My Amazing Teenager

I am incredibly grateful for Paige this morning! She really saved our rear-ends. Lately, she's been coming down to our house on Thursday nights since she has to work weekends. When we take her to work on Saturday she goes home afterward since she has to work again on Sunday. Living an hour from James' girls is extremely less than convenient (I can't wait till we move closer this summer), but we've managed to find a way to make it work.

This morning, it was seriously a life saver that she was here. Lena is currently on her choir tour today to all the schools in town and the library. I made sure she showered last night, I blow dried her hair so it would be easier to straighten in the morning, and we laid out her required outfit. Literally as we're getting ready to walk out the door, Lena freezes in her tracks, and tells me "Oh mom! I forgot! I need a lunch today." Most people would think this was obvious, however she's a hot lunch kid. I don't ever make her a lunch really. I just deposit money into her account every payday and then it's one less thing I have to worry about. Well... She won't be at school today for lunch, i.e. she needed a sack lunch. Ummm... SHIT!

 I've mentioned several times before that neither Lena nor myself are exactly morning people and that she's also terribly distracted constantly. We're always rushing out the door at the last possible moment and pulling up to the stop as the bus gets there (or sometimes after the bus gets there and then we rush two more stops up and do a drive-by shove out let her get on with Luke instead). Even with all my preparation the night before, this morning was really no different than the others. There simply was just not time to make her this lunch that she failed to mention to me in the last two weeks. Coincidentally, she had also lost the sheet that came home with all details I would need. Frankly, she's lucky she had pants!

But I'm getting off track here... At that moment, I was faced with either A) being late to work to make this lunch and then drive her into school OR B) I could wake up Paige and ask her to drive Lena into school. Keep in mind folks, were talking about a teenager here, and her ability to sleep is one that I envy and miss greatly. Typically, we don't have her help out with the kids because she does enough of that at her other home (there are 6 kids in total there). We believe in our house she should be the kid and not a co-parent. I did end up waking up Paige though, this was an emergency after all, and thank the freaking gods she was willing and hell, even happy to help me out of this jam.

I kissed both my girls goodbye and dashed out the door. I made it to work with two minutes to spare thanks to Paige. She's one amazing kid and I'm grateful for her always, but especially today!

Mommy's Morning Meltdown

Lena and I parted ways this morning with neither one of us very happy with the other. Today is her school Halloween party. She choose to be an Eskimo Princess this year, so this morning I thought it would be perfect to put her hair in braided pigtails.

I know that she's not particularly fond of pigtails, she's convinced they're too babyish, and she hasn't let me put her hair in them in years! However, I felt that it would fit her costume perfectly. Just once, I wanted her to not argue with me. I figured, it's just for dress up so why so why not right? Boy, was I wrong!

She put up a fuss over the whole thing. Long heavy sighs, rolling eyes, whining, the whole nine yards. Incidentally, this only fueled my determination to do it. I finally got her to hold still long enough to put them in and she looked adorable! Even though she was grumbling the whole time, at least she didn't attempt to tear her hair out.

She's also very anti photos these days as well. This is what I managed to get this morning...

The look on her face is what finally tipped me over the edge. I just wanted one good picture. She may not be overly enthusiastic about it, but my family would be. Her aunts, her grandparents, they would love to see her. This fake, bullshit (excuse my language, but it is) smile, caused me to become completely unglued.

"It's not always about what you want! Sometimes, you have to think about the people who love you and would be excited to see how cute you look. No one is going to make fun of you at school. They match your costume for crying out loud. Do you know how many girls would kill to have hair long enough to do that with?" Yeah, mommy went a little psycho.

She didn't cry, but her face did get really red and she stopped speaking to me. I didn't even get a goodbye when she got onto the bus.

Day 1 Down - 29 To Go

After James left for work at 5am this morning I started 30 Day Shred. Yes, I know I purchased it Friday, but I may have failed to mention that I am a Class A procrastinator at times. Not to mention the fact that I don't particular want people watching me jump around the living room like a spastic Weeble. And believe me, with my glorious lack of flexibility, I certainly looked like one.

It wasn't really that difficult overall. Granted, I didn't listen as she told me I wasn't allowed to stop and do basic things like, oh I dunno BREATHE! I paused her peppy "keeping going, don't stop" and allowed myself a swig of water a couple times. I also have to say that she didn't take into account any women over a size A cup and that there should be warning label advising you that two or maybe even three sport bras must be warn at all times in order to avoid inconvenient things like black eyes or loss of one's nipples.

I'm determined to keep at this and maybe after a week or so I won't be gasping for air like Nemo laying there on the dentist's sink after Darla shook his brains around. I will however be investing in some duct tape for good measure on my way home though.

Lighting Is Everything

This week at Lena's school has a theme for each day to help raise money for Riley's Children's Hospital. They do this every year, which I think is wonderful! I love that they're getting the kids involved and teaching them the importance of helping others. However, it would have been nice if the school had actually sent a note home letting us know about these themes ahead of time.

The last couple mornings around my house have been a mad scramble trying to assemble the appropriate outfit for Lena. Yesterday was sports day so we had to locate her Bears jersey that she got for Christmas. Sorry to say, but the kid ended up going in it unwashed, because she didn't bother to let me know the night before so I could toss it in the laundry. I quickly did a smell and spot check, dressed her up, and sent her on her way. Oops!

This morning she informs me that it's going to Wacky Wednesday. I don't keep a whole lot of insane outfit combinations just laying around (though I suppose she could have worn her Hermione Granger costume if all else failed) but we ended up deciding on a beach theme.

It made perfect sense to both of us that the concept of wearing beach gear in January was about as wacky as you could get right about now. We grabbed her cover up out of the closet and threw on a tank top (figured a bathing suit might grab in all the uncomfortable places if worn too long) and a pair of jeans to keep her little legs warm. I also sprayed her with my Bath & Body Works Passport Tahiti so that she would smell of coconut for good measure.

As an after thought, we recently acquired a massive set of pixie dust glitter that my sister Holly had brought to do art the weekend she spent with us. They had a lovely gold in there that we thought could pass as sun dust in her hair.

I shared the photo below on FB this morning and should have either a) put a disclaimer on it or b) taken a different photo with more light.

Evidently my family thought I was posting some sort of public service announcement, because their comments were asking if Lena had lice! I guess when you're just looking at a thumbnail photo and don't bother to read the caption about putting sun in her hair I could see where you would get this idea. I'll have to make sure to shine a flash light on her head the next time we add glitter.