My Adventures in Mommyhood

We recently had our first real family vacation.  We rented a cottage on a lake about three hours from home, it was awesome!  It seems that every year we have had to use our vacation weeks for moving, or renovations or going to out of town weddings, so I was super excited to be finally taking a trip somewhere beautiful that we could relax and show the kids something different then our regular day to day things.

We had made arrangements to share the cottage with my in-laws so as to reduce to cost, since $1000 for a week was a little more then we could manage by ourselves and we knew that they miss taking their annual cottage vacation.  The cottage was 1500 square feet so I figured it was big enough that we should all be able to get along with minimal annoyances.  And it went very well….or so I thought.    When my husband got home the other day from his mom’s he informed me that she did not think it went well!!  According to her I was in a miserable mood, didn’t want them to be there, didn’t want them to come to the beach with us and when my sister in law and her family came for the day I ignored them!  To be honest I have no idea how I came across this way!  I loved being there, thought it was great to have four adults to watch two kids and allowed me to get great pictures at the beach without worrying about the kids in the water.  I also have always loved my in-laws and how great (I thought) we got along.

Now I don’t know what to do.  My MIL is extremely passive aggressive and so is more likely to talk to other people about the fact that she is upset at me and will not bring it up to me.  I feel that since I didn’t have a problem with her (although now I do a bit!) I should not bring it up, plus my husband has asked me not to let her know he told me what she said.  What would you do?

Oh, she also said that something along the lines of “her son would be potty trained by now if she would get off her lazy butt!”  This is the comment that upset me the most since the fact that my 4 year old son, who a year and a bit  after starting serious, nose to the grindstone potty training  would still rather pee and poop in his gitch then tell me he has to go potty, is making me feel like a failure as a parent.

And she knows how upset the potty training difficulties are making me since I have actually broken down in tears while talking to her about it one day.

My heart literally hurts over this.

I want to be a fashion horse.

I want a full, overstuffed closet.

I lust after a whole big list of items and I surf through the internet looking for another object of my affection.  Here is my pick of the day.

There is nothing I like the idea of more than accessories, they make an outfit complete and add that special sparkle of personality that makes an outfit you! One piece that I always wanted to be able to pull off  but somehow just never have the temerity to wear out of the house is a hat.  I really love hats and tonight I discovered a great site with some wonderful hats, like this one…

Isn’t this awesome?!?  My question is what would you wear it with?  And more importantly, how would you justify the purchase of a $68 hat to your husband?

Yes, I got a new camera and I am pretty sure that I love it more then I love my husband!!  It has so many features and functions.  And it takes pics of my kids while they are moving, seriously guys…WHILE THEY ARE MOVING!!!!!   With my old camera there was no way that was going to happen.  I would cajole, threaten and bribe my kids to try and get them to stay still for 20 seconds while my Olympus decided whether it wanted to take a picture or not and inevitable about half a second before it would flash, my kids would move and the resulting picture would not resemble anything human.   AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!

I have been trying to save up my SDM points purchase a camera, money being a little tight I figured that this would be the only way that I could afford it.  It was our anniversary recently and while at Superstore this past weekend my hubs found an freaking fantastically amazing deal on a Canon Powershot, we got this little beauty on sale with another 25% off on top of the existing sale plus there was no tax that weekend.  Our total purchase price, $87 and some change.  And I heart it so much!!!!

I still want a Canon Rebel SLR eventually but in the interim, this one is making me soooo happy

I am sitting here watching American Idol, which I never do but there is really nothing else on, and I am wondering what the hell happened to Rhianna?!?

“What do you mean?” you may be asking.

I mean this…

vs this….

I have nothing more to say, I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

As a mom (or a parent period) you sometimes may make unwise choices just to be able to shop in peace and relative quiet.  One of these choices may be to allow your child to choose a product off the shelf to carry around the store, making them feel that they are involved in the shopping trip.  Today I did this and it did not work out very well for me!

I usually try to shop after Jeff gets home from work so that I can concentrate on the shopping, not corralling my children but today I needed to run some of my errands during daytime so off we went to Shoppers Drug Mart.  Kaitlyn picked up a bottle of nail polish and put it in the cart and then Brendan decided to grab the nail polish out of the cart to carry around.  I saw him do this and thought “what could happen?”.   This is a bad thing to think as a mother, this phrase basically invites fate to show you what could happen!  A few minutes later, while perusing the snack selection, I hear Brendan say “Look mommy!” , I turn around and he has the bottle open!!!  I try to stay calm so as not to startle him and lean over to crab the bottle.  My hand comes a hair away from closing around the bottle and it slips towards the floor.  Now I don’t know if anyone reading this has ever dropped a flat bottomed container full of liquid on the floor but what happens is the liquid looks for a way out and that way is straight up!  Since I was half bent over already the light, bright green nail polish splashed all over my black leather jacket.  We headed home and I called a friend who happens to work at Danier,

Me “Please, please tell me that there is a way to get nail polish out of leather!”

MW “Oh no, sorry there really isn’t anything to do.”

We said more than that but you get the gist.

So I call my sister to bitch and moan about the ruin of my only spring jacket that I can currently do up without looking like a sausage!  She is the internet guru so she heads straight for the keyboard and in about 30 seconds has a method to try and work it out.  After the kids go down for quiet time I spread the jacket and tools out on the kitchen counter and got down to business.  It took two and a half hours but I worked all the splatters out without any major damage to the jacket.  And I can’t even really complain because it was the fault of my own stupid mommy brain that this happened in the first place.

Here are the instructions I used if anyone else ever is careless enough to get nail polish on their leather items.

Ingredients: non-acetone nail polish remover, rubbing alcohol, two soft and clean cloths, q-tips

Directions: dip one q-tip in the nail polish remover and then dab gently on a small area of the nail polish, blot gently with one of the cloths, repeat this step until the nail polish is no longer (or only slightly visible).  Dip the other clean cloth into the rubbing alcohol and blot the area you just cleaned gently.  Pick a dry area of the cloth (or a separate cloth) and gently buff the area dry.  Do not put too much pressure or you may remove too much of the jacket’s dye.

I would recommend that you test this on an inconspicuous area of your leather first as I cannot vouch for how all leather will react to the chemicals.  My jacket came pretty clean but in really bright sunlight I can see light marks where I worked the leather.

Buy a Dyson!

Seriously, this is NOT a sales pitch, although it is the absolute best vaccum I have ever owned.  I really want their handheld unit, the Animal!

Anyway, my son loves using it so that he can watch the dirt go around and around in the canister.  So I am currently sitting here drinking my tea and bragging blogging about how my almost four year old is taking one of my household chores over.

(He will also dust for M & M’s!!)

It was absolutely gorgeous here in southern Manitoba this weekend and so the kidlets and I went straight outside after breakfast to enjoy it while it lasted because you just never know what will happen tomorrow!  We had a very heavy fog overnight and there was a ton of hoarfrost everywhere which is so beautiful.  I love the work “hoarfrost”, in my head I just picture walking through a white forest somewhere all along with my thoughts and beauty all around me.  Anyway, we took some pictures and then played at the local playground for an hour.  When we left Kaitlyn threw an absolute temper tantrum, at least I know she likes fresh air!

On Saturday night I sat down to enjoy the last glass of wine in my current bottle and watch the Oscars, the whole thing…the Barbara Walters Special, the Red Carpet Show and the main event itself.  I have a few thoughts and observations….

While it may be true that you “have more money than your grandchildren’s grandchildren could spend”, I think it is a little tacky to mention it!

I enjoyed seeing the hairstyles of the past during the flashbacks.

Who would NOT want a lapdance from Hugh Jackman!

I love Sandra Bullock and think that she is adorable.

Did George Clooney and his date look angry to anyone else?

Kathy Ireland looked like she was made out of wax.

Sherri Shepherd is also very adorable and so exuberant, watching her makes me smile

I really like Neil Patrick Harris and his ability to sing and dance!

I am very glad that Avatar didn’t sweep the Oscars.

Have I mentioned that I love Sandra Bullock?

As I am sure there are plenty of sites out there doing fashion rundowns, I will not bore you with that too much.  I will just leave you with some of my favourite gowns.

I think Helen Mirren is so beautiful and I hope to age this gracefully

I think that Maggie Gyllenhaal’s dress is fun and so bright.  I am sure that there are folks out there that are not a fan of this look but I enjoyed it.

It’s Jennifer Lopez, need I say more?

How great would you feel dressed up in this?  I love a dress with a full skirt, so princess like, I look at this picture and I completely covet this dress!

I know that eleven year old girls who talk to salespeople like they are worthless drones will grow up to be the customer that all salespeople avoid like a communicable disease.

I know that the mom that lets her eleven year old girl talk to a salesperson like they are a worthless drone is no better than her daughter.

I know that after a long day at work, during which I had to practically bite my tongue in half before I told an eleven year old girl exactly what I thought of her,  the last thing I want to do is wrestle my children into bed.

I know that when I get an invite for a group called Layla Grace Pledges For Little Layla Grace that I am going to regret reading the story behind it.

I know that after doing what I know I will regret,  I will go and hug my children so tight and never want to let go.

If you read my blog regularly you may remember my earlier post about an ongoing issues with my dining room table.  When last I wrote about this we were waiting for the fourth replacement table with no great expectation that this table would come undamaged.  Sure enough it shows up at the end of January and didn’t even get off the truck, the two sides of the table were half an inch out from each other, HALF AN INCH!!!  How does that even happen?!?!?  That is okay though because now I get to reselect a table, which means shopping without having to pay at the end, what woman out there wouldn’t like that   So this past Sunday I got to go shopping and found an awesome dining set for a faction of what we  paid for the first one which means that I also got to pick a new dresser for Kaitlyn’s room and I still have a bit of money left over!

As I told my SIL about my new table this afternoon and how excited I am to have it soon, I realized that if this table comes damaged that I will most likely flip out.  I have been so patient with this situation (six months patient to be exact) and I am almost at the end of my rope, here’s hoping for a happy conclusion to this very ongoing problem.

On another, very happy note…how awesome was it that Canada completely kicked Russia butt all over the ice today!!  I have been celebrating a little bit and am very,very “happy” (so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors)!!  Also, kudos go out to Clara Hughes and the two Canadian woman’s bobsled teams.  GO CANADA!!!

A few weeks ago I wrote here about how we were going to do some hardcore potty training with my extremely stubborn three and a half year old.  Well we made it through the whole week and it made no discernible difference.  He still would not tell me when he had to go, we still had accidents and he would hold his poop all day until right before bed when a diaper was finally put on him (how does someone even do that?  You would think it would hurt!).  The next week we were super busy with commitments outside the house and it was harder to keep up the hardcore training but I did try.  This week started and I was getting frustrated and tired of not being able to go very far, not getting the house as clean as I would like and sick of debating with my child why he couldn’t play “just fife mo minutes” but had to go to the potty NOW!!  Yesterday morning, with no warning at all, we had a breakthrough.  Brendan made his first poop in the potty!  I actually teared up I was so happy, and if anyone had told me three years ago that the highlight of my week would be my son pooping on the potty I would have called you insane.