Act your age, not your shoe size

So a bunch of us at work were talking about those type of moms. You know, the ones that are insisting on living like they're between the ages of 18-25 but they're actually between the ages of 32-44. The ones that don't want to be moms but rather "cool moms".

Don't get me wrong, I am totally down with keeping up with fashion as a mother. I'm not saying that once you become a mom you have to trade in the 7 jeans for mom jeans. No. Moms are allowed to still look good and still be moms. In fact, they more than others need to feel good about themselves and I have learned in the past few years that my happiness can be bought :) I will spend some money on my clothes and purses and not think twice about it. I also believe in what a good hairstyle does for your self esteem and the cost is worth it. No, it's the moms that are in complete denial of being moms. That wear shorts IN PUBLIC while with their kids where half their butt cheeks are hanging out. These moms are usually (and this is not true for all) the ones that didn't get to live like a normal twenty-something for whatever reason. A lot of the women that I have seen/hear about got pregnant or married early and never lived a normal life after that. So, instead of suffering the consequences of their decision, they make their kids suffer. So, these moms in their 30s and 40s decide to live like they're in their 20s with obvious consequences on their kids. Yes, it is inappropriate to wear revealing clothes when your son and his friends are 13 and only think about sex 24 hours a day. That's not a weird impression on them. No, not at all. Great, you have a good body for someone who has kids but does EVERYONE have to see your body? Can you not keep that body for 1 person to share with? I certainly don't need to see that you work out and keep your butt toned. It does nothing for my life. Yes I'm jealous for the 30 seconds or so that I see you at the grocery store. But after I admire, I move on and forget about you because I am happy, even if my butt doesn't show it like yours.
And you can bet your last dollar that I will be that parent to rip the head off the "cool" parent of a child that my kids hang out with when they're older. The minute I hear about drinking or skinny dipping or whatever else and my kids are 11 and the "cool" mom let it happen cause "at least she was home while it happened". Nuh-uh. Yeah, I will beat her *ss. I don't care how "cool" kids think she is and how "uncool" I will be after that, I will be a mom. My job, ultimately, is to raise my children to be able to live a full and complete life. Not a life where they make stupid decisions early that will ruin the rest of their life and their children's life. I mean, let's be honest, my kids will make a lot of dumb decisions but hopefully at ages appropriate to understand the consequences. My goal: get them to that age. Not to be best friends, or party pals but to get them to the point in life where they understand most of their decisions and the consequences. Then, I'll be their friend. Probably right around the time they give me some grandchildren- (this can happen after they get married). Anyway, with all that rambling I think you get the point. Our roles as parents are important and a way to make a child's life better- not your life better by teaching someone to bring you and your friends beer. Kids are not accessories. They are miniature humans waiting for direction from you. Sure it's a lot of pressure but don't give up before it even starts. Also, put some clothes on  :)

Confessions

So I have started this book called “Confessions of a Scary Mommy”. It’s hilarious! It's a woman writing about the topics of motherhood but being brutally honest. She started off with a blog and let people anonymously donate their comments on the subject as well. I’m not even a stay at home mom but I can relate to most of the stories in the book. It makes me sad that I didn’t write a book like this because truth be told- in real life the woman who wrote the book probably was talked about behind her back and her very opinionated views on child raising. But she wrote a book about these views (and it is hilarious!) and now is making millions on it. I am jealous. I have the exact same opinions but all I get is dirty looks and judgment from other moms for actually speaking out loud my views. Oh well. She’s obviously smarter than me- she deserves it J Anyway, it does mention a lot of things that moms don’t want to talk about but are totally true about raising kids. Raising children is not pretty 99.9% yet some moms want to act like it is. So annoying. I used to envy those type of women but now that I know that 100% of those women who pretend to have it together are actually miserable- um, no thanks. I’d rather just be the wife/mother that I am all the time rather than putting on some game face that doesn’t get me anything except false envy. Yes I have yelled at people in the airport security line for rolling their eyes and groaning at me for carrying my child and trying to shove the stroller into the X-ray machine at the same time and taking too long. It is extremely difficult to do by yourself. So I told those people annoyed to either help or keep their comments to themselves. Yes, that was me. I don’t care. People with no children occasionally need to be reminded that they may not understand parenthood but they need to respect it. I could go on and on about every subject in the book.  Bottom line- I agree with her point of view on life. The book is really great and very well written. She’s a very entertaining writer.  I would highly recommend it. At the very least, read the summary of it on her blog- it’ll give you an idea of what it’s about.

http://www.scarymommy.com/confessions-of-a-scary-mommy/

Other than that, life is busy. This pregnancy is miserable. I don’t know if it’s because my mind knows it’s the last one or because it really is miserable. I have had body aches like having the flu for about 4 days straight now. But no other symptons- just the aches. Oh and I get migraines every day. It’s delightful. I’m counting down the days for this one to be over….

Tristan is turning 3 next month and I can hardly believe it. His vocabulary is incredible and he gets smarter every day. Caleb is going to be 1 ½ next month and he’s actually talking now. Not full blown talking but 1 word at a time to express what he needs/wants. The only thing that makes me sad is that he is so shy around new people. He has the greatest personality ever with us- making faces to crack us up, being goofy, etc but when he’s around people that he hasn’t been around at least 20+ times, he stays still and just watches. I wish he would open up more because his personality is just so great and most people don’t get to experience it. L

Oh and I’m pretty sure I have convinced Vincent to stain the concrete downstairs and upstairs in the hallway instead of installing new carpet or wood floors. I really, really, really did not want to pay to get carpet or wood floors because I did not want to waste more money on this house. Then I came across this blog of these people that stained the concrete in their living room and it looks great and it’s a heck of a lot cheaper. For those of you judging the whole concrete thing, it’s not what you think. Check out this website that shows the living room that they did.

http://www.savingwithaplan.com/2011/01/diy-stained-concrete-floors/

We are also trying to get Caleb to sleep in a toddler bed soon. After he accomplishes that we are moving Caleb and Tristan into a room together. I don’t know how that’s going to work out. I will post once it happens because I’m sure it won’t be a smooth transition. J

Table for 5

So for those that haven’t heard…..we’re expecting…..again. This was actually a little bit of a surprise and not exactly when we had planned but these things happen. This actually will be the 3^rd and final child of this family. We have decided that 3 is a great number.

Right now I am 17 weeks along. At 13 weeks we had a sonogram done and the doctor said with “80% certainty” it was a girl. We will have another sonogram done at 19 weeks that confirms if it’s a girl or not. I haven’t really announced officially that we’re having a girl just because it’s not 100% yet.

The pregnancy has been good so far and I haven’t really been sick. But I have been VERY exhausted. I mean, sleeping all the time. Vincent was super worried about this side effect especially with the new job and all. But I have been all about Vitamin B and its natural energy boosting and it seems to help a little bit. The exhaustion has lasted longer than my other pregnancies. I think I am just now getting over it but have had it from the beginning- it’s been a long freaking time of being exhausted. I think Vincent was getting annoyed with me coming home from work and going directly to bed. J

The new job is great. It is definitely going to be tough. Basically, to sum up my job- I write software. For each company that signs up for benefits enrollment through our company, we have to write software specific to their company. Definitely that is “dumbing” it down but that’s what I do in a nutshell. So at this point I am learning JavaScript. I knew a little bit before but this is full-blown writing software programs so it’s intense with a lot of information. I will be a nerd before long J

I thought this job would be awesome but it has exceeded my expectations, for sure! I will be able to work from home whenever I want as soon as I catch on and get experience – about 4-5 months. They are all about the latest and greatest technology (duh!) and providing this to each and every employee. And, most importantly, everyone that works here is smart. It’s such a relief to work with smart people. My brain actually hurts from learning as much as I have been. But I’ll take it any day.

Anyway, it looks like I may be able to blog more than I thought I would. We’ll see. I will honestly try to though J

News

So finally after a very long time of looking, I have found another job! YAY!! I will be working in McKinney as an "Implementation Analyst". The pay increase is huge- over 50% and we couldn't be happier! I will be able to work from home alot and actually use my MBA (and my brain). The job will be super hard and I will be super busy which will definitely be a change from now. But our #1 goal right now is to sell our house. We have decided to save our money and then just WAY undersell the house. All along Vincent's goal was to not lose that much money on it (he is super cheap) but I think I have finally convinced him that it's just not worth hanging onto in order to not lose that much. Plus I'm threatening death if we don't move within the next year  :)

So I start my new job on April 16th and can't wait. It'll be a drive at first until I can work from home or we move. Also, probably won't be blogging. I will try to blog but if I will be as busy as I think I'll be and I have an almost 3 year-old and a 1 1/2 year-old- I doubt my spare time will be spent blogging. I don't even have time for Facebook right now. I try to update photos on there when I can but I definitely don't have time to upload on Facebook and then turn around and upload on a blog. If you're not on Facebook- you should get on there (hint, hint) and look for more photos and updates there :)

Organized Chaos

My goodness! A lot has happened since the last time I wrote.....

First, I graduated with my MBA on December 18- WHOO-HOO!! I am finally done with school. I had planned to have a lot more time available for blogging but our house has been more than a little chaotic recently. Here are some pictures from the graduation.

 (Hat decorated by Lauren Watkins- thanks, Lauren!!!)

Next, my brother, Nate and his wife, Nicole and their son Ethan came into town, right after Christmas. Well, they just had a layover on their way to Florida. Since we hardly see them, we made plans to hang with them at the airport. Here are the pictures from that visit.

 Oh and for Christmas we got pictures with Santa. Caleb ended up being my cranky baby the minute he hit Santa's lap. Look at that lip.....