The Merry Little Breezes

Changing Blog Address

2010-10-08T10:04:00.000-05:00

Please update your links to: blogspot.themerrylittlebreezes.com. I changed my email address on Gmail awhile back and just exported this blog to the new one. This blog will be deleted in a couple of weeks.

Tiny Dancer

2010-09-22T08:44:00.000-05:00

Claire began dance class last Tuesday. She was so, so excited. She's talked about nothing except dance ever since Alair's dance recital in May. She can't wait until it's her turn to have a recital and dance on the stage.
A week before class started, we went shopping to buy her gear. I took her to Payless to get shoes. Claire had the choice of pink, white, or black ballet slippers, and since Alair had pink ones, and Claire loves pink, I naturally assumed that that's what she would pick out. Nope. Claire decided she wanted black. I was impressed. After trying on a couple of sizes, we bought a pair of (very tiny and adorable) size 8 ballet slippers.
Next came the tap shoes. Or as Claire refers to them, "tap-tap" shoes. I had her go up to the front of the store where it wasn't carpeted and told her to try them out. She grinned at me, held out her arms, and performed a few of the dance steps Alair has taught her over the summer. I have rarely seen anything so precious.
Then we went to Target for a leotard and tights. There we had a choice of black, pink, or blue. I told Claire that she could have any color, but the style should be plain, not with any fluffy skirts. I told her this not because it's a rule at her class, but because I would have had a harder time keeping her from wanting to play in it if it looked like something a princess would wear.
Well, the styles she liked didn't come in the size she needed. So we went to WalMart. The selections were far fewer, and we got a plain pink leotard and pink dance tights.
Then on to JoAnn Fabrics to pick out material for her dance bag. I had made one for Alair as a present at her recital. It was pink and lavender and had ballet fairies all over it. I figured we'd get something similar for Claire. Nope. Claire picked out black fabric with brightly colored, narrow stripes, and matching fabric with dots for the lining. I was impressed.
When the time finally came for her first class, I took her in and she put on her tap-tap shoes. Then she sat next to Alair on the floor with the rest of the class of nine little girls. Miss Sarah asked who was three years old. Only Claire raised her hand. There were a couple of 4-year-olds and mostly 5-year-olds. Claire was completely undaunted by being the youngest in the class. I wasn't too worried either. She had been told to do everything her teacher told her to do, and she was so eager to learn to dance that I knew she would do fine.
Miss Sarah had the girls stand up and spread out. Claire held out her arms to make sure she wasn't too close to any other girls. She was looking around, clearly making sure that she was doing the right thing. The best word to describe her expression is "earnest."
The girls started tapping. The noise nine little girls make with tap shoes in a small room rivals rock concerts, I'm sure. I left shortly after to take Natalie to the library, and I don't think Claire even noticed my absence. I came back at the end, and Claire was thrilled but tired.
We're going to have to work on managing the exhaustion, because Claire is very difficult to reason with when she's tired, and obviously, she's even more tired when dance is over. But overall, I think this is going to be a great activity for Claire.

Prayer

2010-09-17T10:44:00.000-05:00

I'm praying today for the father of my children that he receives some peace from God.

He doesn't deserve it. But then, neither do I, and I received God's peace.

But he needs it, just like I did.

So I pray.

This is not me being noble or unselfish or anything like that. It's me just doing my best to do what's right.

Every New Beginning...

2010-09-13T13:35:00.000-05:00

...comes from some other beginning's end.

My divorce was final last Friday. It was completely anti-climactic. I did not feel any different. I'm keeping my last name. The girls' visit schedule was not altered. I now get a check each month for the next 36 months for "spousal support." That's what they're calling alimony these days.

God has definitely worked this painful episode for good. How else could my twinges of discomfort about the church we had been attending be alleviated? How else could Claire be able to grow up alongside Alair? How else could Natalie grow up alongside Carly? Would both girls have had as much exposure to music as they will with Aunt Emmy banging the piano for them and Mommy in the Cannon Valley Lutheran High School band?

It's been tough, being the "tough one." But God has really strengthened my faith in knowing that He works everything for His good and does give me everything I need, just when I need it.

Okay, and yeah, Band. I am THE flute in the CVLHS band. I have no lip left and no breath, considering I haven't played an instrument in nearly 10 years, and I haven't played the flute in over 13 years. But it's coming back, and I'm having a lot of fun.

I am still baking bread. I haven't bought a loaf of bread in a couple of months, since we're not eating as much of it. The girls don't eat lunch at home during the week obviously, so I can keep up with our needs by baking about once a week.

I am in the middle of making my jean quilt. I've got nearly enough squares cut to start sewing, and I can't wait!

I will be buying my nook this week, as my reward to myself. I am looking forward to reading Dante's Inferno with the senior English class, on it. I am in the middle of three books and am waiting for my dad to build me another bookcase, as the ones that were built in at my house are overflowing.

Ahhh, life. It's really quite good, divorced or not.

Books

2010-07-03T09:36:00.000-05:00

I rarely read more than one book at a time. Usually that's because I read fairly fast and can finish one before I want to get into another.
I started reading The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel earlier this spring. I had seen on the CafeMom Bookaholics message board that the sixth in this series was coming out sometime this year. I noticed my parents had the first four in the library at their house, so I borrowed the first one. It was really good, but extremely dense with story and information, and I felt I really wanted to concentrate when I was reading it. So when I just wanted to read something and not have to use my whole brain, I would pull out another book and read some of that.
Well, now I'm reading the second book, The Valley of Horses. Again, it's a really good book, but very dense. So I'm also rereading The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough and Wizard and Glass by Stephen King, and reading Heat Wave by Richard Castle (it's a tie-in to the TV show Castle), and Larceny and Lace by Annette Blair.
Part of this is also because I finally got a library card down here in southern Minnesota, and I've been reading about good books on the Bookaholics page. It's fun to be in the middle of so many stories, and be able to keep track of all of them. I don't think I'll start any more before I finish some of these, though.

More bread

2010-07-02T11:39:00.000-05:00

Today I'm making King Arthur Flour's Oatmeal Toasting Bread. It takes a fair amount of forethought to make it. For one thing, you have to have steel-cut oats. I bought some from KAF a few years ago for the express purpose of making this bread. But the oats got relegated to the freezer and I never made the bread.
Then you have to soak the oats in water overnight, mix most of the ingredients and let sit an hour, then 2 hour-long rises, then baking. The second rise is finishing right now, and I can't wait to try the bread this afternoon.
One thing I like most about making bread is that you know exactly what is in it. There are no weird sweeteners (like high-fructose corn syrup) or preservatives. I'm not one of those moms who insists on only organic foods for my kids or won't let them eat sugar or anything like that. But when you can control some of the over-processed junk that goes into their bodies, that's a good thing.
And now I will climb off my soapbox and put the bread in the oven.

Homemade bread

2010-06-24T15:07:00.000-05:00

Before my life got thrown off-kilter, one of my New Year's resolutions was going to be to start making homemade bread. I have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer with a dough hook, and several of my cookbooks have some good and simple yeast bread recipes. Obviously, that resolution didn't happen at the New Year.
But now that I'm in my own house and have my own kitchen, I've started. Yesterday I made Vermont Oatmeal Maple-Honey Bread from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. Mom made it a few times while we were living there, and I had all the ingredients on hand. Oh, boy, it smelled SO GOOD while it was baking. The girls and I have been eating it all day. Breakfast toast, lunch PB sandwiches.
This link from the King Arthur Flour website is essentially the same recipe. I used brown sugar instead of maple sugar and put in 1/2 teaspoon of maple flavoring.
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/vermont-whole-wheat-oatmeal-honey-bread-recipe
I'm hoping to make bread often, so that the girls and I are eating at least as much homemade bread as store-bought.

Making a 3-year-old see logic

2010-06-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

The girls and I were at my aunt's house this evening, and we got home slightly past bedtime. We promptly started getting ready for bed. Claire pulled off all her clothes and had some difficulty taking off her shirt. Then I started getting Natalie's jammies on to give Claire practice at putting on her nightgown herself. This is a task I have observed her perform several times.

Claire (ready to have a 3-year-old meltdown): I can't do it!
Me: Yes, you can. You've done it before.
Claire (melting down): Noooo I caaaan't.
Me: Well, when it worked before, what did you do?
Claire (pulling nightgown over her head): I did this.
Me: That's right. Then what?
Claire (putting arms in sleeves): This.
Me: Claire, you know what? You just put your nightie on.
And she looked at me in utter perplexity.

I could not believe the trick worked. It felt like one of those ideas you read about in parenting books and parenting magazines and parenting websites that no matter how you try, they never seem to work. But it worked!

Yummy snack

2010-06-21T15:50:00.000-05:00

I just invented a fantastic snack. I put fresh, pitted cherries in a bowl and sprinkled some brownie crumbs on top. (I had made a pan of brownies, and when they started to dry out, I crumbled them and put them in a container in the fridge.) Then I spooned some yogurt over the top. Yum, yum, yum.

Top Five Things About This Weekend

2010-06-13T15:55:00.000-05:00

5. Claire is now in big-girl underwear! She had to go a week without pooping in her pull-up. Mission accomplished.
4. Claire's recitation of The Great Commission begins with "Go therefore, making disciples of all masons..." The children at VBS this year memorized the whole verse, and Claire can say most of it with only a little prompting. Pretty good for a 3-year-old.
3. Had a great time at the Morgan Creek Winery in New Ulm with my high school crowd. We drank a lot of wine, looked at the obnoxious and dorky pictures in our high school yearbooks, and enjoyed each other's company.
2. Eating a deep-fried Oreo at Bullhead Days. Enough said.
1. Finally, finally saw Natalie take a few steps. She's done it a couple of times already, but not when I was around. This morning she stepped from Gamma to me.

A home of my own

2010-05-24T16:53:00.000-05:00

I signed a lease last week on an old and small but very nice house. I've been slowly moving my stuff in. It's difficult to downsize kitchens when you're a cook. But I'm working on it. The cupboard that has been stored in Mom & Dad's poolhouse since I graduated from college will be coming in handy, as soon as my brother and his buddies can move it for me.
I found quite a variety of stuff when I cleaned it out yesterday. Shotgun shells, doe urine, a prom garter, ear plugs, carpet, swim goggles, flippers, belt buckles. No condoms or anything that's illegal, fortunately. It all got tossed into a big box for someone (my youngest brother, probably) to deal with.
I've got a large number of books on shelves too. The EX never liked having all my books out on display, so mostly they stayed on shelves in the game closet. Well, now that I can DO WHAT I WANT WITH THEM, they're out. The house has a built-in desk between the dining room and living room, and above it are shelves, kind of like a hutch that you buy with a computer desk. And the shelves are filled, quite nicely, with my wonderful library. I've still got my YA books living in boxes, but maybe my dad will build some more shelves at some point.
The house comes with a 2-stall garage, which is hilarious for me. I've got my minivan, my bike, the girls' bike trailer, and their wagon to store in the garage. Oh, and the only thing on a shelf, which is my ice scraper. Won't be needing that for a couple of months. It's 94 outside today and muggy, which doesn't surprise anyone around here at all, considering that we had a hard freeze less than two weeks ago.

Projects

2010-04-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

In an effort to keep myself thinking toward the future, work on my hobbies, and make some goals for the rest of the year, I've made my list of "projects" that I want to accomplish in 2010.

~Frame Andy & Christine's wedding gift (they were married last August)
~Finish and frame LeeAnn & Jeremy's wedding gift (they were married last May)
~Start, finish, and frame Jennifer & Seth's wedding gift (they were married last October)
~(This one I'm really excited about) Make a queen-sized jean rag quilt. I have lots of my old and worn or skinny jeans in a garbage bag downstairs. I was going to Goodwill them, but then I realized that I have to buy a quilt for when I buy a bed for when I move out of my parents' house. Why not just make one for myself? I've never made a quilt in my life. Eh. Gotta try new things, right?
~Tend my raspberry patch. Yesterday the girls had their first visit back at the old house (now Daddy's house). That was because I wanted to go up there and dig up my raspberry bushes, which the EX has never really had much interest in. My dad and I replanted almost 25 plants today. I hope that we didn't interrupt the growing cycle too much and that we can have at least some berries this summer. Claire really enjoyed helping pick berries last year, and it would be fun to do it again.
~Read through my TBR (to be read) pile(s) of books. Since joining CafeMom and becoming a member of the CafeMom Bookaholics, I decided I wanted to actually read all the books I've gotten, but never got around to reading. I have quite a stack, and I'm sure it will only get bigger, since it's only April.
~I also hope to find a job, find my own place to live, get Claire to poop on the potty, and get Natalie to gain some weight. These things, however, are a little more out of my control.

I hope to look back on this year and see that I accomplished a lot, not just that I got divorced.

A Woman's Guide to Starting Over

2010-03-20T16:12:00.002-05:00

I found this on the Over 30 Divorced Moms group at Cafe Mom. I think I'm going to try to follow these ideas. I've kind of lost myself over the last few years and it's not only going to be about reinventing myself, it's going to be re-finding myself.

A Woman's Guide to Starting Over

Nothing can knock a woman off her feet like the loss of the man she loves, but a contented life after such a loss is possible. One method that has proven successful sounds deceptively simple. It’s a slow, tedious process punctuated by occasional moments of great joy—and it offers a huge payoff.

The method is this: the gradual reinvention of oneself. Reinvention doesn’t mean abandoning your heart and soul. It means discovering parts of yourself you may not have known existed and exposing yourself to new experiences.

Keep in mind that:

Reinvention can begin whenever you’re ready.
Reinvention happens in stages that can bring periods of discouragement, backsliding, even stalling out.
Reinvention happens over a period of years, not months.
Reinvention doesn’t require abandoning memories or long-standing loyalties.
Reinvention doesn’t mean grieving must stop.
Nurture your "self."
Become your own best friend. Here's how:

Once you stop insulting yourself and start making yourself smile or snicker when you would normally curse, you will instinctively become more patient with yourself.
If you are very angry about your situation, limit the extent of time you let yourself feel angry. Characterize it as disappointment instead.

Avoid exposing yourself to certain pain. Don’t listen to songs that remind you of special times with your ex. Stay away from restaurants, parks and museums that were favorites during your relationship. Store CDs and movies that evoke heart-breaking memories.

Value your “self.” Don’t eat stale cereal or wear panties with holes. Allow yourself to have toast and ice cream for dinner if that’s what sounds good. Stop watching the news if you want to. Avoid people that give you heartburn. Evaluate your surroundings.

During the first stage of your transformation, the goal is to lighten your heavy emotional load. These suggestions are less about redecorating than changing your outlook. (Attitude follows behavior.)

Starting in your living room or bedroom:

Survey the room and decide what objects stir up unpleasant or painful memories—an item from your in-laws, a birthday gift, something you gave to your ex, a photograph, a souvenir—and either get rid of them or store them, even if only temporarily.

Replace them with items you accumulated during happier times, like photos of high school friends, something your child made for you or a treasure from your grandma. Everything within your view should trigger positive thoughts.

Budget permitting, get rid of some of your furniture and buy things you want, things that give you positive emotional energy. Or simply trade items with your sister, liven up a worn-out wooden table and chairs with paint, buy a new bedspread, slipcovers or throw pillows.

Consider changing styles; if you have always been traditional, maybe go with a more contemporary look.

Make personal changes.
When you look different, you feel different. Change something about your appearance:

Try a new haircut or color from a professional (no do-it-yourself projects; you can’t set yourself up for failure).

Ask a department store cosmetics pro for new make-up ideas and clothing color advice.

One piece at a time, get rid of clothes that carry painful memories and try something new—a leather jacket, an uncharacteristically colorful sweater, red high tops or polka-dotted underwear.

Learn something new.
There is probably something you’ve had an unfulfilled interest in. When you feel ready to be around a group of strangers:

Volunteer to do something meaningful to you that uses your talents, and that you can make a commitment to once you know you like it.

Take a class; for example, photography, art, landscaping, knitting, computer or cooking.

Pick up a few college credits if that appeals to you.

Learn to swim, play tennis, play bridge or scuba dive.

Join a group charter traveling to a place you’ve never been.

When you have progressed through your transformation, you can look back and say, “I liked who I was then, and I love who I am now.” Despite occasional skepticism, you persevered. And now you’re not just surviving, you’re thriving.

Fascination

2010-03-14T11:07:00.000-05:00

When Claire was born, everything she did was a source of fascination for me. She's focusing on my face! She likes ceiling fans! She's smiling! Oh my goodness, she LAUGHED!!! Even as she became a toddler, the stuff she did was thrilling. Climbing up the stairs, climbing back down the stairs. Finally talking (they really do mean "explosion" when they refer to a "language explosion") and learning all of her letters around the age of 2.
I really, really hoped that I would be just as fascinated by Natalie. And for the most part, I am, because she and Claire are quite different. As a newborn, Natalie was really mellow and content to watch her world from my arms or her carseat. But then she realized that she wanted to be like Claire and Alair (my 4 1/2 year old sister). Once we moved to Mom & Dad's house, Natalie's desire to be one of the big girls really spurred her to achieve independent movement much earlier than Claire did. Natalie was crawling backwards around 7 months, finally getting the hang of forward gear about a month later. And by about 9 months, she was trying to pull up on furniture. Now she cruises around the furniture and wants so badly to be able to walk by herself. She likes getting into everything she can. She's already contemplated climbing the stairs. She loves going down to the playroom and being with the big girls. Natalie's world is meant to be explored! The big girls get to do all kinds of stuff, so Natalie thinks she ought to be able to, too. She smiles so big when she "gets away" with things like opening a drawer and getting stuff out.
I really hope both girls stay so fascinating for a long time yet.

Not Listening

2010-02-21T15:23:00.000-06:00

Today the girls are having their fourth visit with their father since he asked for the divorce. I am slowly getting used to not listening for them. My ears are always attuned to the girls. Even if I'm in the middle of something else, I keep one ear out for my girls.
The first time they visited their father, I was going crazy. I was wandering aimlessly around the house, I couldn't concentrate on anything, and I was LISTENING. Why wasn't Natalie crying? Why wasn't Claire asking me to help her on the potty? It actually took me a couple of seconds each time to remember that they weren't in the house. But now, even though I'm still restless and find it difficult to concentrate, I'm getting used to it.
Today I've played a little Playstation (I'm going to save up and buy a Wii at some point) and now I've got a movie on and I'm going to work on organizing my embroidery supplies. That's pretty much the only hobby stuff I've got here that I want to have out. I have 3 wedding gifts from last year that I've got to get finished.

Sleep training, Natalie version

2010-02-20T15:52:00.000-06:00

When I was pregnant with Natalie, I wrote a post about sleep-training Claire who was about 25 months old at the time. Well, I had decided when Natalie was born that I wouldn't wait that long to make sure she slept through the night. I thought probably at the time I weaned her, I would do some sleep training.
Well, what with the pending divorce, the two girls and I sleeping in the same room, and me having to get a job that pays actual money sooner than later, I thought now would be a good time to start. Natalie is 9 months old and I recognize her cries well enough to know when she's hungry, sick, in pain, or just asking for a hug.
Last night was night 6, and I only had to get up two or three times to replace the pacifier. Otherwise, she slept from 8:30 last night until 7:30 this morning. Plus she took an almost 2-hour nap this afternoon, which is a huge nap for her.
I do wish I didn't have to let her cry it out, and I know there will still be plenty of sleepless nights ahead. But last night I got more sleep in one night than I think I have since I got pregnant with Claire almost 4 years ago.

So...

2010-02-19T22:28:00.000-06:00

January 2010 is on record as one of the suckiest months ever. The LT, who will now be called the EX, decided his post-traumatic stress disorder was getting to be too much for him, he couldn't "deal with the reality of his home situation" and was "on a self-destructive path", and left me and the girls, who will now be called their names of Claire and Natalie. The EX strung me along for a couple of weeks, finally asking for a divorce on January 18th. Now, I DO NOT BELIEVE IN DIVORCE, so I said no. But as is his wont, he got his way when he confessed to an affair at work, changed the locks to the house, and cancelled my bank account and credit card.
I really, really don't recognize this person anymore. I get just sick when I receive texts or phone calls from him. I went on a stress-induced Diet Coke starvation diet and lost nearly all my Natalie pregnancy weight, which one might think is a good thing until you remember that I'm still breastfeeding. So now I'm also supplementing with formula. My appetite has pretty much improved now, thanks to the fact that the girls and I moved in with my parents, youngest brother, and 4 1/2 year old sister. My mom is a great cook and while I am, too, I know I wouldn't have any interest in cooking for myself, a 3-year-old and a 9-month-old.
I also have to get a job. Even though the EX says he'll willingly pay child support, I will still need more money than that. I don't want to live with my parents forever (I am almost 31 years old). Plus, I will need to get out and meet people. My mom will be doing daycare for the girls, at least to start out. That will help transition them into not having me around 24/7.
Ugh. I can only hope and pray that the rest of 2010 goes better than the first two months.

Baby Jesus and Mama Mary and Daddy Joe-pep

2009-12-25T10:54:00.002-06:00

Which is how Cee describes any manger scene she sees. Which is pretty cool. Which also reminds me that once in awhile, I do something right as a Mommy.
When I got out the Christmas decorations this year, Cee saw the wrapping paper and thought it was for a birthday. So I told her, yes, it is, and explained about Baby Jesus, Mama Mary, and Daddy Joe-pep.
We made a birthday cake for Baby Jesus this year. The LT and I are trying to make sure the girls know about Jesus at Christmas before putting too much emphasis on Santa. Also, I had to use up some bananas, so it was a banana cake we made, and then I found some chocolate frosting in my ingredients cupboard and dumped a lot of sprinkles on top. I think Jesus would be pretty pleased by His cake.
I did have to explain to Cee that Jesus would not be coming by for dinner on Christmas Eve, but that we would think of Him when we ate it and remember His birth.
The girls had a very nice Christmas. Their big gift was a toy kitchen and Cee and Lee both loved it. Then there were some little gifts and each got a blanket. Cee's featured Lightning McQueen and Mater, and Lee's had her name and a little puppy embroidered on it.
So Merry Christmas to you all, and Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus.

I have too many books!

2009-08-12T22:08:00.003-05:00

Well, too many books for the available space in my house. I have all the books I've collected since early childhood, with the exception of picture books, which are still at my mom and dad's house, waiting patiently to be read by the grandchildren who are arriving in droves. Plus, since I am an avid bookworm and prefer to own my books than return them to the library, I have continued to acquire more and more books in my adult life.
I also really like rereading my books which is a trait not everyone understands. This is another reason why I prefer to buy books. Many of my childhood books, particularly the Little House on the Prairie books and Betsy-Tacy books, are in atrocious condition because I am not kind to my books. They get carted everywhere, bent up, torn. They're like the blanket a little kid carries around until it's just a rag. But it's a much loved rag.
I did some straightening of the game closet tonight. This is also the closet that houses the vast majority of my books. I say "my" books because I've contributed most of the books in our household library collection. Many of my books beloved in my teens, like Nancy Drew and Babysitters Club, are contained in boxes because there's not room on the shelves.
I'm probably crazy for keeping these hundreds and hundreds of books. If there's ever a fire, I'd be heartbroken at the loss of my collection. But they are part of who I am. As dippy as it sounds, my books are kind of like old friends that I still visit from time to time.
Someday I'll have enough space for all of them to be out, too, I hope.

Back yet again

2009-08-11T10:50:00.003-05:00

I know, I know, it's been MONTHS since I've posted. Well, the LT and I had our baby on Mother's Day. I'll call her Lee. She's 3 months old now and she and Cee are so cute. She's a far more mellow baby than Cee was, and a better sleeper too. Just don't make her wait for nursing. And don't delay her bedtime. That's really the only time she gets fussy. It's been crazy going from a family of 3 to a family of 4, but we're pretty much adjusted, at least for now.
We've moved Luna outside. We found a doghouse on Craigslist, and she seems to be pretty happy. Samwise, Freya, and Molly also now spend most of their time outside. It's easier with Cee and Lee to not have the dogs constantly nuts in the house. We leave the dogs outside now when we are gone overnight and have the neighbors come over to feed them and make sure everything's okay, and that's working out really well. We're not quite sure what we're going to do this winter, but we'll figure it out.
The LT's family and all of us took a trip up the North Shore last week. It was Cee's first time up the Shore, and she had a blast throwing rocks into Lake Superior. She's still talking about it. We were all ready to come home, though. A vacation with 8 adults and 6 kids ages 2 months to 16 years gets really crazy.
Hopefully I'll find time to post more often now. My mother blogs more than I do.

So far, so good

2009-04-15T09:27:00.003-05:00

Cee has slept straight through the night for 2 nights in a row. I don't believe this has happened before. Last night she fell asleep around 8:30 and slept until 7:30, and the night before we did the crying thing as I laid her down at about 8:40, but she only cried for about 20 minutes and again, slept until about 7:00. So hopefully, this is a pattern that we can follow for, oh, the next 16 or so years.
And I guess just because you quote the Bible for your Facebook status, it makes all your friends worry about you. Grr. But that's a post for another time. Right now Cee is freaking out about her princess gloves and needing help with them.

Tired

2009-04-13T10:21:00.002-05:00

I am tired.
Of course I'm tired. I'm 34 weeks pregnant. I have a 2-year-old. I have four dogs.
For all I swore I wouldn't, I am now letting (if that's the word) Cee cry herself to sleep when she wakes up in the night. I hate it. But she has been waking up again and hollering "Mommy, rock" or "Mommy, bed" or just plain, "Mommy", and when I would pick her up and rock her, I couldn't get her back into her bed. So I put her in our bed. Which meant that no one really got any good sleep. So, since I know there's nothing else she needs (she's not sick, teething, hungry), I've been letting her cry for 4 nights. I think I'm doing the sort-of Ferber method, which is going in at 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and so on. The first night, it took 70 minutes. Night #2, 50 minutes. Night #3, 8 minutes (and I was so hopeful) but last night took an hour. So here's hoping that this works in a few more nights. Cee has put herself back to sleep many, many times before, without crying and needing to get up, so I also know that this is in her capacity. But I need her sleeping decently before Little Girl #2 arrives sometime in the next 6 weeks, because I know no one's going to get any sleep for awhile after she's born.
I just wish I wasn't quite so tired now.

In case you're dying to wet your pants laughing

2009-02-09T21:40:00.002-06:00

Check out this blog! http://www.sundrymourning.com/

And the fur was flying

2009-02-07T09:29:00.002-06:00

Literally!
We have four dogs: a 5-year-old Doberman named Samwise, a 4-year-old chocolate Lab named Freya, a 7-year-old cairn terrier named Molly that we adopted from the LT's parents, and a 6-month-old German Shepherd mix named Luna that someone dumped down the road from us back at the beginning of November.
Samwise is the (usually) undisputed alpha dog. He's the only male and he's lived here the longest. The LT and I adopted him less than a week after we bought our house. The three females are in constant battle to figure out their pecking order. When we adopted Molly from the LT's parents, she ended up being over Freya, since she's older. So okay, we have Samwise, Molly, Freya. Freya was pretty much okay with this.
Then we found Luna. She is a puppy and FAR too big for her britches. She took on Molly about a month ago and it seems like she now outranks Molly, the oldest dog in the house. BUT, she has not overtaken Freya (not for lack of trying). So we have a really bizarre pecking order among the female dogs where Molly outranks Freya, Luna outranks Molly, and Freya outranks Luna.
This morning Cee and I were in the basement (we have a split-level house) with the three girl dogs. The boys (the LT & Samwise) were in bed. All three girl dogs were wrestling, fighting, playing, whatever. Then Luna went after Molly and after an impressive tussle, there were several hunks of Molly's fur on the floor. Cairn terriers are mostly groomed by tugging gently on their hair, not combing or cutting. So it's not too surprising that after a fight with Luna, Molly would have lost some hair.
And then Luna, ever obliging, ate the hair.

C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-I-O-N

2008-11-11T09:51:00.002-06:00

There is just so much to celebrate right now.
#1. President-elect Barack Obama. The LT actually said, "I finally feel hope." This is HUGE coming from the LT. I am really excited to have an intelligent, well-spoken President again. I have a lot of hopes, but I'm trying to keep my expectations down. Let's face it, he's got a lot of people to work with and a lot of work to do.
#2. There is, in fact, a baby growing in my belly. I had my 12-week checkup yesterday and finally heard the beautiful "lub-dub" going 148 times a minute. Almost thought I felt the little bean move last night, too, but that would have been awfully early.
#3. Wedding this weekend! On Thursday we're dropping off 3 of the dogs with the LT's younger brother, the 4th dog with our neighbor, and heading to my parents' house. We'll spend the night there with my youngest brother and then bright and early Friday morning we'll be driving to Indiana for my sister's nuptials. While none of us are particularly thrilled about driving for 12 hours with a toddler in a small car with possibly lousy winter weather, we're all really, really excited for the wedding. And the party afterwards. It sounds like my future BIL's family is pulling out the stops for us to stay with them on Friday night, which is really, really nice of them. The LT is going to preside over the wedding. He's not actually marrying them; they're having a civil ceremony Friday morning. But they'll say their vows, have Scripture verses, etc, on Saturday in front of the friends and family, and the LT is going to sort of run the show. Oh, it's going to be so much fun!
Ahhh, life is good.

Vote or Don't Complain

2008-11-03T20:45:00.002-06:00

That's right. If you don't care enough to get out during the 13 hours the polls are open tomorrow and exercise your right to choose your leader, then you don't get to complain about the leadership.
People in this world are still dying, trying to obtain the right to vote. Some countries let you vote, but there's no real election. The United States has existed for over 232 years because of the right to choose our leaders. We may not like the results, but we still get a say.
The LT and I are heading out to our township hall completely in the middle of nowhere (thank God for the Garmin) and we're taking Cee with us to demonstrate the reason why we've endured nearly 2 years of political ads.
So get out and vote. I don't much care who you vote for (really). But please, vote or don't complain later.

Blah

2008-10-07T14:36:00.002-05:00

I've been extremely lame on the blogging front of late. That's what comes of being almost 8 weeks pregnant with #2 and having morning sickness that really doesn't abate AT ALL. It's been requiring effort to even READ the blogs I follow these days. MJ's going to dump me off her blogroll soon if I don't try to be slightly more interesting, or at least try more often.
Most of my & the LT's family is excited we're pregnant with #2. Cee got a new Tshirt that says on the front "I'm going to be a big sister!" and the back has "But the crown is still mine!" The LT's family loved it. My family would have, too, but Cee puked on it (she gets carsick) as we were driving down to visit my folks. I should have known better than to have her actually WEAR the thing in the car.
Speaking of Cee's carsickness, if anyone has any ideas for how to survive a 12-hour drive to my sister's wedding in November, I'm all ears. Or whatever you'd call "all ears" in cyberspace. I'm planning on a sippy cup of ginger ale, Cheerios, and lots of paper towels. I'm going to call the doctor to see if Dramamine can be given to a not-quite-2-year-old, but I doubt it.
I'm tired.

Another blog

2008-09-05T18:44:00.003-05:00

It occurred to me after looking at Dine & Dash that since I love to cook and bake, I should have a food blog. Here it is: Flour is Fun.
It's still somewhat under construction, but I'm hoping to put up some of my favorite recipes and food links.

More ways to enjoy your picture show

2008-09-04T16:39:00.002-05:00

Found this at The Laundry is Never Done. Looked cool, so I put it here.

This is Entertainment Weekly's list of the top movies of the last 25 years. Go through their list and * the ones you have seen and + the ones you own on video or DVD.

*+1. Pulp Fiction (1994)
*+2. The Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-03)
*+3. Titanic (1997)
4. Blue Velvet (1986)
*+5. Toy Story (1995)
*+6. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
7. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
*8. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
9. Die Hard (1988)
10. Moulin Rouge (2001)
11. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
*+12. The Matrix (1999)
*+13. GoodFellas (1990)
14. Crumb (1995)
*15. Edward Scissorhands (1990)
*+16. Boogie Nights (1997)
*+17. Jerry Maguire (1996)
18. Do the Right Thing (1989)
*+19. Casino Royale (2006)
*+20. The Lion King (1994)
*+21. Schindler's List (1993)
*22. Rushmore (1998)
*23. Momento (2001)
24. A Room With a View (1986)
*+25. Shrek (2001)
26. Hoop Dreams (1994)
*27. Aliens (1986)
28. Wings of Desire (1988)
*+29. The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
*30. When Harry Met Sally (1989)
31. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
*32. Fight Club (1999)
33. The Breakfast Club (1985)
34. Fargo (1996)
35. The Incredibles (2004)
*+36. Spider-Man 2 (2004)
*37. Pretty Woman (1990)
*+38. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
*+39. The Sixth Sense (1999)
*40. Speed (1994)
*41. Dazed and Confused (1993)
*+42. Clueless (1995)
*+43. Gladiator (2000)
44. The Player (1992)
45. Rain Man (1988)
46. Children of Men (2006)
*+47. Men in Black (1997)
*+48. Scarface (1983)
*49. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
50. The Piano (1993)
51. There Will Be Blood (2007)
52. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)
*+53. The Truman Show (1998)
54. Fatal Attraction (1987)
55. Risky Business (1983)
56. The Lives of Others (2006)
*57. There’s Something About Mary (1998)
*58. Ghostbusters (1984)
*+59. L.A. Confidential (1997)
*60. Scream (1996)
61. Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
62. sex, lies and videotape (1989)
63. Big (1988)
*+64. No Country For Old Men (2007)
*+65. Dirty Dancing (1987)
*66. Natural Born Killers (1994)
67. Donnie Brasco (1997)
68. Witness (1985)
69. All About My Mother (1999)
70. Broadcast News (1987)
71. Unforgiven (1992)
72. Thelma & Louise (1991)
*73. Office Space (1999)
74. Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
75. Out of Africa (1985)
*+76. The Departed (2006)
77. Sid and Nancy (1986)
78. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
79. Waiting for Guffman (1996)
80. Michael Clayton (2007)
81. Moonstruck (1987)
82. Lost in Translation (2003)
*83. Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn (1987)
*+84. Sideways (2004)
*+85. The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)
86. Y Tu Mamá También (2002)
*+87. Swingers (1996)
*+88. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)
89. Breaking the Waves (1996)
*+90. Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
*91. Back to the Future (1985)
92. Menace II Society (1993)
93. Ed Wood (1994)
*+94. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
95. In the Mood for Love (2001)
96. Far From Heaven (2002)
*97. Glory (1989)
98. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999)
*99. The Blair Witch Project (1999)
*+100. South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut (1999)

Now, seriously, the South Park movie is on the list? WTH? As opposed to other great animated films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Little Mermaid? I mean, it was hysterically funny and all, but I don't think it was one of the greats of the last 25 years. That's probably why I don't work for Entertainment Weekly.
And wow, the LT and I certainly have an extensive film collection. How about you guys?

Life happens

2008-09-02T09:51:00.003-05:00

Wow, I only posted twice in August. Shame on me.
There has been a lot of excitement in our family.
My married sister, Lala, just annouced she is pregnant.
My other sister, Ems, is engaged, as is one of my brothers, A.
The little sister is officially potty-trained.
Cee is going to sleep without being rocked.
Youngest brother E is in his last year of college.
The LT saved a guy's life a couple of weeks ago by pulling his drunken ass out of the river, and once he was treated at the hospital, arrested him for a felony terroristic threats warrant.
I myself have not done much that's blog-worthy, although I watched The Sound of Music 3 times this weekend while the LT's been at work. It's one of my favorite love stories and so I was feeling all goopy and singing along with the movie. (No, mom, I'm not pregnant.)

A few things I've learned this week

2008-08-20T10:07:00.003-05:00

1.Okay, peanut butter doesn't always cure hiccups.
Cee had a good case of them last night. I gave her PB twice, but she likes to hoard food in her mouth, so the effort was completely wasted. I sang to her as we rocked to sleep and that knocked her (and her hiccups) out.
2. Younger brothers can make really good relationship decisions.
We met my brother's fiancee's family this weekend. Cee and I had gone down to see the folks for a few days. It was my little sister's 3rd birthday too. My brother is 21 and getting married to a girl who's a few years older next August. The LT and I, and maybe Cee, are all in this ginormous wedding. It's going to be a hoot. Especially if my married sister and I are pregnant or have newborns at the time. Anyway I got to see my brother and his fiancee together and they are really great. It's kind of weird seeing a girl look at your brother with total love and devotion, especially since I changed his diapers and gave him baths and bottles, but it was really great too.
3. I can't remember what else I've learned, but there's probably a ton. Mothering a toddler is good for learning, even if you can't always remember what you've learned.

A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down

2008-08-02T12:23:00.002-05:00

And a spoonful of peanut butter makes the hiccups go away. I have no idea how.
Cee isn't really bothered when she gets the hiccups, but she gets them a lot at bedtime, where they understandably interfere with falling asleep. A couple of months ago, we were rocking for almost half an hour with hiccups when I remembered the peanut butter cure. Sure enough, a toddler-size spoonful of PB and Cee was asleep within minutes. I've used it several more times, including today right before naptime.
Wikihow.com has many methods of curing hiccups and puts the peanut butter cure at #44. The instructions are simple and has appropriate warnings included so people who have peanut allergies and those who aren't used to swallowing peanut butter without choking are forewarned about the risks inherent in this cure.
And speaking about being forewarned, evidently 16 adults need to be told that riding motorcycles in driving rain, cloud-to-ground lightning, and gale-force winds is a stupid idea. But we did it anyway and miraculously survived, although many brain cells were killed in the partying that ensued once we reached the hotel later that afternoon.

Babysitting is a dangerous job

2008-07-29T10:39:00.002-05:00

But I hope it won't be when Grandma Debbie is here to take care of Cee for a few days while the LT and I take a little vacation. Grandma Debbie offered to watch Cee and the 3 dogs at our house, which was really nice of her. I suppose the only danger will be the fact that 18-month-olds don't sit still, and GD hasn't chased one around for 3 days at a stretch in several years. Cee can be tiring.
I've got lists of everything typed up (in a large font to GD won't have to put on her reading glasses). Cee's routine, how to make her cheesy bread, the fact that since she's GRANDMA, it's okay to spoil Cee. I mean, come on, an extra sippy cup of juice won't make Cee obese. Also how to care for the dogs and my plants and the fact that it's OKAY to run the air conditioner. The air's practically solid this week.
I've never been away from Cee overnight before, so this will be something new. We'll be gone 2 nights. I'm not at all worried about Cee. She just adores Grandma Debbie. Cee has also begun realizing that when Mommy goes away, she comes back. We've left her for a few hours with different people, and she doesn't really cry when we leave anymore. The only thing that might be tricky is bed time. Cee's never been put to bed by anyone but me. Also, she's not the most reliable sleeper in this world, even though she'll be 18 months old this week. But I know they'll muddle through, and it is only for 2 nights.
I'm really looking forward to 3 days and 2 nights with the LT. We haven't had much "us" time since Cee was born, so this will be fun.

Help Wanted

2008-07-23T08:34:00.002-05:00

MJ over at Note to Self is part of a blogathon (boy, what a world we live in) this Saturday to raise money for HUGS (Helping Uplift Grieving Survivors) which helps families of police officers killed in the line of duty.
She has more details on her blog, including how to donate, so please check her out.

We thank Thee for Thy bounty

2008-07-22T09:49:00.002-05:00

So said Pa (Charles Ingalls) at the end of The Long Winter when the family sat down to Christmas dinner in May. They were thankful for having enough food after almost starving during the winter.
I really try to remain thankful for everything I've got, even though I've never come close to starving. Cee and I went for a walk this morning, since it was so gorgeous out. I was telling Cee that she was a lucky girl to live in the country where we could take long walks and hear the birds and the bugs and smell the fresh air and not have to worry (much) about our safety.
We're also really lucky that even though gas and food prices are rising, we're still managing to get by on just the LT's salary. I'm spending almost $10 a week just on milk, which is enough to make you want to get your own cow.
We've also got an incredible family on both my and the LT's sides. Cee has great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, dogs, and me and the LT. I hope she never has to wonder if she's loved.
We live in a really nice community with a fantastic school and a great church with our fantastic pastor. Cee is the darling of our congregation, and she runs around our church as if she owns the place.
We have our nice home that we are making various small, inexpensive improvements on, like new flooring, paint, and our sunporch (which was kind of expensive, I guess). Our home owner's policy covered getting a new roof and gutters after a massive hailstorm last August, and we had absolutely no problems with the insurance company.
We always have plenty of food on the table and no one ever comes to our house and goes hungry.
We're very blessed and I hope to always remember to thank God for His bounty.

Floored

2008-07-15T14:28:00.002-05:00

We're finally getting rid of most of the carpet in our house. I personally don't like carpet. It's really hard to keep clean when you've got 3 dogs, an 18-month-old, and a husband.
The dogs like to eat strange things outside and then cannot properly digest them, and then I have to clean weird brown stains off carpet. And dogs shed. Lots. Even the ones with short hair.
Toddlers spill things. Lots.
The LT is actually fairly good about carpets. He doesn't throw up on them or spill his sippy cup all over. But he also hates cleaning up weird brown stains.
So we're ripping up all the carpet and putting down laminate. And by we, I mean he. I'll help pull up staples and carpet tacks and vacuum up dust and dog hair. But he's installing the flooring. He even watched the video this morning.
I'm actually pretty sure it'll turn out great. The LT is extremely anal and not afraid to call his dad for help, so while it might take awhile, it'll be completely great when it's done.

Also, thanks to MJ of Note to Self for the mention of little ol' me on her blogroll.

One does not love breathing

2008-07-09T14:06:00.002-05:00

Ahh, yes, Emily, your Aubrey did blow this thing out of the water.

The Reading List
The Big Read is an NEA program designed to encourage community reading initiatives. They've come up with this list of the top 100 books, using criteria they don't explain, and they estimate that the average adult has only read 6 of these.
So, we are encouraged to:
1) Look at the list and bold those we have read.
2) Italicize those we intend to read.
3) Underline the books we LOVE
4) Reprint this list in our own blogs

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On the Road- Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

So what do you think?

Dogs rule and cats drool

2008-07-04T21:45:00.001-05:00

Or is it the other way around? I got this in an email from a friend and thought it was just hilarious. Enjoy!
Excerpts from a Dog's Diary
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!
9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!
9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!
10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!
12:00 pm - Lunch! My favorite thing!
1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!
3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!
5:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!
7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!
8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!
11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat's Daily Diary
Day 983 of my captivity
My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.
They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.
The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet.
Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this wo uld strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a 'good little hunter' I am. Bastards.
There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of 'allergies.' I must learn what this means and how to use it to my advantage.
Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow -- but at the top of the stairs.
I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released - and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded.
The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicating with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now..............

Happy Independence Day, Daddy

2008-07-04T09:54:00.000-05:00

And to the rest of you too. Thank your favorite soldier today for giving us the chance to celebrate our independence for the 232nd year in a row.
I'm looking forward to taking Cee to the 4th of July fireworks and parades in a couple years, once she's old enough to enjoy it and not be scared of the fireworks. I'm also looking forward to explaining to her that her daddy is one of the brave soldiers (I hate the word "hero", so I don't use it) who helps keep our country safe.
The LT has been in the Army for almost 11 years and so has a little more than 9 to go before he can retire with a pension. He's had 2 deployments, neither of which involved children. At least, not where they were old enough to realize what was happening. But I'm a little nervous about when he gets deployed again. Because we'll have Cee, who will most certainly be old enough to realize that Daddy's gone, even if she doesn't really understand it. She realizes when he's gone now. And we'll probably have a 2nd child by that time, too. I know tons of moms have done this before me, and unfortunately, tons will do it after me, too.
I do believe that our soldiers are keeping our country safe. It's hard when they're overseas, but I can't even imagine what it would be like to have a war fought here, at home. I like knowing that when we go to bed at night, our little home is safe, or at least as safe as it can be. It must be hard raising kids in a place where bombs go off and foreign soldiers, or not foreign soldiers, can just come up to your house and search it.
Ugh. Too much gloom and doom for a happy holiday. Enjoy your fireworks and picnics. And pray for our soldiers, that we can celebrate for 232 years more.

Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo

2008-06-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

There was magic this weekend. At least according to the guys.
My whole family except one brother spent the weekend at one sister's house while cheering another sister on in the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth. It was craziness. There were my parents, the running sister, her (almost) fiance and his mom, the hostess sister and her husband, my youngest brother, my youngest sister, me, the LT, and Cee. And 5 dogs. Uff-da.
We all showed up on Friday. Half of us stayed with the hostess sister, the other half at the hotel in Duluth. There wasn't as much magic on Friday night. There were screaming giggles from my overtired sister who's almost 3 and my overtired daughter at the restaurant. There were gutblasting laughs as those of us who stayed with the hostess watched Old School. But not much magic.
The magic arrived Saturday. We watched the runner sister cross the finish line. There was a 73-year-old woman who finished the marathon. I can hardly run 26.2 feet, and this woman ran 26.2 miles. Wow. Then we went back to the house where the hostess sister's husband spit a turkey (boy, that sounds funny when you first read it) and the wine/beer/other alcohol started flowing. And holy cow, did we have too much food. I ate so much junk that I couldn't eat the spitted turkey. After I put Cee to bed and my dad had also gone to bed, I found that the guys had pretty much banished the girls to the house so they (the guys) could drink beer, eat s'mores, tell obnoxious jokes, and pass gas. The guys ranged in age from 19-30, but under those circumstances, they were really all about 12. Evidently the girls ruined the "magic" or "mystique" in the words of the LT. So my sisters, mom, the almost-fiance's mom, and I crashed in the living room, joking about guys and their "magic" and talking about feet. Yes, it was just as weird as that sounds.
The next morning, the guys were telling us about the unicorns and pixie dust and how the wizard arrived just as one of the little dogs was humping a dwarf, and then the wizard turned the dog into a real boy, but only until midnight.
This is my family.

Enjoy Your Picture Show

2008-06-18T13:33:00.000-05:00

Last night was the AFI's 10 Top 10. They had the top 10 movies in 10 different genres. It was really kind of cool. It should come as no surprise that the Animation category had Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs taking the top spot, or that 2001: A Space Odyssey was the #1 Sci-Fi film. What I thought was neat was a Charlie Chaplin film called City Lights was the best romantic comedy.
There are so many films I want to see, not only that are out now, but oldies and classics. My husband, the LT, likes to tease me about the movies I haven't seen. I remind him that I grew up with 4 younger siblings and am thus well-versed in such genres as Disney and the Muppets. My sisters and I can recite whole scenes from Beauty and the Beast and The Great Muppet Caper.
Actually, we can recite the whole movies from start to finish, songs included.
The LT and I love to watch movies. We've been subscribed to Netflix almost since it started and we've seen all kinds of films that you can't find at Blockbuster or your local convenience store. We've found that foreign films are best if they're subtitled instead of dubbed. You actually forget that you're "reading" the movie, but you just can't get around the lips moving out of sync with the audio. Quirky, independent movies are our favorites, like The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and I Heart Huckabees. But you can't go wrong with a gut-blasting comedy like Anchorman and Knocked Up.
We got a PS3 a few weeks ago, which has a Blu-Ray player. With the PS3 we got 6 Blu-Ray movies. We watched Swordfish with Halle Berry, John Travolta, and Hugh Jackman. NOT the greatest movie ever, and since we have a really great TV, we couldn't actually see the improvement on graphics.
But that's okay. We got a couple of hours cuddling on the sofa and Cee actually stayed asleep the whole time, so it was kind of like our movie nights of pre-Cee which don't happen very often anymore. Hopefully we'll get more movie nights this summer, since Cee is sleeping better at night these days.

Truly Wonderful the Mind of a Child is

2008-06-16T21:53:00.000-05:00

Boy, if anyone wants proof that kids watch and learn from their parents, all they've got to do is have a toddler. Cee emulates us in so many ways these days, it's incredible and a little scary to realize what responsibility we have in what she learns.
For example, ever since Cee learned to crawl, I've fed the dogs while she was in her high chair so she'd stay out of their food. They would eat and then I'd pick up the dishes, stack them together, and put the dishes up on the fridge. Well, a few weeks ago, Cee started going around and picking up each dish, handing it to me, and pointing up at the top of the fridge to tell me where it went. (She doesn't have many words yet, but she's fluent in "point and grunt.")
She also helps me unload the dishwasher, and lately she's noticed when dishes are dirty as I'm loading the dishwasher, and she now leaves them alone. She can also say "dirty" since I've been drilling it into her head for a few months now.
But the best one was this evening. Daddy came home from work (he's working weird hours this week) and was sitting down on the sofa relaxing before going to bed, as he's going back in to work at 1am. She walks over to our entertainment center, picks up the PS3 controller, and hands it to Daddy. She's OBVIOUSLY observed how much Daddy enjoys his video games.
As the wise Yoda said, "Truly wonderful the mind of a child is."

So It Begins

2008-06-06T20:15:00.000-05:00

Hi, everyone.
I'm not entirely sure what this blog will be about. Probably a little bit of everything. I have a lot of interests and a lot of things to say about them. People who know me know I talk A LOT. This way, I can say what I have to say without boring the pants off people who don't want to listen to me.
I hope you find this blog interesting. I certainly think the things I have to say are interesting, DUH!