Mommy.... It's my favorite name

In middle school or junior high everyone wants to be an ‘individual’, but not TOO individualized. And not stand out TOO much from the crowd.   Hopefully for most people you’ve outgrow that, and have grown into the comfort that is, being you, 100% you and proud of the you that YOU are!   I am proud of myself and the obstacles that I have overcome.   I am comfortable and confident in me! I think I gained confidence when I became a mom.   I was truly able to push the silly, unimportant negative things and people out of my mind and focus on what matters to me.   Being a wife, and a mom and the best “me” that I can be. There are days that I feel like I was in high school yesterday.   Days that I do not know how 10 years have passed and I graduated college, got married, bought a house, had TWO kids!   But then there are other days that remind me how far away those insecure adolescent days really are.   We have been having difficult drop offs w...

I knew it would happen…. The day that my boys would gang up to work WITH each other and AGAINST me, I just thought I might have a couple more years. My little dynamic duo has done the whole bit where one of them is awake from 1:00am-2:30am and then will go to sleep only to have the other one up at 2:45am just as I close my eyes to drift off to sleep myself.   They play a little game of ping pong with mommy as I go back and forth from room to room and eventually watch the sun start to rise.   These are also the nights that they both scream “I WANT MOMMY!” when daddy tries to help.   So my husband happily comes in, lies down in bed and says “sorry babe, he wants you.” (I can only imagine him trying to hide his smile as he crawls back into bed.)   So I shove my elbow into my husband back and get up to go console whichever boy is up at the time. I am sure that the ping pong of sleepless night will still happen but the shenanigans they are starting to pull are ...

I grew up with built-in best friends. I grew up with two people that would love me and stand up for me and with me at any given second. I grew up with sisters! It was just the three of us, no brothers. You can imagine how many times people would say to my dad “oh poor Jim, ALL girls???” Honestly I think he loved it.   He wouldn’t have traded what he got for a little boy.   He had four dates wherever he went. All with our coordinating outfits and frilly socks and hair pulled back with matching bows, thanks to mom. We were the family he created and we always knew he was incredibly proud to be our father. I remember hearing people constantly ask my mom “oh, I bet they just fight like cats and dogs, right?” But we didn’t. We had arguments here and there, and it wasn’t always sunny, But 95% of the time we got along. My mom instilled in us that we were sisters and friends and to treat each other kindly, because one day we will see how lucky we are to have a sister and a fr...

  Okay, we live in the Midwest, and I know that snow and cold weather are part of living the Midwest. But seriously Mother Nature? You have been relentless this year! I love a good snow storm, the town blanketed in white, staying in, warm and cozy with my babies.   But mommy also has to work, so when those snowstorms come and I have to take my little people out in the 12” of snow, I don’t find it as beautiful. This morning we got ice, and it just keeps on coming! Driving on ice is scary, driving on ice with your babies in the back it terrifying, driving on ice with your babies in the back and you need new tires desperately, gives me more an anxiety that being at chucky cheese on a crowded weekend afternoon. This morning to go along with the ice, our daycare is closed in observance of Presidents Day…..Mommy’s work is not observing that day and I need to get there. Very thankful to have a sister-in-law who is wonderful with the boys and will watch them today, and she liv...

You know that time when you come home from work; you walk in the door to silence.   Make yourself whatever you want to eat and then plop down on the couch, turn the TV to your favorite show you TiVo’d and relax?   Me either! The hours between 5-8:30pm are kind of like a fuzzy blur every weekday night. I wonder if other mom’s that work outside the home feel this way too, or if I just have some organizational issues. Now I will preface this with, I do have a VERY helpful husband, and it is still crazy in the evenings.   Any single moms out there; you deserve a standing ovation for successful completing the night time routine alone! I get of work at 5ish and with any luck and little traffic I am able to pick the boys up from daycare and be pulling into our driveway in about an hour.   That hour is filled with what seems like 625 traffic lights that all turn red as I approach them. However once I get on the interstate I am smooth sailing. I pull into dayca...

The closest I get to gambling is taking not just one, but TWO little people to the grocery store with me. This may as well be my equivalent to sitting at the Texas hold em’ table where the buy-in is one million dollars.   No matter whether I “win” or “lose” my nerves are shot and my ‘poker face’ is wearing thin. As soon as those automatic sliding glass doors open I think to myself, well “I’m all in”.   My opponents (Jake and Jimmy) hold their cards real close to their chest and never really let me know what their next “play” is going to be.   This not only requires me to have a list of the items I need, but to get these items in as quick of time as possible! Now most of the time both boys are really good, and I make it in an out of the store with everything on my list and my sanity still intact. However on THIS particular day I saw my opponent’s cards well before the game ever started. And I still dared to ‘play.’   My little Jimmy was sick this week...

Yesterday I was supposed to be at work, but because of a snow storm that closed the boy’s daycare, I stayed at home with them and even tried to work from home.   Anyone who works from home WHILE watching their small kids, and isn’t on a boatload of medication, I tip my hat to you! Holy moly! I had a conference call that was scheduled so I made sure that the boys were fed, they each had a drink, Jimmy was changed, the dogs were fed……I was good to go! The boys were happily playing with their train set, which can keep them occupied for hours. So I get out the laptop and I hoped on this phone call. This was only going to last 10-15 minutes.   I just had to finalize some last minute critiquing to a website I am working on.   I no more then said “hello, this is Angie, calling for…” and it's like a bell for Pavlov’s dog with dinner. Both boys were right there trying to climb into my lap. Jake, “I wanna see, I wanna see!” “Who’s that?”   Jimmy, fightin...

Everyone told me when I was pregnant with Jake (our oldest) “just wait your life will never be the same.” Or “I hope you don’t plan on sleeping-in anymore.” Or my favorite “only 18 more years until a relaxing vacation.” All of these were filled with negativity. While I know people were just saying it to be funny, I didn’t find it funny.   Just like I didn’t find it funny when someone would say “Oh My God you’re HUGE! I bet you’re due any day?””…..nope another 10 weeks but thanks for making me feel awesome!” J I think I have written about it before, I loved being pregnant, but I was definitely NOT little. I don’t think either of my boys knew what the ‘fetal position’ was. They were always stretched out and relaxing. By the size of my tummy they could have had lay-z-boys and a full size TVs in there. All the negative, silly, stupid comments flew out the window after Jake was born. I was infatuated with him. I could not get enough of him, his smell, his hair, his perfect little n...