Not Winning Mother of the Year This Year

Monday night, I took Supergirl to Target. On our fairly short list was the movie Clue. (A Halloween recommendation from Malnurtured Snay.) We wandered the entire movie section looking for it. As we wandered, Supergirl was drawn to another movie. Not Hello Kitty, or Barbie, or anything else appropriate for a seven year old girl, oh no. Not my daughter. No, she was drawn to the Snoop Doggy Dogg movie. Yeah, the one with "Pimping" written across his forehead. Which she promptly started sounding out. And turned to me and said, "Mommy, what's this word? Pii, piim, piiimp..." Oh. My. Hell. I had about 3.2 seconds to distract her with, "You don't need to know that word, honey. Look over here!" Meanwhile, I'm thinking, "Seriously, HOW did a simple trip to Target involve the word PIMPING?" and "Rock is so going to kill me if she comes home from Target and her new word is pimping!"

The other night, I had Wildman convinced that he had a tail. We were having some discussion about animals and how animals had tails and people don't. And I said, "Except some people. Like you kids. You both have tails. You got them from me. I have a tail, too. Tails run in my family. They don't run in your daddy's family." Rock snorted at that one. I'm kind of "that person" in my family - I say weird things to see if the kids will believe me. Supergirl is too old, she doesn't believe my wild stuff anymore. Wildman is still a little susceptible, though. We ran around for a while, shouting about having tails. Then, he decided that he didn't really have a tail and that was pretty much the end of it. Just another way I'm trying to warp my kids.

Both Sides Now

Whew. Sorry for disappearing again. Things have been crazy around here. We've had the flu - not swine flu, I don't think, since it was very mild and only lasted a few days. But we passed it around the house, of course, and there's just not much more depressing than seeing sickness work its way through your children and knowing that you're next and there's just nothing you can do about it. But we lived through it, obviously. And Rock and I were locked in a fight for about a week or so and there were days, I swear, in which I didn't know who I liked less, him or me. And I wanted to change my life, my job, my friends, my family, I wanted to tear it all down with a wreaking ball. And I felt so envious of people around me. They were doing so much more than I was! They were going on trips! They were going back to school! And then. I read blogs. And Hot said, I don't know how other people do more than just work and come home and collapse. And Kalisa wrote a post about feeling unsatisfied and about appreciating the life she had. And I started to breathe a little easier. Because it wasn't just me. I wasn't going crazy, my life didn't suck. I hadn't screwed it all up and should scrap it all and start over. (No, I really didn't believe that one, either. But it kinda felt that way a time or two.) But somehow, it started to ease up. Hearing that other people felt the same way from time to time helped. And I don't know what it was and why I felt so unsatisfied. Or why it passed. But I'm so very grateful that it did. Focusing on my life and the things that were going right helped. Because there is a lot going right. Things at work are going well. Of course I can't tell you much, but I've had a few little successes and little successes are always very buoying. I've had a couple days off, too, which always help me get a little more perspective. And this weekend, I'm heading to Charlotte to get together with a couple girls I've been friends with since college, so that will be a good relaxing weekend. I've lost a little more weight, and I'm very nearly down to the next clothing size and that is making me feel great. I have some small goals on that front and I'm hitting them this time instead of just watching the time go by and wishing I was doing something. It makes me feel more in control of my life, and that's a big step.

Yesterday was my birthday and those of you who know me know that I am like a little kid about my birthday; I love it. I had a great weekend. One of my closest friends took me to the movies and we saw The Informant, which was awesome. I finally got The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Here's the whole story on that. I had told Supergirl how much I liked that series and how excited I was about the new book and she didn't get the part about how it wasn't coming out here until next spring, so she REALLY wanted to get me that for my birthday. Well, Rock told me about that so when I found out that it could be ordered from Amazon.uk, we decided to make that happen. So then, of course, I ordered it, but then had to wait until my birthday to "get it" from her. Anyway, I spent about half the day yesterday reading it, have read the first four chapters and I already think it is fantastic.

So, life, crazy old roller coaster that it is, is on a upswing right now. One of my dearest friends just had a baby (two days before my birthday!), and things just keep getting better and better.

Adventures in Shopping

Last Thursday morning, I checked my email and received a invitation to check out Sephora Favorites at Sephora.com. I don't know if these are new or on sale or why they were being brought to my attention, but I clicked on them and on a whim, bought a couple. They're boxed sets of little samples of different types of products (don't worry - I took pictures to help explain). I bought the moisturizer set - it had hope in a jar by philosophy, best skintentions by bliss, one by korres, and several others; a lipstick set; and a pink lipgloss set for Supergirl to play with. Initially, I was worried that the samples would be really tiny - like those little bitty ones they give out in the store. I don't know why I worried about that, but I did. Probably because they were fairly high dollar products for really reasonable prices - all of the boxes were less than $40. I had never shopped on Sephora.com before, but had bought stuff in the store a time or two and liked the atmosphere. My order qualified for free shipping, which as you know always applies to the slowest method of shipping, but I figured, hey, get it to me whenever, Sephora. As I said, I placed the order Thursday morning. Well, it was sitting on my back porch when I got home Friday night. And I live in BFE, North Carlina. Well played, Sephora.com. Well played, indeed. And the boxed sets turned out to be cool as hell. Some of the samples are practically full-sized products! Here is the moisturizer box:

And the samples inside: I started with the Korres moisturizer on the far left, because it is scented with rosewater and it smells divine. I've been using it since Friday night and so far I love it.

The lipstick box:


And the samples inside it. Several of those are nearly full-size! Score!
















As you can tell, I am now a full-fledged Sephora fan.

In the "the Internet is a fabulous place" and "the good you do comes back to you" files, remember when I wanted to send care packages to everyone with copies of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo in them? Well, Alice was one of the people who took me up on my offer. When she posted a picture of the small care package I sent her, one of her friends, Malnurtured Snay, commented that it was a good book, that the sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire, was available in hardcover, and that the third book in the series, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, which won't be published here until next spring, had just that day become available in the UK and he had ordered it from Amazon.uk. SO! I hopped my happy little fingers on over to Amazon.uk and ordered myself a copy of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest. Including shipping, which I was worried was going to be expensive, it was about the same price as walking into a bookstore and buying it brand new in hard cover at full price. And it will arrive next week, just before my birthday! Happy birthday to me, from me.

I also stopped at Wa!-Mart over the weekend and bought tampons and the second Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood book, which, as I observed to Rock, go together in a sick kind of way.

What about you? Any retail therapy lately?