Don't Sew A Cape Just Yet

So it isn't often I think of myself as Super Mom.  More often than not, I think of myself as the opposite - never patient enough, not giving enough hugs, kisses and encourage, not playing outside enough, not baking enough cookies, etc.  But Friday, my friends...Friday...I felt like Super Mom.  Lori's birthday was Thursday...we went to Chick Fil A.  Friday, we had her birthday party.  I worked from home that day, facilitating 3 separate conference calls and between those calls, I bought balloons and decorations, picked up the food, baked and decorated the cake and wrapped her presents.  We had a small family party at my Mom's that night but it was fun and Lori was thrilled so it was all worth while.  Talk about "having it all."  Some pics.

The feeling of Super Mom was short lived.  Saturday, we met a longtime friend for lunch so that the girls could get reacquainted with her since she'll be picking them up for school this week.  We then went to see Rise of the Guardians.

Pretty good flick by the way.  Anyway, we make it home, stay up late cleaning out some things that needed to be put out in front of my parents house for bulk pick up and head to bed around 9:30.  That's when we realized that Little Bear, Lori's beloved stuffed animal, had been forgotten at the restaurant during lunch.  I called and no one had turned it in.  The poor little thing cried herself to sleep that night.  The next day, I went to the restaurant and still no Little Bear.  I went to Target, where I had bought Little Bear 5 years ago and of course they don't carry him anymore.  So Sunday, after moving all the giant furniture things to my mom's for bulk pick up and running around looking for Little Bear, I asked my daughter if she wanted to go to a store and pick out something new that she could grow to love just as much.  She said no, that she didn't need to and I asked why not and she responded, "Because I'm wishing really hard that Santa finds Little Bear and brings him home.  I know Santa can do it."  O. M. G.  Seriously?  Why couldn't this happen in June where Santa would never enter this little girl's head.  So after much hemming and hawing, I went online and believe I have found a duplicate Little Bear.  I'm going to write her name on the tag just like the original and wrap him up in Christmas paper with a note from Santa saying that he found Little Bear but he was pretty beat up so he cleaned him up, added some stuffing and now he's good as new.  I know this seems desperate and possibly overdone for what it is.  But the poor child refuses to sleep with anything else because she "just knows that Little Bear is coming back."  We're moving and there are going to be enough changes in our house without this added to it.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can pull it off.  Here is a comparison shot...the one the left is obviously our beloved LB and the one on the right is the one I ordered.  I really do think the new one is identical to LB when he was new.  He's also produced by the same store and is the same size.  I'm convinced this is him...what do you think?

Seriously...it was a bit ridiculous.  After Lori finally went to sleep Saturday, I had a full blown emotional breakdown over this stupid tiny bear.  I, a grown woman, sat in the middle of my living room sobbing like a child.  It was like all of the stress of the last couple weeks came bubbling up and just had to get out.

So yesterday was spent hauling stuff to my mom's, doing some laundry and just decompressing.  Today I'm back at work and I'm sick!  I've got a cold...stuffy/runny nose (Seriously...it shouldn't be both), sinus pressure and watery/itchy eyes.  Ugh.  No bueno.

Soooo...what else?  Oh!  We found a house in Jacksonville and the app has been approved.  I just have to sign the lease, scan it and email it back to the prop management people.  Very excited to already have a place lined up!  The AZ Bloggers are having a goodbye lunch for me on the 16th...so nice!  I have a going away dinner with some friends on the 13th and still have to find time for a work happy hour and meet with my BFF before we go.  20 days and counting....

Thanks for letting me get all of this out here today.  I know this blog hasn't been focused much on my weight, health and well being here the last few weeks and honestly, I don't see it returning to that until the New Year but I still appreciate everyone's support and reading along.

A little Monday DEMotivation:

Monday Already?

I swear there just aren't enough hours in the day.  So I had a very busy weekend.  After several lice treatments and hours of combing through the girls' hair and my hair, I think we have taken care of the lice.  We'll do the recommended repeat shampooing next weekend and hopefully that will be the end of it.  So other than treating ourselves for lice, what else did we do?  We cleaned out and organized the office and my bedroom.  For the record, both of these rooms have been woefully neglected the past several months...accruing trash, old bills that needed to be shredded, old law directories that needed to be thrown out, shoe boxes stacking up, etc.  So after Saturday and Sunday, we had this to haul out:

The moving survey people are coming today to figure out how much stuff we have so I had to get a clearer idea of these 2 rooms.  I also washed every piece of clothing (at least it seemed that way) and sheets and towels that we have in our house.  Now I just have A LOT to fold.

On Sunday, we also went and got our haircut (once we were sure we were lice free, of course).  I was only going to get a trim but then got a bug up my butt and chopped it all off.

Maddie with her short bob

Lori wants to grow her hair to her butt (sigh) so we just trimmed the bangs and took off the ends

So now it's back to work for another fun filled week.  Lori is turning 5 on Thursday.  Our tradition is the birthday girl/boy gets to pick dinner...she wants Chick Fil A so there ya go.  I think we're going to do her actual family party on Friday with balloons and cake and she says she wants to see a movie so we may do that on Saturday.  I was going to do an indoor play thing with a couple friends but decided against it.  I may change my mind again.  We'll see.

This week's focus is on not snacking out of stress.  Wish me luck.

Monday DEMotivator:

Thankful...Sorta

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Mine was bittersweet.  There was good...there was not-so-good but I hesitate to say "bad."  So a little rundown:

• Dinner was good.  Despite a few kitchen mishaps (do any of you suffer from bad cooking days?  Where it seems it's harder to cook or more stuff goes wrong than normal?  Well, that was yesterday for me.), the food came out very yummy. 
• I got an early Christmas gift from my BFF...a new personalized phone case with a pic of the girls at Disney.  So cool!  

• As is tradition, I had my first cup of eggnog with my mom to kick off the holiday season.  Mmmm...Me gusta egg nog mucho!

• I really missed Hubby on Thanksgiving.  I found myself a little weepy in the morning, making kids breakfast and loading up the car and stuff.
• I felt really bad for Hubby later when I talked to him and he sounded so down that he spent Thanksgiving alone.  
• He's not going to feel any better, missing Lori's birthday later in the week.  :(
• In the middle of all the hustle and bustle yesterday, I discovered that we all have lice.  My girls and me.  Eeeeewwwww!  So effing gross!  So I got to run to CVS to buy lice treatment for all 3 of us and spent yesterday evening shampooing and combing and all that nasty stuff.
• The lice stuff is something Hubby would usually do for me because he knows how badly I'd be icked out.  I had to suck it up.  
• It was also really difficult to comb through my hair and it's difficult to see what I'm doing.  God I miss him.  I may have to ask my mom to see if it looks like I got everything.  Eeeeewwww again.
• It was a little sad to think this was the last Thanksgiving here in Phoenix.  I'm hoping my parents will make an annual trip out to Jacksonville so we can at least keep that going.
• I was happy that while I did overindulge yesterday that it wasn't a complete derailment.  I skipped breakfast, had Thanksgiving lunch and yes a small slice of each of the pies, the eggnog and that was it.  No dinner as I was too full.  Not bad compared to preband indulgence.

So it was a good day and a challenging day.  I realize how lucky I am that I have my girls and my parents and friends around me right now but missed Hubby something terrible.  It makes me really glad we're going to be together for Christmas.  

Let's lighten the mood with a Friday Funny: