my so-called life

every once in awhile my old

calendar comes back and i actually have

a social life.

not that i don't see people.

it's just normally i have reid on one hip

while trying to make sure brette is playing nicely.

and most play dates involve at least five other kids.

those are fun too, but

a couple nights without the kiddos is surely appreciated.

we bought tickets LAST NOVEMBER

for a dixie chicks concert in august.

then in april, lindsay and i bought tickets

to a vintage market with guest speaker ree drummond.

hello pioneer woman.

i. am. in.

and finally last month i received an invite

to a bridal shower.

once i wrote everything down,

it ended up that these things were all within

four days of each other.

nothing like over-booking yourself.

so friday, i took off work and headed

downtown kansas city to the west bottoms.

this part of town is known for their antiques.

they have taken all the old warehouses and

turned them into huge shops.

it's amazing.

this event, called the vintage whites market,

 actually brought in shops and vendors who

set up booths for a lot of compact shopping.

plus, you were able to venture out to the warehouses as well.

and the best part, they had ree come in as their guest speaker.

linds and i bought the tickets that included the meet and greet,

so ree is now my new best friend.

that's why i call her ree and not the pioneer woman.

best friends do that.

you longtime readers know how 

obsessed i am with her show and her recipes.

it was a fun day and ronnie was able to spend 

some quality time with the girls after work.

sunday afternoon while the girls were napping,

i made my exit once again to go to 

adrienne's bridal shower.

i really wanted to go because we don't work

together anymore and i don't get to see her very often.

she's getting married in florida so we obviously

aren't going to the wedding, so i was happy to 

spend the afternoon with my old work buddies and catch up.

they also had the best "lemonade" ever.

for real, try this recipe.

and then two days later... DIXIE CHICKS!

anyone that knows me, knows i freak out 

over garth brooks and the dixie chicks.

they are my jam.

i was obviously crushed when DCX broke up

and i had never gotten to see them live. 

my college roomie, marge, is just like me.

we. heart. the chicks.

so last november her and i were going crazy,

buying tickets right when they went on sale. 

i've been, for real, counting down the months.

we had the most fun group of girls that all went.

of course, being a sorority girl, we don't do

anything without getting t-shirts made.

i came up with this little number,

and i think it's pretty great.

know the quote?

a little pre-party at dana's and then an uber ride later,

i had my singing voice ready.

i also managed to buy a beer in 

record time during a prince cover that

impressed even me.

i literally ran to the concessions, no line, 

and ran back within a minute.

i didn't want to miss a thing.

i was hoarse, but totally happy by the end of the night.

so the girls have had a few evenings with daddy.

but sometimes, my social life comes a calling and

i just have to answer.

sleeping beauty

i read that when your baby

starts sleeping through the night,

then your big kid will inevitably start

getting up.

just to mess with you.

i laughed.

not brette.

she always sleeps through the night.

always.

sure, now a days she falls asleep in the hallway

but still - s l e e p i n g.

we were battling the whole

"sleep in your bed thing"

but then it turned into 

"why are you in my room at 3am thing?"

not cool.

i can't believe this is happening.

reid took NINE months to sleep through 

the night and now i'm dealing with brette.

i was way too confident in my girls. 

and then i think i made a mistake.

i let her climb in bed with us.

she's never slept with us and honestly,

i never wanted to start that. 

now, almost every night,

she comes in and gets in bed. 

this. is. not. happening.

so here's my plan:

when she comes in my room,

i'll let her get in for 5 minutes.

then 4, then 3, until, eventually, i'll  take her

straight back to bed and

hopefully, she'll just stop coming in altogether.

she might lose her mind for a couple days,

but it will be totally worth it if i can nip this in the bud.

i've also thought about maybe 

buying her a new bed?

maybe she's not comfortable anymore?

i'm not sure.

i was thinking that if i made a big deal out of

new bed then, she would stay in it better.

i could have her help pick out bedding and stuff -

make her feel like a big girl.

i'm not convinced this will work though.

i made a big deal out of taking the 

rail off her crib and all that did was make 

her start sleeping on the floor.

this is literally driving me crazy.

i just want to lay her down,

fall asleep and i'll see her in the morning. 

i've had a couple people tell me that they

lock the kid's door so they have to stay in 

their room, but i'd like to avoid that.

if you have anything brilliant to share,

please send suggestions.

(meanwhile - i put reid down at 7:45 and

i don't see that pretty girl until 7:30 the next morning.

THIS is my goal for both girls.)

ronnie's terrible, awful, no good, very bad night

so ronnie called home yesterday afternoon

to ask if he could go out to dinner with his friend, cale.

i already had dinner going, so 

i nicely suggested he decline the offer.

well, he was a real sour-puss when he got home.

sorry i'm not sorry that you had to have dinner with your family.

get over it.

i had a rough afternoon fighting both kids during nap.

i lost that battle, so the girls were extra needy and whiny 

when ronnie got home.

grumpy husband, crying kids, preparing dinner...

not good.

we managed to get through dinner fairly fast but

ronnie put reid down on the floor without picking up

the dog's water bowl first.

big mistake.

water everywhere.

he hated life. 

i went ahead and took the girls upstairs to get ready for bed.

hello, early bedtime.

i left ronnie downstairs to finish up the kitchen.

i hear something and a loud string of cuss words.

hmmmm.

ronnie had knocked the pitcher of lemonade off the top

shelf of the refrigerator and spilled it everywhere.

start cleaning, ronzo.

oh and don't worry, brette is telling him to watch his mouth from upstairs.

[insert big cheesy smile]

so i head back upstairs.

i shut our bedroom door to maintain the chaos and

to make sure louie doesn't run in there to pee while 

i'm distracted.

yes, that happens.

i go back to get brette's toothbrush and

oh god. our door is locked.

it's a weird door that can be locked but our side

of the knob still turns so it's easy to forget it's locked in the first place.

i had locked it that afternoon when brette was trying to 

get in my room during nap time and i was trying to ignore her

so she'd hopefully just fall asleep in the hallway.

it's also the only door that doesn't have a lock that just pops out.

this lock actually turns and you have to have a key.

(we've never had a key, unless its a house key and those were

sitting on our dresser in our room.)

F me.

i have to yell down to tell ronnie, who is still cleaning up lemonade.

he tried pushing it and pulling it.

he busts out a credit card and then some tools.

nothing is working.

he's losing his mind.

i go ahead and lay reid down for the night and

brette is with ronnie giving good advice:

"this door is a piece of junk. 

daddy, you need to relax.

daddy, you better watch yourself."

(brette has yet to learn that sometimes it's

better to be seen and not heard.)

she also went and got her tool box and insisted

on trying to help.

i wanted to take a picture but i wasn't sure where ronnie 

was going to draw the line.

he finally went and got his saw and just cut the doorknob off.

he also managed to get a quiet dig in by saying he lives with a 

bunch of children.

(don't worry, i made a mental note to "accidentally" 

knee him in bed that night)

so yay, we're able to actually get in our room.

i'm happy.

brette decided she wanted daddy to put her to bed,

so i go get in the shower.

i see ronnie come out of B's room and head back downstairs.

i offer him the shower, but he has to still go clean up the rest of the lemonade.

whoops, i had forgotten about that mess.

maybe i should have done that instead.

oh well.

by the time ronnie gets back upstairs, i'm in bed reading.

he showers and goes to sleep early.

without talking to me.

well, at least until i kneed him a few hours later.

and she's off...

brette started preschool on wednesday.

and don't let this face fool you,

she was not happy.

i would love to say that she had the best day

ever and it was so great,

but, that's not exactly how it went down.

she cried.

a lot.

from the moment i went in her room to get her

dressed for school she started crying.

she stopped for a bit when i turned on cartoons

and i even managed to get her outside for a picture.

once we got to school she clung to me and

would not look or talk to anyone.

when her teacher asked her a question,

she looked at me and said,

"i don't know what's she talking about."

i died.

so i walked around a showed her different places

to play, where her cubby was and where to use the bathroom.

when i finally did go to leave,

she lost it.

i had to get the teacher to come back and 

take her off me so i could actually get out

of the classroom.

at least i managed to escape with no tears.

i didn't want to add to our drama.

its so not the way i wanted her first morning to go.

i thought about her all day, hoping she was loving it.

when i picked her up from school that afternoon her

teacher told me she had a good day,

took a nap and was quiet.

(i was thinking - that ain't my girl)

when asked brette if she liked her school and had a good day - 

she said no.

i asked her if she liked her teacher -

she said, "she's disgusting and has poop on her face."

well great.

luckily, when i took her back on friday,

she walked right in, took a seat and 

didn't cry at all.

AND she got rave reviews from her teacher again.

so i'm thinking she really does like it there.

she just likes to give me a heart attack when possible.

sounds about right.

walks of life

do you want to know what my little stinker did

while i was gone on vacation?

she. started. walking.

without me.

that turd.

before i left, she had to have a

push-toy or she would only take a step,

maybe two, before falling.

then the moment i walk out the door,

she does the same.

i tried to convince my parents to keep 

pushing her down when she would 

start walking, but instead they

counted her steps and sent me taunting

text messages while i was 12 hours away.

i hated life.

of course my kid would pick the 

seven days i'm out of state to start

doing the coolest thing.

of course i would miss it.

of course my parents don't video it.

of course.

but i really am excited.

this makes things so much easier.

she can go outside and play!

she can get her own stuff!

she can occupy herself for so much longer!

now excuse me, i'm off to go buy padding

and a helmet.

i'm pretty sure the next few months are going

to be spent running around trying to keep her from injury.

the black hills

i've stepped away from the computer

to go on a little vacation to south dakota.

(it was not really little. 

we were gone seven freaking days.

light years in mom-time.)

ronnie and i, along with two other couples,

took off last weekend and headed northwest.

(ronnie's best friends and their wives - basically his dream)

it was a really good group.

everyone was so laid back, it

made spending a whole week in a camper seem easy.

such a great way to travel.

it was the world famous bike week at sturgis,

so since the boys are all harley lovers

we loaded the bike and joined the thousands.

it was so much fun and so freaking beautiful.

we actually only spent one day in sturgis because

there is so much else to do and see.

day one was a travel day.

took us 12 hours to make it to camp.

days two and three we parked the camper in the badlands.

we took a super long ride through the national parks,

down needles highway and to mt. rushmore.

my butt was dying.

literally, i almost didn't make it.

but the ride was gorgeous.

i was excited to see mt. rushmore,

we saw a ton of buffalo,

made friends with prairie dogs and

needles highway is awesome on a bike.

the next day we did a shorter ride through 

the badlands (which is gorgeous)

since we had some extra time,

we stopped off at the local biker bar.

and for once, we fit right in.

we even managed to come up with biker names for the boys.

they're so tough.

the next day (day 4) we loaded everything back up

and went a little further north toward sturgis.

we went for an afternoon ride to deadwood.

have you ever heard of that town?

i never had, but the history was cool and if

there was one place i would have moved to during this vacation,

it would have been there.

we got caught in a rain storm so we spent the rest 

of the evening in town and had dinner.

the next day, we finally decided we should probably see sturgis.

it was and wasn't what i was expecting.

sure, there were some trashy people, tons of bikes and

girls in barely any clothes, but for the most part

it reminded me of a state fair.

except all the booths were selling stuff for bikes.

and in between the booths were tents with bikes and

lots of bars.

it was a good time.

we spend the whole day walking around,

shopping, drinking a few beers and looking at 

harley stuff i know nothing about.

the sixth day we wanted to see more of the countryside so 

we headed out to devils tower, then on the

prettiest ride through spearfish canyon and

ended up back in deadwood because we all liked it so much.

(seriously, if you want an amazing harley ride,

go to spearfish canyon or just google the images because its so pretty)

once back in deadwood we actually talked the guys

into getting old time photos.

it was the funniest thing i've done.

i was literally crying-laughing while they were 

lacing me up in my clothes.

the next morning ronnie and i got

up extra early and hit the road.

i was dying to see my girls and 

get back to them.

we stopped to pee and ate in the car,

but we made it back in 11 hours.

i got to spend a couple hours with brette and reid 

before bedtime.

i missed them so much,

but i had a great time.

i want to go on a vacation every month.

seriously.