Category: Random

Mom V. Dad – Dressing the Kiddo

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This will make sense in a minute.

We all know that moms and dads are different. I think every couple has great examples of what dad does better and what mom does better – everything from discipline to bathing are unique. Peter is great at putting Baylie to bed and I think better at swim lessons with her. I think I can get her to eat just about anything and can usually defuse the worst tantrum.

There is one thing I KNOW I’m better at…and now I have proof. This is how Peter dressed Bay:

And this is how I dressed her later that same day:

Now, in all fairness, it was Thanksgiving morning and they were getting ready to go for a bike ride. I’m not really sure why that meant she had to wear pink socks and shoes of two different hues and a sweatshirt from the lodge where he goes bird hunting (note the pheasant).  But really, there’s a clear winner, no?

Dear Mother Nature…

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Dear Mother Nature,

I find it adorable that you decided to make it finally feel like fall THIS week. I’m sure you remember Thanksgiving ’08 where you thought it would be cute to make it cold and rainy. I can fit 20+ people into our house for dinner, but it’s not pretty. You know what is pretty? Our backyard. Which is where I intend to feed 18 people a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. Now, MN, you know most of us are natives or have lived in AZ so long, we’re considered natives. We can deal with 110, but 60…60 is just too cold. My mom can’t eat dinner with gloves on.

So let’s make a deal: you make it 70+ for Thanksgiving and you can do whatever you want for the rest of the year. Sound good?

Kisses,

Beth

Highschool Reunion

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Peter and I had our high school reunion a few weeks ago. Truthfully, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. Not for any other reason than it just really didn’t register that we had been out of high school for 10 years. I blame the 4 really good years of college for that….

To my surprise, it turned out to be very fun. It was nice catching up with people and finding out that a few of them (not all of them) grew up and became nice people. It was fun to hear what people were up to and think of how far we’ve all come in the last ten years.

This week, a friend sent me a message on facebook. He said he was flipping through his yearbook after the reunion and was reading what all his friends and classmates had written. I got credit for being quite funny – my entry went something like “I wish we could have been better friends. But you were mean so I blame the fact that we weren’t better friends on you. Have a great summer!”.

Apparently I was a decent comedic, albeit snarky, writer even then.

A Truly Disturbing Story

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I almost never ask Peter’s permission to write about him the blog.  He only finds out after reading the day’s post and then he calls me to comment and then say “and stop writing about me” (ha, as if everything is about him). However, this particular topic was his idea. It is truly a disturbing story. What is more disturbing is that he doesn’t think it’s disturbing which is why he suggested it would make a great post.

My sweet, loving, smart, magna cum laude undergrad, top ten law school educated, cum laude graduate, bills-out-at-$250-an-hour, big firm lawyer husband eats lentil soup out of a can for lunch at least three days a week. Yup. Straight out of a can. No heating it up. No separate bowl.  And he informed me that he didn’t want to walk down the hall to find a spoon so he at yesterday’s lunch with a fork. Insult to injury. The only thing worse would be slurping it directly out of the can or a spork. I think he didn’t use that only because he hadn’t been to the indian food restaurant lately and saved his disposable silverware. The really disgusting part is that he likes it. In fact, he chooses to eat it over anything else.

This is doubly disturbing for me, a person who makes a home cooked meal at least five nights a week. I even pack the leftovers in a separate container so he can take it for lunch the next day, free of the hassle of dishing it into a separate tupperware. I even bought him the kind of soup that you can stick in the microwave without having to find a clean, microwave safe bowl and he said it didn’t taste as good.

I fear the day when I’m going to have to tell Baylor that yes, her daddy is a weirdo. But something tells me that she’s probably going to figure this out on her own. What can I say? He was cute in high school (and still is!).

A Work Pile of Crap

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I have a pile of things that need to be ordered or found and then ordered online. I am avoiding the pile because none of it is fun stuff. There’s no “order something new and cute from your favorite store!” in my pile. It’s all stuff that needs to get done but is so mundane, it depresses me to do it  so here I sit writing about it rather than working through it. Here’s what’s in my list:

1. Order ink cartridges. $50 and no fun. I went to the HP site to get a coupon and found I had to take a survey to do so. Fine fine. But then it said it would take a few days before they would email me the coupon. Nice. Move to the bottom of the pile.

2. Order vacuum bags. Yuck. Mostly because it makes me think that it’s been awhile since I’ve changed the vacuum bag and it’s gross to do. Peter is thinking “whoa, there are BAGS that have to get changed?!”.

3. Dig out the folder from the remodel. Riffle through it to find a receipt that may or may not exist for the cabinetry. Then begin the long task of contacting the company that makes the cabinets and convince them that they want to fix our pull out trash can for free so I don’t have to order one of the oh-so-expensive generic replacement sliding cans at $250 a pop. I need to get my mean face on for this one and it’s been used up a lot lately on the kid.

4. Order Baylie vitamins. Not a big deal, but I get them from Diapers.com and I always get sucked into buying something else which is actually very fun, however, not fun for the bank account.

5. Pay our APS bill. Hopefully having a nice cool house will make Baylie smart so she can get a scholarship to college because all her 529 money is going to pay the electricity bill.

And so the pile grows…

Things I Have Learned from Halloween

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1. Don’t buy candy until the day of Halloween when it is not just 20% off, but 60% off.

2. No matter how hard you try, you are going to under or over-estimate the amount of candy you need. This year: over-estimated.

3. Do not dress the kiddo in any costume where she can remove part of it herself. I.E. ears and or a tail

4. Do not accidentally catch the kiddo’s hair in her glow necklace. It will lead to her hysterically crying when she sees them in the future.

5. If a heard of teenagers dressed in all black who out weigh you and out number you come to your door, throw your rules about not giving out candy to such people and give them the candy.

6. No matter how hard I try, the kid is not going to A. look at the camera B. keep her costume on and look at the camera or C. smile, look at the camera and keep on her costume.

7. If the kid doesn’t learn to trick-or-treat this year or even next year, the world will not end. I need to enjoy the fact that she is perfectly content to sit on the patio and hand out candy to other munchkins.

8. I am an  master pumpkin carver!

I’m melting!!!

Well This Can’t Be Good…

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Last night, I opened a two pack of Halloween sized Starburst and found two lemon Starbursts. Disgusted, I threw them back in the bag and pulled out another. Same thing. Then another and again, found two yellow Starbursts. Realizing that this was surely a sign of the apocalypse, I moved onto the Snickers.

In an effort to conserve some money this year, I am rationing out the candy. No more “help yourself!” to all the rug rats that come to the door. Instead, my costume is going to be the crabby neighbor lady who is sipping wine on the front patio and doles out no more than 2 pieces per person to those under the age of 12 and over the age of 2. No multiple handfuls for the 15 year olds that come with the creepy and often downright terrifying masks. Or worse, no costume at all. And I am for sure turning down the adults holding the 3 month old baby’s bag and trick-or-treating “for the baby”. Keep walking sista. If you want some candy, confiscate it from your other kids.

And because I am still scarred from my beautiful Pottery Barn bowl being stolen off our front stoop in DC, I will not be leaving a bowl of candy on the patio once we’ve turned in for the night. I will, however, consider hiding in the bushes to spray any smart asses who think it’s funny to bang on the door after we’ve turned the patio light off.

Happy Halloween!!

Give A Little Bit…

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I’ve been reading a lot lately about doing little things to be more green, charitable and in general, kind to others. One of the things I think is so important in that category is community service. I think the perception is that this has to be a huge chunk of your day or week, but in reality, there are so many charities and organizations out there that need volunteers, but not for crazy amounts of time.

When we were kids, my mom, myself, my sister and our dog, Prince, volunteered with an organization called Pets On Wheels. We would take Princey and go to a nursing home for about an hour a week and just walk around and visit with people. We never stayed that long with any of the residents, but just long enough to talk about Prince or Ali and myself or whatever was on their mind. They always seemed grateful to talk about something other than why they were there.

I rejoined POW after graduating college and then again when we moved home to AZ from DC. And now I take Baylie with me to visit – she alternates between whipping Travis with his leash, shaking hands with the residents, looting their lunch trays and waving goodbye – most of them love it and I bail out before any of those that don’t love it say something. Travis sits sweetly next to each person we visit and accepts the pats and scratchies. I love teaching her that serving others is not only an important part of life, but a necessary one.

So if you don’t currently volunteer, consider finding an organization that is in need of volunteers and fits your time frame so that you can stick with it. Look for those that involve your pets or your kids so that you get to pull double duty: time with your family and time giving back.

Here’s a few websites to get ideas:

http://www.petsonwheelsscottsdale.com/ – please note the much less tired and younger version of Travis and myself on the “young volunteers” page. And yes, I still count as “young”!

http://www.crisisnurseryphx.org/nursery/ – the crisis nursery can be a tough place to volunteer due to the situations that many of the kids are in. But they are always in need of diapers, clothing and toys.

http://az.willsforheroes.org/ – Peter volunteers with Wills for Heros. If you have legal experience, are a notary or a law student, they need you!

http://www.jaaz.org/ – Junior Acheivement is an amazing organization that teaches kids about business and entreprenureship at all academic levels. They need volunteers to help get items donated for chairity events and also help out in their super cool “JA Biz Town” (been there and I want to stay and play every time!). Bonus: many of the planning meetings have cocktails!

Check back with your favorite grade school teacher. Chances are they are still there and still teaching and in need of some help in the classroom. My sister Ali and I fulfilled our high school community service requirement spending 2 hours a week at our grade school. We would grade papers, clean out closets, read stories, whatever the teacher needed. And who doesn’t love a 1st grader giving you a drawing of yourself and saying  “thank you!”?

http://www.volunteermatch.org

http://www.iparticipate.org

Because really, who doesn’t want a visit from this guy?!

Kids V. No Kids

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When you don’t have kids and have a lazy Sunday morning, you get up around 10am. When you do have a kid, you get up at 6:30, have pancakes, water plants, play in the play house, read books, put stickers on the dogs, have a snack, get soaked by the house, change, have a glass of milk and then go back to sleep at 10am.

Pretty People

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I’ve been working out at the gym lately. I really don’t like to go to the gym, it’s a total pain to get dressed and drive there – I would so much rather workout at home or go for a run. But since it’s still 113 degrees and 40% humidity, taking Baby Cakes for a 5k is not in the cards until October (when the low is actually cooler than 95 degrees). Thus, the gym.

My workout doesn’t require any machines, mostly a yoga mat, a kettle bell and maybe a ball. Mostly I need some space and someone to wrangle the kiddo. A few weeks ago I was working out in the mirrored room when I became really sick of looking at pretty people walk by. I have a serious issue with people that wear lots of makeup and really pretty workout clothes to the gym. Really, a full face of makeup, hair done AND an adorablely coordinated Nike outfit? Really? Who has that much time?? If you have time to take 2 showers a day, you need a hobby.

I understand common decency, you don’t need to look like a total disaster. I refrain from wearing my over sized Georgetown Law t-shirt and I do put on some concealer and mascara because scaring people with my Night of the Living Dead impression is not nice. There are limits in my scrubiness though – some people (who shall remain unnamed) have been known to go to the gym wearing a t-shirt that is at least 10 years old and has a hole in the armpit so big, this person can put deodorant on without having to reach under the shirt. I’m just saying, there are limits people.