Why I am NOT grateful for Tampa #1

Holy Shinaningans.

My hair doesn’t like it here.

At all.

This humidity and a straight bob that needs a serious flat iron is not working out.  I comb through my pictures, mortified that my hair looks so. so. so.  I am at a loss for words?

Homeless.

Sharing with you, just to show you the evilness of Tampa weather.  Totally embarassing.

Look at the curl on my forehead?

Not sure what my initial goal of this hair style was?  The final result is not what I had planned.

And this was after trick or treating.  It was hot out, okay?

And this was my attempt as letting my hair air dry.  Yeah, we won’t be doing that again.

Maybe it’s all that cheap shampoo I’ve been using?  Nonetheless, it’s time for a new haircut.

The dress ups get the best of me.

Quincy and I have not been meshing lately.  And she has been throwing lots of fits.  But the fits all stem from one area. 

Her dress ups.

Quincy always wants to dress up.  And she always does.

Right now, while we are doing a few little things to our house, we are staying at a friends house.  They are away for 2 months because the husband is a pilot for the military and had to go oversees.  She escaped to her parents house, as I would do the same.  But talk about so so so nice to let us stay here.  We are so grateful for their kind service.  We barely know them, yet they were so quick to offer.  It has made the transistion into our home so much easier. 

Anyway, tangent…. So they have 2 girls, so they have lots of dress ups.  And Quincy is in HEAVEN.  And I am not.

In the morning, we eat breakfast, I help the kids get ready and dressed, and then I close myself off from their world, while I get ready in the bathroom.  With the door shut.  And locked.  My only time to really relish the quiet.

The last two mornings, I came downstairs, ready to walk out the door to find this…

Quincy had stripped off her clothes, and shoes, and put on all these dress ups.  When Mason saw how angry I was, he held up his hands and said, “I only helped her with the wings.”

The reason I am so angry is because I can’t even stress to you how hard it is to get dress ups off her.  It is like trying to rope a wild bull.  She runs, and screams, and kicks, and does anything she can to not let me take those clothes off her.  And then when I get them off her she runs, and screams, and kicks, while I try to put something that’s not backless, with velcro, on her. 

Same thing goes with shoes.

“Quincy, it’s time to put on your shoes.”

Then we both look at each other with a gleam in our eye.  I hear the John Wayne music playing in my head, and then we bolt to the shoe box  Her in attempt to find the cinderella slippers before I do, me to find them before she does.  I don’t want her wearing them out of the house.  She can’t walk in them.  They are dress up shoes.  She shuffles in them, they fall off, she sits down because they hurt her feet, and it takes me about 33 minutes to walk into the grocery store.

Same goes for naps.  Boy did we have a battle to get those off today.  I am not going to let her nap in dress ups, for fear of them ripping, getting ruined somehow, or her playing with them, instead of napping.  Today I put her down for a nap and all I could hear from her door was, “I wear princess, I wear princess.”

They get the best of me and I am ready to hide them all in a garbage bag.

But with that being said, if you are family, and don’t know what to get little Quincy for Christmas, you could never go wrong with dress ups.  And as long as she loves them, I will never hide them, nor let her not let play in them.  I just have to figure out some way to harmoize with them. Because right now, Quincy and I are not friends because of those dress ups.  I may as well be the witch or villain in her eyes.

miss nancy.

Mason loves his preschool teacher.  He thinks she is the source of all knowledge.  He talks about her all afternoon when he comes home from preschool.

“Miss Nancy says…”

“Miss Nancy thinks…”

“Did you know Miss Nancy…”

Tonight Mason informed me that Miss Nancy is smarter than me!?

Who knew?

Can you believe that Miss Nancy says things like..

“The peel of an apple holds the most vitamins.”  Mason tells me this as he eats his 3rd apple in the last two days to the very core.

Or…

“You have to keep your teeth clean because getting cavities hurt.”  Mason tells me this while he is brushing his teeth, without my prompting.

Or…

“The trick to writing the letter 8, is like this…”  Mason tells me this, as he sits at the table, filling an entire page with perfect written 8’s.  Yesterday it was the number 5.

Thank you Miss Nancy, for being so smart, and teaching Mason things that Mom has never repeated, oh…4,612 times.

If you can get through to him you must be all the more wise, and most certainly smarter than Mom, the broken record.

Mason’s preschool class with Miss Nancy (She was a munckin from the Wizard of Oz.  She has been teaching at Mason’s preschool for 18 years!)

 

 

Happy Halloween

You know I am bad at recaps.  The blogs where you say, We went here, and then we did this, and then this, and it was so fun!   As I type this my head is doing the dingy side to side motion with a cheerleader smile.

I will spare you those boring details. 

We had a typical Halloween week.  But the important recaps to remember…

I wanted to eat Quincy, she was so sweet in her costume.

I want to cry seeing Mason, he is growing up too fast.

And I wanted to scoop the feeling of Halloween in my arms and ship it to my family, just to show them how delectable it was here.

People go ALL out for Halloween here.  First of all the houses out here are very Martha Stewart like.  Old plantation style homes.  Put that in a setting with big mossy trees and small cobble stone roads, with sprinkles of pumpkins, twinkle lights, and muslin ghosts, and you have magic.  Oh and I forgot the kids.  Add a bajillion kids running around like a scene from a Halloween movie, and that was our Halloween.  This is the type of place, that although not cool and crisp, like Fall should be (blah), you would want to come visit me during Halloween, just to experience the magic.  Can’t wait for next year!  Especially when my sister comes to visit. (I expect a comment about that you silent blog reader of mine)

Someone was SOOO excited that Daddy flipped his call schedule around so that he could be at Mason’s preschool Halloween party.  Look at that smile.  I think someone seriously loves his Dad.  I can practically see the little guys heart melting on the ground.

I never got a great picture of Mason’s costume, but he was Luke Skywalker.  Of course.

Out for Mason’s Halloween preschool parade around the neighborhood.  Yes, Quincy is Cinderella here because the preschool newsletter reported, “No, scary costumes allowed.  Including witches!”  I could never imagine a child aged 2 to 5 to have a “scary” costume.  Have you ever seen a little kid in a scary costume?  Well, no complaints from Quincy anyway.  Just a typical day in Cinderella.

Happy Halloween!

 

The end.

gloomy day.

I cried today.

I haven’t cried for a good few months.

I got an email from my sweet friend, Jen.  With her permission it said this,

I was just thinking about you today and feeling so happy for you to be on a course and moving forward. I hope that all is well with closing on the house and getting all moved in (and hopefully baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and enjoying “fall”). I also wanted you to know how much I appreciate all of your help when I was pregnant with Brynnie. Looking back now, you truly saved my sanity numerous times!!! I wish I were there to return the favor and help you out with all of this craziness for your family, but since I am not, I am sending well wishes, thoughts and prayers instead of cookies, babysitting, and dinner! Love and miss you guys!

Jotham, being the sweetness that he is, was making dinner for us tonight, and I looked up at him with tears welled up in my eyes. 

He asked what was the matter?

I reread him the email a loud, and this didn’t make me teary, it made  me bawl.

Today was a bummer of a day, and of course, Jen knew.  Jen has this fantastic way of knowing.  And I love her for that.

You know who else knew?  Shantell.  Of course she sends me a little text to tell me she’s thinking of me.

You know who else knew?  My Auntie Anne.  Because she too, is someone who always thinks about me when I need it most.

We were supposed to close on our house today.

We didn’t.

And the loan lady is such a loaf, I have no idea when she is going to get our stuff straight to finish this.

My hopes of being in by Halloween falter.

No pumpkin carving, no smelly candles, no pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and with or without the house, no sign of Fall leaves. 

I had something else yucky happen to me today.  Mason had his preschool Halloween party.  And it was really great (post on that later), but one of the Mom’s asked me where I was from.  I said Arizona, but my husband went to medical school and some of residency in Utah.  She raised her eyebrows and said, “Oooohhhhh, there are ALOT of Mormons there, huh?”

I said, ”Yes actually.  And I am one.”

She sort of jumped to my response, paused, and took me in with her eyes.  Like she was expecting me to look funny or something.  She quickly covered up her comment by chuckling about her religion, Baptist.  I didn’t get the comment, but appreciated her cover up nonetheless.  A new friend of mine, Carrie, in my new ward, warned me this was going to happen here. But I wasn’t prepared.

It made me feel sad.  Blessed that I would never deny who I was, but sad that people out here in the south/east are somewhat uneducated on our beliefs.  At least in the west people say, “Oh, okay.”  They think something about our religion is different, but, overall, it doesn’t create a bump in the road.  You’re Baptist, you’re Mormon, you’re Jewish, let’s make a playdate.

I wanted to say, we are Christian.  Our church is named after the Savior and everything in our religion revolves around Him.  We aren’t polygamist.  Contrary to what you may have heard, we believe in the bible.  To us, family, and the sanctity of marriage, is one of our most important values.  But of course I wouldn’t. 

I just left feeling sorta frustrated.  Thinking as a pessimist (which I usually don’t), that people would judge me in a different light.

So I am sending this post into the great internet void, with no positive ending.

Just a little homesick for the old. 

Homesick for my Fall house.

Homesick for the familiar. 

For my friends.

To all my dear friends, even those who I didn’ talk to today, thanks for thinking of me. 

I love you more than you will ever know, and think of you often.

Thanks for bringing some sunshine into my unnecessary gloomy day. 

But hey, I live in the Sunshine State.  This rain cloud shouldn’t last too long.

She just wants to be like her big brother…and her Mama.

We are a little short on laundry here at the hotel.

But we make do.

And this little Quincy is tickled pink, that she gets to wear Mason’s Star Wars jammies to be.  Along with Mom’s headband.

Could she feel any cooler?

Night Night pumpkin.

Why I’m grateful for Tampa #3

The Sunsets

No explanation needed here…

…see you in the morning.

Things I’ll skimp on…Things I won’t.

I bought cheap shampoo at the store the other day because I ran out of my travel ones.  Oh, I ran out of my travel ones, because my stinker kids decided to use them as bubble bath.  Super expensive shampoo (that I didn’t know was SO expensive, until I looked at my receipt), used for a good lather. I am still shaking my head in annoyance.

Anyway, I bought some cheap shampoo at Target (the devil), the other day, and let me assure you…I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.  Wow.  Talk about making my hair look like crap!!  So I mentally checked off in my mind, never to skimp on shampoo again.

Here is a list of things to skimp on and things to not.

Skimp

Lucky Charms Cereal- Malto Mateys, taste every bit the same.

Baby shampoo- even Walmart brand is just as gentle.

String Cheese- I prefer generic.  It’s saltier :{ (My healthy friends just gasped when they read that)

T-shirts- Can’t tell the difference between a cute Target shirt to a  Nordstrom one.

Furniture- All my furniture in my house (besides couches or beds) are hand me downs or furniture that I buy from garage sales or thrift stores and fix up.  I love love love buying used furniture and making it cute more than buying it new. 

Bracelets, rings, and earrings- Seriously, save yourself the money and buy them cheap.  They go out of style anyway.

Bubble Bath- I swear by the $2.46 jugs at Walmart.  Yum! (this is not to say that I wouldn’t love a Lush bar in my Xmas stocking!!)

Condensed soup- It mixes with a recipe anyway.  Buy the generic

Any type of flip flop

Milk

Tylenol or any other over the counter drug- it is required by law, to have the same ingredients in all of these drugs.  Vitamins on the other hand are separate.  Don’t skimp on those.

Workout clothes- Hello people, you are sweating.  Walmart will suffice.

Ice cream for the kids

Pasta

A purse- okay, okay, if I didn’t have to skimp I wouldn’t.  But I do skimp, and I think it’s fine.

mascara- I swear by Maybelline Colossal, and it’s only 5 bucks!

baby wipes- Equate is no Huggies, but it does the job.

****K, there are way more things that I skimp on, I buy most things generic at the grocery store, but I think the list will start boring you.

 

Things to not skimp on

Toilet paper- Charmin please

Nail Polish- you  just have to go with OPI.  Period.

Frozen Brocolli- If you go cheap, all you get are stems.

Running shoes

Hershey’s Syrup- the cheap stuff, tastes like pure Karo syrup.

Produce- do not buy your produce at Walmart.  Talk about awful.  I usually do two grocery trips a week.  One for my boxed stuff at Walmart, the rest at the local grocery store.  Man, if I could afford to buy organic produce I would, but I still have to skimp there.

Ice Cream for me- only chocolate peanut butter from Hagaan Daz will do.  Save me the calories otherwise.

Stilettos- there is just something completely wrong with a hot pair of legs ending in a pair of tacky fake leather heels.   Completely wrong.

Makeup- Only Mac.  ONLY Mac! (except for mascara)

Diapers- tried to skimp in the past, will never do it again.

Jeans- DON’T BUY CHEAP JEANS!  This only results in Mom butt.  Trust me, you can wear an inexpensive shirt, and inexpensive shoes, as long as you pair it with designer jeans, and you will look hot.  On a side note, I usually find my jeans at Nordstrom Rack, which is kinda skimping.

Shampoo- yeah, already talked about that.

A haircut- Remember the Quincy haircut story?

Tampons- Oh the cardboard applicator.  That is just a NO GO.  Need I say more?

Face lotion and face exfoliater- I wash my face with baby soap.  But I will not skimp on the cream and exfoliator.  I want my skin to look good when I am 40, 50, 60, and 70.  I am a little obsessed with wrinkles.  Dermologica.   Period.

 ***What are yours?

Why?

1. Can someone tell me why the weight lost God’s don’t let you lose weight in your biggest areas?  Why is it when I lose weight, my boobs shrink, but my bum stays the same?  That just shouldn’t be allowed.

2.  I know you Tampa people are excited for the cold front.  But seriously, why do you insist on wearing a full trench parka, with a fluffy collar, when it’s only 50F outside?

3.  Why, when I have no home responsibilities, does my hotel look like a tornado hit from front to back?  Now that’s just embarrassing.

4.  Why, when I plan to clean it this late morning, does the bath tub plead my name so  incessantly?

5.  Why, when I succumb to it’s call, and let it take me, does Q have to walk into the bathroom, stark naked, and announce, “I GET IN!”

6.  Why, why, why do the home loan people not receive the papers we fax them?  If I have to RESEND one more document.  I am going to flip.  Please just let us close on our house before Halloween.  I NEED to carve pumkins, and make pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, and light my pumpkin candles.

7.  Why do I always want to eat a cupcake?  Always…

The end.

xxxx.

This is Why…

***if you read this post previously, I deleted it because I think it was too controversial.  Lol.