Our weekend, in pictures.

Except for today, we had a beautiful Memorial Day weekend here in Michigan!  We were busy all weekend, starting Friday night with the Lifehouse/Daughtry concert:

We ate dinner at The Green Well, which is in the “Eastown” area of Grand Rapids.  The food was pretty good, but the service was only so-so.  Don’t worry though, I didn’t fire anyone this time!

This neat building was behind the restaurant:

The writing on the top of the building said “Blodgett Home for Children,” but I’m sure that’s not what it is anymore.  Shawn was fairly certain it was haunted!

Next we went to Sanchez for a Sangria, and then onto the concert.  The first band that played was “Cavo,” and I hated on them the whole time.  They had this wimpy guitar player with greasy hair who kept swinging it around like he was a total rock star:

Lifehouse was next, and they were very good, but more heavy metal than I thought they would be.  Their lead singer is totally hot, and if I had known that I would have definitely put him on my list of people to knock boots with!

Finally my boyfriend Chris Daughtry came out.  He did not disappoint in hotness or in his performance!  My only complaint is that they too were more heavy metal than I thought they would be.  My ears were still ringing when I went to bed on Friday night!

The girls were “camping” with my parents Friday and Saturday night.  I use the term “camping” loosely because with everything going on with my Grandma, they cancelled their camping reservation, and instead camped in the yard at their house.  They still had smores, a boat ride, and lots of swimming, so they really didn’t miss much!  With the girls being gone, Shawn and I decided to head to the beach on Saturday:

Sunday afternoon we picked the girls up, and went to see my Grandma at her new place.  I wouldn’t say she likes it, but she seems to be doing well.  Unfortunately, there are quite a few confused people there, including her roommate.

As soon as we walked in the room on Sunday, her roommate started cussing me out telling me they told her my Grandma would only be there for one night, and it had already been one night!  Nobody messes with me or my Grandma, so I told her there were two beds in that room, and my Grandma was paying for one of them.  To which she responded “Well, I’m paying for that bed too, so I guess they’re gettin’ double for that one!”  By that time my Grandma was getting pissed so she told the lady to “Hush Up!” and then we got outta there as fast as we could!

On a confused-old-person related note, when we were in the sitting room I saw an old man who used to go to my parent’s church.  I didn’t talk to him, and he just sat there staring at us, so I figured he was looney tunes.  Well, later my Mom told me she went up to him and said “Hi Mr. So-and-So, do you remember me?  We used to go to your church.”  I’m not sure if he remembered her or not, but she said he took one look at her and started jacking off! 

Anypervert.  This morning Lainey informed us that today was a holiday, so we had to do something special.  Ok?  Well, it rained off and on all day, so doing anything outside was a bust.  Luckily, this morning I remembered a flyer that came home from school about kids being able to bowl 2 games for free everyday all summer long…perfect!  I checked out the website, and signed us up!  For $24.95, I was also able to sign 4 adults up!  Oh, and I got a $50 restaurant.com gift card for buying the adult membership!  Score, score, and score!

This was Lainey’s first time bowling, and she loved it!

        (In case you’re wondering, her shirt says “Future Mrs. Bieber.”  Barf!  Shawn found them at Wally-Mart, and insisted we buy them!)

We already had bumpers in the lane, but they also gave the girls this little ramp to roll their balls from:

Shawn is all hardcore and everything:

I was just there for the Nachos and comic relief:

 

After bowling we went to price a new garage door…um, who knew those things were so expensive?  If I find the douche bag who ran into ours and broke it I think I might throw that bowling ball through their windshield!

On another note, this is the last week of school, woohoo!  Schools out, schools out, teacher let the monkeys out…

Hope you all had a great Memorial Day Weekend!

Let’s knock boots!

Last week, Laura (aka The Purse Blogger) awarded me with quite possibly one of the best blog awards I have ever seen.  I admit, I haven’t been faithful in accepting awards and passing them on, but this one deserved my utmost attention!  Are you ready?

Do you love it?  Apparently, now I am supposed to tell you 5 Characters with whom I would choose to knock boots with.  Awkward?  Maybe.  Funny?  Definitely!

1.  Dawson (or as my husband calls him, “James Vanderbeek”)

Seriously, who wouldn’t want to knock boots with that?  What was Katie Holmes thinking?  She should have snatched Dawson up instead Tom!

2.  Pacey (aka Josh Jackson)

Ok, honestly I didn’t know Pacey was going to be on my list until I saw this picture when I was searching for Dawson.  As soon as I saw it though, I thought “Shut the front door!”  Ooh la la, who wants to grab a cup of coffee with him?!

3.  Jasper Jax (aka Ingo Rademacher)

I have been lusting after him since 1996 when I first saw him on General Hospital.  Do you remember my post about how we named our daughters?  Well, the boy name we had picked out when I was pregnant was always Jaxson (to be called Jax) after guess who?!  On a somewhat related note, while I was looking for a picture for this post I found out that Ingo has a son, and according to Wikipedia, his sons name is Peanut!

4.  Taye Diggs

Do you remember Taye in “How Stella got her groove back?”  He was definitely the best part of that movie!  Who wouldn’t want Taye to help them get their groove back?  By the way, the words by the arrow on the picture say “Rub his chest to smell Taye’s sexy scent.”  Apparently, that doesn’t work on a computer screen, so don’t even bother:(

5.  Chris Daughtry

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I realize he’s not really a character since he isn’t an actor, but whatever.  I had to put him on the list though, because tomorrow he is going to be my free pass.  Why?  Because tomorrow is finally the day of the Daughtry concert!  Woohoo!  Should I make a sign that says “Hey Chris, let’s knock boots!”?  I kid, I kid.  I don’t think Shawn would approve. 

 

And now…to pass on the award.  Let’s see…

1.  Contradictions of an Obsessive, Over-Analytical Dreamer

2.  The Doll House

3.  Adventures of a Yankee Girl

4.  Confessions of a Semi-Slacker Mom

5.  You're lucky I don't have a gun...

  (This is not the actual name of her blog, but rather her username, but it cracks me up every time I see it!)

 

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!  I can’t wait to see Lifehouse and Daughtry tomorrow!  We will also be busy this weekend with yard work and maybe going to the beach.  If you remember, could you please say a prayer for my Grandma?  She was in the hospital, and was moved to an assisted living facility today.  At 87 years old, she has always lived on her own, so I have a feeling this may be a difficult transition for her.  Your prayers would mean a lot, thank you! 

No Penguins Allowed!

Last Friday Lainey and I went out to lunch before we did our marathon grocery shopping run.  I was busy formulating my plan of attack for the store, and she was busy coloring when she suddenly stopped and excitedly said:

“Look Mom!  NO penguins allowed in here!”

What?  Penguins?  We don’t live in the zoo Antarctica, so I was pretty sure there was no need for signage to keep penguins out.  She was adamant though, pointing at a sign and exclaiming:

“See!  No. Penguins. Allowed. In. Here!”

Well, I’ll be damned, she was right.  Sort of.  When I told her I thought the sign meant “No Smoking,” she went and took a closer look.  When she came back she declared us both right and proudly stated “Mom, it must mean no smoking penguins allowed.”

Weekend Update: Ice Ice Baby!

I haven’t done a weekend update in awhile, so I thought what the hell?  Why not?  Not to mention, I actually did something this weekend, as opposed to my normal weekend which consists of watching Wifeswap, going to church, getting groceries, and complaining about Shawn’s Xbox addiction.

I digress.  On Saturday morning Alivia had a Build-A-Bear party with her Daisy Troop, so we headed to the mall for that.  Have I ever told you that I think Build-A-Bear is the devil?  Well, I do.  Lainey of course was totally bitter about Alivia building a bear, so I promised to let her pick out something at the Disney store.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the Disney Store is gone!  G-O-N-E, gone!  Yup, it was replaced with:

 

Has anyone ever shopped there?  I used to get the Delia’s magazine when I was a teenager, but I assumed that store was long out of business.  Apparently not!

Since the Disney Store was a no-go, Lainey decided to get a Zhu-Zhu pet.  As far as I can tell, Zhu-Zhu pets are also the devil.  I guess it’s kind of cute, but I’m not sure what all the fuss is about these things?  This is the one she got:

It has an ice cream cone embroidered on it’s back, does anyone know WTF that is all about?  Anywho.  While we were at the mall we also ate lunch at Olga’s (yum!), and went to Old Navy to get some $1 flip flops.  Did anyone else cash in on that deal this weekend?

Saturday night, one of my bloggy (and real life) friends was having a 29th birthday party, so you know I was up for that!  My best cousin, Hillary, was also in town this weekend so we decided to crash the party together.

A lot of fun was had, and a lot of pictures were taken.  I was actually afraid to log into Facebook this morning, for fear of what pictures could possibly be waiting there for me!  Here are just a few from my camera…

Shawn took this picture of me before I left:

The birthday girl, can you guess what she was saying is that big?

Myself, Hillary, Pete, and Stephanie.  The four of us all grew up in the same hometown.

Is this picture creepy, or what?!  This is Matt, Stephanie’s friends boyfriend.  His girlfriend kept trying to take a “normal” picture, but every picture turned out with him looking like a total creeper!

This one turned out pretty good:

Pete kept checking his Facebook all night long!  FYI, Facebook is the devil too.

Hillary and I:

I thought this picture was going to be a “normal” picture, but Hillary sabotaged it with a boob grab!

(If I look sweaty, it’s because I was!  How about some A/C people?  And can anyone tell me what I can do about that vein in middle of my forehead?)

Here are the 3 of us doing our best to look like creepers:

Stephanie and Pete, Stephanie’s eyes looked really squinty in couple other pictures, so she decided to hold them open:

The end of night looked something like this:

As soon as the DJ put Vanilla Ice on, it was all downhill (or uphill) from there!

I hope you all had a great weekend!  It’s so beautiful here today, so am heading out to the deck to enjoy some sunshine and dive into this book:

 

P.S.  Don’t forget to enter my Cafe Press giveaway, tomorrow is the last day to enter!

Giveaway!

As promised yesterday, I’m starting a giveaway today!!  This is actually my very first review and giveaway, so I’m really excited.  Several months ago Cafe Press sent myself and both of my daughter’s a T-shirt, and now it’s your turn to win one (or two)!

Have you been to Cafe Press before?  Wow!  This giveaway is for a T-shirt, but they have much more than that!  They have unique and personalized gifts for any topic or interest you could possibly think of!

Are you dying to know which shirts we got?  Come on, you know you are!  Here’s mine:

It says “Girls Have Guns Too!”  I love it, and I’ve already worked out in it several times.  I don’t usually buy black T-shirts because they tend to fade quickly, but this one hasn’t at all.  Here is the T-shirt my girls got:

Well, that is Alivia’s shirt, and Lainey’s says “Little Sister.”  Don’t go getting any crazy ideas that Lainey is a big sister too!

The winner of the giveaway will actually win 2 T-shirts, one for yourself and one for one of your children!  If you don’t have a child, then how about a niece or nephew?  Ok, here’s the skinny on how to enter (leave a separate comment for each entry):

1.  Follow me, and leave me a comment saying you are a follower (1 entry).

2.  Check out Cafe Press, and leave a comment with the link to one of your favorite T-shirts.  This doesn’t necessarily have to be the one you will win (1 entry).

3.  Post about this giveaway on your blog, and don’t forget to leave me the link so I can make sure it’s legit (1 entry).

4.  If you voted for Blake in the cutest child contest, leave me a comment saying you voted, and also your Facebook username (1 entry).  There’s still time to vote too, just click Blake’s name to learn how!

5.  Vote for Blake’s brother, Max in the cutest child contest too!  Max is photo 12 in the 0-2 age group.  Be sure to leave a comment saying you voted, and your FB username (1 entry).

Good Luck!  This contest is open to U.S. and Canadian residents, and will run until Monday, May 24th 6pm EST.

I’ve got people!

Last week my cousin Cari asked me to tell everyone I knew to vote for her son, Blake, in a “Cutest Child Contest.”  Well, Cari is actually married to my other cousin Justin (it’s legal, I promise), so I thought “I don’t know anyone they don’t know!”  But then I thought, wait a minute!  I’ve got people.  I’ve got my bloggy friends!

So, will you vote for Blake?  It’s super easy, because you only have to vote one time.  First, you have to “Like” nikki.loren.photography on Facebook.  Hopefully that link works, if it doesn’t just type nikki.loren.photography into your Facebook search box.  After you’ve “Liked,” then click on photos, and then click on the first album which is “Cutest Child Contest 3-8 years age group.”

Once you’re in the album, Blake’s picture is the very first one.  It looks like this:

(Isn’t he adorable?  How could you not vote for him?)

Now all you have to do is click on Blake’s picture, and type “Vote” in the comments section!  Remember you can only vote one time!  And for those of you who vote, you just might get an extra entry in a giveaway I’m starting tomorrow!  I’m just sayin.

Iron Goddess.

A few people have asked me why in the world I wanted my pimpin’ new bike, so I figured I might as well come out with it. I wanted the bike because I want to start doing duatholons. A duathlon is similar to a triathlon, except there is no swimming. A duathlon is run, bike, run. Whereas, a triathlon is swim, bike, run.

I am going to be completely honest with you here. I am usually all talk and no action…or at least all training, but no racing. Can anyone relate to that? I started training last summer for a 1/2 marathon, but then when the boob thing happened, I gave up. I told you I was going to run the Riverbank Run last weekend, but when my friend bailed out on me, I said screw it.

So, what I am about to say is HUGE! On June 27 I will be doing the Iron Goddess Duathlon!

Yup, I signed up and everything! It’s important to note that I signed up, because the other races I have ditched, I never even signed up. Don’t judge, ok? However, if I’m being honest, I already want to give up on this race too. I know, I know, I’m a total weenie.

It rained here all last week, so Saturday when it was sunny I was finally ready to take my bike for a spin.

You have no idea how much I hate that helmet, but it does make me look sort of hardcore. I decided to ride to Alivia’s T-Ball game, which was 8 miles away. I’m not going to lie, I was terrified. It was ridiculously windy, and I was fighting the wind the whole way, not to mention riding on a road with lots of cars! It didn’t help that about 2 miles in, Shawn and the girls drove by me in his car. His car! What does that mean? Well, it meant that I’d have to ride the bike home too, which I was not planning on. Boo! I think that was all part of Shawn’s master plan to get me to stop being such a weenie.

In the end, I did it. I rode 16 miles round trip, without falling off once! Shawn was really proud of me, and kept telling me how super fast I was. Whatever. I guess I did ok, but the idea of the duathlon is now making me throw up in my mouth. The race is this: 1.5 mile run, 10.7 mile bike ride, and 3 mile run. Shoot me now. I’m not looking for sympathy or encouragement here, I’m just being honest.

The race is 6 weeks from today, so I hope that gives me enough time. If I’m not ready, I think I’ll just break my own leg a few days before. Don’t tell Shawn though, okay?

P.S. I added a “Train with me” page at the top of my blog. This is more for my benefit to track my progress, but feel free to check it out and ride my ass if I’m not working hard enough!

Better late than never.

I know everyone has already posted about their Mother’s Day, but I wanted to save mine for today for my “Feel Good Friday” post.  I had a great Mother’s Day weekend!  The weather was unfortunately cold and pretty craptastic, but we made the best of it.

Alivia actually gave me her present early, on Tuesday when I went to “Muffins with Mom.”  No, I’m not talking about the visor!  Are you ready?  You’re going to love it!

 

Isn’t it the most beautiful birdhouse ever?  I can’t wait to put it up, but apparently I need to mount it on a post.  Hmm…Shawn is not the handiest person in the world, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.  Oh, and sorry about the bad picture, I have no idea why Lainey and I both have the same “WTF?” look on our face.

Saturday night Shawn took the girls and I out to dinner at a local Mexican place called “Trini’s.”  The food is always delish, and the Sangria definitely hit the spot!  The service was terrible though, and I actually fired our waitress.  Yes, you heard me.  I fired her.  She took our drink order and then didn’t come back for 10 minutes.  Another waitress finally came over asking if we needed more chips and salsa, so I said “Yes, and we need a new waitress!”  I think Shawn was embarrassed, but nobody makes me wait 10 minutes for my Sangria!

On Sunday morning Shawn and the girls gave me another gift, which was also really special.  It’s not so much the gift that’s special though, but the story behind it.  First, here is the present:

I’m not sure if you can tell from the picture, but it’s one of those really big wall clocks.  I had a clock similar to this, but it stopped working and we never got it fixed.  Several months ago I showed Shawn this clock at this store and he was basically like “Uh-huh, yeah that’s nice.”  In other words, he wasn’t listening.

But, it turns out someone else was listening.  When Shawn asked the girls what they wanted to get me for Mother’s Day, Lainey reminded him of the clock, and insisted that they get it!  Can you believe it?  This made me smile, especially since for the last 20 years I have been helping my Dad buy gifts for my Mom.

It was also perfect timing (haha, no pun intended) for the clock, because guess what?!  My new furniture is coming on Saturday!  I’m so excited I could pee my pants!  The only downside is that we are without living room furniture for a few days because my cousin, who bought our old set, came and picked it up tonight.  Oh well, more room to fall off ride my bike, right?!

I hope everyone has a great weekend, and had something to feel good about this week!  To link up and play along with “Feel Good Friday,” just click on the picture below:

Lance Armstrong, I am not.

A few weeks ago I posted about my new set of wheels. Well, guess what? I picked it up on Monday, and it’s totally pimp!

See, I told you it was pimp! When I ordered the bike I was so excited, I was pretty sure I might even be the next Lance Armstrong. Yeah, I know he’s a dude, but whatever. I’m just sayin. Well, that night Shawn says to me “You know you’re going to have to learn to ride with the clips, right?” I scoffed at that saying “Yeah, whatever. I know how to ride in clips, the spin bikes have clips! Duh!” And then it dawned on me. The spin bikes are stationary. This bike will be moving, like on the road, with cars. Shit.

I considered cancelling the bike, but Shawn basically told me N-O, plus he thought it was too late to cancel anyway. Not to mention the manager at the bike shop goes to my spin class, and the girl who did my bike fitting teaches the Monday class. If I told them why I was cancelling they would think I was a total spaz. Which is probably true anyway.

So, for the last 3 weeks I’ve been freaking out. The bike was ready for a few days before I even picked it up. I told Shawn I felt a lot better about the bike when it was at the bike shop. You know, because if I brought it home, he might expect me to ride it. In the meantime, a Facebook friend of mine got a road bike too, and she told me she fell off the bike right in her driveway! When I told her how scared I was of this happening to me she said “It’s not a matter of if (you fall), it’s a matter of when.” This just confirmed my impending death.

Before I go any further, I’m worried that a few of you are thinking “Clips? What the hell are clips?” So, just in case, here’s a brief explanation. This is the bottom of my shoe:

And this is the “pedal” on my bike, if you even want to call it a pedal:

So, I have to “clip” my shoe into the pedal to ride the bike. Then, when I need to stop I have to clip out. Does any of this make sense? Oh, and aren’t the pink pedals bad ass?

Back to Monday. I finally picked the bike up, and when I got home I brought it in the house to practice clipping in and out. I was nervous, but at the same time, I also thought I was probably making a big deal out of nothing. Right? Wrong.

I got on the bike in the living room, and the first foot clipped in easily, because obviously I was just standing still. Shawn was standing next to me and was like “Do you want me to hold the bike?” I was all “No, no, no! I have to do it myself!” So, I go to clip the second foot in, and I’m on the bike for all of maybe 1 second, and then BOOM! I’m on the floor. Awesome. It turns out once both feet are clipped in, you need to pedal. Who knew?

Monkey Minute

This week’s Monday Minute is being renamed “Monkey Minute” in honor of that adorable little monkey in the picture.  She is the daughter of another blogger, and last week at just 16 months old she was diagnosed with cancer.  You can click on her picture, to be taken to her Momma’s blog.  Please visit her, follow her, and find it in your heart to pray for their family!

Ian tailored this weeks questions specifically for Monkey Minute, so here we go:

1.  How old do you act?

I really can’t put a number on it.  A not so wise man once told me “You’re only young once, but you can be immature forever.”  I’m not saying I’m immature, but I definitely spend my fair share of time joking around and acting redonkulous.  If you don’t believe me, ask my boss about the time I jumped out of the blanket warmer at him, and quite possibly made him pee his pants a little.

2.  As far back as you can remember, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I have actually wanted to be a nurse since I was in preschool!  I even have proof.  When my Mom and I were making a display for my high school graduation open house, we found an “All About Me” book from preschool.  One of the questions was “When I grow up I want to be a  _____ .”  As neatly as a 4 year old can write, I had printed “Nurse.”

3.  If you were to write a book based on your life, what would the title be?

“This isn’t what I expected.”

4.  What's something that you do that's considered "childish" by most?

I didn’t know how to answer this one, so I asked my husband.  His answer was “you make fun of me, and that’s childish.”  Dually noted.

5.  The last question isn't a question.  Write a story about a time when you or someone you know overcame great adversity.

Wow, hard question Ian!  For lack of a better answer I will use a story about myself, but I don’t know that I consider it “overcoming great adversity.”

After Alivia was born, I was diagnosed with Postpartum Depression.  My OB was a male, and a total douche bag.  He gave me a 30 day prescription for (I think) Paxil, and said when it was gone if I didn’t feel better to call the psychiatric hospital.  I am not even kidding.  Well, when it was gone I didn’t feel better, but I wasn’t about to call 1-800-CRAZY either, so I did nothing.  To make a long story short, my PPD went untreated until my second daughter was born.  That’s 21 months, but who’s counting?

I had switched doctors when I was pregnant with Lainey, and with lots of encouragement and support from my new doctor (and my husband!) I started medication, and started attending a support group.  The support group and the lessons I learned by going through this situation were truly invaluable.

Last Saturday I even did the “Out Came the Sun” run, which was to raise support and awareness for women suffering from postpartum depression.  I honestly did not want to do the run…it was cold, rainy, and I had only ever done one other 5K before.  I did it though, and am so glad I did.  I was so proud of myself, not just for running, but for everything I had overcome and for my 2 beautiful daughters waiting at the finish line!

          (Yes, that’s right, I’m rockin’ another visor!)

I hope you enjoyed this weeks “Monkey Minute.”  Please feel free to play along, and click over to Ian’s blog to link up.  Don’t forget to visit Momma’s Pixie Dreams where you can give Monkey and her family lots of love and support!

Feel Good Friday: Muffins and Mullets.

I am participating in “Feel Good Friday” today with The Girl Next Door. If you don’t know what “Feel Good Friday” is, click here and play along! This week I’m choosing to write about something I did for myself and someone else that really made both of us happy.

On Tuesday morning Alivia and Lainey had an event at their school called “Muffins with Mom.” It’s exactly like it sounds, bring your Mom, and eat a muffin. We got to the school and Alivia’s teacher was greeting everyone at the door. When she saw Alivia she smiled and said “Don’t forget to go to the classroom first and get your special surprise for Mom!”

Alivia quickly hung her coat and bag up, then raced into the classroom to retrieve my surprise. “Here!” she said. “Put it on! You have to wear it!” What was it? It was a visor. A visor! All of the kids (preschool – 8th grade) had decorated a visor for their Mom to wear that morning. For me to tell you that I didn’t want to wear that visor, is an understatement. If I’m being completely honest, every fiber of my being was screaming NO to the visor.

I know that sounds horrible, you don’t have to tell me that. Here’s the thing though, I have had an obsession (technically it’s actually a compulsion) with my hair for as long as I can even remember. There were times in elementary school that I missed the bus because my hair wasn’t right. Elementary school people!

It didn’t help that I had a mullet. It also didn’t help that my Dad was the one who helped us get ready for school. I mean, Dads can maybe help you with a ponytail, but they’re useless when it comes to taming a wavy mullet. And when I say that I had a mullet, I mean I had a mullet from the time I was in kindergarten until the summer before 6th grade.

You don’t even want to know what I did that summer before 6th grade. I got it cut into a bowl cut. A bowl cut. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, please refer to Jim Carrey in “Dumb and Dumber.” The bowl cut looked bad, really bad. To make matters worse, at some point during that summer some douche bag at a campground we were staying at mistook me for a boy, so then I got a perm. The perm looked bad too. Really really bad.

I digress. My point of all this is that from the time I was in kindergarten until basically 8th grade, my whole life was one bad hair day after another. So, when I finally had a good haircut and learned how to do it correctly, I wanted it to be perfect. Sorta like Tami + Good Hair = True Love Always. I should carve that into a tree, or maybe get a tattoo of it.

Back to Tuesday. There I am in the hallway of the school holding the visor while two wide eyed little girls stared up at me. “I have to wear this?” I asked. “Yes! All of the other Moms are wearing them!” they said. As I stood there, I thought about my hair that I had just spent half an hour on. Then I thought about going to the bathroom and trying to carefully place the visor on. I even thought about maybe letting one of the girls wear it.

But, then I thought about something else. I thought about how lucky I am to be a Mom. I thought about the kind of Mom I want to be, and the memories I want my daughters to have of me. I thought about other women I know who have lost a child or who can’t have children, and would love to be in my place right now wearing that visor.

And then without another thought, I slapped that visor on, and we went and ate our muffin. One small step for womankind. One giant leap for crazy OCD Mom.