Hello?

Hi.

I'm still alive and kickin, just not writing.

I miss this blog.  I like to write, always have, and this has been a great way for me to share my thoughts, my boring every day events, big events, funny stories, and tragic stories.  The thing is I've struggled over the last many months with what to share and where my line in the sand is.

It's easy to sit here at the computer and type out the things that are going on in my head and pretend nobody will really read it (all the while hoping with fingers crossed that SOMEONE actually does read it.... weird huh?), but the thing is that not everything that goes on in life, or in my head or heart, should be read by anyone else.  Internal struggles, family stuff, friend stuff... there's plenty of things not ok to share with the internet, and plenty of things I really can't talk about here.  (if you know me in real life, just leave it at that).

So when I have sat down to write up a post for this blog of mine, the real meaningful stuff comes to mind first, and when I decide that it's not something I care to share at the moment, then do I just tell you about the boring parts of my life?  About how I woke up this morning much too tired because my sleep schedules have been out of whack all week and how I could easily drink 2 pots of coffee a day if I let myself make that second pot at noon?  See? I can already hear you falling asleep! :)  It can feel weird sometimes when someone talks to me in real life about something I blogged about, as if that imaginary curtain has been pulled (imagine the Wizard of Oz).  I can completely see why a blogger could be more content with a completely anonymous blog - you can pour it all out there and not a soul would know it's you talking.  But I will not be going that route.  Then of course there's the "fluff" posts where I could care less who talks to me about it in real life... it's Fluff after all - no further explanation required! :o)

So maybe I'll get back into this soon.  Maybe I'll talk about the deeper stuff going on my head, maybe I'll just tell you about the chickens we've been raising for 2 months, or maybe I'll just write another poem about boogers!  Who knows, but I'll be dang shocked if anyone is still reading this drastically absent blog when/if I do start blogging regularly again!

Thanks for reading!

Keeping It Real

Parenthood, and life in general, can be exhausting, but keeping things in perspective certainly helps.

Sometimes my kids (especially my middle child) talk my ear off.  It can be enough to drive a person crazy when all you want is to not hear any voices for a few minutes.  But then I think about parents who's children don't or can't talk at all.  Those parents would give their left arm to hear their child start speaking and I'm complaining because mine talk too much.

When we are going through a vicious cycle of illness and I hear myself complaining about how someone's been throwing up for 2 days and I have to close down daycare while they recover, I think about the parents who've got it worse.  Parents who's child is going through chronic illness or cancer and miss weeks or months of work while they pray their child will survive.  It makes cleaning up vomity sheets seem like not such a bad deal.

When I find myself whining about an itchy case of eczema I think about my dad being hooked up to a colostomy bag, dealing with gout, while fighting cancer at the same time.  And I never heard him complain once.

When I'm feeling pulled in a million directions because I am over-run with children, I remember when we only had one and all the tears we shed trying to have a second little one.  And I think of the would-be parents who have struggled for years to have a child and how much they long for a child to need them.

On a similar note, when I'm rundown because the kids only want me so often, I'll think down the line when they are teenagers and just want to be independent and how I'll be their annoying mom.  I'll look back when they are 14 to when they were little and wanted me all the time and I'll wish I could go back to having tiny little arms around my leg.

When I'm stressed about money or feeling broke, I need to just be thankful that we have a roof over our head and food on the table.

And finally, when life gets to be too much and I want to run away, I'll remember to count my blessings and be thankful for what I have.

I Might Just Move Out

I'm having kind of a bad day.

It's one of those days where I feel like I'm failing at life, which I realize is ridiculous because I can name off plenty of things I'm doing right, but I'm having a moment of self-pity I suppose.

I feel like I'm not living up to anyone's expectations, particularly my own expectations.  I'm feeling helpless, clueless, and as a result - a little hopeless.  I'm sure that in reality this isn't true, but the feelings are there from time to time and it makes me want to bury my head in the sand until I'm magically feeling better about it all.

Thing is, if I'm waiting for a magical cure-all, I'm going to be waiting a LONG time, so I should really just take care of things myself.

High up on my list is parenting Connor.  He is really well behaved for the most part when I am not around, which honestly makes me want to just move out from time to time, but when we're together he's all whining and naughtiness.  Mikayla had temper tantrums, Izzy hasn't always been a gem either, and perhaps it's because I'm just stretched thinner as a mother of 3 than I was before, but I'm pretty sure Connor secretly wants me to move out.  Ugh.

A week and a half ago during the Wizard of Oz cast/crew potluck, Spencer and Connor were eating their food while I was getting myself ready to go to a call-back for another play.  As soon as I sat back down with them Connor starting whining/complaining about his food and wanting to get down and being just plain ugly about it.  Spencer says, "he was fine until you got here."  Double UGH!

We've made some progress though.  I pulled out my good ol' behavior chart and added a reward at the end of the day for everyone age 3 and up who get's to the star at the end of the chart.  They get a hershey kiss if they get all the way there (every hour or so of good behavior gets them a step toward their star, bad behavior moves them back).  I give my daycare boy's treat to his mom for her to give him when she deems it appropriate, Connor and Izzy get theirs as soon as daycare is over (Mikayla too actually, but she doesn't need the chart).  Out of sheer desperation for not wanting to put Connor on craigslist, I also bought a cheap 5-pack of matchbox cars.  Until the cars are gone, if he is really good all day he can have one at the end of the day.  I don't think it's appropriate to keep that kind of reward going, but for the 5 times he gets one it will hopefully drive the point home that good behavior is rewarded while bad behavior gets nothing but punishment.

He's also spending more time in time out, which he hates, and he didn't like how mad I got at him yesterday when he was being particularly horrendous.  I know he's a three-year-old and it's a totally different kind of difficult than age 2 is, but sheesh!

Also, until I can get him to behave himself around me, the potty training thing just won't go well, because he doesn't seem at all apt to please me.

I'm sure I'll pull out of this funk eventually, I'm just hoping that it's sooner rather than later.

Thanks for listening!!

Hiding, Pinning, Zyrtec, and More

Time for a stream-of-consciousness post of sorts.

The toddlers in my life are big into hide and seek.  They are generally terrible hiders, but that doesn't stop them from squealing with glee every time someone finds them!  Connor's found a few spots lately that we wouldn't have found him quickly at all had he been quieter.  It cracks me up how every child I've known thinks it's a good idea to hide in the same exact place (or maybe one of three places) every time.  Also, I often take my time finding them.  I mean, why not enjoy a minute or two of silence right?

Speaking of games, Connor and my 16 month old daycare boy made a game out of cleaning up these little snap-together beads.  Daycare boy stood next to the bucket about 6 feet away from the pile of beads.  Connor would pick up a small handfull, or sometimes just 3 or 4 beads, bring them to daycare boy and put them in his hands, and daycare boy would put them in the bucket.  This took them a good 5 minutes at least to pick up the pile, but they had fun and were developing their team-work skills!

We spent a few days working on Valentine pictures for the daycare kids (even the baby!) to give their parents. They are turning out really cute!  Here is a picture of the baby's Valentine, I covered up his name.  I'll show you the bigger kids' version in a separate post.

I've started following a few more people's boards on Pinterest, but have been more selective in which boards I'm following in order to keep my main page easier to keep up with.  Specifically food boards!  It's hard to look at all that yumminess when you're on a diet!

I've become slightly addicted to wintergreen life savor mints.  They help me keep my mouth occupied when I'm hungry so I don't snack all day long.

I've finally started taking Zyrtec to deal with my many environmental and seasonal allergies.  While I'm still often itchy, it doesn't feel as bad as it was.  The main difference I've noticed, though, is how much easier it is to breath!  I didn't realize what I was missing until I had open sinuses!

I'm thinking of making the Pioneer Woman's pot roast again on Sunday because it is Oh So Yummy!

"Warrior", and Putting It Off Till Tomorrow

Since last fall, all my kids during the day are toddlers except Izzy, and she's not the one making most of the mess.  Toddlers are messy little punkin-heads, with their 1 minute attention spans and rare ability to stop and think about putting a toy away when it gets boring.  Add to that the fact that one of them sleeps in our main living space and is a light sleeper, meaning I can't clean anything up during nap time.  All of this adds up to a pretty substantial mess by the end of the day.  A mess that needs to get cleaned up at night or my next day is ruined, because if the day starts off particularly messy then my mood isn't right and we all have a bad day.  So I've been cleaning up in the evening.

Last night though we had a Christmas dinner with Spencer's dad's relatives about an hour away, which we left for immediately after work and didn't get home until 8:30.  We got our sleepy children to bed and collapsed into an exhausted heap on the couch to watch a movie that Spencer had really liked and knew I'd like to.  The movie was Warrior (click the link to get to the imdb site and click Watch Trailer) which I figured I'd like but had no idea just how much!  Warrior unexpectedly jumped to my favorites list!  It's thrilling, powerful, has some phenomenal fights, and still manages to tug on the old heart-strings. Tom Hardy's not bad to look at either. You might think because it involves MMA fighters there would be a lot of blood, but if blood makes you a little woozy don't worry, there's not much of it at all.


Anyways, after the movie was over it was so late and I was so depleted by the movie that I didn't have anything left to put into cleaning the house.  Spence helped me get it a little bit presentable, I got the dishes taken care of, and I went to bed.

Of course things were a bit cluttered with toys when my first kiddo arrived at 7:15 but once my kids woke up and after I gave them a few minutes to relax and have breakfast, I put them to work.  I told them they needed to have the upstairs picked up all the way and their room cleaned before they could go to the movie they had planned with Nana.  That worked great!  I was able to feed and change the baby and keep an eye on the 1-yr-olds while they did in 5 minutes what would have taken me 15 (actually more since while I would have been picking up, the toddlers would have been right behind me dumping more toys out.).

Moral of the story: See the movie Warrior because it is better than you might think, please and thank you.  Also, sometimes it works to your advantage to put off till tomorrow what could be done today... just as long as you've got good little helpers with plans they don't want to miss out on later!

I Remember...

Care to join me while I reminisce?

Did I spell reminisce right? I must have because spell check didn't say anything.   Moving on...


I remember:

When I'd be excited to get back to my college campus so I could have high speed internet instead of dial-up.  Remember dial-up internet?

When the only way to access the internet was with America On Line and your minutes came on a CD.

When the cool thing was to have pagers in high school.  Now middle-schoolers have cell phones. So weird.

When DVDs started getting popular and a friend of mine had to explain to me what made them so much better than a VHS.

Same with CD's, but I didn't need explaining on that one.  I think it was my Aunt Debbie S. that got my my first CD.  If I remember right it was a Mariah Carey one.  I could be totally wrong there though.

When I heard they were making a new TV show about a show-choir, and being the choir geek that I am was excited and hoped hoped hoped that enough people would watch it so it wouldn't get canceled in the first season.... that was Glee.

When we only had one child and it seemed difficult to leave the house with her.  Now we have three and when we only have one it feels almost like none.

When my little sister was really little and she would pronounce the word "remember" as "renember".  My cousin and I made a bet with her that we could get her to say "renember" by the end of the day.  I won that bet during a "spontaneous" dinner time game of "I Remember..." where we all went around the table saying what we remember.  I felt like quite the clever little thing that day ;o)

When Christmas involved going to one place on Christmas Eve and one place on Christmas Day.  Oh how simple those holidays were!

When we had to haul pack 'n plays with us everywhere for big holidays so that whoever our youngest child at the time could nap.  Now they all sleep in beds.

When I last saw my half brother, it was Christmas day, 15 years ago.

Getting pulled over when I was 18 for speeding.  I was on my way to my college choir and I was so engrossed in my Christmas music ("The Christmas Song" in case you're wondering) that I wasn't paying much attention to my speed.  Oops!

When I was only ever expected to bring bread or juice to Christmas's because of a combination of multiple parties to go to in one day, having young children, and not really knowing how to make stuff.  Although people don't ask me to bring hard stuff (thank you family!) I have slowly branched out in my Christmas food!  This year I am bringing Cinnamon French Toast Bake, along with some simple things like a frozen pie, cinnamon rolls, and yes... buns!

How every year Spencer and I would try to cram our family Christmas with the kids into Christmas morning, only to wind up stressed out by the time we got to our first location.  This year I'm excited because we are having our family's Christmas on the 23rd!  I'm making Pioneer Woman's perfect pot roast, creamy mashed potatoes, a salad, and a thaw-and-serve cookies and cream pie!  Then we'll open presents and maybe sip some hot cocoa!  Can't wait!!

It's Random and I Make Up Words

Get ready for the random vomiting of info you didn't know you needed to know and really don't need to know.

Ready?

1.  Little Man was up surprisingly late last night just talking to himself and anyone who'd listen in his bed.  Spence and I were watching season six of How I Met Your Mother on dvd when the phone rang at about 8:50, and we immediately hear LM call out in his most cheerful and helpfullest voice, "Phone ringing!!", which of course caused us to laugh our butts off for a good 10 minutes.  

Fast forward to this morning and he's just not quite himself.  By mid morning he was crying and telling me in his most saddest and desperatest voice, "My ear hurts!"  I gave him a dose of Tylanol and but it didn't help, he was in too much pain for the meds we had on hand and it would be a while before one of us could get him to the clinic.  After a few hours Spence was able to get home and got him checked out... double ear infection.

Between emotional pain and physical pain, I have to say one of the hardest parts about being a parent is when you can't take the pain away.  But hopefully by morning, once he's had a few doses of antibiotics, he'll be feeling better.

2.  I feel like I might possibly be falling apart.  Between recurring back pain, a weird puffy-eyed allergy thing, and my achy knees, one of which is worse than the other, I may be falling apart.  I've had on and off knee problems since I fell in the garage almost a year ago, and right now it's behaving strangely.  It doesn't hurt to squat or bend down, it doesn't hurt to kneel, it mostly just hurts to lift my knee up in front of me.

I'm pretty sure that it all does NOT mean that I need to, oh I don't know... exercise more or something.  What I'm pretty sure it DOES mean is that I need to take naps and eat more cookies.  Which is fabulous timing since it is almost cookie season Christmas time.  

3.  This year for Thanksgiving we split it up so that we celebrated with Spencer's family a couple weekends before and with my family on Thanksgiving day.  It was fantastic only having one place to go that day!  It's just so much easier to enjoy family time when you're not watching a clock so you don't show up at the next place too late.  It. Was. Wonderful.  I wish Christmas could be the same way, but we have a lot more people to try to see during that holiday so I can't even imagine a time in the nearish future where we only have one place to go to on each day (Christmas eve and Christmas day). 

4.  We're pretty hooked on How I Met Your Mother and have been waiting a long time to watch season 6 on dvd because during the actual season 6 we were watching seasons 1-5 on dvd.  We like to try to figure out who of our friends are each character on the show.  I wonder if every group of friends can think of someone who kinda sorta closely resembles each of those characters.  

5.  If this random post is extra random and the run-on sentences drove you nuts, I apologize.  I typed it all while watching Parenthood (the nbc tv show) which is pretty much an awesome show.  The only thing that really bugs me is that all the characters seem to have the same "voice".  Not sure if that's an acting issue or a writing issue, but I still love the show.

Now if you'll excuse me, we need to go finish the last disc of HIMYM Season 6.  And it will most certainly be Legon....wait for it.... Dary!

You Never Know

We've all seen it.

You're at the store, just trying to get a little shopping done, and there is a woman with her kids nearby.  And the kids are acting like little boogers.  Maybe they're crying, maybe screaming, maybe demanding one thing or another, but they are just being boogers.

You've probably seen this scene and thought to yourself why can't she get a handle on her kids? These kids must have no discipline at all!  What little snots, just get them out of the store and ground them already!

Don't even try to tell me that thoughts like that haven't passed through your brain, because we're human and we can't help but judge once in a while.

The thing is, and you'll know this if you are a parent (especially the parent who does most of the child-rearing)...

You just never know what happened earlier that day. or week. or hour.

Maybe those kids are normally very well behaved.  They could be at home right now sitting quietly doing calculus while dreaming up ways to better the world, but at that moment they were tired/hungry/teething/going through something rough.  Kids have bad days just like you.  Only we are adults and have (hopefully) learned how to control our emotions and moodiness a little better over the years.  And honestly?  Have you never lost it and acted like a fool because you had hit your breaking point?

Perhaps you're reading this and not blaming the kids for acting like the boogers they were being, but are blaming that mom who seems to not care.

Chances are, she cares a lot.  You don't know what happened before that moment.  Perhaps the kids have been cranky and unbearable all day, should that stop her from picking up something she needed?  I'm SURE she wouldn't have chosen to go to the store with cranky children if there was a way to leave them home.

You have no idea what her life is like, you have no idea what the kids' life is like, you have no idea because you are not the one walking in her shoes.  What may seem like obliviously ignoring a child's tantrum in public, may actually be her straw breaking the camel's back and it's all she can do to not scream bloody murder herself right there in the store.

My kids are generally pretty great in public, but there was a trip to a local thrift store semi-recently in which Little Man lost his ever-lovin-mind and turned into a child I did NOT know.  He was screaming, crawling/rolling on the floor, and crying.  I was so not used to that that I really didn't know what to do!  There was no talking him off that ledge, he really just needed to GO, but I needed to make my purchase before I could get the hell out of there.  I tried to look like I was doing something about it, tried to calm him down, but the only thing I really could do was check out as quick as possible and run for it.  I probably looked calm... I usually do... but inside I was dieing.  People around me were probably thinking some of the things from that third paragraph up there, but they weren't in my head, they aren't in my house, they are not me.

So instead of jumping to harsh judgement when you see the next public outburst of naughty child behavior and seemingly oblivious parenting, stop.  Think about what might possibly be going on in that families life that day, and instead of a look of horror, give her a look of  "I feel for ya" sympathy, or better yet - pretend it's not happening so she can get on with what she needs to do and get those kids home to bed!

Support each other, don't judge each other.

Random Read

Some random stuff

1. I don't like candy corn.  I used to think it was a really weird thing to not like candy corn, until one October when Moose A. Moose on nick jr. sang a song called "I don't like candy corn" and I felt validated.   By a cartoon moose.

2. Little Man is back in diapers.  It was going really well for a few days, and then he stopped cooperating.  And started peeing randomly a lot.  So we'll try again soon.

3.  I have a "Confessions of a Cookie Addict" post ready to be written up... but it's a bit embarrassing.  Not that that has stopped me before!

4.  I love the smell of autumn!

5.  I need a full time housekeeper to keep up with my kids and daycare... and husband... and self.

6.  My oldest daughter brought home math homework and I was at a loss for how to help her with one of the problems. Great.

7.  Babydoll arriving at gymnastics class is like taking a little super ball and throwing it hard into a tiny room.  Lots and lots of gleeful bouncing.

8.  I'm a "tavern lady" for Halloween this year.  I bought the costume several years ago but haven't actually gone out anywhere for Halloween in costume in a LONG time!

9.  I could really use a new camera, one that the kids will not be allowed to touch.

Recap

Snapshots of what we've been up to lately:

Sticker math

Practicing printing with shaving cream

Color mixing project

Trip to the dentist

Playing with trees

SP joined Girl Scouts

and got her math badge!

Went to the Renaissance Festival (that'll get it's own post)

And dressing up brothers.

Comments

Confession:

I get mildly annoyed when bloggers don't reply or comment back to my comments.  Few bloggers whom I read actually do a great job at replying, at least a good chunk of the time.  I still read their blogs because I enjoy them, but I'm more likely to comment on someone's post if I get a reply once in a while.  It's like if someone gives a speech, you walk up to them and comment on their speech, and then they turn and walk away.  Make sense?

Here's where the confession part comes in.  I have not been a very good comment replier.  But I'm making a conscious effort these days to hit that reply button and show some appreciation for those comments!

As a blogger, it's exciting when someone comments on a post you write - like, someone actually read it and gave a crap about what you wrote! I love comments so much I have a little blinky button in my right column that expresses that!  So to say thank you for your comment, I will make a conscious effort to not turn and walk away, and hit that reply button!  I can't promise that I won't miss some, as sometimes I can't reply right away and then forget about them, but I'll try really hard!

This post was brought to you by Ragweed Allergies, making me generally annoyed at everything today.

Confessions of a Cookie Addict

1.  If there are chocolate chip or sugar cookies in the house in the morning, I will have at least one for breakfast, dunked in my coffee of course.

2.  I have eaten an entire package of cookies before anyone in the house knows they existed.

3.  If I don't eat them all, I will save my kids and husband a couple.


4.  Daycare toddler's mom brought in potty treats for successful bathroom moments.  They were little frosted animal cookies with sprinkles.  Before you think I ate her cookies, I'll stop you now. I didn't eat her cookies.  Not really anyway.  Let me explain.

In an attempt to get Little Man more excited about the potty chair, I told him he could have a cookie if went pee or poop in the potty chair.  Not long after that he had some success and I ended up giving him 3 or 4 of daycare girl's potty treat cookies, figuring I'd go to the store long before they were gone, she still had several left and wasn't going through them much at all so I knew I'd be ok.

I went to the store and picked up a package of frosted animal cookies to re-stock daycare girl's supply, and keep on hand for Little Man.

I then ate the entire package... before remembering to restock daycare girl's supply.  

So I of course went back to Target yesterday and bought a new box of cookies, and when I found myself snacking on them today, I immediately grabbed a handful of them and put them in daycare girl's potty treat bag before I accidentally eat the whole box again.

Yes I have a problem, but my problem really only hurts myself, and I could totally stop at any time.

Ah, who am I kidding.

My Daughter is a Creepy Ninja

If you live in MN, chances are you've been complaining about, or at least thinking about complaining about the heat and humidity.  The other day the temperature hit a record breaking high (including the heat index) of 134 degrees in Moorhead, MN!  Crazy right?

I had stepped outside for 30 seconds to see if the fans in our garage were drying up the garage floor because the humidity had made it actually wet in there.  When I stepped back in Little Man touched my leg, looked at his hand, looked at me, and asked, "Wet?".  It's been gross.

Now, usually we have an A/C window unit in our bedroom to keep us cool at night, but for whatever reason Spencer hasn't installed it yet.  I mean, it's only July 21st right?  Directly across the hall is our daughters' room, and they have an A/C unit in their window, without which Sweet Pea would be miserable since she sleeps 2 feet from the ceiling.  So at night this week we've been opening our door and opening their door and letting the cool air drift accross the hall into our room, giving us glorious relief from the heat.

The only problem is that the cool air is not the only thing that drifts silently across the hall into our room.  Babydoll does as well.

And it creeps me the heck out!

That girl may possibly be one of the cutest kids on the planet... when you're awake. 

Too many times she has silently snuck into our room, like a little ninja, and just stood 6 inches from my face waiting for me to wake up because she had a problem of some sort.  If I don't sense her presence she will very gently poke me until I wake up, look in the direction of the poke, and find a silent and still 3-foot-tall figure looming next to my face!

Again... creeps me the heck out!

Instantly I'm up and tending to whatever it is she needs or has done and then it's back to bed for me.  Except now I'm expecting her to wander back in at any moment.  Just waiting and trying to listen for footsteps or a door creek. 

What I'm getting at here is that with the doors open, I can't even try to rely on the sound of a door opening to alert me to the fact that someone is about to be standing next to my head.  So I just lie there and wait.  Wait for either sleep to overtake me, or my 4 year old daughter to come in for something and just stand by my closed-eyed face.

We've been sleeping with the doors open for several days now and she hasn't wandered in yet, but I'm sure that just like real ninjas... it's only a matter of time.

A link I HAD to share with you

I recently blogged about Facebook.  In that post I ranted about how it drives me nuts when people refuse to use punctuation, or halfway decent spelling and grammar.  This is also the post in which I spelled "grammar" wrong each and every time. 

I am not the grammar/spelling police, and make PLENTY of mistakes myself, but sometimes people can be a little ridiculous.

One of my fellow bridesmaids recently posted a link containing the best obnoxious responses to misspellings on Facebook, and I nearly died laughing at some of the responses.  It was so great I had to share it with you!

Click here, but prepare to be horrified.

Random Things

Monday evening I couldn't find my purse. 

Tuesday morning I found it in the dishwasher.

It drives me crazy when I'm reading a good book that involves multiple story lines in different places, and just when something huge is happening... they jump to another story line.  Keeps me going though and I suppose that's the point of suspense.

Pictures from the wedding are turning up on facebook.  Some of them are flattering, some of them are weird, some of them are horrifying.

The wedding was fun, I think they should get married again this weekend.

It's hot out. But that's ok because I prefer the 90's over below zero temps.

I hate being cold.  I love that I don't have to be cold anymore!

My new favorite popcorn is "Pop Secret homestyle".  It tastes the most like homemade and has the best ratio of salt and butter that I've found in a bag.

Babies are adorable and cuddly and wonderful.  But not when they barf 6 ounces of formula/breastmilk all over you.  Not complaining really though, it's part of the job, and I know the baby didn't like it one bit either.

I'd rather have baby barf on me than grown-up barf. 

I love summer, and I think this is going to be a pretty great one!

Also, today is mine and Spencer's 8 year wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary Spence!

Pregnancy: After Effects

Pregnancy lasts 9 months, or 10 months depending on how you count it, but after the baby is born and your body ceases to be a vessel for growing tiny humans - you'll find things are never quite the same again.

After effects of pregnancy, in my case:

Stretch marks, though they fade, they never go away.

When I buckle my seatbelt I still automatically place it as low on my abdomen as possible, under the imaginary baby bump.

My surgeon was AMAZING and my c-section scar is barely noticable, and it's only been two years.  But it does remain.

Throughout many collective months of "morning" sickness and gagging everytime I brushed my back teeth, I still have trouble with that.  When I brush right away in the morning I have to be careful where my tongue is or I gag, later in the morning or day I'm fine. Apparently morning sickness can remain long after babies are born?

After months of eating healthier, minimizing caffeine, not so much as a drop of alcohol touching my lips, once my babies were born and nursing allowed, I said goodbye to vitamins, and hello to my daily pot of coffee and my occasional beer/wine.  I probably eat the worst after I have my babies than I do at other times, because after months of my body belonging to the baby, I wanted it back!

That little mommy-pouch below the bellybutton, unless you are one of those tiny hundred-pound mommas, are incredibly difficult to get rid of... though I persevere.

I have at times been so convinced that intestinal rumblings were little baby kicks that I once took a pregnancy test to make sure.  Many gas bubbles feel like early-on baby kicks.

And then there's the whole - "there's a child in my house" part. 

As far as I'm concerned I'm done with the having babies thing, so maybe these things will go away eventually? (Except the whole "child in my house" thing... that takes at least 18 years).

I know there's more to add to this list, so what have you got?!

A Tragic Jinx

You know how you mention how bad something would be if it happened? Or how lucky you've been that something hasn't happened?  And then it happens, like, the next day?

Happened!! :P

Yesterday I was chatting with one of my daycare moms about how I panic when I set the coffee pot up the night before using the very last of my ground coffee... only to wake in the morning to coffee overflowed and a mess everywhere because I didn't put the carafe in all the way.  Nothing like starting your morning with the only coffee in the house splattered all over the counter and floor, and full of coffee grounds (if it weren't for the coffee grounds everywhere I might have started licking the counter).

Well, this morning when I started my coffee pot (after I warmed up a cup of coffee from the day before... because I'm kind of a freak when it comes to my morning brew) it only brewed half of the water in the reservoir.  The good news was that I at least got a few cups of coffee out of it.  The terrible news was I would need to now buy yet another coffee pot by the end of the day.  This is terrible because coffee pots only seem to last me about a year before I kill them from what I am guessing is overuse.  And I'm not buying the super cheap ones, typically in the $40 range.

My only options for tonight were to run to the gas station and buy 2 very large cups of coffee to reheat in the morning, or get to Target to buy a new pot before they closed for the night, so I raced to Target after our Sleeping Beauty performance and picked myself up a new pot.

I got a Black and Decker 8-cup thermal programmable coffee maker.... with a very much needed 2-year warranty built in!


I know what you're thinking... only 8 cups? how is she going to live off of only 8 cups of coffee per day?  I'm not entirely sure but if I have to brew a small pot of coffee around dinner time then that's just what I'll have to do.

I also bought some hair color, shoes for Izzy, and baby food for the daycare babies, and headed out to my car.  I was partway into the parking lot when I realized that I probably looked like a complete douche lugging my ONE box, ONE target bag, and ONE purse out to my minivan in a cart at 10:00 at night... into a parking lot that had already been completely cleared of carts.   Creature of habit maybe?

So just in case the poor guy who has to run around and get the carts was cursing me out from the store window, I tried to save face.  I put my cart just on the edge of the cart thingy and made a big to-do about getting my "bulky" purchases and purse from my cart into my van (which was in the spot immediately to the right of the cart thing). 

I figured if he saw me struggling with my one bag, one box, and one purse he'd understand why I felt the need to take a cart with me.

Little does he know I carry/adjust 2 6-ish month old babies around all the time. 

What he doesn't know won't hurt him right?

Facebook - The Rants and Raves

Facebook.

It's pretty much awesome as far as I'm concerned.  While there are some aspects of it that drive me nuts, I don't know what I would do without it.  It's kind of a double-edged sword, allowing us to reconnect with people we haven't seen in years, stay current on what our friends are up to, and organize/invite friends to events easily.  At the same time it has completely killed my ability to connect with friends who are not on facebook unless I see them often. 

A recent example of this: a very good friend of mine from high school and early college years had refused to join facebook for whatever reason.  While we used to talk on the phone every few months to catch up, over time we talked less and less until our only correspondance was through Christmas cards (until I lost track of her address and even that had to go).  I could have emailed back and forth I suppose, or for that matter picked up the dang phone from time to time, but for some reason facebook seems to be my only method of non-face-to-face conversation anymore.  So when she finally joined recently as did a little happy dance in my living room because I could finally get my friend back.... pathetic? yep!  This friend has ment a lot to me over the years but I apparently suck at staying in contact with anyone outside of my newsfeed.

Then there's the things that drive me nuts. 

Item number 1: people constantly feeling the need to let everyone know that they now have another cow in their farmville game, etc.  I don't care about how you're doing in a game I don't play, and when all you do is share your game news withe everyone just know this... I will "hide" you from my newsfeed.  You've been warned.

Item number 2: "status shuffle".  Status Shuffle is a thing where you can click on it and it will give you choices of clever/funny/ironic statuses that you can use.  I will openly admit that I have tried it a couple times... no big deal.  BUT if 90% of your status updates come from Status Shuffle... then really what's the point of updating at all?  If your day is so boring or unoriginal that you can't come up with your own update then just close the dumb thing.  You know what though? even if your update is boring, it's at least yours. I had a recent status that spoke of how hungry I was at the time... what can I say - other than the fact that I'm often stressed out and really busy - my life is pretty borning, but at least it was original.

Item number 3: Terrible terrible grammer.  It is facebook and I'm not suggesting you need to proof read your updates or use all the proper punctuation/spelling/grammer, but it really gets my goat when someone types an entire paragraph or story without a single freaking punctuation mark.  I type run-on sentences like they are going out of style, but at least you'll get a comma every now and then to take a breath!  I'm no grammer-snob, but really god-awful grammer in facebook statuses have caused me to actually "hide" people from my newsfeed simply because I can't stand to read it.  Drives me nuts!

Ok, that rant's over.  I love facebook for the ways in which I can keep up with my friends/family.  I love it because I don't have a single coworker to randomly exclaim how hungry I am or how I want to glue my chatty 4-year-old's mouth shut and it allows me to throw it out there in about 3 seconds for anyone who cares (or doesn't care) to hear.

Oh, and please don't judge me for that last sentence in the previous paragraph.. I'm not perfect! :o)

Like a Hunting Dog

Sometimes I feel like a hunting dog. 

Particularly an off-season-neglected hunting dog.

I'm kept in my home and yard most days out of the year.  So much so, that when I get to go do something, everyone (including me) is happy for me that I "got out".  Like my owners let me out of the mundane boundaries of the yard and took me to the dog park.

And then hunting season, or in my case theater season, comes and I'm so excited and end up overworking myself into a heap on the floor in front of the fireplace hearth.  Except I don't have a fireplace or a hearth, so really it's the rocking chair I collapse onto.

I go go go working hard for the family who "owns" me and love it, but get pretty worn out at the same time, and then "hunting" season ends and I rarely leave the yard.

So, though it's a bit stressful and very tiring, it is also really fun.  So I will enjoy this time out in the field until my family puts me back in my kennel.

Nunsense and Laundry Detergent

First:
Last weekend Spencer and I went to see Nunsense which was being done by ERCT.  It was the most fun I have had in a long time!  The writing for this play is really funny, but without a talented cast much of it would have been missed.  The erct cast was indeed talented! I laughed my butt off and had a big smile on my face nearly the entire time!  It wasn't just the comedy, the singing was also wonderful!  I think it's rare to find a play that can be gut-busting funny for adults and still be family-friendly, Nunsense is one of those gems!  There's a few "hells" and an "ass" or two if I remember correctly, but it's a pretty clean show.  I can't say the same for the after party with the cast and friends though! :o)

Thank you to everyone involved in Nunsense for the fabulous entertainment!

Now, Second:
While Friday night was spent laughing, eating, drinking, and telling dirty jokes about a local bbq place... Saturday night was spent making soap.

Laundry detergent to be specific.

I've known it was possible for years, but never tried it.  I thought it would be too hard to find the ingredients, too hard to make, and didn't trust it to work.  I was wrong on all accounts.

I could have taken pictures of the process, but the blogger which posted the recipe that I followed already did that for me, so you can see her full post by clicking here.

What you need:
1 5-gallon bucket with a tight-fitting lid
Borax
Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda
1 bar Fels-Naptha soap
After driving around and searching Walmart I ended up finding all the ingredients at Cub Foods in the laundry isle, and the bucket I got at Lowes.  Making the detergent was pretty easy, but I thought I had done something wrong because the next morning when it had cooled completely it was gross.  It was lumpy, slimy, and gloppy.  Not something I wanted to be messing with.  After posting a question on the above blog, and doing some internet research, I came to the conclusion it turned out exactly like it usually does... watery, slimy, and gloppy.  This really isn't an issue though because I used a funnel and a measuring cup to fill an old laundry detergent bottle up about 3/4 of the way, and I shake it up a little before each use just to make sure it's all distributed evenly.  I use an entire cap full (2/3 cup) plus a little more in each load, and have been really pleased with the job it's doing!  There was a blanket that the dog had been laying on and then had been left outside for weeks that was really stinky, one washing and it smelled fresh and clean!

The best part, and only reason I'm making it, is that it is SO cheap to make! For my initial batch of 5 gallons, I spent $16 (8 for the soaps and 8 for the bucket).  Since I only needed 1 cup of the borax and arm and hammer washing soda for each batch, those will last me quite a while.  The only thing I'll need to replace will be the Fels-Naptha soap... which only cost me $1.09!  That means in the future I'll only spend $1.09 for 5 GALLONS of laundry detergent! 

So to wrap all this up, if you get the opportunity to see Nunsense... go!  And if you'd like to save money and practically do your laundry for free, try making your own laundry detergent!