Are they too short?

I bought these shorts at Loft a few weeks ago.  And then I kinda regretted it.

But, it gets REALLY hot here.  


However, I am 36 now.  


NOT 16.  


Are they too short? 


What do YOU think?


I've been going over it in my head and looking at myself in the mirror and let me tell you what I've decided.


Women of my age, or any age for that matter, have all different legs in size, shape and even color.


I've worked my arse off (literally!) to have my legs look like they do right now.  I've run miles and miles and also walked a lot pushing a stroller or carrying a child on my hip.  Or both. 


These are MY legs and they may not be the best ones in the world but they are all mine and they work and I'm gonna go ahead and wear the shorts because I CAN.  


And you get to see a picture. Aren't you lucky? 


;-P

Two Sides of the Line

Recently we were at a function where there were several kids and a bounce house.  The B Man and a girl about his age (but a little bigger in stature) were playing inside the bounce house and she was getting a little rough.  They were playing "swords" (they were invisible) and at one point she bent back B's wrist pretty hard. I was looking on the whole time and she still did it even AFTER I told her several times to stop being so rough.  I didn't know this girl at all.  I reacted and told B to get out of the bounce house immediately.  He was fine but visibly upset and his hand hurt a little.  I think his pride was hurt too. In the end she apologized and they continued to play together...
_________________________________________________________________________

Today we were at a local park and there were A LOT of kids there.  It's Spring Break here this week.  I don't usually worry too much about B at the park since this area happens to be gated and he usually just runs around inside and many times finds someone to "pal around" with.  I was keeping one eye on K and one on G, as best I could around the large play scape.

Next thing I know, a woman many feet away from me is YELLING at B and asking him where is Mother is.  I walk up and ask her what happened and she says he (meaning B) had "him" (points to a boy about 5 years old) pinned down and was hitting him.

By the way, this is SO unlike B and I'm guessing (I saw NOTHING) that he may have hit him once.  And only if provoked.

By the time I got to B he was shaking and crying. He's a pretty sensitive little guy.

This lady really freaked him out.  He insisted RIGHT AWAY that we go home and had his face buried in my legs the whole time I tried to talk to him.  He was stiff as a board and tears filled his face. I told him that if he hit the boy then he needed to go apologize and I repeatedly asked him to tell me what actually happened.

"I just want to go home! Please Mommy, can we PLEASE go home?", he pleaded.

"Can you just tell me what happened?"  I asked him as her eyes continued to glare at us from across the play area.  I could feel them burning into me.

"I just got mad mom. Those boys were chasing me and one of them got on top of me and I got so mad."

At one point he told me he felt bad as he continued to cling to me.  So hard.

I saw the boy with whom he had the altercation and he was fine.  Running around like nothing had happened.

But her glare made me feel like my son was the bad guy.  Like I was a bad mother.

As I continued to calm him down they left the play area and B never did apologize.  I still wish he had.

However the other mother really scared him and I think she overreacted a bit.  And for that I wish she had apologized.  B did not completely calm down until after we got home.  She doesn't know my child at all.  She doesn't know how he is.  Should my son have hit someone?  Of course not but she didn't need to lash out at him the way she did.  He's still a child. I understand. We are all only human.  But still.

And, as you read in the first story, sometimes we are on the other side of the line as parents. Times when we play defense for our kids. But this time I was on the side that I do not frequent, the offense, and I was unsure how to handle it.

Today I felt inadequate as a mother, in more ways than one...

And I didn't like it.


This is loosely tied to the prompt for The Red Dress Club, to write about a fight.  It's not so much a memoir as a need to simply write out what happened and to get my feelings out.  I'm curious, has this happened to you?  How did you handle it?  What should I have done differently?  Parenting is hard sometimes. 

Long Distance Relationships (oh, and my Easter/road trip recap)

Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating on Texas with Louisiana.

Like when I go back to my home state and remember why I love it so.  And then as I return to the place I call home for now, and the fast-moving car carries me back over the state line, it's like some sort of sordid Southern affair is going on.

My heart, now in two places.

Of course I am so happy to have had my rendez-vous last weekend and earlier this week with the place where my family resides. To have taken my children to the place where they chase fireflies with their cousins well past bedtime and where Grandma makes them an unlimited supply of lemonade.  Where my father's clocks tick away at night while all else is silent and my baby pictures still hang on the wall in the hallway.

So yes, my heart may be split but as they say "home is where the heart is" so no matter which state I am in, I'm surely home as long as my loves are with me...

He likes blue, can you tell? 

After the egg "scramble" (a.k.a hunt) at the park across from my parents' house.

My beautiful-eyed nephew Daniel. 

Basket Head. :D

My pretty niece "slash" Baby K babysitter, Catherine. :)

In their Sunday best.  This photo shows each of their personalities pretty well, btw...  

Easter family

My parents' ELEVEN grandchildren, being silly.  

 K and my niece Sarah

 My niece Megan and her bestie (who is an honorary niece) Morgan

A stop at the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, TX.  Can you tell how happy G is to be there?  

 At the Museum of Natural History in Houston

 Inside the butterfly exhibit

At the park outside the museum, tormenting the ducks... 

Pink - You Capture

Traveling with three kids is exhausting, in a good way of course. So... just some pics this time...

I leave you with this...

I know. I kinda keeled over from the cute too. Seriously.

I put the bands in her hair and the boys saw her with her "pig tails" and I ran to get the camera before she had a chance to pull them out, and me and the boys were all, "OMG, she's SO cute with her fluffy little pig tails, Awwwwwwwwwwww."

And then Tim came home from work and it started all over again.

Anyway, we're off to Tejas (that's Spanish for Texas and also the name of my Texas History class bunny in 7th grade, I KNOW you just HAD to know that little tid-bit!! for the Easter holiday and I'm also gonna take a little time off form the internets.

So 'peas out' or something like that.

Catch you on the flip side of me eatin' the head off of a chocolate bunny. Oh and enjoyin' me some Cabnernet that I have missed EEE-MMENSELY.

Spring-alicious!

I love spring so much that I wish I could bottle it up and take it with me everywhere. And since it doesn't last that long here in our part of the country I mean that even more than you might think. I promise you summer (or at least the heat of it) is JUST around the corner. Luckily we had a LOVELY day for an Easter egg hunt last Sunday...

I made these tasty "bird nests" (crunchy chow mein noodles, peanut butter and chocolate melted together, and jelly beans for "eggs" - recipe HERE) and they were a tad messy.  You could possibly call them "finger-lickin' good".  You know if you wanted to...

Happy Spring!!

They were supposed to be yellow...

I trudged into the building, my tired body struggling, my eyes still burning and bloodshot from hours of crying.

My boss wanted to know what was wrong so I told him. As was his way, he shrugged it off and told me there were other fish in the sea or some crap like that.

But he was supposed to be MY fish. Forever. I had known it from the start. Or so I thought. He apparently didn’t want Forever so I told him goodbye. I set him free…

I put my purse in the file cabinet and walked out on the floor acting ready to sell furniture. Maybe if I told my customers my sob story they would have pity on me and be inclined to buy more from me.

What I really wanted to do was go back to my one-bedroom apartment and crawl back under the covers and bawl some more for the life I thought was going to be. For the relationship I longed to have back.

The last thing I wanted to do was put on a fake smile and act like I was happy to see strangers with good credit scores to use toward sofas and pillow-top mattresses.

I leaned over the counter waiting for my “up” when a man walked in with a large bouquet of flowers covering his face. The assistant manager, my friend Mac, signed for them, looked at the card and then at me.

“They’re for you.”

“No way,” I said.

“Yup.”

And there sat a dozen garnet-colored roses from the man I’d just broken up with.

I called him with anger in my voice, tears welling again. I asked him why he would do such a thing. Why would he send me a beautiful bouquet of roses that were the color of LOVE?

His reply, “They were supposed to be yellow - for friendship.”

“Well, they are not,“ I said. “They are as red as the blood that courses through my veins.”
Then I hung up. And cried. Again.




This week we had to give a memory of the color RED. 


This story is about me and my husband. In retrospect I'm glad the roses were red and not yellow because I take that as a sign to this day, that Tim and I would end up together, as we have. He was trying to cheer me up while we were broken up for a bit, before he decided there was no way he could live without me.... ;)

Ruby Leon Jewelry - A Giveaway!

I have another wonderful giveaway for you all and this one is extra special since it's a friend of mine from Texas. Ruby and I used to be in the local Moms Club chapter together (unfortunately we both moved!) and she is one of THE nicest and loveliest people I know.

Her passion is making gorgeous and original jewelry in the wee hours of the night, after her three beautiful children are fast asleep.  And she's really, really good at it!

She started her jewelry business in May of 2005 and her talent is all organic. She's never taken any design courses and all designs are straight from her heart, handcrafted and one of kind. Her business has grown a lot in the last few years and she feels blessed to be doing what she truly loves.

Her favorite projects are her "mommy bracelets" because she feels there is so much meaning in that one piece of jewelry.

She uses gemstones, glass and crystal in all of her bracelets, earrings and necklaces because she loves sparkle!  (And hey ladies, don't we all?)

Each piece that Ruby sells is delivered gift wrapped and she adds new items to her Etsy shop every week.

I am so happy to announce that she is offering one of you a gorgeous handmade pendant with the word "Love" imprinted inside.

And just so you know, she can also personalize these with up to 4 children's names or even initials/monograms. (How great would one of those be for Mother's Day?!?! hint. hint hubby). All pendants come on 17" silver chain with a 2" extender."

So here's how to win!

Go to her Etsy shop, Ruby Leon Jewelry and tell me one (or two or three!) piece that you see and like in a comment (required entry).

For an extra entry please "Like" Ruby Leon Jewelry on FB and come back and tell me you did so. (and just a little HINT: if you like her FB page she also offers discounts there - yay!)

For another entry please also "Like" The Miss Elaine-ous Life on FB.

And if you're a real over-achiever you can tweet this giveaway and let me know in another comment.  Just be sure to mention @elainea in your tweet! :)

That's four total entries!

This giveaway will run until Friday night, April. 22nd when I'll choose a winner via Random.org.  Open to U.S AND Canadian residents. Please make sure I have a way to get in touch with you should you win.

Good Luck! :D

Southern Livin' (and kind of a weekend recap)

I was driving down a familiar road in town the other day and thinking how after almost two years here, there are still days that I'm surprised at the fact that we live in southern Louisiana.  But as I looked up to the sky and saw the broad oak branches stretching over me I thought of how it has become home.

I know that the winter is very short.  I swoon at the blooming azaleas in Spring.  I live at the pool from early May until its closing after Labor day.  And my sweat ducts are over activated for nearly six months, until that first cool front sometime in October/November.  Not to mention I fight off the mosquitoes almost all year long.

Our friends here are some of the most genuine and authentic people I've ever known.  And as Tim and I like to say, no matter where we go, there will always be some Cajun in us.

I think about how much has gone on in our lives just since the hot and humid summer day when I first walked into this house, full of boxes with my sixth-month pregnant belly leading the way.

Baby K's birth and well, her whole life so far!

The B Man starting Kindergarten, losing teeth, learning to read and growing into a full-on kid, no longer a little boy.

Little G moving into a big boy bed, potty-training and being his big brother's shadow and number one admirer.

Plus, Tim and I have learned to eat boiled crawfish. By the pounds.

a pic from Tim's work crawfish boil

Not to mention an overnight trip to New Orleans to visit with and meet bloggers attending a conference (Mom 2.0 Summit) isn't out of the question. And, asking a friend in town to ride along and only taking one picture while there, isn't either.

This is Lindsey, who blogs at The Nosh Pit.  She also masquerades as a movie star while in NOLA. ;)

And thankfully a Sunday afternoon Easter Egg hunt on a beautiful Spring day rounds out the weekend.

Yep, this admitted Southern girl had a busy one.  And she wouldn't have it any other way...

The Phone Call

This post is my attempt at fiction, written for the following prompt from The Red Dress Club...


"In the middle of the night, you ("you" being the character in my story) get an urgent call from a friend you haven’t talked to in years. Something terrible has happened. What is it and why is he/she calling you?"

The sharp din of the phone jolted me out of the depths of my sleep. My heart started to beat out of my chest, knowing the phone never rings at this time. Why would it? Hopefully a wrong number.

The big, red alarm clock numbers were like lasers, showing me 2:22 a.m. "Make a wish," I thought.

When I didn’t feel Alex next to me I remembered he was out of town for a few days, again. I shook off the feeling of being dead asleep, scrambling out of the bed and running to answer it.

The kitchen was dark; all I could see was the light from the microwave time and the orange screen of the phone. I’d searched the nightstand with my finger tips for my glasses with no luck, and the tiny, blurry lights were all I had to guide me. I didn’t want the loud ringing to wake the children. The baby had just gone back down a little bit ago…

Somehow I found the talk button.

“Hello?!”

“Amy??”

It was a woman’s voice - somewhat familiar.

“Amy, it’s Maggie. Maggie Jensen. Remember?” Her few words were shaky.

“Well of course I remember you Maggie, what in the world are you doing calling me at this hour though?”

“Amy, there’s…. there’s been an accident….”

I couldn’t fathom what this had to do with me. My heart continued to race as her words registered. My last memory of Maggie was from my ten year reunion about six months ago. We sat together at the Saturday night dinner/dance laughing about Michael Harris’ bald spot and how we used to think he was the hottest boy in the world. Afterward Alex and I went for drinks with her and her boyfriend, Carl, I think...

She brought me out of my thoughts as she continued.

“… we were driving down Rockford highway and Alex didn’t see….”

Wait. Did she just say Alex?

What the hell does she know about Alex?

“What did you just say?!?! Something about Alex. My Alex?”

“Yes Amy. You just need to come to the hospital. Can you get a neighbor to stay with the kids?”

Did she just say ‘WE were driving’?

“I…. I… “

I couldn’t catch my breath like I was being strangled by some unknown thing. I faintly heard the baby cry out again as I slumped to the floor, like a sack of potatoes, no longer in control of my own body.

I lay there facing the phone on the cold tile next to me and all I could hear were the baby's cries and her, that woman, saying my name over and over in her panic-stricken voice.

“Amy, AMY, AMY!?!”…

Then.

Everything went black.

Baby Pangs

Before the day I found out I was pregnant with K I thought a lot about having another baby. And I mean A LOT. I’ve always pictured myself as a mother of three. I’m not sure why, I just have.

But truthfully, about the time that she came to be, I was resigned to being a mother of two. I was good with it - or was at least getting there. But apparently He had other plans. And I’m so, SO good with that.

These days I do not think about having any more children. We are finished building our family and I’m great with that. I do not have that same longing that I had before K was born. For whatever reason(s) those feelings just don’t exist anymore.

The other night I was with several of my ‘mom’ friends and we went around the table talking about who still wanted more children and I was moved to tears by one of my friends’ response. She said that when she gets the kids ready to go somewhere she feels like someone is still missing. And she takes that as a sign to have another.

We teased her and said maybe she’s just needs a dog. But I personally think there is (obviously!) much more to it than that, not just for my friend but for many mothers out there.

All this to say, that as I click around the internet and see many pregnant blog friends, and even see my friends IRL that are "with child", I do have "pangs". They tell me that being pregnant and growing a human is such an amazing, wonderful thing and the fact that I’ll never do that amazing, wonderful thing again kinda hurts my heart.  That the feeling of a little one moving inside of me is a thing of the past.

They also remind me that I’ll never again have that moment where I first meet the tiny, soft human being that I harbored in my belly for nine months. That I will not have the chance to take in that sweet newborn smell as I snuggle them close to my chest.

But when I get these feelings I also remember how truly blessed I am to have my three healthy, happy children and I have the memories of all of those things with them.  And those will forever be mine to hold dear and tight in my heart.

And I’m sure as time passes those “pangs” will become fewer and fewer and when I see a pregnant friend I’ll just be so happy that she is experiencing all those amazing, wonderful things herself.

Although I may want to touch her baby belly. But I promise to ask first.

Me and my last baby... 

By the way, I'm sharing my awesome with Momma Made It Look Easy and you can too!  Go share a link from your favorite post you wrote this week, over at her place! 

Hey kids, come over here so I can take your picture!!

I'm trying to follow in the footsteps of the lovely Steph and take pics of my kids on the third of every month (she does the fourth since she has four kids, so that's why I usually do the third, get it?).  

I don't always post them here but I take them. 

Except for this month I am abhorrently late. 

So here are some pics of my three on the 12th.

Better late than never.... right?

And yes, that is spaghetti sauce around G's mouth, and banana remnants on K's shirt.  

They were ALL due for a bath. This was around 6:30 p.m.

And you know, when I look at these pics I kind of start to forget that I found a piece of paper on the living room floor tonight with the word "fart" spelled out.  Oh, and that the reason G is no longer wearing the shorts that match that tank top is because he had to have pockets to store his trinkets.  And the other shorts didn't.  Have pockets that is... And that he's changed his clothes no less than 5 times since 3:30 this morning. 

Yeah, I start to forget a little when I see their sweet faces and smiles.