Category — Family and Friends

As you all know, MK Olsen has agreed to be my stunt double. (All we lack is her signature. And knowledge of my existence.) Upon reading the news, JSmo claimed that she has “always” thought that I look like Michelle Tanner. She even challenged me to post some toddler pictures.

She’s right. I do look like Lil’ Munchkin in some of my toddler pictures. Unfortunately, since the scanner doesn’t work with Leopard, the only ones available for posting are those that have already been featured on the old blog. (Aww, nuts!) I don’t mind putting them up over here, and I will, but I’m not sure how accurate a comparison you can make, since only one is a head-on shot and I’m making a weird face in it.

But I don’t want JSmo starting her own blog just so she can post pics of me on the pot — how rude! — and we do our best to give the fans what they want at For the Record, so . . . You got it, dude!

Pre-toddler, snoozin’ on the Pops

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If you’re only in this for the review of Young@Heart, skip down to the next bold sentence, ’cause I’m about to intro it with some long, rambling history. It’s my blog. I can do it if I want to.

I think it was my junior year of high school when my friend Susie came to me with an idea.

“You know that retirement home? The one they just built on Tamarack? You think you and I could go over there once a week and volunteer?”

At least I think that’s how it went. I really don’t remember. It could’ve been my idea. It could’ve been her youth minister’s. All I know for sure is we were young and fired up about changing the world. We’d talked about it on a regular basis with our regular group of friends:

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Yesterday, Lex wrote about putting the self back into self care. That’s something I’ve kinda been thinking about lately. I wouldn’t say that I’ve been thinking about the word “self care,” and maybe what I’ve been thinking about isn’t even the same as what Lex has been thinking about.

But either way, it’s got me thinking.

In a related post, Lex mentioned the notion of “productive selfishness.” In yesterday’s, he mentioned making sure that what he does for self care actually lines up with what he values, needs, and enjoys, not necessarily what he has heard other people say is the best way to take care of yourself. As I already said on his blog, I like that idea a lot.

If you knew me in my school years, you know I don’t have trouble procrastinating. I mean, I had high standards. I wanted to make A’s, and most of the time, I did, but I was pretty bent on getting those grades my own way: studying during the class before the class with the test; writing 30-page papers the night before; taking the best, messy notes you’ve ever seen; testing my limits (not as in pushing myself); figuring out creative ways to get by with the right grade, etc. I didn’t have any trouble procrastinating with other stuff — like dishes and laundry — either. And, obviously, I’ve spent plenty of time listening to music and watching television.

All that might make you think that I’m great at relaxing, at doing stuff just for me just because I want to. But I’m not. I’m not even very good at doing stuff just for me just because I need to. I process most things through my value system and I have a hard time putting enjoyment and relaxation at the top of my value list.

And I’m really not good at saying, “My needs are just as important as your needs; to do the best job of helping you with yours, I have to make sure I’m taking care of mine too,” and meaning it.

I’ve had a few (hard) occasions to get better at it, and I think I have, but when you add a kid to the mix, everything (or so it seems) gets renegotiated.

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Just so you know, I basically wrote an entire post for you on Friday afternoon. But then Caelyn woke up and Chris decided to quit work early, so I put off the last paragraph and revising, and now the whole thing’s obsolete.

Well, not exactly.

It’s about how Chris and I are watching the Indiana Jones movies in preparation for the 4th installment and how I figured we would be watching Temple of Doom that night. I went on to talk about the quality of Temple of Doom versus the other two and about my viewing history with it. I went off on a tangent about my childhood fascination with hidden rooms and the make-believe games I would play as a preschooler at the mall with my mom, then rounded things off with a list of movies I watched a lot prior to 13.

I’m sure you’d just love to have all that info in its full glory right now, but here’s the thing. I wrote that post prior to watching Temple of Doom again and to make it relevant (and accurate) right now, I’d have to add my thoughts during this viewing and edit out speculative statements. . . .

Let me just give it to you straight: I don’t feel like doing the work.

So instead I (swallowed my inclination to feel too materialistic and) scoured the web for pics of all the stuff I bought yesterday on my Day Off Extravaganza.

Oh, you don’t Twitter? So you have no clue what I’m talking about?

Well, for Mother’s Day, Chris gave me “The Day Off.” Since I’m a full-time mom, that means I spent the day away from the apartment without a kid. Cristin watched Caelyn for the entire afternoon and evening on our anniversary last year. But, otherwise, this was my second time to spend more than 3 consecutive hours “alone” in the last 23 months. (Actually, I wasn’t “alone” on our anniversary! But that was a long babysit.) The last time was the day before Mother’s Day last year, when Chris took Caelyn over to his parents’ house for the day and I went to the bookstore, ate a couple good meals, took a bubble bath and a nap, and caught a movie.

This year Chris decided I should expand my wardrobe too. This was a great gift, considering my wardrobe has become very limited. You see, I’ve lost all “the baby weight” and then some, so none of the (few) clothes I’ve purchased since Caelyn was born fit any more. You might be tempted to think all my pre-baby clothes would fit. Not so fast. I’ve got 2 pairs of jeans, a few skirts, and maybe 1 pair of dress pants that fit pretty well. There are more hanging in my closet, but they’re (as much as I don’t understand it) too big.

But the major problem is lack-of-shirts. I don’t have a single pre-Caelyn shirt that fits (other than 2 sweaters, but in case you didn’t know, it’s gonna be mid-90s this week). Explaining why might make us all feel a little awkward, so I’ll just say that you can lose all the weight you want after a baby, but for a few women, some things that get bigger just stay that way. I’m apparently one of those women. So I’ve got 3 t-shirts that Chris bought for me when he was in Austin a couple months ago, a handful of now-baggy (supposed to be fitted) t-shirts that I bought last summer, 1 shirt to go with black pants for every single dress occasion, and 2 “nicer casual” shirts.

I know what you’re thinking: “Well, at least you’ve still got all your shoes.”

Not a chance. I’m also one of those women whose feet got bigger and stayed that way, so 20 to 30 pairs kicked the bucket last summer. (Yeah, I know I had too many to begin with.) My mom’s feet grew a half size with each kid too. But she went from a 5 to a 6 1/2. Have you seen my feet? Seriously. I’m not just self-deprecating for self-deprecation’s sake. All I’m sayin’ is shoe size really might factor in to how many more children we have.

Anyway, I needed some clothes.

And I got some:

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Okay, okay. I get it. I’m supposed to blog at least every other day. Other people, they can take breaks. But not me. I’ve already shown what’s up my sleeve. You know I can do daily, if I want. I’ve no one to blame but myself. The Record fans have put in their calls, and I’m a woman of the people, for the people, so after a week’s hiatus, here I am.

That’s my big, dramatic way of saying: “This one’s for you, JSmo” . . .

. . . who asked this morning, “What’s up with the no blogging?” To which I responded, “What? I blogged on Thursday, right? I don’t normally do weekends.” And she, being the best sort of fan, quickly pointed out that it wasn’t Thursday at all, but Monday! Jeez. My calendar senses are seriously failing. Last week, I thought the 21st might have been the 3rd. I thought yesterday might have been May 2nd. And now this.

So what’s my excuse? I don’t have one. But if I had to come up with some:

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