Me and Nessy vs. Big Box Store Employee

Mr. Fixit recently sent me to town to purchase some bags of cement for a retaining wall we are building. At first I was a little peeved because running to town is an hour and a half round trip. Just driving! Then I cheerily said I'd go if I could only take the baby and leave the older two at home. YIPEE!!!!!

So away I went in Nessy. Nessy is our extended cab, long box, swamp green, GMC diesel. Haha get it? Nessy.
 
I had a quiet trip over the mountain, silence, except for the radio, up the highway and peace, all the way to the nearest big box home improvement store. I park WAY out because, as you can imagine, parking a beast like that can be a little tricky. I then grab Green and head into the store. I place him in the cart, strap him in and go directly to the cement isle. I compare prices, bag sizes and make my decision. I glance around for help since the 80lb bags are the cheapest and see no one. So I grab one of those heavy duty cart things and load it with 8 -80 lb bags. I push the regular cart with Green and pull the now 640lb* heavy duty cart and head to the check out. After I finish the transaction the cashier kindly asks if I need loading assistance. "Sure, I probably better" I chuckle. After all placing cement onto a cart is a bit different than lifting it from said cart into the back of the truck.

I get out to the loading area and the gentlemen that will be assisting me, one 40-50 something and the other late teens, ask me to go get my car and they will load from here. So I strap in the baby and drive Nessy under the awning. I hop out of the truck and the older employee asks, "Your husband lets you drive this truck?" I'm a bit shocked and respond, "Yes Sir! Yes, he does." Of coarse if I was quick on my feet I would have said, "Excuse me, this is MY truck!!!!" Alas, I am not, so I let it go. I was a little offended, however, because I'm a good driver, I work hard around the yard/wannabe farm and although we joke, we share everything, not his and hers. Ok, we do have His and Hers toothbrushes, but I digress.

So I open the tailgate and step back so they can load my purchase. The older employee stops, looks at me and asks "Did you load all this onto the cart by yourself?"
"Yes, I did. I could probably load it in the truck too," ("but that is what YOU are being paid to do" I should have said).
The teenager chuckles and says, "She's not messing around."

How bizarre, but at least the young man had a healthy respect for a strong, capable woman. I know when to step back and let my man be my man. I know how to ask for help to make him feel needed, but I also know that if and when he isn't there... I can manage. I can get the job done and I love that he knows that too and "lets me drive his truck" ;)

*I suspect that 80lb bags of cement don't ACTUALLY weigh 80lbs until mixed but after several search engine queries to get my facts straight, no one knows how much a dry bag of 80 cement actually weighs. So 640 it is for the sake of story telling.

Kings, Pawns and Skunks! Oh MY!

 
We are waiting for Blue at chess club in a local Burger King when Pink says- "Mom!!!! There's a skunk!!!!!"
"Where? I don't see it."
"Over there, it's invisible"
"Oh dear, that's the worst kind"
"It'll be ok, we're old friends"
"Really? How long have you been friends?"
"18 hours" : )
 

Pig du Soleil

 

Pig-tastophy

Me, "Do you see the 15? Point to it please.... What comes after 15?"
Pink, "4?"








Things I love about my three year old....
~Her crazy sense of humor
~Her wild imagination
~Her extensive vocabulary in such a petite little body
~How tough she is dealing with her older brother
~I am biased, but she is a smart whipper snapper and I have to watch that I don't forget she is still a little girl!

Remember when...

Remember those peaceful years of parenting, you know, the ones before kids?

Where you knew exactly what your days would look like. Homemade play dough and finger paints in the sunshine.  Sweet little bubble baths in the evening. Hand crafted gifts for the grandparents. You knew how everyone would sleep and how you would start your kids off with chores at 6 months of age so they would never question that they had to help out or pick up after themselves. You would NEVER allow your 3 year old daughter to go through 17 wardrobe changes in one day. You would NEVER allow television before the recommended two years of age and even then it would be only 2 hours a week. Guns or any other weapons were an OBVIOUS no no. In fact, your son would not be introduced to the knowledge of a fire arm until age 14.

If your children EVER behaved poorly in a store you would leave that full shopping cart in the middle of the isle and walk right out the door, because everyone knows it's just rude to have tantruming children in public. Your children would delight in fruit for dessert and claim that refined sugar was to sweet for their delicate palettes. You would get frequent compliments about how well behaved your children are because you know how to do it.

These days motherhood isn't quite what I thought it would be, but it's giggles and finger smudges on walls. It's bickering and snuggling. It's reading books and picking up toys. It's clutter and first steps. It's questions and more questions. It's incessant talking and animals in the clouds.

I am blessed. I may have been a better mother 10 years ago, but I didn't get muddy hugs and sloppy kisses. I didn't change diapers or nurse a baby to sleep 6 times a night. I didn't yell and be forgiven by a sweet, beautiful child. So while these aren't the peaceful years of parenting, I wouldn't give up this chaos for anything.

After extensive research.....

After an extensive case study that may or may not include people that you know I have come to the conclusion that men and women have vastly different definitions of “doing nothing all day”.

 A woman’s day of ‘nothing’ may include:
* getting up after all the children are bouncing on the bed and/or crying that they’re STARVING
* going to the kitchen and pouring bowls of cereal
* changing a diaper, turning on a movie for the kids while she tosses the bowls into the sink, brushes hair, teeth and puts on yoga pants and a loose T-shirt.
* spends some time checking email, Facebook and favorite blogs (such as this one).
* She then starts to feel guilty about actively rotting her children’s brains so she shuts off the TV and they head outside. She puts the baby in the swing, set up her lounge chair so she can push him and reads a magazine she got three months ago
* the kids start to say their hungry so she goes in to make pb&j’s and serves them with baby carrots, apples and each kid gets a cookie and milk.
*She then rinses the breakfast and lunch dishes, wipes the table and counters, nurses and puts the baby to bed and sits on the couch to read, or crochet or look through curriculum catalogs until the awake children bring her a huge stack of books, so they all snuggle in and read 30,000 books.
*Baby wakes up so she puts away anything he can wreck, such as yarn or books and gets on the computer or reads while the children bicker and play with legos or play dough.
* she starts a load of laundry but forgets to either A. put it in the dryer or B. fold and put it away
*then it’s time to pick up toys, books and clothing scattered around the house and think about supper
* A previously prepared and frozen meal goes in the oven, a salad is prepared and a veggie will be steamed *She then gets on Facebook and checks emails
*They eat supper, she cleans kitchen while the kids are outside with Daddy, picks up the house, does baths, vacuums, bedtime stories, hugs and snuggles, bed for kids, cleans the bathroom from bath time, puts away books, turns on her favorite TV show and crochets with facebook open next to her and thinks “My what a lazy, relaxing day”

A man’s day of ‘nothing’ may include:
*Moving from bed to the couch to watch TV
*Only getting up to use the bathroom and bring food to the couch
* The kids run around like wild people, eating whatever and making a mess.