Clean Me!

The maid comes tomorrow!

I'm so excited. I hate to clean. I'm terrible at it. And finally, finally, someone else gets to do it for me! I knew there was a reason quitting my job, going to grad school, becoming a teacher and going back to work would be awesome! It's finally paying off!

Because look what that poor soul has to contend with:

Slightly appalled that I'm posting this for all to see...

This is our office. Which is right next to the front door for everyone to see. You walk inside and literally can't miss it. And the room doesn't have a door, just a large opening so you can easily view the horror that is inside.

To be fair, it's currently being trashed by all my back-to-school supplies, which will be migrating out of the house and into my classroom sometime next week. (Yes, I head back to school next week. And that's depressing enough for me to stop thinking about it right now.)

But since I've put it on full display, how about my new stash of book boxes (tall, multicolored stack by the windows), courtesy of the Target dollar spot (or rather, the 2.50 spot)? Nice, huh? I can't tell you how many teachers were salivating over these, and how quickly we've bought out the entire stock. These came thanks to my mom, who raided her Target when mine was all out. She had the stock boy go into the back not once but twice to score this haul.Thanks mom!

So I guess I'll be spending this evening pre-cleaning the house so the maid won't be horrified and quit on the spot. And she'll just have to save this room for the next round. And of course, our Hoarders: Buried Alive bonus room will be off limits. And I'll just apologize in advance for the state of the laundry room...

But still, I'm excited. Because one day, I want my house to look like this. Doesn't it make you want to just weep from the sheer beauty of it all? I mean, who is really that organized besides Monica from Friends? And then who actually goes around taking pictures of their organized-ness (again, besides Monica)?

And finally, who can I pay to do this for me?

The Doctor is In

The Doctor is In!

Although her methods are a bit unreliable...

Problems with Comments

Some of you have let me know about the issues you're having trying to post comments... From what I can tell, it's a blogger issue and hopefully they're working on it! (In the meantime, if anyone knows any fixes, feel free and send them my way!) Thanks everyone!

Dinner and a Movie

Make that lunch and Sesame Street.

Ah, the best-laid plans...

The other day I was reading an article from one of my favorite writers about the parenting rules we lay down, only to cave on. Take a look and you'll see why I so quickly related. In it, she speaks (hilariously) about how she and her husband were not going to stoop to the level of using television as a babysitter for their energetic twin boys. And then reality struck. She already put it much better (and wittier) than I'll ever be able to, so suffice to say, ditto.

Obviously, the evidence clearly points to a guilty verdict.

I remember the good old days, when I could watch hours of Say Yes to the Dress while nursing Violet, reasonably confident I wasn't polluting her rapidly forming neurons. We tried a bit of Baby Einstein, but she never seemed that interested, confirming that we could keep watching whatever we pleased without too much of it soaking into her sponge-like brain.

As Violet grew, however, so did her awareness. Now Elmo has struck. She's actually started responding to the show, saying "buh-bye Noo-Null" when Elmo bids farewell to Mr. Noodle (also,  hello two word sentences!). She knows what the remote does, and gets mad if I don't fast-forward through the boring segments to get to her furry red friend. We see a lot of Sesame Street in this house. Perhaps too much.

And then, while staying home with her all summer, teetering on the verge of losing my mind from a combined cocktail of boredom, irritation, and shimmery, heat-induced mirages, I decided it would be a good idea to let her eat lunch in front of the tv.

So sue me.

Actually, it's worked wonders. Ever since her dinnertime meltdown and the ensuing revelation that Violet has decided she is far to grown up and sophisticated to be strapped down in a high chair, all mealtimes have commenced at the kids table. Even when she eats alone. But alone without the boys modeling what to do (at least some of which is putting food into mouth), she is easily distracted. So in a spur of desperation one day, I plopped her in front of Sesame Street while I went to slap my own lunch together.

I'll be darned if that girl didn't clean her plate and ask for more without a single murmur of dissent or displeasure.

So now this is our new routine. And you know what? I don't feel too bad about it. I'm filing it under "you do what you have to, " cross-referenced with "oh well" and "it could be worse". Besides, daycare starts up in a few weeks and there's no tv in there!

So, what's on your "oh, I'll never..." list that you caved on?

What Could Have Been

Lament. Woe. Why me. Sigh.

I could have been famous, ya'll.

I've had two recent brushes with fame that I've neglected to tell you about, but I choose now to share so you all can say you knew me when...

First up, you may have read my recent review of Spoiled. Well, I loved it so much, I also tweeted it. And wouldn't you know it, those sweet Fug Girls retweeted me for all to see!

That's the good news. Now here comes the heartbreaker. First some background. I read Real Simple Magazine. I get their updates in my Facebook feed. They post questions for us readers to answer, some of which are published in each edition. Recently, the question dealt with making dinnertime easier. Well, I have a lot to say on that subject which all boils down to basically, find some fabulous neighbors and start cooking dinner for each other!

Well, Real Simple liked my answer so much, they wanted to publish it in the magazine, plus they asked me all sorts of follow up questions!

Tragically, I never got the message. Maybe it went into my spam folder. Maybe it didn't get priority since I'm not actually "friends" with the writer. There was even a follow up email, which I just found tonight, asking (nay, begging) for a response. The girl even included her personal phone number (ya'll, that never happens!) and email. But alas, the deadline was over a week ago.

Alas. This is me hanging my head in shame. Dismay. Oh to think what could have been. My MIL thinks I should write my own story and send it to them, but let's face it, with school starting (for me) in less than two weeks, I just don't think I have the time. Besides, I don't want to turn into the lame, stalker-ish reader who thinks everyone is really going to find my life fascinating. Obviously if that was the case, I'd have to ton more followers (no offense to any of you here - love you!)

Anyway, just had to share my little brush with fame. Back to my regularly scheduled boring life now.

Back in Style

My friend Jeanette finally had her baby! Okay, this is way old news, she actually had sweet Madeline about a week after her shower, just as we were setting off on our roadtrip. But now that they are home and settling into a routine, I decided to dust off Violet's old bouncy seat and bring it over so it could be put to good use again. Violet loved this thing - it was known to travel from room to room with me, even getting some countertop action (I know they say not to use it anywhere but the floor, but at two months she wasn't going anywhere and I don't know why I'm even bothering to defend myself when I don't feel guilty!) while I was cooking. I was hoping Jeanette would find it just as useful, and besides, it was just sitting around gathering dust in our Hoarders-style bonus room.

Don't worry, I washed it. Just in time for Violet to drool all over it again.

Well! Little did I know how fascinating Violet would find it! First she tried to climb in. Then I explained it was a place for babies to sleep, and she promptly brought her dolls over for a try. She's going to be such a good little mommy one day!

Tucking those babies in just right!

Violet got to meet baby Madeline earlier this week and things went pretty well! We had lots of talks about gentle hands first, and she didn't poke the baby's eye out or try to bite her, so I'm chalking this one up as a success. NOT that we are in any way, shape, or form ready to have another one right now. I'm just saying...

Violet demonstrates what we say when a baby is sleeping: "Shh!"

Water Table

Ya'll getting tired of me talking about water? Yeah, well, I'm getting tired of hearing about wah-duh. So suffer with me, my friends!

Violet got a water table finally! When I was too cheap to buy one, the neighbor stepped in with her old one. Heck yes we will take a hand-me-down that costs zero (save the skyrocketing price of H2O). Especially since I wasn't convinced Violet would do such a great job of playing with it.

Faking interest for the camera.

It's weird (or maybe completely normal)... when it's just her, she seems apathetic at best, even though we all know water is her absolute favorite substance on earth, second only to her 'nack. Still, I can't get her to engage for more than five minutes or so. (Still the hottest, most sweltering, nearest to the actual flames of hell five minutes I spend each day.) But the second one of the little boys shows the slightest bit of interest, suddenly the water table is the hottest commodity in town and Violet is all over that thing. I might have to start paying them to come over and play. Think they accept Oreos as a legal form of currency?

Forget the water table, the neighborhood fountains are where it's at!