Mommin' It Up!

May 14, 2014May 13, 2014

Special K

Sam’s the “Special Kindergartner” at school this week. He’s been waiting on this since September – reverse-alphabetical order meant his turn was last. Being the Special K is a very important honor. He gets to be the line leader, turn off the lights, organize the lunch orders, and other exciting stuff.

This morning I got to visit his classroom, and listened to his classmates read their “I like Sam because…” papers. (My favorites included “he uses his heart,” “he sits with me at lunch” and “he is handsome.”) Then Sam told his class about a few family pictures he brought in, I read them a book (Lego Star Wars FTW), and we – most importantly – ate a snack.

This week has been complicated. Kate’s been sick, I’m leaving on a business trip this evening, and Mother’s Day was… well. It’s was Mother’s Day. There’s a blog post rolling around in my head on that one. But the complicated, complex thoughts and emotions that have been washing over me this week have also made me grateful for the simple things like spending an hour in Sam’s kindergarten class.

I’m so, so grateful to be able to take part in the simple things.

May 8, 2014

Shally Shells She Shells by the She Shore.

Well… Tuesday I got my Frankel device.

It’s worse than I thought it was going to be.

I can’t talk, I can’t eat, I can’t laugh, I can’t sneeze. I look ridiculous.

And it hurts like a mofo.

Allow me to demonstrate.

Part A there sits on the outside of my lower gums. That part might hurt the worst, and it makes my lower lip puff out like a boxer with a mouth guard. Part B is in front of my top front teeth. Part C sits behind my lower teeth, and it really wouldn’t be too bad if it hadn’t had a sharp edge on it the first day I had it. While that problem was solved with a nail file, it cut the heck out of my tongue the first few hours I was wearing this thing and is still sore. Part D goes all the way to the roof of my mouth. Parts C and D combine to make a circle through which my tongue can fit. That is, until it gets blocked by Part B. Finally, Part E is on the outside of my gums and makes my face stick out way too wide.

Between this contraption and the blood vessel in my eye that decided to bust on Sunday morning, I am LOOKING GOOD, let me tell you.

I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I had one of those metal Easter egg dippers in my mouth.

Which, come to think of it, may have served the same purpose and been a WHOLE LOT CHEAPER.

Please send wine. And also a straw.

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014

Atlanta, here we come! But first I need to buy some stuff.

This Shoppin’ It Up series is sponsored by CVS Extra Care. The content is 100% originally my own, as is my big love for all things CVS.
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So I’m not sure if we’ve mentioned it or not, but Jenny and I are spending this weekend in Atlanta for our third Mom 2.0 Summit. (I am being totally serious – I don’t know if we’ve talked about it. We typically can’t shut up about these things but this year it sneaked up on us!) We’ve both spent the week getting ourselves/homes/families ready for our departure, and in less than 24 hours we’ll be sitting poolside.

It would sound fantastic if I could only forget about the pre-trip to-do list that is most decidedly not done.

One thing I can mark off the list, though, is buying essential travel supplies. Thanks to a lunch-hour trip to CVS, I am ready to go.

The most obvious thing I needed to get was a prescription. I had a mild panic attack a couple days ago, when my medicine (the one I take five of per day, and the one I need in order to function) was running alarmingly low. I knew it wasn’t quite time for a refill, and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get it filled before we left. I was able to breathe again upon remembering that I was going to Atlanta and not the Antartic and that there are CVS stores where I could get my prescription if necessary. Crisis averted.

You know what I love about CVS prescriptions? First of all, there’s an app to request refills. But even better than that, they text me when I have one to pick up – whether it’s on auto-refill and I get it once a month or it’s one I dropped off 15 minute before, I get a text when it’s ready.

Anyway, medicine aside, I picked up an odd and random assortment of other things I needed for my trip – and on this busy day, I was grateful for a one-stop-shop! And as an added bonus, I of course used my ExtraCare card where I always earn 2% back on all purchases I buy. Love it!

I hit the sunscreen aisle first, because last year Jenny and I both forgot to pack it and because we are both albino, we had to buy some from the gift shop at the Ritz. As you can imagine, that was reasonably priced.

I strolled through the travel-size aisle too, just to see what struck my fancy. It’s not such an issue this time because we are checking our bags, but the last time I flew with just a carry-on, I had to throw away my (very expensive and very full) bottles of mousse and hairspray because they were too big. Fortunately, CVS has small-size everything.

I bought miniature toothpaste, Advil, Tylenol PM (in case I can’t sleep at the hotel OR if I don’t want to listen to Jenny talk on the plane), and hand sanitizer (because airports).

I even grabbed a travel iPhone charger, because you can’t be too careful (which reminds me of the teenaged couple I saw in the “family planning” aisle, but that’s another story.)

After grabbing a few more must-haves, I was good to go.

I should add that there is one section of the store I completely skipped.

The make up aisle.

Clearly, Jenny had already cleaned them out.