Multi-tasking or Procrastinating????

So, I had, like 5 million things on my to do list this weekend, now, I did manage to get a few things done, I would estimate that I now have about 4,999,987 things on my list.  But hey, that's better than having 5,000, 027!  Anyway, while I was busily trying to watch the munchkin and do some of the many things on my list, I found myself constantly being pulled, as if by some kind of force, maybe magnetic, to my laptop to check in on my favorite things - Facebook, Twitter, and of course, the many blogs that I follow.

This got me to thinking, aside from the fact that there is some kind of force pulling to these things, and resisting the force might just cause the world to end, it might not, I'm just saying it is one of those things that I just can't risk, I mean, seriously, what if I didn't get on Facebook and check my friends status updates and the world did end, I would have to spend the rest of my life feeling guilty that I cause the world to end.  Would you take that risk?  I don't think so!  Anyway, as I was saying, assuming that there is nothing forcing me to check Facebook 17 time per hour, why do I do it??  Is it procrastination, just a tactic to keep me away from the millions of items on my to do list?  Or am I just and incredible multi-tasker?

I can watch the munchkin, check Facebook, Twitter and a few blogs, unload the dishwasher, file months worth of old bills and fold laundry all at the same time.  I think that makes me the world's best Multi-Tasker . . . I would win gold if they had an olympic multi-tasking competition.  Never mind that the munchkin was in his exercauser and couldn't go anywhere or get into trouble, the dishwasher was open and half unloaded as I played Farmville on Facebook, blogs are still unread, laundry still isn't put away and there is still a pile of old bills on my desk.  You don't really have to finish all of the tasks for it to be considered multi-tasking, do you?  The dishwasher eventually got unloaded.  And I let the munchkin out of the exercauser to play a little later on . . .  doesn't that count for something?

I will never admit that I am procrastinating . . . I am a world class multitasker.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it!!!!!!

Is this month over yet???

As if there hadn't been enough stress in my life already this month, I had to go and add a bunch more.  Yesterday morning, I did this:

Fortunately, I didn't hit another vehicle, I ended up in the ditch and hit a tree.  We are all fine.  Henry and I are stiff and sore and Henry seems to have messed up his knee again.  Liam screamed and cried like I have never heard him cry before, but he settled as soon as I got him out of the car seat.  As soon as he saw the fire truck he was completely back to his normal self.  And then the paramedics came to see him and he had three new best friends!  They were great fun to talk to and they cool looking things that he really wanted to steal!

Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo, the Jeep didn't do as well as us!  It is farewell and RIP to our faithful Jeep Grand Cherokee.  So, we are sharing my mother-in-law's car (Thank you for saving us yet again, Sara!) and will have to start vehicle shopping on the weekend.

I am so not looking forward to car shopping - applying for a loan, dealing with overbearing, pushy car sales men who always try to sell you something that you don't want or can't afford, and  haggling over prices, all while tramping through February's mess of slush and snow.  YUCK!  BLECH!!  BARF!!!  But given that we live out of the reach of Ottawa's public transit (unless you have a car to get to the bus stop AND only work from 9am to 3pm) we don't have a choice.  Please think of us on Saturday while we venture out into car shopping hell!

Remember when Saturday mornings were for sleeping in??

6 am?  Are you freaking kidding me???  Liam, you are a wonderful baby, I love you more than anything, but 6 am on a Saturday?  Is it really necessary??

The little bugger slept in last weekend when I was away . . . 8:30 am on Saturday and 9 am on Sunday.  But this weekend, I am home and we are up at 6 am.  I tried to just leave him in his bed and hope that he would quietly amuse himself and let me get a little more sleep.  But that was a stupid though . . . sure, he was amusing himself with his blanket and stuffy sleep friends (a teddy bear and dragon) but he was anything but quiet!  Seriously, I should have known better, when is this child ever awake and quiet??  I can't even imagine what life is going to be like once he actually learns to speak, because even though he only says one word, Ada (Liam speak for Daddy) the child never shuts up!  He babbles all the time.  He makes the strangest noises I have ever heard come out of a child.  But, luckily for us, he hardly ever cries!

I guess I really shouldn't complain that he gets up early because I am sure there are lost of mommies out there with kids Liam's age who don't sleep through the night yet, something that Liam has been doing since about 5 months of age, but I miss sleeping in!  I miss the days when getting up Saturday morning meant that we were going out somewhere to do something fun and exciting.  Now getting up on Saturday morning involved me, in zombie mode following a wild and crazy child around the house making sure that he isn't eating the dog's bones, cat food or doing and of the other 5 million things he's learned how to do that 13 month old munchkins shouldn't be doing . . . oh, the life of a mommy! . . . is it nap time yet???  I hope so!

I feel like I have hardly seen my baby today.  :(  Between working all day and staying after work for a staff meeting, I really haven't seen much of my little man today.  By the time I got home tonight, it was just about his bedtime.  So, we got a little bit of cuddle time while he had his bottle, but that was it.  Daddy got all the play time.  Daddy got to have dinner with him.  All while Mommy sat around for almost two hours waiting for a 20 minute staff meeting.  It wouldn't have been so bad if it had been a regular staff meeting, but it was basically a recap of a specific incident that happened about 6 weeks ago and what has happened since because of it.  We were even told that we were not allowed to bring up anything else.  It really wasn't how I wanted to spend my evening . . . however, we do what we have to do to keep our jobs, right?

Good-bye Grandpa

The past week has been one of the most difficult of my life.  For the first time ever, I had to deal with the death of someone close to me – my Grandpa.  He passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly early last Tuesday morning.  I spent this past weekend at my parents place so that I could attend the wake, funeral and spend some much needed time with my family.

The range of emotions that I have experienced since receiving the news last Tuesday morning has been particularly mind-boggling.

Initially, I was shocked.  Grandpa had been healthy and active until the day before he died.  He was a full time farmer with over 100 beef cattle, which he cared for daily.  No one expected him to leave us so suddenly.

Along with shock was sadness, which I don’t think requires any explanation.  Everyone feels sad when they lose someone close to them.

As the days progressed, I found my moods and feelings changing frequently.  I was happy for the time that I had with Grandpa and thankful for all the memories that I have growing up close to him and my Nana.  But at the same time I regretted not having visited more often in recent years. Other times, I would find myself in tears without even realizing that I was thinking about Grandpa.  And sometimes I was just numb, unable to feel anything at all.  Mostly, it just didn’t seem real.

I thought that once I got to the funeral home for the wake, it would all become more real.  In some ways it did, in other ways, it still, now doesn’t seem like it could be true.  How could he really be gone forever?  What would happen now?  How will the family carry on? 

My emotional rollercoaster continued throughout the duration of the wake and funeral.  It amazed me that complete strangers could bring me to tears, just by telling me how wonderful my grandpa was, yet people close to me made me laugh or smile.  Many people reminded me that Grandpa was lucky to have gone so quickly without suffering.  And although I know that at some point in time, that will give me comfort, knowing that it would have driven him completely mad if he’d been ill and unable to continue his active lifestyle, at the time I felt that if I heard it one more time, I would scream.

I know that I am lucky that I have never had to deal with any of this before.  Not many people get to be my age and still have all four of their grandparents still alive and well.  Unfortunately that doesn’t make dealing with it any easier.  Nor will it make it any easier the next time or the time after that. 

Yoga

I went to my first ever yoga class yesterday.  It is something that I've thought about from time to time over the past couple of years, but laziness prevailed and I never did anything about it.  But, here I am, thirteen and a half months since Liam was born and I still have a lot of leftover pregnancy weight (not to mention the extra 20 pounds I had before getting pregnant), no abdominal muscle tone (which really means a disgusting saggy belly), and we won't even talk about the other areas of my body that are just blah because, well, I am lazy.  So, a few weeks ago when hubby suggested that I start taking a yoga class and that he didn't mind me spending the money to take a class AND he would gladly look after Liam while I went to said class (even if it meant getting up on a Saturday or Sunday morning), I was intrigued and started looking into it.

I found a yoga place nearby that offers a free introductory lesson, so, off I went on Saturday.  It was, well, interesting.  There were only three of us there and the instructor talks A LOT (although she did say that she doesn't talk as much in regular classes) but much of what she said has me intrigued.  I really don't know much about yoga and was looking as this as something to help me getting to better shape.  But apparently it  can be really helpful to relieve stress, anxiety and depression.  Well, hello, why didn't someone tell me this sooner???  If yoga can help my stress level and depression, then I am there!

But then the class actually started . . . wow, some of those positions are hard to get into!  Not that they look easy, but enough people do it that I thought that if you were properly instructed on how to get into said pretzel like positions it would be easier than it looked.  Man was I wrong!  So, you get yourself into this pretzel like state they expect you to stay there . . . and then untangle yourself into another strange pose.  I don't think that it would be quite as bad if you could actually see the instructor so that you knew exactly what a position was supposed to look like, but you send half the time looking at your butt from an angle that you probably never imagined that you could see you own butt from!  It really makes you wonder what the guy or girl who came up with these moves was doing to discover them . . . actually, you probably don't really want to know, cause it was probably weird or kinky or something.

Anyway, in the end, I decided that I would go back.  I am going to sign up for 5 classes and see how that goes.  And see how hubby really feels about getting up on Sunday mornings to look after Liam while I go twist myself into a pretzel.

However, before Sunday, I MUST, MUST, MUST go buy my own yoga mat.  My face spent too much time very close to that mat to be using one that someone else's face and more importantly ass have been on.  I mean, I am sure that they are cleaned and disinfected, but still, I really don't want my face on a mat that someone else's ass has been on . . . eww!

****  Side Note - My abs are a bit sore today . . . this is a good thing, as it means that I still have abdominal muscles, not just a glob of flab where my abs used to be.  I guess they are just hiding under the glob of flab!  Maybe yoga will give my abs the confidence to come out again!  Cross your fingers for me!!

Grumpy Day? Over sensitive? I don’t know, I’m just glad it’s over.

Everywhere I looked today, something was annoying me.  Someone hadn’t done something they should have done.  Something didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.  Someone was giving me shit for something.  It just didn’t seem to end.

The icing on the cake was when my boss came to me to inform me that one of the parents had complained about me.  Apparently, yesterday I “grabbed her child out of her arms without letting her say goodbye, even though he was upset and crying.”  That just didn’t sit right with me from the moment that I heard it.  I honestly had no recollection of taking said child from him mother yesterday, but the last time I remembered taking him from her, he put his arms out to me and was quite happy for me to take him to do art.  So, I started asking the others who had taken him from the mom yesterday.  As it turns out, I wasn’t even in the room when he was dropped off.  She had me mixed up with someone else.  My boss later spoke to the mom and cleared up the issue, but I am still annoyed, frustrated and angry about it. 

Maybe it is childish of me to be so upset by this, maybe I am PMSing and just overly sensitive, but I think that if you are going to complain about someone, you should damn well make sure that you know who you are complaining about.  It’s not like this woman doesn’t know my name.  She has called me by name on numerous occasions.  It makes me not want to talk to this woman anymore.  It makes me not want to take her child in the mornings when they arrive.  It just makes me mad.  Not that there is anything I can do about.  I can and won’t treat her any differently the next time I see her.  And I absolutely won’t treat the child any differently, however, I have lost some respect for this woman and unless she comes in tomorrow and apologizes to me directly, I don’t think I will get it back. 

A part of me knows it is wrong for me to be feeling this way.  A part of me knows that I should just forget about it and let it go.  My boss wasn’t upset with me even when she thought the complaint was about me, she just wanted me to know and she did set the record straight.  But I can’t just forget about it. 

Manic Monday Music Moment #2

Lady Antebellum released a new album, "Need You Now" this past week.  Although I haven't had a chance to listen to the whole album yet, I absolutely love the single, "Need You Now".  Not sure what it is about this song that gets me, but it gets me every time I hear it.



Picture perfect memories, scattered all around the floor..
Reaching for the phone, cause i cant fight it anymore..

Ad i wonder if I ever cross your mind, for me it happens all the time

It's a quarter after one and I'm all alone and i need you now,
Said i wouldn't call but i lost all control and i need you now ,
And i don't know how, i can do without, i just need you now

Another shot of whiskey, can't stop looking at the door, wishing you'd come sweeping in the way you did before,

and i wonder if I ever crossed your mind,
For me it happens all the time

It's a quarter after one and i'm a little drunk and i need you now,
Said i wouldn't call but I lost all control and i need you now,
And i don't know how i can do without, i just need you now,

Woh ooo woh

Yes i would rather hurt then feel nothing at all,

it's a quarter after one, im alone and i need you now,

and i said i wouldn't call but I'm a little drunk and i need you now
And i don't know how i can do without, i just need you now,

I just need you now........
Oh baby i need you now......


This single aside, I really do enjoy Lady A's music and I have since the first time I heard them, which was at the CMA Music Festival in Nashville in 2007.  They played the Riverfront Stage.  Nobody, and I mean NOBODY knew who they were.  I remember the murmurs that went through the crowd . . . "Who are they?"  "Lady what?"  "Have you ever  heard of them?"  And then they started to play the song that would become their first single, Love Don't Live Here Anymore.  I think that there were a lot of people, like me who were instantly hooked on their unique sound.  

What really amazes me about Lady A, is how quickly they went from nobody's to the talk of the industry.  Just one year later at the 2008 CMA Music Fest, I was again able to see them play.  But this time, they were on the big stage at LP field and EVERBODY knew who they were.  The crowd broke out in cheers and applause when they took the stage and sang along instead of the whispers and question of the year before.
                                   


And last night, they won the Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for "I Run To You."

Way to go Lady A!!  Can't wait to see what's in store for you in the future has in store for you!!