New Mantra

On Thursday night I caught some special on ABC and this newly wed couple was asking people from all over advice on how to ensure a marriage lasts forever. One woman said something that struck a chord for me and I wanted to share it with you Mamas because this advice could be true for any relationship. She said, "Find the imperfections in your spouse and learn to love them as soon as possible." Wow. Chilly statement compared to the usual "Marry your best friend" or "Always kiss and make up before going to bed." I've decided to not only apply this to my husband's imperfections but to my children's as well and hopefully I will have better success in raising them. For instance, Bella is not a happy-go-lucky kid. Instead of hating that and wishing she'd change and be something she's not - I have to embrace this and love that she approaches life differently from me. Hard to do but such a better way to spend my energy! New mantra "love the imperfections of your loved ones". I know it's not love to acknowledge imperfections - maybe not a good idea to tell that person about the imperfections you found of them - but it is love to love them as a whole being, right? So no more thinking "I love Bella so much I just wish she wasn't such a buzz kill sometimes." Or "I love my husband, I just wish he could be handy around the house." Love, love, love.

Grandma Barb

Hi Mamas! It's me, the single parent. Because camp began today that means the football season starts today. Which translates to George being gone 90% of the time from now until Jan/Feb. Anyway, that is not the reason for the blogging tonite. Nope! I'm jealous but motivated. A fellow mama, who will remain nameless but she knows who she is, called me and told me she was bored. She did preface this statement with the acknowledgement that she has only one child. But somehow, after we hung up, I knew that even if she had 3 kids, this mama would find the time to get bored. Which led to me thinking, what the hell am I doing wrong? Even pre-kids, I can never remember a time of being bored. Like actually, leisurely reading a book or flipping thru magazines. I know there are mamas out there that are busy and can relate to my "no showers", "no time to get a smoking body", "no time for playdate" blogs but truly - I know that you all get to read books, look thru magazines, go to movies, go clothes shopping, surf the web, work out - you know, breathe a little? I know this because every once in awhile I think about our group of gals and I realize that most of you have a career/job plus you are mommies too and most of you have multiple kids. So why can't I be more productive so that I can get to the state of having nothing to do and be bored when I do not have a career? I mean, it's really hard to wrap my head around it sometimes. For as long as I can remember, I never shopped - I still run into a store and grab. Or now I go online for 15 minutes. I never ate - I always inhale. I never, ever called anyone and now that texting has gone rampant I wonder if it will ever happen. I know what you are all thinking: If I just went to one of Sarina's workshops I could get my act together. So I need to make the time to do that. I want to make a pledge to myself that I better have a kick-ass career started by the time this football season is over so that when I do have a husband around, I will have some extra time on my hands and I just might get bored. But realistically, I think that by the time I will actually be bored, I will be a grandparent. This is why I can't wait to be a Grandma. Love to you all- Happy Summer!

New Baby

Nick and I went into the doctor today for our ultrasound. I went into it thinking that I wouldn't find out the gender, but once we found out the baby was healthy we changed our mind. The technician wrote down the gender and put it in an envelope. I had Nick take it to work so I wouldn't cheat. Now I am not stressed about it and feel like I won't have to wait until Dec but I might. Anyway, here is the picture of the little one!

Showers

So today Megan and I were discussing how we hate to use the kids' nap time to take a shower because we feel it is such a waste of valuable time. She shared her strategy to sometimes prolong the kids playtime before nap for 15 min. just so she can shower while they're awake and therefore get stuff done when they are asleep. But she said, "It always backfires because that crucial 15 minutes sends my kids off schedule and I always pay for it in the long run." How many of you are nodding your heads because you know how those 15 minutes can really mess you up? All you wanted was a simple shower. Well, how many of you have gone 4 days without washing your hair? Ok, pre-kids I washed my hair every single day (which was easy for me because I have straight hair and never blow dry it). Then Bella comes along and I stretched it to every other day. Beau comes along and we're talking 3 days is not a shocker. But the pinnacle came today. I washed my hair on Friday morning. Since then I rollerbladed around Calhoun, attended a lovely "Women's Night Out", swam with the kids at Edina Pool (yes, even went down the blue slide with Beau on a tube) and then did Deborah's CorePower class this morning with heat past 100 degrees. We're talking twisted half moons, standing splits directly into standing toe lock, binds and just work. I was dripping with sweat. I was so mad today that unless I wanted to wait until George got home from work, the soonest available time to shower would be at nap time. Valuable time just tick tocked away for something as simple as a darn shower! And if you're wondering would I have dared to skip another day after all that I listed above - yeah, if I really needed to. Gross!

Kindle for Sale

Ok, so the IPad came out and we had to have one. $800 later, I think that the brand new Kindle I bought for George for Xmas will never be taken out of the box now that we have this cool IPad. Does anyone need to buy a Kindle? Or does anyone want to spend time teaching me how to Ebay stuff?

Confirmed

So I knew my body and mind were doing weird things for months but tonight I got the call. My gyno confirmed that at age 40, I am going thru menopause. My last period was Valentine's Day. I knew it, I just knew it. My mom was young (43 yrs) and so I just knew I was going thru it. As the doctor was going over everything about how drastic my FSH levels shifted everything else was going thru my mind. Like, wow, I really don't have the choice to have a 3rd kid. Anyway, I hung up the phone in a fog. I couldn't cry because I had two kids who needed my attention right then. Later, after Beau was in dreamland, I went to the neighbors (Mandy is one of them) and spilled the beans as I drank my wine. Crazy how for weeks I knew in my heart that this was it but crazy that I had no idea what I had in store for myself and my family. So I just went on line to check out what is out there about this "old lady" problem. Bottom line is that someone up there wants me to stop and put myself first because if I'm not careful, osteoporosis can take over. Nope, not happening to me. I'm going to try the holistic way to get thru the symptoms. Please ladies, send up your good thoughts for me to go thru this quickly and with as little pain as possible. If any of you have words of wisdom, special remedies and/or advice - please send them forth. I will be forever grateful. Love to you all!

Summer Outings

Michelle and I met at the Como Zoo this morning and I thought that it would be lovely to plan a few outings besides parks if anyone wants to partake. Michelle mentioned the Richardson Nature Center in Bloomington as a possible site.
Would anyone be interested in planning a morning next week?

If not Michelle and I are planning on meeting at Lynnhurst Park tomorrow morning at 10am if anyone is in need of some play/chatting time!

Ann