Ms. Flake

A few years ago, I used give my friend Shawn a ton of crap for “using her baby as an excuse to flake.” She knew I was kidding just a little. To make matters more complicated, Shawn’s husband was relocated and they moved to Salem.  I’ve missed seeing Shawn (and even Sarah, now a toddler) so much lately. I am feeling horrible for even thinking/saying she used her baby as an excuse. Why? Oh, because I now know what she was going through because I’m now a master flaker – the flakiest roll in the bunch. My son and family are a priority.

Last minute plans, forget about it. Bring my kid to a 7 p.m. event? He goes to bed at 7 p.m. (and he totally is a fuss bucket from 5-7 p.m. I don’t’ want ppl to think I have an unruly child) Happy hour? I have to pick my son up at daycare each day since my husband is now working (which is a good thing) – oh and I can’t bring a kid to a bar!  I’m a maybe for everything.  Sorry folks, this is my life now.

I recently read a blog post that I completely felt could have been written by me and totally hit home.

As much as I love my son (and I wouldn’t change a thing, I love him so much), it is hard to not feel left out. I’m about quit twitter and Facebook for this reason.  My day consists of getting up, going to the gym, getting ready for work, dropping kid at daycare, work, picking kid up from daycare, home, dinner, get kid ready for before, crash. By 8 p.m., I’m fast asleep.  The weekends are spent cleaning, shopping.

Bottomline, the lack of girl time is getting me down. I’m lonely. I feel so uncool (I thought this stopped in high school). I miss going on weekends away. I miss shopping. And I really miss my friend Shawn.

You know what made up for all this feeling down and flakey crap? Walking into daycare yesterday to a little boy who smiled, held his arms up and said “Hi Momma.”

Then I started thinking, want to judge me for being a flake, go ahead. I’d rather be known as an awesome mother who is always there for their kid because that is where my life is right now. I'll save my magazine reading to naptime. I'll take my son to new restaurants with my husband (of course, at 5 p.m.). I'll get a sitter now and then. Sleep is overrated! I can sleep when I'm dead.

Right now, my family is all that matters. (So I'm going to stop feeling left out and just enjoy it because someday, that toddler will be grown-up and well, then I will have time to NOT be a flake).

[caption id="attachment_723" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Ben's bath beard"][/caption]

Fist bump

It's amazing how fast Lil B is picking up on everything we do and say. For example, he mastered high-five, like last year but he's moved onto fist bump! The Republicans in our family will be SO proud!



He also has mastered thank you, please, bath and choo choo. He says a ton of stuff but I usually can't understand it for a couple of days. Yay for milestones.

I'm not gonna review the Wilco show

You read that right. After two weeks of thinking about even mentioning it on my blog, I've decided to let my friend Ethan's words speak for me. Though I can not take credit for getting Ethan into Wilco, I can take credit for persuading him into seeing them live this summer when we went to Jacksonville. I think before that show, Ethan pretty much thought I was full of crap when it came to Wilco. Good thing they put on an amazing show! After that, he was completely hooked.  What I will talk about regarding the show is that it was the best indoor show I've seen (well, only so that isn't saying so much). I will also mention that I walked out of there a little disappointed. Yes, the show rocked but my beloved Spiders (kidsmoke) was not played. BOO! I think my disappointment was mainly that it was a little more laid back than usual? Who knows.

Yes, there was a moment with Pat Sansone - again (you'll remember I saw him on the way to the porta potties at the Jacksonville show. I wished him a good show. He thanked me). As we (Brian, Ethan and I) were leaving the hotel, Brian said "Hey, it's Pat." He was sitting in the bar with a few ladies have a drink. Ethan and I got giddy but my buzzed husband stole the show. As we could not watch, Brian took my ticket from the Bend show and got it signed. Brian then tried to tell us that we were all invited to sit down and have a drink (this was after we got into Arlen). We could have killed him! Of course, Brian was a little buzzed (I later discovered he had taken two bottles from the mini-bar).

Then the show happened.

After the show we got donuts and walked through downtown Portland, kidless. It's a weird feeling being a parent and not having your kid around. We got to sleep in. We had an adult breakfast. We went to IKEA. BORING.

This week Wilco announced they would take the summer off which is fine by me. I was planning a break from them anyway (UNLESS they played Bend or Portland). Gives me a chance to prep for June's U2 show.

So enjoy Wilco opening with "Sunken Treasure" (was hoping for "Wilco" (the song)


and another favorite "Impossible Germany"

The ones I love ...

When I was in the third grade, my dad brought me roses to school on Valentine's Day. I was walking across the street with my class, going to morning mass and he did it in front of my friends. At the time, I was really embarrassed but looking back, it was one of the sweetest moments as a child.

I spent the morning watching the same episode of  "Thomas the Train" twice because that is what my son wanted to do. We also made Daddy a Valentine's card and bought him two bottles of IPA (his favorite).  After daddy got up we went to breakfast. I received many kisses and hugs and little devilish giggles from my little Valentine! Having a kid is pretty awesome!

[caption id="attachment_704" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Hi kitty"][/caption]

Why I love my job ...

As I rule, I generally don't talk about my job but I got to be part of a really cool social media campaign we launched today encouraging Central Oregon to wear red and raise awareness of heart disease in women. I spent all day Friday shooting a video of our employees wearing red and dancing away. It was a lot of fun. My husband and I worked over the weekend to get the video perfect and then this morning launched the Facebook page. (PLEASE BECOME A FAN).



Go Red Central Oregon 2/5 - Bend Memorial Clinic from Brian Hinderberger on Vimeo.

In other exciting news, my husband got a job today. Woo hoo!!! Exciting times.