Leopard Spots

Been Busy...

I added a couple of widgets to my blog and completely disappeared. 

I have to be honest.

I've been a little busy with real life lately. 

Kind of inconvenient.

Work. Seriously. I work retail. What's the worst that can happen? We run out of white t-shirts?

Apparently not. 

We were one of the many businesses and homes in the area that were affected by broken water pipes after we started warming up from the deep freeze. That of course had to happen when I was the closing manager. 

It was my weekend on, which was generally uneventful. Cub had kind of a rough time on Saturday night. Nothing a little cuddling couldn't take care of. We'll follow up during her appointments today.

Kitten entertained and bonded with a former vice president at church on Sunday. Sorry, no photos. I don't name names on my blog, but if you're curious who he was, he made an unsuccessful bid for president at one point. Minnesota was the only state to vote for him. 

I looked forward to a boring yet busy day at work yesterday. And for the most part it was true. I had placed the staff for the evening. Then one of my pregnant associates wound up going to the hospital. She was just standing there cashiering and felt a gush of blood. Work got a whole lot less boring.

Today is my day off. I am thankful for this on multiple levels.

It's inauguration day. I will be cleaning the house, folding laundry and watching the television.

I need an escape from work. That used to be my drama free place. Now, not so much. 

I'm really looking forward to nap time. 

A lot. A lot. 

I'll be back with more interesting posts shortly. 

THAT HAIR!

I don't know if any of you have noticed...

...but Kitten has thick, blonde, CURLY hair.

You may want to reference one of the 45 photos of her in the Fall Portraits link to your right for proof.

Then reference the photo of me (I know, I'm adorable) to your left.

Since she, except for the hair, looks exactly like me I know she wasn't switched at birth.

Although sometimes I have my suspicions.

Her hair is very HIGH maintnence.

We are already exploring the wonderful world of hair products.

In depth.

Kitten loves hair products.

A LOT.

We also get a lot of attention when we go out.

Every time we leave the house.

Grandparents stop dead in their tracks.

Other moms are envious (don't be, refer to the high maintnence portion instead).

Even dad's stop to gawk.

For example, yesterday.

I have a little job as the co-advisor of a local high school yearbook and newspaper. The job has it's perks.

•I can work the hours around the career path type job.

•It exercises my much needed creative muscle.

•I can bring the baby to work! (Did I mention how much high school kids LOVE her?!? And also all the grandparents and moms in the building).

So I show up yesterday morning completely oblivious to the fact that it was picture day. I know already slacking on the job.

The account rep LOVED her (that would be a gawking dad).

He would not take no for an answer when it came to getting her portrait done.

For free.

I fully intended to order the smallest package, because (again reference the 82 photos in the Fall Portraits album) I plan on eventually printing and sending out those portaits.

But he ordered the biggest package for her.

For free.

Cause she's just so darn cute.

When I thanked him and said, with amusement...

"Now my kids can having matching school portraits."

Cub is getting free photos as well.

Did I mention I was trying to work?

Or that I now have portraits of the girls coming out of my ears?

Cause she's just so darn cute.

Maybe I'll just do holiday cards with the fall portraits.

And enclose school photos with the photo filled holiday card.

And then enclose a note of apology for inudating my recipients with so many photos of MY little leopards.

At least it's money saved that can be put towards more hair products...

...or the postage to send out the aforementioned holiday cards.

I can see the beginning of a vicious cycle...

My beautiful new shoes!

They've been speaking to me for weeks, screaming pratically!

Okay for only three days. But the effect is still the same.

Today all of us really awesome ladies took turns staring at these *amazing* pumps.

Let me just take a moment...

By the end of the week we'll all have them.

And yes, when are purple patent pumps NOT a necessity?

I survived retail during Back-to-school!

I think this summarizes my weekend perfectly!

Like a giddy, little school girl...

Oh, I wish that I were talking about one my little leopards. You have no idea. NO. IDEA. Since I work retail, I do not have a normal 5-day work schedule, and therefore I consider both Monday and Thursdays my difficult days. Mondays, I have to clean up from the weekends and on Thursdays I have to make sure the week has gone by smoothly and brace myself for the weekend. Needless to say, by lunch time I was ready to scream. More so than usual. I took off with one of my coworkers to go have a great vent session in the foodcourt...

...that's when we saw the Chipotle bag. Now I know that when Chipotle opens a new location they give away free burritos for a day or two. But we thought that ended. So we get in a really long line, not completely sure that we wanted to spend most of our break in line, but we could vent while we waited. That's when we heard, the burritos were still free!! Heck ya!!! We turned to each other, and shrieked and giggled and jumped up and down just like...giddy, little school girls. People turned to look at us and whispered...yeah, we were embarassed for us too. But what was important is that our days went from gross to FANTABULOUS!!!!

We didn't even mind the fact that we only had fifteen minutes to scarf down the yumminess.

Friday Night Lights

Since I have had kind of a craptabulous week, I thought I would take this time and write about why I love Friday nights so much. First of all, some people may go out on Friday nights. Nope. I work. And I love it!

I am the closing manager every Friday night, it is so ingrained in the common store mind, the 2 manager close is often tossed and I close by myself. I have the whole store to myself, a really awesome set of associates and the daunting task of the insanity of Friday night crowd control.

My favorite part about Friday nights is that I have the associates to myself. I can talk to them for extended periods of time without drawing ire from anyone else. And I still get the job done. We can talk about such things as if it is worth it to buy the new Death Cab for Cutie album, or if the only good thing about it is the new single. An important conversation cause it's the only good song on the store soundtrack right now. And of course it's not a night with high schoolers until the whole Facebook vs. MySpace argument is settled. Facebook is better, apparently.

Even when things get kind of crappy, like my argument with Mall Security tonight. I so needed a good laugh!

Friday nights are my favorite shift of the week. I often leave at night with my face hurting from laughing so much! It's a good time...and I just needed to randomly write about it, so I can remind myself that it has been a good week!

BLAH

Omigosh, today is one of those days when I just want to crawl into bed and not be bothered. It all started out this morning when my stupid cat brought in his first dead birdie present to me. Ahh. Swoon. But the best part was...it was not quite dead...yet. Yeah. Thanks. Cat.

The baby went garage saling with Grandma and I took Cub for a quick visit to work. Why did I feel it necessary to pop in on my day off...you don't even want to know...it's good that none of you came to that store today...it was sooo messy.

Cub was all about dressing like me today. Jeans, tank top and flip flops. That's right. She finally escewed wearing a dress to look like Mommy! And I had this amazing post all worked out on my iPhone with my new cool Typepad app. But the stupid thing would not work! So perhaps I will post a photo later.

However, since Cub was dressing like me today, that meant some serious bonding time. Everytime I turned around! Even during nap time, which I have to admit was more for me than for the ladies, there she was telling me how she did not need a nap thank you very much.

And why did mom need a nap today? Well, I woke up with a headache. Which really pissed me off, because I didn't even drink last night and felt completely ripped off. Then I realized, that my muscles were achy and my head felt like an aquarium and all my hair follicles hurt. So yes, I am sick smack in the middle of July. Which leads me into a whole rant on Minnesota, because after our craptabulous spring I am all shades of done with this state!

I did spend time today pulling good mommy duty. I not only baked a cake with the ladies. We baked brownies as well! Yeah, that's right I rock! I had Kitten going with brownies and Cub baking the cake. The kitchen was a mess! Then I had to feed the ladies lunch and while I thought briefly about just letting them eat brownies and a cake for lunch, I made them an actual lunch with their fave. Alphabet pasta. All this and then they start fighting with one another. All. Day. LONG.

Like I said. I want to crawl back into bed.

But I'm going to see Mamma Mia! with the Momma tonight and working all day tomorrow then it's the Dark Knight with the bro. All said I should be just about dead by the time Monday morning rolls around. Yeah. I know. You all are jealous. And I can't blame you. I live a crazy cool life.