Working Mommy Wednesday: I AM a Good Mom!

So the prompt I will go with today from my friends at the Working Mommy Network, since I can't do the picture thing from work, is a good one: Does being employed full-time make me a better or worse mother? Wow...talk about thought provoking. I've had to sit here for a few minutes (my accompanying Smart Ones Vegetable Lasagna, the best lunch TV dinner EVER, doesn't hurt) gathering my thoughts and contemplating how I really want to answer this question.



My first instinct was: HELL NO. I would be SUCH a better mom if I were able to Stay at Home with Jacob. But the more I've sat here and really examined myself head to toe, including my history, the more I've decided that, in fact:



I AM BETTER BECAUSE I WORK FULL-TIME!



This is honestly a very refreshing revelation. I think most of us working moms worry about this question frequently! Here is why I feel this way:



I am more patient with my son because at 5:15 I can't wait to start my commute and know that he is on the end of my drive, ready to smile and say mama and let me tickle his belly and stick his finger straight in his eye when I ask him to 'show me your nose'. If I were at home, by 5:15 I would be counting the minutes until my hubby got home so I could pass him the baby and say "your turn, sucker" while I frantically tried to finish dinner.



I think I actually do more housework as a working mom than I ever imagined. Trust me, there are still "how will this ever get done and be presentable?" moments, especially when it comes to stuff like hanging pictures (another reason I can't show you my house, there are 10 frames stacked against the wall waiting for us to hang them...they've been there since Mayish) or vacuuming the stairs or cleaning out the baby's closet. But I know if I were home all day, I'd likely be in pajamas until J's nap instead of doing all the things I say I would do, like going to the park or mommy playgroups or library story time. Then while he was napping, thinking I have all the time in the world as the hours until Daddy gets home stretch before us, I would be at the computer or in the recliner watching Bravo's marathon of America's Next Top Model. So I'd end up doing most of the housework after J's bedtime anyway.



The best benefit I can think of as to why working makes me a better mom is that I work really hard at what I do now. With my family as a solid purpose behind why I work, I do my absolute best to keep my job and keep moving forward. I try to employ the organizational and prioritization skills I use at work in my home life, although sometimes I fall short. I try to be as empathetic and understanding as possible with my co-workers, employees, and clients, so being a mom makes me a better employee, too.



In the end, the other thing that makes me a better mom as a full-time employee is that my son gets the BEST MEDICAL BENEFITS I could ever ask for. Seriously, it's awesome. And I'm sure he will appreciate it one day.



Please feel free to participate in our little blog hop: check out Julia's page here, where you can link to other like-minded moms as we work out our work/life balance. Stay at home moms feel free to read it too, so that we can all get past out "grass is greener" syndrome: maybe reading about our struggled will help reaffirm your decision to stay home with your precious babies!

And the Winner is...

Posted at 9:06AM on September 21 by auncango:

"I think I need the black and white heart hair barrettes."

Well, they're yours! Congratulations on winning the Katie's Kreations giveaway!

I will set you two up with each others info ASAP so you can do some happy shopping.

And for the rest of you, don't forget that Katie is doing her "Buy One, Get One Half Off sale!" I know I have my eye on a couple of items that I will definitely be ordering soon. I should also mention that Katie has a more sophisticated line as well that can be found here: 55 Maple. As if I haven't tempted you enough...

Thanks for your support everyone, and please vote for me on Picket Fence blogs if you like what I'm putting out there! I enjoy reading all the other mom bloggers out there, and I hope you enjoy reading mine.

I have two more giveaways lined up for the next couple of months, so keep watching!

The Most Expensive Vacation I Didn't Take

Or alternatively titled, It Is God's Plan, After All.

We made it to Mt. Airy Friday night and a couple of times on the way, my hubs complained about the clutch getting "stuck" halfway to the floor after he shifted. We thought, "hmmm" but didn't do much about it until we left the festival to go to the hotel Friday night. It stuck at least 3 times in the 2 miles to the hotel and each time he had to stick his foot under it to lift it back up. We decided we would get it to a shop first thing the next morning, and went to bed happy.

Easier said than done: although there were three car shops within view of our hotel, none belonged to Mazda, only two were open, and only one (the sketchiest looking of the bunch) had a mechanic who could do more than the basic oil change. At this point, it was freaking me out to drive the thing b/c it was stalling all over the place. The mechanic at the Snappy Lube or whatever said it would be TWO HOURS before he could even look at it to tell us if he could fix it or not. So instead we spent nearly an hour on the phone with our insurance carrier trying to weigh options for a tow, a dealership, and a car rental. The news was not good. All would cost an arm and a leg, and with it being noon on Saturday none were getting the car looked at before Monday. With a rear-facing infant seat and being 35 miles from civilization, our options were considerably decreased.

So I did what any girl would do in this situation: I called my mommy. And she is all kinds of awesome, so she drove 2 1/2 hours to pick us up and take us back home to get a rental car while our car was also being towed to a dealership near home (yeah, that cost more than we were planning to spend on our little weekend vacation).

This may sound like a really crummy weekend. But it gets worse. Last night before J's bedtime, he was burning up and cranky (he had been running a low grade fever earlier) and I checked his temp and got 103.5. YIKES! We luckily were able to keep our cool heads and gave him a tepid bath and some fake Tylenol and his temp dropped 2 degrees in an hour. The nurseline said to call if it dropped less than 1 degree in an hour, so we were safe, put him to bed, and his fever continued to drop overnight.

When we were getting ready to turn in, we noticed that a leak was coming through our living room ceiling. It's right under the master bedroom, but we hadn't used the shower since yesterday morning. In any case, we put a bucket under it and went on to bed. Luckily, it seems to have stopped despite the crazy rain we've been getting, so it's likely a pipe in the bathroom that we will have to call (and pay) someone to repair. I can't even process that right now, so we're just going to use the guest bathroom and schedule someone to come Friday morning. At this point, it's almost comical.

But here's the next bit of news: a little while ago, baby boy tripped and busted his lip on a toy truck, and you know how those injuries bleed. So, I gave him the cool compress as long as he would stand for it, put him down for an early nap, and called the pedi. Between the fever, the mysterious bug bites on his legs, cheek, and arm, and the busted lip, I'm just going to feel better if he sees a doctor.

Now I'm online researching the Hyundai recall and trying to argue with the car rental place about whether our rental car is part of this recall, and why I was told if we needed to extend it we would receive the same ultra-affordable rate, but when I called to extend it the rate is 3 times what we're paying now.

Sometimes, you just have to lean on God and know that there's something he's trying to teach us out of all of this, like maybe we should be thankful that we have amazing family willing to loan their hotel room to us on a hot afternoon or drive 300 miles to pick us up, great bosses who don't bat an eye when we say "I know I am already taking two days off this week, but I also might have to leave early another day to take care of some stuff" or a hubby who is there by my side through all of it. If the worst thing we get is a busted lip and some repair debt, we're doing ok.

For those of you HOPEFULLY having a better weekend/week than me, why not extend your good fortune by entering my great giveaway? It's the last day to enter, although I doubt I will have the time or energy tomorrow to select a winner, but I will announce by Wednesday who the lucky person is!

100th Post: Free Movie Friday!

Well, guys, I made it to 100. Wow.

For Free Movie Friday this week, I'm keeping it light in case you are in need of comedy. Now, I wouldn't say that Hot Tub Time Machine is the funniest movie evah, but for a free rental, it hits the spot. Especially if you can remember the 80's (which would mean you were born in the 70's like me).

Now, I have always loved me some John Cusack, but I have to admit he seemed strangely...older...in this movie. Like, he has aged sufficiently where I can finally tell that he would definitely be too old for me, but he's still John Cusack. Craig T. Robinson was so funny. Comepletely different from his character on the Office, and his character in the movie was so uncomfortable, it was hilarious to watch him squirm because he's usually so confident. By far, though, the most laughable person in this movie was one Rob Corddry. That guy played the funniest character: put it this way, his opening scene showed him almost crashing a Trans Am (or other similar retro sports car...they all look like Trans Ams to me) into his own garage.

Overall, the premise was completely stupid and silly, but sometimes you just want to watch a stupid, silly, slapstick comedy. And this one hits the spot. The exploration of '80's stereotypes was particularly nostalgic and amusing for me. And there are a few scenes that make the weaker spots worth sitting through. Oh, and PS: if you like watching Chevy Chase in Community, you'll get a kick out of him here.

So grab a bowl of popcorn, someone else that would remember rolling (or pegging, for the more sophisticated of you, in the South it was just "rolling") their jeans, huge shoulder pad sweaters, and mullets being cool, and grab this DVD for free at any Redbox at a Walgreen's with the code: DVDATWAG.

I'll have to do some digging to find another code for next week. Until then, I remind you (yet again) to enter my giveaway and win some cool stuff!

It's Almost Friday!

Well, this week is full of new things...first my GIVEAWAY (go enter, hint hint) and now my first Blog Hop with Family Friendly Frugality's Almost Friday Blog Hop. That's a lot of capital letters.

In any case: it's ALMOST FRIDAY. And while I usually look forward to Fridays for so many reasons, the least of which being time to relax with my family, this weekend the excitement is ramped up even more. I am heading for the hills tomorrow, literally, around 3PM.

Let me tell y'all, I may be Southern but I am not a redneck. However, my weekend begins tomorrow with an overnight stop at the Mayberry Festival in Mount Airy, NC, visiting my mother-in-law as she helps her boyfriend regain his title of State Champion Pig Cooker. I am not even kidding...

Then we will continue on to Boone so that I can try out my new Ergo on Grandfather Mountain, exploring the mile-high swinging bridge and wild bear conservatory. Jeans, tennis shoes, and highs in the 70's are where I am AT this weekend! We even decided to splurge and get a suite hotel, mostly because my toddler is such a good sleeper that he needs his own room, and Mama and Daddy didn't want to be turning in for the night at 9PM. This is vacation, right?

So, while I wish I had more for you today, I am trying to wrap things up at work and skipping my usual lengthy lunch break in order to skip out early tomorrow.

I hope everyone will check out my giveaway...Katie will make you guys very happy with some new stylish bling.

See ya soon! Hopefully I will have a new Free Movie Friday code to share tomorrow.

I Have Foot-in-Mouth Disease

Although prompt number 1 on Working Mom Wednesday is the popular one today, and I have enjoyed reasing everyone's "you know you're a working mom when..." lists immensely, I could write a BOOK about prompt # 2:

2. A time you said something inappropriate (a bad joke, a snarky remark, a comment to your boss, etc.)

Well, y'all, I just have to admit...I am FULL of these stories, but I guess I will let you in on a work-related incident not too recently to still be embarrassed about.

We had some marketing changes that had to be updated by a certain date, and were promised an email with some "schematics" that we could follow to ensure it was put up properly. 10AM that day came and went, and nowhere had we heard anything at all.

Finally, around 4PM on a Friday, we got an email from my boss' assistant with the instructions and an URGENT! message saying it had to be done that day. Now, in my defense, my boss' assistant is the person who interviewed and made a hiring decision on me three years ago, and we've always been close. She uses me to vent (and laugh) and I have used her for the same in the past.

However, the email I fired back without even having time to think was something like "well, nice that we FINALLY have it and have an hour to put it up". Okay, it was almost exactly those words. I think it was about 30 seconds after I hit send that I followed it with this response:

"I'm so sorry, that was not directed at you, and it was entirely inappropriate." And some other things, but the gist was that I didn't want her to think I thought she was falling down on her job...that girl is crazy good at what she does, and the last thing I need is to offend my bosses boss' assistant.

Whew...I think that as I am travelling through motherhood these foot-in-mouth instances are shrinking. Let's hope!

Oh, and please check out my giveaway this week!

A For Real Giveaway This Time!

So, does everyone remember way back in February when I did my first ever blog giveaway? Probably not, considering 2/3 of you have joined me since then, but this time I am actually having a for-real, not just something I bought but something that someone else who makes beautiful, whimsical, unique, girly things has offered to let me surprise y'all with.

Her name is Katie, and she makes quirky jewelry and thing-a-ma-bobs for girls, tweens, and stylish women of every age alike. Here is her Etsy shop. Go there! She does a buy one, get one half off sale all the time. I can personally vouch for her work and her customer service, as I have bought gifts from her before.

Here is something for the little babes:

Or how about something for the tweens in your life?

Or maybe, like me, mama wants something for herself, like my personal favorites:

Who doesn't love the idea of these unique rings? And at only $5 to $12, and extremely reasonable shipping, you almost can't afford NOT to treat yourself. I know I am sure to get a compliment when I wear one of these:

Now, the exciting part: one of you is going to win a $10 credit to Katie's Kreations. You could get something for yourself and a friend (I mean your kid, of course). I will leave this open until midnight next Monday (technically Tuesday) so you have almost a full week to enter. You only have to do two things to enter: become a follower of this blog, and visit Katie's page to let me know the most irresistible item you can find.

If you would like to gain extra entries, you can do that by spreading the word for this giveaway by linking to your own blog . Did you notice my two fancy new buttons? You can also win extra entries by giving me my very first votes as a member of picket fence blogs! Feel free to vote (and leave a comment) each day of the giveaway. Leave a separate comment for each action you perform, and I can't wait to give something back to you guys!