This is US.

Now that we have a few posts under our belts, it is time to introduce YOU to US.

We are Aunt and Niece. There is an eight year gap between us and we have grown up like sisters. Niece, passing through middle school and high school 8 years after Aunt was repeatedly mistaken for Aunt by middle and high school teachers. There is an eight month difference in the time we were married (Niece being married first), and a three month difference of our first born daughters (Aunt winning that one). Niece had a baby boy two years after The Princess was born, and Aunt had a baby girl exactly one year after that.

Aunt is definitely the beauty guru of the two. Niece always abides by the "Beauty Rules of Aunt" and has often dyed and cut her hair to the specifications of Aunt, and when there has been a bad cut or color, Niece often goes to Aunt to either blame her or get confirmation that the hair do is as really as bad as it looks. Niece often receives the "hand me downs" of Aunt which has included clothes with tags still on it, designer jeans (Niece being the cheap one), and home decor. Aunt loves to shop, plan parties, and spend irresponsibly on whatever beauty product claims to make her beautiful. Her life is filled with family, friends, and being in "the know" of entertainment news. (She also knows A LOT about the little things like politics and world issues). She however gets and "F" in personal finance.

Niece is the more conservative one. 'Great Value' is her middle name! She thinks (or thinks she thinks) more logically than Aunt (sometimes), and often offers her opinion whether it is wanted or not. Patience is a definite trial for the both of us, but with a Diet Coke (Niece drinks Diet Pepsi) anything can be solved for both of them and the children...

We talk multiple times a day, commiserating together as we attempt to excel, or sometimes just survive motherhood. And of course to discuss more important matters like if Rozlyn really cheated on Jake on The Bachelor.

We explained a little bit in the first post, but we want this blog to be interactive, a place where you can find some relief. We know that we can't be the only two ladies out there that feel overwhelmed with every day life and still maintain some personal hygiene. We want meal ideas, cleaning tips, beauty product suggestions, parenting styles, and stories.... we will have some sort of structure set up in the next week or so (if the kids would just leave us the heck alone for a couple of hours), but please, please PLEASE! help us with this. We hope that as a network of moms, wives and WOMEN we can keep each other somewhat sane and happy.

DON'T BE JEALOUS!

“She’s just jealous” was my mother’s motto when I was growing up. This saying was the perfect cure for hurt feelings and provided temporary comfort in the world of MEAN girls. I find myself recycling this phrase to my four-year old daughter, girlfriends in need of a self-esteem boost, and even random sob stories I hear from mere acquaintances, in which once this phrase is pulled out, immediately makes them a ‘BFF’.

In the last year or so I have tried to appease myself with this phrase as I have discovered the blogosphere which is replete with the overachieving domestic goddess who somehow in one day manages to post a menu of her monthly meals, the money she has saved clipping coupons, housekeeping tips, and the cute bows and tutus (that take ‘just minutes’). Oh yeah, and it was raining that day, so she put on an ‘impromptu’ circus in the living room for the kids… SO FUN!!
So after reading just a couple of these blogs, I convinced myself there could only be a few of these women out there, but all it took was a few hundred clicks on their “my favorite blogs” list and I knew I was in trouble.
This domestic goddess might as well have been sitting here on my couch telling me... “YOU’RE JUST JEALOUS!!”

So in an effort to make myself feel better I went to the niece, who also lives by this family motto, to see if I was the only one feeling like the worst mom ever. I couldn’t hear her response due to her kids screaming “YOU’RE THE DUMBEST MOM EVER! in the background so I took that as a no.

We have decided that amidst the PERFECT lives in blogosphere, we cannot be the ONLY two 'Pop-Tart ’ moms out there. This blog is designed to not only make YOU feel better about YOUR life, but to hopefully discuss real life issues we face, ideas how to handle these issues (from the reader), simple meal ideas, giveaways (so if you have anything you want to give away let us know!) and encourage us all to know we no longer need to live by the ‘she’s just jealous’ motto.

PS. Please forgive the boring look to our blog while we sass it up!