Lucky Woman

Today is our sixteenth wedding anniversary. We've been married SIXTEEN years. And if you count the four years of dating through high school and a year of college, we've been together TWENTY years. That's kind of a lot of years. He asked me to 'go out' with him in early May of our Sophomore year in a field that doesn't exist anymore. It's covered in houses now. I said yes and that was it I guess. We were pretty much inseparable after that, and we still are.

In August of 1995 we went to a local park where he proposed and then we high tailed it out of there because there were some shady people hanging around. We got married in May, 1996 on the single sunny day that whole month. It was hot and sticky and my wedding dress covered my whole body. He wore a white tux. The bridesmaids and groomsmen were our siblings and friends, as young or younger than we were.  It was a great day and we left the next day for Orlando, FL for our honeymoon. Turns out its hard to rent a car at age 20, so we borrowed his parents, and we were lucky enough to be able to get a hotel room. We sat in the sun too long, swam, enjoyed Disney and had a great time. That's pretty much been our life since then. We make plans, we save up or take steps to make that plan happen, and we achieve what we shoot for. We've been to Aruba, Cancun (free trip that I won through work, woo), and Maui. I'd still like to get to Greece and France as well as Bora Bora. Someday, we will.

We enjoy each other. We believe the same things and we find the same things hilarious. We are, for lack of a better phrase, a match made in heaven. Even though we were matched at what some might consider too young, I believe God sent us to each other. Sixteen years later we have two wonderful daughters and we support each other in everything. We keep each other sane, balance the craziness of parenthood and careers with love and support that we each require to get through our lives together.

He sent me the flowers in the picture today. With a beautiful note that I'm keeping to myself. And I couldn't agree more, there is no one that would be a better husband to me or a better father to our children than him. Happy 16th anniversary and I'm certain there's many many more to come.

Gifts and Colds

So I took the husband and 4yo to the doctor this morning. He's started coughing and it's starting to sound unpleasant and she's had a cold for going on a month now. I think it's actually three colds in a row, but her little body just can't keep up with it. So he's got meds x 2 now, and she's got meds as well. She's got swollen tonsils and congestion and sniffles and it's a wonder really that she's as pleasant as she is. She hasn't complained much and she's been stuffed up and snoring for a month now. She's tough I guess.

For Mother's Day we headed to see the in-laws. I had an ulterior motive though, I got a flyer from a furniture store near the in-laws to come in, scan this barcode and win savings! 5%, 10% 40% off or a $25,000 shopping spree. Wow that would have been nice. I didn't win, but we did get 10% off. We've wanted new bedroom furniture for awhile now. Our headboard/footboard is from Montgomery Wards, we got it on clearance because it was discontinued. We got a great deal on it...15 years ago. The two chests of drawers we have are giant and while they do the job, they make the room feel like its full of furniture. The husband has a nightstand but I only have a home made (well made) wooden stand. It has a top and a shelf. It works, but not very well. He has the drawers with stuff, and I have an open shelf that doesn't hold much. Also, none of it really matches the direction we've gone with the room. The new bathroom took us in a brown/cream direction. The walls are cream and I've upgraded the comforter and curtains to brown (cream flowers on the bed as well) but the rest of the furniture and artwork just doesn't match any more. So...we bought new bedroom furniture on Saturday. It's my mother's day, anniversary, birthday gifts all rolled into one. I'll take it, it's beautiful stuff. Because of the solution we're going with, we have to clean out our drawers and unworn clothes etc to make this solution work. I am so very excited I cannot even explain.

We're swapping the two chests, which each have 4 decent sized drawers, plus 2 smaller drawers for a single dresser, 70" with 6 decent drawers plus 2 slightly smaller drawers. It also comes with a mirror. We're also  getting two matching nightstands. I. Cannot. Wait.

I have to wait ten weeks. TEN WEEKS. 10. Ten. Gah!

I 'm glad to have the cleanout and organizational things to do in the meantime. And it was a bit of a trick to get it all ordered correctly, so I hope it shows up with the correct number of drawers AND the right finish.

So..I'm going to turn this into a posting opportunity and blog about the changes I make in the room as I go. I'll take some before pictures soon and then post as I make progress removing the artwork from the walls and patching and hopefully selecting new artwork from somewhere. I'm excited about all of it. Yay for grown up furniture!

Mother's Day

I'm not a fan of this "holiday". For many reasons.

1 - flowers die, candy gets eaten and lives on my butt, jewelry either gets lost or I just can't wear that much all at once, and the kid gifts are nice, but...you know.

2 - my mother and I do not speak. We haven't spoken out loud for probably ten years. I haven't seen her since 1998. There's lots of story to that, but it's lame and exhausting and when I think or talk about it I work myself up into angry SMASHY moods so I try not to do that.

Mother's Day on the calendar makes it hard to ignore all of that. This year we're going to the in-laws for the weekend, to do some anniversary/mother's day furniture shopping. So that should be fun, plus we'll spend some time on Sunday with the husband's mom, which is nice for her and all of us.  I love them dearly and when my own mother bailed, mother-in-law stepped in as needed. We were newlyweds at the time and she's grown into really being my mother since then. Biology clearly isn't as important sometimes.

Anyway...I could do without the whole Mother's day stuff. It's really not any different than any other day. For those of us that do most of the mother-y things, we still have to because the littles aren't used to anyone else doing it. So while a 'day off' would be cool and nice, I'll take what I can get with the help of my in-laws and husband.  It'll be a nice weekend. If we can all get rid of these damn colds.

Motivation

I can fully understand why bloggers I follow and really like (felt weird to say love here) don't always post every day. It takes a lot of work and coordination and brain power to post something that anyone wants to read every day. So, I will no longer mutter and complain if a blogger doesn't delight me with literary magic every single day. I certainly can't do it and I am no wordsmith, so it's rude and ridiculous of me to expect it of others. I am going to try to post as regularly as I can. It won't be daily, but maybe I can commit to weekly, without making any promises. I'm just going to try to remember the things I find important and write something about those things when I can.

I need motivation. Motivation to exercise, motivation to NOT eat the things I know I shouldn't. I did Nutrisystem a couple times in the past. Both times after I had a baby and couldn't drop the last few..ok 15 pounds. It worked really really well, but it's just too expensive to keep doing. I was able to do it, lose some weight, and then track my calories myself and keep up with it. But I lost interest at some point, I think running my last 5k last fall somehow gave me permission to give up all of it. I've still been using the treadmill over the winter, five days a week if I am able, but I know I'm overeating again. I don't know how to stop it. I intend to run the 5k on the Fourth of July again, the same race I started with last year. I would LOVE to trim my time, but last year my times got worse as I went on, so I don't know how to do that. I need to finish up the C25K program I restarted (at week 4) so that I'm ready, and I plan to start running outside in June to prepare. I am going to get back to that again tonight, as well as running outside to get used to that again. I wish I had the motivation and means to just fix all of this for myself.

Here's what I kind of need to figure out...
- what to eat the day before
- music to listen to as I run, it gets old fast, got suggestions?
- motivation to just keep going, it's not that far, I can do this
- motivation to STOP eating ALL THE THINGS!

What I really need is a personal trainer, and a personal chef. Some celebrity should gift those to me for a year or something.. Tori Spelling maybe...although I don't know that she can afford it..maybe J. Lo. She looks amazing after twins, I have to assume she had help getting back to that. I want whoever helped her do that. I don't want her body - I know that's unreasonable...but I could do better with what God's given me.

Happy Monday everyone.

May flowers

Did you see that? How I posted every day except 2 in April, like I said I would for NaBloPoMo? And then May 1 comes and BAM, I'm over it. It turns out, it's alot harder to regularly post than anyone thinks. Stuff gets in the way, work gets in the way, kid puke gets in the way. LIFE gets in the way. I missed two days, one because I completely spaced it off, and the second because I was in tiny town IL and unable to get a good enough signal to post anything.

Besides completing NaBloPoMo April 2012, I also survived Puke-a-palooza, threw a wonderful baby shower for my super sister-in-law and broke the R key on this laptop. I have ordered a new keyboard - THANK GOD for I CANNOT TYPE WITHOUT R! The husband also has golfed a ton already this year making his golf pass for the city courses super duper worth it this year.

We'll also be celebrating our 16th wedding anniversary this year. I don't know what 16 is..paper? plastic? I have no idea and I'm too lazy right now to look it up. We're going shopping for bedroom furniture I think. We might even buy some :) Those of you that know me, know that it'll take me a year to choose and decide and pull the trigger to actually buy something. What can I say, I'm frugal, practical and I like not owing anyone anything (besides car/house, I don't count those).

I don't know what else May has in store, but school ends May 31, and preschool ends May 24th and then we're into summer and chores and hopefully tons of swimming.

A New Week. Without Naps.

As much as I hate Mondays, I'm glad for a new week. The 9yo has conquered the pukes and the 4yo seems to just be fighting off the remains of a cold. The last couple of days she's fallen asleep around 3-4pm and slept for an hour or so. Bedtime the last two nights has not gone well. Something like this maybe...

Moooooommmmm.

What.

I can't sleep.

Just rest your eyes and try.

Ok. (mom goes downstairs, settles into couch for blogging...)

Moooooommmmmm.

What.

I need my back rubbed.

Grrr. Ok (rub her back, pat pat, ok go to sleep)

3:30 am. Clunk. Sliiiidddee (imagine a sliding closet door, open....clunk. closed.)

(husband) What's she doing? (me) oh, just getting a new stuffed toy probably. at 3:30am.

Then I hear rustling very near our door. Ugh. I get up, and say 'go get back in bed'. I pick up the stuffed toys she's crafted into a bed. Head in to tuck her in again, at 3:30 am. Did I mention the time? She's wide eyed. Like I CANNOT POSSIBLY SLEEP WOMAN! Thankfully, she goes back to sleep.

NO MORE NAPS. Seriously, no more naps.

In other news, I can't wait to see Oh Dawn's new house. I hope there are loads of pictures. I may be moving vicariously through her move to a new house. 

The Hunger Games

Today I took myself to the movies. First I cleaned the basement tornado my children are incapable of NOT making. Seriously, how difficult is it to just put away your toy when you switch to another. Legos, EVERYWHERE, kitchen food and playthings, EVERYWHERE. Gah. But, it's clean now. I also finished filling the dishwasher, ran it, repeat...we had a lot of dishes. Then I took myself to the movies, to the 1:00 pm showing of The Hunger Games.

I read all three books, in very quick succession. I loved the books, although the last one is definitely NOT my favorite. For YA fiction, I expected a slightly more upbeat ending. But I still loved them all. So I was anxious to see the movie, but I couldn't really fit it in until now, and I went today because I was afraid if I waited any longer, it'd be out of the theaters and I'd have to wait for DirecTV to run it. The movie did not disappoint. I did notice the spots that were changed for time, like the mockingjay pin and the goodbyes. But otherwise I really loved how it was all portrayed. I'm not sure if I liked who they cast for Gale, but I thought everyone else was spot on. I loved Cinna and Haymitch the best I think, great casting there. I thought Peeta was pretty good too, and Katniss...now that I've seen it, she fits really well too. Stanley Tucci was excellent also and Sutherland is fine, I don't much care about those spots, they're side characters. I was in the theater with about twelve other people, only a couple talked a little too often for my liking, but it was ok. So I'm mostly glad I waited so long.

So, I'd say probably 4 out of 5 stars for a rating, only because I don't love story deviations. I really liked it though.

Also, I think I'm going to need a new laptop soon. This one is losing letters. See.

Lazy Liar

I lied. That was totally the only post for yesterday. Ha. When I checked my blog last night I remembered that I had posted that video..and said it wasn't my real post. And immediately decided it WAS indeed my post for the day. I'm lazy, and apparently, a liar. This week has just been a little too ridiculous with the sickness and other things. I just didn't want to post anything else, I had no new stories.

Today isn't much different. I went to Target. Alone. Blissfully alone. And tomorrow I'm hoping to go see The Hunger Games before it's out of theaters. The girls are doing better and I'd say they're at about 90%. The 4yo is coughing a bit, I think it's still drainage from the cold. I hope, she has until Monday to improve before I consult a pro.

So...until tomorrow peeps.

Filmmaker

I'm not considering this my real post for today, but I had to share. Adorable 4yo in adorable GAP sweatshirt singing Lazy Town song. Also, this was recorded on her vtech camera, so not the best quality but still super cute.

Everyone sleeps

Last night we turned a corner. The 4yo slept, no puke, just a little snoring...all night long. The 9yo thew up at 1130, but not again, and slept...all night long. I held her hair at 1130..and then I slept...all night long. Last night was borderline blissful. After getting through the newborn and sleep training years of small children, illnesses are the only time I lose out on sleep. My girls are such good sleepers, we can do pretty much whatever we want after their in bed. Now, to be honest, the 4yo does stall at bedtime and sometimes she makes me go up there to answer inane questions before she agrees to shut it and sleep. But overall they are the best sleepers ever. And, now that I think we'e in the clear for vomit, I get to sleep again as well.

So it seems we'll be all better for the weekend.

If I were a gambling woman...

So remember yesterday? when I said...

"Tonight is going to be a repeat of last night, I'd bet cash on it."

Well, I was right, but with a twist. Last night the 9yo spent most of her night in the bathroom, hugging the toilet. The 4yo did throw up to start, but I'm pretty sure that was snot/cold related. This one, is probably a stomach bug. So...it was a repeat..just with a different kid. And honestly, I much prefer when the 9yo has to puke vs the 4yo. The 9yo can run to the bathroom and make it (most of the time) into the toilet. No sheets to wash, no towels or precious blankets to wash. Just run, puke, rinse, sleep, repeat as necessary. She threw up around 7 times last night I think, each time with less results. She finally fully emptied her stomach at around 6:30 this morning. So that's something like 11:30 puke, 12:30 puke, 1:30 puke, 3:30 puke, 5:30 puke, 6:30 puke... and it's possible I've missed one in my recollection. The night was kind of a blur. I'm still working today though, because I have a particular project I want to get done, and the alternative is watching TV on the couch with the sickies..catching the sick.

So, I started this post this morning and I'm finishing it tonight. The 9yo threw up at least 4-5 more times today and rocked a fever of 101. It was down tonight but she's clearly not feeling well. Poor kid. We've worked hard the last 2-3 days on her very last Awana (church group) memorization. 32 verses, all said in a row. We were through 20 verses at least..and then she got sick and we couldn't finish and she didn't get to go. I'm so very proud of her, even without completing it. She was working so hard at it, and she's really good at memorizing. I don't think I could have done it. So she didn't eat at all today, and she drank some gatorade, but a bunch of that came back up.  Her stomach is just not happy with her right now and it sounds like there's a bug going around as well. So I tried to keep the 4yo separated from her, on the same couch..it's a very long couch..today, while they watched TV and rested. It went ok. The 4yo clearly feels better, she was playing and doing things and up and about more today. So my hope and prayer is that the 4yo finishes her cold, and doesn't catch the stomach bug the 9yo has. Ideally, the 9yo gets over hers after tomorrow also, AND the husband and I don't catch it. I'm not gonna hold my breath on either of those. We'll see how it goes.

So wish me luck, that Thursday is better than Wednesday..and Friday, oh sweet Friday, please be better than both of these last two days. Sorry, the only thing I have to talk about right now is not sleeping and catching puke. Sorry.

Ah motherhood

Parenting brings a lot of unexpected...happenings? consequences? ...STUFF.

I spent last night on the couch, catching the toddler's vomit every few hours. I have decided she's lactose intolerant. Maybe not 100% intolerant, but she definitely has a threshold. The nachos for dinner was not a good idea, the last time she had nachos, she also threw up, but I blamed a cold instead. She does have a cold now as well but I still think there's a lactose issue. So, no nachos and we'll lay off the dairy and milk products as much as possible. What do you feed a kid that only eats chicken nuggets and spaghetti and shredded cheddar cheese, when you have to cut out the cheese?

The strangest part about last night was that I could hear her start to throw up almost a half second before she realized that's what was happening. So I would FLY out of my spot, over to her end, pull her up and over the towel I set up to catch each episode. She doesn't do toilet or bucket puke yet, in time, in time. It's almost like the body has its own kid emergency receptors and I just flew into action almost involuntarily. I flew, its really the fastest I can move I think, if I could run a 5k as fast as I run to catch puke...well, I'd be winning some things.

Tonight is going to be a repeat of last night, I'd bet cash on it. While I was on the teadmill tonight she threw up her spaghetti dinner. I knew she would, her head is all congested and she can't breathe very well. Poor punkin. If I could just take it from her, I would. But the best I can do is cuddle her and let her sleep on the couch with me, so I can more easily catch the puke..and then let her rest and watch tv tomorrow while she recovers. Preschool has been one stupid cold after the other. I feel very very blessed not to have had to take her to the doctor much because of it. Last year we ended up in the hospital with dehydration..and preschool wasn't even involved. So..she's building an immunity. Right? RIGHT?!

Baby girls and laptop glare

Well, today was a little interesting. It's rare lately that I have work that keeps my interest so solidly. Ok, that's not that interesting. You're right. So...

I threw a baby shower this weekend for my sister-in-law. It was in Illinois at the great-grandparents house. She was coming into Chicago to take her Boards (Board Certification orals) and visiting the great-grandparents at the same time. So we took advantage and got as many family together as we could and planned her a baby shower. They live so far away that it's hard to see them very often and this new baby needed a shower. It was really great. It was great to see her and her little 7month basketball belly and it was great to see everyone that made the trip to see her for the shower.  She got a lot of really nice and super adorable gifts in addition to some that were sent directly to her from her amazon list and the cake was adorable and it all worked out really well. It made for a bit of a long weekend, but it was worth it and wonderful.

The cake

The spread

The cake and oreo cookie dessert with pacifier favors

It made today sort of difficult, since we did so much traveling and partying, having to get up for work the next day was a little bit ... torturous. It was really nice to be back in our own beds, but it would have been nice to have one more day to decompress. Oh well, and so it goes. There's not much else going on with us, we've made it through most of the wedding showers and baby showers and friends visiting and plans we've had and we're mostly in the clear for awhile. The weddings begin in May, then July, then September and hopefully we can do a whole lot of swimming in there as well.

Speaking of swimming, does anyone have a laptop screen glare thingy they'd recommend? I want to sit outside this summer while the girls swim and I need to be up on the deck with them in case I'm needed for rescuing or toy retrieval...and to tan myself of course. So I need to work outside, in the sun, which is very glarey. So I want to get something like this but I want one that will work at least well enough for me to get work done. The last couple summers I've been putting a beach towel over my head, which works..but it gets really really hot in there and I can't see the girls...so it's sort of...stupid. So..recs?

I gots nothing.

The hotspot was too spotty yesterday to post. And tonight I am just too tired to try. We went to Illinois to throw a baby shower for my sister-in-law, which was wonderful. But I'm tired, so tomorrow I'll come up with something wittier to post about. So later peeps.

So...hey.

Um. I don't have much tonight I guess. A few things happened today I suppose.

Today was Science Day at the 9yo's school. I had planned to drop over there around 1:30..and right when I was ready to go, I got an email that the school was on lockdown because of a shooting. Not as alarming as it sounds, they're very cautious and super protective of the kids, which I love. The shooting was at some local college apartments, where things tend to happen from time to time. Lockdown was less than an hour and I was able to get to Science Day after all. If I weren't so lazy, I'd put a picture here. She was re-exhibiting her Earthquakes research from an earlier earth sciences project. She didn't want to do a new experiment or project..because it was just 'too big' to do. Heh, I hear that.

We're prepping to entertain some family this weekend, so I may be unable to post tomorrow night, depending on how things go and where we are exactly. But I will try. I'm throwing a baby shower for my sister-in-law. Tonight we went around town picking up some last minute things. I found the most adorable Hawkeye dress at Target tonight. We went all the way across town to Von Maur to look for something, but they had nothing, not a single hawkeye thing. Target..came through. It's so adorable, I kind of want to buy it in a bunch of sizes so I can just send them periodically for the baby to wear all the time. I'll have to take a picture of it next time I'm there...I've already bagged it up for her so...yes, I'm lazy. Anyway, I'm excited for her baby, and her shower, and for the people that are driving quite a ways to come to it. It's fun, and exciting and I hope it goes well.

We took the girls for a SURPRISE tonight after all our shopping and dinner. Took them to Orange Leaf for the first time. They liked it, but they weren't as excited as maybe I thought they'd be. The 9yo had a pain in her leg, so I think that was really distracting her, and the 4yo..is particular about things. She really just wanted the toppings, which was fine, but they were touching the yogurt she didn't love, so I helped her eat some of that. The pineapple froyo is so good, I could eat a whole bowl, and the toppings bar is really a test of my willpower. So..many..good...things.

I should be able to post again on Sunday, if I can't tomorrow. I will try though of course.