Jellyfish Season

Jennifer Jillian, aka Jellybean, aka Jellyfish
Likes: Candy, dogs, parties, spinning in circles, and long walks on the beach
Dislikes: Owls, robots, cats, having her diaper changed, and grilled chicken

You will all be very happy (and insanely jealous) to know that I finally grabbed my shoulders, shook myself a few times, and then sat myself down for a stern talking to. Well, not really, but I DID crawl out of the slump I was in and am feeling a little better this week, so that's something. I am pretty sure it had something to do with lack of sleep and work stress and JR's impending party and the weather all crashing down, none of which is resolved EXCEPT THE WEATHER!! Beautiful, sunny warm weather! Hello there! And I'm also pretty sure that a slump could happen again in a second, so I need to be wary. My new trick is to force myself to put things away all the way, so we'll see how longs that lasts.

The best part was - I had someone come clean my house! Yep, I admitted to myself that my home was disgusting and I was never, ever going to do the kind of cleaning it was crying out for, so I got a deal on Twongo (sign up for it if you aren't already using it, it's freaking awesome, although don't judge it by today's deal because well, usually the things are more real-world useful). A very nice woman spent four hours scrubbing toilets and wiping down appliances (she got the glass-top stove clean! ) and it cost me $50. WELL worth it. Did I mention I hadn't vacuumed the stairs the entire time I've lived here? 2+ years. Embarassing. But since I had someone coming to clean, that meant I had to pick things up a bit, which was just the motivation I needed. And since I was picking things up and finding lost mail and to-do lists, I figured I should go ahead and take care of some of that. So I called and got my home owner's insurance up-to-date (they randomly stopped doing the payroll deductions in February, and of course I had not opened that letter yet), ordered the party favors, put away every speck of clean clothing in the house INCLUDING the winter coats that were sitting on my bar stools, and packed for my next business trip.

Then, since I was feeling so freaking awesome, I scheduled to have someone come powerwash the house later today, got myself on a lawn care schedule to tame the (dande)lions, had a sleepover at The Ta's, and took Jelly to the lake TWO days. In a row. Sadly I had a minor setback when I had to endure almost 4 hours at the car dealership this morning rectifying a wee brake issue (apparently, it helps to have them) and got wildly extravagant with two beautiful new one-size-fits-the-Vibe tires, but I still feel like I can handle what life has to throw at me. This week, at least. Hey, it's the devil's arithmetic ladies - one day, plus one day, plus one day. We can do it!

So you know how sometimes, I try to cram too much into the weekend and come Monday morning, I’m exhausted and stressed? That was NOT this weekend. This weekend was glorious. I made the wise decision to NOT try to do too much on Saturday (go to the zoo AND the lake), and instead Jelly and I hit the beach. She loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it. She could not stop talking about it when we got home - 'Water! Dig! Sand! Swim!'. So Sunday morning we got up and did it again. Except this time, I had picked up water wings. So. Freaking. Adorable. The kid is fearless in the water, and I guess had decided at the ripe ol' age of almost-two that it was high time she learned to swim. So she did. She threw herself in the armpit-deep water with wild abandon and started kicking and hollering. I tried not to have a thousand heart attacks or hover over her fluttering my hands nervously, and instead stood and yelled useful things like, 'Chin up! Close your freaking mouth! We don't eat sand! Flail your arms around more!'. She was a rockstar.

Where you goin', Jenny? 'De beach!'

Does this kid look happy or what?

The only downside - the 30-minute car nap instead of the 2-hour home nap.
After the lake we went to a friend's house for dinner and a movie - 'Religulous' and a cookout, which were both pretty great. I learned that our friend Jellybean abhors cats, to the point where she shrieked and ran in the other direction. If the cat had been an enormous, slobbering dog, Jelly would have embraced him with both arms. Definitely NOT a cat person. My friend has this gorgeous raised bed garden area (basically a house foundation, complete with little wood fence and steps) that I was very covetous of, that made me renew my vow to come up with a garden solution for the little grey house. The evening was lovely, and Jenny was dressed like a white-trash hillbilly, which made me dizzy with hilarity and cuteness.

You can't see it, but she's got a Care Bears tattoo on her right upper arm.

A toddler in a wife beater!! And camo pants! Why is this so funny to me?!

Happy May, Happy Monday, and may you all find incentive to get done what needs to get done.