Fashionable Pain

Out of all my children, Child #3 is the most patient. Though she has moments of impatience, she is by far the winner in our family. She has been inquiring about getting her ears pierced for over a year. My response last year was "You'll have to wait for your birthday." Well, her birthday was in April. I didn't exactly fulfill the promise. Every time she would remind me, I had an excuse.

"You can't get your ears pierced during the soccer season." (Rule: no jewelry while playing)

The Spring soccer season came and went. Then Summer appeared.

"You're going to be too active and you won't be able to keep them cleaned properly."

Then the Fall soccer season caught us.

"You'll have to wait until after the soccer season again."

I know my excuses are completely unfair, but it comes down to our lives are busy and a little bit of laziness on my part. There is a lot of maintenance when you get your ears pierced. I don't want to have to remind her twice a day for six weeks to clean and twist the earrings. There are already twenty other things I have to constantly repeat throughout the day. It's exhausting.

Since soccer season has ended, I don't have anymore excuses so I finally fulfilled her birthday present. Considering Child #3 has been driving this crusade, Child #1 and Child #2 are going along for the ride (they never expressed an interest in getting their ears pierced before). So off to the mall we go. 

All three excitedly pick out the earrings they wanted. Love how the ear piercing is free, but the earrings are approximately fifty dollars each.

Child #3 wants to go first. She hops into the chair. The technician does all the necessary things. Child #3 doesn't even want her to count. She just wants her to punch the hole. The sound of one quick punch silences our posse waiting for Child #3's reaction. As her mother, I can tell it wasn't pain free for her, but she held a straight face and was ready for the other ear. She says they feel warm, but it didn't hurt.

Child #2 hops up on the chair. The technician gets her situated and punches the first hole. All the color drained from her face and her mouth contorted into a painful ow. Child #2 braved through the second hole punch, but wasn't exactly happy about it. She hops off the chair and is happy she got her ears pierced once the temporary pain has gone away.

As we all turn to Child #1, she is shaking her head no and slowly stepping away from the area. The protesting begins. Shoot, I should've made her go first. She has made up her mind that she does not want her ears pierce anymore and refuses to get on the chair.

We all try to sweet talk into it, but nothing we say is working. Then I try to guilt her into it (no refunds). That doesn't work. Then her Aunt tries to bribe her. Nope. Nothing. We're at a stand still. Fortunately, there was a twenty-one year old girl waiting for her turn. We let her go in front of Child #1. Though this girl was getting four holes, she had just the right personality to entertain Child #1 enough to make her relax. The girl was extremely funny. After the girl got her first two earrings in, she wanted a break. Child #1 lightened up and sat in the chair.

Child #1 wanted me to hold her hand so I stood next to her while the technician prepped her. Once everything was in place, Child #1 wanted the technician to count to three. We all held our breath while the hole was punched. Child #1 instantly turned to me with a scrunched brow and says, "That's it. That didn't hurt." Our posse all busted out laughing. So the technician quickly punched the other hole and we were done. Child #1is tougher than she realizes. Then we stayed to watch the girl get her other two earrings in. We were all entertained.

So now we wait six weeks. The true test will be if they can keep up with the cleaning maintenance. The goal is not to get any infected ears. I'll keep you posted. 

I have to say it was all worth it to see their big happy smiles when it was all done.

Peer Pressure

Through my adult years, I've prided myself for never stepping foot into a Starbucks ever (I had to Google the history of Starbucks discovering Starbucks started in 1971-I would've never guessed that one). That even goes with never purchasing a single item from Starbucks (not even a gift card for someone else). Most of you aren't surprised by this statement, but maybe you'll be surprised by the next statement. I made several purchases from Starbucks this past week due to meeting up with others while I was in San Francisco. Apparently in San Francisco a Starbucks is located on almost every corner. Since I was there, I decided to go ahead and make a purchase.

Since I'm not fluent in coffee shop terms, I defaulted to a Chai Tea Latte because the pressure to decide on something different was too overwhelming for me. Plus it's hard to justify trying out something new when it costs $4.50 a cup. Granted I could've purchased a simple coffee, but I do enjoy Chai Tea a lot at home. I have to admit their Chai Tea Latte is awesome and addictive.

Now the question is will I continue to make those purchases at home. The cost is a huge hurdle for me. I can't justify spending that much on a cup of tea everyday when I can make it at home for a fraction of the cost. I guess the penny pitcher in me is showing in this blog post, but we all have priorities on where our money is spent. Mine is just not coffee or tea.

Enjoy your choices!

Risky Business

I think I've discovered the perfect time to go to the grocery store when I can wear my sweats and safely not run into anyone.

Once your children enter into the mainstream educational system, you're exposure to community visibility increases. Tested by a few of my friends and of course me. We've discovered no matter where you go within your community, you run into someone you know or someone you recognize from your child's school. With this observation, there is no more running errands around town in your favorite grubby sweats. Not to mention, you're not the cute twenty-two year old that could pull off the lazy Saturday look without looking like a homeless person anymore.

Needless to say, the best time so far to go to the grocery store is on Monday night at 7:30 PM in the lovely community I live in. There was absolutely no one at our local grocery store this past Monday night. Another bonus, I managed to complete my grocery shopping within a record time of thirty minutes. I will have to test this next week to see if a pattern will develop. I will keep you posted.

Enjoy comfortable sweat wearing shopping!

Unexpected Sinker

Well the fall soccer season has ended. To celebrate this wonderful time, I booked a weekend at an indoor waterpark at the Wisconsin Dells. Two nights at a waterpark is probably too much for me, but I booked this during the height of the Fall soccer season and I might've been a little delirious at the time. I needed some kind of goal to pull me through. Our soccer schedule can get pretty intense. More like consume our lives for eight weeks every Fall and Spring. Needless to say, I'm burnt out by the end.

Anyway we made it through the first night and into the next day having a fun little family vacation. On our final evening and last chance to swim, we take the girls to the swimming pool. For the most part, they have exhaustively done all the slides and just want to swim and goof around in the main pool. No problem for me. I was getting tired of climbing all the stairs anyway. They were entertaining themselves in the pool so I decided to get out and take a break. As I sit watching my kids, I notice the lifeguard grab his walkie-talkie and walk to the opposite side of the pool . He crouches downs and inspects something at the bottom of the pool. I immediately yell for the girls to get out of the pool. Other employees show up trying to evacuate the pool.

Yep you guessed, it was a solid chuck at the bottom of the pool. This really pissed me off. The waterpark had a baby section with a zero depth and fun little slides specifically for babies who were required to wear a swim diaper. Granted, I am completely speculating it was the baby that was in the pool because the turd was too small to be a big kid turd. In conclusion, there should be rules about allowing babies in the big kid pool. Obviously, this ruined the rest of the swim time for my kids because there was no more big pool to swim in. Though they compensated by going to the lazy river and bopping around there and still having fun, I still feel (now that my kids are older, I know it's bias) should be no babies allowed in the big kid pool especially when a baby pool is provided.

I guess this is my complaint for parents who don't pay attention to their kids especially with the poop cues. I always knew when my kids were doing their business. It's not that hard to figure out.

Enough about poop and go enjoy a poop free pool somewhere!