We hope everyone will enjoy their holiday seasons, whether at home or at the grandparents. Drive safely, it seems there is more than enough snow to go around this time. A few days back, we were driving on the freeway, in a snowstorm, in morning traffic. A slightly tense situation. The girls wanted to listen to their "kid songs," and one came up about calling 911 in case of an emergency. We weren't really listening to the song, just watching cars drive too fast and fishtail, and all the sudden we hear sirens and engines honking and were trying to figure out where it was coming from. Well, it was from the chorus of the song. Ben found it less than amusing, although I was laughing. We went to the next track to avoid bad karma.
I apologize for the lack of pictures lately. We didn't even get a family picture taken this fall, I think we're an every-other-year family. Hopefully the turning of the year will result in the end of the blogging blahs!
Merry Christmas!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Best of 2008
I've been blogged out as of late, and busy, but I finally had inspiration for a post. These are my nominations for the best of 2008 in our house:
1. Fabric shaver. If you don't know what this is (I've known about them for awhile but had no idea how valuable they were), it's a small, hand-held shaver that will suck in and cut off the pills on sweaters, fleece, blankets, or anything else that develops linty little balls. I've saved about 5 pieces of clothing thus far, not counting all the clothes Ben has taken the shaver to. Truly amazing. It's like wearing new fleece pants and sweaters. Love it.
2. Mary Kay eye make-up remover. The only one that doesn't burn my eyeballs out.
3. Jilly's transformation from baby shrimp to an average-sized toddler.
4. Evelyn's names for her parents. It went from 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' to 'Mudder' and my full name. Ben is labeled 'Fadder' and 'hon,' short for "honey." Such a formal child.
5. The Honda mini-van. We love it, and so do our kids.
6. Gas prices. The great evil earlier this year, but now make our holiday travels much more affordable. If you had asked me in July, I really thought gas would be tipping $5/gallon by this point. To be paying the prices now I paid in high school for gas is unbelievable.
7. Pilates. I originally discovered this exercise after I had Evelyn, and was faithful up until last Christmas in doing it a couple times a week. I got burned out or lazy. I'm not sure which. But after I started getting back aches at 4 months along, I decided I needed to do something or I was going to be miserable come April. Back to the mat I went (with pregnancy pilates), and I can button up my jeans again where I wasn't able to a month ago. And no back aches, popping hips, or stiff muscles. I love Pilates.
8. Being out on the farm last spring. It's nice to do some physical labor, get dirty once in a while, and not live in the city.
9. The sleep bible. Otherwise titled, "Healthy sleep habits, happy child." I'm dead serious, this has saved my sanity with Jillian.
10. Starfall.com. Evelyn's new best friend. Her computer operation skills have grown exponentially. A good thing now, but something I may curse later.
11. Reading. I was feeling 'dumb' earlier this year, so I started to pick up and plow through books again. I recently started to re-read my college textbooks, and I'm actually enjoying it this time around. I've forgotten a lot of the valuable stuff I learned, and it's been really fun re-discovering why I got a Bachelor's degree.
12. Watching my children's excitement for holidays build. I don't think they quite got Thanksgiving, except that it had something to do with turkeys and we visited my grandparents a few hours north of here, but they're still talking about Halloween. How "creeeeepy" it is, and how ghosts live in the dark, and that they got to dress up in their animal suits. As of a few days ago, "Baby brudder" is going to wear the monkey suit next year according to the girls.
13. Ben's completion of coursework for his Master's degree. He won't have to take classes next semester, which means he won't have homework, which means he gets to see us more! It also means he won't be in the middle of writing a term paper when I go into labor, a very good thing for me. Now all he needs to do is write his thesis.
1. Fabric shaver. If you don't know what this is (I've known about them for awhile but had no idea how valuable they were), it's a small, hand-held shaver that will suck in and cut off the pills on sweaters, fleece, blankets, or anything else that develops linty little balls. I've saved about 5 pieces of clothing thus far, not counting all the clothes Ben has taken the shaver to. Truly amazing. It's like wearing new fleece pants and sweaters. Love it.
2. Mary Kay eye make-up remover. The only one that doesn't burn my eyeballs out.
3. Jilly's transformation from baby shrimp to an average-sized toddler.
4. Evelyn's names for her parents. It went from 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' to 'Mudder' and my full name. Ben is labeled 'Fadder' and 'hon,' short for "honey." Such a formal child.
5. The Honda mini-van. We love it, and so do our kids.
6. Gas prices. The great evil earlier this year, but now make our holiday travels much more affordable. If you had asked me in July, I really thought gas would be tipping $5/gallon by this point. To be paying the prices now I paid in high school for gas is unbelievable.
7. Pilates. I originally discovered this exercise after I had Evelyn, and was faithful up until last Christmas in doing it a couple times a week. I got burned out or lazy. I'm not sure which. But after I started getting back aches at 4 months along, I decided I needed to do something or I was going to be miserable come April. Back to the mat I went (with pregnancy pilates), and I can button up my jeans again where I wasn't able to a month ago. And no back aches, popping hips, or stiff muscles. I love Pilates.
8. Being out on the farm last spring. It's nice to do some physical labor, get dirty once in a while, and not live in the city.
9. The sleep bible. Otherwise titled, "Healthy sleep habits, happy child." I'm dead serious, this has saved my sanity with Jillian.
10. Starfall.com. Evelyn's new best friend. Her computer operation skills have grown exponentially. A good thing now, but something I may curse later.
11. Reading. I was feeling 'dumb' earlier this year, so I started to pick up and plow through books again. I recently started to re-read my college textbooks, and I'm actually enjoying it this time around. I've forgotten a lot of the valuable stuff I learned, and it's been really fun re-discovering why I got a Bachelor's degree.
12. Watching my children's excitement for holidays build. I don't think they quite got Thanksgiving, except that it had something to do with turkeys and we visited my grandparents a few hours north of here, but they're still talking about Halloween. How "creeeeepy" it is, and how ghosts live in the dark, and that they got to dress up in their animal suits. As of a few days ago, "Baby brudder" is going to wear the monkey suit next year according to the girls.
13. Ben's completion of coursework for his Master's degree. He won't have to take classes next semester, which means he won't have homework, which means he gets to see us more! It also means he won't be in the middle of writing a term paper when I go into labor, a very good thing for me. Now all he needs to do is write his thesis.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Pregnancy Brain.
And boy, do I have it. Maybe it's because I'm having a boy. He's killing off my brain cells now so I won't notice him getting away with murder when he's older. In the last few days I have:
Lost my debit card in Costco, apparently just dropping it on the floor after I went through the cashier line. Thankfully, someone took it to the Membership desk so I could get it back.
Broke my large Pyrex mixing bowl by watching it fall onto the floor out of the fridge (major delayed reaction time). I didn't know those things could shatter into that many pieces.
Made some delicious cookies, that weren't quite done when the timer went off. So I meant to leave them in the oven for 2 more minutes. Wait, make that 15 minutes. Buttery, melt-in-your mouth cookies turned into burned, crispy critter cookies.
85 - the number of times I have knocked over, dropped, spilled, or run into my children (my burgeoning belly is now a blind spot). When pregnancy books talk about a loss of grace, none of this was mentioned as far as I can remember. But isn't that the point? I'm not remembering. Haha.
And my children seem to be finding more ways into mischief. Today they scribbled on library books, the computer screen, washed Jilly's hair at the sink with handsoap (which consequently dribbled in her eyes, making her scream, making her wet her pants, etc.), among other minor disasters. Maybe my hearing is temporarily going. I can no longer sense when trouble is brewing, or have that natural timer of "my children have been quiet for longer than 3 minutes, I'd better make sure they're not destroying something."
Other than this, the pregnancy is great. This kid is going to be bigger than my girls. My belly is as big now as I was at 28 weeks with the girls. And I'm only 22 weeks. Watch out girls, the blind spot is only going to get bigger.
Lost my debit card in Costco, apparently just dropping it on the floor after I went through the cashier line. Thankfully, someone took it to the Membership desk so I could get it back.
Broke my large Pyrex mixing bowl by watching it fall onto the floor out of the fridge (major delayed reaction time). I didn't know those things could shatter into that many pieces.
Made some delicious cookies, that weren't quite done when the timer went off. So I meant to leave them in the oven for 2 more minutes. Wait, make that 15 minutes. Buttery, melt-in-your mouth cookies turned into burned, crispy critter cookies.
85 - the number of times I have knocked over, dropped, spilled, or run into my children (my burgeoning belly is now a blind spot). When pregnancy books talk about a loss of grace, none of this was mentioned as far as I can remember. But isn't that the point? I'm not remembering. Haha.
And my children seem to be finding more ways into mischief. Today they scribbled on library books, the computer screen, washed Jilly's hair at the sink with handsoap (which consequently dribbled in her eyes, making her scream, making her wet her pants, etc.), among other minor disasters. Maybe my hearing is temporarily going. I can no longer sense when trouble is brewing, or have that natural timer of "my children have been quiet for longer than 3 minutes, I'd better make sure they're not destroying something."
Other than this, the pregnancy is great. This kid is going to be bigger than my girls. My belly is as big now as I was at 28 weeks with the girls. And I'm only 22 weeks. Watch out girls, the blind spot is only going to get bigger.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)