Very Important, Grown Up Things.

I do loads of very important, grown up things.

I make lunches every weekday morning and sometimes I even remember to tuck a note inside.  I tell two little people that I helped make and carried inside my very own body, to clean their room.  I am the one that Tate comes running to when she needs bumps and bruises kissed or to just give a cuddle when she’s upset about something in her two year old little world. 

Plus, I have retirement accounts.  Like actual money, not game of Life money, saved in an account for when I am old, which incidentally is not as far away as I’d like to imagine.  Grown ups totally have retirement accounts.

My name is on a mortgage.  For a house.  And while it is tiny, it isn’t doll sized.

And someone calls me Mom and another someone calls me “Mama, um Mi—chelle.”  Another person calls me his wife when making introductions to his work colleagues.  And the children get fed and the animals get fed and I even keep plants alive.  Mostly. 

These are all terribly grown up things and I do them.  I do them every single day. 

But last night.

Last night, I ran downstairs to throw a load of laundry in so Finn had clean uniforms for tomorrow morning.  I am very much winning the land of grown up things, but I apparently haven’t mastered the land of last minute doing of things. 

And I grabbed this stain stick thingy that someone gave me a sample of and has been sitting on my laundry table for like a year probably.  I grab the thing and I pull the white shirt out of the hamper because Finn mysteriously came home with an inexplicable giant blue dot right there in the center of his white shirt yesterday.

Where do these things come from?

I start scrubbing with the stain stick thingy and the blue dot starts to fade and right there, bam!  Smack in the face, it was that.  I’m not sure why it was that, but it was the thing.  THE thing. 

You know who gets stains out of clothes? 

Grown ups, that’s who.  And I’m one of them.

Shit.

Cedar Point HalloWeekends For Families.

Cedar Point invited us to spend the day with them at the HalloWeekends opening weekend.  {Disclosure: Cedar Point provided the tickets + parking for this event, all of the fun having, travel costs, smiles and opinions are our own.}  The cooler weather, shorter lines, fun Halloween décor, and all kinds of spooky entertainment make fall my absolute favorite time of year to visit the park.

If you’re taking small children, I highly recommend going on Saturday when you’ll find all of the children’s areas and Trick or Treat with the Dinosaurs open.  We intended on going during the day and leaving the park when it got dark as the spooky haunted houses and scare zones were open, but we stayed way past bedtime.  We spent the earlier part of the day toward the back of the park and moved up front to Planet Snoopy, the Ferris Wheel, Antique Cars, Ocean Motion, and the Sky Ride after dark.  Cedar Point has done an excellent job of having loads of options for families.

Dave and I are going to try to sneak back without the kids on a Friday night to experience all of the haunted houses, scare zones, and Gate Keeper!  The scary areas looked really fantastic this year.  They are open every weekend through October. 

 

 

Our favorite addition for kids this year is Trick or Treat with the Dinosaurs.  There were trick or treat stations set up throughout Dinosaurs Alive and some of the dinosaurs were dressed in silly costumes.  I want to high-five the Cedar Point genius in charge of this idea, everything was brilliant.  I absolutely LOVED that in addition to a few candy treats handed out by the costumed staff, they also gave out apples and mini pumpkins, Halloween cups, and little toys.  At the end, they also had hay bales and pumpkins and scarecrows set up so you could take fall photos… even if your children are punks who are WAY more interested in watching the animatronic T-Rex family and looking at mini pumpkins than smiling adorably for their mother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I leave you with Finn’s interpretation of being ‘scared’ of the gargoyle looming in the background.

Are You Friends With Your Ex?

All my exes live in Texas.  Or down the street.  Whatever.  Today, we’re chatting about exes.

Specifically, do you think you can you be friends with someone you’ve had a relationship with in the past? Someone you dated casually?  Someone you loved? Someone you had a crush on?  Someone you were married to?

And how does your spouse feel about it?

I am always intrigued with how other relationships work.  Exes can be such a touchy subject.  Jealousy can be problematic.  Mentally not being over someone can be problematic.  Comparisons can be problematic.  And sometimes, as is the case for many people, being friends with your ex isn’t problematic at all. 

Does it matter if the person is happily married to someone else or if the person is single?  Does it matter how much your spouse trusts your ex?  Does it matter how well your spouse knows your ex?  Maybe they’re even friends?  Is someone you dated for a month in college before you decided you’d be better off as friends less of an issue than someone you dated for five years?  Maybe anyone in the ex category is an automatic veto?

And does it matter to what degree you’re friends with your ex?  Facebook friends?  Hang out in person friends?  Is there a line drawn in the sand somewhere that relegates all exes to a cordial nod at the grocery store?  What if you and your ex have a lot of mutual friends and run into each other often?  What if you have a child with your ex?

Neither Dave nor I were married or had kids before, but we both dated other people, some seriously.  I am friends with some of my exes.  Dave, not so much.  He is friends with some of his old crushes, but no one he’d say he was very serious about.

Double standard?  Probably.

We never really had a big conversation about it while we were dating.  We were friends for months before and he knew that I had ex-boyfriends who were friends, but was never bothered by it.  At that time, he was only friends with one of his exes.  When we were dating, she ended up crossing a whole host of boundaries that he wasn’t comfortable with {honestly, I wasn’t either} and aside from being nice and saying hello if he runs into her, maintains no contact.  Not even Facebook.  Which?  More than OK with me.

For what it’s worth, there is only one person from my past I thought he might not be cool with.  So even though he’s never asked me not to, I don’t maintain any contact.  When I discussed the topic of this post with him, I asked  Dave if that was really the case and he confirmed that he feels better that we aren’t.  So I’m good with my decision.

Some of our couple friends have a zero ex policy and some don’t care at all.  Are you friends with your exes? Is your partner? Did you have a discussion about it? 

It’s Fall. Speaking of Fall And Bad Luck…

It was 97 degrees on Tuesday.  We set a record.  For the RECORD, I want them note that is too damn hot for me right there in the Farmer’s Almanac.

This morning we woke up and it was 52 degrees. 

Clearly Mother Nature has lost her mind.

What was my point?  Oh yes, so this morning we were driving to school talking about how it feels like fall weather.  Apparently the word fall must have triggered something because, Finn then tells our neighbor friends about the time that Dave jumped a fence.  I started laughing because it is a ridiculous story and now that he’s all healed up it makes me laugh even more. 

Finn:  Once my dad broke both his arms jumping a fence!

Oldest Neighbor:  Oh, when he was a kid?

Me:  No, last summer.

Oldest Neighbor:  WHY did he do that?

Me:  Because he does dumb stuff.  Trust me, you don’t want to jump fences.  I think he learned his lesson.

Finn:  Yeah.  He had a cast.

Youngest Neighbor:  Whoa.

Only my Davester. 

Happy Friday 13th!  Has the fall weather settled in at your house too?