Archives for June 2007

Four coats of Magnetic Primer later, small magnets are sticking to my wall. My big clip type magnets are not – they slide right to the floor as soon as I try to stick them on. Shucks.

I half wonder, though, if it’s my fault. The stuff (tip for those who may try it) kind of separates in the can – there’s a really thin liquidy layer on top and then a clumpy oopy-goopy black tar-like layer that sinks to the bottom. You’re supposed to mix it really well.

But I’m wondering…

Perhaps I didn’t mix them together well enough.

That could be.

Anyway. Hubby and I debated making the whole wall a communication wall, and painting chalkboard paint over it – so the wall would remain black. But. I’m not feeling it. I’m going to paint it with a normal color, and since I have the most leftover paint from our bedroom, the wall will be light yellow. For now. I may change it later. I may add a chalkboard.

Regardless of what I opt to do, I won’t be doing it today. I feel like I have a cactus in my throat. I was starting to feel off on Saturday night before heading out to a girlfriend’s birthday fiesta. So bad, that I stopped for a nice, cold iced latte on the way (It didn’t help my throat, but it tasted good and kept me from falling asleep at the table at 10 p.m.). Though I had a fabulous time at her shindig, the hours in the smoke-filled bar didn’t quite help. Add to that my lack of sleep (oh, did I mention? Pumpkin’s canine teeth – is that what they’re called? – are coming in… Joy joy joy), well… I’m feeling a little less than stellar today.

So. The wall will stay black today.

So, there’s a black wall in my kitchen right now. And it’s seriously irking me because… I think it might be all for naught.

When we put together the girls’ playroom, we used Rustoleum’s chalkboard paint, and it worked fabulously. I picked up some Magnetic Primer for the kitchen (which in theory is supposed to make my wall magnetic… so I can hang stuff on it, then you paint over it). After two coats, only one magnet will stick, and it sort of slid around and then slid to the floor. I just put a third coat on, and I think I have enough paint in the can for a fourth coat.

After that, if nothing sticks, I’m going to be mad mad mad.

ETA: I think the 3rd coat is helping. My magnet sticks AND stays. The fourth coat oughta do the trick. If anyone else decides to try this, know you’re gonna need a LOT of primer. Lots. And it’s a tiny little can, less than a quart for about $20.

It feels like I am run down and beat down by just day to day stuff and I’m tired of feeling this way. I looked at my calendar the other day and realized that we have something on the books nearly every day, consistently. One weekend is National Guard for Hubby. Monday Stepson has baseball. Tuesday – nada. Wednesday – Stepson has baseball and he’s here for the night. Thursday, Hubby has baseball. Friday, two weekends a month, Stepson is here, plus that is the night Hubby has to go help out my brother, and he grocery shops, and… a long list of stupid errands (Friday is also when Hubby typically has to go play “tech-support” to his parents, who I can’t believe even OWN a computer, let alone have internet access… and that HUBBY is their techie of choice is a laugh – because… let’s face it, Hubby is a genius when it comes to taxes and math and that sort of thing – but technology scares him a bit). Anyway. I digress.

This essentially means that we have one “free” weekend a month, and one night a week without plans.

No longer. From here on, Tuesday is MINE.

Hubby and I have talked about it, and come Tuesdays from here on out, he’s on Dad Duty, and I don’t care if I have to go down to the park to watch the grass grow, I’m going to invest some time in me and recharging my batteries – because I haven’t. I’ve really put myself last on the list. It’s a common complaint of mine – and really, I can only blame me – because if I don’t put myself first, who’s gonna?!

So – I need some Tuesday ideas. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to catch up with some friends sometimes – but that’s not always gonna be possible. I also imagine that once in awhile, Tuesday will be a fantastic night to get a pedicure. Again, that cannot be a weekly thing because while I might be “recharged”, I’ll also be broke.

I’m really looking forward to investing some time in myself and hopefully chilling out a bit. Goodness knows, our calendar is really wearing on me.

The Princess’s preschool teachers have done it again. Not only did they try to totally get one over on us with telling the kids about the stupid gift-giving leprechauns, on Monday, the last day of school, The Princess’s teacher made sure ALL the kids knew about a pool party at the house of one of the kids.

Yeah, I knew about the pool party, but was keeping mum about it. Didn’t really want to go, didn’t want to haul two kids and have to be on guard around the pool (The Princess isn’t scared of water, and with “swimmies” on, can do fine – but she can’t swim yet… and Pumpkin? Ain’t NO WAY I’m getting in a bathing suit to get in a pool with her in front of all the preschool parents. Nope. Not happening. And she would definitely want to be in the pool if the big kids were). It’s only supposed to be about 72 degrees today. Which is a nice temperature… but hardly “pool weather”.

So, the lovely teacher mentioned the party, and The Princess has been counting down to it ever since Monday.

And I still don’t want to go.

Today, when she got dressed, she put on her swimsuit. When I said it wasn’t “swimming weather”, she cried. Loudly.

I have no idea what to do at this point. She really wants to go. I do not (There was also an incident last week with one of her classmates that has since been resolved after I had a little chat with his mother because he is a touchy boy who can’t keep his hands to himself, and to be honest, though we worked it out, I don’t want to be around her or her kid socially right now – on top of ALL the other reasons I don’t want to go).

Edited to Add: Forgot totally that I had a conference call that made attending the party a no-go. The Princess was upset. Said “mommy dumpy” and “mommy’s work is stupid!”. She was quite upset. I get it – I do. Another one of the moms I spoke with said that at school on Monday, ALL THEY DID was talk about the party. Duh. Thanks so much. Anyway – Hubby is taking her out for her free Coldstone ice cream cone right now. So she’s getting fun time with dad… and Pumpkin and I are chilling at home.

Pumpkin is fearless. This is a trait she did not get from me, and a trait I wish would sort of evolve a bit into a healthy curiosity about life that didn’t result in too much injury.

In the past several days, she has tipped over a lawn chair (in front of the same family members who saw her get her head caught in the folding chair around Christmas – which then prompted the, “Can’t trust that kid around chairs, can ya?”). The day after tipping the lawn chair, she fell out of The Princess’s seat at the dining table. The next day, she was standing on my chair (I had JUST told her to sit down, and had turned my back momentarily to finish preparing lunch for the kids) – she was leaning on the chair back, and the whole thing, WHAMMO, fell over.

I have had to take the rocking chair out of her bedroom, as she would climb onto the seat, from the seat to the arm of the chair, stand on the arm of the chair and climb onto the top of her dresser. And you know there’s no easy way down from there (thank goodness she hasn’t yet had to learn that the hard way). I’m actually surprised she hasn’t taken a header out of her crib yet (By the time The Princess was 20 months, two months younger than Pumpkin is now, she was in a toddler bed because of the spectacular swan dive she took out of her crib one night made me so petrified that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep until the crib was G-O-N-E!).

She likes to lean waaaaaaaaay over the arm of the sofa so my heart races at the thought of her falling. Of course, the downer to having a mom in the furniture industry is that when my kids get busted mis-using the furniture they lose their furniture priveliges. Yup. Sit on the arm of my sofa? You’re done on the sofa for the rest of the day. On the floor with ya. Bounce on the seat? You’re done. On the floor with ya.

Pumpkin likes to stack things up in front of the entertainment center to climb to reach things high up. She’ll stand precariously on tiptoe, straining to reach a Dora or Diego DVD that Hubby or I have thought was “too high” for her to get. Seeing the triumphant look on her face when, a-ha, she gets it!

She’s going to give me a heart attack.

I don’t want her to go around, afraid of life (kind of sort of like me – I mean, me, I’m such a worrywart, fraidycat – I don’t want that for her). But a healthy dose of self-preservation might make us both feel a bit better.

For the past several days, I have been doing a mental rain dance hoping the rains would fall and cool down the blistering (okay, it’s only been like 80-some degrees, but, that’s TOO HOT) heat. Par for the course, the rains and storms began in the middle of the night last night. Lovely. A loud booming storm that knocked the power out, shook the house, and woke The Princess. And me. And once I was up, I was up. Hubby and I ran around the house unplugging computers and that type of thing (surge protectors – whatever – you only have to have it fry your computer once before you get paranoid!).

Pumpkin was up oh-so early today before Hubby had to leave for work. Like six a.m. Then The Princess (who was still up at nearly 10 p.m. last night) was up by 6:30. I knew it was not going to be a good day with all of us functioning on less than the needed amount of sleep.

I was not wrong.

To be fair, Pumpkin and The Princess did amuse themselves for a good chunk of time this morning putting pull-ups on their heads and saying, “I’m a Pull-Up Head!” By 10, I was already stir crazy, already ready to jump out of my skin with cabin fever, so I did what any self-respecting mom would do (read: any self-respecting mom who is too tired too coordinate art projects and make playdough from stuff in the pantry): we took a trip to Target. Now, don’t lecture me on driving while tired – because too tired kids in the car means enough whining that there was no way I was going to nod off behind the wheel. Radio Disney wasn’t working today so The Princess was VERY upset at havnig to listen to “that yucky music” that I like. Pumpkin was getting mad at her sandals. The drive felt longer than usual.

Strolling through Target was a quick jaunt – I didn’t need much – graduation cards, birthday cards, peanut butter. I didn’t even do my frivolous impulse shopping (unless you count the pack of gum I bought). I really just needed to be somewhere other than the house.

Pumpkin conked out on the way home and is snoozing. The Princess got an invite to play with her little buddy. Quiet in the house. Except for the thunder starting to rumble outside. I am so hoping the storm doesn’t interrupt naptime – for Pumpkin… or me.

This morning, I turned in the immunization report from the doctor and that was the last bit of info needed to enroll The Princess in kindergarten next fall. I am SO EXCITED for her. She is going to love it, I just know she will. It’s amazing, every phase she enters seems so much cooler than the one before. I have never been the one to mourn these points in her life – watching her grow and change and become this cool kid has been so much fun. To know that we are helping her on this little journey makes it that much better – that she is becoming who she is in part because of some ingrained sense of being she has, and part because of the guidance and love from me and Hubby… well, it’s mind boggling.