Endings and Beginnings

We've been planning our vacation since January.  Seemed like it'd never get here.

Now it's over.

Don't you hate that?

We played hard, spent a lot of money, ate lots of food we didn't have to prepare, and slept excellently on air mattresses. 

I miss having family around - a lot.  It was so nice to have people to hang out with that I felt connected to.  It was nice to have kids for my kids to play with while we had adults to play with.  It was just nice.

My two year old didn't want our house when we pulled into our driveway.  He was complaining about it as soon as we entered our neighborhood.  He's no fool, he knows who's house is cooler.  (Literally - lol!)

We miss our grandmas and papas, already.  We miss our cousins and brothers and sisters.  We don't miss the traffic.

It'll be nice to be back to normal, whatever that is.  But having ten abnormal days was just plain awesome.

One more month till school starts.  One more month to decide if I really want to keep babysitting.  One more month of super hot weather. 

Bring it on.  Bring on the cool.  Bring on the holidays.  I love this half of the year... it's the only thing that makes ending a vacation somewhat less depressing.  After the holidays end, the only thing that will make that somewhat less depressing is a new baby.  Then life will be turned upside down all over again.

Still... bring it on.

Now if I could only have a house like the Jetsons and simply press a button to unpack everything.  :)

Shared wisdom

I'm reading a book by my favorite author, right now, and came across something (many things, actually) that I wanted to share.  RPE is just so full of wisdom and good.  ;) I log just about everything I read, here, if you're interested.

She smiled.  "I heard someone say, 'There's no problem so big that whining won't make it worse.'"

I laughed.

"The way I see it," she said, "everyone has problems.  It's how you choose to deal with them.  Some people choose to be whiners, some choose to be winners.  Some choose to be victims, some choose to be victors."

I put my hand on her shoulder.  "You're the type who thinks of the glass as being half full instead of half empty."

"No," she said, "I'm just grateful for the glass."

Such brilliant perspective.  Love it.

Ode to a husband

Child:  When you crave things when you're pregnant, do you go crazy?

Husband:  No, the dad does. 


Thanks to my crazy husband, this crazy pregnant woman got pizza and pop for lunch.

Thank you, Matt! I love you!

Such a nice boy.  :)

Here's mud in your eye

When's the last time you laughed so hard, you cried?

For me, it was right as I was trying to take these pictures...

I love summer!

And, yes, he's wearing a turtleneck - he picked it out, himself.  How can you say no to that cute little face??

The "talk"

Our friends shared this with us, today, and I thought it was pretty funny.  If you know my husband at all, you'll think it's funny, too.  :)

Never Ceases to Amaze

I've done some sitting, lately, hence the many blog posts.  (I really hope this queeziness and fatigue lay off a little with the passing of the 1st trimester.)

I went to the doc today for my first ultrasound.  I was a little anxious about it.

I've been nervous they wouldn't find a heart beat or that they'd find more than one.  lol

I think I've been avoiding "feeling" this baby, does that make sense? I didn't want to get too attached in case things didn't work out and I didn't want to focus too hard in case I found there was more than one.  (I know, silly thinking.)

But, today, during the ultrasound, all that went away.  I saw the wiggling (in my mind, feistiness - I love that in a person), the strong heartbeat (170 bpm), and the little hand practically waving at us (my kids were there, too). 

There's a little person in there! A little spirit sent to my family! How awesome is that?! This is really happening! How amazing that our bodies, as women, are capable of growing a whole new person inside ourselves! Andur said, "It's so weird.  A human inside of another human."  This might be my 4th, but it's still so cool.

It's real for me, now.  I'm so excited for the 18-20 week mark when my next gender-finding (hopefully) ultrasound is!

Wealth of Information

My son, this one...

...is notorious for spouting the most random, yet accurate, facts around our house.  He has this amazing ability for retaining information, no matter how trivial it may seem to most. 

As we're driving home, today, out of nowhere he asks, "How do they get the cow magnet in the cow?"

Wha? That was my reaction, after the laughing.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  I jokingly said, "What, so they can stick it to the fridge?"

He goes on to explain this magnet he learned about once upon a time in his Summer Enrichment Program, how the cows are given this in some way so when they eat the hay that may contain metal fragments, the magnet will keep these fragments from hurting the cow.  He just wanted to know how they get it in the cow. 

So, of course, I had to look this up... made sense, but I've never owned a cow so why would I know this? haha  I found this website, which explained everything he did - including how to "get it in the cow".  (It's ingested, in case you don't feel like reading.)

My silly boy.  So smart.  So very random.  Gotta love him.  ;)

Overwhelming

That would be the word I would use to describe things in my life, lately:  the fatigue, the queeziness, the emotions, the state of the dishes...

...the smell of the forgotten crock pot on my counter.

For the past week or two (or more, lets be honest, here), my dishes have been in a sad state of neglect.  We've been cycling through them for the most part, doing a load almost every day, and my kids have been merrily earning more video game time by eagerly doing them for me on occasion.

Two days ago, I noticed my crock pot still sitting on the counter from a previous meal.  (I'm not going to tell you how long it's been sitting there, that's just embarrassing.)

I thought, oh, how nice - Matt cleaned it for me!

I went to lift the lid and was oh-so-quickly proven wrong.  After closing the lid almost as quickly, I walked away.

I've been avoiding it since then.  Seriously.

Until tonight, when I found an ounce of motivation and a smidge more of fed-uppedness due to the clutter on my counter that makes me dread breakfast time.

I was going to wash the crock pot. 

Matt was with me.  I asked him for his special work mask that keeps out all things toxic to one's lungs.  He thought I was kidding.

I wasn't.

He helped me put it on and I set to the task.

Word to the wise:  when wearing said mask, make sure it's tight enough or it just doesn't work.  (I almost lost my dinner in the two inches of space in front of my nose and mouth.)

While Matt held the mask on tight enough for me while trying not to toss his cookies (he really does love me), I scrubbed, rinsed, added more than was needed in soap, rinsed some more, then dried.

The smell was still there.

The crock pot is now soaking with soap and hot water till I can tackle it tomorrow. 

If I had to describe the smell, Matt and I both agreed it smelled like rotting flesh.  No joke.  (Leftover roast?)

Needless to say, the dishes will be at the top of my list from now on.  ;)

p.s.  For those of you cursing my husband right about now for not helping me with the dishes, no need.  He DID try to help me, even enlisted the kids.  But, due to my psychotic emotions, I felt I was being run out of my own kitchen and told them to stop.  That's what I get.  lol

Funnelicious

After a bike ride with the kids and some gardening, my inner child and I decided we needed to sit for a minute.  (I really hate getting tired so easily - I hope this passes with the 1st trimester!)

This year, our family made a goal to learn something new every month.  We put some topics in a jar and every 1st Sunday we pick a new topic.  So far, we've chosen places around the world (we each chose a place and learned about it), our bodies, volcanos, art, and space.  This month, cooking was chosen. 

We typically try to have some sort of grande finale presentation or learning experience (i.e. for art, we went to a gala and created our own piece of artwork using the medium of our choice; for volcanos, we created a volcano using a cool recipe... stuff like that.) and yesterday for our Family Home Evening, we made our very first funnel cakes.

I've only ever had funnel cake at amusement parks and such where they're terribly expensive, so I've always shared one - never had one to myself.  Until yesterday.... mmmmmm hmmmmm!

We all added and mixed the ingredients and fried away.  We used this recipe, here.  I get nervous about frying, but this was quite a success:

Better things to do with my time

Do you ever just not feel like blogging? I have a list of blogs on the right side of my page that I like to read when they're updated - and I see that there are people who haven't updated in a very long time.

I used to think that was weird.  Why have a blog if you're not going to keep it updated?

I almost feel like I'm growing out of it, if that makes any sense.  Like, why would I want to waste so much time uploading pictures when I could be out taking more? Or better yet, having so much fun the camera isn't even thought of?

My kids have been on summer break for four official days, now, and I've loved every minute of it.  We've gone on bike rides, watered the garden, ran through the sprinkler, mowed the lawn, jumped on the tramp, gone for walks, gone grocery shopping... and it's been awesome.  No lists, no schedules, just us. 

I've been looking at my front and back yard while thinking, I need to take a picture of these things and label it "These are a few of my favorite things" on my blog. 

But then I think, nah, I just want to stay out here and keep enjoying it. 

I don't feel the urge to keep up on other people's lives or keep whoever cares updated on mine, anymore. 

I just want to live life.  

So, my garden pictures will stay right where they are, daily growing out of date because of the things that are daily growing in my garden.  My lilac bushes will only be remembered when the heat of the day wafts the scent in through my bedroom window at night because a camera just doesn't do that justice.  My beloved trees in the backyard will have to continue providing the perfect canopy without ever gracing this computer screen.  The only images of my two year old bouncing his cares away on the trampoline will be the ones ingrained in my memory.  (Well, I might take a picture of that, but only because it's just too cute not to.) My kids riding their scooters down the driveway on their bums will only be seen by those passing by.

Here's to life.  :)