateful that my daughter was too young to understand the family drama that was happening around her. She didn’t seem to be bothered that she only got to see her Grandpa for like a couple of hours the whole damn weekend… since he decided not to join us at the last minute for the trip. She also didn’t seem to notice how dad’s girlfriend was annoying everyone around her by being so bossy or her lack of acknowledgment of other people’s plans or property. The Little One was completely enthralled with hanging out with “Uncle G” and his family. She had everyone on the campsite … heck! The campground even!... wrapped around her little finger.

I do think that The Hubby missed out on some fun memories though. S’mores ended up being a bust as far as the Little One was concerned. Roasted marshmallows were a bit too sticky / gooey for her tastes. Although, she did love to roast them (with mommy’s help of course) over the fire. She ended up eating the graham crackers and chocolate separately. It was also a great joy to see the look of awe and excitement in her face as she held her first sparkler. We couldn’t keep up with her demand of a new lit sparkler when the previous one died out.

Needless to say, without the stupid family drama, we had a wonderful time. Here is a picture of us after all our camping gear was packed up the next day.

Next year? Camping is definitely on the menu! Just this time, I am going to make sure that I am a primary planning person when it comes to these family camping trips. For next year, I’m sure the Little One is going to be old enough to notice this “behind-the-scenes” drama crap.

Oh, and I think I am going to see if I can get The Hubby to go at least during one trip… he just has to see her daughter in this environment/situations! Who knows! Perhaps he will like camping after all!

Dottie’s little shopping excursion

Who is “Dottie” you may ask? Dottie is my Little One’s beloved stuffed friend.

Dottie was a toy that we purchased for $3 out of a clearance bin in Toys R Us a few months ago. The stuffed animal is a cross between a pig and a cow that is white with pink polka dots. If we would have known that Dottie was going to be our daughter’s BFF, we would have totally bought two of her!

Advice for new parents – If you find that your child is particularly fond of a stuffed animal, I highly recommend that you buy more than one. This way you can swap them when it’s time for the stuffed animal to have a “bath”, etc.

To get ready for Operation Swing Set weekend, The Hubby, Little One, and Dottie went shopping at the local Wal-Mart with “Memaw”, “TT”, and “Baby Tre” this past Friday. Apparently, the shopping trip was quite eventful and perhaps a bit stressful for the adults. Somehow in the confusion of everything, Dottie was left behind. (Insert menacing organ music here)

Realizing what happened; The Hubby immediately went back to Wal-Mart to try to rescue Dottie from retail hell. He searched high and low in the store and the parking lot to no avail. He even had a page sent out to all the store associates in hopes that someone may have found it. No such luck. In the meantime, we are searching the house to make sure Dottie didn’t sneak into one of the grocery bags. Luckily, the Little One was easily distracted from Dottie’s absence by “Papa” and family friends.

The Hubby returned home devastated and defeated. We took a big breath and slowly came to the realization that we are going to have to deliver the first bad news in our Little One’s young life. Both of us didn’t look forward to having to explain to the Little One about her now lost BFF.
Honestly, the Little One took it like a champ. I think it was because she was completely exhausted from the activities and company. She merely asked for Dottie… we explained that Dottie was left behind at the store. Or perhaps she knew that her little friend would return home. Who knows! I can tell you that we were certainly grateful for her calm reaction. That night, we searched on EBay to find another “Dottie”. We found something similar but not quite the same. We ordered it out of parental desperation… thinking that the animal may be close enough in appearance to be at least a comfort to the Little One. We even had a brief back story created on how this new friend was Dottie’s cousin.

Alas, time didn’t stop. Operation Swing Set went ahead and was completed (more on that in a different post).

Wouldn’t you know it? “Memaw” found Dottie on Sunday! Just by chance, she decided to do some light grocery shopping to get the items that were missed on Friday while the rest of us were in nearby Target. She checked with the Customer Service desk for the Lost & Found but no luck. So, she went ahead with her shopping all the while keeping a look out for the missing BFF. She discovered Dottie face down in one of those open freezer chests in the meat section of the store. Hallelujah!

When we returned to the car, the Little One found Dottie sitting in her car seat. The look of happiness and delight was plainly seen across our daughter’s face as she gives Dottie a big bear hug.

And just like that… all is right in the world once again.

Quite the weekend!

The weekend started off wonderfully when The Hubby was able to get off work early on Friday. He went grocery shopping while I was still at work and the Little One was still at daycare. Bonus! I hate shopping. (I’m sure that I mentioned that before.) Grocery shopping is pain in the ass. The Hubby has a knack for it… he can remember prices so he knows whether Wal-Mart or the local grocery store will have the better deal. So, normally, grocery shopping trips consist of me pushing the cart with the Little One, being her 2 year old self, following The Hubby around the store. Anyways, I digress… Friday night was a nice relaxing evening at home. Definite good start!

On Saturday, I got a good dose of girl time by going to D’Lovely’s bachelorette party. We started off getting manicures and pedicures which is always relaxing. I even had a nail technician that didn’t laugh when he saw my nails and could carry on a good conversation! Yea for me! Next, we all went to the Melting Pot for dinner.

If you haven’t been, it is quite the experience. We went all out and did the “Big Night Out” for our table. Talk about a lot of food! And delicious too! The picture above is the Ying & Yang Chocolate dessert before we massacre it with our fondue forks. If I was to go there as an individual, I would stick to the cheese fondue course, the salad, and the dessert course. The main course was delicious but it didn’t quite match the levels of the other courses. Just sayin’.

It was a wonderful time to hang out with my girls… and that’s not the Exotic Mojitos talking either. Cute~Ella did a great job putting the party together.

On Sunday, The Hubby (much to his chagrin) and I tackled the corner of our backyard to try to get it ready for the swing set. I mentioned the project here. Unfortunately, I did not have the forethought to take a “before” picture. However, here’s a look of the “after” picture.

Yes, that is the boulder that we would like to be removed. Unfortunately, we have not found a way to get rid of it without spending hefty amount of $. The Hubby is still trying though! We even put an ad on Craig’s List in hopes to finding an option. In the meantime, I am researching what is the best stuff to put on the ground under the swing set to help prevent injuries from falling. Needless to say, we are making progress. After this playground project, I will be tackling the evil of weeds and get back our yard from its clenches.

Oh! And the pool people are coming out next week to start the process of opening up our pool. I definitely see BBQ parties in our future!

Wordless Wednesday