Stumbling through daily life as a working mother of three
My little boy is NINE years old today – I can’t believe it!
Nine year old boys are so goofy – I tried to take a nice picture of him this morning to put on my blog…this is what I got:
Not exactly portrait-quality! Oh well…I tried – I love you, Matt!
We just returned from a short weekend camping trip at the KOA in Allentown, PA (actually, New Tripoli, to be exact).
The trip started out kind of rough – we got a frantic phone call from Andrew on our way home from work on Thursday that one of the dogs had gotten sick in their crate. Not exactly what we hoped to come home to.
So instead of running all of our pre-trip errands, doing loads of laundry and packing, we spent the evening cleaning up after the dogs. Which meant that I had to spend Friday morning running all of our pre-trip errands, doing loads of laundry and packing.
And on top of that…it started to rain. By the time we got to the campground, everything at the campsite was a soggy, muddy mess.
I can handle rain on a camping trip. And I can handle sick dogs on a camping trip. But rain AND sick dogs…that’s a bit much.
Geddy continued to get sick the first night and poor Mike had to sleep outside on a chair in the rain with the dog while I cleaned up the damage he did inside. This was from about 1:00am – 5:00am…then the kids were up early demanding breakfast. I’m afraid I had a mommy-meltdown after the following exchange with Matt at about 6:30am:
Matt: I want cereal!
Me: There’s cereal in the cabinet.
Matt: But I want YOU to get me cereal!
Me: I was up all night cleaning up after the dogs, Matt. You’re almost nine years old – you can get your own cereal.
Matt: I can’t reach the bowls.
Me: There are disposable bowls in the cabinet you can reach.
Matt: But I want YOU to get me cereal!
Me: Then you’ll have to wait until I get up…
(There’s some rustling around in the cabinet.)
Matt: I can’t find the bowls!
(I stomp into the kitchen, open the cabinet and the disposable plastic bowls are so close to the front, they almost fall out on me. I pick one of the bowls up and fling it to Matt like a frisbee.)
Me: HERE’S YOUR BOWL!!!!
I’m sure all parents have been there once or twice…
Fortunately, the weekend did improve from there. The skies started to clear a bit and the rain slowed to a drizzle here and there – not exactly a sunny weekend, but the clouds did keep it from getting too hot.
And once it stopped raining, we saw that the campground was actually very pretty – it was tucked away in the woods and our campsite even backed to a cute little babbling brook. I took the kids in their PJs to check it out (once I woke up):
There were little tiny fish swimming in the stream that were fun to watch. Daisy liked the stream too – unlike the ocean, she was very willing to play in the water in the stream. Maybe she’s a “freshwater dog”?
I was elected to stay at the campsite with the dogs (we didn’t trust leaving them alone in the camper for any length of time – or at all) while Mike took the kids to Crystal Cave in Kutztownon Saturday:
We figured that even if it rained, they could still enjoy the cave since it was indoors. And they did enjoy it – even if Emily was a bit afraid to go in at first.
We had also purchased tickets to see the minor league baseball team, The Iron Pigs, at their new stadium in Allentown on Sunday. Again, I had to stay back at the camper with the dogs, but Mike and the kids had a great time.
At least while everyone was gone, I had some quiet time to myself. Well…time to myself with two sick dogs, anyway…
We just returned from a week-long vacation at Frontier Town campground in Ocean City Maryland. Unfortunately, Andrew wasn’t able to come with us this year – he opted to attend a baseball camp instead to help him get ready for the high school baseball team next year.
We had a great time camping, but why do I feel like I need a vacation from my vacation?
Is this how you feel as you get older? Or is it just that I try to cram so much into each vacation that by the time I get home I’m exhausted and just want to vegetate in front of the TV for a day or two?
But I’m here in front of the computer for now and thought I’d post a few photos from our trip…let’s see – we tried our hand at crabbing from the pier inside the campground:
We used some crab nets that I found at a yard sale last fall. We did catch some crabs…two were too small and one escaped from the net and did a very funny sideways walk across the width of the dock (right back into the water).
After not having much luck at the crabbing pier, we gave up and left our nets with the Raup family (who just happened to be camping at the same campground last week too). The Raup girls managed to catch almost a dozen crabs! Not being big crab fans, they left them at our campsite in a bucket of water for us to eat…
Meanwhile, we spent the rest of the day at the beach on Assateague Island trying to convince our two goldendoodles that they are indeed ‘water dogs’:
They weren’t buying it. It was like a scene from the TV show, The Monkees – whenever a wave came up to the dogs, they scrambled away from the water as quickly as they could. But for a little excitement, they did manage to escape from their leashes and ran down the beach at one point, kicking sand on everyone as they went. Luckily, Matt was able to catch them as they paused to wrestle in the soft sand (no, they still didn’t go anywhere NEAR the water).
And speaking of dogs, the reason that we took them to the beach with us is that the previous day, Geddy proceeded to get sick in the camper while we were out. And I mean SICK. On every single piece of upholstery in the camper. I was absolutely in tears cleaning up after him while Mike went out and bought a steam cleaner and mop. Before our trip, I went over the entire camper with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (LOVE those things!) to get rid of little marks here and there – I was so proud of how clean the camper was. As I was cleaning up after the dog, I kept thinking to myself, “What a waste of time THAT was!”
Anyway…by the time we returned to our campsite and found the crabs that the Raups had left for us, the crabs were no longer moving. I shook the bucket. No movement. I picked one up by his big blue claw. No movement. Apparently, the crabs had died while waiting for our return! Frantically, I called the campground store and asked if it was safe to cook dead crabs – all I could think of was the delicious dinner that was in jeopardy! But it seems that is it not safe to cook and eat crabs that are already dead. What a waste…we had to have our originally planned hamburgers instead.
We also visited the Frontier Town western theme park while we were there – something we’ve never done before.
We watched gunfight re-enactments (which the kids weren’t crazy about), the kids panned for gold, we rode in paddleboats, Emily went on a pony ride and we also watched some traditional Indian dances – Emily got up and danced with them onstage – hers was more of an Irish jig than a Native American dance, but it was still fun to watch:
Matt also learned to shoot a bow and arrow – he was surprisingly accurate:
We also went on a stagecoach ride:
During which we were ‘robbed’ by some bandits…again, as you can see by the look on Emily’s face in this photo, she wasn’t crazy about the whole thing…
After that, she refused to go on the train ride since rumor had it that there may be some bandits there too…
But all-in-all, we had a great time – in spite of the dog illness, stagecoach robbery and even the dead crabs.
We’ve been to this campground twice before and it’s still one of our favorites. In fact, while we were there, we made reservations to go back again next year.
Oh – and we also wandered over to the Ocean City boardwalk on our last day. It was HOT – 100 degrees – and we were looking for any place that was air conditioned. We came upon the Ripley’s Believe It or Not museum and paid it a visit:
Boy, is that a bizarre place! Here’s Mike and Matt next to a replica of the world’s tallest man:
They advertise the museum as “fun for the whole family”…and it was interesting enough…once we got past the room with the shrunken head, torture implements and photos of an actual beheading! Not sure if that is actually fun for the whole family…
We managed to divert the kids’ attention until we got to the more appropriate optical illusions and other weird – but less gruesome – stuff.
Hopefully, my kids aren’t scarred for life after being ‘robbed’ at gunpoint, seeing a bucket full of dead crabs and viewing (albeit quickly) an actual shrunken human head…just another typical Torrence family camping trip for ya’!
It’s been a busy few weeks at the Torrence household! Lots of endings, goodbyes and celebrations.
Andrew graduated from eighth grade this week – we’re so proud of him!
His was the last class to graduate from St. Bridget School in Glassboro – the school is merging with another next year.
He also attended his eighth grade dance last weekend – what a handsome boy!
I can’t believe he’ll be going to high school next year!
While I was out yardsale-ing yesterday, I came across this little gem from the past:
That would a “Barbie Friend Ship” fold-out airplane from about 1972. I had one of these when I was a girl and when I saw this one for $2, I decided to pick it up for Emily. It cleaned up nicely and brought back some childhood memories…
Then yesterday afternoon, I got my hair cut. I was talking with my stylist and mentioned that someone had told me at work the other day that I had “model” hair and that I just couldn’t believe that someone would actually like my hair.
The stylist and others in the salon went on to tell me that same old standard line that straight-haired people always say to people with curly hair: “Lots of people pay lots of money to have hair that looks like yours.” This usually comes along with the line, “You’re so lucky to have naturally curly hair!”.
Hmmm…
This got me thinking – straight-haired people have NO idea what it’s like to grow up with kinky, curly hair in a world where straight hair is considered the standard for beauty. Celebrities with curly hair are still forced to straighten their hair to fit in with Hollywood (Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker, etc).
I’ve seen studies done that say that people with curly hair are not taken as seriously in the business world as those with straight hair. They’re seen as “fun and flighty” – not exactly executive material.
And I also saw recently on the Bravo show, “Millionaire Matchmaker” that the matchmaker told her curly haired women clients to straighten their hair because men don’t like curly hair. She said that men want hair “they can run their fingers through”…doesn’t sound so lucky now, does it?
And just to prove my point, I decided to take my new scanner and put together a little jaunt down memory lane inspired by my hair cut (which turned out great, by the way) and that 1972 Barbie toy. I’m going to show what it was like to grow up with naturally curly hair in the 1970s and 80s (when the only real hair product available was Dippity Doo). Keep reading if you dare, but let me warn you, some of these photos are very graphic (in a bad-hair kind of way)…
First, a sweet little baby photo…
Doesn’t look so bad, right? But the curly-hair monster was always lurking not far away…
Actually, as a young child, my hair was fairly under control (relatively speaking) – take a look at these kindergarten and first grade photos:
Not too bad – my bangs were even blond and shiny!
By 2nd grade, my hair started to rebel just a tiny bit:
You can see the little wisps sticking out in the back…
Then came third grade. Again I warn you…some of these photos are pretty graphic…
What happened here (fashion aside – what’s with the yellow scarf and zip-up jumpsuit)?!? Lesson learned – NEVER brush out curly hair after it’s dry, or you’ll end up looking like you’re wearing a helmet. But please do take note of my cute little patriotic barrette for the 1976 bicentennial…
I think my mom tried to tone it down a little bit for 4th grade, but I feel that this style is slightly reminiscent of Princess Leah from Star Wars (maybe that’s the look she was going for):
She tried to use curlers to tame the frizz, but the result was very odd…
Now for some strange reason, my mother decided to give me a perm when I turned 10. Maybe she was hoping to cancel out the natural curls with some manufactured ones? (By the way, my mother has perfectly straight hair.)
We moved to a new house in 5th grade, and so this was how I met all of the kids in my new school…looking like this:
I’m still traumatized by this hair – just the smell of perm solution brings back bad memories. The good news is that somehow, I managed to make friends in spite of this horrible hair.
Oh…but it gets even worse, I’m afraid…take a look at 6th grade:
Um…yeah. I don’t even know what to say. More curlers and some adolescent hormones resulted in this fine, fine photo. The year here would have been about 1980 or so.
The next year, I decided to try to at least let my hair grow a little longer – and I tried some sort of weird ponytail configuration. Here’s 7th grade:
Again, let’s not even talk fashion here. Focus on the hair, please (and that’s not too hard to do).
I tried something new the next year – I let it grow out and always wore it pulled back in a ponytail:
Notice my feeble attempt at ‘feathering’ my bangs – it’s as close as I could get to the Farrah Fawcett look!
When I started high school, I tried to go a new route – I cut my hair shorter and left it curly with LOTS and LOTS of gel:
Yes, that’s right – you’re looking at a curly-haired mullet. I’m so proud! I even wore it to my boyfriend’s high school prom that way:
Fast forward to high school graduation – I kept my hair short and curly all through high school – it was the best I could do with my lack of curly hair knowledge and the few hair products available in 1986:
Wow. I warned you that the photos were graphic! And those are just my childhood photos – maybe if I have more time, I’ll share with you my adult hair-escapades.
Oh – and if any of you curly-heads (or non-curly heads) are brave enough to share YOUR bad childhood hair photos, please send them to me so I don’t feel so alone being traumatized by my past hair blunders…
We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend camping at Holly Shores campground in Cape May. The weather was absolutely glorious!
We spent some time on the beach at Sunset Beach and took the dogs with us…
Although they weren’t crazy about the water…
There was a dog park at the campground which was great – the dogs got lots of exercise!
The kids had a nice time too – Emily got to ride a pony…
And we went on a hayride…Matt wasn’t crazy about that…
Poor Matt – at the end of the weekend, he wound up with poison ivy on his cheek! The whole side of his face was swollen – but he’s doing better now…
No more camping for another three weeks – we have lots going on at home in June…
Andrew was confirmed early this month in a beautiful service – you’re growing up so fast, Andrew!
Here he is with his father and me – we love you!
And notice how gray Morgan’s hair is! 😉
I finally have a moment to post about our wonderful weekend in Florida – we had an absolutely AWESOME time!
Thanks so much to my friend Linda for hosting us at her home and treating us to a fabulous girl’s birthday weekend!
We went to the beach on Saturday and had a lovely sunny day – it was so nice to feel the warmth again – I could feel my body soaking up the vitamin D!
The grown-ups also went out to a yummy dinner at a fondue restaurant called The Melting Pot (thanks to Linda and her friends for making me laugh all night – and thanks to Tom for watching the children):
We also got to meet our goldendoodle Geddy’s brother, Buddy. Linda had Buddy shipped to her in Florida when she found out that no one had adopted him…
They also have another dog – a Westie named Max who is 18 years old. Max (who has to wear diapers now, unfortunately) took it upon himself to take up residence in my suitcase…
Hmmm….I love dogs and all, but I wasn’t crazy about this…
We also visited a local arts festival where the kids got to create some pottery pieces…
That’s Linda’s son Zachary with Kylee learning to throw clay on the wheel.
Emily also leaned how to play the bongo drums…and she was surprisingly good at it!
On Sunday, we visited Linda’s church – Georgianna UMC on Merritt Island. I was so moved during the worship service – the Holy Spirit was obviously alive and active in that gathering. I hope that we can capture that energy in our own church soon.
On Monday, we visited the Magic Kingdom (certainly a different kind of kingdom 🙂 in Walt Disney World. The day was fantastic – our timing was great, the weather was super, the kids held up well…we even got to meet Cinderella in the VIP room:
I almost didn’t think I was going to have anything interesting to blog about! Until the “Princess Tragedy”…
It all started out well enough – after our day at the park, we scheduled princess makeovers for our darling girls at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in Downtown Disney. The girls were treated to their own personal “fairy godmothers” styling their hair, makeup and nails – and to save a little money, we decided to pull a BYOD – Bring Your Own Dress. Emily had a gorgeous sparkly pink dress that Linda had given her for her birthday – here she is after her makeover…
Doesn’t she look happy? Unfortunately, after we left the boutique to go to dinner, Emily decided that her dress was itchy and uncomfortable…things went downhill fast…
In a moment of motherly-panic, I felt I had no other choice but to purchase another dress – we just spent a large amount of money to have Emily’s hair and makeup done and it was running down her face! The whole makeover experience was in jeopardy!
So I frantically searched through the Disney Store and could find no costumes in her size except for Jasmine’s…
I’m really trying to focus on living in the “now” – I am reading the book, The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle, in an effort to help me still my mind and deal with those things that come my way without stressing. I tried to pause and take a deep breath – I tried to remind myself that there are no “problems” – only “situations”, as the book recommends.
I was doing well until I took the costume, rushed back to the bathroom to change Emily…and the pants were so big, they fell down her tiny hips. There were no other costumes to be found – not even Jasmine in a smaller size! No problems…just situations…
I rushed back to the counter and with that mother-desperation in my voice, asked for some safety pins. Of course, they had none (but the woman at the counter had witnessed the princess meltdown and was very sympathetic). Finally, I went back to the boutique and found some clear rubber bands that I used to gather the material on the pants…we had a happy princess again!
Then it started to rain…no problems, just situations…
Of course, we were forced to purchase a very expensive Walt Disney World “souvenir” umbrella…but we had to keep the newly coiffed and outfitted princesses dry…
Which, of course, let to a couple of very cold princesses. No problems…just situations…
At which point I pulled out my final “mommy-trick” – a sweatshirt that I just happened to purchase a few hours earlier…all was well!
And I got through it without having my own meltdown…I’ll keep working on it…
Emily loved her new outfit so much, she wore it home on the plane (and loved all the attention it brought her). And the fairy godmothers used so much gel and hairspray, the hair stayed in for three days! At least I feel like we got our money’s worth and that all the effort to avert the Princess Tragedy was not in vain…
Thanks again to the Brandons for a wonderful weekend!!!!!
Six years ago, I was lucky enough to give birth to the sweetest, most beautiful little girl I could ever imagine. I can still remember as if it were yesterday when they placed her on my stomach for the first time right after she was born – I looked into those tiny little blue eyes and fell in completely and totally in love!
I thank God everyday for my precious gift – Happy Birthday, sweet Emily Rose!!!!
Today, Emily and I are off to sunny Florida for a weekend of girl’s fun! We’re looking forward to getting away and playing for a little while.
Last week was my birthday – I’m happy to say that I survived turning 40. Mike was kind enough to put together a little party for me at work. Well…when I say ‘kind’, I use the term loosely. Here’s my cake, for example:
But we had a nice time – I got to see some people that I used to work with almost 20 years ago – oh my! Did I just say 20 years!?!?! Wow. I am old.
Speaking of work, it looks like another trip to Alaska is in the works in the next month or two. I’m certainly racking up the frequent flyer miles, that’s for sure!
And more good news – the bladder cancer test came back negative! I was so relieved! I have to repeat the test in a few months, but I am so glad for the very good news.
I have to go finish packing for my trip – hope you all have a nice, sunny weekend too!
Copyright © 2024 Flying By the Seat of My Pants All rights reserved. Theme by Laptop Geek.
