According to this site, there are 5 friends every woman needs:
1. The "I've Seen You with Braces and Bell-Bottoms" Friend
2. The Biological Buddy
3. Your Own Personal Martha Stewart
4. Your Sister-in-a-Suit
5. Wild Woman
I was blessed to spend my weekend with my #1/5 combo and #2. Friday night, my college roommate came down, and Saturday we headed to KC to meet up with 2 more awesome college friends. We ate lunch, debated naps, bought shoes and jeans, ate more food, talked more, laughed until I snorted, ate Cheesecake, went to bed too early, woke up too early, ate more, and talked even more. I should have been tired, but I came home happy, energized, at peace, and with sexy new jeans.
I think it's been 5 years since I had a girls weekend. The delay is totally my doing, though. The self-imposed mama guilt and wife-guilt is so strong that it overwhelms the excitement of a selfish weekend. I know that I will have a fantastic time, and I know my family will be just fine. I know it's worth it, in every way. The hard part is just committing to it and getting in the car and driving.
I learned things about my BFFs that I didn't know, despite being friends for nearly 15 years. We talked about things as superficial as what kind of shoes look best to things as deep as career decisions and family decisions.
I remembered how to listen to an adult, how to eat a meal without cutting someone's food, how to drive without backseat bickering, and how to not worry about a schedule or routine. All that, in a mere 24 hours. (We left Saturday morning and got home Sunday afternoon.)
Thanks, A, A, & J, for making it a fabulous weekend! Let's do this again soon, in less than 5 years!
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And while I was gone, back at the homestead, Lainie had a good learning experience. I know I translate for her a lot, but I didn't realize how much she has come to rely on it. My parents came up to help Jay (not with the kids, he can handle that, but to help him get his building finished up so he can get veggies planted outside soon.) Saturday afternoon, around nap time, Lainie wouldn't settle down and, according to Jay, had a "terrible fit." He thought she was just tired, but once I got home on Sunday and we sat down to talk about it, she was actually just extremely frustrated. She wanted her blanket to sleep with, just her blanket. But, she can't say blanket. It's something similar to mee-neh, which of course Jay and my mom couldn't understand. Lainie refuses to sign, just out of pure stubbornness, and that was her undoing on Saturday. My mom is fluent in sign language, so if Lainie had just signed blanket, she would have gotten what she wanted and avoided the tears. So, her desperation became a lesson learned, as I explained to her that if she had signed, grandma could have understood her. And, if she wants everyone to understand her, she needs to keep working hard with Naomi and Miss Jill. "If you work for Naomi and Miss Jill when they ask you to, then before long, when you ask for a blanket, everyone will know you want a blanket." Lainie nodded emphatically, "Yes" with big crocodile tears rolling down her face.
My poor baby. I wish I could make it all better, but I'm glad I wasn't home to make it easier this weekend. It was a lesson learned for both of us.
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So besides school, work, and family, what do we have going on? Jay's garden is in full swing, with a few hundred plants started in the basement and three more high tunnels soon to go up. He is hoping to string the plastic over one high tunnel this week some time.
Katie is getting ready for state testing (as is Jay), practicing for a spring dance recital, and looking forward to her first 4-H pigs this April.
Maggie is rolling right through Kindergarten and hopefully getting evaluated for speech and gifted soon. She has two loose teeth -- the top two -- and I'm hoping they can get her speech eval done before we need to pull them. She's not going to stand a chance to fix a lisp with her front teeth missing! teehee I'm so very grateful that her behavior has improved a thousand-fold this year; she's becoming a very sweet young lady.
Lainie's world seems to focus around preschool, speech, daycare, and Dora the Explorer. She keeps saying, "I want to go to the park." Don't we all, sweetie!
Natalie is standing for longer stretches and is taking more stable steps. She's down to two bottles a day, weighs 17 pounds and some, and measures 27 1/4 inches. She's a little puffball of energy. Between a new tooth emerging and an ear infection, we're not seeing her super-smiles as much...and I miss them!
School is rolling right along. We are a third of the way through the semester, and right now I'm sitting with three As. I'm officially in the nursing program for the fall, but need to finish my prerequisites and a few hundred scholarship forms between now and then. Here's hoping!
And here's hoping that you all are finding peace in your life, with or without a girls weekend.
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