"Where's my skirt?," says the elder, though she was the last to touch it. "I can't find my shoes, and these new ones don't feel right!," says the younger, though no one has touched her shoes since 5pm yesterday when she took them off. I felt pretty slick that we had a backup pair at the ready.
"There are no pants/shirts/sweatshirts!!," they harmonize despite the fact that they put away two baskets of laundry over the weekend, chock-full of uniform clothes that they couldn't have used up in the ONE day of school they've had this week.
"She punched me!" "She shoved me!" "Where are the waffles? They aren't in the freezer!"""I'm not dressed because I was playing with Gilbert... Because the great laundry crisis... Because it's HER fault!!"
"Can you be sure to pick me up earlier than yesterday so I can get to riding earlier?" (Sure, since you've both done so much to help me get to work on time this morning!) "Can we go to a movie tonight while Char is at riding?" "Can we just have pizza tonight?"
"I can't wait for recess today, we'll be outside!" "I wonder if I'll ride Apollo tonight?" "Thanks for putting my lunch in my backpack mom." "Love you mom! I hope you aren't late for work."
This is the crucible of crazy every morning. And it all resolves itself by the end, somehow. Which I need to remember before I yell and flip out.
I'm no Becky, but..
So. You all know how much I love Becky over at Steam Me Up, Kid. Like it is probably best that she isn't local, because I would definitely drive past her house. Naah, we all know I'd park outside her house eating Almond Joys and thinking I could just go say hi to her but oh, what if we didn't click in person so instead I just sit online, reading her frigging hilarious blog posts to my husband, eating Almond Joys.
ANYWAY...so her hilarious awful high school diary posts inspired me to follow suit. But then I came across an old journal and. Well. Let's just say that I saw the phrase "bowels of humanity" and realized I, too, was a COLOSSAL douchebag in high school and decided I couldn't read anything beyond that phrase and shut the book and returned it to the bowels of my closet.
BUT...Remember how the 80s was like the total advent of the rape van and kidnapping van epidemic? Creeps lurked everywhere, I mean, they had no internet to use to lure kids, no Chris Hansen Predator: RAW scenarios to dupe them, they just had to ride around in conversion vans.
And I didn't want to be left out of that, so apparently I submitted the following to my mother:
"I was walking home from (the) bus stop and a blue van came up and asked me if I wanted anything. I started running home. He went real slow at the stop sign."
So, despite being 10 1/2, I wrote on there that I was 9 1/2. Math has never been my strong suit. Perhaps I should have told the blue van guy that I wanted a calculator.
Note that I mentioned that he "Resembled Weird Al Yankovick" and that he was about 27 (ANCIENT). What a weird kid. Seriously.
I don't know why my mom even talks to me.
I think the best part is that I am not entirely sure that this even happened. Honestly. I don't know if this even transpired. At all. But I have a precedent for not remembering these things, as Kelly reminded me that once during school mass some dude in a clown suit came into the church and sat in the back, and that the teachers just escorted all of us kids out of the church back to the school. I have ZERO recollection of that happening, and that is monumental.
Maybe someday I can open the hole of self-loathing and accept the shame spiral that will come with reading the diaries. Until then, enjoy my fake kidnapper story.
ANYWAY...so her hilarious awful high school diary posts inspired me to follow suit. But then I came across an old journal and. Well. Let's just say that I saw the phrase "bowels of humanity" and realized I, too, was a COLOSSAL douchebag in high school and decided I couldn't read anything beyond that phrase and shut the book and returned it to the bowels of my closet.
BUT...Remember how the 80s was like the total advent of the rape van and kidnapping van epidemic? Creeps lurked everywhere, I mean, they had no internet to use to lure kids, no Chris Hansen Predator: RAW scenarios to dupe them, they just had to ride around in conversion vans.
And I didn't want to be left out of that, so apparently I submitted the following to my mother:
"I was walking home from (the) bus stop and a blue van came up and asked me if I wanted anything. I started running home. He went real slow at the stop sign."
So, despite being 10 1/2, I wrote on there that I was 9 1/2. Math has never been my strong suit. Perhaps I should have told the blue van guy that I wanted a calculator.
Note that I mentioned that he "Resembled Weird Al Yankovick" and that he was about 27 (ANCIENT). What a weird kid. Seriously.
I don't know why my mom even talks to me.
I think the best part is that I am not entirely sure that this even happened. Honestly. I don't know if this even transpired. At all. But I have a precedent for not remembering these things, as Kelly reminded me that once during school mass some dude in a clown suit came into the church and sat in the back, and that the teachers just escorted all of us kids out of the church back to the school. I have ZERO recollection of that happening, and that is monumental.
Maybe someday I can open the hole of self-loathing and accept the shame spiral that will come with reading the diaries. Until then, enjoy my fake kidnapper story.
Winding down, ramping up
So we're at the end of July. And I'm so grateful that we had the super-fun summer of kids. But we're at about a month until school starts.
EEK!
We need to get back into a schedule, a routine, brushing up on the basics, and so on.
We've regularly been up, out, down the block, playing until 9, 10, 11 (!!!) o'clock at night this summer. Yikes!
Char's sounding out skills have gone to the wayside in favor of pool parties, Dorito consumption, and bike rides. Yeep!
Staying up 'til 9, getting up at 8:30 (OK, not always, but today they got up at 8:30! That's like sleeping 'til noon around these parts!). Whaaaa?
And the summer of kids has, I think, finally been wearing on all of us. The phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" comes to mind. Our little group of 6 kids has been mostly a delight. Each kid is so good, and as a group they all play well together. However, in this communal setting, together so much of the day, no breaks from each other, and having the same 4 or 5 grown-ups around all the time makes for kids pushing the limits with non-parents. Which is to be expected. And also with grown-ups getting irritated/fed up with kids that aren't their kids. Also to be expected. And, of course, the minor increase in tattling and decrease in apologies and sharing...we've become a commune, a big happy-ish family. And I know now why commune people may be somewhat nuts.
It's all balancing pretty well, but the time is definitely nigh for our unit to take breaks during the day. Work on our letters, numbers, writing, and reading-ish stuff. Bathing regularly (How sad that I even have to say that?). Normal bedtimes. Structured mealtimes. Meals that do not consist of chicken nuggets and mac-n-cheese.
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Well...maybe just one more week of summer fun wouldn't hurt...right
EEK!
We need to get back into a schedule, a routine, brushing up on the basics, and so on.
We've regularly been up, out, down the block, playing until 9, 10, 11 (!!!) o'clock at night this summer. Yikes!
Char's sounding out skills have gone to the wayside in favor of pool parties, Dorito consumption, and bike rides. Yeep!
Staying up 'til 9, getting up at 8:30 (OK, not always, but today they got up at 8:30! That's like sleeping 'til noon around these parts!). Whaaaa?
And the summer of kids has, I think, finally been wearing on all of us. The phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" comes to mind. Our little group of 6 kids has been mostly a delight. Each kid is so good, and as a group they all play well together. However, in this communal setting, together so much of the day, no breaks from each other, and having the same 4 or 5 grown-ups around all the time makes for kids pushing the limits with non-parents. Which is to be expected. And also with grown-ups getting irritated/fed up with kids that aren't their kids. Also to be expected. And, of course, the minor increase in tattling and decrease in apologies and sharing...we've become a commune, a big happy-ish family. And I know now why commune people may be somewhat nuts.
It's all balancing pretty well, but the time is definitely nigh for our unit to take breaks during the day. Work on our letters, numbers, writing, and reading-ish stuff. Bathing regularly (How sad that I even have to say that?). Normal bedtimes. Structured mealtimes. Meals that do not consist of chicken nuggets and mac-n-cheese.
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Well...maybe just one more week of summer fun wouldn't hurt...right
Anniversary Eve, or, as Jan would say "TMI! TMI!"
Oh, my dear sweet husband, who has, for the past 4 years of marriage, dealt with the dizzying highs and devastating lows of being married to a nutjob like me...I don't know how you do it. But I do know that I wouldn't be able to do it without you. You keep me grounded and sane (Well, kinda sane).
Watching what a great dad you are to our girls makes me want to be the best mom I possibly can. We have the parenting yin/yang down pretty well, I think, and I know we'll finesse it as the years go on and the challenges these two girls throw at us become a bit more troubling than "MY SOCKS HURT! I WON'T WEAR THEM!" and "Waaah waaah...refill my milk 18 times through the night...waah waaaaah!"
Who knew, when we first met and sat talking about cemeteries in Chicago and ghost stories and books we love, when we sat talking at Eden's Lanes all night, who thought this is where we'd be a half a decade later? I love that we still have nights when we sit up and talk about random ghost stories and hauntings (even though I've become a wuss about them since we had kids), politics, what's going on in the world, books, etc...
I love knowing now, at age 32, that I'll have a whole lifetime with you. A whole lifetime to do anything we want to do, to accomplish anything we want to accomplish. From the little things like expanding the garden to the big things like opening our own restaurant. As anxious as we always are for things to happen-right-now-! it brings me such comfort and ease to know that it doesn't all have to be crammed into one year, we have another 50 at least!!
It makes me so happy to know that we're on the same page with what we want for our life, for our family's future, for what we want to accomplish and who we want to be and who we hope our girls will be. That we both feel like staying in this tiny house will work, that we can make it work, if it means that down the line we can have a little more liberty to take some chances on BIG LIFE STUFF that can make us happy. That both of us have goals separate and outside of just our family unit that the other is so excited to see come to fruition.
So tomorrow, the 4 year mark, Wow. Sometimes I feel like it has flown by, and that our marriage, the US of our family, gets put on the back burner because of the kids, and work, and families, and crappy moods, because of time going so fast that all of a sudden a week passes and I realize we haven't sat down and had any time together to just catch up on things. But usually, overall -and this is how I know we are good together - it just feels right, just right. Like I've known you forever. That even things I would rather not have out in the open are out in the open and it doesn't make a lick of difference because you love me unconditionally. That you know everything about me that there is to know.
I love that we found each other. I love that we keep finding each other anew as time goes on. I love that we are growing together, and able to keep our own identities. I love that Rach once said that Neil "makes me feel like I can do anything" and I thought "wow, that sums it up, that is what a relationship should be!" I love that I found that with you, and I hope you feel the same for me.
Watching what a great dad you are to our girls makes me want to be the best mom I possibly can. We have the parenting yin/yang down pretty well, I think, and I know we'll finesse it as the years go on and the challenges these two girls throw at us become a bit more troubling than "MY SOCKS HURT! I WON'T WEAR THEM!" and "Waaah waaah...refill my milk 18 times through the night...waah waaaaah!"
Who knew, when we first met and sat talking about cemeteries in Chicago and ghost stories and books we love, when we sat talking at Eden's Lanes all night, who thought this is where we'd be a half a decade later? I love that we still have nights when we sit up and talk about random ghost stories and hauntings (even though I've become a wuss about them since we had kids), politics, what's going on in the world, books, etc...
I love knowing now, at age 32, that I'll have a whole lifetime with you. A whole lifetime to do anything we want to do, to accomplish anything we want to accomplish. From the little things like expanding the garden to the big things like opening our own restaurant. As anxious as we always are for things to happen-right-now-! it brings me such comfort and ease to know that it doesn't all have to be crammed into one year, we have another 50 at least!!
It makes me so happy to know that we're on the same page with what we want for our life, for our family's future, for what we want to accomplish and who we want to be and who we hope our girls will be. That we both feel like staying in this tiny house will work, that we can make it work, if it means that down the line we can have a little more liberty to take some chances on BIG LIFE STUFF that can make us happy. That both of us have goals separate and outside of just our family unit that the other is so excited to see come to fruition.
So tomorrow, the 4 year mark, Wow. Sometimes I feel like it has flown by, and that our marriage, the US of our family, gets put on the back burner because of the kids, and work, and families, and crappy moods, because of time going so fast that all of a sudden a week passes and I realize we haven't sat down and had any time together to just catch up on things. But usually, overall -and this is how I know we are good together - it just feels right, just right. Like I've known you forever. That even things I would rather not have out in the open are out in the open and it doesn't make a lick of difference because you love me unconditionally. That you know everything about me that there is to know.
I love that we found each other. I love that we keep finding each other anew as time goes on. I love that we are growing together, and able to keep our own identities. I love that Rach once said that Neil "makes me feel like I can do anything" and I thought "wow, that sums it up, that is what a relationship should be!" I love that I found that with you, and I hope you feel the same for me.
All right. Seriously going to do this now...
As I'm sitting at home, unable to sleep, about T-Minus 2 days from my due date and not having dropped at all, I figured now is as good a time as ever to pick up on (okay, start) blogging. Pictures to come soon (hopefully). (Yeah, baby to come soon, too, hopefully).
Just some things on my mind...
I feel like there's no way we can have a second kid who is nearly as fun, bright, and joy filled as C is. In her 3 1/2 years, she has brought so much happiness to M and me, and it is just incredible. So far, she's been all about the new baby - offering up toys to share with her, books to read to her, etc. Kissing my belly all the time, asking if the baby will be able to play outside, play games, talk, etc. It just blows my mind. How did she become this little being? I have no idea. I so totally remember being this pregnant with her like it was yesterday.
Now she is starting pre-school 3 half days a week while I'm on leave, and it's just so bittersweet - I love that she's such a big girl and so excited to start school (I think she's outgrown her daycare lady - she's the oldest kid there and her chatterboxing ways (believe it or not) can be a HANDFUL for someone that has a bunch of other kids, mostly babies, that need more constant attention). However, it kills me that in a few weeks, my girl is going to belong to the world as she meets new friends and has her own little schedule. She has her own likes/dislikes on music, some of which are kind of weird for a kid (Paul Simon???!!!), runs squealing to play with her cousins instead of clinging to me when we arrive somewhere, wants to have a vote on EVERYTHING in the house (movies, dinner plans, where to put furniture) and so on.
I've spent part of the evening looking for....minivans, used, online, and also looking up "signs of labor" - wishful thinking, I'm pretty sure - because I have no idea what labor is like, as I was induced with C and received some great meds when they gave me the pitocin to induce, so I don't really know what I'm looking for. I know, I know, everyone says, "You'll know!" but I just don't know.
Anyway, that's it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures up this week, maybe even some of the new kid!!!
Know who this is?
He's PedoBear.
Perhaps you've noticed some changes to my blog. Yeah. It'll all come together in a moment, trust me. I'm not really happy about it.
I rarely even update my blog, at least not with any regularity. So imagine how pissed off I was when my husband informed me that my blog's old name shares the name of a super disturbing, super creepy, skin crawlingly disgusting piece of clopfic. What's that? You aren't a disturbed freak of humanity? You aren't into explicit fantasies involving a beloved children's toy? You don't know what clopfic is? Oh, how I envy your innocence.
It's disgusting. It's pathetic. I prefer not knowing that slice of humanity exists. But I definitely prefer knowing that people looking for that tale could end up stumbling across my blog. And I don't know that any of them did, stumble across my blog, that is. But I'd prefer to distance myself from it just the same, not make that a possibility.
So I'm hanging up what I thought was a cute, fun blog name, walking away from it and having nothing to do with it (as best I can). The idea of there being any overlap between my intermittent posts and ramblings and this sick universe makes me want to puke.
So if someone out there, somehow, somewhere, ends up here while looking for that? You deserve the Pedobear. And not in an ironic, meme, internet joke kind of way. In a judgmental "you disgust me and I sincerely hope you are arrested in an SVU style sting operation" way. Seriously.
What're you watching?
Normally I love winter - I love hunkering down in the winter, watching movies and picking up new tv shows, reading book after book, starting crocheting/sewing projects I will never complete. The Chicago winter with brutal cold and heavy snow lends itself very well to these activities.
However...When it is mid January and 52 degrees out, and now in late January we've got a thunderstorm with pouring rain coming down on the 5 inches of snow from 2 days ago...well, it's a little weird.
But I perservere. And thus have been watching shows, reading books, and so on and so forth.
I joked on Twitter earlier this month that Netflix needs to have a category of "Shows You Are Supposed to Watch Because Everyone Has Watched Them and Loved Them and You Already Feel Like a Loser for Not Having Seen Them and Will Feel Even Worse if You Don't Like Them When You Watch Them." Y'know the ones. The ones everyone goes on and on about. That people are hooked on. That it is impossible to believe you didn't see them.
I've tried... There've been an awful lot of shows that I should, by every stretch of the imagination, love. And I've tried to get into them, but they haven't clicked, y'know? Examples (I suspect I may lose friends for these admissions): Mad Men. Breaking Bad. Flight of the Conchordes. Boardwalk Empire. Todd Margaret. Things that in theory? I think I will totally love. TOTALLY love. Right up my alley. And then I put them on and...zzzz. Nope. I completely think that it is like when you get a book and are way excited about it, but doze off before you hit the second chapter, and do that again and again 90 times until BOOM it clicks and you devour the book and love it. I think I just need to keep trying on them.
Mind you - I still have tons of shows to keep me busy. Usual rotation of network fare (Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Big Bang Theory, Up All Night, Parenthood) with a sprinkling of total trash (Teen Mom 2, Real Housewives of New Jersey)
However...When it is mid January and 52 degrees out, and now in late January we've got a thunderstorm with pouring rain coming down on the 5 inches of snow from 2 days ago...well, it's a little weird.
But I perservere. And thus have been watching shows, reading books, and so on and so forth.
I joked on Twitter earlier this month that Netflix needs to have a category of "Shows You Are Supposed to Watch Because Everyone Has Watched Them and Loved Them and You Already Feel Like a Loser for Not Having Seen Them and Will Feel Even Worse if You Don't Like Them When You Watch Them." Y'know the ones. The ones everyone goes on and on about. That people are hooked on. That it is impossible to believe you didn't see them.
I've tried... There've been an awful lot of shows that I should, by every stretch of the imagination, love. And I've tried to get into them, but they haven't clicked, y'know? Examples (I suspect I may lose friends for these admissions): Mad Men. Breaking Bad. Flight of the Conchordes. Boardwalk Empire. Todd Margaret. Things that in theory? I think I will totally love. TOTALLY love. Right up my alley. And then I put them on and...zzzz. Nope. I completely think that it is like when you get a book and are way excited about it, but doze off before you hit the second chapter, and do that again and again 90 times until BOOM it clicks and you devour the book and love it. I think I just need to keep trying on them.
Mind you - I still have tons of shows to keep me busy. Usual rotation of network fare (Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Big Bang Theory, Up All Night, Parenthood) with a sprinkling of total trash (Teen Mom 2, Real Housewives of New Jersey)
Merry Christmas to all...
And to all a good night!
Lemon bars are cut. Creme brulees are just out of the oven. Lemon poppy seed muffins are just about done for breakfast, and I am about ready for a great weekend with my gang.
Michael's folks will be over tomorrow, and my mom and a sibling or two will be over in the afternoon, and then we're hanging at home for Christmas day.
So much food. So much tasty goodness. The whole day has been a day to, as Eleanor would say "Smell the smell of goodness" between cooking and cleaning and cinnamon ornament hanging.
Enjoy your families, count your blessings, and have a great Christmas weekend, everyone!!
Lemon bars are cut. Creme brulees are just out of the oven. Lemon poppy seed muffins are just about done for breakfast, and I am about ready for a great weekend with my gang.
Michael's folks will be over tomorrow, and my mom and a sibling or two will be over in the afternoon, and then we're hanging at home for Christmas day.
So much food. So much tasty goodness. The whole day has been a day to, as Eleanor would say "Smell the smell of goodness" between cooking and cleaning and cinnamon ornament hanging.
Enjoy your families, count your blessings, and have a great Christmas weekend, everyone!!
GD Dog. GD Cat.
So the animals sleep in our bed. They glue themselves to me throughout the night and I end up sleeping with my leg in a triangle #4/sailboat formation. My hips hurt in the morning, I don't sleep well, that damn 60 pound dog just sticks herself at my legs and won't budge.
In the meantime, the cat, who is not a graceful agile creature, chirps before he jumps up on the bed. Then sits on my hip, kneading at my belly before chrrrping and hopping over to settle on Michael's chest, waiting to suck his breath from his face.
So we decided last week ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and booted the animals from our room. They hover outside our bedroom door, freaking out and making unhappy settling in for the night sounds. And then they come in at like 2am since our door doesn't latch all the way.
Sigh.
Anyway, Michael boots Millie off the bed at about 5am today. She grumbles and struts out of the bedroom. We get up and get the girls up, and at about 7am I go in the girls' room to grab clothes for El and the dog PEED ON THEIR CARPET. Clearly spite pee from being booted from the bed. WTF dog?
Tonight, Michael thought he saw a small movement from the kitchen, on the floor. Shit, could it be that we have a mouse in the house*? The cat won't leave his roost under the Christmas tree, lounging on a bunched up area of the tree skirt. I grab him and bring him in the kitchen where he looks at me irritatingly, chrrrrps, and jumps onto the sofa to escape me.
They just aren't earning their keep!!!
*I have always maintained that a couple little field mice coming in from the cold in the winter doesn't bother me that much, as long as they aren't in the pantry and they never have been. I don't know if that is a response to the years of disgusting rats around here, am I desensitized? I dunno. Maybe. Likely.
In the meantime, the cat, who is not a graceful agile creature, chirps before he jumps up on the bed. Then sits on my hip, kneading at my belly before chrrrping and hopping over to settle on Michael's chest, waiting to suck his breath from his face.
So we decided last week ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and booted the animals from our room. They hover outside our bedroom door, freaking out and making unhappy settling in for the night sounds. And then they come in at like 2am since our door doesn't latch all the way.
Sigh.
Anyway, Michael boots Millie off the bed at about 5am today. She grumbles and struts out of the bedroom. We get up and get the girls up, and at about 7am I go in the girls' room to grab clothes for El and the dog PEED ON THEIR CARPET. Clearly spite pee from being booted from the bed. WTF dog?
Tonight, Michael thought he saw a small movement from the kitchen, on the floor. Shit, could it be that we have a mouse in the house*? The cat won't leave his roost under the Christmas tree, lounging on a bunched up area of the tree skirt. I grab him and bring him in the kitchen where he looks at me irritatingly, chrrrrps, and jumps onto the sofa to escape me.
They just aren't earning their keep!!!
*I have always maintained that a couple little field mice coming in from the cold in the winter doesn't bother me that much, as long as they aren't in the pantry and they never have been. I don't know if that is a response to the years of disgusting rats around here, am I desensitized? I dunno. Maybe. Likely.
These are the things that make me laugh...
Meijer's has $25 I tune cards on sale for $20 and they're taking
$4 off for Santa Bucks. Great find!
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***** O'Connor We need to set her up!! Then get her the
fancy phone! This way she can do this from bed!!
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***** O'Connor Doing good ***y. How are you? I have the
bars at Mom's. Do you want me to bring them over in the morning?
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Amy Tibbs NO! C'mon, you know Michael wants to kill me for
complaining that i have to work 2 more days before getting 2 weeks off...then
working a couple days a week for nearly a month!
21 minutes ago · Like
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***** O'Connor Ok. Let me know if you need anything
else. This is awesome!! I love having all of us on at the same time!!
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******** Pravda sorry for cutting in on your santa
bucks. Quick question.. If you can get $25 itune card for $20 if you use Santa
bucks of 4 dollars where does the other dollar go?
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I'm over 18 years of age* (why do you ask?) and have read the
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***** O'Connor I took mine at 8, slept a littlle &
now I'm up again. Not sure why, but not working today.
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***** O'Connor That's probably why they worked so good.
I cycle with them, but if I'm anxious, it doesn't do anything.
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