Is That a Good Choice or Bad Choice?

I've heard Layla's drop-in day care provider at the Y ask her that more than once. It usually comes about when Layla is about to go down the mini slide head first. When Ms. Lynn asks Layla that question she usually doesn't respond but also does not proceed to slide down head first.

So, I've decided to give the question a try when Layla is about to be naughty. Inevitably her answer to me is "good choice" and she goes on her merry way (unless I try some other equally ineffective method to moderate her behavior.)

Even more annoying, Layla has now taken to throwing the question back in my face. When I turned off the TV at the end of Sesame Street, an action she apparently didn't like, out comes "was that a good choice or a bad choice, mommy?". And worse: when I was abouto to steal a bite of her mac and cheese, she looks me straight in the eye and asks "is that a good choice or bad choice?". It was a bad choice, kid. But it sure tasted good.

A Sign?

Today while I was wholeheartedly embracing the "Happy Housewife" side of me I totally forgot about a CLE that I signed up for (and paid $70 for). It was on a topic I actually care about -- Unauthorized Practice of Law. I can't get my money back and there's no other time for me to view it so I can't get the CLE credit (or learn any useful tidbits) either. I'm totally pissed at myself. It didn't help that at the same time I realized I was screwed with this CLE I also realized I got the banana bread stuck in the pan. So I failed both at being a housewife AND at being a lawyer. Well, I wouldn't say I failed at being a housewife -- the banana bread still tastes pretty darn good.

Anywho, as Carrie Bradshaw would say, I can't help but wonder... if this was a sign. Should I not be trying to balance lawyerdom (which truthfully for me is a bunch of volunteer stuff coupled with the annoyance of having to keep up my state bar license) with being a Mom? It's nice that I have the choice and honestly I love that I have the outlet of the immigration work I'm doing. Maybe it's not a sign that I should quit. Maybe it's just a friendly (and expensive) reminder that my family and home are my priority right now.

Facebook

This person I only sort of know (she was a medical assistant with Eric during his residency -- I think I had margaritas with her once or twice, but I'm not sure), but who I am friends with on Facebook just posted this as her status:

WELCOME TO FACEBOOK The place where people add you as a friend and walk past you in the street. Where relationships are perfect, liars believe they are telling the truth, ...your enemies visit your profile the most, yet your friends & family block you. and even though you write what you are really thinking, someone always takes it the wrong way and people think your status is about them.....repost if you agree

I'm not going to repost, but I have to ashamedly admit I agree. At least with part of it. The first sentence to be exact: "The place where people add you as a friend and walk past you in the street." Yesterday I was driving through Point on my way home. I look over and realize I'm driving next to Trina and Jim. Trina was one of my best friends through junior high and we stayed friends through high school (though admittedly our friendship suffered when she started dating Jim; I wasn't a fan). My first instinct was to yell "Hey" to them via our open window. Then I freaked out and tried to avoid getting stuck at a stop light next to them. I'm such a freak.

Notes to Self

-It may be worth paying the extra $1 for a HALF of watermelon instead of buying the full watermelon for $1 less than the half of watermelon and throwing half of it away.

-Never leave my keys sitting out. Layla will play with them. And put them in her mouth like I do when I am trying to carry too many things in from the car. And set off the car alarm.

I've got nothing.

Seriously. I've had a pretty busy life lately, but I can't think of anything I want to write about. Hopefully posting this stupid little post will break my writers blocks. In the mean time I'll go back to breaking more blocks on Angry Birds.

Eggs

In the past week I've been a bit obsessed with fried eggs. This is b/c I really need to go grocery shopping (another symptom of my sabotaging myself with "distractions" from my previous post). I've also realized that I can by a whole carton of 12 eggs for the prize of one Chobani. Anyway, through this obsession, I've realized that I've never made a fried egg before (at least not that I can remember). It's amazing to me how delicate eggs are -- not just the yolk -- the white part too. But also how durable they are. I haven't managed to all out puncture a yolk yet. Now I just need to figure out the fine line between over easy and over hard...and all the other crazy names for fried egg types!

Easily Distracted (and Discouraged)

I have a problem. There are 54 days until Andrea and Mike's wedding (thanks to Macy's registry for the exact calculation!)and I'm pretty sure my dress doesn't fit. Its a long and complicated story -- the dress is from JCrew, its the biggest size available and I think it's close to fitting. It has a side zipper though. So, if it's tight, it's pretty much impossible to zip up yourself. And I'm too embarrassed to have someone (especially my mom or Eric) help me with it b/c it should fit.

To be honest, that's not the real problem though. The real problem is that I am easily distracted (and, more importantly, discouraged) from the only consistent battle in my life -- controlling my weight. I have been working on my health for the past year. I finally have a good routine at the Y -- one where I need to go at least twice a week or I start feeling down and wish I could exercise. Who knew that could happen?? And I was going good on Weight Watchers until the middle of June.

But life kept getting on the way and I wouldn't concentrate on it enough -- summer is difficult for that. But I think the thing that really stalled me was that stupid HAT score I wrote about last month. It gave me an excuse that what I was doing didn't matter. That coupled with all of the trips, parties and other excuses. But I honestly believe that I would have strategized more to get through the distractions if I wasn't also discouraged.

I really need to get over it and get my ass in gear. I don't have any other option.

New toy

I'm writing thus on my iPad. That is all.

One of these days

A lot of my life apparently centers around the coffee I make myself each morning (or most mornings -- I don't drink it if I'm going to the Y).

This morning I went to make some Starbucks flavor (a special treat I bought myself at the grocery store on Sunday as a pre-birthday treat) and realized I hadn't made coffee in over a week. I came to this realization due to the mold that was growing on the left over coffee on the pot. So I rinsed it out. And I almost didn't even bother to clean the pot with soap! But then I thought better of it and cleaned it.

One of these days maybe I'll actually learn to dump the leftovers on a daily basis to avoid this whole mold thing all together. But I don't think I'm there yet.

Things I am thankful for today...

-That I can finally open the windows after a very humid week and hear the train whistles (oh yeah, and nature too).
-That my swimsuit that I took way too long to wash no longer smells like lake.

I'm sure there will be more, but for now it's the simple things!

Sharing.

I know I'm supposed to teach Layla to share. But I'm not a fan of her stealing my food -- no matter what I'm eating, she wants it.

I'm especially not a fan of sharing my breakfast of chobani and kashi. It is so good. And I can only have a limited amount every day (I don't have enough Weight Watchers points to eat 2 of this concoction every day!).

Like people say -- sometimes its hard to share. No matter how old you are.

The Kitties

This blog is named "Kitties and Kiddies". I've gone into random aspects of my life that didn't make it into the title and mentioned the kiddie (Layla) once or twice, but, as usual, the cats haven't gotten the attention they deserve.

I love my cats. I may be a crazy cat lady, I'm not sure. But I'm not afraid to admit I love them -- just like I love my kid and my husband. They are my family.

In fact, Brooks was my first family other than the one I was born into. We've gone through so many adventures together and he, as much as any human, has always been there for me. I always say he's the most dog-like cat I've ever known -- he's a lap cat (when he needs some loving), doesn't always land on his feet and loves to be outside. He's been forced to adapt as more and more people (and cats) are added to our happy family -- and always manages to do so after a few dirty looks and perhaps a well placed pile of kitty puke.

Prost, the small-head, greasy-back, diabetic, scaredy-cat deutscher will always be my sister's cat. After all, she saved him in Germany. And I actually think it's quite sweet that when she comes to visit and calls his name, he comes running looking for his mom. But now he's my cat too. Especially since I also saved him from the "evil" Panzer and from diabetic coma. With each curve ball life throws at him, he becomes a sweeter, more friendly cat. But he's still the shy kid hanging out in the corner of the room not exactly knowing how to play with the other kids.

Eric and I joke about whether they're "my" cats or "our" cats. They're mine until he needs to do the cat litter or take Prost to the vet. Then they're ours. He loves them though -- just doesn't always like to admit it. They're also Layla's cats -- Prost is protective of her. He almost always sleeps in her room and comes and harrasses us whenever she cries. Brooks is amazingly tolerant of her. Mostly because he loves to be petted. Even if that petting involved a few tugs and slobbery kisses.

Oh yeah, and they're identical.

I never thought I'd spend my Friday night...

riding my bike to Oshkosh Sawdust days so that we could eat real carne asada tacos and enjoy live mexican music...
trying to convince my child that the ponies and camels wouldn't attack her (I wasn't that convinced myself since there was a sign that said "please do not place small children near camel's mouth") and then wasting $3 so we could see some brown skunks, a few walabies and a sleeping monkey in the "small animal tent"...
becoming a human napkin for that same kid after she finished half her strawberry sundae and decided she wanted to "hang" from my knees...
sharing the shower (my third of the day) with the same sticky kid and putting on my p.j.s at approximately 8:17.
but it was fun!

A Thought

I was about to make myself coffee this morning. Then I looked around the kitchen and realized there were a bunch of dishes I needed to wash and put away. I thought to myself "well, I really should take care of those, but if I do I'll get caught up in other chores (God forbid!) and miss out on prime drinking time." Yes, I had that thought about prime drinking time for COFFEE.

I suppose I should get back to the dishes now.

Wonder

The Scene: Eric and I sitting around the fire down by the water right after a massive fish has jumped and scared the crap out of me.

Me: I wonder why fish jump out of the water.

Eric: Probably for the same reason people jump in.

Me: And why is that?

Eric: For fun.

Me: Do fish even understand the concept of fun?

Eric: Sure.

As a side note, I think I say "I wonder" too much.

A good month

Earlier this month I had the deep thought (and subsequent facebook status) that "catching up with old friends is good for the soul." It is all of those old friends that have made what by all accounts should have been a crappy month of June 2011 into one of my best in recent memory. June really has sucked -- started out with a memorial for Mrs. Lineberger, followed by lots of cold and rain, included Uncle Bill's death and marred by lots of weirdness in the ole state of Wisconsin. And I'll remember all that. But mostly I'll remember...
...hanging out at Rocky's with Jim, Laurel, Jeff and Jessica just like we were in high school again
...feeling a little bad about laughing at Mrs. Lineberger's memorial but not being able to help it as Manther and Megan slugged wine out of water cups
...meeting Baby Addie and being proud of one of my best friends starting out her life as a mom
...braving a dinner out with Jess and Kristen when outnumbered by 4 kids under the age of two
...sitting back and enjoying Erin and Pete's loving bickering
...having my first legal discussion in a long time with Pete
...enjoying a quick but quality stop in Point with Mom and Layla (but without Guinness!)
...unexpectedly having two groups of friends to tailgate with before the Kenny Chesney concert
...introducing Eric to country music while enjoying a concert and night by ourselves
...Andrea going out of her way to spend a little time with Eric on his birthday
...Eric and Layla sharing a "prost" at Essen Haus
...finally managing to get together with Beth (with the added bonus of the Inmans) after multiple failed attempts
...surviving (and even enjoying) a surprise weekend with Andy and Linda over Father's Day
...helping other people make memories with their friends at Country USA
...Layla being so excited to hang out with Oma and Opa and the feeling being reciprocated
...looking around at Eric, Rob, Colleen, Pat, Holly, Kevin and Karen joyfully sailing their fins
...Holly, Pat and Teddy randomly inviting themselves to go boating with us this afternoon
Seriously good for the soul.

Disheartening

Today I had my "HAT" assessment for our health insurance. It's this incentive program where if you become more "healthy" from year to year you get discounts on your insurance -- to the tune of $300 per person per year. I was sure I was going to nail this thing. Over the last year I've taken a nutrition class, hired a personal trainer, consistently done group training and joined Weight Watchers. I've lost about 16 pounds, look a lot firmer and feel a lot better about myself. But apparently none of that matters. I got the exact same score on my test as I did last year. Way to encourage people to be healthier, ThedaCare.

Picking up the Pieces

Eric got a new toy last night and didn't clean it up. That's not a critique on him -- both of us do it all the time -- do the fun part of a project and leave the boring cleanup for later. But it's stupid and thoughtless. So when I saw the random packing balls that had floated around the room this morning (or had gotten batted there by the cats) I decided to do something about it. I picked them up. Yay me.

Making Life into a Meaningful Conversation

I hate talking on the phone. I hate the chit-chat, the "catching up" on things I can't remember about myself let alone the person I'm talking to, the small talk. In fact, I don't just hate those things on the phone. I hate them in general. It just doesn't interest me.

Yet, I think I like to talk. To converse with people. To debate and discuss. To give advice. In fact, I can b.s. among the best of them. But that requires me to care about the conversation or the topic. Or at least like the challenge of the conversation.

I've been feeling lately that I'm having way too many figurative "phone calls" in my life and way too few meaningful conversations. Notice the quotes -- I'm definitely not having too many real phone calls. Everybody knows I screen my calls. But I have been taking the easy way out -- not challenging myself to think or act. I need more meaning in how I conduct my life. It's not that I need to change my actual life. I just need to expect more of it. After all, even a phone call can turn into a meaningful conversation.