Happy Mother's Day

To all of you wonderful mommies, mommies to be, and honorary mommies out there:

THANK YOU for giving life, for being part of the biggest miracle, and for putting more love out into this world.

I wanted to wish a very happy day to my mommy, my grandmother, Sissy, and my best friends who are all mostly mommies (I am going to have lots of great mommy suggestions when Crush and I are hopefully blessed ourselves one day)!

I also wanted to give a huge virtual hug to all of the bloggy mommies I love across the Web.  I love reading about your children and they are lucky to have mommies like you.

TO MY OWN MOMMY:

Thank you mom for being the most incredible mom in the world.  You have loved me more than I could ever really thank you for.  You wanted me.  You supported me.  You never gave up on me.  You allowed me to pursue my dreams.  You nurtured me.  You taught me life lessons.  You encouraged laughter, ice cream, and being natural.  You always had an open door and open arms. You convinced me of my potential.  You also MADE me date again when you knew it was time (those motherly instincts...) and I met Crush!  YAY!  Even if we fight, even if I say things I don't mean sometimes, even if I don't show how much I appreciate you enough...please know how grateful and lucky I am to have a mom like you. I aspire to be a parent like you one day.  You have shown me the best love, so now I have the greatest love to share.

I hope tomorrow is full of laughter, lattes, flowers, cupcakes, and lots of hugs and kisses (my perfect Mother's Day shall one day include the above).....

Changing My Ways

I have a lot to share and boy oh boy, things have been busy.

Since, I was fired by 2 clients.....oy, still haunting me, I picked up 2 new clients and in an effort to not get fired again, I have been very selective about who I am taking on, I have changed my processes in terms of task completion, and I have created formal business hours for me.....I check email from 8:00 am - 10:00 am (already caught up for the morning) and then again from 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm, Sunday - Thursday.  Of course this is only if I do not have an appointment at these times.  The general plan is 4 hours a day on my email, 2 in the morning and 2 at night.  Let's see how this works.

Lately, I have received a few very clever out of office messages from other vendors who let their clients know when they will be online checking email.  There is a part of this I SUPER respect, but I don't think my clients would appreciate it.  Email is sadly becoming a full-time job and I feel super glued to my computer, phone, and other devices often.  My goal is whenever I see Crush (I am going out tomorrow night) I unplug and in order to do this, I have to bust my behind a few days before I go to get everything set up correctly....

Yes, I am very lucky these days as I saw Crush just a few weeks ago when Little Baby was born and now I am seeing him this weekend and then in 2 weeks, I am heading back for a wedding.....!   SUPER EXCITED!

This trip coming up is VERY special for me.  I will be introducing Crush to 2 of my very best friends who are coming up and coming down with their husbands to visit the wonderful city that Crush calls home and to meet him.  Both of my besties are currently with child and this will be a baby moon of sorts as they are leaving their little ones at home for some good food, some quiet time, and a little site-seeing. Dinner and 1 special lunch reservation are set, but other than that, I want them to have time to just chill out.  I get LOTS of time to focus on me, but I know when you become a mommy, it all changes.

Their visiting means a lot to me because it takes tons effort to get together these days.  I am hoping I can carve out some time to meet both of their new additions come summer when they make their appearances, but I will be in the midst of my busiest work time and I will also be getting all set to move.....I leave September 9th and I don't think I will be back anytime soon....fingers crossed.

Last night before I fell asleep, I was thinking that this could be the last time my friends see me before I get engaged.  I know I am putting the cart before the horse here....but I know Crush is already discussing rings and timing with me....getting engaged in 2013, so we can get married in 2014.....so I do think it may be coming this year..... A girl can dream, right?!  Crush was ready to have a baby yesterday, so I do think seeing my friends with their little bumps may only speed up this process more and I can't say I am frowning about it.

I will be posting a few more times before I go, but I will be a bit quiet come Thursday-Monday when I am with besties and Crush turned off.

Hope all is well and have a great day!

R&F

Best Gift for That 2-4 Year Old in Your Life

I was at a toy store last week with a dear friend of mine, waiting to get our nails done.  We were just browsing and then I saw something that I just had to buy for my Sissy's babies:

The Fisher Price Record Player!

It's BACK!

I can remember playing with it as a little one myself, I LOVED IT!

I read reviews and many people are all up in arms that it is NOT the same as the original one introduced in 1971.  The year is NOW 2013, I repeat, the year is now 2013.  I expected that the mechanics would be a bit different.  If you would like the EXACT same product that you played with many moons ago,  I would recommend searching eBay or hitting up an antique market, it seems that there could be some out there for collectors.

The 2013 addition record player has been a total hit with a very smart and special and musical 2 and 4 month year old I know.  The proof is in the playtime, which spanned almost 3 hours nonstop the first time it was introduced according to Sissy.

I HIGHLY recommend it for the little one in your life.  It may not be EXACTLY the same as the original, but it will still bring the EXACT same kind of smile to a child's face.

Adapt

Last night I had dinner with 2 special friends that I wish I could see more.  Every time we get together we have fun, but it isn't a regular occurrence as we are all busy, me with life, them with life AND husbands AND kids.

We caught up and I filled them in on Crush and I shared the news that I plan to move.  I love the WTF reaction I am getting about it!  It is priceless.  Much of this has to do with the fact that besides a few of my BEST friends and family, no one knows too much about Crush in real life, as I am not on Facebook anymore and I have become much more private as I get older.

Us gals got to talking about timing and when I thought I would be engaged or get married and I have to say that I am not sure, but I don't think it will be too too long after I move.  Crush and I, neither of us are spring chickens and emotionally, we are ready.  But, as I have said before, I am not about rushing this, for real, not just for cute, I am savoring every second of these beginning stages.  I am not about rings, wedding dresses, and babies (I had LASER FOCUS with Awful regarding these things) because I am truly loving Crush, fully in real time and enjoying the now NOW, so I will never forget how wonderful this all feels. I can never get the first stages of falling in love back.

One of my very best friends who is extremely happily married and I reference all the time on this blog (WE CLOSE!) once told me during one of my darkest days this past year, "I am jealous of you because you still get to fall in love.  You still get to have those first kisses and days just hanging out and having sex and I know you will have it, so when you do, you will totally know how wonderful it all is and how much it will all be worth it." And she is (AND ALWAYS IS, ACTUALLY!) so right!  This is all so special, now that it is happening, it is truly the BEST feeling in the universe.

I made the comment last night about how impressed I am of my friends for balancing so much: husband, babies, work, life, etc. because up until this year, I never gave my friends and sister enough credit for how much work being a wife and mom really is.  When I asked my dinner companions how they did it all, they both answered it simply, "you adapt."  They explained that you make it all work because that is the only real option and slowly, but surely, it all does truly come together like most everything else.  You don't have to even over think it (hard concept for the OVER analyzer I am!). And duh.

There is this pressure for women to be SO many things and to be ALL of these things ALL at once.  I am so selfish these days, I really am.  I have a little disposable income, I have time, I have the luxury of being able to run to the store, workout everyday, take long showers, eat Twizzlers and Doritos for dinner, if that is what I crave (like I did 2 nights ago!).

My sissy always tells me to enjoy the single days.  The reality TV Bravo binges, the mud masks while eating takeout Thai, the sleeping alone in the big bed with clean sheets, the falling asleep while reading TMZ and for the first time in my life, I really am enjoying ALL of it!

When I move to be with Crush, I will be giving up a bit of my independence.  I am a mama bear by nature and I love to nurture.  I think much of why we work is that Crush loves my sweet side and appreciates it and I love his sweet side and appreciate it.  We are both givers, so there is a lot of love and affection in the communal pot.  I will make dinner, I will do laundry, I will dust......I like my life to be a bit regimented for the most part, so my other half will have to allow me to be this way and Crush does.  This is a major reason why I don't want to cohabitate with him.  I don't want to sell myself short because I do have great life skills and I don't want him to get my best benefits (like Awful did) without a true commitment = marriage.  Again, I judge no one else for how they get to their conclusions, I just had to move back in with my folks at 30 because of my past experiences, so I would be a total asshat if I don't learn from my own mistakes....

I have finally realized how much women adapt.  We are awesome this way.  We are so many things to so many people and we seem to make it all work most of the time.

I think adapting is really one of the best skills of all.  I am currently working on it myself. Diet be damned!!!!

Have a great day!!!!!!!