Oh, hi!

So, it's Thursday, and you've yet to see a post from me.  Well, technically, you are seeing one now, but it's probably Friday.  I'm such a creature of habit-I don't really have a specific topic in mind, and I'm too tired to come up with one, but it's killing me to not have a Thursday post!

Whew-it's been a busy week! My daughter's softball tournament was this week, which went well, then got rained out, then went well, then went badly, but still kind of good, and then turned out reeaaaaallllyyyy bad. Sorry, I know that makes no sense.  Did I mention I was tired? We are also preparing for vacation, which means I'm constantly doing laundry in order to pack, and then yelling at calmly and rationally chiding my family for wearing the stuff, so that I have to wash it AGAIN.  Actually, the kids knew better, my husband gave them clothing out of the "to pack" stack to put on today. Argh.  Don't screw with my organization. 

Packing for 3 people is a daunting task, but one that my control issues won't allow me to give over to my kids or husband.  Actually, I may be packing for my husband, as well.  On a trip a couple of years ago, we reached our destination before he realized that he "forgot" to pack his clothes.  Conveniently for him, there were lots of nice outlet malls nearby, so he bought all new clothes.  If I pulled that, with my luck, there'd be nothing but a Dollar General or a farm supply store within 50 miles to shop at.  Which means that I'd be wearing tube tops, overalls, cheap flip flops and a John Deere hat everywhere.  Another time, he forgot all of his socks and underwear, so our first order of vacation business was undies shopping at Walmart. Yeah, I think I'll pack for him-I already tell him what he likes to eat when we go to restaurants, and remind him to take his medicine, so, why not?

We're going on a 13 hour road trip, and I'm halfway wishing I could send them along without me.  Did I just admit that out loud? Don't get me wrong, I love my husband and kids, I really, really do.  Pinky swear. I could wax poetic about how much, or write some nauseating, public love letters, or post some softly lit, artsy fartsy pictures of us frolicking around a field in coordinating clothing with goofy smiles in order to prove it, but...yeah.  I don't do that crap here, so you'll just have to take my word for it.  Your welcome. It's just the whole, cooped up in either a minivan or a small hotel room together for 7 days thing that concerns me. Once we are there, I'm sure it'll be good-it's just the getting there that mostly concerns me.  Vacations (at least the preparation and travel parts) stress me out-anyone know what I mean? I always get stressed and grouchy before a trip, and then we have a wonderful time, after all (except for that one horrible trip to Chicago which I may share someday).

Anyhow, it's not storming here for once! We've had storms nearly everyday for the past several weeks-bad ones, too.  My poor son is both fascinated and terrified of storms. His little eyes get huge when he sees storm warnings scrolling along the bottom of the tv screen, and he flinches and cries out when he hears thunder.  He worries that every lightning strike will hit us, and that every tornado watch will send a tornado right to our house.  During the second storm that forced us to run off the softball field and to our cars last week, Tot kept telling me through clenched teeth, "Mom, I NEED to see a radar.  I won't freak out, Mom, but I NEED to see it." I have a weather radar ap on my phone, and he knows more about what all the radar colors mean than any 7 year old should.  Poor kid, we try to convince him that he is safe, and everything is ok, but he is such a worrier. My husband was teaching the kids how to read the maps for our vacation route in mini-atlases in great detail, and before my eyes glazed over, I heard my son ask whether there would be a Tsunami there. (Trust me, if we can drive there from Indiana in a day, there can't be a tsunami there.)  Any tips for helping Tot not be so afraid?

Well, that's all I've got for tonight. My posting may be a bit more sporadic than usual for a while, but I'll be back!

Five Question Friday

Today I've decided to participate in Mama M's Five Question Friday.  Why, you ask? Why not? I like Fridays, and five is a great number-just enough, but not so many that you get bored, right? (Hopefully.)  Also, questions are good, too-unless it is one of my kids asking me to repeat myself for the zillionth time.  Seriously, everything I say lately (whether I'm talking to them, or not) is met with a "huh?".  Annoying.  Anyway-I have a few questions for you, in this post from yesterday.  Check it out if you haven't already, and give me some blogging ideas feedback.

Ok, back on track.  I do love me a tangent.  Click on the button below to visit Mama M's blog and to find more Five Question Friday responses.






1. What is your favorite thing about summertime?
What isn't?! I love summer! The warmth, the sunshine, the flipflops, the relaxed pace that life takes on-it's all good! It's nice having the kids home from school, although I do miss having time alone.  It's great not having to worry about them getting piles of homework done, or going to bed early for school.  Softball and baseball season is almost over, so it will be even better soon!

2. What is your ideal retirement location (if money didn't matter)?
We would probably live the cliche and move to Florida, at least for winter and spring.  We love Florida.  Winters in Indiana? Not so much.  Most likely, though, we will probably live wherever our children end up-you know, so we can hang around and pester them all the time, ala Frank and Barbara on Everyone Loves Raymond.

3. Do you live in the same town you grew up in?
Same county, but one town over.

4. What nervous habit did you have as a child that you kicked to the curb before becoming an adult?
I had loads of nervous habits as a kid, and I'm not sure I've grown out of any of them yet!  I was afraid of everything, I was timid, and I was a major worrywart.  I suppose I don't worry as much as I used to, and I force myself out of my shell more now, and I actually sleep with my bedroom light out now. Imagine that.   Of course, I've manage to replace those nervous habits with all new ones....

5. What is the most embarrassing thing that happened to you while on the job?
The only ones that come to mind are goofy wardrobe malfunctions, because I'm smooth like that.  One day when I taught Kindergarten,  I was wearing corduroy Winnie the Pooh overalls.  (No, wait-believe it or not, that's NOT the embarrassing part-it was, like 1999, and that stuff was in style! Seriously! Sort of.) I had to teach a lesson that was part of a very restrictive, scripted curriculum that was timed.  (Because they assumed that teachers were brainless, untrained circus monkeys instead of educated professionals, I guess.) If I didn't start and stop at exactly the right minute, I could get in trouble-no exaggeration.  (Don't get me started on how much I hated that developmentally inappropriate, educationally unsound crap....)  I was being observed by someone from central office, so I was nervously going through the lesson, praying that no one would take the opportunity to puke or pee their pants (that seems to happen a lot in Kindy) and throw off my timing.  I was moving along well, when the button for my overall strap flew off.  The kids giggled as I caught the button in midair, glared at the kids until they stopped laughing, and continued on, all without missing a beat.   I was newly pregnant at that time, and fairly emotional, so I was trying to hold in tears as I finished the lesson.  The administrator told me later how impressed she was that I was able to remain control of the class and my outfit, and just keep going. 

Another day, at my current job (I'm an Assistant Director of Education for a tutoring company-fancy title that basically means I do whatever needs to be done and they don't have to pay me very much), I was training a brand new teacher.  She was very quiet, and hard to engage in any type of casual conversation, but I noticed she had a slight smirk on her face as she followed me to another room to do some training on the computer.  I just figured she must be nervous-new job, and all, so I walked back to my desk after getting her set up.  When I got there, I happened to look at my chair-there was a big, smooshed in lump of bright pinkish-red lipstick that had fallen out of the tube the last time I had reapplied.  Horrified (and amused, actually), I turned around and looked at the seat of my light khaki pants.  Yep.  That's why she was smirking.  I walked into my boss' office, turned around and said "Does this lipstick make my butt look big?" Oh yes, I did.  We spent the next 20 minutes or so giggling, making bad lipstick/butt/butt kissing jokes, and Googling how to remove lipstick from pants.  Ah.  Good times.

So there we go.  (Heck of a conclusion, huh? Sorry, that's all I got.)

The Imperfect Mom Needs You!

I need blog fodder your help! Do you have questions to ask me, or certain topics you'd like to see me blog about?  Do you have a parenting/housekeeping/family/social dilema or question that you'd like to have a sarcastic answer to? Who wouldn't, right? Is there a particular type of post that I've done, that you'd like to see more of? Just let me know in the comments, and I'll see what I can do!

Sorry for the short post today.  I'l try to come up with something entertaining for tomorrow!