blonde in a bottle

yay, new ways to waste time!

2010-01-14T07:37:00.002-06:00

i have a new favorite website to share! it's & it's so fun! watch out, it's a time sucker! but it's a great way to keep track of things i'd like to buy, things i couldn't afford to buy in a million years, idea for families for photography session outfits, gift ideas for family members, etc. You can also make styleboards, as I've done here:

awesome living... by midwestjoanna

check it out, you can download little tabs for the top of your screen so when you're surfing the net & you see something awesome, you just click "Add to Kaboodle" & it's on your list!

***

our crazy holiday

2010-01-03T22:51:00.004-06:00

december was an incredibly busy month as i continued photography sessions & designed & personalized holiday cards for clients, all the while knowing that at some point i would need to consider our own holiday preparations, shopping, shipping, & cards. it was a mad dash this year (well, isn't it every year?) & each year business gets a little busier for me, but in the end we finally put up our tree & decorations, purchased gifts for family, shipped everything out, & the cards were done in a series of steps & in the end were shipped from my printer to our hotel in florida where i stamped & addressed them & sent them out.

the other big event for us was our 20 hour drive to florida commencing the day after christmas. we decided to drive instead of fly......because we're crazy. well, as the trip approached it became harder & harder to remember why we had decided driving would be better for us. days before we were to leave i even honestly discussed with my mother the possibility of madyn flying back with them on the return trip if she freaked out on the way there & we couldn't imagine strapping her into her carseat to embark on another 1,300 mile trip. luckily, all went unbelievably well. shockingly well. okay, i have to admit that we also had our babysitter with us, sitting next to madyn, occasionally holding her hand, searching for her thrown pacifier, passing things back to kieran & andie. really i think that helped. a lot. but no matter what, the kids were wonderful-even when we drove on the way home for 11 hours one day & 9 the next. i'm already planning our wild west trip for summer.....

we went to florida to celebrate my grandfather's 85th birthday, he & my grandmother live in florida & it was so nice to see them as well as my father's siblings & all my cousins. and florida was lovely. green, lush, 70-80 degrees while champaign was 1. that's right, 1 degree. we went to the beach, enjoyed the sunshine, visit quaint downtown stores, swam outside in the hotel pool. whenever i'm in florida my top priority is getting to the beach & the kids were eager too. so on our first day in florida we rushed to the beach, aaron staying at the hotel with madyn who suddenly threw herself into a giant fit right before we were to leave & sealed the deal for a nap right then. my parents & sister came along though. and after a mere 20 minutes at the beach, suddenly kieran got stung by a jellyfish. he & andie had been splashing not far from the shore, probably up to their thighs when he ran to me telling me he hurt, he hurt! we couldn't see anything immediately but wondered if it was possible he'd been stung. there was a lifeguard nearby who was sure he was, asked if we'd seen the jellyfish warnings (somehow we'd missed the written warning on a sign & the flag signifying a jellyfish warning). but even so, we probably still would have let the kids wade in the shallow water as they'd been doing, i really couldn't believe he was stung so close to the shore. the lifeguard doused him with vinegar & applied a salve. kieran then announced that he wanted to leave, which we could understand. by the time we got back to the hotel he felt completely better & in a matter of days the marks were completely gone. i was pleased that the following day he agreed to go back to another beach & while he wouldn't go into the water much, he enjoyed himself & dug some sand trenches.

so that was our trip. we got back yesterday around 5pm & were so happy to sleep in our own beds & get back into our routine. although now we have unpacking to still do, christmas decorations to pack away, & new toys to find homes for........we're getting there. and we're acclimating to the frigid temps again. and i'm dreaming of the wild west trip.

***

2009-10-21T22:15:00.003-06:00

we are just chugging along over here, it's been insanely busy for all of us but i guess it's silly to expect anything else. october is my biggest photo month of the year & at least this year i'm not 9 months pregnant & trying to get on the ground for the right shots........instead i'm chasing madyn around who's going to be a year old next week & is now WALKING! yep, she is now quite independent & loving it. her favorite things to do are go up the stairs when we have forgotten to put the gate up ( i love that when she starts climbing them & then looks back to see us coming she suddenly pushes it unto high gear & tries to get up them super fast to escape us) & catching us when we haven't closed the bathroom door & then running in, wedging herself against the wall & the toilet & immediately flushing it. it's like she thinks the flush lever is just for her to do this. this morning andie went to the bathroom & i was helping her & madyn runs in. andie says to her right away, "sorry madyn, i already flushed the toilet" , as if madyn is our own little toilet flushing assistant whom we call on after going to the bathroom & really just need help in that department. she is the perfect height.

right now i'm considering giving up sleep to catch up on all the things i need to do. i feel like i can barely download my camera cards & back them up before it's time to put 'em back in & go to another shoot! yesterday i wondered what the strange pain in my knuckles was when i extended my right hand way out--then i realized it was from holding my crazy heavy camera & huge lenses for literally hours at time for five days in a row & hitting the shutter over & over. my very own version of carpal tunnel! and then i got a cold two days ago & i just thought to myself matter-of-factly "well this just won't do. i can't have a cold right now. maybe next week. or better yet, early november. i'll still have a lot going on but it won't be like this. okay, there you go, i just can't possibly be sick right now." and ya want to know something, i really feel like this cold hasn't gone past being just a little annoying-nothing that laid me out in bed or incapacitated me, just some congestion & sniffling. HA! i guess i told that cold who's boss!

the kids are doing well. kieran has a loose tooth. finally. i didn't lose my first tooth until 2nd grade so i haven't been that surprised that it's taken a while, though i've still be excited for it to happen. the other night he was brushing his teeth & complaining that it was bothering his loose tooth, which i hadn't seen yet. i asked him to show me & he's wiggling it but i can't see anything with his fingers in the way & a mouth full of toothpaste. finally i get to look & it turns out it's fairly loose & the adult tooth is fully in behind it. geez. at first i thought it was just in a little, but it's pretty much all there. so, now i'm hoping that the little guy falls out soon & give the big tooth some space.....we'll see.

andie is good. the other day she put on a Hannah Montana pajama top, a blue fleece track suit that's too small for her, and Thomas the Train sunglasses & quite seriously said to me, "i have the right attitude to be a singer". she also reasoned that she "spins a lot". and she definitely had the intense rock star glare down. it probably doesn't help that i've been letting her watch episodes of "Glee". she loves it & seems only mildly curious in some of the non-singing, more grown-up parts of the show.....

in all seriousness, we're doing really well. and though i do feel like i'm going in a million different directions at all times, the kids are great & i just love this time of year & snuggling with them. aaron's busy with plumbing & spending time with the kids whenever he can, at times trying to come home early when i beg him because i have a session. i love my wonderful clients & just keep making new friends every time i meet new kids & families. yep, no complains here. well...at least until the holiday season. then it's pure chaos & i'm not responsible for the ranting that may occur. ;)

***

walk this way

2009-09-26T15:45:00.003-06:00

so friday was kieran's schools walk-a-thon. i just love this event, it's the big fundraiser the school does & the year that kieran was in kindergarten was the first year the school decided to forgo selling a bunch of stuff & try a walk-a-thon. i was a big fan. that door-to-door stuff is for the birds if you ask me. apparently it was incredibly successful (i like to think that most grandparents are paying their grandchildren not to guilt trip them into buying wrapping paper & magazine subscriptions & are willing to pay even more this way).

for the big walk andie & i took madyn to her little school & we went on to kieran's school. have i mentioned how much i love his school? maybe a million times? they had asked if i knew of anyone who might be able to take decent pictures of the walk but to please know that they weren't asking for me to do it. well, of course i had to come take pictures! i was already going to be there & was thinking about bringing my camera anyway (that's not a joke, i'm actually notorious for never bringing my camera to things, don't count on me to be the one to always take pictures at stuff-my camera & lenses are so bulky, & i'm also absentminded & it just never occurs to me most of the time), so i offered to help with this. though the weather was a bit overcast & rainy, the kids had a great time & one of the featured events was one of the high school marching bands actually marched to the school & performed. that was really fun & the kids had a great time.

and though it was supposed to be a walk, many of the kids ran lap after lap. the school did the event in shifts, pairing various grades together. when it was kieran's turn andie decided to go with him at the starting line & as to be expected, on the word "go", all the kids took off at a frantic pace, running & quickly descending a small hill. and of course, in trying to keep up andie ends up tripping at the bottom of the hill, along with several other kids, and nearly ended up being caught in a stampede. poor kid was a little shaken up but mostly okay. i was especially glad since only a few days prior she had been running down the sidewalk to pick kieran up from school & had tripped, skinned both knees & was still covered in bandaids. we are still working on healing. anyway, andie has been a little (what's a nice word for crazy?).....contrary lately & for much of the time that i was working on taking pictures she was either yelling at me or pouting or interrupting every adult conversation i had. it shouldn't be a surprise that the one close-up i took of her she's making a face. kieran's picture shows his utter happiness at his new temporary tattoo that he was given at one of the cool exhibits at the display portion of the event. do you remember how i mentioned andie was wearing bandaids? my kids are in love with bandaids. andie is especially bad & is quick to point out any new battle scars that need bandaid coverage-despite the fact that at times i have to say things like "andie, that's actually a freckle." so if bandaids are their source of constant enjoyment, temporary tattoos are like their own personal crack. they are like little addicts when it comes to these things & are willing to do just about anything-including run 15 school laps-just to receive one. so kieran's close-up includes his new tattoo.

all in all the event was great, the kids had fun, & i got awesome pictures for the school. not a bad friday :)

***

the closest andie will getting to actually eating one of these things....

2009-09-09T21:15:00.002-06:00

2009-09-09T16:14:00.002-06:00

well, i hope everyone out there had a fabulous holiday weekend! we actually spent labor day putting together a set of bunkbeds. andie has been in need of a new bed for fear that one day she might get into the cute-but-barely-standing-$15-garage sale-four posted-hanging-on-by-a-thread-and-not-to-mention-some-duct-tape-bed of hers & the thing would just collapse. so we took the opportunity to introduce something fun yet dangerous into her world!

we picked up the bunkbeds sunday night & then bright & early monday morning we announced their arrival & our intentions to assemble them. and then we realize we've been sent the wrong ones. we had ordered a set of white beds & these are mahogany. the mahogany were probably the most attractive but andie's dresser is white & i thought the dark color might be a bit masculine. after some consideration we decided to just go with it. and i'm really glad we did, they look great. we also decided to switch andie's room with madyn's, madyn's having been the bigger room with a slightly higher ceiling where the beds would go. and honestly, i'd never finished working on madyn's nursery so i wasn't totally invested anyway.

so the picture's from before are labor day morning & the almost after is afternoon.....later we did get a new mattress for the top.

kieran's been sleeping with andie in the bunkbeds & the first night they were up, though she was excited, she was also a little out of sorts & probably feeling a bit discombobulated being in a new room with a giant bed, she wouldn't stay in bed & eventually she fell asleep in the big red chair......and last night she begged to sleep in kieran's room in his bed, even though he was in the bunk beds. we'll see. we're hoping not to play musical beds all week but we'll see.

oh and P.S. we love andie's orange & white damask IKEA duvet cover but they don't sell them anymore.....if anyone has one that they don't want, we'd love to have a second one now :)

***

.......and now summer is over.

2009-08-31T15:38:00.001-06:00

hi out there! how is everyone? we're doing just swell. i have no good excuses for being so bloggingly absent, though summer is the busiest time for me but also the time when i have the least amount of chilldcare. oh well. no pity parties here, we had a great summer-especially due to the nice, mild weather. have i mentioned that i turn into a total beast when i'm hot? well, you can ask aaron about it sometime. it's isn't pretty.

this summer we enjoyed things like going to area parks, riding bikes, going to camps, swimming at various pools, getting together with friends, berry picking, the county fair, a 5k, having a garage sale, a weekend family trip to chicago, an annual girlfriend weekend trip for me to galena.

but now school's started & we're back into our school schedule, which i have been counting down for. i am not very scheduled myself so the school year provides me with a much needed routine. unfortunately, kieran's school starts ridiculously early-at 7:45-but we'll take it, his school is awesome & makes me feel all happy everytime we go there. i just love all the teachers & staff & everyone always seems to happy to be there, which for me is a sign of a great place. it's so great to feel so secure in knowing that kieran is in a fun, encouraging, happy environment that-let's face it-provides him with much more than i am able to offer him. i'm so excited for him to be starting 2nd grade. he's also playing baseball which has been really fun.

andie & madyn have both started at Mother's Morning Out a few mornings a week. i love how i can take them any morning i choose. and as soon as they opened for fall they both went every morning the first week. so nice. andie will be starting her Little Maroons program at my old high school in a couple weeks but this will tide me over a bit until then, & she is very much a second kid--ready to go, go, go & wave goodbye to me from over her shoulder. madyn is awesome too-10 months. crawling. yuck. okay, i should be happy for her & encouraging but it's hard because now she's mobile & she's everywhere & she's eating random legos off the ground & we have to remember to always keep the basement door shut. she is so happy though with her freedom that i hate to begrudge her this joy.....i'm trying to be encouraging. i even brought up a little push toy that she can walk along with & now she loves it & i can practically see the little hears turning in her head, wondering if she might be able to just let go & try a couple steps on her own.....that's usually when i distract her & try to get her to think about something else because nothings worse than a baby who crawls than a baby who walks. then she wouldn't even be a baby, she'd be a toddler, & i am just not ready for that. but she is so sweet & fun & we just can't believe that in less than two months (oct 29) she's going to turn 1. we're thinking about a halloween bday party for her, which i think would be tons of fun. i love fall & halloween is the best holiday ever.

so i'm going to just say that summer was busy & write it off as my blog "time off" & now i'm back in the swing of things! check back again, i'll post pictures & update, i promise (heather--i'm talking to you!!!)

hope you're all doing well out there!

***

i can almost taste summer.....

2009-05-09T12:51:00.004-06:00

well, it's just been a whirlwind of activity & i don't know about everyone else, but i can't believe that it's already may! we've been busy, that much is probably obvious what with all the blogglessness around here & all, but good. madyn is 6 months already & much less like a newborn blob & showing us who she is. luckily, who she is is just swell; she's very laid back & content & enjoys watching kieran & andie vie for her attention. she is rolling over a lot & i can already see what will be coming soon: the dreaded crawling. i would be happy if she wants to sit up unassisted, that would be great, but crawling means a whole lot more energy exertion on my part & it's the beginning of the end as far as stationary baby-dom is concerned.

the older two are awesome, andie just finished up her Little Maroons program at Central High School & i celebrated #2 of 3 graduation events she will participate in there, as she did this last year & still has one more year before actually graduating & moving on to kindergarten. but it's great, i would be happy to attend endless grad programs if i get to hear "Five Little Hot Dogs" each time, it's a great song & the kids just love singing it :) i've posted some pictures from andie's last day below, we will most surely miss this place all summer long-andie would spend every minute of every day there & mommy will miss having andie occupied & cared for & not worrying when the house is quiet because she is holed up in her room with either 1) candy she has scaled the pantry to acquire, or 2) scissors & something valuable that is suddenly confetti. but i digress.....

kieran is in the last weeks of 1st grade right now, we are just seeing that big kid longing for the end of the school year & the start of summer from him & i'm hoping that after spending a nice long summer of playing baseball in the yard, sports camp, swimming, & playdates we will be able to convince him to return to school.....we'll see.

speaking of kieran's school, i am in the middle of work on the school's yearbook, a job that i agreed to be in charge of for two reasons, 1) i worked on pictures for it last year & thought it was something i could handle & add some creativity to, & 2) i felt guilty that i had never been to a PTA meeting & continued to go to events & activities where other moms worked their butts off & served dinners, handed out tickets, auctioned prizes, & greeted families while i simply attended events & activities, ate the dinners, bought tickets for prizes, & smiled as i was greeted. mostly i took on the yearbook for reason #2.

but you want to know the problem with me being in charge of the yearbook.....? I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. which kind of constitutes a big problem, especially considering the fact that the end of school is mere days away & i am still working on this project that i don't know how to do. i'm going to hope none of the PTA girls read this & i can continue to pretend that everything is swell, no reason for them to worry, & that there may be an actual yearbook to hand to students before school ends.......but.........i've been doing a lot of freaking out lately. did you all know that i have three kids, one of which is a baby??? and i'm back to work & taking on photo clients again? and i'm working on marketing my business a bit so i can get even busier? did you know that i'm insane? i have this bad habit of volunteering for things i have NO BUSINESS volunteering for. aaron just loves this because often it means that he walks in the door & i hand madyn to him & before i've even verified that he has a grip on her i'm pivoting & halfway down the stairs to the basement yelling over my shoulder, "i have so much for to do & i haven't even been able to pee by myself today! i haven't eaten since monday & i'e wiped butts four times today! i'll be back up later!" and it's not like aaron's been kneeling in standing water in someone's dank drawl space for hours or working is own butt off all day plumbing, soldering, fixing, climbing, lifting. but he's a good sport & luckily he's missed his kids & is ready for some time with them & he understands how hard it can be to juggle kids, three different schools, my photo stuff, & now this yearbook task in which I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M DOING.

but don't worry, i'm going to get some big chunks of this project done this weekend & i'm working on easing the PTA guilt. i attending my first meeting recently. i did however announce just after sitting down "is my face really red? i feel really red, i had a beergarita before i came." it was probably not my finest moment but damn, the meeting was actually quite enjoyable.

***

happy

2009-04-12T13:03:00.002-06:00

child #3

2009-03-03T20:24:00.000-06:00

playing house

2009-03-03T13:38:00.003-06:00

andie & friend are playing house or something similar with a baby doll. i'm washing dishes & i hear them talking.

friend: "Can I hold the baby?"
andie: "No, she died!"
friend: "But I'm big now, can I hold her?"
andie: "No, because she died! Hurry! We have to get her to the hospital!"

i wonder how this is going to play out......

***

we are swell

2009-03-02T20:29:00.002-06:00

i'm back!

this has probably been the longest blogging break i've taken, but it feels nice to be back here & while i really don't have anything very interesting to say, i thought it might be good to at least post that i'm still alive.

all is well around here, when last i wrote i was recovering from surgery. i can now say i feel awesome, i have no idea how many weeks post-op i am, so i think it's a good thing that i've stopped counting. the first couple weeks were a little rough but by six weeks i felt great & my doctor admitted he had been impressed since the day after surgery at how up-and-about i was. so go me!

kids are awesome, kieran is valedictorian of his first grade, andie discovered a cure for ear worms, & madyn is learning french.

aaron & i are starting a cult. we haven't figured out what kind yet, but if you have suggestions or want to join, let me know! it's always nice to have more followers!

i promise to post something better soon, for now i'm leaving you with the best darn family picture we have--i made the fam crouch in front of the camera right after i finished photographing a client. i set it up, set the timer & this was the only shot i got. looks so good i wish i had dressed us up & had gotten a hair trim!

***

cool UK commercial

2009-01-17T08:36:00.000-06:00

tales from the hospital

2009-01-07T22:14:00.003-06:00

so, sometimes when you have surgery & you're under the influence of the sweet drugs they give you before you fall into unconsciousness, you get a little chatty. i can only imagine the things that pre-op nurses & doctors hear from patients. before my dad's colonoscopy i guess he discussed how cool it is they can look through your colon with a little camera. but i guess he said this about 10 times in a row, each time thinking he was saying it for the first time.

unfortunately, though i was hoping to avoid this, i just couldn't keep my mouth shut as i was about to go under the knife. as soon as the surgery was over my doctor came out to talk to aaron & immediately told him "i guess i should give joanna $80 to put in her gown!"

let me explain. i photographed my doctor, his partner, & their cute dogs for their card which i also put together. it is sooooo cute! & he ordered tons of them & then days before surgery asked if he could get more. so i put another order in for him & then had planned to invoice him (or trade him for a tummy tuck while he was cutting me open, i'm open to a little barter) but i forgot & realized i needed to collect at some point. so, of course, one of my last memories pre-surgery is telling the nurses that the doctor is my buddy & i did his holiday cards & i need to get $80 from him. that might be the last thing i remember but not the last thing i said. apparently, i proceeded to tell many nurses that my doctor owes me $80, i think they all in turn thought it was hilarious & each of them told him. by the time he talked to aaron the poor guy had been hounded by quite a few people, probably myself included!

but hey, i got my money. guess who showed up with a check right before my discharge?

***

my OB is on the right, we had so much fun with these pictures:

***

i made a new friend at the hospital.

the hospital staff was absolutely wonderful. they were all very caring & helpful & i really couldn't have asked for better nurses. in fact, i just loved the nurse who was first assigned to me. she was really kind & sweet & super cute. she would leave & i would whisper to aaron, "i just love her! isn't she cute? i want to fix her up!" i don't know what my problem is but i 1) love to meet new people, 2) just want everyone to be happy, & 3) i want all my various friends to be friends with one another & to be happy. that's not a bad thing.

so early on i chatted with my nurse & we made small talk. i asked her if she had a boyfriend, she didn't & not i am obsessed with fixing her up. i'm sure she thought i was crazy for saying, "so, you're from a small town near here. you're not seeing anyone? i know we've only known each other two hours but i know someone great you should meet!" but we clicked & i was insisting she come over to hang out & have pizza with our family & she loved my photography & i loved how adorable she is & single so i can make it my mission to set her up. i wanted to take her picture but that might sound crazy.

i e-mailed her when i got home from the hospital, then i was sad as i didn't hear from her. i thought we really had a connection, i thought we were going to be buddies. i told aaron i had been blown off. so sad. aaron said she probably just told me what i wanted to hear & had no intention of e-mailing me. but i told him he was wrong, we were like "you're so cool!" "no you are!" "let's hang out!" it was real.

so lo & behold she hadn't checked her e-mail & she got back to me yesterday & now i have a new nurse friend! she's coming over sometime. & then i'm going to help her find a boyfriend! listen, i'm married with three children, life has few thrills. i'm excited to have a new buddy & i can help her find happiness, is that wrong?

***

fun things you can buy online

2009-01-03T10:49:00.004-06:00

the day before my surgery was my mother's birthday. in addition to the bad timing, she was sick. so it was a small celebration but my siblings, dad, & i all had chipped in for her gift & she really likes it. my mom was the one who first told me about this fun little reading gadget & while i thought it sounded cool i didn't really look into it. then oprah had the Kindle inventor & amazon founder jeff bezos on talking about it. oprah made it clear that she was not tech savvy but was able to very easily use this electoronic reading device & download magazines, newspapers, books, etc. within seconds & this was the best invention ever. now, i'm not usually a slave to oprah's "favorite things", in fact, i've become a bit oprah-ed out over the past few years. oprah acts as if she knows what's best for all of us & aren't we silly for not jumping on the bandwagon & following along. but....this reading thing did seem pretty nifty. so i jumped online & read *tons* of glowing reviews for the Kindle & had to admit it seemed like something that was going to catch on, oprah-praised or not.

so now mom, who until recently didn't know how to create attachments in e-mails, is subscribing to USA Today on her Kindle, all of us watching from over her shoulder. it's pretty cool & now i just have to save my pennies for one of my own!

***

oh my gosh, awhile ago i found the cutest handmade baby onsies, i want them all. check out this elvis one. or this one. or this one. oh my gosh, what about these for twins? love them all.

totally wish i had bought one of these for madyn for the holidays.

***

there are so many awesome handmade things on www.etsy.com by so many talented artisans, it's hard to know where to start. look at this little wallet/pouch made from adorable fabric. $5!!! can't beat that. might as well get a cute key fob too. or a lovely new dog leash. stock up on your gifts here.

***

aren't these awesome? cute little suitcases for the kids that they can ride on!

***

have you ever thought to yourself, "gee, it's hard to water my indoor plants, even though i have plenty of water & they're only a few yards away" ? well then these are right up your alley! actually, i totally want them, even kieran remarked on how we could use them. i find it really sad that i can't keep plants alive, outdoor ones are one thing, but not even keeping up with watering indoor plants right under my nose, i have no good excuse.

now, for all of your ailments & issues, here's a website that accumulated all those awesome infomercial products in one place.

are blankets a pain in the butt for you? do you have a hard time "wearing" a blanket? do you want to look like a monk? this is the answer! it's aaron's & my new favorite as seen on TV product.

i was disappointed to find the copper tongue scraper is no longer viewable but i'm sure you can find hundreds of tempting, life-enhancing new items for you & your loved ones. start your holiday shopping now!

***

on the mend

2009-01-03T10:34:00.002-06:00

well, i am home from the hospital & recovering from surgery.

everything went well, i was admitted to the hospital wednesday mid-day & was there for two days, returning yesterday mid-day. i woke up today, in my own bed, but feeling pretty sore. in the hospital i really didn't feel all that bad, especially the first day when i didn't have to move a muscle. i had a pain pump & would dose myself but i was checking e-mails, receiving visitors, talking on the phone. then thursday i got up & walked a bit, definitely not able to walk more than a few laps around the hospital floor but not bad. they put me on oral pain meds & again i was pretty chipper & while a little uncomfortable, not in extreme pain or anything. my biggest problem was that i hadn't passed gas-isn't that lovely? in fact, the nurses had to restrict me from eating because of it & finally when it happened around 11pm thursday night i was telling everyone who would listen & calling aaron to say "i tooted!! now i can eat!" so that was a small victory.

yesterday i was discharged & given an abdominal binder, which was nice, it applies some pressure to the incision & i felt good walking & wearing it. when i got home i felt pretty good, holding madyn & walking from room to room. i've bounces back pretty well from my children's births & have been generally positive about all this, i just know this is going to be a minor setback & soon i'll be back to my regular lifestyle.

today i did wake up quite sore. don't know if things are "kicking in" more or if i did too much the past couple days but i'm typing from bed & have no big intentions of getting out of it today! i told aaron that yesterday was a "oww, i feel uncomfortable" kind of feeling, today is more like "aahhhh, don't get near me, i'm soooo tender" kind of thing.

so, i'm going to have to try to take less on i think, i got my hopes up & was feeling like wonder woman, only to find that i'm merely human & have been cut into & rearranged & can't possibly avoid all that comes with that. but that's okay, & aaron has been amazing with the kids, as well as family & friends. as much as this is hard to deal with right now, i keep feeling really happy. i know that this was a good thing for me to do & that once i'm recovered i'll be feeling better than i have in years.

so, that's what i'm up to. i'm on the laptop a lot! it's amazing what you can accomplish from bed in this day & age, love it. thanks for the support, even just getting a little message here & there has felt so great-like a hug :)

***

the big H

2008-12-30T16:01:00.003-06:00

today is crazy so far, gearing up for surgery tomorrow. yep, it's hysterectomy time! woo hoo. i'm finding it's really hard to prepare for, i have no idea what to expect except for the warnings i get from everyone from my mother to neighbors. i never had a C-secion & had a small laproscopic thing done awhile ago, so this will be interesting....i find that i'm more nervous about aaron & the kids & not being able to help them than the surgery itself, that i've barely considered. it's also not good that i keep forgetting about madyn when i make playdates for the kids or other plans, i guess having three kids still hasn't really sunk in.

yesterday i spoke to a neighbor who had this same thing done 5 weeks ago by the same doctor & it really made me realize how challenging this is going to be to recover from. i momentarily decided i should immediately cancel the surgery & pretend everything is fine. & maybe it was a sign, but i started feeling icky & crampy & i remememered why (aside from giving me three beautiful children) i hate my uterus. damn thing has been a pain in my...stomach actually, since i was 12. even though i'm thinking i am nuts for doing this right now, i also have to remind myself that this is for the best, ultimately i will feel much better down the road & i'll be a better mom to my children. & that i'll save $3000 by hurrying up & doing this before 2009. that's definitely motivating too.

so wish me luck! with the holidays & all i didn't have an opportunity to do so but after all this is over i may just have to throw myself a "Farewell Uterus" party!

***

my new motto: check babies' toes.

2008-12-20T17:34:00.006-06:00

since i sent a Twitter update earlier today about madyn's first ER trip (see right side column) i thought i should quickly update so no one worries too much.

yesterday madyn was agitated most of the day & i felt like all i did was hold a crying baby. today we were supposed to go to aaron's step-sister's out-of-town wedding & then to visit some other family for an early christmas celebration. unfortunately, with madyn so fussy & with an emerging cold we decided it was best if i stayed home with her & this morning i sent aaron & the kids off without us, even though i had second thoughts & really wanted to go at the last minute. she seemed much better this morning & slept a lot--probably because every time she tried to nap yesterday she would wake up & get upset & then spit up.

around noon i gave her a bath & though i normally just put her in a sleeper (it seems to keep her warmer) i decided to put her in a cute footless one piece outfit. when i went to put her socks on i suddenly noticed that two of her toes were completely red & swollen & upon closer inspection had something like a thread wrapped so tightly around them that there was no space between them at all & you couldn't even see what was binding them through the swollen skin. it was horrible. i did what anyone else would do-i called my mom. i had determined that it was actually HAIR wrapped around her toes, not thread. i don't know how several light blonde hairs had gotten into the feet of her pajamas nor do i know how they got wrapped around her toes so tightly her circulation was cut off, but it was horrifying to see it for the first time & know that something had been hurting my baby for who knows how long but she had had no way of telling me.

so my mother, sister, & sister's friend came as soon as they could, & armed with small scissors & a flashlight my mother was eventually able to cut the toes apart & then unwrap each individual toes (my gosh it was SO tight!) & then it we kept looking & it seemed that at least one of them had a hair cutting off the circulation & they remained red & swollen & we simply could not tell if there was hair under all the swollen-ness, & if there was there was absolutely no way we would be able to get to it. so we hurried to the ER. i once decided to try a fake diamond ring on from my jewelry box at 10:30 at night & knew immediately i had a big problem & my finger started swelling right away. i tried everything to get it off & finally aaron was able to cut it off my finger (scary!) but when i called the ER they told me that i needed to come asap. & since i had no idea how long madyn had been in this condition i was pretty freaked out.

the ER was packed & we ran into a family friend whose daughter had presumed appendicitis & looked to be in seriously pain. luckily we were called back right away & the doctor had to use magnifying glasses & a tiny needle to try to see if the toe was still being strangled. he said that we had gotten it all & assured us that just because it still looked completely red & swollen it may take 24 hours or more to get back to normal but she will be okay. he said that red was better than blue, so that's a relief! he said that they learn about this in medical school (but it didn't seem like he had seen this before, & he had definitely been a doctor for several decades if you ask me!) & the nurse who checked us in had never seen it. ironically though, a couple years ago we arrived at friends' house for dinner only to learn that my friend's third child, a baby himself, had just had this happen & she had discovered it while she was bathing him. it was the string from inside his sock & it had wound around his tiny toe. i was shocked, had never heard of such a thing & couldn't believe her good fortune in having discovered it, as i know how completely unobservant i am. it was also interesting because my friend herself was also familiar with this condition as she works for a company that makes socks that we buy at stores all around the country & she had actually heard of this occurance.

i can't tell you how relieved i am that i discovered this. i usually just put madyn in a sleeper & had i done that i would have just put her foot into the pajamas & never noticed it.....i now wonder if her fussiness yesterday was because her toes were having their ciculation cut off. poor thing. it just makes me sad to think about it. but you better believe this won't happen again, i will always be checking for this! & telling other moms too!

so, all is better, though her toes look exactly the same hours later, red & swollen, but that should get better soon. i'm sorry i worried people in the update, it could have been much worse (apparently little boy babies sometimes have this happen to their--well, let's not think about it! ouch!)

***

here's a picture my brother & i just took, hours after the "removal", it still looks so painful!

**update: we weren't exactly sure the doctor hadn't missed something still embedded in her swollen toes, so shortly after the above picture was taken my mom insisted we take one quick look again before i left her house for the day with a bright light & a magnifying glass. sure enough, the smaller toe that we suspected might still be harboring a little hair did indeed still have some wrapped around it & my mom was able to pull it out & unwind it. i just took another picture of her toes now that she's home, poor kid. i think she's finally on the mend from this odd toe strangulation.

**update #2: apparently this can be called a "hair tourniquet". who knew?

***

she's recovering & seems to be back to normal, thank goodness. tell your friend, tell your neighbors--toe strangulation CAN happen!

5 weeks today

2008-12-03T14:34:00.001-06:00

okay, madyn's 5 weeks old today but these are from a week ago. pretty cute i think :)

***

fun stuff

2008-11-26T11:25:00.001-06:00

you have to check this out: overdrawn

***

we've been under quarantine.

2008-11-21T13:01:00.003-06:00

well, this has been quite a crazy week. kieran has been home sick since tuesday. he's had a fever for four days which is unusual for him & a snotty nose. it has been challenging to be up at night with both a sick kid & an infant. between diaper changes, feedings, burping & rocking & wiping noses, rubbing backs, dosinfg medicine, trips to the bathroom, aaron & i are both pretty tired. i'm lucky if i can get a shower in during the day, it's been really hard finding a minute to go pump when the kids are all content, & aaron has been busy busy busy with work & being self employed makes it hard to just take a day off whenever. i've been trying to get to target all week & while i have no problem taking the baby with me, i can't drag kieran all over to run errands....ugh. i'm starting to wish i was working somewhere full time. at least i wouldn't have to bring an infant seat into the bathroom with me.

oh, and the last thing i'll whine about is that aaron took kieran to the doctor yesterday & it was assumed that he just had a bad cold, but today they got test results back & turns out it's the flu. we went to go get the flu medicine that they said would shorten the duration of it--it was $130. i laughed, said that was ridiculous, & did not get it. after four days of being sick i think kieran's starting to get a little better, that kind of money is outrageous for something that i can't even be sure of will really help.

oh yeah, & really this is the last last thing i'll whine about: madyn seems to have a cold. we're trying to hard to keep her from getting what kieran has but she already has a runny nose & is snorty & congested. i hate when tiny babies are sick, it's so sad.

on the bright side, i did manage to get a couple decent kid pictures for our holiday card! being absolutely insane, i decided the other morning that even though i was completely overwhelmed & still hadn't showered in two days, it would be a good idea to photograph the children for our holiday card. i only threw a few tantrums during the photo shoot--it's incredibly difficult to direct three kids, one being sick, one being a three year old spaz, & one without control of her head. but i was actually surprised with the pictures at the end of it, quite successful after all. thank goodness for a few victories.

in conclusion, thank god it's friday :)

***

feeding kids is hard

2008-11-14T14:21:00.002-06:00

so, things are going relatively well, as i mentioned in the last post-especially considering we're juggling three kids now. & when i'm out with madyn people will admire her (everyone LOVES a newborn! you're like a celebrity when you hold one, i'm telling you!) & they frequently ask, "oh, is this your first?" and when you tell them it's your third it somehow almost sounds like you're saying, "no, it's my sixth." they always seem surprised. i don't know why, i'll take it to mean, "really? wow, because you look much too young to have three children!" i'm sure that's what they mean...

anyway, we have experienced one small glitch though in these past two weeks. madyn is quite the hungry girl, is has seemed. from her first minutes out in the world she was opening her mouth & angeling it toward people's chests, ready to nurse. she wanted to nurse constantly. now, i don't want to scare any of you young, childless women who hope to procreate someday but........nursing is really hard. & ever since i had kieran i feel even more compelled to at least mention it as no one told me this. i went to the breastfeeding class at the hospital & confidently told people, "oh yeah, i'm going to nurse." why wouldn't i? and it sounded so natural--i didn't even understand why there were books devoted to nursing & it's instruction. well, then the baby arrives & it's not like what they taught in the class--"when the baby opens his mouth, you just POP him right on!" nope, it was nothing like that. the pop never happened. kieran & i would try to hook up for 1/2 an hour at times. he never seemed to open his mouth wide enough & they failed to mention that if they don't open wide enough & your latch isn't right, it can KILL! sensitive parts of your body can suffer! things get raw, things ache, they can even bleed! it was so hard. we would get assistance from a lactation consultant whenever possible but after a week of nursing (& let me tell you, when you're nursing round the clock, a week of feeding a baby can equal 50+ feedings) we introduced some formula. with kieran, i returned to work at 6 weeks & it was nearly impossible to pump enough milk so he was doing mostly formula & then nursing when i was home with him but only for 2-3 months. with andie i armed myself with all those nursing books i had scoffed at, reading up throughout the pregnancy, i purchased the best nursing pillow on the market, i was determined to make nursing work & felt at least prepared for the challenge. well, it wasn't that challenging. nursing andie was much less painful & relatively easy.

this time, i hadn't really given nursing a thought one way or the other & knew i wanted to nurse but wasn't going to obsess about it. unfortunately, we've hit a slight snag. as i mentioned, madyn is a hungry girl & was constantly wanted to nurse, even though it took several days for my milk to come in. by the time it did, i was already sore. & then it just didn't get better. so at five days old i took her to the breasfeeding clinic at the hospital & we weighed her before a feeding & then the lactation consultant helped me to get her latched on correctly & i nursed her. we weighed her. no weight gain. very odd. nursed her on the other side. no weight gain. fractions of an ounce, not even an ounce. very odd, especially because i know i produce several ounces on each side......so i still had to give her formula before we returned home, she was just screaming because she was hungry. the next visit a few days later the same thing happened. finally, after the third occassion of this the lactation consultant realized madyn was chewing & chomping. she was clamping the milk off & not getting anything. apparently, she's a biter & while biting the bottle nipple will give her milk, biting on me doesn't. i worried that by giving her a bottle we had "trained" her to do this, or at least reinforced it, but she assured me that that had nothing to do with it. she was born doing this & we have an evaluation set up for monday with a speech pathologist who specializes in infant feeding issues. she might also need to see an occupational therapist if she has weak muscles that need to be strengthened.

so, in the meantime i'm pumping milk for bottles (seriously the most not fun thing ever, nothing like the closeness, bonding experience of nursing) & we're doing formula. pumping makes things challenging in that you have to constantly be close to home & it's time consuming & it feels like you're twice as busy with feedings--the pumpings + the bottle feedings. it's like a full time job! but it's worth it for a happy, healthy baby :)

***

2008-11-13T17:54:00.003-06:00

so as of yesterday, madyn is two weeks old. so far so good. we're definitely still adjusting, i foresee the adjustment lasting.....oh, about a year. well, that's really far off--there are so many changed throughout the first year & everytime you think your kid is on some kind of schedule, things change on you.

in any case, madyn is awesome really. so far (knock on wood of course) she seems like a really easy-going baby. she is just starting to have periods of alertness & it's so nice to see her eyes wide open & she holds her head up for a bit. otherwise she's a big eater & a great sleeper. the big question about newborns is always, "how does she sleep at night?" some kids wake up every hour throughout the night for weeks, if not months, it just seems like a crap shoot. but for these two weeks, madyn has been sleeping for four hour blocks at night--yee haw! i can handle that. she eats around 8pm, sleeps, wakes at 12 to eat, sleeps til 4, wakes to eat, sleeps til 7:30/8am.

if you don't have kids, you really can't explain what it's like to have constant interruptions in your sleep to feed or change a baby. it's not like pulling all-nighters in college, it's not like merely staying up late & only getting three hours of sleep. it's being jolted out of deep, REM sleep over & over. you are just drained. & usually to feed an infant at night isn't just a minute or two, it can take 20 minutes to an hour.

to be honest, there's just no way to prepare for a new baby. sure this third time around i know more of what to expect, i know how just getting out of the house can take 45 minutes (that's just me & the baby, you add kieran & andie into that, tack on another 1/2 hour). but still, each baby is different & you have no idea how things are going to go until he/she is here. madyn reminds us a lot of kieran as a baby. kieran was easy-going, wanted to eat all the time, good napper. but andie, man, that was a different story. from day 1 she was active: she held her head up in the hospital & also tried to sit upright in her infant seat when we put her in it to go home, she was so determined. she "cruised" around furniture at 6 months, walked just before 9 months. she was always on the go. sure she had a brother to keep up with, but it was also just who she was & she was just really active. she also never wanted to nap. i remember writing, "andie hasn't taken a nap in three days--how can she not sleep at all as a newborn??" and she really never did nap. she would fall asleep for 5-10 minutes & then refuse to sleep anymore. one time she cried for almost two hours in her crib before i surrendered & decided to end the "torture" of a consistent nap schedule. so this time around, having another girl, i was actually kind of nervous. we knew that we could handle it-we had survived a high maintnance baby, we were capable to doing it.....if we had to. but madyn seems really mellow & loves to sleep, yay! we can't wait to see more of her personality as she grows :)

***

conversations with andie

2008-11-13T17:47:00.002-06:00

last week i picked andie up from school with her friend maddie. as soon as she got into the car she tells me seriously, "ezra ate a bug. "

"ezra ate a bug?"

"yep. he ate a bug. and then he died."

and maddie is nodding & corroborating andie's story.

"what? he didn't die!" i said to them.

"NO! he did die!" andie was quite insistent about this bizarre story. later at home i have andie tell aaron the story again & she was able to clarify for us that ezra did eat a bug, but he was okay, but it was the bug that was dead. hmmmm.

so today when i picked the girls up from school, as an afterthought i figured maybe the teacher could fill me in. "andie was telling me a story last week about ezra......eating a bug......." & i wish i hadn't even said the last part,".......and then he died...." yeah, the teacher laughed & pretty much thought i was crazy. she had no knowledge of ezra eating a bug, no bells rang when i told her any of this. so i felt kind of dumb. and ezra was there, he seemed absolutely fine. i just don't know where kids get this stuff.

***

:)

2008-11-04T01:06:00.001-06:00

Our New Girl :)

2008-10-29T20:21:00.002-06:00

Our daughter, Madyn Jay Strauss was born today at 4:12 pm. She weighed in at 6 lbs 15 oz & I *think* 18 inches long. She is a tiny peanut with long fingers & toes & lots of dark hair. We are already so in love with her.

I'll be posting the whole birth story soon, but it was CRAZY! In a nutshell, I was in the hospital starting at 6:30am with not much progress at all until about 3:45. And then in under half an hour Madyn made her debut. It was the most intense experience ever, I didn't have time to get an epidural, I thought I might be dying, & my attending nurses had to hurry to catch her as she raced out into the world. It was like nothing I've ever been through but we're both doing well & recovering.

Thanks so much for all the support, it has been wonderful feeling the positive energy & good vibes from all over wishing us well on this delivery. We are so lucky to have such amazing family & friends. Thank you.

***

a matter of hours now.......

2008-10-28T08:21:00.004-06:00

well, i'm down to my last hours of freedom before the big event. the kids are both at school, i have sufficiently "nested" (& let me tell you, nesting is incredibly hard the bigger i have become, washing this dishes, doing laundry, and barely being able to reach the sink or washing machine over my giant stomach). i've packed overnight bags, diaper bags, camera bags, laptop bags. i've stocked diapers, bath supplies, sleepers & onsies. i've sterilized bottles & pacifiers. i have even ironed my hospital gown. yep, you heard that right, i am playing the diva role when i go in tomorrow to be induced & i will be wearing my own hospital gown. how cool is that? & i got the matching robe & swaddling blanket for the baby in light green with white polka dots, hee hee hee. i know, it's silly but i love cute things! & didn't i mention i've been doing a lot of online shopping lately?

speaking of, i'm eagerly awaiting this fun toy:

it's a baby timer! you have four different buttons that keep track of various things, like naps, feedings, changings, etc. & you just press the button that corresponds with the activity & it'll keep track of when the last feeding was, or how long the baby has napped. isn't that cool?? it wasn't available in target stores so i ordered it online, along with four other boring but necessary baby items. each one arrived separately last week & this was the last one to get here on friday. i open the box excitedly only to find.........a beaded necklace? what? man, i was so excited to have this thing in my hospital when the baby arrived because, let me tell you--you think you'll remember the last time you fed your baby or the last time it peed but it does these things ALL the time & it becomes a giant jumble in your head. & i write it down but did i mention i am the most absentminded person in the world & often couldn't even remember to do that at the right time. i'm hoping that i can at least hit a button when i need to. ....but instead i have a beaded necklace. luckily, target is getting me a new one & it's on its way. & they e-mailed that i can keep the necklace :)

***

so anyway, today is a day to tie up lose ends, enjoy our family of four for the last time, & freak out about how i'm not ready for a baby. i would have thought that by now i would be ready, especially since i've done this twice before, but in some ways i feel the least prepared. probably because kieran & andie are getting older & more self-sufficient & i haven't been in baby mode for a bit. & since i have done this twice before i know exactly how life changing & lifestyle changing adding a new baby to the family is....... & even though it sounds crazy-especially to me-i'm going to really miss being pregnant. sure i'm huge, sure i've been wearing the same old maternity stuff for months, sure i have the typical ailments like heartburn & difficulty sleeping, sure i can hardly heave myself out of bed in the morning. where was i going with this? oh, right, i'll miss this. well, i will really. for the most part i've had a great pregnancy, and because i didn't start really showing until i was halfway through it, it feels like it's gone fairly fast. & it's fascinating really, feeling the baby stretch & move inside, & knowing that i won't feel that again makes me try to pay close attention to it & remember the sensation. as i type this the baby has hicups & it might be the last time i feel this & have the baby all to myself, i think it's really pretty cool.

***

i'll be updating tomorrow when we go into the hospital, via my cell phone. i'll be using Twitter, so you can check out the updates in the right hand column. i will most likely be going in early tomorrow morning, 6 or 6:30. so check in wednesday to find out all the fun details!

***

the final countdown!!!

2008-10-26T09:16:00.003-06:00

you still have time to vote in the baby pool ------------->

submit your best guess & if you end up the winner i'll give you a FREE photo session!!!!

i may be throwing out the guess for the date of the birth, as some people knew i was going to be induced this Wednesday, October 29 (three days, yikes!) & some weren't aware of that. though it's *possible* it could happen just before that, it won't be any later than that. well, maybe a day later, but please keep your fingers crossed that i'm not in labor for more than 24 hours!

can't wait to see who gets the most points!

***

yay, mail!

2008-10-24T08:19:00.002-06:00

i've been ordering a bunch of stuff online lately & i'm currently awaiting some of these cute bottles. i'm planning to nurse but will also most likely do some bottles here & there. aren't they cute? that's right, i don't care how well they work as long as they're cute.

***

i likey

2008-10-15T07:05:00.000-06:00

love this song:

Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games - Of Montreal

***

VOTE! for our baby

2008-10-13T19:37:00.001-06:00

check out the link to the right and vote in our baby pool, can't wait to find out who wins :)

***

big & blonde

2008-10-10T17:06:00.001-06:00

i've been really bad about taking pictures this time around, but after going PLATINUM BLONDE today i thought it would be the perfect opportunity. so i took these in the bathroom mirror. & it just doesn't feel right to smile all cheesy while you're doing it, so instead i thought i should make faces. it still looks cheesy though :)

***

for crying out loud

2008-10-09T20:34:00.003-06:00

why do i still watch you Law & Order reruns???

i'm watching an SUV episode and recognize one of the actors in the episode as Carlos Leon, the father of Madonna's daughter Lourdes (i will never ever be able to tell you the current location of my keys but i can name nearly every random celebrity and there significant other, famous or not. go figure. it's a curse really.) only days ago i was watching a different L&O and he was in it. in checking his bio, the ex-Madonna boy toy has been 5 different characters in 5 DIFFERENT LAW & ORDER EPISODES! one Law & Order, 2 Criminal Intents, and 1 SUV. geez, you can't tell me there's that big a shortage on latino actors these days.

why do i continue to watch these??? and why do i continue to track these random characters?

and speaking of Madonna, does anyone else miss her? the old Madonna? i miss Borderline, Who's That Girl, Open Your Heart, Papa Don't Preach. bleach blonde Madonna, red lips, the mole, the crazy outfits. she's just not the same anymore. and she freaks aaron out with her muscley body. what happened to her? i guess we've all outgrown the 80's but i sure wouldn't mind a little old school Madonna these days. i don't know why i've been thinking about this lately--well, maybe it has something to do with seeing her ex all over TV lately, but Who's That Girl will always be one of my favorite 80's movies. sorry for this major tangent....

oh, and Carlos's character was just arrested--i'm telling you, when you see the same guy recycled episode after episode it's a dead giveaway that "he dunnit". c'mon L&O!

***

"Careful. We don't want to learn from this." ~Calvin & Hobbes

2008-10-07T12:07:00.002-06:00

random thoughts lately....

*i love my new hairdryer. it's nothing special really, it blasts the air and dries my hair which is just what you want out of a dryer, but the awesome thing is the retractable cord. you simply pull out the cord you need and then with the push of a button the cord is whisked back into the thing. why doesn't every appliance have that??? i only remember seeing it on my parents' vacuum and even then it seemed pretty cool, but now i don't have to wrap & unwrap the cord around the dryer itself and worry about tangling, it's great. and it could totally cut down on extra cord-age for things, you know, your toaster could have it and not have two feet of extra cord tucked behind it on the counter. or lamps or clock radios or DVD players. the possibilities are endless. i think it would be a major selling feature. am i wrong?

*andie & i were chatting a bit about the baby, she loves giving my belly hugs and resting her head on it, i hope she enjoys her actual sibling as much as my stomach. we talked a little about names that the baby could have and she had an idea for a girl: Juden. i don't know that we'll use it but i have to admit, it's not the worst name i've ever heard. just earlier in the day she was talking with her dolls whom she was calling "Lulu, Gogo, and Trinsky" so Juden didn't strike me as *completely* horrendous.

*i know that cell phones are distracting when driving, but i have to tell you what's REALLY distracting when you're trying to manuever a car--children. and i don't see anyone outlawing kids in the car anytime soon, but man, the times where i feel the most distracted at the wheel are when i'm reaching to give a snack to a whiney kid, trying to turn for a second to look at something someone is desperate to point out to me from the backseat or to mediate a disagreement between two screaming manics i can't see. i know, this making you nervous to think about driving with someone like me on the road, but i had to say it. and every parent i'm sure is this way. it's no wonder we've learned to multitask to well, this is a prime example. and i'm an incredibly cautious driver, i can only imagine if i were more erratic how dangerous it would be out there! i'm starting to think the arguement for DVDs in the car might not be a bad idea!

*i can barely put on socks and shoes these days, it's hard to bend over. i'm feeling relatively good (and i promise to post a picture of my giant self so you can have a good laugh and get those whale jokes off your chest!) & most days i really enjoy being pregnant. unlike expecting my first baby, i know what a challenge having a newborn is and how consuming it will be, i know this is the absolute easiest it will ever be to care for this child so i'm happy to keep baby safe and sound inside of me for now. and i know that in the many years to come i will miss this time in my life, feeling the baby move inside and feeling like a share a secret just with baby. i'm trying to soak it all up and remember the details. i'm not saying i don't have times where i think "for the love of pete, my belly rubs against the steering wheel!" but i'm lucky that i feel pretty good when pregnant, i'm slowing down which is hard because there's a lot i want to accomplish in a day and at times i just can't but all in all, life is good around here. i've also been doing a lot of photo sessions and my deadline to quit working continues to be extended as people call to make appointments. at this point i'm probably going to have my camera going right up until delivery! i also have this fantasy of having all my gear at the hospital for baby's first photo shoot, we'll see.

and for the record, i think i should explain that while yes, my belly is often right up against the steering wheel it's a combination of being pregnant and having short legs. i'm not THAT huge really, i just have to sit pretty close to the wheel, damn cars should have all adjustable pedals. listen to me, between that and the cord stuff i am full of useful suggestions for manufacturers!

***

seriously??

2008-10-03T08:07:00.003-06:00

do you ever check out craigslist? it's great, i've bought and sold things on it and i think it's a beautiful thing but everyone once in a while you'll be perusing the ads and find some total piece of junk whose owner is convinced is worth waaaaaaay more than it actually is. i know a lot of us are guilty of this, it's hard not to attach "sentimental value" to your junk but it's important to put yourself in your prospective buyer's position and understand that they are not going to think your 20-year-old rust colored Lazyboy recliner's stains give it "character".

this may not be the best example but i was just checking things out when i saw this post about an iron bed. $150??? just because you use the word ANTIQUE doesn't make it so! and i guess what also rubbed my the wrong way about this post is that this is at least the third time the owner has posted it. hello??? and geez, in looking at an older post for it, it started at $300! glad they at least cut the price in half but it doesn't look promising, does it?

when people post stuff like this, or some vague post like "bedroom set for sale, wood, some scratches--$800 with NO pictures you want to post to them just saying, "seriously?" do they think that's going to move the items?

i apologize if i sound a bit bitter, i'm sick today and hugely pregnant. 'nuff said.

i would love for someone else to post an example of a lame craigstlist post, come on, play along and find a fun link we can laugh at!

years ago...

2008-10-02T21:13:00.003-06:00

look what i found. me and chowderhead. i had so much fun taking my cutie sister trick-or-treating way back when. our mom made this pumpkin costume for me and by now it's been worn by each kid in the family, many family friends, even sent to Hawaii once, and i can't wait for next year for our baby to take a turn.

***

watch for my brother on TV....

2008-09-26T19:15:00.004-06:00

so, earlier in the week i stopped at my mom and dad's house with andie before picking kieran up from school only to have my mother say, "have you talked to Jacob lately?" i hadn't but she and my dad had, only minutes before he took off on a helicopter for an aerial tour of the Hamptons.....

and check out his blog to find out why he was there: The Food Network Addict

can you believe it??? and on top of it, he has a great "day job" working for the Kennedy Center in D.C. and occasionally takes in a show here or there or gets to be a seat filler for some celebrity event there. if i didn't know him so well (and i do, oh, the stories i could tell!) i would think his head must be getting pretty big. but it isn't. yet. though the TV special hasn't aired yet either....

***

fun stuff

2008-09-20T15:24:00.002-06:00

our sweet little munchkins. the andie ones were from two days ago and the kieran ones were from this morning. i love andie telling us she's "3"!!!

***

"Sssshhhh, listen, do you smell something?" ~Ghostbusters

2008-09-20T14:17:00.005-06:00

been very very busy lately, here are some photos from just a few sessions over the past month. fun!

***

while i don't *really* photograph weddings, i made an exception last month and had a fabulous time photographing this couple along with all their family and friends. it was a gorgeous day and i was commissioned by a family who was hosting the wedding at their house for the bride, who is like a daughter to them. the bride and groom were like models out of a magazine and the whole event was just gorgeous. the funny thing was that most of the pictures i took of the couple were at the neighbor's house, who just so happens to be my obstetrician! and i just love my OB! we hug and kiss hello and hardly ever think to even talk about the pregnancy or baby, we chat and chat and try to figure out when we'll both have the time for me to come photograph him with his partner and their adorable dogs! he was so fun and we used his lovely yard as the photo backdrop as their was a huge tent setup for the wedding next door. at one point i had to laugh when the groom and his macho guy friends were all set up for a picture and i had to insist they move four feet to their left. they weren't sure why, and even when i told them to look behind them they didn't seem to notice. "If you stay where you were, you'd have a giant gay pride flag flying over your heads." my OB heard me telling the guys this and just cracked up. i'm just glad i caught it before snapping the shot. and after i shot the evening ceremony and it started getting dark, i simply hung out with my doc and his partner and ended up staying til midnight! what a crazy photo session!

the adorable flower girl:
the sweet couple:

the flower girl and her brother:

the family who hosted the wedding, they were so cute!

my OB!

after taking lauren's senior pictures recently, her dad asked if i would photograph a family reunion they were hosting in conjunction with his mother's 80th birthday. as i had said earlier, i don't *really* do event photography, but i couldn't resist and the whole family was absolutely adorable! they were hilarious and charming and i could tell you all really enjoyed one another's company. it was very sweet being their for half of their party and like the wedding, i'm sensitive to the fact that i'm involved in a personal, family moment and i try to either fade into the background for candid shots or make people comfortable for the others.

the family who hosted (i love the dogs in the pictures!):

one of the grandma's sons and his wife:

another fun family:

all the menfolk with grandma:

i had an early evening session on a nearby town with a sweet little family. the kids were so cute and had lots of energy-but what kids don't? the best part was the session ended with the kids showing off in their in-ground pool and lots of waterbaby shots!

mmmmm...

2008-09-08T20:25:00.001-06:00

andie outside tonight

2008-09-07T21:03:00.003-06:00

a picture from this evening, after we had some watermelon and before we went inside for bed. so cute!

***

check this out

2008-09-04T22:10:00.003-06:00

oh my gosh, this blog is hilarious! and maybe it will help get the taste of my last post out of your mouth (even that sounds gross actually). i dedicate this blog recommendation to by brother. i know you'll love this boy!

the "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks

i don't have a problem with "quotation marks" but i do have a major parenthesis addiction (can you tell?)

***

hmmm...how do i put this delicately....

2008-09-04T21:44:00.003-06:00

aaron always accuses me of relaying every possible embarrassing, self-deprecating, dorky story about myself. and i just can't help it! i like to just put it all out there, and i don't care if i look stupid, so what?

so, there's no way to sugar coat it (and after discussing my kids peeing all over the house, why even try really, right?) but today i threw up all over myself while driving home with the kids (+ one, buddy aidan). twice. it wasn't pretty. and i wish i could blame it on being pregnant but i don't think that was a big issue at the time. it was like this: i was driving the kids home from a playdate, as i'm driving i cough every once in a while and it just seems like there's a tickle in my throat that won't go away. halfway home i'm the first car in the left turn lane stopped at a red light at an intersection when the cough is so deep i gag. and then i suddenly just throw up. i put my hand up, don't know why--to catch it?? and i puke on my hand, my shirt, down the side of the car door. it was so gross. and before the light can turn green, it happens again. meanwhile there are cars whizzing by and some drive right alongside me as this happens. i can only imagine how this looked to someone who's casually driving by and then "OH MY GOD! that woman is puking on herself!" thankfully, it was raining, so i'm telling myself their view of this ickiness was blurred by rain and windshield wipers.

so that was the highlight of my day. and then i had to simply continue driving home, even waving at two neighbors with my pukey hand (thank god it was rainy) and then explain to the kids why we had to make a pitstop so i could change (the boys:"can we see it?" andie:"one time i threw up in my bed!" she loves to tell this story).

i figure it can only get better from there. and i'll try not post more gross stories.

this'll show all you guys who complained about benny lava and how long it had been since i posted!

***

#3 update

2008-08-29T14:07:00.002-06:00

this morning we had the second and last ultrasound for the baby and all went well. at 30 weeks the baby weighs approximately 3lbs 10oz, 51% so that's great. we were able to see the baby's profile really well, it's hand up near it's face and the mouth opening and closing. he/she has been head down the whole time and is still in that position so that's good (kieran was like that, andie flipped several times before she was born). the baby doesn't seem to have much, which is interesting, kieran and andie definitely had fringe that you could see from the ultrasound at this point. but there are still two more months to get hairy in there! we still don't know the sex, just like the last tech, this one said that if we didn't want to know she didn't even need to look in that area, so looks like we're still going to be surprised! and i'm officially penciled in for October 29 to have the baby, yay! it's cutting it close to Halloween but i'll be home for trick-or-treating and might be able to answer the door with a newborn in some cute little target halloween outfit! that may be a bit ambitious, we'll see ;) with both of the other kids i didn't go into labor on my own and they were a week late, luckily, i barely had to be induced with them and i immediately went into labor on my own. and for both kieran and andie my doctor was on vacation and i delivered with a different doctor, so this time he *promises* to be the one! but the the big reason for scheduling it is that i'm having a hysterectomy in december. i have been so fortunate to have carried three children and i do not take the gift of fertility lightly--i would never have this procedure if it weren't absolutely necessary, but unfortunately it is. at the beginning of the year i had the option of having a baby or a hyst. and amazingly we found out we were expecting a month later. but each subsequent child makes the condition of my uterus worse (pain, months of bleeding, and a pregnant sized uterine muscle--sounds fun doesn't it??) they can't perform the hyst. when i have the baby, the uterus needs to contract back up a bit and shrink down, so that's out. and ultimately, we save thousands of dollars by doing the surgery within the same calendar year as having the baby. and knowing that i could be having it done within months of having the baby anyway, 100% covered by insurance makes the decision that much easier. and the earlier i have the baby the more time i'll have to recover before the surgery go-ahead at my six week check-up. sooooooo, that's the update :) now i just have to figure out how to make a web poll so people can gamble on the sex of the baby!

***

weekend girlfriend trip II

2008-08-26T08:46:00.003-06:00

i've just returned from an awesome trip with girlfriends to the lake michigan shore. last year 8 of us went to st. pete's beach in florida to celebrate our pal dori's big bday and this year there were a couple birthdays to celebrate but really we're finding we don't need much of a reason to get some space from the daily grind and have some quality time with friends. there were 13 of us (yikes!) and we had a blast. the house we stayed in was goooooooooorgeous filled with everything we could possibly need (well....except for a full length mirror, it's not that we're vain, in fact, at home there will be entire weeks in which i realize i haven't looked in a mirror due to little voices screaming for juice or that they've peed somewhere, but i digress) and it had a lovely view of lake michigan and the beach. the lake itself was great, reminded us of the ocean, very blue, refreshing and not too cold, and only a teeny tiny bit lake-y smelling.

here are some pictures taken around the house (thank you michelle! and others who sent some that i haven't downloaded). there was a lot of lounging, wading, walking, drinking, dancing, gaming, reading, and chatting going on, but those might have to come later in other pictures.

i miss the weekend already :(

***

"Honey, we are living in swiss cheese with a door." ~The Money Pit

2008-08-21T12:05:00.001-06:00

i caught some of the movie The Money Pit on one of our movie channels this morning, it always puts any home improvement project i have into perspective! i love it. and it's very 80's.

and speaking of, only in the 80's could Shelly Long have been a leading lady. she's not that bad but i don't know if she'd cut it these days.

i love you monica lewinsky lipstick aka my dumbest post yet

2008-08-20T20:26:00.003-06:00

recently i was having issues with Paypal. my bank decided to go from Visa debit cards to Mastercard and issued new cards (which i promptly misplaced along with assigned pin numbers and like a dork waited until the old card expired and was no longer usable to slink into the bank and request a new one, but anyway...) so i'd been updating all sorts of online accounts, Paypal being one of them. i was having a hard time determining if Paypal was defaulting to my credit card or my debit card, it just wasn't clear. so, i decided, "hey, i should buy something and find out!" so logged into ebay and tried to think of anything i'd been looking for recently. and then i remembered something i did a google search for years ago: Monica Lewinsky+lipstick. See, after the whole Clinton/Lewinsky craziness, Monica did Barbara Walters interview, remember that? I don't think I really watched it, I might have tuned in for a minute or two but the only thing I really got from it was "wow, i love her lipstick!" it did seem a bit strange and shallow to be fixated not on what the girl was saying but on her choice in beauty products but apparently i wasn't the only one. later when i was online it turned out a lot of woman had noticed the same thing and were desperate to track down the lipstick. which is just what i did on ebay and it arrived a couple weeks ago, yay! and for those of you who remember my "great perfume search", i sometimes become consumed with some bizarre item like this. my lipstick chase has been ongoing for years--i have looked for the perfect creamy, mauvy but not to mauvy, rose but not to pink, a little berry/plum hue of lipstick for sooooooo long i had finally written off as the elusive glass slipper i'd never find. most recently i was at the clinique counter three days in a row only to end up with something that looked passable under the harsh mall lights but outside in real life ended up making me look like i had written on my lips with a purple Crayola. but patience paid off and now my lips are happy and all that's left to do is collect to more of this discontinued shade and hoard it :)

not letting andie name the baby

2008-08-19T17:30:00.005-06:00

i'm in the middle of making dinner and andie is sitting at the counter, playing with three paint brushes and pretending they're kids. she's singing songs, making up dialog as she goes. i hear her using one of the brushes to tell the other brushes, "you're in big trouble Wenis!"

i just love the names she comes up with when she plays.

***

busy busy busy

2008-08-19T06:40:00.003-06:00

i feel like maybe i should just get my camera surgically attached to my arm now, i've been working like crazy and taking hundreds, if not thousands, of pictures lately. lots of senior shoots for high school students. it's been a really fun departure from the tikes i'm usually chasing down for a picture! i also got to work with my friend amanda's daughter kara and her sister's little boy owen, cousins born only days apart who just turned one. they were just too cute!

more to come but here's a few recent shots:

kara:
amanda's sister's fam:
our cute babysitter, isn't she lovely? not only does she photograph well, she's awesome with kids! she brings puzzles and Star Wars printouts for them to color. we love her and encourage her daily to stay in town for college :)

this girl was so sweet and up for lots of fun shots, we just kept shooting and shooting and i took waaaaaaay too many pictures!

she was my "american's next top model" girl, she worked the camera like nothing i've seen. i love that one of her outfits was a family kimono, it was gorgeous.

pee

2008-08-14T10:04:00.003-06:00

i was sitting peacefully (well, in mid-type on the laptop which i've been tied to entirely too long to this morning already) when andie, seated next to me on the couch, announces, "PEED!" so we jump up and just as i go to the kitchen to retrieve cleaning supplies, kieran yells from the bathroom, "i peed EVERYWHERE!!!" at least he can clean it up himself but it's my job to get in between the cushions with andie's accident. luckily, the couch is leather.

then just after checking kieran's clean up work in the bathroom (and hearing him boasting to aidan "i peed EVERYWHERE!!!") i go back to the couch and find the cushion dripping in Febreez. such a good cleaner that andie is.

sigh.

now kieran's playing happily with his buddy right now, andie is half naked and playing with my dish towels (don't ever expect hand or dish towels to dry your hands at my house, andie confiscates them and uses them for who knows what), and i'm back to typing. for the moment anyway.

***

edited to add: not more than a few minutes later andie, who is playing on the floor in front of me, yells, "i pooped on my foot!!!" she barely misses one of my dish towels (don't worry, i wash these things all the time anyway! did i mention they are usually strewn all around my home?) and it was a speck and then she went to the bathroom, but geez! sometimes all i can do is shake my head. and wonder what #3 will do to me.

***

bday, our trip, baby, work

2008-08-13T12:16:00.001-06:00

well geez, it's about time a update this thing, don't you think?

so much to chat about, so little uninterrupted time online. right now kieran is "using the force" and playing nicely in my midst and andie sitting next to me being sweet and content for a change. it's as peaceful as it gets :)

kieran had a really great birthday yesterday and has been playing with all his great new star wars gear. i hear the constant humming of the star wars music and various lightsaber sounds right now. i'm going to post some pictures of our little family party last night later :)

***

we've all been well, i'm waaaaay overdue in posting pictures from our MGM Studios excursion and Carnival cruise family reunion, i'll get to that. we had a nice time but the cruise itself was a little goofy. there were 25 or so of us altogether and you'd think that when you're held captive on a giant boat you'd have lots of togetherness time but in actuality once you leave your tiny cabin, it was nearly impossible to determine where anyone was on the ship. and there was no way to reach anyone. often we only saw family members at our designated dinner time and even then we were all separated into two tables and there were still a kid or uncle i never talked to the whole time. oh well. and the cruise was a big vegas-y, which is great for you if you just want to drink and gamble the whole time but didn't really pan out well for us. and lastly, there was only one pool. ONE pool! for a whole ship of people. well, there was also the "Waterworks" in the back of the ship which was a couple waterslides and fountains, but it wasn't a real pool. however, it was very kid friendly and we therefore lived there for the four day we were aboard. key west and cozumel were nice, though very touristy, and overall it was a nice vacation but it didn't exactly end on a good note when our return flight was delayed, we returned after 1am and then had kieran vomiting at 4am, along with, ahem, other not so pretty bathroom issues, combined with pink eye and possibly a case of ringworm (we're still figuring out a mystery spot on his face). thanks for the souvenirs carnival!

***

i'm still pregnant and plan to be for several more weeks. i'm about 28 weeks along and will only get bigger and bigger. the baby moves all the time, sometimes waking me up at night (but it's nothing compared to being awoken by a newborn throughout the night, so i'm happy with this for a while!) we've started working on the nursery and i can't wait until it's more done and i can post pictures!

i've been completely swamped lately with photos, lots of high school senior sessions which i have been absolutely loving! i didn't expect to enjoy big kids so much but it's been great and i've met some really fun kids along the way. the past few weeks i've just been trying to keep my head above water between sessions and editing and family and i'm starting to catch up this week but i have more bookings on the horizon that will definitely keep me occupied.

well, i'm off to a check-up, i'll try to post something more interesting later but i wanted to finally post so people wouldn't think we fell off the face of the earth!

***

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY KIERAN!!!

2008-08-12T20:35:00.001-06:00

can't believe my guy is 6 today!
happy birthday kieran

xoxo
mommy

***

benny lava

2008-07-09T16:13:00.001-06:00

this one goes out to j in india. who put the goat in there?

i dare you not to laugh at this.

***

head first

2008-07-07T21:16:00.003-06:00

the coolest way to dive into your first cupcake--head first. i've never seen it done this way before, but as soon as the cupcake was placing in front of him, he just dove. most kids prod it with their fingers, poke it, gingerly lick some icing, but not this guy. no hands, he just lowered his face in like he was inhaling it. he just stayed submerged in cupcake for several seconds before coming up for air and then would be at it again. his face was a mess but his hands stayed totally cake-free. as least for a while.

happy bday oscar, you rock!

***

i love this song

2008-07-06T22:23:00.002-06:00

takes me back to those college days at Murphy's pub. bar food, Miller beer, and you were guaranteed to hear this song and the stones' honky tonk women. every night.

The Gambler - Kenny Rogers

one

2008-07-06T21:55:00.002-06:00

hard to believe that erika's little guy is turning one tomorrow. seems like just yesterday i was lucky enough to be present when he made his entrance into the world. sigh. time flies. sometimes more with other people's kids than with my own!

i will definitely have to post pictures of oscar having cake for the first time, i hope to get to it before we leave for our cruise tomorrow, if not it will definitely happen when i get back. i have never quite seem a kid eat cake the way oscar did, it was hilarious!

here's a couple pictures of oxer.

***

shoes, shoes, shoes

2008-07-06T21:39:00.003-06:00

well, we had a really productive weekend. we did a lot of cleaning and i finally tackled my closet, which was a monster. it took hours and hours but it was definitely worth it. i was able to store most everything away and just put out the maternity stuff and i even found a pair of adidas sandals that i haven't seen since last summer. they were in a plastic band covered in sand and untouched from when i returned from the girlfriend trip to Florida A YEAR AGO. i find it sad that i could lose them for such a long time in my own closet. maybe sadder still that last weekend i almost bought the same pair again, forgetting i even had them in the first place. note to self: organize closet better.

and speaking of shoes, it was much appreciated the advice i got about flip flops from friends. big shout out to amy who recommended fit flops, which i have yet to try out, and lindsey, who sang the praises of chacos. unfortunately, i had just gone out the previous day and bought a pair of crocs flip flops which i regretted as soon as i tried the chaco pair on. i had debated about the crocs pair, it had a bit more cushion in the heel but was still pretty wide for my foot and didn't feel as amazing as i had hoped. and they were $40, which was just a tad over what i wanted to spend on crocs. but i bought them, only to find the very next day that another store had a different pair of crocs flip flops that were much better for narrow feet and $10 cheaper. and this same day, i found chacos. they were awesome--great arch support, still sleek and not too chunky, they were just what i was looking for. except they didn't have black, and i really want all black for now. so i went home, debated with myself about the purchase. and in the meantime my pal dori calls me up to tell me that her big lug of a dog just chewed her Birks up and she was curious about the crocs. well, i told her what she really needed were the chacos and she snatched up a pair right away, advising me to do the same.

unfortunately, i didn't order them right away. and we're leaving on vacation tuesday and i'm *dying* to get them. when i saw dori over the weekend and admitted to having waited until Thursday night at 11:30 to order them, right before the 4th, she hit me. hard too. i'm such a dope. i told her i wasn't sure if i'd want them on vacation or if i'd just wait until i got back to break them in. see that's the thing--these shoes are so supportive you really need to only wear them a little at a time in the beginning while you get used to each other. i wasn't sure if out trip was the right time. but ultimately, my feet are still hurting these days, even with the crocs.......so, keep your fingers crossed that they arrive Monday!

***

HAPPY 4th!

2008-07-04T21:29:00.002-06:00

hope everyone had a great holiday, ours was full of family, friends, food, couldn't ask for better weather. i'm exhausted but happy and now enjoying a spontaneous TP biography on the sundance channel. yay.

***

random thoughts

2008-06-24T13:23:00.004-06:00

aaron and i have been saying that lately it seems like we hear on the radio, "Today's high is 85 degrees, currently it's 87." don't you think they can just stop mentioning what the high is if we've already surpassed their expectations? it's like rubbing it in that the weather people were wrong (granted, only by a degree or two, but still...)

***

i've been noticing that andie has the perfect surfer-boy hair. about a year ago i tried to grow kieran's hair out a bit, hoping for the slightly shaggy, windblown look, but it was not to be. his hair just isn't meant to look that way, it just got poufier and "bigger", not what i was going for. aaron claims kieran's hair was like his own when he was a kid and still had hair, he calls it "pumpkinhead", or else it was other kids who called aaron that....either way, it wasn't positive. but andie on the other hand, would have great whispy surfer-boy hair, if only she was a boy. as a girl i'm trying to grow her hair out a bit and it just doesn't want to get much longer. oh well.

***

why is it that sometimes the things we love are the very things that cause us so much pain?

i have been in love with flip flops for many years. even in college, when friends would wear their black pants, halter tops, and heels, i would frequently wear my "shower shoes" out to the bars. i like to think i distinguished myself by not wearing black pants and gigantic shoes but really it was all about comfort, and a certain understated footwear. at the time it didn't seem like everyone was wearing them the way they are now (i say that quite naively as i know that flip flops have been popular since long before i was in college). aaron makes fun of my summer shoe choice and try as a might to defend them, it's getting a little harder. lately my feet are definitely feeling the effects of these support-less sandals and by the end of the day i'm a bit achy. recently, i was just about to admit to aaron how much i needed to rest my feet when he opened up the computer to this story about flip flops. i know, i know, it's all things i've heard before--although i had no idea our walking gait actually changes when we wear them--but i really thought that i could continue to get away with it. i love how in the end of this story all about the damage flip flops do to your feet and how hazardous they are to your health, they give you a silver lining and tell you don't throw them out-you can still wear them once in a while. so for me, i'm just not quite ready to be done with them altogether (although i'm sure no podiatrist would agree), i've decided to slowly ween myself and try to relinquish the pancake flat, $5 type i wear and invest in a pair that has some shock absorption and arch support. and no fancy colors or bells and whistles, i'm a flip flop purist. it's all black for me. and from there we'll see. i may have to find a new summer shoe love. love shouldn't hurt this much, right?

***

Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator

2008-06-21T22:27:00.001-06:00

check out the other brawndo commercials too. many thanks to aaron for encouraging me to watch "idiocrasy" where this was from (and thanks to bud for having aaron watch it). now i totally want to win at yelling.

ick

2008-06-19T16:03:00.002-06:00

probably one of the most unflattering image of myself ever taken. but then again, you haven't seen images from the middle school years. not pretty.

i hope you're satisfied heather!

fun times

2008-06-16T12:36:00.000-06:00

i have new party trick!

2008-06-16T11:43:00.002-06:00

i had a fun morning at the e.r. today. everything is completely fine--me, the baby, everyone. i woke up this morning to a gushing nosebleed. i managed to only get one drop on our comforter but i was coated in it and our bathroom looked like a battle scene as i scrambled to get toilet paper and stop the bleeding. i never got nosebleeds as a kid, only as an adult has it happened & i know that with pregnancy it can be more common & there's increased blood flow. luckily aaron hadn't left for work yet & i sat pinching my nose hoping that the kids wouldn't wake up to find mom covered in blood. it was flowing pretty heavy & out of both nostrils which was something new but it didn't seem odd until blood started coming out of my eye. tell that to patient advisory & they recommend you get to the e.r. pretty quickly.

the best thing about the e.r. was that after half an hour of alternating hands to squeeze the bridge of my nose tightly, they rig this contraption out of tongue depressors so that it pinches your nose for you. awesome. then my arms didn't hurt anymore. it looks absolutely ridiculous & of course i got aaron to take a picture of me with my nose pincher on. the rest of the visit was pretty uneventful, baby's heartrate was fine, the doctor was awesome, my bloodwork came back normal for clotting problems, etc. i told him i really wasn't concerned about bleeding out of my eye as the blood was flowing so hard and my pinching it off at the nose was forcing it out somewhere else & he concurred, it's all connected, even relating the dave letterman stupid human trick guy who could squirt milk out of his eye---something i think i could do too! for the past year or so, whenever i get a cold & blow my nose, i've had to squeeze my left eye shut or press against it because the pressure is released out of my eye. sometimes it even bubbles. are you totally grossed out yet?

so, this will be the most expensive nosebleed i've had. i'm just glad that everything turned out just fine & maybe one of these days i can post a video of myself shooting milk out of my eye. or not.....

pictures

2008-06-14T20:41:00.004-06:00

we had our ultrasound for the baby on wednesday, we were all happy to finally see something that resembled a baby (i had a few pictures from one at 7 weeks where it basically looks like a jellybean but not quite as big). anyway, all went well, everything looked good, no big announcements though as we chose not to find out the sex.

from the blurry, shadowy pictures of the baby's profile we think the baby shares kieran's profile, or at least looks the way his ultrasound profile looked. who knows. they're basically pruny little aliens right about now, we'll just have to see once he/she's here : )

***

summertime

2008-06-12T21:08:00.003-06:00

we have been busy around here, but taking lots of time to play in the yard, swim in the kiddie pool & sometimes fill it up with bubbles. we finally got a patio set (no thank you to target) & our marriage survived (barely) & though it rained for days on end as soon as we brought it home, it survived (barely) & we use it daily.

the kids are great, loving the summer and tan already.

i love these pictures of kieran & his buddy ethan from last week, they had a great afternoon. i secretly love photographing blue eyed kids, it's a nice departure from the sweet hazel eyes of my own :)

***

a couple recent senior pics

2008-06-03T12:16:00.004-06:00

name these quotes

2008-06-03T09:59:00.002-06:00

Woman: Is there anyway we could talk?
Man: What if we use our mouths and tongues?

***

Woman: David, I just don't think...
Man: [interrupting] That's okay, you look good.

***

Woman: Wipe that stupid grin off your face.
Man: This is the smartest grin I know.

***

weekend

2008-05-26T19:51:00.009-06:00

lest you start to think that the pregnancy has turned me bitter from my recent law & order and target rants, i should post something pleasant (actually, i really am extremely moody but i won't go there). we had a lovely weekend full of family and friends. my brother was in town which was great, we spent time with my parents and aaron's, we went to the farmer's market. the weather was swell, it was just really nice.

***

the farmer's market:

fun truck full of honey (forgive how blown out it is, i wasn't exactly checking my camera settings!):
andie loved laying in the middle of a street that was blocked off. eating the spoils of her market trip. i prefered the banana bread, mmmmmm:
grandma & grandpa with andie, who is clutching the candies grandpa bought for her (the kid can smell candy a mile away, even amongst the vegetable):
grilling with fam:

grandma barb got the kids art projects to work on:

aunt julie and emery:
i've seen this look before, the "snap that picture and you're dead meat" look. but my mom never checks my blog, so i'm posting it anyway:

c'mon target, why ya gotta do me like that?

2008-05-26T19:31:00.003-06:00

over the weekend our family attempted to get some new patio furniture. hours and hours in several different stores, testing chairs, reviewing prices, yelling at children playing tag instead of sitting quietly (hard to blame them-did i mention hours and hours?) we finally settle on a target set that even had a sale on the chairs. after finally tracking down someone to help us, we are informed that "we don't have any more of that table." ooo-kay. "can you check if any other stores have it?" ...checking... "i'm sorry, no, there aren't any." oo-kay. "what about the chairs that are on sale?" "there are only 2 of them." 2????? "do you ever sell the display?" smiling sweetly still, "no, we don't. not unless the set is discontinued." what???? she even tells is that another table we were looking at is out of stock and as she wanders off we're left only to believe that target doesn't actually have any of the merchandise it's hawking in it's giant patio furniture section and one can spend an hour scrutinizing and sizing up (and yelling at children), only to find that "no silly, you can't actually BUY the furniture! but go ahead, admire it, add up all the numbers, sit in the comfy gliding chairs, but DREAM ON SUCKERS!!!!" i mean geez, she might as well have said that right?

i'm normally all about the target. singing it's praises, touting its dibs, prizing it above all others. but now......i gotta say, i'm a little disappointed. the store we visited before actually had a system that made a bit of sense---display what you have available, sell the display once it's the last set in stock, then it's gone and you're done. nothing left to tease innocent patio furniture shoppers.

so, the search continues.

and while it may have humbled my target opinion a little, i know myself-i can't stay away. i'll be back next week, going through the dollar bins, checking out the exotic soda selection, perusing the bedding. but the patio furniture, well, that's a different story.

***

new website*

2008-05-20T21:36:00.005-06:00

my new photography website is here! well, maybe, almost, it's possible. the entire transition can take up to a few days but eventually it should be completely visible and usable. you can check for it by clicking on one of our family pictures in the right column.

yay!

***

dear law and order

2008-05-14T20:09:00.002-06:00

dear law and order (in all your incarnations),

i realize it's hard to find good actors out there, there are probably only hundreds of thousands of them going to casting calls when they aren't waiting tables. however, do you think you might try a little harder not to recycle the same ones on your various versions of law and order, and maybe not so frequently? for those of us who are fans, or those who have been watching since law and order was the only incarnation of the show, it's not only a little insulting but a bit distracting.

i turn on your new episode of law and order this evening and within the first ten minutes of the mystery i say to myself, "self, isn't that the same guy who played the dense guy who had been set up by his evil brother to commit murder as a kid?" and it might not have been so obvious if i hadn't just watched this very episode earlier this week. why? because at any given time on any given channel on any given day a law and order episode is playing. it is rerun ALL THE TIME. and sure, the episode was probably from law and order's "criminal intent" genre and originally aired three years ago, but that matters very little when in one week i get to see the same actor on variations of L&O playing different characters in the same week.

and this is not the most blatant of your indiscretions law and order, oh no, not only has this occurred with other characters who portray criminals (and i'm sorry, but once i start an episode and notice that the officemate of the guy who's dead had been in law and order before, it's pretty obvious he dunnit), but there are more flagrant fouls to note also. runner-up would have to be jerry orbach. not only the father in the screen gem dirty dancing (and has from my mom's hometown, wow!) but he played detective lenny briscoe for 12 seasons before he passed away. i'm sure you didn't think anyone would remember that during season two he played defense attorney frank lehrman. nah, and it's not like he's recognizable at all.

and then there's s. epatha merkerson, who has played the chief of police since 1993, but in years prior to that she's the mother of a boy who's killed. talk about a great promotion! you guys must have really been impressed with how well she answered the door, grieved for her child and answered police questions. "you know, that mom in the crack house was really talented, i think we should forget casting calls for the new police chief--get her in here!" and you know, i really shouldn't blame you, i was especially moved my her performance as 'reba the mail woman' on pee wee's playhouse when she was starting out. you go girl!

in your defense law and order, your show(s) has been on for a seriously long time and by now you have been through a ton of actors- even a guy i used to work with at the ice arena is credited as "copy clerk" in an episode from a few years ago. he had a few lines and everything. and now that i look at his bio--he was actually in another law and order episode two years later as a different character.

so, in conclusion ladies and gentleman of the jury, i propose to you that while law and order is an awesome show--i myself have ownership of the first season on DVD--i think the casting people take we, the viewing audience, for idiots. if you're going to throw the same actors back into a show, maybe have them play the same character or make it part of the plot. or if you're going to continue with this practice, maybe try not rerunning every single law and order ever made on every channel, which only draws attention to it.

and now that i've missed the show that started this letter, i think i should add the p.s.--the guy who was in tonight's episode who i had already recognized from a few years ago was also in yet another law and order episode when you check his bio. three different characters? come on. i rest my case.

sincerely,

your biggest fan

***

untie me!

2008-05-12T20:01:00.003-06:00

i've heard stories all my life about my famous tantrums as a kid. my parents love to remember when i was three and threw a huge fit because my mom was at the hospital after having given birth to my brother and i took a nap and by the time i woke up visiting hours at the hospital were over and we couldn't go see her. or how i would scream because i had to "BUCKLE MY OWN SHOES!!!", or i'd throw a fit in walgreens and my mother would have to walk away while i kicked and screamed and writhed on the floor. it wasn't pretty. sometimes i would get so upset that they would have to put me in my room in the apartment house we lives in. unfortunately, it was an old house and there was no way to keep me in there, no locks on the door. so they would tie a rope around the door knob and tie it to the radiator just outside the room in the hallway. i would get the door open about two inches and push my little face into the opening and scream ( a la jack nicholson, "the shining"): "UNTIE ME!!! UNTIE ME!!!!" really, it wasn't pretty. and it's amazing no one else in the nearby apartments didn't call children and family services on the parents who tied their poor child up.

i tell you this because it would seem that i'm definitely getting a taste of my own medicine 20+ years later. andie is quite the fit-thrower. she's a screamer, she has been known to throw herself down kicking and screaming, she makes insane demands, usually for candy and sweets and when rebuffed unleashes all her pent up three-year-old angst. her screaming usually includes either the phrase, "DON'T SAY THAT TO ME!" or "YOU'RE NOT MY BEST FRIEND!" but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

i have always said that the so-called "terrible two's" are nothing, it's three you should worry about and we're there now. sigh. maybe she'll get it all out of her system before #3 arrives. it's doubtful but i need to think positively right? and while i'm dreaming, maybe she'll be one of those perfect teenagers too who makes all the right decisions, consults her parents before doing anything crazy, decides not to jump off that bridge because all her friends are doing it. .........maybe.....

***

rent this movie!!

2008-05-07T20:05:00.004-06:00

you have to see "The Prestige". aaron and i watched this movie on a whim several months ago and now they've been playing it frequently on our Encore movie channels so i was lucky enough to see it again recently. it's just amazing. it's the kind of movie you'll want everyone you know to see, it's good to see with someone because you'll want to talk about it later, you'll want to watch it again immediately to catch the nuances you missed. and it has hugh jackman, christian bale (probably one of my top 5 favorite actors ever, he's brilliant), michael caine, scarlett johansson, & david bowie (the man is still gorgeous and he's great in the small part he has in the film).

this movie came out around the same time as "The Illusionist", also about magicians (and who knew that magic was such fascinating movie material?), which starred edward norton, rufus sewell, jessica biel, & paul giamatti. i even postponed my accolades for "the prestige" until i had seen this one *just in case* it was better. but no way. while a completely different movie, of course, i found it plodding and predictable and had to restrain myself from getting involved in online message board debates comparing the two. and yes, i know how lame that makes me. but i didn't actually post, so that should be redeeming.

anyway, go see it, it's awesome :)

michael caine & hugh jackman:
scarlett johansson:

christian bale:
david bowie:

***

a couple of my loves

2008-05-07T19:42:00.005-06:00

i had the greatest dream last night. i'll just say it involved the love of my life-the one that isn't aaron. and about a month ago i had another dream about him too, where i went to see him in concert but it ended up being at the holiday inn and no one was really there so instead of him singing he just danced with me. it was really nice. and then the dream got more bizarre and somehow i got stranded at the concert which turned out to be in a holiday inn really far away and i had to hitchhike home, meanwhile my old friend, red-head-heather from college calls to tell me she's having a baby but it's not a good thing at all and she needs help. it was quite a dream. i don't know if it's being pregnant or what but my dreams are just crazy lately. but i will accept any and all of the tom petty ones. how loverly.

***

anyway....i just wanted to pass along a new family favorite of ours. my parents have had these the past couple times we've been to their house: dibs.

they are so fun! there are 60 pieces in each container and while it doesn't seem like a lot, for $3.19 our family had a yummy, mess free dessert for a couple nights, which i thought was pretty good. they have lots of flavors, we got the peanut butter ones. and they're totally calorie and fat free. okay, they aren't but they're so good you won't care!!!

***

baby, miley cyrus, internet, games

2008-05-01T20:13:00.003-06:00

well, all is well here, nothing big to report. kieran & andie are great, we're all gearing up for summer around here and i admit i'm looking forward to just hanging out and siting in a waist-deep kiddie pool myself.

i'm about 13.5 weeks along and doing just fine, even that is pretty boring. i'm happy to be done with the first trimester, i was a little queasier this time around and alternately barely ate at times or had to have a quarter-pounder and fries. and i've been in the drive-thru pretty much every other day.....somehow i still managed to lose two pounds. i think i've discovered the perfect diet pill--it would be something that made you just a tad bit nauseous after you had about five bites of a meal. anyway, you still wouldn't even know i'm pregnant yet, i'm not showing at all, still in my same exact clothes. but i'm pretty sure i'll go from nothing at all to absolutely huge--i'm the kind of pregnant woman that when i'm six months along people are asking things like "are you sure it's not twins?" or "are you due any day now?"

***

i've been looking at baby names which is really fun and i'm reminded of how frustrated i am by that stupid miley cyrus with the disney show. in years past one of my favorite names was miley, it was elvis's girlfriend's name in blue hawaii (though spelled 'maile'). but *now* there's no way you can use that name, that cyrus girl is everywhere! darn it. and what really makes me mad is that her given name was destiny (puke). wish she'd just kept that one and i could use my not-so-popular blue hawaii name. if the baby is a girl, that is. who knows and we're hoping to wait until he/she is born to find out......it's going to be hard though.

***

our internet is driving us crazy. for almost a month now we've been having problems and it seems to be getting worse. we've replaced our modem and router and it still just suddenly goes out in the middle of something. this morning it was fine for hours but in the afternoon and evening it will go out every other minute! the crazy thing is that it shows that everything is still connected and we shouldn't be having a problem, yet pages just stop loading. if i were stronger i'd heave the computer out the window and be done it. .....well, no i wouldn't but it's nice to picture in my head.

***

i'm addicted to solitaire on my computer. now that i type it out i realize it makes sense--with the internet constantly going down my useless laptop has to serve a non-connected purpose and good 'ole fashioned solitaire has found me again. i've gone through solitaire phases before but i'm really hooked now. it's the only card game i know how to play and i can't say i'm very good at it, but it passed the time until our 'net starts up again. i've started picturing myself playing in some fictitious solitaire tournament and winning the whole thing. and before you go thinking about what a huge geek i am, let me turn your attention to aaron. i think it's time i out him on his webkinz addition. for those that aren't aware, webkinz are cute little stuffed animals that you purchase and then you go home and login to the webkinz site and care for your virtual pet. you play games to earn "kinz cash" or something like that, and then you can feed the thing, buy it stuff, etc. the thing is--it's for kids. and aaron plays the webkinz games all the time. he's earned kieran's frog so much money he should be retired in florida by now. i support him (but totally make fun of him) as long as he's not competing in these games with ten year old kids. he isn't but when he starts to tell me about the jewels he's collecting for "the legendary crown of wonder" i start to wonder.......it's definitely geared toward kids. but damn those enticing computer games.

***

oh yeah, this is totally me

2008-04-28T17:14:00.003-06:00

i'm finally back online-for more than a minute at a time due to unexplained computer issues-and checked out friends' blogs. had to take the 'which world leader are you?' quiz from dori's.

this is me:

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

yep. i agree. i'm sure you see me in this way too. i've always thought of myself as very mother theresa-esque.

***

sorry erika, you can't have our baby

2008-04-15T19:38:00.002-06:00

yesterday andie said to me, "mom, we shouldn't give our baby to erika. erika already had a baby and then she would have two babies. and then oscar would be sad."

so for the record, we won't be giving the baby away, at least not to someone who already has a baby that might get jealous. spread the word.

***

radio, radio

2008-04-10T08:42:00.004-06:00

i'm trying to get some work done but thought it was high time i took a break and updated my blog, don't you think?

anyway, this morning i tried to win tickets on the radio to the circus that's coming but it just didn't happen. same thing happened recently with a contest for something else. it's funny because i used to be really good at winning radio contests. it started when i was in sixth grade. i used to listen to the local oldies radio station (yes i was a total dork and no i never knew any of the current music because of this). i remember it was thanksgiving break and i used my little pink phone in my room to call in as the tenth caller and win $20 in Meadowgold ice cream coupons. it was definitely awesome. and of course they played back the tape of me calling in and winning on the radio and i thought it was so fun. after that began my long career of winning radio contests. i swore that my little pink phone could break through other people's connections and get in there just at the right moment. i won dinners, lunches, catered meals, movie tickets, concert tickets, tapes, CD's, posters, sporting event tickets, t-shirts, memorabilia, six flags tickets, gym memberships, tickets to movie premiers. i would wait the requisite 30 days from winning to try again but as soon as the time was up, i was right back at it. did i mention before i was a total dork? one time i actually called a friend from a trip to New York and asked her to wake up at 7am to listen for the winner of a $1,000 drawing that i was in the running for since i was out of town. i didn't get that one, although i will always have a sneaking suspicion that brooke didn't really get up early just to listed for my name.....anyway, there were some really awesome prizes and then there were some fairly crummy ones too-when you're not particular about what you win that's bound to happen. there were prizes (like the Meadowgold coupons) that i just handed over to my parents and didn't particularly enjoy, but the free lunches were nice! this radio contest obsession lasted mostly through middle school though there was a time or two in high school and college that i would try my luck at one and usually make off with something. once in high school i won tickets to the movie "The Fifth Element" and took my friend mud with me and after about the first half hour all i could do was apologize and ask if he wanted to leave early. it was horrible--though aaron still debates me this, as he really likes the movie. aaron's also a total dork though. i also won tickets to the movie "Threesome" in middle school and took a couple girlfriends to the now defunct campus theater to go see it. it was pretty much like the title says, three roommates who embark on a, ahem, relationship......also not a good movie. but i got the soundtrack with it and it rocked. but in a nutshell, about half the stuff i won was pretty good, the other half was usually the tickets to movies no one was paying money to see anyway. but who cares, all it cost was a few phone calls.

so here is what i learned about calling into radio contests:

1) they select the callers really fast. it takes the DJ no time at all to pick up a phone line (and usually there are a few different lines to select from) and say "caller 3" and hang up and move on to the next one. so act fast! for example, they get to caller #10 most likely in little over 10 seconds.

2) just because you're trying to be caller 15 doesn't mean you don't start calling right away. it's good to get in early and hear them say something like "you're caller #4, thanks" because then you can determine how fast the calls are coming in and being answered and the more times you get in the better you can determine how fast you need to call back.

3) if you're trying to be caller #10 and you get in as caller #9, chances are by the time you hang up and call back you're going to be too late. but call back, if the line rings, stay on for about 20 seconds, you never know, caller #10 might have accidentally hung up or didn't have the right answer to the quiz question and they'll take your call. but if you call back and it's busy, give it up man, there are always more opportunities.

so, get out there-win some radio contests ;)

while i think i already experienced my glory days, i'll let you know if i snag those circus tickets.

yay! and some random thoughts & random pictures of random kids

2008-03-27T21:31:00.007-06:00

great birthday today!!!

i'm going to try to hang onto this last year in my 20's really hard!

oh and i used to think that sharing my birthday with quinten tarantino and mariah carey was pretty cool but the evening news just informed me that it's also viagra's birthday. woo hoo. thank god the world has had 10 years of the little blue pill and all those little blue pill jokes. happy bday viagra!
***

have you ever played "eye spy" with little kids? here's a tip, don't play in the car. we all like to play and it always seems to be when we're driving somewhere and it goes something like this:

kieran: i spy with my little eye.....something brown.
me or aaron: uh, was it that car way back there?
kieran: yeah!

or it's a building several blocks back or a street light that by the time we guess is long gone.

***

there's nothing like mid-morning T.V. to take me back to days when i would be home sick from school. the price is right + commercials for things like denture adhesive and colonial pen life insurance.

and while we're being nostalgic, i caught a bit of an episode of golden girls. i personally think that if everyone would just take a day or two to catch up on G.G. the world would be a much happier place. in the episode i saw the girls are excited about getting tickets to meet burt reynolds (yee haw!) and in making a weekend out of it they end up finding a really great, inexpensive hotel. well, what do you know-the girls keep getting hit on and suddenly you realize the place is a brothel and they're being mistaken for hookers! go on, picture bea arthur as a hooker for a second and it's even funnier. anyway, you gotta love it.

***

here are a couple pictures of kids that aren't mine:

birthday

2008-03-26T20:56:00.003-06:00

while i will turn 29 tomorrow, today would have been my brother joshua's 30th birthday. it's strange to even call him my brother in a way, as my siblings and i never knew him. he was born to our parents almost exactly nine months from their june wedding (they didn't waste any time!) and what should have been a joyous occasion when he was born turned immediately frightening and sad as doctors discovered that joshua was missing a heart valve. after three weeks in chicago and surgery to give him an artificial valve, he passed away. i can't imagine how devastating it was for my parents and how they moved on from that. but they did, and i was born a year and one day later. i had the cord wrapped around my neck three times and they had to knock my mom out for a c-section but i was otherwise fine and my parents started to rebuild. i don't think about joshua very much, though i'm sure my parents do, but for my siblings and i it was something we weren't around for, like their wedding, and it's not in our realm of thinking. but today when my mother called to ask me to go to breakfast for my birthday she mentioned that joshua would have been 30, hard to believe. as a kid i used to wonder aloud to my mother what he would have been like, at three weeks his dark hair lightened up a bit and he had a cleft chin, like me. i would wistfully say how neat it would be to have an older brother but as i got older i understood when my mother explained that had joshua survived, i would most likely not have been born, as they probably wouldn't have rushed to have a baby so soon otherwise.

i still wonder what he would have been like though, and i still thought it was important to remember his birthday and honor him in a small way.

***

baby & losing my mind

2008-03-25T21:57:00.003-06:00

thanks for all the well wishes out there, we still can't quite believe it ourselves. i'm about 8 weeks along, so still a looooooong way off, i'm due about november 4. i had an appointment today that went well and last week was an ultrasound where we saw the teeniest little baby ever, complete with teeniest little heart beating away. and i just can't keep a secret and it's getting so hard to think about interesting things about me when i get tagged!

it doesn't seem real, though i'm tired, having cravings for certain food, getting queasy, experiencing heartburn, etc. still, i just can't believe we're adding to our family! the kids are really excited, though today andie cried when she heard that she can't hold the baby right now (the 2 inch baby) and it will grow in my tummy-"i don't want it in there!" kieran keeps telling us, "i think it's going to be a boy..........or a girl." safe bet.

***

and while i'm always a bit flakey, i think i'm worse lately. today i went shopping for a few things at a local craft store and locked my keys in the car. the sad thing was that they were my spare set as i was running out the door this morning and didn't feel like digging through my purse for my real set. i arrived at the store, decided not to drag my giant purse in, just took my wallet in, and apparently left my keys in the car IN THE IGNITION! sheesh. i called aaron who wisely told me that he could come and try to get the keys out, leave work, spend an hour trying to get them out, losing out on $75 for the hour of work, or i could call the locksmith and pay the $50. i went the locksmith route and boy, did that guy have them out in under a minute. i paid a lot of attention and now i think if i practice enough i might be able to break into cars :) and you know, in trying to see the glass half full, i got to chat with a really nice pregnant woman at the craft store who i might see later as a photo client and i met a nice burly locksmith guy who's left handed but does everything with his right hand just like me! see, not so bad.

oh, and then later today after my doctor's appointment i drove halfway home before remembering to pick the kids up at a friend's house. lord help me if this gets worse as i progress.

***

tagged

2008-03-22T08:30:00.001-06:00

my pal donita tagged me a while ago for 5 interesting things about me. i have no idea what to write so it will be kind of stream-of consciousness, here goes:

5) i have nightmares about kittens. this probably deserves its very own post someday, but in a nutshell, i have recurring dreams that either entail opening a box and seeing a cute little kitten which then proceeds to become demonic in some way. or one dream where i enter a room filled with tiny kittens who then attack me! clawing and biting, it's horrible! when i was three years old my grandparents' evil cat max bit me and i've had a slight cat phobia ever since. i'm okay with cats now though my "recovery" was nearly compromised when in high school i was sleeping in a sleeping bag at my aunt and uncle's house and awoke in the night to find their cat simon curled up ON MY HEAD and purring loudly in my ear! cats just have this way about them, aaron says that cats look at you as if they're thinking "if i were bigger, i would eat you". anyway, i have kitten nightmares still.

4) i also have dreams where my teeth fall out. this too is a recurrent subject in my dreams. often i'm in the middle of doing something and they just crumble out of my head. it's always alarming and very realistic. i wake up thankful i can still chew but wondering if maybe i'm clenching my jaw in my sleep???

3) i like naming things. when i was a kid it was often me who insisted on the names for our dogs: sparky, cody, & skippy. did i mention i was also a bit overbearing...? anyway, for my sister i also decided she should be named "Juliette" not just julie, complete with en extra 'T' and 'E'. later i simply called her "chowderhead" and nothing else. one day a woman at the pool was talking to my mother and then said to julie, "and i think i know your name, it's chowderhead, right?" as she had heard me talking to julie there on another occasion. my brother i called "boy", nice and simple and it stuck for quite a while. in some circles i think he's still known that way, right boy?

2) i crack my knuckles. i've done it since i was young and have never stopped. i thrill when i read studies or reports that say this does not cause arthritis. i try not to do it all the time but sometimes i can't help it. sometimes i crack my back but i'm not one of those people who cracks everything.

1) i'm expecting our third baby.

***

make yourself useful

2008-03-17T20:01:00.002-06:00

my sister told me about this website and recently i was reminded of it again: www.freerice.com where you can test your vocabulary and donate rice to those who need it in the process. i just donated 800 in about 15 minutes (okay, maybe i'm bragging a little but whatever gets you moving!)

***

7

2008-03-17T17:42:00.002-06:00

yay, more celebrating, it's our anniversary today. while we were just talking about it last night, when my mother called to wish us a happy anniversary this morning i had totally forgotten and she caught me off guard. then later in the morning i kept wondering why everyone was wearing green and then it dawned on me it was st. patrick's day. sometimes i'm just really slow.

anyway, seven years and going strong. woo hoo :)

***

shoot

2008-03-16T14:58:00.002-06:00

well, this is the first in our "andie is 3" series. i'm still trying to find one where she's not making a goofy face but even if i don't, this is pretty much her!

***

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

2008-03-15T08:34:00.013-06:00

yay, today andie is three years old!!!

i was looking through some pictures of her during her first year and thought it would be fun to share them. soon i'll have a fun three year old picture of her to share :)

***

day one:

6 days old:

9 days old:

14 days old:

2 months old:

4 months old:

5 months old:

6 months old:

7 months old:

8 months old:

9 months old:

10 months old:

11 months old:

one year old:

sickness, technology, & marriage

2008-03-07T16:45:00.003-06:00

well, it would seem i did indeed speak a bit too soon. as a good friend had told me, days three and four post-surgery might be the most challenging. kieran is definitely more sore and is complaining about his ears hurting, though this isn't most likely the result of the tubes in there, but of the tonsil and adenoid removal. it wouldn't be as bad if he would take the pain medication, but because it hurts to swallow he really resists it.....we're hoping the weekend will be good for him. and he was glad just to have his sister off school today to have someone to play with, poor kid is so bored.

anyway, otherwise things are going okay, though i've had more than my share of technical difficulties these days. a little over a week ago my laptop when berserk and kept starting and restarting. in a nutshell i've had to reinstall all my programs and luckily seem to have retained most of my existing data and images, but like anything, i'm slowly learning about small things that are missing. one thing i know i'm going to miss big time is my bookmarks. i had hundreds if not thousands of bookmarked sites that are now a distant memory. of course the super important ones stick in my memory and i can get them back, but there are soooooooo many that i bookmarked as an occasional resource that i'm mourning the loss of now. i know, way too melodramatic but i'm feeling some sadness. i'm trying to regroup and move on, utilizing del.icio.us in order to avoid this next time. i'm hoping there isn't a next time but just hoping certainly doesn't seem to do the trick.

and while i'm whining about such seemingly trivial issues as losing my bookmarks, i was also quite shocked to find several e-mails that should have long ago found their way to my Inbox languishing in the near trash-like abyss of my Bulk mail folder. what??? why???? e-mails from friends, in some cases responses to e-mails i'd sent to them long ago and assumed i should take a hint from the lack of reciprocal communication. but no, there they were, one click away from being deleted without a thought. recently i was alerted by a friend that i should have received an e-mail from her and decided to wade through the 2000 spam e-mails to see if it might be there and-alleluia! there it was along with others from over a month ago that i'm in the process of responding to. i heart technology.

hmmm....what else can a whine about. i guess i'll leave it at that for now.

***

the other day my mom had andie over for the afternoon while i was hanging out with kieran and when she dropped her off she told me andie had been telling her that kieran " is really sick. he's really sick and he needs to get over himself."

***

i heard from a girlfriend yesterday that her daughter is planning to marry kieran. they're in the same class and have grown up together. apparently, the girl gets to make the decision as to who she wants to marry and the boy has no choice. it's just a matter of getting to him before the other girls to ask him first, otherwise you have to have a back-up choice. gosh, i wish real life worked that way. i would have totally called dibs on tom petty long ago.

***

great

2008-03-04T19:53:00.002-06:00

well, i might regret these words tomorrow or later in the week, but kieran is doing great. he stayed in recovery at the hospital for a couple hours and wasn't thrilled about taking pain medicine but we convinced him it was the only way to go home--something he was very eager for. as soon as we got home a little after lunch time he was in greats spirits and immediately ate three jello cups and two yogurt tubes. his grandparents couldn't believe he'd even had surgery, he was chatting a playing and explaining all the star wars characters to me (yes, i know, it's crazy that i've never seen those movies, i know!) only hours later he was having some bread and cookies! the doctor said he's fine to do whatever he's comfortable with so we'll go with it. we were surprised he wasn't more tired but maybe tomorrow that'll happen and he says his throat doesn't even hurt.

the doctor had said his adenoids weren't too bad but his tonsils were pretty big and his ears had lots of junk in them. he already seems to be hearing a bit better and once he heals we'll be curious to see if he breathes out of his nose now!

thanks so much for all the well wishes, keep your fingers crossed that things continue to go so smoothly. so far we're so glad to have done this and hope that weeks from now it's a distant memory!

phone post update

2008-03-04T10:19:00.000-06:00

all is well, we're in the recovery room. Kieran is pretty drowsy & wants to go home. they're keeping him a little lon

kieran gets a tune up

2008-03-03T16:49:00.002-06:00

it's been so busy these days. sigh. but it's high time i check in and let you know we're alive and well!

tomorrow kieran's having surgery to remove his tonsils and adnoids and he's getting tubes in his ears. like most kids he's been sick pretty much all winter and it stinks. but we've been concerned for a while about him even when he's healthy, he has always been a "mouth breather" and he snores at night, things we've mentioned to the pediatrician. she never considered it an issue and despite some asthma and allergies, we weren't going to make an issue of it. but when he's sick it's much worse and not only can we hear him snoring down the hall, he stops breathing constantly throughout the night. so, about a week and a half ago we finally see an ENT (i guess snoring in and of itself doesn't merit the referral but the apnea did). he checked him out and we told him we were concerned about his adnoids and a lot of people in my family seems to have adnoid issues. apparently it doesn't really matter about the adnoids, the doctor said his tonsils are huge and barely allow air through them, at night the tissue collapses into his throat-so they're definitely out and the adnoids will go with them. kieran also had a hearing screening and we discovered that he has a lot of fluid in his ears and the doctor pronounced his results "not good" when he returned. he has conductive hearing loss and the eardrums didn't register reflexively at all. luckily, tubes should help and he should regain full hearing. we had no idea, although for over a year i was suspicious after two different basic hearing screenings when he simply stopped indicating he was hearing certain tones, but he was said to be fine. likewise, his doctor and any others that have seen him when he was sick have never mentioned his tonsils being too big.

so, tomorrow is the big day--the "grand slam" as the consulting doctor described it. we'll be waking him up early and the procedure should last 1/2 hour-1 hour. kieran is handling it well but i'm nervous about the recovery. it's an outpatient procedure and we're hoping to keep him pretty doped up when he gets out. one of the hardest things for kieran will be not eating when he wakes up before surgery tomorrow, but at least he's been promised lots of ice cream later!

think happy thoughts for us, we're not worried about the procedure itself, we know the doctor very well who's performing it and have no doubts about his skill.

i'll post an update when it's over!

siblings

2008-02-17T20:20:00.003-06:00

andie: kieran hit me in the eye. one time.
aaron: do you mean earlier today, when you hit him in the eye?
andie: um, yes. (runs away)

know anyone who was like this...? were you like this....?

2008-02-07T20:11:00.000-06:00

a friend from high school who works in computer animation was just chosen to work on the Transformers 2 movie and when i was looking at his work online i came across this project he and several other guys did. love it.

don't leave your kids with me.....

2008-02-07T15:27:00.001-06:00

.....or they could end up like the passports.....just kidding. don't leave your kids with me or i'll turn them into photo props.....

andie just loves "oxer". erika was barely out the door and she just had to give him love. and then i shove a camera in his face. what a sport.

is it just me....

2008-02-04T21:43:00.000-06:00

....or is this really bizarre....?

oh joy

2008-02-04T20:36:00.000-06:00

did anyone happen to catch the superbowl yesterday? i don't have a clue what happened with the game, i was really only wondering if you saw my tom perform at halftime. sigh. wasn't he the best? i'd like to thank aaron and dori and erika and any other friend who liked to remind me of how old he was looking. okay, i admit, tom's slowing down just a little, and dori laughed at his sportcoat. erika thought he seemed a bit stiff ("well, there are only so many times you can re-animate a corpse" aaron said) but you know how it is with true love--totally blind. i just don't notice these things, he totally rocked. i still want to marry him. aaron accurately predicted each of the four songs he would perform and i loved 'em all. awww man, now i'm going to have to go watch my TP biography again...

ick

2008-01-22T11:17:00.000-06:00

i'm sick.

i don't know if i'll make it off the couch. and sadly, yesterday was worse. by afternoon i was miserable, body aches, tingly, and a chest-burning cough that came from out of nowhere. PTL (that's 'praise the Lord' for you that are not in-the-know, as i was until erika so sagely informed me) for my neighbor and buddy, erika, who took my children for several hours so that i could rest without venturing to fill cups, find lost toys, put on movies, make snacks and overall care for them myself. not only does she inform me of all the cool web-lingo kids these days use, she parents my children on a moment's notice with no thought to her wee, healthy six-month-old 'oxer' or kieran's BFF aidan.

everyone needs an erika. another friend rang me up this morning and as i croaked, "hello?" she croaked in response. luckily, she is mostly over-tired from being up all night with her sick daughter and isn't too sick herself really (honestly, can you call that lucky?) but she too said that if i had been in a bind i was more than welcome to drop my kids with her for a day. awwww. it's times like these that moms rally, they cook meals for another when one has a new baby, they offer babysitting when someone is sick. just yesterday a mother from my moms group lamented the fact that while her husband hasn't been feeling well in the morning so he got a little extra sleep. meanwhile, she toted her 3 boys to the youngest's 4-month check-up, one of whom has special needs and tends to run away from her. sheeeeeesh. as she tells me this we commiserate over the lack of "sick days" moms get and how hard it is to balance it all (meanwhile she's feeding the baby and someone informs her that she is needed in the bathroom for another assistance with an older boy. aaahhhhhh!)

anyway, back to erika and my lovely friends. i am so fortunate to have such a network of women who come through in a crisis. my mother was insanely busy, as always, but gave me more than the requisite amount of mommy sympathy-stopping just short of offering to take potentially germ-riddled children to her house. i didn't eat yesterday and developed a migraine on top of it all, but as weak and exhausted as i feel today, i think i'm actually in the up-swing.

so, to conclude, i'd like to publicly thank erika for having my children all afternoon and then letting aaron and the kids eat at their house for the evening, it certainly saved me a bit of sanity and i think i'm a little less croaky because of it :)

***

a holiday family photo from happier (healthier) days:

andie's bed

2008-01-14T21:10:00.000-06:00

andie's doing really well with her twin bed, we took these pictures right after we set it up. it's a little...distressed, but cute.

excuse the pink cast to the pictures, her room indeed is quite bright pink.

***

randomness

2008-01-06T21:15:00.000-06:00

* another nice weekend, this one was spent getting andie into a big girl bed, as she's been in her crib until now. she was a little apprehensive when it was time to lay down in it but she did it sunday night and she slept the whole night in it. she was in the middle of the bed and backwards, but she slept. the bed is a cute white four poster bed we got at a friend's garage sale but it's a bit rickety and needs a new coat of paint. and with her new mattress and box spring she sleeps 36 inches off the ground, so we're looking into our furniture alternatives. sadly, everything is pretty pricey and there aren't a lot to choose from around here. anyway, i'll have to post a couple pictures of andie and kieran checking out her new bed.

* i went to volunteer at kieran's school last friday, as i do every friday. it's so sweet watching the kids and a big part of me wishes kieran could stay in kindergarten forever. i would watch the kids as they listened to their teacher and when she would ask a question their little hands would go up and sometimes long after she had called on someone else and moved on, a kid's hand would still be up as he was staring off into space, or distracted by something on the wall. they're so funny, so wiggly and easily distracted. and i love how kieran and the other boys in his class can still give each other hugs.

* saw juno with erika and some other girls this weekend. totally awesome. loved it. never a dull moment, it was so good. go see it.

* i'm suddenly really into holiday decorations. kind of crazy since they're over,but it's almost as if now that the chaos has lifted, i can actually devote some attention to some cute christmas wreath ideas and craft projects. i guess i could start some things for next year but that seems goofy and being as organized as i am (not) i will most likely lose them and not be able to find them next year. this year we had no hanging stockings as we had squished a lot of our junk out of the way to start framing our basement. i looked all over for our stockings before xmas and in the end we bought cheap discount ones on christmas eve. of course, the day after xmas i find out stockings in the basement, quite accessible and in view under that stairs. oh well.

* today was awesome, didn't even need a jacket for most of the day. how can it be about 6 degrees one day and in the 60's the next??? i don't know, i don't care, and i don't want it to end.

well, that's enough random stuff i guess :)

08

2008-01-04T09:38:00.001-06:00

the children are back in school and all is right with the world.

being the new year and all, it would seem wise to have a resolution or something. hmmmmm. of course i have all the same old standbys as every year: get organized. tame my muffin top. eat healthier. try to get over my eternal love for tom petty. put myself first once in a while. visit friends we haven't seen in ages. finally defeat the laundry monster.

but man, i have no willpower. and while there is something motivating to having a public blog and putting it out there, it still doesn't last long for me. and then there's something really crappy about making a big show of it all and then within weeks admitting the closet i finally "properly" organized is in danger of swallowing me when i open it or i haven't made it to the gym since '07.

so, i'm not resolving anything. because i don't want to feel guilty when it doesn't work out. i'll have a few small goals i can keep to myself and that way maybe i can pleasantly surprise myself when i reach one of them, but otherwise it seems so futile.

because seriously-get over tom petty? ain't never gonna happen.

***

some semi-recent pictures of people...and a couple andie snapshots

2007-12-31T11:21:00.000-06:00

some recent images, i love the family one. andie has been posing a bit lately (especially in those cute boots!) and while they're nothing to write home ab0ut, it's fun having some snapshots of her.

busy, busy, busy around here. i might start doing some commercial work in the future, thanks to an endorsement from a client to his design firm. i'm moving out of the 'portfolio building' stage and thanks to 3 clients in one day telling me i should raise my prices i might actually start making money! thanks for looking :)

***

blonde in a bottle

yay, new ways to waste time!

our crazy holiday

walk this way

the closest andie will getting to actually eating one of these things....

.......and now summer is over.

i can almost taste summer.....

happy

child #3

playing house

we are swell

cool UK commercial

tales from the hospital

fun things you can buy online

on the mend

the big H

my new motto: check babies' toes.

5 weeks today

fun stuff

we've been under quarantine.

feeding kids is hard

conversations with andie

:)

Our New Girl :)

a matter of hours now.......

the final countdown!!!

yay, mail!

i likey

VOTE! *for our baby*

big & blonde

for crying out loud

"Careful. We don't want to learn from this." ~Calvin & Hobbes

seriously??

years ago...

watch for my brother on TV....

fun stuff

"Sssshhhh, listen, do you smell something?" ~Ghostbusters

mmmmm...

andie outside tonight

check this out

hmmm...how do i put this delicately....

#3 update

weekend girlfriend trip II

"Honey, we are living in swiss cheese with a door." ~The Money Pit

i love you monica lewinsky lipstick aka my dumbest post yet

not letting andie name the baby

busy busy busy

pee

bday, our trip, baby, work

HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY KIERAN!!!

benny lava

head first

i love this song

one

shoes, shoes, shoes

HAPPY 4th!

random thoughts

Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator

ick

fun times

i have new party trick!

pictures

summertime

a couple recent senior pics

name these quotes

weekend

c'mon target, why ya gotta do me like that?

**new website***

dear law and order

untie me!

rent this movie!!

a couple of my loves

baby, miley cyrus, internet, games

oh yeah, this is totally me

sorry erika, you can't have our baby

radio, radio

yay! and some random thoughts & random pictures of random kids

birthday

baby & losing my mind

tagged

VOTE! for our baby

new website*