Life With Frenchie

EP & I got a rare Sunday evening alone today. This morning, I took MM to get her hair relaxed and trimmed (the first and last time I tried to put in a relaxer myself, MM had pigtails that were a full 4 inches different in lenght!!!) and on the way her friend called to ask if MM could spend the night. Heck yeah!!!

It was not all playtime after I dropped her off though. Ever since I moved in a year ago, we have had several large items in the garage that we needed to sell. This included a washer and dryer set. Today, I finally got around to putting an ad on Craig’s List for all the stuff. When we went in the garage to take pictures, we were in for quite a surprise.

I am known for hating to do laundry. Actually, I don’t mind sorting, washing, and drying. I do mind folding and putting away! Loads only leave the dryer when I need to use the dryer for another load. Loads only leave the baskets when I run out of room in the dryer and the hampers are full with dirty clothes. I just loathe folding and putting away. Especially the whites! There are thousands of socks to match and fold. How come I buy all the same socks, yet within 2 loads, none of them match anymore?? So, unless EP gets on my case, I have had times where I lived out of my dryer instead of using the perfectly good dresser and closet that I have. :blush:

Today, it became apparent just how much I hate putting away laundry. My washer and dryer have been in the garage for over a year now and when I opened the dryer to take a picture, there was a load of sheets in towels in there! EP had a good laugh at my expense. I must say, I was quite tickled myself. It took quite a while before I could stop laughing long enough to take the pictures!

Oh well, I’m washing that laundry now and it’s time to put it in the dryer…unless something’s already in there.

I’m not such a huge fan of them. But, for the sake of fun, I don them once every few months. Last night was such an occasion.

After a very long day of photographer meetings, once we got home, EP walked the dogs, MM showered, I posted a quick blog (hey, I have my priorities in order!) and we were out the door to go bowling with the Girl Scout troop.

We have 11 girls in our troop and they have worked very hard all year long. Since the year started last October, they have raised quite a bit of money through various troop and council fundraisers, so we decided it was time for some fun. We paid for each of the girls’ shoes and bowling fees. Family and friends were invited to join us and any girl who joined our troop also had their way paid. We ended up with over 30 people last night! And, out of the 3 girls who came as friends, 2 of them are joining the troop, so we’re up to 13 girls!!! Thirteen girls, all ages 10 and 11…..Yes, I am crazy!

As for the bowling, my “skills” leave a lot to be desired. The last time I bowled was when the troop had a bowling day at the end of last year. I was pathetic that time … and that’s being generous! Last night, I got off to a good start. Less than halfway through our game, I was on pace to actually break 100! I know, that’s still a crappy score, but considering I usually don’t get anywhere near 100, this was huge! I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. Despite being in the lead and getting off to a good start, I finished the game at about 85. :hanging head in shame: We were also very slow, so we didn’t even get to finish the second game (we had the lanes for 2 hours).

Poor EP, he was worn out, so he didn’t even bowl. Actually, he didn’t even want to be there, but I guilted him into going. I know it wasn’t very fair, but I just really wanted him to be there with us. In the end, I think he had an alright time - hanging out and talking with the other parents (dads too, not just moms) and making fun of my lack of bowling skills.

At the end of the night, I’d say it was a success. A long, tiring one. But, a success, nonetheless.

Report cards came home today! MM brought home straight A’s! :clap:

She had 1 A and the rest were B’s. We were just as proud of her then, but for her to bring her grades up like that shows a lot of hard work and effort.

Maybe she’ll get smrt enough so she can take my actuarial exams for me!

Oh wow! I can’t believe I forgot about this!! Last weekend, the office had a suite to the Ringling Bros. Circus so a very whiny enthusiastic EP and I packed MM and some friends into the car and headed off to the big city! I guess once you’re an adult, the circus loses most of its appeal and mystery. It has been a few years since I first took MM to the circus so the theme has changed. This year it was a theme that really hit home - something about being all about me! Anyways, the show was mildly amusing as the main clown was always causing the ringmaster grief. There was the usual parade of performers doing crazy things like hanging from extra-long scarves and twirling all about, the bottom of the circus totem pole circus performers — the dog trainers (what are they doing in a circus anyways??? they should be on Animal Planet), and the lady with the horses (really, does it take talent to get the horses to follow one another around an enclosed circle?).

There were still a few things that entertained me. For instance, the guys on the motorcycles in the metal ball. WOW! That just really amazes me. At one point, there were 7 motorcycles in there. I was literally covering my eyes with my hands and watching from between my fingers. When the motorcycles were stopping, it was so precise that they had to pick up their bikes and inch as close as possible to the other stopped bikes in the sphere. How do you even practice stuff like this? I mean, isn’t practice usually where you make your mistakes and learn and adjust? So how do you make a mistake when you have 7 motorcycles zipping around a, relatively, tiny sphere?

There were also the trapeze artists. Has the net gotten higher? Or the trapeze lower? It just doesn’t seem as huge as it did when I was younger. Granted, I was smaller (not much, but enough) then so things seemed so much bigger back then. Still, I feel like the trapeze used to be so much higher back then. Also, they didn’t do the usual taking away of the net. What’s up with that? I guess they figured traumatizing thousands of young kids, and several adults, when the circus performer goes splat is not so exciting. Just a thought.

By this point,  I was suffering from a terminal case of boredom! But, of course, we had to wait for the elephants! It’s pretty amazing how these giants can seem so gentle and “cute” when doing their thing in the circus. They paraded around, laid on their sides, climbed over each other, sat on each other, and walked in circles (why is it that elephants walking in circles is more entertaining than horses doing the same??). Nevertheless, I was glad it signaled the end of the show. I also don’t remember the circus being so incredibly long. I guess when you’re young and overly excited about things, time flies by. But when you’re *gulp* old and bored, things tend to drag on forever!

I guess my childhood is really over. I think this was the last year that I will see the circus.

I just realize that since my blog has had some “issues” in the past 24 hours, the information about my newest blog is no longer up here. I have set up a separate blog just for my wedding planning. So, now, you can keep up with all that craziness over at www.weddingplanningwithfrenchie.com. I hope you enjoy it!

…and I’m gonna get married!

Yes boys & girls, you read that right. I got engaged this morning! No date yet. EP says sometime in 2020! I can guarantee it will be long before then! We have to go tomorrow to try and find a band cause he just bought the solitaire and standard ring. He said I could choose a different band if I wanted. The one I have now is close to falling off. It just twirls around my finger on its own. Guess I’ll have a new section coming soon - Wedding Planning with Frenchie! Any and all suggestions and resources for planning are more than welcome!

Oh, and I’ll fill you in on Christmas later. For now, back to time with the family. :-)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Seriously, I can feel that invisible someone standing over me with a drill to my skull! They are trying to drill down, through my skull, and out my nasal passage. That’s exactly how it feels! I am pretty sure I know the cause of the headache - stress!

I have been going crazy trying to get Mommy’s Christmas present. I wasn’t sure what to get her, but once I figured out what the perfect gift would be, I had to find one in my budget and get it to her. Unfortunately, the finding didn’t happen until this morning around 7:30 AM. She was kind enough to say she didn’t need to have her gift in her possession by Christmas Day, but I still had to face the UPS store this afternoon. It wasn’t as bad as I thought though, so the last long distance present has been sent and as an added bonus, I found the perfect card for someone!

Tonight, I have my jewelry party…finally. EP has been awesome in getting the house put back together over the past two days. He finished the painting and cleaned up a whole bunch. I helped some with the furniture moving and putting books back on the bookshelf and weeding out the trash last night, but there was still work to be done today in the kitchen, so EP came through bigtime by volunteering to clean up the kitchen for me today so I didn’t have to do it last night. All that’s left is stopping by the store to get a veggie tray and then making to the house on time! Wish me luck!!

On a sadder note, EPs grandfather passed away today. He has been sick for a while and this was expected, but it is still sad. I only got the chance to meet him twice but he was such a wonderful person, even if he was not the same person that EP grew up knowing. I feel so badly for his family during this time and I wish there were more I could do, but I just don’t know what to do. We’re not going over there right away. EP has decided that we will wait until the funeral to make the trip, so we will be heading to the other coast in the next few days to be with his family.

So, I’ve mentioned that I’m a Girl Scout leader and I’ve made mention of some of the various activities that I have participated in with MM and the troop, but I’ve yet to really talk about my Girl Scout experience. To be honest, I’ve been avoiding it. That means that this post is going to be a Girl Scout potluck of sorts. It’s just going to have random stuff in it to try and catch y’all up and, once again, get you inside my head.

I’ve been MM’s Girl Scout leader for the past 3+ years. I started when we were in CT and she was in first grade. It was somewhat by default because I had been trying to get MM into Girl Scouts since she was old enough to be a Daisy but there was always a lack of leaders and then we moved a couple of times. Finally, in CT, I was put in touch with a very wonderful woman who’d been a part of Girl Scouting for years and she helped me get started as a leader. Really, she was the leader of the Brownie troop, but she was only doing it because the original leader had left and she already had two older troops of her own. Together with another mother, I helped take over the troop. I really enjoyed being a leader and working with the girls. I did run into a slight bump when my co-leader did not fully understand what it meant for me to take actuarial exams and that studying took a lot of time! Shortly after that, MM and I moved to Florida and I was actually looking forward to not being a leader because of how much time it took. Being a single mom and taking actuarial exams, I had little free time as it was. Well, all my plans that I made for all the free time I was going to have went right out the window as soon as I realized there were not an abundance of leaders in the Sunshine state. I was somewhat reluctant to take on the responsibility of having a troop again and even more reluctant of co-leading for fear of having another co-leader who did not understand my other responsibilities. I was extremely lucky to find a co-leader who was just as busy as was and was extremely understanding about my career and what went along with it. We started our first year in the middle of the Girl Scouting year and only had 5 girls. At the beginning of the next year, when MM was going into 3rd grade, we lost one girl and two others were only part-time because of other activities. But, as the year progressed, we began to grow.

Going into this year, I was so excited to get going again. We were going to lose another girl, but we had picked up others along the way and had prospects of more girls joining. Our girls were growing right before our eyes and we were finally getting the hang of this leader “thing”! As the year has progressed, I am sad to say, my excitement has quickly faded. We have 11 10-year-old girls in our troop! OY! Yes, I am crazy! This must be some of the most difficult years for girls and we have 11 of them! I have had to deal with attitude, disrespect, Queen B’s, you name it! And, honestly, I’m just not up to it at this point. I have already told my two co-leaders (our awesome cookie mom signed up to help us co-lead) that this year will be my last year as an official leader. I will stick around to help out as a volunteer parent, but I can not stay on and be disrespected in the way I have been by the girls this year. I understand that this has a lot to do with the age that they are and the point they’re at in their lives, but that doesn’t mean I am any more capable of putting up with it. Who knows what will happen in a year or two. Maybe I will be ready to come back, but as of now, my life is overflowing with things, and this is going to be the first to go. Some of you may be thinking “Man, what a cold-hearted wench.” So be it. But I no longer look forward to going to the meetings. I actually dread it. And until I get back to the point where I can honestly say  I want to be at the meetings, I think it’s time for me to take a break - for the sake of my sanity and health, and for the sake of the girls. They deserve to have a leader that is fully involved and if I can only half-heartedly participate, it’s best I don’t participate at all.

That being said, I still have half a year to go and the next thing we have coming up is something I still look forward to - GIRL SCOUT COOKIES! I’m actually excited about this because MM has very lofty goals for her sales this year. She wants to sell 1700 boxes of cookies so she can earn a week at Girl Scout camp. Yeah, crazy, I know…but whoever said I was sane?!?

Oh, poochie wants out….I’ll have to finish this later.

What a busy weekend!

I think I already mentioned this, but I’m having a jewelry party this week. Because of this, I convinced EP that we needed to go ahead and get the front hall and living room painted. We decided a few months back that we were going to eventually have the whole house painted. As of Friday, we had only gotten as far as our bathroom! Neither one of us ever seemed to have enough time, or motivation, to get more painting done. We went last week and picked out a color which was an adventure in and of itself. The way our house is set up, it’s like one long continuous wall from the front door. Even though there are doorways along the wall, there’s no clear division of the wall between the entrance and the living room. We decided to go with one color the entire way but to use a different color for the kitchen/dining area. There’s not much of a division there, either, but enough of one that we could work out a way to end one color and start a new one.

When I got home from work Friday, EP had already painted the hall area with one coat. By the end of the night, we got the second coat finished and the first wall of the living room also got its two coats. We then decided to do the “back” wall of the living room in a different color to kind of add a twist to the scheme. As of this morning, we still have the back wall to do! Our house has a few “soft” corners which are more rounded than 90-degree angles. Have you ever painted those? What a PITA!!! Now’s the time to have my brother, who owns a painting business, come for a visit. LOL We also, once again, confirmed exactly how poorly constructed Inland Homes are! When painting over the archway to our bedroom, the paper covering the drywall kept coming off with the paint roller! How frustrating!

By 6:30 Saturday evening, we had only progressed one wall further from where we were Friday evening. Poor EP started on it early Saturday morning while MM and I were marching in the Christmas parade with our Girl Scout troop. I am of limited utility since my height prevents me from painting much higher than eye level for the majority of the population.

On top of all the painting, both the adults and the child had parties to attend Saturday evening. There was also shopping for a birthday present, shopping for charity, participation in the town Christmas Parade, cleaning, dinner out with the visiting comedian, and a stealth move by moi when I bought MM’s Nintendo DS while at Target with her shopping for the birthday gift! As far as she knows, I bought a gift for EP and I wouldn’t let her see it because she has a big mouth! LOL

Well, at the latest, our walls will be painted and the house back in order Wednesday night. I know…that’s 3 more days, but both EP and I have packed schedules until then. So, for now, I will continue to navigate around the bookshelf that’s parked in front of my bedroom closet and hope and pray that doggie doesn’t get a craving for any of the actuarial texts piled on the floor around the house.

I can’t believe there are only 11 days left until Christmas! I haven’t even opened the Christmas cards, much less signed and mailed them! Also, for some crazy reason, I’m hosting a jewelry party at my house next week, so EP and I are going to be painting like mad folk over the weekend to get that done in time. Hmm…what else can I add to this crazy schedule? Oh yeah, let’s count them off:

1. Christmas parade with Girl Scout troop
2. Birthday party for MM to attend (which means shopping for card and gift)
3. Neighbor’s Christmas party to attend
4. EP’s comedian friend is in town performing this weekend, so dinner and show with him
5. Girl Scout Cookie meeting (YAY! Almost cookie time!!!)
6. Jewelry party
7. Painting
8. Finish Christmas shopping (must get away from EP to buy the last of his gifts)
9. Send Christmas cards
10. Finish client project (not very Christmas-y but, alas, it must be done *le sigh*)

I’m sure there’s tons of things I haven’t covered, but I still feel swamped.

But, it is Christmas time and I LOVE this time of year! We got the tree up this week and it’s gorgeous. We normally go to Home Depot for their trees because their prices are great! Imagine our surprise when we couldn’t find any HD trees this year! We first went to the relatively new HD by the house. There wasn’t even a tent up. We gave them the benefit of the doubt that the store was still new so they weren’t doing it this year. We then drove to the other HD we normally shop at. They had a tent - an empty tent! I talked to my friend who works there and she said that corporate office orders the trees and only ordered 1 shipment for the store! WTF?!?! We ended up going to one of those random lots where the trees are crazy expensive. Our tree was about $20 more than normal. But, I must say, it’s GORGEOUS! I LOVE our tree!

Christmas presents that I’ve ordered have also started arriving. Of course, I’m going to put off wrapping until the last minute. I mean, hey, my life wouldn’t be complete if I actually did things in advance!

So, to close this randomness, I have to figure out how to answer the whole “Is Santa real?” question for MM. Last night was her school’s Winter Wonderland. As a part of the festivities, they had Santa & Mrs. Clause there for pictures. I reminded MM that she had yet to give me her letter to Santa and she started to tell me that some of her friends told her Santa’s not real. I asked her what she thought and she said that she believes Santa is dead and it’s his brothers and sons that do the work for him! Part of me laughs at that, the other part of me wants to say “He’s not real! It’s me & EP that are buying the presents!” I distracted her long enough with my questions that she forgot that I had yet to answer her question about whether Santa existed, but I’m not sure how long I can stall! Any suggestions?