I neither agree nor disagree, but this is an interesting article for mommies to read. 

The Tyranny of the 'Sexy Mom'

I admit that I really want to be a "sexy mommy" but I also recognize that there is more to life than how hot I am, or am not.  That's not to say that I'm not working my a$$ off right now to get into shape for my anniversary.  In fact, I'm down almost 13 pounds, but I have at least 10 more to go.

This is me. I admit it.

In case you were wondering, I really am this big of a dork.

(It's so bad, you probably don't even get the joke.)

The ability to identify periods and commas that are italicized or not italicized is a talent that doesn't have much use or appreciation.  If I have to have a nerdy talent, I'd rather be able to calculate large, complex mathmatical equations in my head.

A little hint.

If you're looking for a gift for me, I would love this dress.

If you're not looking for a gift for me, will you please tell my children and my husband that I want this dress???

How are you?

I'm so boring right now. Surely all of you are up to something fun.  Tell me about it, please????

A Balancing Act with a Twist

Last night Chuck and I were sitting in our formal living room chatting while the kids watched The Three Stooges in the den.  Yes, we weren't dying to see the movie the way they were.  George kept coming in and out to talk to us, climb on us, show us stuff, etc.  At one point he climbed up on the arm of the sofa I was sitting on to show me how he could balance.  He put his two feet together and lifted himself into a standing postion holding his arms out to the side to balance himself.  I was right next to him to catch him if he lost his balance, but his arms seemed to keep him upright as exclaimed, "Look at me!  I'm balancing!"  Chuck and I nodded as we watched him and said, "Good job, George!  That's really impressive!"  Then, he slumped his head to the side, still holding out his arms and said, "And this is how Jesus died."  I almost spit out my drink.  Seriously, what makes him think these things?  I mean, yes, he had it completely right, but really???  I wish I could have captured this on my camera, but there wasn't time.

People are crazy.

God bless those affected by the shooting in Colorado.

My thoughts and prayers are with them.

Professional Mother Rant.

So, I read this headline today and immediately popped over to blog about it:

"Marissa Mayer angers moms by declining maternity leave."

PROFESSIONAL MOTHER RANT BEGINNING.

Climbing on soapbox now.

I find it outrageous that any mother would fault this woman for stating her intentions regarding maternity leave and criticizing her for what she plans to do.  I'm actually quite furious.  Here's the deal, Marissa Mayer is six months pregnant, was hired as Yahoo!'s CEO, and has announced that she will only take a few weeks maternity leave and will work through it.  Mothers across the nation are furious.  I don't get it.

This woman is a HUGE executive.  Not just a HUGE executive, but a HUGE CEO.  This is a very, very big deal, not only for her, but for all women, young and old.  She has succeeded in the professional world and we should champion her and all her endeavors.  This is opening doors for our daughter's daughters (to quote Mary Poppins).  Moreover, she was accepted as a CEO of a MAJOR corporation while she was *gasp* six months pregnant.  She was most likely "showing" so she didn't try to pull a fast one on the company that was offering her a job.  Yahoo! execs knew what they were doing. This is huge!  Huge!  Huge!  Good for her!

So, why the backlash because she plans to work during the weeks immediately after delivery of her precious bundle of joy?  Jealousy? Increased expectation on the rest of us? Do mothers fear her child won't be loved and raised well?  Do mothers resent a woman with such lofty career goals?  Or is it really that we don't want to be held to such high standards?

Here's the main quote from the article I read on MSN

TOP TWEETjinkwell

I can see it now: "Marissa Mayer was only on maternity leave for 4 weeks! Why can't you?" Maybe because she's filthy f%$king rich. #smh

Rich really has nothing to do with it.  Sure, she has the money to afford child care at that early age.  It's not secret that most child care facilities won't provide care to infants under six weeks of age which is conveniently the average length of maternity leave afforded by companies across the United States.  However, I would think the impetus to return to work earlier than a person's allowed maternity leave would more likely depend on whether the person is being paid while on maternity leave.  FMLA does not require an employer to pay for the person's leave time, but just to hold the person's spot for 12 weeks.  Thus, some mother's simply can't afford to exercise their rights to a full 12 weeks of maternity leave.  So, quite honestly, if I was not receiving pay for maternity leave, I would, by necessity, have to return to work without taking the whole maternity leave because I'm not "filthy f%$king rich." 

On the other hand, let's assume she is being paid for maternity leave and has declined to take it, which is more likely the situation for Ms. Mayer.  Well then, isn't that her choice?  Perchance she thinks she can't "afford" to take that much maternity leave because she will lose her position as CEO if she does that.  This is what happened to me, but on a much, much, much, much smaller scale.  (I hope I adequately reflected the difference between her situation and mine with that sentence). 

In my case, I planned to have a child around the end of my third year of law school.  Yes, I planned it.  Was it easy?  No.  But it was my choice.  Here, Ms. Mayer may or may not have planned to have a baby, but I doubt that when she and her husband chose to start a family she had anything in mind about becoming the CEO of her current company's major competitor, Yahoo!  It just seems unlikely.  Nonetheless, she chose to take that position, knowing that she was pregnant, and most likely, knowing that this would be a difficult endeavor.  Do I fault her for it?  Hell no.

Back to me, Luke (my first child) was born on a sweet spring Monday evening when I had approximately three weeks left of law school classes and final exams.  I came home from the hospital on Wednesday, I left my newborn at home on Friday and went to school to take a final exam.  I was still on narcotic pain relievers.  I probably shouldn't have taken that test, and in the best of all worlds, I wouldn't have had to do that.  But, it was my choice to have a baby and I knew there would be commitments that would be difficult but necessary to keep after my baby arrived.  I'm not looking for special recognition for meeting those commitments, and neither is she, as far as I can tell.

As I mentioned above, there was not a child care facility that would watch my child during the first six weeks of his life.  My family lives out of town and my husband had/has a full-time job.  Not only did I have to take that exam, I had other classes, papers, and tasks to finish up during those last few weeks, and then right after that, I had to start taking bar prep classes.  What did I do?  I wasn't getting paid.  We couldn't afford a nanny.  And I had to accomplish these tasks in order to get my law degree, pass the bar, and keep the job that had been offered to me starting in the fall of that year.  Quite simply, I couldn't "afford" not to return to my daily work, educational though it may have been.  So, I made some difficult decisions.  My husband took off time at work to help get through the six weeks without child care.  We knew this was a possibility so he tried to save up his time.  He was also given some paternity leave if I remember correctly, but let's not forget that he had a demanding career also, so it wasn't easy to just take off time.  I also got down on my knees and asked my mother, who lives out of town, to come help us out.  Granted, she loves babies, but it wasn't all roses for her with a newborn, a hormonal daughter, a confused son-in-law, and a small house with a yippy dog.  She helped out as much as she could and I tried to give and take with my commitments as well.  I was lucky to have this help.  I won't deny it.  I couldn't have done it otherwise, but even so, it wasn't easy.

By the way, during my maternity leave with my subsequent two children, I continued to be in touch with my job by email and sometimes by going to the office to provide information that no one else could locate regarding certain cases and clients.  I did what I needed to do.  I honored my commitment to my job and my company.

I did it.  She can too.  And, in my opinion, no woman should fault her for what she is planning to do.  Remember, this is just her stated intention at this point.  She doesn't know what is going to happen.  What if her child is sick? What if she's put on bed rest? There are so many possibilities that might change her plans, just as all of us may have to change our own plans and intentions.  Let's give her a break, and support her as she tries to accomplish her goals.  It can only be to our benefit.

If you want to take the full amount of time allowed for maternity leave, then take it.  Go for it.  I definitely won't criticize you for doing so.  In fact, there are medical reasons why you certainly should take off time.  But, don't throw stones at the mothers out there who can't afford, for whatever reason, to enjoy that benefit.

PROFESSIONAL MOTHER RANT CONCLUDED.

Stepping off soapbox now.

What a bore.

I'm a boring lady these days, but I don't mean to be.  Just working, dieting, keeping my life together.  Pretty soon those kids are coming back and I'll be back to normal.

"I need a cat."

So the kids are spending time with Chuck's sister Sarah and her husband Robert and their four kids this week before heading home.  Last night all three of them spent the night with their cousins.  Bless Sarah and Robert for even considering having seven kids in their house at the same time.  While I'm thrilled that they are spending time with that family, because honestly, these are some of the greatest parents ever, I'm very, very worried that I might end up with one of the four kittens that they recently rescued and have living at their house right now. (Talk about a run-on sentence there.)  And I now have proof that I should be worried.  Robert posted this on facebook this morning:

Overheard conversation:


Sarah: Can I help you George?

George: I need a cat.

Sarah: The cats are playing somewhere else right now.

... George: I need a cat.

Sarah: If you go upstairs and lay down one of the cats will come and lay next to you.

George: I need a cat.

(cat streaks down the stairs and heads for parts unknown.)

George: I need a cat. Where's a cat?

Sarah: Just go to sleep and when you wake up there will be a cat.

George (walking back to bed): I need a cat.

Heaven help us if they show up with a cat.  More correctly, heaven help the cat because the dogs will not do well with that.

Jewelry Nuts

I'm a little cheeky about this as if I had anything to do with the success, but I like to brag that I have some friends who started an amazing business called Jewelry Nut Auctions.  Click here to see their website. 

It's a facebook jewelry auction.  Yeah, I'd never heard of such a thing before either, but it's amazing!  I really don't know how I am lucky enough to know such bright, accomplished businesswomen, but I do.  And it is so much fun to have watched their business explode.  And I mean EXPLODE!  They only started this business less than a year ago.  They started out with just local friends like me! *wink, wink*  But soon, they were nation-wide, and today they have over 19,500 people who follow their auctions!!!!  Can you imagine??? 

I have purchased several items from them and I love them.  In fact, I bought something last night - I'm very susceptible after a glass of wine.  But it is so much fun to be engaged in the auction.  I had no idea I would enjoy it so much, especially since I don't wear much jewelry at all.

So, here's how it works.  At 8:00 p.m. CST, they begin posting items of jewelry.  One item at a time on their FB page.  They give you a brief description, the price, and the quantity they have to sell.  Sometimes there are just 5 or sometimes there are Lots.  If you want to buy the item, you post "SOLD" and enter your paypal account email.  The trick is that if there are just five available, you have to be one of the first five to post "SOLD" on FB.  Otherwise, you don't win the auction.  Plus, during the week they give you previews of hot jewelry that will be in the auctions.  It's so much fun!

And here they are!  My sweet, beautiful, entrepreneurial friends, Meredith and Victoria!

Photo by Jill Johnson

You can read more about these two amazing girls and how it all started in the following articles.

360 West July 2012

How they Started

And here's some of the jewelry. 
They are keeping me in style!

I have to admit, they are amazing and I admire them so much!

Precious fun.

Luke: "I miss you , Mom"


Evie: "Me, too. Luke and Evie miss you,Mom."

George is with Papaw at the office.

My baby.

George.  At his cutest.

Late night thoughts.

To be born, to live, to die. 
This is the circle of life:
A journey of love and joy. 

Sounds serious, huh?  Yeah, my mind wanders at night.

Vacation . . . sort of.

Yesterday, I sent my three babies off with Chuck's parents to Arkansas for TWO weeks.  I know the older two will do great and have a wonderful time, but I'm a little concerned about George since it will be his first time to be away from us for this length of time.  I'm also worried about the grandparents, because, let's face it, three's a lot for even me.  So, I lined them up, snapped a picture and sent them off.  We have two loose teeth on the horizon, so we'll see what they look like when the come back.  I hope they cherish this wonderful opportunity to spend alone time with their grandparents.  What a blessing it is to have grandparents that want to spend time with the grandkids.  My mom is the same way.  We are so blessed to have so many people who love and care for our beautiful children.

The house is eerily quiet.  I had no idea what to do with myself yesterday when I got home from work.  I did my workout, made my dinner, sat on the couch, and the dogs and I stared at each other until I finally put a movie in.  For the first day alone, I did not pick up any toys, wash dishes, dress anyone, wipe anyone's bottom, cook dinner for anyone except myself, run the dishwasher, wash or fold clothes, read any children's books, ask anyone to "be quiet" or "stop that" or "brush your teeth", or have to flush a toilet because someone under the age of 9 had forgotten, among other things. 

*sigh*  I miss them already.

Daily Reminder

I try to remind myself of this daily.

Motivated

I have a new goal for making myself look like the woman who married Chucky Love almost 15 years ago.  He is taking me on a trip to this amazing place to celebrate our anniversary.

I'm so excited, but determined to get down several pounds so I can also feel like the woman who married Chucky Love.

I didn't see it coming.

Could someone please explain to me why I am so damn shocked that Katie is divorcing Tom?  I feel like I was blindsided.  I have no idea why I feel anything at all about this couple.  They've annoyed me from the beginning, but for some reason, I really thought they were going to stick.  I have no idea why.  And I have no idea why I'm glued to People.com in order to get my updates.  I'm a little sick in the head.