Further to last post...

...I've a nice fat red zit on my left cheekbone. It accompanies the bags under my eyes rather well I think! But I really have no grounds to complain about this in-law visit 'cept for the fact that we're still in our tiny old rental - an aerial photo of Cesar, Leila and I sleeping in the kid's room may be in order. That it stretches over weekdays makes it pretty darn easy on me because, hey, I'm at work the vast majority of the day. Leila staying home with them makes my mornings less hectic and I can get to the office around 8:00 (and I need that extra hour to stay on top of things right now.)

So I had this revelation last night - if you for some strange reason ever want to know what the heaviest part of your body is, "sleep" on an air mattress (and I put "sleep" in quotes, because if anyone can actually sleep soundly through the night on one, I'd like the recipe for doing so.) The one I'm bunked on in Leila's room appears so nice, tall and firm - it even has some kind of spring construction inside - but when I laid on my back on it last night, I realized that my upper torso and legs were level, while my rear sunk down towards the floor - seriously, as if on a hammock! Yikes, I think some stairclimbing could be in my future.

Stresssssssssssss......

The in-laws arrive tonight. I can probably leave this post as that. My entire body aches from spending the past two days cleaning. Happy Easter! Sleeping on an air mattress on Leila's floor for the next 5 nights probably won't do much to ease my aches. Perhaps wine will. Or yoga if I had the time to practice. And, we close on our house purchase Friday. I've been on the phone with bank managers pleading with them to release the holds on our deposits so they'll be ready to withdraw Friday. And work is kicking my butt right now, yes, my public servant work. In a good way it's keeping me on my toes, but I'm really feeling the race against the deadline clock these days. AND I have to find some time to write the descriptions for Leila's school auction catalogue this week. Sigh... if only stress had the power to keep me skinny as it did in college - I'm unlikely to pick up the coffee and cigarette habits that helped in those days, and yet also unlikely to give up my current Cadbury mini egg habit...What can you do?

The Hubby Dear

So here's a query I get upon coming home last night: "What happened to your hair?... It looks good."

Yeah, because taking the pains to wake up an extra 15 minutes early to have a date with the blow dryer and round brush and smoothing milk just 'happens'!

But a compliment is a compliment I suppose...

Weekend Pics

She looks just precious at bedtime showing her friends Elmo and Shrek the love, no?
Except for the fact that mommie feels just about as grouchy and ogreish as Shrek when the child is up until 9:30/10:00 at night leaving her NO downtime.
Well, at least she was down at 8:40 tonight/Sunday. Sleeping in until 8:30 on the weekend is some consolation, but I want at least 1 hr me time/night!!
Yeah, I did get a little me time in Luigi's chair Friday night, but it's still not enough!

Emily and I took the munchkins to Horton Hears a Who today and it was actually pretty fun. I was expecting disaster since each of them have only been to one movie in the theater in their lifetime and neither lasted through it. I'm sure we enjoyed the movie more than they did, but I'm pleased that I actually got to watch most of it. Leila talked a little here and there. Ate an entire box of Gummi bears w/in 10 minutes. And got out of her chair to stand in front of me a few times, but for the most part was calm and well behaved. Saw the preview for Speedracer and I am so there!

This kid...

... cracks me up. She looks at me tonight and says "are we going to school tomorrow?" I reply "yes sweetie" and she ever so pensively says "but...when are we going to take a break from school?" Oh kiddo, how about when you're 22 and graduating from college?

Here's the clever little one with the cuteness that is Eamonn Lawlor a couple weekends ago. I've got her hooked up with the older (Henry Jones) and younger boys, so we cover all the bases whatever her taste may be ; )

And check this out... What would that be that she's wearing? Neither a diaper nor a pull-up methinks! We are SO close on the potty training (and check that sneer too! Girl's got her no paparazzo attitude on!)
And I can take NO credit for it. Thank you, thank you, thank you room 3 teachers and older room 3 classmates for putting the princess underwear peer pressure on! I'm still the lazy bum who thinks oh, lets just put a pull-up on and go take care of business/pleasure outside the house for four hours, but her new found interest in staying clean and dry is bringing me around.

Anyone who knows...

...our current rental house would know that we should NOT be going out to buy ginormous pieces of furniture until after we me move. So what did we do this weekend? Went to World Market and bought a ginormous TV armoire. But it was pretty and reasonable (relatively) and their stock changes so fast and though it takes up a fourth of the room, I'm thrilled at not having to look at all the cords and spilling over DVDs our old $20 stand from Target revealed! However, the challenge now is that Cesar is expressing desire for a larger screen to fill it. I think our 32 incher new at Xmas looks just fine with a little open space around it.

So I guess that Obama tee-shirt I wear every other day was a freebie...

If anyone is concerned that Obama is not 1000% committed to not taking any money from "special interests", here's a little tale. In my former job that I left January 19 I was registered to lobby for a couple of our clients. A couple weeks before Super Tuesday I went online to Obama's campaign store to order my Tee. I paid $31.40 justifying it as a contribution, but not really thinking of it as a contribution contribution. Today I get a check in the mail for $31.40 with a lovely letter from a compliance officer notifying me that they are so pleased that I am committed to stand for change, but that records show I am registered to lobby the federal government and Obama is committed to take no money from special interests. We're talking $31.40, for which I received merchandise in exchange! You go boy. Hillary had no problem taking a small amount of my money to attend a rally very early in the campaign. I do plan to call the compliance officer to let her know I am now a civil servant again and the lobbying reports filed January 31st should no longer show my name! So now I figure I can justify at least a $50 contribution before we start paying our mortgage....

Maximum Overdrive

Remember that bad 1986 Emilio Estevez movie adapted from Stephen King's Trucks? Yeah, probably not, but I feel like I'm on maximum overdrive these days. Between pulling the paperwork together for the new house, the new job - who knew what a juggling act it was to actually work someplace with deadlines and shifting priorities and the need for time management skills (Perez and Trent, I miss you boys, but I do enjoy feeling productive)?! - and the sick kid (two days out this week with Strep), and the usual household responsibilities, which, aside from getting food in our tummies, are the last thing to be attended too....

Anywhooo...I don't have much to say here. Just checking in. I sadly reported to Leila when I woke her up this morning that Obama lost to Hillary yesterday and she responded with a simple "oh." But we maintain hope. Will wash my lucky tee before the next primary Saturday. I know I got on here to write something of some import, but I can't for the life of me think of what it was now. Oh, whatever you do, please, I beg of you, do not decide that you need to pen a response to the Postmaster General's form letter on Identity Theft that you should have received with all Postal customers early last week. I've been swimming through thousands upon thousands of "Dear John, This is all well and good, but if you could teach my carrier to read and deliver my mail to the right box we may not have this problem... or Dear John, If we got rid of all the immigrants and reclaimed America..." letters all week. Right. Going to get on Metro now for my 20 minutes daily downtime to regrettably slowly read The Other Boleyn Girl. I guess the movie reviews sucked in general, but I'll be glad to see if Eric Bana betters Jonathan Rhys Myers as Henry on DVD.