Not my husband!

Matias' mother has taken to wearing colored contact lenses & Matias thought it would neat to see what he looked like with different colored eyes. I, personally, could not stand it - couldn't even look him in the eyes - this was not my husband! Liam couldn't even look him in the face either!

Decked Halls

I still don't have a perfect picture of the tree but this is good for now!

Here is Liam exploring around the tree (supervised)

My Snowman Mantle (with white trees)

I decided to start Liam on his collection last year! The one in the right is his first year one & the red and green one in front is this years. That other guy in the back is just trying to get in the shot ;)

The stockings were hung...

What I've, miraculously, gotten accomplished in the past 4 days! GO ME!

1. Christmas tree is up & decorated - LeNelle came over for dinner last night & wanted to help decorate so it got done!
2. Stockings up
3. Snowman mantle done - complete with those white feather trees we got last year, Mom!
4. Cards ordered, addressed & mostly stamped!
5. Shopping done! Minus one I have to get at B&N today!
6. Winter dishes switched out & snowmen mugs brought out

WOOT! 6 things doesn't seem like a lot but I'm very thankful it's all completed cause we (and I mean ME) were kind of in a time crunch after our vacation! I just really, really hope I'm not forgetting something or someone! I don't feel like I am so I should be in good shape.

God Bless List Makers of the world!

Onto more mundane things, I fear though. I have to finish my laundry, put it away & put Liam's laundry away. Clean the floors, vacuum the rugs & put finishing touches on holiday decorating. And shower. A shower would be nice. LeNelle & I are going to finish up some errands today after the Pats game so a quick trip to Michaels, B&N and Giant are on tap for later. I also have to clean up the dining room table and clear it of all my CM stuff so that I can put my fantastic centerpiece on it - LeNelle & Matias couldn't believe that I was just making it up as I went last night - insisting that I was copying it from somewhere!

I'll take pictures of it all later (minus the laundry) & post for y'all to see how the Ninos decorate for Christmas!

Buenos Aires, in snippet format

Your days tends to go like this -

coffee, meat, wine, ice cream, coffee, meat, wine, ice cream, coffee

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Matias said once while on the train in a funny accent "this is my country" where upon that then became our "motto" of the trip

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Liam's days tended to go like this -

bottle, vintina, car, stroller, bottle, yogurt, nap, bottle, car, playtime, bottle, dinner, nap

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Jasmine - fresh, tight, little sachets of pure delight
If I could have video taped that scent, I would have left happy

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Blue sky - Celeste - the color of their flag

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Green greens - the color of Spring turning into Summer in December

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Shutters on the bedroom windows that slammed against the house when opened & letting in a spectacular breeze

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Me telling Matias that the breeze was my favorite thing about Buenos Aires, to which he responded "the city is named after it, you know"

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Taking pictures with scrapbook layouts in mind. It's an obsession I know, but I love it, so there.

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Taking Siestas

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Speaking French instead of Spanish just about every single time I attempted to respond to someone properly

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Having our son's passport stamped for the first time

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Jumping a horse over the tallest fence in the arena because Pepe trusted me to

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Watching Liam fall in love with family & them in return - despite the language barrier

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Watching our boy turn into a Little Trooper & become a World Traveler so young in life

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Being able to walk around and know places & knowing that I want to return

Pat Tillman

I just discovered that Pat Tillman went to my high school (I think). Did you know that Christina? His wiki page just states that he was born in SJ but doesn't list his HS...

OK, just googled some more to find out YES, he went to Leland & he graduated in 93 which means we were there when he was...they have renamed the field after him. I'm going to go look in my yearbooks - which are sitting on my shelf up stairs...

OK, now it's just plain creepy.

I got a new shirt at Target the other day & I just tried it on & asked Matias what he thought of it...

..."it looks fabulous! It makes you look skinny"

WHAT THE???

Again with the husband...

...about 5 minutes after posting the Moment of Crap post, he walked into the kitchen & hugged me & said "why do you look so cute today??". And I'm wearing a t-shirt, jeans & my hair is pulled back with a headband.

I think I married the right guy.

Depressing thought for the day

I've been about 5 lbs. away from my pre-pregnancy weight for a while now & I think I've finally accepted that I must have been a Fat Ass PRIOR to getting pregnant cause 5 lbs. cannot make this big (no pun intended) of a difference in my body.

I'm still a size larger in pants, shirts are about the same but I'm not doing myself any favors by wearing them too large, and the boobs have stayed Post Liam size and I think they are here for the duration.

I think my shape has just been altered quite a bit due to the C-Section since most of the added mass is in that area and is quite different in, hmmm, appearance than my normal Fat Ass. I know it's only 5 lbs. and I should be happy with that (and I am) but it really just dawned on me today that I must not have looked that good to begin with, you know? And I have water weight to thank for these thoughts mostly because now I bloat during ovulation, PMS & MS whereas before I never really did so that's like a whopping 2 weeks out of the month that I'm bloated & disgusting in appearance AND feeling.

And there's your Moment of Crap for the Day...

And sometimes my husband REALLY gets me.

I should have written about this when he gave me the gift but I have a number of excuses to give as to why I haven't & you don't want to hear those, you want to hear How My Husband Gets Me, don't you?!

I'm staring at the card, that I've taped to my monitor, the card that he made me to go with my most awesomest gift. It's got Nixon on the front with a reel-to-reel recorder and the words "On the Record". The inside reads "Jen, Thanks for being such a great mother to Liam & such a great partner in life to me. Don't ever stop being a geek! Love - Matias" AWESOME card, right??

What could my gift be??

It was an ashtray from the WATERGATE HOTEL!!!

They are revamping it into condos & auctioned everything off & my wonderful husband managed to snag me an ashtray!! It's silver pewter with the Watergate insignia in the middle and Watergate Hotel, Washington DC written around it!!!

You have no idea just how excited this gift made me :) I need to take a picture of it to show off it's awesomeness :) So sometimes Matias is romantic in our own What Makes Us Perfect For Each Other kind of way & it's most usually out of the blue, which is extra points in just about everyone's book!

I've got it up on my bookshelf standing in front of all my Nixon books, proudly displayed for me to see throughout my days. And also, please note, in between my Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil monkey candles :)

"You have to blog this"

I was asking Matias where Blooms Crossing was because I just found out about a woman who has a salon in her basement & I would like to give her a try since I am officially not fond of this haircut I recently got.

I told him why & said that I wasn't thrilled with the haircut & he questioned me on why not - "it's not meant to styled, it's a kid cut" & I mulled it over cause maybe this mini-mullet is all the rage today with some age group that I no longer belong to AND the stylist was on the younger side of 20something SO maybe I just needed my Mom Cut & not Kid Cut. But his statement continued to puzzle me so I asked him what he meant by that...his said "his hair cut is a typical..." and I cut him off right there cause HELLO, I'M TALKING ABOUT MY HAIR!

He got a good laugh at himself & told me I had to blog about it.

Speaking of "chemical pre-dispositions"...

Am I the only one who craves an adult beverage when I smell fire? Camp fire, grill, fireplace...any type of fire triggers this urge to have a freaking drink.

At least tonight, I've got seltzer for my spritzer ;)

the CRAZY is gone!

I remembered what I did with the picture & then confirmed where I had stashed it :)

I had used it in his Everyday Easel birthday celebration & then stashed it in his baby book with the other pictures I used!

WOOT!

Am not crazy!

Late night boredom

So with my husband on the couch, at least he wasn't snoring, and LeNelle having gone off to bed, I was left Self Googling & then quickly started looking for old high school friends.

This all started because LeNelle was trying to come up with a user name for a job site and didn't want something very search-able so I googled her first choice & found some funny shit - mostly tags for Boston news stories but just going by headlines you can gather quite a few assumptions about who LeNelle is. Which I found hysterical, LeNelle, not so much. So then I googled my AIM screen name & only came back with 10 hits! WOOT! I'm more under the radar than she is! And one of the hits was from this HORRIBLE crab shack we went to in Fairfax way back when, when our relationship was still new & the food was horrible. And I actually wrote a review about it. I found that endearing and this started my googling of other screen names I have had & then onto looking for old friends.

A few years ago, I stumbled upon my old friend's, Clark, work email address & I emailed him & it really was him & we got to talking again and this that and the other. He had just had a baby boy & was married to a woman who had a child from another marriage, I wasn't married yet so we did some catching up then life took off & we fell back out of touch. Around that same time, I got a random ass email about someone buying a condo in San Diego but it was from Linda, one of my high school (Leland Lesiters!) girlfriends so I emailed her back basically saying, somehow you got the wrong Jennifer but hey it's me! We caught up & then fell out of touch again somehow. Last night, I emailed Clark at his work address but it got returned as no longer valid - little bugger went and got a new job! So I googled him & found his new email address :) And sent another email! Did the same with Linda but her's is Hotmail so maybe it hasn't changed (didn't get bounced back) but also maybe it has gone the way of spam folder demise...

And less than 12 hours later & I haven't heard from anyone! HA! I think I have Iqbal's email that Christina passed along to me & I think she's caught me up on Steve's life these days...I have never been able to find anyone else though - minus my two boyfriends (Julio & Scott) who are both married now also. Don't any of these people keep blogs?!?!

I woke up this morning with a lovely little headache & a broken coffee maker. BOO! I stumbled down to get Liam his bottle & make coffee and when I hit ON, the little pretty red light came on & nothing happened. Nothing happened. No coffee! My less annoying when not snoring on the couch husband RAN to Dunkin' Donuts with the child (all bundled up in his ROOTS hoodie and socks over his PJs) to get coffee from their drive-thru! thankfully, we are not coffee-less because seriously, I don't know what I would have done. So now we have to go coffee-maker shopping & all I ask for is a stainless steel one & I'm quite sure they do not exist. White's fine, it matches the big appliances but I like all my others to be of the stainless variety of steel & it bugs the ever loving shit out of me to have ONE white appliance in my lovely sea of stainless steel.

The Crazy is back.

Every time Liam got his X Month Picture taken, I put it in a new frame on the mantel & then we put the old ones on his "gallery" in his room. We got his one year pictures back right before the Nissan show & I distinctly remember taking one of him down & stowing it somewhere. The point of that sentence is the somewhere. Once again, I have misplaced something & it's driving me crazy. I've looked in all my usual places, of course. Even took pictures out of frames and checked to make sure I didn't re-use a frame without remembering.

I cannot find it. It's driving me a little mad. I think someone was here with me when I took it down - LeNelle or mom - got any ideas? It's not with his 8x10 one & it's the one of him with his hand in his mouth cause the cowboy one is on my little perch by the computer...

At least he stopped snoring.

How come on every.single.other.night. Matias can stay up till all hours but come Friday, he's on the couch, zonked out, SNORING.

And I'm sitting here with my wine (no seltzer, the bastard drank it all at dinner), playing around with StoryBooks, checking my emails for the eleventy-millionth time kind of waiting to do something. Anything. The TV isn't even on.

And he's asleep. And has been for over 2 hours.

But at least now he stopped snoring.

More Officialness

I got my own arl.org email address this week :)

Mainly so I could kick ass & take names all while looking Official and everything. And work is going well, probably getting ready to take on more hours/work and all but that's quite nice seeing as for 3 weeks I only billed a little over 11 hours! D'oh! I was hoping for more like 15 a week at the most but I know we are ramping up slowly so not to overwhelm me, which I do apprecaite :) And then I know there will be days like today where the Fellow doesn't sleep until 2pm and then only for an hour while I have a v. important deadline to meet that involves Senators & Lobbying and oh my, aren't I doing important work?!!?

Thankfully, I got my work done in that hours' time & managed to shovel some food in my mouth while watching 15 minutes of GH before going up to get the Mad Teefer.

Housekeeping Question!

I've had about enough of the milk on the hardwoods. Enough! Makes me want to pull out that taser that I don't own.

My question is what do y'all use on your hardwoods to get the milk up completely with no tell-tale residue shining back up at you? Right now, I use the Swiffer Hardwood stuff but it's not cutting it and by not cutting it, I mean, I'm done with sitting crossed legged and pulling myself around the main floor scouting out milk stains and scrubbing them off with a sponge. Of course, this is after I sweep up all the cat fur, bebe food & Matias is the cook remnants.

I'm done with it being a 3 part deal to clean the floor. And yes, I do wipe up the milk after he "spills" it so it's not a question of me not doing it right away.

A few qualifiers though first:

I do not like mops. I do not like to use a bucket or fill my sink. I do not like to wait for stuff to dry. And I do not like crawling around my kitchen cursing everyone else who lives here for making this mess for me. I would like to get it all clean with one product but I think the cats, my Liam's love for tossing things overboard instead of eating them, and my husbands inclination to get 1/2 of his preparations on the floor...so something beyond a broom please!

So far my favorite choice is A MAID.

Just spit my drink out

KATIE HOLMES WANTS TO RUN A MARATHON - OK! says, "Katie Holmes has often been spotted enjoying an early morning jog around the European metropolis. And OK! has learned exclusively that she's not just doing it to keep her figure fit for Tom — She's fulfilling her dream to run in the New York Marathon." I can't help but think of that Julia Roberts movie where she learned to swim so she could fake her own death and get out of her loveless marriage. Katie is makin' a break for it. If she starts to learn Spanish Tom better lock that bitch up.

Mullet?

I got a haircut this past weekend & I'm not real sure if I like it or not. It's kind of reminding me of a mullet, but not quite. There's really not much to it, just some layers, but it's not really doing anything even when I do have the chance to blow dry it and "style" it.

So I'm really not sure if I like it. And I'm not one to go back and have someone "fix" it plus I got it cut by a new hairdresser in NC since our old new one got knocked up by her miner boyfriend (miner as in coal miner not minor as in underage) from WV and moved there.

Maybe I should have known I wouldn't be crazy for it when my new person said "oh Michelle just moved there" when I answered that I live in VIRGINIA - cause HELLO, West Virgina is NOT Virginia! Maybe she thought I would fit in more with a mini-mullet?

But, of course!

Just so you know, the Fork Lift did not bring the table down for me ;)

But it did bring it back up later...

Rolling my eyes

So we have this community yard sale tomorrow & I am putting out a bunch of "vintage" and "oldies but goodies" CM stuff, right?

I need a table brought down from the living room/crop room to put out in the driveway so I can sell my wares, right?

I asked Matias and said please and didn't get a response which is 110% typical. It can usually mean two things - 1) he heard me & will do it or 2) he didn't hear me and I'll have to ask again.

So, I 'asked' again & by 'asked' I mean I said "I need you to bring a table downstairs for me tonight" & he said, "I'm not your fork lift, you can at least ask me & not just demand it of me". Bless his little heart. I suppose option 2 occurred and he never heard me ask him politely and properly the first time. So I asked him politely again. Now, let's see what happens...let's see if he "remembers" to bring a table down for me tonight ;)

Going Green - one product at a time!

Slowly, we are switching the household over to more green products - I've started with the cleaning supplies but I've run into a problem. I love love love those Lysol disinfecting wipes, use them in the kitchen & bathrooms. And I use them a lot. The only time I've looked for a identical replacement I found a pack of 25 made by Method - that's not enough for me & it was the same price point as the larger containers of the non-green variety. Have y'all found something comparable? Another thing I've trying to replace is the [lazy people's favorite] Windex wipes - I use these only in the bathrooms and have not replaced them since we last ran out. I bought the Method window & glass cleaner for our master bathroom shower & I love it so I used my last, dried up and waste of a Windex wipe when I cleaned the mirrors with the Method cleaner BUT I haven't discovered a decent cloth to use with the spray! Most cloths (facecloths, towels...) leave fluff behind & streaks & I cannot stand that since it usually looks worse when I've finished...does anyone know of a good cloth I can use (microfiber?) on mirrors that can be reused and not have to washed every time I use it? I do not want to use paper towels cause that seems a little counter-productive to me, plus my husband uses paper towels like normal people use their pants to wipe their hands on ;) so I don't need to contribute to that usage.

I can tell you that I love my new Method products - the glass & shower cleaners. I use a potent Tilex shower cleaner in our shower cause it needs it but refuse to use something that hardcore in Liam's bathroom & I've been very pleased with the results!

An organic product that I LOVE are the organic cotton pajamas from WALMART (GASP!) - they are adorable & wash really well! Their price point is about $9-11, a little higher than I would like to pay (jesus, how cheap am I?) so I only buy about two sets a season and usually one has become my favorite set of jammies for our little boy.

Anyone have any favorite green/organic products that they would like to share?

Love this man!

My dad sent me a link from his Air Canada points newsletter with a link to view the new video from Michael Buble - here it is for y'all - http://michaelbuble.itiva.net/

And I will freely admit that in this time of PMS (thanks!), that I cried watching this.

And also, love his eyes. And scruff. Nice, nice bedroom eyes ;)

ENJOY!

Everyday Easel display

I've been changing this up every month & I LOVE it!

Next month will be Halloween pictures from last year with my little itty-bitty fellow Tigger :)

Obviously, this is from the Concert for VA Tech from earlier this month. Liam loves walking past that and pointing out everyone in the pictures & he just smiles ALL the time at it!

Patting my own back

I've been getting a TON of pages & albums completed in like the last month or so (maybe shorter...) & it's all so [nerdy] exciting for me :)

Here's what I've finished in like the past 3 weeks:

• Our Honeymoon album (circa 2005)
• Liam's FIRST birthday party album
• GParent's Gift
• PicFolio Minutes album - mainly done for showing at shows & such but I like it, of course, and have it on 'display' and switch the pages every other day or so

Here's what I've started in the past 3 weeks:

• Our 2005 Family Album -cropped myself out of pictures in two crops! That amounted to Jan - March pictures.
  
• Our 2005 Cape Lookout Album - completed about 30 or so pages in two crops! I will complete this album VERY soon, like maybe this weekend. It's smaller than I anticipated so upon completion I might rethink the whole "needs its whole album" line of thinking & might just go on and put it in our 2005 album depending on huge that sucker turns out to be.
• Ordered our wedding pictures (that are in our album also) to start the album for my parents - they did not get a professional one in our package as they opted to let me create one for them. And yes, I'm only now getting started on it.
• Organized older pictures of Mystic to pick up working on her "brag book"
• Ordered May - August of 2005 pictures. It appears we did nothing in April...
• Completed Red Rocks 2005 StoryBook but have not ordered it yet as I am waiting on the husband to "edit" it with me
• Changed out the Everyday Easel to put VA TECH pictures in it!
  

Here's what I have coming up:

• I got pregnant in 2005 so I will start my pregnancy album next which will include belly shots, showers & getting ready for bebe layouts
• We went to NYC in the winter for DMB shows & I am putting off deciding if that will need its own album or not until I get through our Summer 2005 pages
• 2006 Family Album
• BabyMoon 2006 - this will take its own album since we were there for 10 days & took approximately 4590 pictures every day
• Arrival of the Fellow & Beyond
• Jen's Girlie Album documenting The Wedding - I have wanted to put together an album that has all the planning pictures & events documented in it that is separate from the wedding. Like showers, trying on dresses, luncheons, the Diva Dinner, etc. This will probably sit on the back burner until I can catch up
• Another GParent's gift for Matias' family
  

Currently, I am back to working on TWO albums at a time :) I like being able to set one aside if I'm not "feeling it" & work on something that has inspired me for some reason at that moment. I find that if I'm bored with my pictures or the events that I don't like the work I do on the LO (industry term for Layouts) so that doesn't make for very good Memory Celebration ;)

I'm having a lot of fun with these albums & really do enjoy doing it - it is rarely "stressful" work for me so that's always refreshing! And since we got the new cutting system blades, I have been making circles & ovals out of record breaking amounts of pictures! Over two days' time, I circled or ovaled over a dozen pictures, were as in the last album (Honeymoon for those keeping track) I probably only did that many total in a gigantic album. And the new paper that I didn't think I would really use (Mod tone on tone), I have been using a LOT of! And I really HEART the new paisley shape maker - I swoon at all things paisley so this is prefect for me :)

OK time to stop blabbering away about this & get back to work!

Things Accomplished Today!

Been a busy productive morning so far:

1. cleaned kitchen
2. sliced up Liam's strawberries & kiwis
3. took care of child
   
4. swept floor
5. cleaned out highchair - then did #4!
6. picked up toys
7. took shower
8. ate breakfast
9. did WorkWork
10. uploaded pictures to order from Snapfish for 2005 album
11. made Target list
12. made this weeks' To Do List
13. day dreamed about moving to NC
14. thought of ways to lure Nana here this weekend
15. procrastinated finishing my laundry by posting this

All Official Like

There's been a change to my acronym. I'm no longer a SAHM. But rather a WAHM!

About a month or so ago, my good girlfriend, Jennifer sent me a very flattering email which included a job offer. One that I really could not refuse. I've joined her team at SPARC (associated with the ARL) to help her in the marketing department, along with advocacy & lobbying for the Association of Research Libraries. As you can see, it's right up my alley & thankfully, Jennifer saw that too.

I work from home. I work my own set hours. I am only contracting at this point. I only work 15 hours a week - or however much work there is for me to do. This week I worked 5 hours but with it being my first week, it was somewhat light. I just deal with Jennifer, so I only need a computer & a phone. No expenses to claim or put out. No commute. No dress code. No time clock.

I get to be a SAHM who WORKS at home. I have been able to work during naps & plan on working after nighttime arrives.

Yes, I'm still doing Creative Memories also. I now have three jobs.

I'm very excited about all of this for various reasons...I get to do something I love, for someone I love, supporting an "industry" I love. I'm earning money - some of which will be put towards a cleaning service since my time during naps will be spent working, not cleaning. I'm using my brain. I'm being useful & needed by someone/something that doesn't require me to change their soiled pants. Do not ever think that I don't like changing the soiled pants but at times I found my mind getting somewhat stale, shall we say, and although I'm no Mensa member, I missed being part of Something that makes a difference outside of my house (for the time being Liam's impact on the World at Large is not so much, that's why I'm home priming him for All Things Great) so this works perfectly for me.

Jennifer is VERY mindful of my intentions & I love her for that. She doesn't want to give me too much to do & her first words over chat the other day were "you didn't drop everything to open excel, did you?" - I'm not sure what more I could ask for. Except maybe one of those MACbooks she speaks of when you are a FTE...

So, I've jumped back into the Library World & I am really truly excited to be back in that field - just seeing all the old school names warms my heart :) Cause I'm a dork like that!

I'm not sure what's going to happen to my Free Time though, we'll just have to wait and see about that one, I suppose.

Procrastination Central

I'm stealing a meme that no one tagged me for but since I'm slightly putting off getting all my stuff gathered up for my Prince William County Moms of Multiples Club (PWCMOMC for short!) vendor & yard sale, I figured I would amuse y'all with 6 Quirks About Me and then insist y'all follow suit...

1) I don't like my food to touch. And if I run out of room on my plate, I'll either get a salad plate for the "spill over" or just eat what I have and go get what I was missing the first plate around. That basically means I don't like casseroles. And buffets can be difficult for me.

2)I cannot handle raw meat.

[wow. these could really turn into Weird Food Issue Quirks...]

3) I only print, I do not know how to write cursive.

4) I don't like making left turns against traffic (no light OR arrow) but even more so I don't like crossing ALL lanes of traffic to cut across. Usually, I will turn right then make a U-turn at the next chance I get.

5) I have to put my right shoe on first. Sometimes I nearly even fall over/lose my balance if I forget and put my left shoe on first.

6) Sometimes I put things on my existing To Do Lists that I've already completed just so I can check them off.

Seriously. I don't cook.

Case in point:

I have this awesome Ruben Dip recipe that is as simple as this - get all 4 of your ingredients & mix them together. Bake for 20 minutes and shove it in your face.

I forgot to drain the sauerkraut. Yeah, don't forgot to drain the sauerkraut. Or if you do forgot to drain the sauerkraut don't wonder why your dip is runny.

I'm a Soccer Wife

And I don't mind one bit. Meow.

Who the?

Looking for a classic picture of Monkey being Monkey, I stumbled upon this gem. This was the first picture Matias took of Felipe & sent to me (on dial up) in NC to tell me he had a new friend over for some ham on the porch. His words were "what do I do with him now?" and I said "name him". Makes us laugh every time we see this picture - how on earth is this the same cat?

Jenny's Lisey's Story

I've been a huge Stephen King fan since my pre-teen years, devouring every one of his books (minus IT), as soon as I can get my little claws on them. With that said, I can usually read one of his books in less than a week and then I get bummed cause I blew through it too quickly & then I am left with nothin'! Until he writes his next one, that is :)

I started reading Lisey's Story on the plane to Creek & finished this 500+ page book over the weekend.

Two things about it -

1. It gave me a nightmare one night. It's the first book since The Shining to have done so.
2. I have incorporated some of the phrases from the two main characters into my every day speech. And it's creeping me the F out. You know how you & your spouse have words & phrases that you use together, that is intimate just between the two of you? Well this book has a good mess of those & I have totally found myself saying them - first it wasn't out loud but in my head & I would stop myself cause that's crazy talk, right? Then I couldn't help myself & have just started using them daily.

You know that this is a sign of fantastic writing when you adopt phrases into your vocabulary but since it's Stephen King we are talking about here, I'm a little weirded out by it. With the whole "horror story" & "love story" mix this novel has going on, I really don't appreciate those words sneaking their way into my brain and putting down roots. Especially since one of the characters is dead (not giving any plot away, that's on the back cover) & talking to his not dead wife (and here's the creepy part) - SHE RESPONDS TO HIM OUT LOUD.

So not only have I adopted this intimate language but it's intimate language between a ghost & his wife in a horror novel.

I just cannot believe that he got into my head that way & has stuck there. Trips me out!

I've crossed The Line

Last night while enjoying a glass of wine outside on my lovely deck, with my lovely husband I said something I would have BET money on that I never, ever would have thought to cross my lips.

"I just cannot get over how fabulous my begonias are looking"

And then the minivan side door slide open, three women wearing sweater sets with pearls, leaped out in their sensible shoes & fabulous Mom Cut hair and handed me my Officially Suburanized Membership Card & invited me to a play date.




(but seriously, the begonias look FABULOUS!)

From Joyceeeee

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Sitting on top of the world with your legs hanging free

Tonight is the first night of GORGE. And we are missing it once again. And we had fantastic seats - 4th & 6th row. Sold them to Nate who was more than gracious about taking them off our hands.

I miss everyone that is there. I wish I could be there with them all. I'm over the moon that we were able to do Creek though - god, how I love that place.

But there's Feathers & The Park & the Venue to contend with at GORGE. Yes, it's always capital letters. GORGE.

And Amanda is there. And I think I need some quiet giggle time with her to set me right sometimes.

I'm sad but am trying not to dwelling cause dwelling doesn't solve shit. It doesn't even salve anything. Hoping this might get it out of my system though.

Two Reasons I'm not talking to Monkey

1. He has learned how to open the screen door with his claws.
2. He walked on the outside of the railings on the veranda this evening & I nearly threw up. Matias grabbed him and brought him back over but then ended the incident by saying "he wanted to jump off"

Someone's not going out front for a while, methinks.

Ever wonder why we call him Monkey?

WhatEVER

I got pissy with Matias the other when he made the following comment/observation:

"You used to read National Geographic now you read Martha Stewart & Parenting magazines. What happened to you?"

Yeah, thank you too, buddy.

Deer Creek!!

Bri made this sign when he worked with the DOT!
I heart this place so much. Thankfully, it will NOT be our last time there - it got taken off the market the day before the shows on Friday! I 1/2 expected the band to walk out & say "see y'all next year WE BOUGHT THE PLACE". Cause I'm a freak like that, what can I say?

The Ugly Cry

I stumbled upon a blog last night through a series of click throughs during my bored pre-bedtime hour & came upon a woman who had given birth 3 month prematurely to boys - one named Ben & one named Liam.

Due to the severity of Liam's brain damage, he passed on. Upon reading that first line, I cried. When I read his name was Liam my heart broke a little, as I sure it does when we stumble upon stories with children who share our own baby's name. I sobbed & sobbed reading their story.

Then she called him lili.

And I couldn't handle it anymore. The ugly cry came & I wept for this teeny, tiny little lili who fought so hard against all odds to stay with his family.

I had never heard anyone else call their Liam "lili" before outside of Matias' family. And yes, I do not like that nickname at all. I've never told Matias because it really is quite petty & not very much worth a conversation. When I read her calling her hurting baby Liam that term of endearment my heart just shattered.

And selfishly, I felt guilty for ever hating that nickname. I felt "survivor's guilt" for still having our healthy, happy, growing lili. It's just a nickname. I knew that all along but I still cringed when hearing it. Now, I cannot get it out of my mind - this other lili.

I read almost every post she had written about her twins - Liam lived for almost two months in the NICU - through surgeries & skin-to-skin therapy, through bottles of pumped breastmilk, through sneezes that amazed the doctors since his brain damage was so severe he shouldn't have been able to make the connections/synapses to put together a sneeze. I watched the videos they had posted of the twins, lying face-to-face in their "nests", touching each other's hands & faces, I watched Liam gurgle & coo defying all odds that he even had the ability to do that.

And I grieved for this woman who would never hold her lili again.

And I felt awful small for every giving a fucking damn about a fucking term of endearment.

Then I went and kissed my Liam while he slept & told him I would see him in the morning.

Some of us are not that lucky.

Lordy.

Matias is outside watering the grass with Liam & the fat kid down the street is also outside playing with Matias.

We call him Master P and when he yells at us for calling him that we call him Wu-Tang. It's the same kid that's in the first videos from taking Liam swimming...

I think Matias is running some sort of racket where he's got the kid actually working on helping him water the grass but the poor Master P thinks it's a game...

This is why I make lists.

I had three of my own loads of laundry to do before we leave tomorrow & I had to wear a skirt today since I had no clean pants, right?

Finished one load, threw the other load in the dryer, put the new load in the washer and walked away.

Ran some work errands & came home to switch the loads again, for the last time & be packed before dinner. Sounds good, right?

I didn't start the dryer. So now, I cannot pack until after dinner & after Liam's asleep for the night & basically right around the time I feel like doing a whole load of nothing.

Bunk Ass IKEA Ghetto Scale

I knew that shit had to be wrong seeing as it had me weighing in at the SAME WEIGHT I was when I went into deliver my ONE YEAR OLD. But then the horrible, horrible thought came creeping in that maybe, just maybe, I had gained back the weight I had managed to lose & was in fact teetering near a very scary number in the scale.

This visit to Camp Carolina I remembered to get on the digital scale & turns out I have just about 7 lbs. to lose to be at my Pre-Pregnancy Weight - not that I even want to stay at that weight but at least I knew I wasn't at my Going to the Hospital to Deliver a Baby Weight still.

So, yes the scale at home is broken. Thankfully.

New Hair, Bad Picture

I got my hair cut & colored on Friday - I know I told Matias about 60256 times that I was doing this but it was just in one ear & out the other so he was quite shocked yesterday when I showed up with rather shortish hair & no more gray!

I got honey highlights & an amber glaze to go with my new Katie Holmes inspired cut :) I "did" it yesterday & it turned out quite well but of course, nowhere near as well as when the stylist did it...

Here's a really bad photo of it - I was sitting on the kitchen floor at my parents, with no flash, taking it of myself with a ONE YEAR OLD (I'm not sure when I'll get over that, fyi) - so maybe you'll get a better idea of it though :)

Not totally insane!

I found my book!!!

It was underneath our bed on Matias' side also with my Body & Soul magazine - it's strange though because it was right on top of the magazine as if it was moved as a unit & not just pushed aside. My magazine was not beside my bed...so although I might be a little tinge of crazy, I don't know how it got there but at least I found it!!

Hitchhikers

Sunflower!

Baby Tomato! [does anyone else think of a joke in a movie when they hear/say "baby tomato"?]

I don't know why this cracks me up the way it does.

But it does.

The following picture comes with a Warning

Do NOT look below if you cannot handle puke of the feline variety.

And also, please note that this is what happens when you are afraid of vomiting & continue to try and "get away from" your own act of puking while still puking

Hence the whole reason I took a picture of Monkey puke in the first place.

Actually this is the second picture of cat puke I've posted here, isn't it? wow. Wonder what that says about me?

Will officially go insane soon.

If I don't find the book I'm reading.

I've been reading We are the Mulvaney for my Mommies Group Book Club & I am LOVING it. I read it every night before turning in & put it back on the floor beside the bed every single night.

Most of the time I take a book up to CT with me if I happen to be reading one at the moment. I remember mentally putting it on my list of Things to Pack but do not recall ever actually packing it. I didn't ever go to read it while we were in CT so I never saw it there. I unpacked the next day & all the bags have been emptied. I went to bed on Monday & wanted to read a little & it was not in its regular beside the bed on the floor spot where it belongs. And I cannot find it anywhere in the house.

It's not under the bed, it's not on any of my dressers or surfaces in the master suite, it's not in any bathrooms, or counter tops throughout the house, it's not in any bags we took with us at all.

It's gone. Just up & vanished. And I really want to read it. And it's driving me even more insane because I just have zero clue as to where it could be. I'm about to email my BIL to see if it's been spotted around the house, even though I'm 99.99% sure I didn't even end up packing it. It's just driving me bonkers. And if you think I could obsess about FIRST birthday cake plates, you should see me when I cannot find something.

Like my checks. My checks that I couldn't find earlier in the night on Monday BEFORE I couldn't find my book. My checks that I remembered the next day Matias was actually the last person to have on his person. And yes, they were in his bag but not my book. damnit. It drives me even more bonkers that I found another "lost" item but now not my book YET.

Cause, people, the only thing I have lost is my sanity.

and Kym, I just might have to borrow your copy just so that I can finish it!

See how my garden grows

After being away from my hitch-hiking sunflowers & my adopted baby tomatoes for 5 days, I'm proud & glad to announce that the hitch-hikers have bloomed and the tomatoes have sprouted!!

How exciting!!

I've grown things! And they haven't died!

I'm also very pleased with myself that I remembered to ask the Babysitter (for the furry ones) to water the plants for us :)

I'll take pictures soon of my new sunflowers and my lone tomato growing on its vine.

Crazy Cat Lady

I would LOVE to do this!

http://www.mr-lee-catcam.de/index.htm

These pictures were orginally discovered in a Globe & Mail article my dad sent me - he just called & asked if I could find the "blog" that was mentioned online so that we could see more pictures.

It's too funny :)

Please note!

Our tomato plant is FLOWERING!

YAY! It's healthy, growing & now flowering :)

5 Things to Get Out of Bed For

Taking the lead from Christina & Shades of Gray...

1. the first cup of Tim Horton's coffee in the morning
2. the hug I get from Liam when he gets into bed with us
3. 2:45 nap time - enough time for a smoke before a Liam-Free General Hospital
4. 2 happy cats who care enough about me to bug the shit out of me (as in not leaving me the hell alone!)
5. watching my plants grow! As opposed to watching my plants die as that is what usually happens

Anyone else?

Putting "Creative" into Creative Memories

Christina was trying to explain why she does not attempt anything "creative" with her photos & I started to write a novel in her comments about how I was the same way when I started scrapbooking...and I thought I would share my experience here!

Kym can attest to this since it was at her house that I got introduced to CM - I WOULD NOT CUT MY OWN PICTURES. I made the consultant do it for me. It hurt me to 'deface' them, pictures are very valuable to me & I thought I was 'hurting' them by cropping them. It took me a while to get over. But get over it, I did!

Also, I am NOT creative artsy. My sister got the drawing & imagination talent in the family. I have a few "guidelines" that I live by in my albums.

1) use all the pictures that mean something to ME - maybe it doesn't mean something to everyone but the story that goes along with it is important to our family history

2) I find a central theme & color in the pictures I'm putting on a page & I go with that.

3) Don't try & be something you aren't. I'm NOT going to be all creative & go crazy with the adorable ribbons & brads & glitters & other amazing stuff that is out there. My pages include paper, stickers, titles (sometimes hand written & sometimes with stickers) and journaling to tell the story of the pictures & to document who is in them. That's what is important to me. I can 'dress up' the page but sometimes I really think it becomes more about the 'dressing up' than it does about the pictures. And the pictures are WHY I'm doing this.

My albums/pages have gotten better/more creative as the years have passed & I would really only encourage someone to do something within their comfort zone - even if it's not MY comfort zone! I have a customer who makes AMAZING pages but it's way too much for me to tackle. It would take me weeks to finish anything (and sometimes it takes her a long time) and I would stress myself out over it. I find that the pages I get the most compliments on are the ones that I thought were 'missing' something or that I didn't do a good enough job on it...strange...

I have one customer who wants to go back and REDO entire albums because she doesn't like that they aren't as "good" as her current ones - but to me that just reflects how far she has come in her hobby & I think it's a fantastic testament to the thought, care & work she has put into her albums. I wouldn't go back and redo anything - it's all a learning process - you can look at the size of my first album compared to my recent ones & WOW - those albums are TINY. But now, I'm more 'skilled' at what I'm doing or the products have improved or I've taken some risks and done new things...I think that's so much fun to go back and see that! Imagine if you went back and re-colored pages in your coloring books because as you got older you colored better? I think it's so precious to see how you have grown & the lessons you have learned from your 'learning' years.

I could go on and on about Creative Memories & scrapbooking in general. But the bottom line is - it's for you & you need to do what you feel comfortable with! If that means digital albums versus "traditional" scrapbooking then that is what it means! If it means less snazzy pages because you don't love paper or stickers the way I do, then that's reflecting YOU & not what others are doing! The one thing I cannot stop repeating though is you did not take all these wonderful, expressive, personal pictures to put them in a box under your bed OR leave them as files lost on your computer. Celebrate them! Show them off! Showcase who you are!

San Jose House

Our house in San Jose - the new front is now stone & the house has been painted this blue-ish shade. Not much else is different, I have a few more shots from when we continued around the corner! This was taken last April when we went out to CA for our BabyMoon - my first visit back to CA since 97 (!) and my first visit back to the house since my parent's left in 93!

Reason #4903683695- to love DMB

Received from them this afternoon:

We have been disturbed by the stories that continue to surface about the medical care being received by our returning servicemen and women. Supporting our troops entails providing them with the complete, timely and excellent care for injuries they sustained during their military service, at the very least. Providing this care is a moral obligation for our nation and should be our highest priority at home. For further information and to read the petition that we will ultimately send to the Secretary of Defense and members of Congress, click here.

We hope you will join us in encouraging the Secretary of Defense and members of Congress to report on medical care benefits for US Veterans of War.

Ms. Mys

And just so you don't think I've forgotten or been neglecting my Kids the Cats - here's some proof!

Mystic LOVES going outside & spending her time under the stairs - this is not the greatest picture but proof nonetheless that we still have the cats & they are not being ignored :)

Green Thumb!

So far I have not killed anything ESPECIALLY our new TOMATO plants!!

The petunias are doing the best - as well as the hitchhiking Sunflowers (due to the bird feeder) getting a free ride in my pots and being watered subsequently. [wow that was a big word this early in the morning!]




Sorry the one of the tomatoes is so fuzzy...

NEW Patio Furniture!!

Our new patio furniture just ROCKS. We love it. We spend so much time outside now on the deck because of it. Just love it!

We didnt' have the umbrella at this point but it's HUGE & rectangular so it covers just about all of the deck & our mornings out there are just fabulous.

Come on over & we'll have coffee :)

All at once the ghost come back....

Hey!

Did y'all know that I clean when I'm pissed off??

This house is going to be sparkling today!!!

Comments!

I didn't realize comments were not open to the public, non-blogger users...that has been changed!

Let the commenting begin!!

Wowzers

I got my bathing suit yesterday & it's a keeper but my "baby" boobs also seem to be here to stay as well!

I'm not a very big fan, no pun intended, of the large boobs & I tend to wear clothes that don't really let y'all know that they might be bigger than they appear (like car mirrors!!) but you really cannot get away with that in a plunging bathing suit. WOW.

And also? The other day I had a pre-pregnancy fitted tank on & it FIT yet The Girls were just about resting on my [second] chin. I didn't feel quite comfortable going to the pediatrician with The Girls hanging out so I changed BUT I *think* I mightcould get away with it out on Date Night...which we don't ever have so I suppose I will not be wearing that shirt again ;)

And if it's not TMI on top of the already confessed TMI - for the record I am wearing my mom's bras that she has handed down to me - usually for comfort reasons. So yeah. the boobs. wow.

#34

Photo Sharing - Upload Video - Video Sharing - Share Photos

Treating Myself

I've had a shitty past couple of days & to make up for that I ordered myself a new bathing suit & pair of shoes :)

Both from LOFT with a 15% coupon and FREE shipping - don't you love that word "FREE"??

It's a one piece suit & it costs less than even the suits, I've glanced at at Target - it's this gorgeous burnt umber color with a mosaic-ish pattern on it. The shoes are almost wedges that Matias picked out in the store but they didn't have my size there but online they did :)

I never treat myself [anymore] & I really needed a little pick me up [so go ahead, pick me up] (yes, only my mom will get that joke...) so I did!

shit.

I just remembered that I was going to switch back to 1% milk after I stopped breastfeeding & that was how many months ago?

damnit.

Flowers!

My biggest pot with some flowers I cannot remember the name of & Petunias!

My flower box with the same cannot remember name flowers & Begonias! These are the ones who committed Mass Suicide...

Another larger pot with only 3 of the cannot remember names of flowers in it - I think I'm going to get some more little guys to put in there!

My mom also got me GARDENING GLOVES for Mother's Day ;) She's also bringing us 3 tiny little tomato plants when they visit in two weeks for Huey & Tony Bennett!

I got a lovely pink geranium for the front to go with the red one - it was only $5 at the Farmer's Market! I want to transfer those into nicer, bigger containers & get them out of the store ones they came in...

We also have sunflower seeds to plant for Liam & I maybe have to replant the Mass Suiciders since I don't think I replanted them with enough soil.

States I've Visited

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

I don't know why you cannot see the entire map when it's published BUT I've been to 45% of the states :)

Stolen

I copied Nikki's lead & got myself some Catster badges of my kiddies :)

Mid-Hork

This is Mystic mid-hork. Nice positioning, eh?

And you may ask yourself...

....how did I get here?

So after Jen visited yesterday, I found myself mulling over my totally suburban lifestyle. When asked what we were doing this weekend I answered "getting a lawnmower" & Jennifer, who lives & works in DC proper, slightly grinned at me I'm sure wondering "when on earth did this happen?"

After getting a freezer for our garage, a lawnmower for our front AND backyard, flower box planting & patio furniture shopping I started asking myself that same question. We've quickly become Suburbanized. And it's hitting me like a ton of bricks. I don't mind, all that much, but it is quite a shock & I do not doubt that we would NOT be doing ALL of this if it weren't for Liam.

I love it though. I really do. It's just amazing how quickly you Grow Up once you have a baby. Pretty stupid thing to realize, right? Stupid but interesting in a sociological sort of way. I'm my own test case.

And I think & write all of this while I'm making Liam's spinach - fresh from the Farmer's Market & glorious in its Freshness.

When on earth DID this happen to me? I won't be running out to buy any gardening shoes or a kneeling mat because I don't think I've crossed over that far BUT I also love the time we are spending as family, with Liam in his backpack helping Daddy clean up the yard, & it makes me want to MORE.

Now, THAT'S a fur ball!

That is what I brushed off of ONE side of Monkey the other night & yes, that is a CD case that it is sitting upon!

Things I Did Last Weekend!

I was very busy & got a lot of good stuff done so I thought I would virtually pat myself on the back :)

Besides CDN taxes I also got the following done:

• went to Lowes & bought a freezer for the garage - hopefully Matias won't bring a whole cow home or something!
• bought PLANTS TO POT! My Very First Time ever potting anything! Then on Monday they committed mass suicide so I had to repot them - they seem to be doing ok though
• Cleaned the entire house (minus our bedroom)
• Got all ready for my Memoranza on Sunday
• Sunday I held my Memoranza and completed about 15 pages (!) of our Honeymoon album & also completed a whole other album (cannot talk about it since it is a surprise)
• Organized a mess load of photos in my Memory Manager software then realized I was running it off of my C Drive & was now running low on disk space. Whoops. If I transfer it (need help from CM for that) to my D Drive I will not have that problem as I have 12 gigs of space on there & only 200 MB left on the other. Whoops.
• Printed off pictures of Liam after editing them myself in my Memory Manager software (LOVE IT!) for his frames that go in his room. I changed them all to black & white & cropped a bunch of them so that the picture was more "Liam Centric" but still a 4x6!
• I think somewhere in there I made Liam's apples...still haven't taken them out of the ice trays yet though...kind of waiting for room to clear up after Matias takes Our Food out of there & transfers it to the new freezer!

This weekend we have fun stuff on tap also :)

• My good girlfriend, Jennifer, whom I worked with at ASP is coming over tomorrow afternoon with her little girl so we can catch up :) YAY!!
• Matias has a soccer game at 4pm
• We are going to the Farmer's Market in Old Town to get some veggies for Liam Fellow & MEAT for us :) There's an organic farm that brings beef & another local farm that brings lamb, chicken, eggs, cheese...so we are very excited to go do that tomorrow morning!
• We are going to start composting (thanks Nikki!) *soon* - we picked out the spot out back, now we need to get the materials at the local hardware store (Lowes doesn't carry composting kits so BOO HISS to them) & get composting

I also got Liam's 9 Month Updates all ready to go out now I just need the pictures cut & they will be dropped in the mail :)

You don't say!

Quote from Condi Rice when asked about being "snubbed" by the Iranian leader at the Summit dinner last night:

I'm not given to chasing anyone"

I think Bin Laden would agree ;)

My Dad

My dad is funny in the way that he clips out articles for me & sends them along...

the latest one I got was about warming up your car on cold mornings & more exactly why you do NOT have to do it anymore. The reason he sent this one along was so that I could alert my neighbors about it so that they might stop doing it for an hour starting at 6am & waking our entire household up. Well, to be clearer, waking them & Liam up since we are in the back of the house, we dont hear shit :)

Think I should make copies & tape it to the mailbox?

Lumpy

Why is it that the yogurt Matias/we get at Whole Foods is ALWAYS LUMPY but when Matias/we get it at GIANT it is not?!!?

Me no likey lumpy yogurt. It does not matter how much you stir it up (little darlin'...) it remains lumpy!

I ROCK!

FINALLY finished my CDN taxes!! And I don't owe anything, I actually am getting a refund!

This is happy news because when I used online software to calculate my taxes "they" royally screwed it up & had me OWING over $1200! On only 7 months of employment! I nearly had another birth story to write up, but this one would have included a cow!

My dad was helping me out very much but I didn't have the time to sit down and get it re-done. He had found a few glaring errors that needed correcting...last night I sat down at 10:30pm to redo them...and the SOFTWARE SUCKS ASS.

I finally gave up & asked for help as I was only making my balance owed LARGER by trying to correct my mistakes. Matias & my dad hovered over me & tried to figure out what *I* was doing wrong - ahem - it was NOT me, it was the software not being able to handle my "non-resident + CDN income - no foreign taxable income" status. We went through the forms manually after printing them all out (really need a REAL printer) & decided at 1am to go to bed & finish it up for real, by hand, with a calculator & a pen.

As soon as Liam went down for his nap, I started going through all 15 pages of it - complete with Schedule A, Schedule 10 & Schedule 1 forms (can I get a WTF?) - and FOUND THE SOFTWARE'S ERROR! I was so excited I celebrated with a cigarette & a call to my dad (who is driving to Cary right now...) to tell him I found their goddamn error!

I know you are dying to know what it was - not only did they tax my CDN income BUT they also "claimed" that I had foreign income that needed to be taxed & collected on behalf of the CDN government! Income that I DO NOT HAVE! And nowhere in the software was I EVER asked/prompted/given the option to add any foreign income! BASTARDS! And since the software doesn't supply you with all the various Schedules & Forms to complete/punch in your numbers there was NO WAY TO CHANGE IT! We could NOT figure out where they were getting this number from - but the math genius that I am figured it out - of course I figured it out by READING but still, I figured it out nonetheless!

Take that stupidstupid software fuckers!

Just so you know

I can sit here and blog all night while listening/watching DMB. I can blather on about just about anything they do, say, look, touch, move, gesture.

"well I am swimming in your seas & in your oceans"

also, Matias has mentioned to me in a very cute, subtle Matias way that he "misses" having me around him in his office space/basement. We would normally always be together, listening to music, talking about music, bothering each other about this that & the other but now that my office is upstairs that has not been happening...sometimes we just sit on the veranda (front porch) and talk it all out but without the soundtrack of Our Life playing behind us & we both miss that.

and to quote Dave from earlier in the show (I had to write it on a post it note & stick it to my monitor) during Pig - "just look for love in here - no more hate"

Favorite New Song - REALLY LATE!

I only went to 3 shows last summer, 1 pregnant & two in CVille - not too shabby but we didnt really become too familiar with the "new" songs live. But discussing it tonight & now watching it on a nice bootleg DVD, I can say that The Idea of You is my favorite.

Sittin on my front stair
Waiting for you, sit
Step off the bus again and again
When I was in my head
The way that I don’t care, hey
But you got me feelin’ like a kid
I’m not really that way
So I’m not gonna pull your hair

I fall so hard inside the idea of you
That’s why with you can say what I mean
Wanna stay but I believe
God get me out of here
I fall so hard inside the idea of you

Oh and drunk oh me
Oh
I’ve got you up again
Tell you what you can, I say
I wish I was a king and you were my queen
It’d be ok all the way back then
But oh I’m not your kid
So I’m not gonna kick you in the shins

I fall so hard inside the idea of you
That’s why with you can say what I mean
Wanna stay but I believe
God get me out of here
I fall so hard inside the idea of you

Hope that you can
Bus stop
Just a kid but swear I’m thinking
Wash my mouth out with the table water
I know it’s wrong of me but I can’t stop
My head oh
Oh, Oh, Yea, Yea, Yea

Now, yea
I fall so hard inside the idea of you
That’s why with you can say what I mean
Wanna stay but I believe
God get me out of here
I fall so hard inside the idea of you

and fucking god bless Rashawn. I REALLY just want to take him home in my pocket & have him be my pet.

I think this song is really Pure not "clean" pure but Innocent & True Pure and that's what really attracts me to it. The sing-song way the words and music flow just force a smile upon my face & I always instantly grab for Matias' hand when I hear this song. It makes me want to hold hands, you know? Some other songs make you want to do "other things" but this song is just so sweet and pure, I just want to lie back on the grass on a nice spring day and hold hands.

oh lord, Crash just came on. For some reason Matias started calling me every time this song came on when we were apart...now it's kind of our Thing...and plus it's one of the only songs I can sing to Liam without having the music playing...

...lost for you, I'm so lost for you...

Rings a bell

I was reading the Washington Post's article about the VA Tech shooter's family response when I tripped upon a familiar name - Wade Smith - he is their lawyer from Raleigh. The name immediately struck a cord with me & I started wondering aloud how I knew him. I thought maybe he was John Edwards' partner or something like that until I googled him.

He was the lawyer in the Fatal Vision trial. And I recognized him by name. From a decades old murder that I have a mild fascination with, to say the least.

Matias just laughed at me when I finally figured it out.

Amazing, if I do say so myself

I took this picture from the CAR while stopped at a red light.

Shocker!

**NEWSFLASH**

I AM WEARING A PAIR OF PRE-PREGNANCY CAPRIS IN MY OLD SIZE RIGHT NOW!!!

You have no idea how excited I am - esp. since I'm not only wearing them but they arent killing me!!

CELEBRATE!

You know what else I love?

I love LISTS. Love making them, crossing them off, tidying them up, typing them up, blogging about them, typing them so I can blog about them...ANYTHING. i HEART lists.

I have a notebook that I carry around with me, now it basically lives on my desk though, that is just ALL LISTS.

Here's a sampling of my lists in my List Notebook.

• Foods Liam can eat at 8 months old
• Bills due each month
• Target
• Things I need to stock up on at Bath & Body
• What size clothes Liam is a different stores
• Who gets pictures & cards lists
• Things I want to blog about
• a For Liam List with things such as the type of stroller we want or baby gates
• Books I want

Then on my monitor I use a Post-It note for a WEEKLY To Do List & once I cross enough things off, I can make another one :)

What's on that list right now:

• order cat food
• CDN taxes
• Dad - tools- reminder email
• Dr. appt - Liam - 9 mos
• Journal Storybook for G. Grandma

THEN if I have an "event" that will take up more than a Post-It note worth of space, I have a little pad of paper that I use for my larger lists - you saw that one earlier with My Things To Do Before G. Grandma Comes List.

And I do NOT throw out these notebooks. Oh heavens, no. I file them away. And choosing my next one is always a hard decision for me because I need some specific qualifications to be met...

• spiral bound - since I'm a Lefty I need to be able to fold it over to write properly
• lined
• hard enough cover so that it "with stands" the pressure & stress I will put it under
• LOOKS. Hardly the last thing on the list but usually the RIGHT ONE will make itself known to me rather quickly so it's usually not an issue.
  

Friday Five - Saturday Morning Edition

1. favorite cereal and why? Honey Nut Cheerios - I'm not a real big cereal eater but I will have a bowl every now & then as a "filler"

2. what is the best thing about summer? Outside! And I'm hoping the pool! And yes, of course, Flip Flops!

3. would you rather have a slurpee or a milkshake? depends...BUT I think I've had more milkshakes in the past year than slurpees so...chocolate milkshake from In & Out it is! I'm bummed that Five Guys does not offer the shakes, or else I would get them from there :)

4. If you could be a member of any band/musical group, past or present, what band would it be and why? alrighty, easy one! DMB, I would be a Lovely Lady or cowbell player extraordinarie! Also, I would have loved to sing back up with Buffet OR Gladys Knight on Midnight Train to Georgia - move over Pips!

5. Who is your idol? What are they famous for? "idol" is a tough word...BUT mainly authors fall into this category for me - Douglas Coupland, Toni Morrison, Louise Edrich...to name a few...then my geeky side says Deep Throat & Woodward & Bernstein :)

I REALLY have Issues

**Edited** I'm going to go through & mark off what's been accomplished.


I had to put Make a To Do List on my To Do List. Since my grandma & Aunt are coming for Easter we have to have the place in Master Guest Order, you know, so I have this list of missives that we HAVE TO get done. And I had to write myself a note to write the list down. I'm such a dork. Or would that be geek? Tough call.

And cause I know you are dying to see my To Do List here it is without further ado! Please note that M = Matias & J= Jen

1. Clean fridge - M (he makes the mess he can clean it)
2. Put snowmen away - J (yeah that's all me. but we had snow last weekend.)
3. Winter dishes away - J (see above "excuse")
4. Vacuum ENTIRE house - M (not just the bloody stairs)
5. Dust all rooms - J (be sure to do this before M does #4)
6. Clean bathrooms - J (although I should get M to clean that disgusting sticky spot all men leave on the seat...TMI?)
   
7. Clean kitchen - J (seriously, I want it done right...)
8. Basement CLEANED - M (all his)
9. Baseboards dusted - J (you start spending as much time on the floor as I have lately & you begin to notice things you never noticed before)
10. Pictures hung - M (because MY LORD we moved in here last MAY, hang the bloody pictures ALREADY)
11. Walls cleaned - M (if you counted every time M ran into a wall with something you totally should NOT run into a new WHITE wall with, you would have to count really high.)
12. Clean floors - J (Two Words - Hard & Wood)
13. Laundry - J (Liam Laundry & Mommy Laundry - which, of course, also includes our linens and towels which we BOTH USE but only ON OF US EVER CLEANS THEM)
    

Things I Love

I've got a blasted headache which is in turn making me cranky so in an attempt to lift my spirits without lifting any Spirits I'm going to ramble on about Things I Love. Is that ok with you?!?!!? Heh.

1. My friendship with Christina - we have this strange, powerful connection that keeps bringing us together, regardless of the distance or length of time we've been apart. Before they trekked out for our wedding, I hadnt seen her since 93! And even then we ran into each other at the mall while I was getting my Timberlands for my Paris adventure...
2. Amanda. This girl is SO bright & SO full of "good things". She got a 4.0 GPA for her college career. Only good things are coming her way! Especially her first trip to EUROPE!
3. The health of Mystic & Monkey - Mystic is pushing 14 1/2 years & Monkey turns FIVE next month! They are my Boyfriend & my Protector & I love them to death.
4. My mom. She's my best friend. And I love spending time with her & Liam.
5. My husband. For caring about the safety of our child & not fighting me on lowering his mattress or getting baby gates and for being excited about clothes shopping for our son.
6. Spring. Goes without saying, I suppose
7. My car. I do love my car. And she just got a buttload of repairs done on her & now she's running puurrrfectly.
   

The Spiders have hatched.

And they are EVERYWHERE. Matias had one crawl right across his mousepad. I just found one on myself while I was on the phone with my mom & I started screaming and swatting it away. It landed on the couch NEXT TO LIAM & I continued to scream with my mom telling me to stop screaming that I would freak Liam out...so I was screaming "where did it go?" and "shut up" alternatively. Until I killed it on the couch & crumpled it up in a PB Teen catalog page & tossed it outside...where its dead, rotting evil ass belongs.

I feel like I need to take a shower now. All I can feel is shit crawling on me.

Things that Annoy Me

These things just get under my skin & I know there's no changing them/him but yet they still bother :) And for the record...these sorts of "things" have ALWAYS bothered me.

1. leaving cabinets open any amount - how hard is it to shut it completely?
2. leaving the shower door open about an inch every single time - how hard is it to shut it completely?
3. not putting things back where you got them - like books, screwdrivers, etc
4. not throwing things out but instead placing them 1/2" away from the garbage can
5. not answering the house phone EVER
   

I'm so excited!

I finally finished my 2003 album!!

I have already organized, digitally, our Honeymoon pictures & ordered the first 1/2 of the trip! I have a Crop on Saturday here for the DCMMScrapClub group that I am a moderator for so I'm very excited to have NEW pictures to crop for a NEW album!

I'm going to use the Cottage Power Palette for a good number of the pages using the Idea Book that comes with the set & I'm also REALLY excited about using new products :)

And you know, after organizing & choosing the prints to go in the album I saw how happy & how much fun we were having & it made me smile.

THEN, I'm going to do a NYC album for our 2005 trip with my mom, sister & Aunt to see DMB and every corner of that city! THEN, I'm going to do a Babymoon album of our wonderful trip to Tahoe with my parents & my brother's family in 2006. THEN, in between all of this, I'm going to start Liam's album - there is SO much fantastic new stuff out for baby & little boy/little girl from Creative Memories that I cannot sit on it any longer, I need to break it out & start playing with it ASAP! THEN, I will start working on my pregnancy album which will cover 2005 in its entirety and of course 1/2 of 2006.

Actually I havent worked out those specifics as of yet because I just dont know how to organize a pregnancy that happened in Nov & a birth that happened in July with my general organizational process of doing a YEARLY album...I'll work that out when I come to it but I'm trying to eliminate "issues" by doing a separate NYC & Babymoon albums...

Watch it, I'm on a roll

Only 9 months later & I just unpacked the four boxes that got putstuffed into our bedroom closet.

That leaves only ONE box to unpack. And for some reason that's been sitting in the dining room & I think it's my snow globes.

At least I know where I'm going to put them, which honestly has been a huge part of the not unpacking them issue...cause why unpack them if I have no clue where I'm going to put them?

Did that convince you? cause it sure as hell worked for me.

Good thing we are staying here another year.

In other boring home news, I bought some new baskets (5 set for $11.99 at AC Moore) for Liam's "things"...new book basket, new basket for his farm blocks, new basket for his dirty bibs, new basket for his little things lying around & new basket for his toys that live in front of the fireplace...starting to feel organized about keeping that stuff under control too.

But, I really like that our bedroom is feeling more "homey" even though it's only been a couple of hours, I liked the vibe I got when I just walked in a few minutes ago...cozy, warm, welcoming...

And I also added my purse lamp to our guest bathroom/Liam's bathroom & Matias went in there (he hates that lamp) and I could hear the TSK from the other room. Oh well, I think it's really cute & it adds a little something to that bathroom that is just so boring and dull. But I'm to blame for that since I have not done anything to it at all beyond get the brown towels I wanted.

I added a few things to the guest room too...and I have further plans for that also with stuff from around the house...and I honestly, just now, got another AWESOME idea for that room! YAY!

I'm finally going to put my snowmen away - even though we still have some snow on the ground, I'm getting a little tired of looking at 'em ;) Plus, I have my Easter stuff to pull out - for Liam's sake, of course!

And lord, speaking of Easter stuff - even after my horrible Valentine's Day Card debacle, I could NOT resist the $1 bin of stamps at the craft store. So, I bought two for St. Patrick's Day & I am still brainstorming through ideas for them, although it's basically a done deal since the stamps are making it so easy to create an easy layout. RIGHT. Plus, I have green ink I need to use. RIGHT?

Snow Day!

Weather.com is STILL saying that we are only getting an inch of snow but I'm staring out my window at about 2 inches at the moment & it's HEAVY, THICK snow. I also watched my neighbor across the street spin out approximately 54037 times just trying to back into her drive way. Why she was trying to do that is anyone's guess...she actually went up and into the grass divider between her house & her neighbors...and then sideways about 10 times before just leaving her car where it sat in the drive. It's always fun to watch the people on our street try and get out when they should not be trying...

I'm just happy we own a shovel now! Turns out we might need that snow blower, mom. HA!

Liam LOVED watching the snow fall this morning & I think we are going to try and take him out in it if it stays this nice and fluffy.

I had to go on and cancel my Crop because I would not want anyone driving in this. My meeting got cancelled for tonight also because of the weather, I'm bummed to cause I was really looking forward to it with all the new products and things going on! So I'm going to try and get some pages completed today - I'm so close to finishing this album I can almost taste it!

Another MEME to get the Jen Juices flowing

(title not intended to sound as dirty as it came out)

Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole , put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of.

1. +The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. +Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. +To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
4. +Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9. Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
11. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Rowling)
12. +Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
15. +Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden)
16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
17. *Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
18. +The Stand (Stephen King) - read both the edited & unedited
19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. +Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
22. +The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
23. +Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. +Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. +East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Tuesdays with Morries (Mitch Albom)
31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
34. +1984 (Orwell)
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
36. The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. *The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
38. +I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
42. +The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
45. Bible
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt) - read half, got bored
49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
50. +She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
55. +The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
56. *The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. +The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
64. +Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
65. +Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. +One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
68. +Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
69. +Les Miserables (Hugo)
70. +The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)
71. +Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. +Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez)
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
76. *The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay)
77. *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. +Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
81. *Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
82.+ Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
83. +Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
84. *Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
86. +Watership Down(Richard Adams) This was the first book I made Matias read when I discovered his lacking library
87. +Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. *Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. +Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. +The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
100. Ulysses (James Joyce)