Growing Pains

I LOVE having daughters.  I loved getting to dress them all cute as babies.  I loved that I could totally re-live my childhood of princesses and Barbies through them.  I've love watching them turning into little women. 
The pain finally hit though this weekend.

I HAD TO BUY JRMSS HER FIRST REAL BRA!!!

Seeing her in that just hit me that - wait - this isn't my LITTLE GIRL anymore.  Where has the time gone?  I mean REALLY..where as it gone?!

 

So although she's not feeling the growing pains now...mom sure is.  I mean what's next?  Do I really HAVE to do "The Talk" now?  I remember when my mom gave it to me in THIRD grade - ugh - I was SO not ready to hear about all the gross women's bodies things and I was REALLY SO NOT READY to hear about my mom and dad having S-E-X - GROSS!  So, maybe I'm a bad mom that I've avoided it. Kids grow up SO fast - do I really have to push it THAT much faster?  Teaching her how to wear a real bra and how which colors have to go with which types of shirts - isn't that pretty mom-ish?  I never got that lesson (seriously - my first wedding dress I wore white and green underwear and since I knew NOTHING about how colors show through clothes - everyone could see them - ugh). I didn't get that lesson until I went to Victoria Secret when I was like 25 to get a bra fitting whan THAT was finally explained to me.

She's also starting to get some random blemishes, so we picked up some Noxema as well in the store this weekend.  I look back and I can't believe I was saying "when I was a teenager I used this..." or "this really helped when I had this blemish problem". HOW DID I GET SO OLD?!!

Of course I want to do the right thing and not let her find these things out the hard way or the wrong way.  I realize that VERY soon I need to have "The Talk", I'm just not sure how to approach it I guess.  I don't want to scar her like I was (sorry mom).  We have a pretty open relationship and we can talk about things, but this crosses a line I'm not sure I want to share. 

How were you given "The Talk" or how have you given it?

You know you live in a small town when...

...kids at the community center just leave their bikes like this...

Even in the small town I lived in as a child we wouldn't have gotten away with this - let alone anywhere now in the 2000's.  Gotta love the small town (that and I was so distracted by the unlocked bikes that I left my car doors unlocked with my purse sitting on the front seat for anyone's taking while I took this picture and then went into the pool for about 10 minutes to collect kids) :P

What still surprises you about living in a small town or a big city?

Ouch!

It's hard to see, but LMS's finger is BLACK and BLUE! 

Yesterday at Kid Care her finger was somehow rolled over by a HUGE roll of butcher clock paper.  Poor baby...

Last night when I tried to get her to ice it, all she did was whine and complain about how the ice hurt her.  This morning I took her into Kid Care and I played the "mom lie" card.  I "threatened" that if she didn't ice it - I was taking her to the Dr. tonight and having him drill a hole in her finger to release the pressure (this has happened before with Jr.Ms.S and TS2 - except they had the bruising on the nail side). I knew they wouldn't ACTUALLY drill into her finger, but she didn't.  Apparently she iced it good at Kid Care today and had it on ice even when I got home tonight.  She also pointed out how it didn't hurt at all to bend it or ice it :) It does look better today than yesterday or even this morning (for some reason they taped it when she went swimming - that's the white stuff).  
 
I still feel bad for her, but I'm also glad I pulled a "mom lie". 

What "mom" cards do you pull?

What constitutes a bad week (and a half)?

It may not have been the worst week and a half ever in my life, but when you look back at all that you’ve been through, it just adds up.

Let’s start with July 7th (a week and a half ago). Mr. S’s grandmother passed away after battling cancer for only about 3 months. It came on hard and fast and although she’s in a better place and no longer in pain, it’s still hard for Mr. S’s mom and family. He’s been pretty estranged from that side of the family for years, so the memorial last Saturday was the first time a lot of his family had met LMS (the boys were at a wrestling camp and Jr.Ms.S was at her swimming district meet – Mr. S thought it was more important for them to do that). From the stories I heard about her, she will be a very missed woman. And now today we found out that Mr.S’s grandfather isn’t doing very well now – I guess after 65+ years – you really can’t do without the other.

(grandparents are in the center sitting down)

On July 8th, I took flowers and card to my sister for her birthday. As I was walking into the office building I missed one TINY little stair right before the door (how did I make it up the freaking 20 large ones before that?) and fell hitting my knees SUPER hard, the flowers went FLYING, and I had to walk into the building with blood running down my knees. Ugh, at least HOPEFULLY no one saw me do it – what a klutz I am. The bad thing is that my knees are STILL bruised and now I’m suffering a lot of pain in one when I stand too long (hopefully I didn’t tear something in my knee like someone suggested). (by the way sissy - sorry I didn't do a birthday blog post - I'm so bad and behind - I'm sorry).

Happy Birthday Sissy!!

Last Sunday Mr. S and I fought about PB sandwiches - yeah - that was the stupidest fight of the century.

Fill in the Blank Friday

You know the drill....fill 'em in...

1. My favorite thing about this week has been having a completely lazy Monday with Mr. S and the girls.  There is hardly a day that goes by when I don't work and I was able to COMPLETELY take the day off. I also am really happy I took a long lunch yesterday and focused on ME - that doesn't happen very often.

2. The weather this week has been it was nice early this week, but now it's just gross and humid :P

3. The last (interesting) item I received in the mail was probabaly a check from some class action suit against Yahoo.  $40 bucks is great when you're not expecting it :)

4. The last movie I saw was Brooklyn's Finest technically - although I worked through most of it - so don't ask me what it was about :P

5. If I could be doing anything I felt like today I would probably work some, go groccery shopping, relax with Mr. S, and take the girls to one of the movies I've been promising them.

6. As a teenager I was - I'm not sure, but I bet my sister and brother could fill in this one for me :) (be nice)

7. I wish I could trade lives for the day with one of our cats - what a life: lay around, eat, play with a stupid fuzz ball, sleep, eat....

How would you fill in the blanks?

Why living in a small town still amazes me

My mom grew up in a very small town in California.  The three of us kids and even my dad would make fun of her for this - we were city people and sometimes her "view" of the world just didn't jive with the way things really were in a large metropolitan area in Arizona. I was born in a small town in Southern Arizona and each year for the Fourth of July we'd visit my grandma there, go to the soap box derby races down the mountain, eat ice cream, watch the parade that went down main street and then watched the fireworks on her patio.  That was my "small town" experience growning up. 

Since I've moved to the midwest, I've learned about what we missed out on in my child-hood: everyone has FIREWORKS!  Our towns really sound like some kind of revolutionary war is going on.  How small was my bubble that I didn't know about this?!  In AZ no one is allowed to have fireworks due to the fire danger (even the professional ones set pretty bad fires).

The past few years with Mr. S we've gone to Lake Okoboji for the Fourth.  It's been such a fun experience and the kids have started recognizing it as a "tradition" for us (we need more traditions - it's hard with all the back and forth though with the boys).  This year because of our insane schedules, lack of money and because Crazy is stupid and wouldn't let us have the boys longer than just the Fourth (it's HER week), we ended up just staying home for the holiday.

Happy Independance Day

I hope everyone has a great Fourth of July!  I'm so thankful to live in a country with the freedoms I have and most of all I'm thankful for those people that protect my freedoms.

Especially my little brother, part of the newest Navy Class...

May 2010 - Swearing in

June 2010 - Graduation from Navy Bootcamp

Reunited with his family

So, So proud of you little brother! Now when can I come to S. Carolina?

Happy 4th!

Quick Update

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple of months.  I'm really looking forward to life slowing down soon - at least for a little while.  Here's our week:

1) We had two swim meets this week. JrMsS is doing a lot better.  We've also found a way to "bribe" her to do better.  When she was hungry before one of her heats, Mr. S told her she could have a cheeseburger if she came in 3rd or better.  That kid got out there and swam the most perfect breast stroke I've ever seen and got 2nd place!  Her coach was laughing SO HARD when she did that (she knew about our deal with her and of course she was SUPER proud of her too).  It's amazing what a cheeseburger can motivate.

2) Speaking of cheeseburgers, do you know how many cheeseburgers and tacos it takes to feed all of my kids at swim meets?  12 cheeseburgers and 18 tacos!! (Seriously we don't eat fast food this often on a normal basis)

3) If you haven't already read my other post, I had my first solo project this week.  It's the first new project our section has gotten since I started and my boss let me go loose on it.  The bad this was I only had about a day to design the website and then I had MAJOR problems with the hosting company.  It all worked out in the end, but I was SO emotionally spent and SO exhausted Wednesday - instead of going to the other job, I called in, picked up chinese and the girls, opened a bottle of wine and had movie night.  I was A LOT better then next day.

4) Speaking of the other job, I did go in last night for a whole whooping THREE tables.  Ugh - at least they all tipped pretty well and I was home by 7 pm.

5) Thursday night after the swim meet we went over to Mr. S's aunts house and celebrated his grandfather's birthday with cake, ice cream and fireworks.  We had a lot of fun Aunt R and happy birthday grandpa!

6) Since it had been such a long week, we had a super late night Thursday night and I didn't see the point of driving all the way into work when so many people would be out or leaving super early, I decided not to go into work.  We slept in (the kids were kind of freaking out being out of the norm and all), I worked remotely on my couch, I even took a nap yesterday afternoon.  It was a good day.

7) Yesterday was my Nana's birthday, I wish I would have been more on the ball and sent you something other than just an amazon card like usual, but hopefully you find something you really want.  I hope you had a really wonderful day!

8) Speaking of work, I won another department award.  I don't know for what yet, but I got an email yesterday asking me which prize I wanted: Movie tickets, Round of Golf, Omaha Steaks, or money to Large Engineering Company store.  Hmm....so hard to choose....

9) I guess I haven't updated you on our newest future trip to the ER device Mr. S has put up.  For SOME reason, he has it in his head that the kids need a climbing rope for building muscles.  He picked up rope and a 2x4 on Saturday and wanted to put it at the top of our garage!  Ugh! I talked him out of destroying the siding and facia, as well as the danger of the kids climbing that high over the concrete and ended up talking him into a lower spot under the deck.  Of course as soon as Jr.Mr.S got here Sunday, he just HAD to eventually make it to the top, so Mr. S is CONVINCED we need a higher one.  Now he has another one tied to a beam inside the garage, but I know it's only going to be days and I'll have to fight him off destroying the house again.  Either that or the kids will continue to use it as a rope swing like they do behind his back and as they launch themselves from the side of the house down to the patio, we'll have an ER visit.  Seriously?  How long is a climbing rope going to be a "fun" thing before they completely ignore it?  TS2 is already asking for a tire to be attached so they can swing instead.  Guess we'll see who's right...we all know it's going to be me, right?

That's our week pretty much - just another BUSY, work-filled, running all over Iowa week.  At least we have the long weekend ahead.

Happy 4th of July!!