FML. Really? Really? Is that necessary

I see this everywhere now, and I freaking hate that acronym.  Mostly I see it in facebook statuses, "I'm sitting in traffic, going to be late.  FML"  Are you meeting with the president? Saving troops?  Curing cancer?  Because really, unless your job is that freaking important, sitting in traffic is just plain frustrating.  I swear people use this for the most mundane crap.  Why is that?  I say a lot of phrases that probably annoy people, but don't people realize what they are saying?  "F My Life".  It would take a LOT of bad things happening all at the same time to make me feel that way.  Yet people throw it around so carelessly. 

Ugh!  Drives me crazy!

kids do the damndest things...to your body...

I had to get glasses! I've had perfect vision my whole life, but noticed my eyes seemed tired and were twitching a lot, so i went to see the eye doctor, who I hadn't seen since I graduated college five years ago! It turns out I have a lazy eye, likely inherited from my father, but luckily not as bad (he is almost blind in the lazy eye and it is significantly smaller than his non-lazy eye). I only have to wear them if I'll be on the computer for more than an hour or driving when my eyes are tired (considering i'm always tired, it's hard to tell when it's my eyes vs. the rest of me, but whatever!). My prescription is pretty mild, but I figured if I was going to wear glasses, I'd spring for some "real" ones instead of cheapos from CVS.

It turns out, I love them! If they didn't irritate me when reading or looking at people, I would wear them all the time. They are so freaking cute! Sometimes I "forget" to take them off if I'm going to talk to someone or even just going to the bathroom so I can check out their awesomeness :)

honestly it was probably the last 5 years of sitting at a computer and not my kids that killed my eyesight, but i'll blame the kids anywya.

what crazy things have kids done to your body?

Late Night Thoughts

I wrote the best post in my head last night.  It was witty, fun, and interesting.  Unfortunately, I have NO IDEA what it said!  I cannot even remember the topic!  Too bad, you would have enjoyed it a lot – or at least I think so. 
At night, when my head hits the pillow, I am out instantly.  My husband frequently tells me, after I turn out the light and say goodnight, he will lean over to kiss me, and I am already asleep.  Before I get to that Zen place, where I promptly pass out, it seems all the thoughts that were buzzing around my head all day realize I am going to be out, stop swarming, and slam full force in to the front of my brain.  It is almost as if my head has to express every thought it had during the day, and once they are out there, I can go to sleep.  It would be cool if this were productive and I woke up the next morning with all the relevant and important thoughts at the forefront of my mind, but they are always lost maybe to be remembered later, maybe to be forgotten forever.  Too bad about that post, though.

Are we late? Always!!!

The other day as I was driving the girls home from daycare, my daughter says "Are we late, mama?  Are we late?"  We were not late.  But, that is a rare occurance.  Apparently, so rare in fact that my daughter knows we are usually late!  I hate lateness, it ought to be the eighth deadly sin.  Yet, I can't get out of the house on time for anything anymore.  I try so hard - if I know we are going somewhere, I'll map out a plan in my head from the second we wake up, I enlist my husband's help, I pre-pack what I can, but nothing seems to work!  In order to be on time for anything I have to plan to leave an hour or more ahead of when we really need to leave, and those are the times that we end up at our destination an hour early!  Which, you know, is also never good because then your kids have time to wake up from their car-ride cat-nap and be energetic for the quiet events, or get cranky and uninterested for the fun events.  I can't win for trying!  I know this problem is directly related to the kids because when I was single I was always on time, when I got married, we were almost always on time, and then I had the toddler and started showing up a bit late.  Now we have the baby, and it is like we are exponentially more late every time!  I cannot count the number of times lately I say to my husband "We should not even go, this is embarrassing." 

Hopefully this is a phase and by the baby's one-year birthday I will be back in control, but this is driving me crazy.  And to have the toddler point it out to me?  Yikes!

Financial Update

We got a letter from Citibank the other day saying they were raising our interest rate. That really upset my husband and I. The interesting thing was our reactions – he was pissed that they would raise our rates when we are good, paying customers; I was depressed that we suck so bad at our finances that they felt the need to raise the rates. Slight digression…is this a woman/man issue with how we see the world or just an inherent difference in our personalities?

At his suggestion, I decided to run my credit the next day just to make sure no one stole my identity and to see where I stand with the credit bureaus. Well, it turns out, I am “Excellent”! My credit score rocks! I may have a substantial amount of debt listed, but I have never made a payment more than 30 days late and the credit bureaus consider me in the “Excellent” category. I took my excellent self right over to Discover and applied for their 0% interest on balance transfers card, and they apparently agreed with my excellent-ness because Discover approved me for a transfer! I highly recommend running your credit score just to see what is going on, and to dispute anything you do not like because you can get black marks knocked off your credit report if the company does not respond or cannot prove you were in the wrong. It is definitely worth doing, especially if you end up saving 29.99% APR on a considerable balance!

A Blissful Benefit

This coffee post is in honor of

This post is in honor of Blissfully Caffeinated and is being hosted by Jenni!  Thanks for letting me join the fun :)

Mmm…coffee…I have a cup of coffee most mornings, but that is more out of habit than enjoyment.  Coffee any other time of the day is different and special, and can always make me smile.  If I am tired, or down, at work, I will slip down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee, and it always makes the afternoon seem better (unless the coffee is burnt, I really hate that!).  If we are going somewhere and we will be in the car for a while, I try to convince my husband to stop at Starbucks because nothing makes a long drive better!  I like all coffee – boring coffee with cream and sugar, flavored coffee, flavored creamer, and fancy lattes and such from Starbucks (or Caribou, but I prefer Starbucks). 

My favorite time to have coffee is with my girlfriends.  Whether it is at a local coffee shop, or sitting around the kitchen table with a pot, coffee makes the girl time so much better.  There is no problem that a good cup of coffee and a chat with my girls can’t solve!

Bathtime Issues

I am pretty good at keeping up with lots of parenting stuff, but the one I am the worst with is bathing.  I know, that is ridiculous.  My kids are not unclean, they just do not get baths every night (or every other night), like they should.  Part of the problem is working it into the routine – most stuff I can do after they are asleep (laundry, dishes, etc), but bath time has to be done during that short window of time between after school and bedtime, and we have to get dinner cooked and eaten in there too. 

Anyway, my big issue with bath time is that I cannot figure out how to do the rinse portion without all out immobilizing fear for the toddler.  We have little cups where water drips out the bottom and I use that, or pour the water over her head.  I have tried just sticking her head under the faucet to make it quick (even though she is petrified of the faucet).  I prefer using the manual showerhead because it is easy and less pressure, but she is petrified of that too.  She loves baths – the idea, the process, playing, washing – but she hates the rinse part.  Every time we do baths, it ends so badly that we are all scarred and put it off for a few days.  Any suggestions?

What I wouldn't do to have this money back!

I wish I had been more financially responsible back when I got out of college.  I was living at home, rent-free, had few bills, and made decent money.  but, I spent way more than I needed to, and when I cleaned out my savings to pay closing costs on our house, instead of building it back up, I put the money I had been saving toward the mortgage, and continued to spend, spend, spend.  Then we got married and we were really spending - eating out, decorating the house, going out with friends.  The credit card balances went up, but we did not care - we made great money and could pay it off, right?  Wrong!  We got pregnant, then we got pregnant again, and then we were stuck with a huge tax bill - my husband's business accountant screwed up our taxes.  We had to wipe out our stock account to cover the tax bill and we have been living paycheck to paycheck ever since.  Now, we are great with money.  I got a new job to the tune of a significant raise, my husband's business continues to grow, and we are slowly paying off debt.  But, boy is it slow! 

I love my kids, but frequently find myself thinking "if we didn't have daycare this month, we could pay off that card.", "if we didn't have to pay daycare, we'd have our car paid off next year", and so on.  We will get our debt paid down, and our cars and house paid off one day, just really far in the future.  The thing that worries me is that my parents are great with money.  We did not have a lot when I was young, and even when we did have a good amount, we never ate out and spent frivolously.  My parents always told us to pay off credit cards, never have more than three, and taught us the importance of money.  They even paid off their house long before my dad retired!  With all that great advice, it is amazing I screwed up so bad.  I hope that we can teach our kids to do better!

Personality

I was talking to a co-worker this morning about personalities and the Myers-Briggs (wiki) personality test. I took it years ago, and was an ISTJ. So, I looked it up on Wikipedia and reread the ISTJ type description. It is CRAZY how much this fits me to a T!

I – Introversion preferred to Extraversion: ISTJs tend to be quiet and reserved. They generally prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle of acquaintances, and they expend energy in social situations (whereas extraverts gain energy).


S – Sensing preferred to iNtuition: ISTJs tend to be more concrete than abstract. They focus their attention on the details rather than the big picture, and on immediate realities rather than future possibilities.

T – Thinking preferred to Feeling: ISTJs tend to value objective criteria above personal preference. When making decisions, they generally give more weight to logic than to social considerations.

J – Judgment preferred to Perception: ISTJs tend to plan their activities and make decisions early. They derive a sense of control through predictability.


If you haven't taken the test, I highly recommend doing so. It takes some time, but if you get your answers and then look up that personality type you may be surprised to see the quirks you have and things you do that other people with a similar personality also have and do!

REVIEW DAY: Bumbo

This thing is AWESOME! Right after I had the toddler, this thing exploded onto the blog, chat room scene. We, naturally, went right out and purchased one, and fell in love! We used it on the baby when she was very small and just learning to hold her head up on her own. The back of the chair goes up a bit to provide some support, or a pillow if the babe falls asleep! We brought the Bumbo everywhere with us because it was a great place to put the baby, where she could still feel a part of things. We had it on the table while we ate and on the coffee table or the floor while we played. My dad (who calls it the bumpo because he is terrible with names, and apparently, not just people’s names) would specifically request it because there is nothing better than eating dinner and looking right over at the baby. We took it away when she started pushing up with her legs because I got too worried that she would push out of it and I would not be close enough to save her from the fall. You are not supposed to use them on the table or counter, but I think that is what they are for, and as long as you do not leave the baby unattended, it is fine. I definitely recommend this for a baby shower or new mom gift. Especially for a new mom, whose youngest child is three or older, because it probably was not around, or at least, was not popular when they had their last baby!