RTT: Waiting for my brain to return from it's vacation

Well hello Tuesday, let's do some random:

• Tax Season is officially O-V-E-R.  That was a rough one.  First trimester/software conversion/crazy client madness.
• April 16th is a holiday around this office, my body went to the spa, my brain on the other hand went somewhere else - I am waiting for it to come back.  Maybe it went to Europe and can't get a flight home?
• The Man Cub will be two in three weeks - as much as he already acts like a two year old I just can't believe that my baby-child will be two.
• I sent out the invitations for the Man Cub's kid party with the wrong location on it.  Awesome.  I am an idiot.  
• I have decided to stop acting like I have my shit together.  Then people won't expect me to get stuff right.  Right?
• The hubs goes out of town tomorrow, thankfully he will be back on Friday.  Then he leaves for China for some yet to be terminated length of time right after Mother's Day.
• I had 183 blog posts in my reader yesterday.  
• Do you start at the top of your reader and work yourself down?  Start at the bottom?  Read your favorites first?  Favorites last?

Go see Keely (I am too lazy to link that) for the best random available for your Tuesday pleasure.

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RTT: One deadline down, Chinamen & adding crap by hand

• Woot, woot!  March 15th has come and gone.  Four more Saturdays my lovelies and I get my weekends/life/marriage/kid back.
• My husband is muy busy entertaining (going to lunches/dinners etc.) the latest vendor contingent of Chinamen this week so yeah 10-11 hour days AND single parenting.  Sweet.
• Yeah, adding crap by hand because the brokerage statements have no freaking totals - my life.
• Gisele can take a short leap off of a tall bridge.  Google her latest asinine, greater than all other women interview if you want to know what I am talking about.
• I have majorly popped.  Everybody says it happens faster with the second kid but, holy crap!
• Oh, please raise your hand and tell me that you gave your kid the MMR vaccine and EVERYTHING IS OKAY.  I don't know what it is about the vaccine that gives me heebes, but it does.  (Yes, I know that it doesn't contain mercury, I have done my homework and other peoples too.)

Go see Keely for some more random.  There may or may not be puking (psst...there TOTALLY is puking).

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The parasite within.

In my previous post I mentioned "pregnancy migraine medicine."  Yep, I am pregnant with #2.  I have been putting off this announcement to the blogging world because:

1.  It is baby #2 and well, eh.
2.  This 1st trimester has been harder on me than Man Cub's was and I try not to be TOO whiny.
3.  A couple of my favorite bloggers have been trying to get pregnant, and being pregnant myself and trumpeting it on the internet makes me feel a little bit like an ass.  I know, I know. 
4.  It wasn't "facebook official" until last week.

My chiropractor calls pregnancy a "symbiotic parasitical relationship" because, well it is.  So this baby right now is not being called the peanut, the little bean, Cletus the Fetus, etc.  It is the Little Parasite.  

The Little Parasite is almost 13 weeks, and I am very much looking forward to the 2nd trimester.

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Women.

This is a rant.  Quite possibly a pregnancy migraine medicine induced rant, but a rant none the less.  So, if you are not looking for a rant today I suggest you move it along.

Everybody has a right to their opinion. Opinions are, in my mind, much different than what I have seen around the parenting/mommy blogger internet lately. Taking a parenting situation, assessing it for your own beliefs, moral compass, what has worked for you in the past and then adding in what your goal is and then applying a parenting philosophy is how I think most parents operate (or should operate).  This process helps you form an opinion of what works in YOUR life, helps you to make YOUR own choices.  I think from there you can give other people advise based on that experience or express your opinion in way that shows that you are mindful about the topic, you can help other parents find a path.  We all need help navigating this minefield called parenting. 

Here is where I have a problem.  When we, as emotional female creatures, take a situation or someone else's choices and add in our fear, uncertainty or own feelings of inadequacy to a parenting situation and then use that feeling start attacking other women.  Or worse, when we feel attacked by other parents choices.  This post here that elicited a response of working moms to feel attacked by a stay-at-home mom makes me nuts.  That post has no attack in it what so ever.  It is about one mom's choice. 

We as parents make choices everyday.  SAHM vs. Work, Vaccinate vs. Not Vaccinate, Circumcise vs. Not Circumcise, Attachment Parent vs. ?????, Co-sleep vs. Independent Sleep.  I could seriously go on forever.   How does my choice in any way invalidate your choice?  Did you make that choice based on the goal to raise responsible, respectful, contributing members of society?  Perfect.  Me too.  There are many different ways to reach the same goal and I will respect your path if you respect mine.

Many women have this one mommy emotion that they let run their lives...GUILT.  They let guilt make their parenting decisions.  "Oh, well I fell guilty for working so much so I let my kid have everything he/she wants, whines for, etc."  Seriously?  They then read a blog post about a mom and her choice to stay-home with her kids and they feel attacked.  If you feel so guilty about making the CHOICE to work that when a SAHM mom talks about her life you feel attacked you have a serious amount of reassessing to do in your own life.  Oh, and don't say that working is not a choice for you, because it is.

We as parents and moms need to start owning our decisions.  You choose a certain lifestyle, you choose to live where you live, you choose to support your husband who is in school.  Did you get the point?  You choose!

So, stop.  Just stop attacking other parents.  Most importantly stop feeling attacked by your own choices and taking that out on other parents.

That is all.   

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Spin Cycle: Oh, the happiness every other monday

Sprite's Keeper (the first blog I ever read-she was the gateway drug) hosts the Spin Cycle every Friday.  Go see her for more great products, services and fun.

Spin Cycle: "...And I can't live without it!"

The thing I can't live without?  Our wonderful, wonderful cleaning service.   The time and frustration that $98 dollars every two weeks saves us is worth every single penny.  It takes our wonderful team 2-3 hours to do all of the heavy cleaning that would take us an entire weekend.

I am a very detail oriented person.  I could spend an entire afternoon cleaning our master bathroom.  In fact, I have.  Including scrubbing the grout on ALL the tile with a toothbrush just to have the dog come in with his muddy feet the next morning.  Yep, there were tears.  Don't get me stared on the how long it takes me to vacuum the couches.  Yes, the couches need vacuumed, golden retriever hair is pervasive in our house.  Especially on anything Tonka can rub himself on.

The cleaning service has improved my marriage.  We both work, we both clean.  Except well I can be bossy and want things done a certain way.  There were fights over sinks and toilets and kitchens.  No way was I doing all of it by myself though, I am stubborn like that.

Oh, the joy to leave the house for work every other Monday and come home to a clean house.  It's like magic...that we pay for...but still magic.

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Dear So & So...Appropriate Office Attire

Let's do this thing. Go see Kat for more fun.

Dear Co-Tenents,
I fail to see how track suits, shiny adidas "kicks," and terry cloth onesies (in the summer, I kid you not) is appropriate office attire.  I know this is Colorado, but seriously?

Oh, and put some shoes on to go to the bathroom.  I am no germaphobe, but gross.just gross.

Dress for the job you want people,
Co-Tenent in the slacks, heels and sweater set


Dear Doctor's Nurse Line,
Thanks for being LESS helpful than the googles.  Yes, Zyrtec IS a non-drowsy option for the battle of the hives.  Thanks for tell me 8 times that you *think* it might be non-drowsy.

I could do your job in my sleep,
Patient who wasted her time calling you


Dear Man Cub,
You are pure adorable boyness.  When you pick up an item and put it to your ear like a phone and say "Hello Mama" you make my day.

Hello Bubba,
Mama


Dear Readers,
That recipe I made in the crockpot on Tuesday was freakin' delish.  Make it, you won't be sorry.

You are Welcome,
Jamie


Dear Sunday,
Please come quicker, as my only day off during the "the season that shall not be mentioned" you are the light at the end of a VERY long week. 

Move it along,
Tired Employee

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Random Thought Tuesday...Living on the Edge

Ah, the great weekly brain dump. I should sleep well tonight.



Head on over to Keely's House of Zombies for more organized random.

• Now that I used the button for the first time I am actually looking at it in detail, is that a windmill?  Random.
• Why is that those people who grate on you can't sneeze without you rolling your eyes.  "Idiot! Can't you just suck up that sneeze?  Jeez."
• I have hives people.  No idea why I randomly breakout in hives.  This time I have them on my ear lobes.  I have taken one Benadryl and am about to fall asleep at my desk.
• Thanks to Kat for being my first commenter and follower.  You are sweet.
• The BP&N household is living on the edge today.  The crockpot is on at home cooking this recipe without somebody to babysit it or the "crockpot cam" that Nick likes to setup to make sure the house doesn't burn down.  As the son of a insurance salesman this is a BIG deal.  Ride fast, take chances?  Um. No.
• Man Cub has switched from saying/signing "thank you" to saying "welcome," I will take all the polite I can get.

That is all.

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Bitchy.

Bitchy, Stabby, Grumpy.  That is me right now. 

Sleep has been elusive lately.  I am getting quantity but the quality is crap.  No quality sleep makes me one unhappy person.  I have been having crazy, vivid dreams interspersed with coughing baby on the monitor.

Man Cub had a major meltdown last night.  The requisite 20 month old "I have no idea what I want, how I want it or which way is freakin' up" meltdown.  I blame lack of quality daycare naps and the stupid cold/teething/toddler goo that he is currently experiencing.  When he gets like that the only solution is to skip dinner and go straight to bed.  He totally crashed, and then we heave a deep sigh of relief at the lack of crying/whining/"up, hug, up!"  It takes the hubs and I about an hour to recover from the emotional rollercoaster that is the toddler madness.

Oh, and work.  Oh, jeez.  Tax season officially starts next week.  Software conversions = not done.  Server/Virtual Office Conversion = not done.  Not to mention all the "prep" work that needs to be done for the tax season kick off meeting.  That meeting is awesome, we go over the same stuff with mostly the same people.  But, there is always one new person who has no idea what is going on and is NOT.PAYING. ATTENTION! and then I just have to explain it all again.  Did I mention mandatory 55 hour weeks?  Those are fun.

See all roses and puppies today I am.  I am going to go have a chocolate snack now.

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Dear So and So...The First Edition

Love me some Dear So and So....here is my first attempt. Go see Kat for more fun.



Dear All the People I read,

You make my day bearable, thanks much.



Squeezes,

Jamie



Dear Tax Season/New Year,

Seriously?! I am not ready (might never be). Could I get a couple more months to recover from the last year?



PLEASE!,

Jamie



Dear Man Cub,

I get that you are 20 months old (today!) but this whole "no" when you mean "yes" thing is making me C-R-A-Z-Y.



Me: "MC do you want your milk?"

MC: "No."

Me: "Okay, Mama is going to put it away."

MC: "Noooooooooo."

Me: "Do you want it?"

MC: "No."

Me: "I am putting it bye-bye."

MC: "Milk, MILK!, MIIILLLLLLK!"



Dude,

Mama



Dear Snow,

You make the all of the transplants (and some of the locals) freak out and forget how to drive. Could you regulate yourself to the weekend when I don't HAVE to be out with the crazies?



Appreciated,

Jamie



That is all, have a great weekend y'all.

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More Crap on My Plate

"New Blog?  Really?  That is SO two years ago..."  Oh, well I am kind of slow sometimes.  Hopefully this will serve as a place to find clarity, new fun people and some more sanity.  Hum...maybe a nap would work just as well, yes?

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