A long story short

It's been a while...I know. Visitors, illnesses and just general busyness has kept me away. So I thought I might try to get back into your good graces with a super long post about really nothing at all. We are all good. Henry is enormous....his hair is just as blond and poofy as can be and it seems to attract attention wherever we go. Wade is good. Building some cool stuff with recycled wood, including an art easel for Henry. He has become quite a painter. In fact, at school when other kids are working on their stations Henry will almost always ask to paint. We have some beautiful art around here now :) Wade has also been busy doing design work for the school's 5K/10K run. The Easter bunny brought WAY too much candy to our house this year and I have been doing a terrible job of staying away from it. I've also been staying busy with my normal activities--sewing, cooking, watching movies, reading, staring at cupcake cookbooks for hours...and coming up with schemes to start a cupcake shop/bakery in downtown Lawrence. Believe it or not it's coming along much easier than I anticipated. So we'll see...

Tonight I had an urge for Chinese food but I can't actually get Chinese food because A) Not vegan B) I can't feed that stuff to my child and feel good about it (that reminds me of a funny story. Henry and I went to the park last night to work off the slice of pizza the size of our face we ate for dinner. A little girl whose mother was sitting on the park bench on the cell phone (happens every time I go to the park) latched on to us and began to play. Henry and I were pretending to drive the firetruck to a fire. The little girl hopped into the drivers seat and Henry asked "Where is the fire?" "McDonald's!" she yelled. She pretended to drive to McDonald's. Then my friend that was with us asked "where is the fire?" "At Old McDonald's" Henry said. And then he started singing the song. My child thinks McDonald's is a farm with a cow (moo moo) and not a fast food restaurant. You have no idea how happy this makes me. Back to Chinese food...) C) MSG gives me a headache. So I decided to make my own spring rolls tonight and boy where they fantastic. I combined two recipes and did a little improvising (I am terrible at following recipes) to include the food we already had at home. I used tofu, carrots, cabbage, red bell peppers and green onions. Yum. It started like this

And ended like thisWhat else? I bought 2 yards of this fabric last weekend so that I can attempt to make a purse from my Amy Butler book. I would like to buy this instead and save myself the time, but I just can't justify spending that much on something that I will probably ruin in a few months. I also bought some of this and this to make more pillows. It's getting a little insane with the pillows around here. Pretty soon my husband is going to make me start selling them.

What else??? Well, against my better judgment I joined facebook. I have caught up with a few really good friends that I haven't heard from in years, which is great. But I have been also tracked down by some people that I haven't heard from in years and really prefer it that way. Facebook is a weird experience for me and I don't know how long I will stay on it. Besides I hear that twittering is all the rage these days. Always a day late and a dollar short... :) I tried to take a photo of myself for my facebook page so I went into the bathroom and did this. Eye closed. Camera in my face. Why am I an idiot?

Oh and I almost forgot. I took #'s 1, 9, 13 and 18 off my list. I still have a long way to go, but I will knock #'s 2, 5, 6, 8 and 10 off this summer. And if I could only convince Wade that this is worth $45 (it SO is...for my birthday...) I could work a little on #22.

Hope you all are doing well.

Oh...and these are for Lisa (pay no attention to the insanely messy house) I thought you might appreciate that one of us has the attention span for yoga :) ---

5 things I actually did this weekend

1. Got vomited on twice (Henry says it best "Sometimes you just have to yak")
2. Made doggie treats for Bagel and Archie
3. Called my sisters a million times
4. Played a lot of High Ho Cherry'O, Memory, Geo Tracks, pretend grocery store and wrote out a lot of letters for Henry to mail to his "fwends" (so watch your mail, we wrote letters and drew pictures until we ran out of stamps).
5. Not 1-5 below

But on a positive note. When Henry is sick he goes to bed at 7:00 instead of 9:30. So I get to watch the KU game for the first time since last March. On a not so positive note, I am watching it alone because Wade is the bathroom puking. Good times.

5 Things to do this weekend

1. Go to the grocery store and spend NO MORE than $100.00
2. Update my facebook profile (it’s looking pretty shabby compared to my sisters)
3. Finish painting and recovering my dining room chairs
4. Make 2 more pillows (and then I am done…I swear)
5. Make pumpkin bread and cinnamon rolls

What are you up to

Tiny

I was one of the parent helpers today and Henry’s preschool. It was so fun to spend the morning with such a sweet group of kiddos. And I really loved getting a glimpse into what Henry’s mornings are like there. The place has so many windows, the natural light alone is enough to make me smile. I love that someone always brings fresh flowers and that they have a bin for recycling and a bin for composting. Walls covered in kids paintings and drawings and a table covered in glitter and paint splatters and shelves of art supplies and a huge papier-mâché globe hanging above the tiny tables with tiny red chairs and the sounds of kids playing and laughing. And the snippets of conversations that I overheard-
Ben- I am working on this leeky oil pipe.
Henry- Me too. I have a tool.
Ben- Don’t worry. Oil is not explosive, just flammable.
Henry- I will not worry. I don’t mind if it is fwamable. Smelly stuff doesn’t bother me. I have cats.
It's a special place.

Someone had put a quote on the window over the sink. I read it as I cleaned a million tiny, colorful, plastic cups and pitchers. It was something like this-

“The world needs worthwhile people. To make that happen we need people that feel worthwhile.”

I’m flubbing it up, but it was something like that. And I thought for a while about the mission of the school, building character and confidence for these sweet kiddos so that they can go on to be everything that they want to be in life. And I thought about the mission of a parent. Raising a child that believes in himself. That challenges himself. That is loving and kind and sensitive. That understands that he is part of a community and contributes and gives of himself. It all, for that moment, seemed wrapped up nicely in that quote. We are all worthwhile, whether we recognize it or not. As a parent it is my job to make sure that my child recognizes it. And in that room, at that time, the heaviness of that responsibility didn’t bother me at all. I guess maybe that is what happens when you are part of a community, supporting each other with a common goal. Or maybe that just happens when you love someone so much that all you see is the promise and possibility. Either way, it felt really good.

Check it

I was telling my friend Kenna about our experience having Henry at the hospital. I mentioned that we are going to try as hard as we can to have our next baby without intervention, possibly at home, hopefully with a midwife. She brought me this movie. http://www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com/ It was fantastic. I recommend it to anyone who is pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant. I have strong opinions about it because of my experience with Henry’s birth so I won’t say much except that it is so important that as a woman giving birth that you exercise your power in the birthing process and at most hospitals it will be an uphill battle. Kenna got it from our local library.

Happy Valentines Day

I went a little crazy making pillows this weekend

They made a great house for Henry's buddies :)

A Few Highlights

I gave-
* An apron with matching dishtowels (I used Heather Bailey fabric that I have been hoping to find a project to use it on)
* PJ Pants for my sister that will wear clothes until they fall apart (something I noticed over Thanksgiving when I spotted her in PJ’s from 1997)
* Pillows for Kelly’s red bed (I got to use my Anna Maria Horner Fabric that I have been saving for the perfect project)
* The Office Season 1. My BIL got all the seasons of The Office this Christmas. Just goes to show if you say you like something around my family, be prepared to get everything related to it for the next 2 years.
* A glittery KU tshirt and a book about a library cat.
* A drum kit for a tiny dude that loves to make noise.
* Books on CD and a stereo just the right size for Hanky’s tiny paws

I got-
* An orange Kitchen Aid mixer.
* A new purse. Which looks way sturdier than my last one.
* A month of free babysitting
* Peppermint soap

I thought about-
* How much better Christmas is when you get to be Santa Claus
* Henry could use a playmate
* That I need more Christmas decorations in my house
* Next year I am going to start earlier
* That Christmas isn’t the same without Annie
* Making 2009 cards since I didn’t around to sending Christmas cards this year
* How much I appreciate the effort my Mom makes every year

I made-
* Lots of cookies
* Cupcakes (of course!)
* Chex mix
* Gifts for almost everyone


P.S. I got an A- in Organic Chemistry 622. I almost passed out when I saw my grade card.

LOVE THIS

I thought it was ice. Henry thought it was balloons. It's water bottles.

Rough~

Hi guys. I am sorry I have been such a bad blogger lately. I have been swamped. Organic Chem, additional duties at work and a VERY busy little boy have taken up every minute of my day. But I am still working out (going on 5 months, only 28 pounds lost though) and I have found a little bit of time to do a few Christmas crafts, like this wreath. Last year I made this wreath and I already have an idea for next year. Looks like it may become a tradition.

We are doing homemade gifts this year for Christmas and I have so many ideas but not enough time. In the new Martha Stewart Living she has instructions on knitting fingerless mittens, which is something I think Wade would really like and looks like a pretty easy project. And I really wanted to make a granny square blanket like this for Henry but I think the odds of me completing a project like that in a week are pretty slim. But for now, I have to stop daydreaming about all the things I would like to be doing and get back to the things I have to do...like studying. Send me all your smart vibes and then maybe in January I will send you some fingerless mittens :)

New finds

I love the internet. It makes it so much easier to add to my silly collections.

Thrilling

I have followed Obama ever since I heard his speech at the Democratic convention in 2004. I really fell head over heels for him when I saw this photo in TIME. When other senator's have so many houses they cannot even remember how many they have (11) Obama wears

shoes with holes in the sole. I have high hopes for him as President of the United States and am so proud to have been a part of electing such a thoughtful and intelligent person to such an important position. Quite honestly, I laugh-cried all of Tuesday evening and most of Wednesday...and I am still smiling.

Ground Hog?

You can't tell from this picture but what you are looking at here is a ground hog the size of a 30 pound cat who has been living in a hole on the south side of our house. Now that I am looking at this picture I realize that what I really should have taken a photo of, or better yet a video of, was Wade roaming the neighborhood for over an hour with a huge Tupperware container and a broom handle chasing this guy. Now that was funny.

Today

Don’t eat the candy. Don’t eat the candy. This is what I have been telling myself all day and, frankly, it’s only working because I have a phobia of eating food out of the same bag that I have seen other people put their hands in and because the candy machine by my desk has crappy candy and I am too lazy to walk downstairs. I am not sure why I do this to myself. Wake up at 6 am, run for 50 minutes-cussing in my head the whole time about how much this sucks and how is it possible that my weekends fly past me like lightening but this one minute that I have been running high resistance/high incline feels like it has somehow lasted 6 months, come to work and eat a small breakfast, small lunch, have a piece of fruit for a snack and a handful of nuts, and by 4 pm I am drinking buckets of water and gallons of green tea trying to curb the hunger pain until finally I cave in and eat something that doesn’t really taste that good and pretty much negates a good 30 minutes of my morning workout. Afterwards I think to myself, Idiot you could have slept another half hour and not even gone to the gym if you just could stop yourself from eating that. And it doesn’t help that I am on my period right now and so bloated I look like I am 6 months along. Honestly, I am surprised no one has asked my due date.
According to the program I use to track my weight loss I have lost 18.6 pounds. Of course that it total rubbish because for my starting weight on the program I used my Mom’s scale which is always at least 5 pounds heavier than my scale which I used to get my most recent number. 13.6 is probably more like it. And you couldn’t tell it to look at me. Especially now with the water baby I am carrying. But I am not going to give up. I need to figure out something to do to curb my appetite a little and give my brain some relief from the constant “feed me” messages coming up from my stomach. And I probably need to start lifting weights. I know that I should be doing sit ups. I tried to get up from lying on my back the other day and looked like an upside-down bug-my arms flailing around rocking back and forth. After Wade helped me up I taught Henry to sing “Oh where oh where have my stomach muscles gone, oh where oh where can they be?” Yeah, that’s probably going to screw him up at preschool.
The characters I run into in the locker room every day at least keep that part of my morning workout interesting. There is the 40 something year old naked lady that insists on not putting on either her top or her bottoms while doing her hair and makeup. She has tried to make conversation with me twice now, both times while only wearing a small towel on her bottom half. I am sure she thought that I was insane because I barely blinked I was trying so hard to maintain eye contact. Then there is the 60+ year old woman that smells like cat litter and fried food and she comes in with more jewelry on then Lil Jon and her athletic pants pulled up to her armpits. Today I had to deal with two phobia’s—bare feet on gym floor and drains. I never let my feet touch the floor at the gym. I will put my pants on balancing on one leg for 10 minutes if it takes that long (sometimes I don’t dry off enough and have to deal with sticky legs) in order to avoid putting my bare foot on the floor. But actually now that I think about it pretty much any part of my body touching the floor grosses me out a little. I don’t even like for my shower/gym floor flip-flops to touch my sweat covered clothes. Well, today I forgot my flip-flops. I had a choice-shower barefoot or go to work covered in sweat. I almost chose the latter but then my sister Susie suggested that I keep my socks on. Which brings me to my second phobia-drains. I hate drains. I hate to clean them, I hate to touch them, just looking at them gives me the shivers. Especially if they are rusty, have any hair or any other kind of slimy stuff in them and if they are constantly under water. At the pool I will do just about anything to avoid the drain, including not swimming. So today in the gym, stocking feet and all, I went into my shower stall and turned on the water. I didn’t look at the drain, I try not to so I don’t get grossed out. The socks on my feet kept me from feeling the hair/water. The water that was all the way up to my ankles before I noticed it. A huge wad of hair, partially attached to the drain, blocking the water from draining out of the shower and partially wrapped around my foot. I yelped and ran out of the shower: wet, naked, except for socks of course, and with shampoo dripping down my back. Naked lady stared at me and she did not try to maintain eye contact. I think I might have to start going to the gym at a different time.

No complaints

We went to a beautiful wedding this weekend. It was raining and in the woods so some people complained but I didn’t really mind too much. My feet got dirty and I regretted wearing a favorite pair of heals, but it seemed like a small price to pay to be able to sit under the canopy and listen to the raindrops hit the leaves above us. The groom, my cousin Shawn, just bought the property this year. 20 acres with hills and woods and creeks. Wade and I barely spoke all evening, you know how weddings go, but when we did it was always “did you see that?” or “Oh I love this.” It was pretty much our dream setting. Henry played and got completely covered in mud and just had the best time. He is a kid that would do well in the country- boundless energy and an inspired imagination and a constant desire to help out…yeah, he just might be a country kid. Although, I learned in June that he is also a beach kid and I am pretty sure that he could be a big city kid, if given the chance, so I think the future looks pretty bright no matter what path our family takes.
Since our vacation we have been fairly one track minded---move to the beach—move to the beach—but our time in the country reminded us that maybe our focus is off. Maybe there is something that Lawrence could offer us that might keep us here. 20 acres of rolling prairie, yellow and purple wildflowers and the sound of raindrops on maple trees might just do it. The thing about Lawrence is that it is loaded with potential and I do think our family could thrive here. Most people are open and friendly. There are spaces that we could fill individually in this community; unique qualities and talents that we both possess that would be lost in a larger setting. And compared to the places we would like to move it is pretty inexpensive and we already have a house and decent jobs. My parents are close and there is something to be said for being in the middle of the country—everything in the US is just a few hours away on a plane. Besides, the affordability of Lawrence will make it so that we can travel more and see more beaches. Something we maybe could not do if we lived somewhere more expensive. It’s a major shift in our plan but the moment that we both realized it I could feel a calmness come over us, followed by hours of excitedly making plans. Living in the moment and being okay with where we are feels pretty amazing.

On Sunday we took a drive with the windows down to the sunflower field out North of town. The beauty of this time of year captivated me almost the whole trip and what was supposed to be a few minutes for husband and wife to chat more about our new plan, turned into a quiet confirmation for both of us that being here in this moment, in this town, with our little house and our little man, it’s pretty spectacular and it is where we need to be. True, there is no ocean. But there is a sea of yellow flowers out North. There is a field of orange pumpkins to the East. There is a hill with grazing cattle to the South and a purple and pink sunset to the West. And time moves here. From tank tops to sweaters. From sweaters to scarves and mittens. From mittens to raincoats. From raincoats to swimsuits and around and around again. I love feeling the passage of time in nature. I don’t know if I can honestly imagine my life without it.

Other bright spots in my weekend- we found out that my cousin Sean is coming home from Iraq early. End of October/early November. I got to spend Saturday morning getting a pedicure with Annie and we talked when we were supposed to be relaxing and laughed out loud when we should have been quiet and I had hoped we would do that because that is what we do and there are some things that I don’t ever want to change. I already have more to tell. Her visit was too short.

I'm not ashamed

I saw Mamma Mia tonight and loved it. Yes, I admit, I loved it. When it comes out on video I will probably have to buy it and sneak it into my house because Wade has forbidden it. Before I left for the movie I even had to promise that I wouldn't sing any ABBA songs for at least 2 days which is obivously so totally impossible.

Henry and I are moving to Greece to own a hotel on the water with Merryl Streep and Colin Firth. Wade can come too but he has to agree to wear a lot of sequins and randomly break into song at least 5 times a day.

Happy on a Saturday

I've been on the waiting list for the Audacity of Hope at our library for over a month now. Then yesterday, out of frustration I went to the State of Kansas Library online site to see if maybe they had it in KC or Topeka and discovered that I could download the spoken word version of it for free at any time. And there are thousands of other books that you can do the same thing with. If your in Kansas go here, if you are in another state do a google search. All you need is a library card. I'm beyond thrilled...8 hours at a computer every day....so many books...I'm so excited. Now, if I could only find a scratch and stiff sticker that smells like a library book....

Disclaimer

The post that I did about blaming the Olympics and the Chinese people for my laziness was a joke. I wrote it without even considering that anyone might actually take me seriously. If anything I figured people would read it as a compliment-"Hey your putting on such an amazing show that I haven't gotten off my couch for a week..." And I just assumed that anyone who knows me would know that I just being silly. But, I was thinking this morning that I should probably not assume that everyone that reads my blog knows me...and I don't ever want to say anything that might be offensive to any group of people or inadvertently represent myself as a person that is bigoted-something I consider to be totally despicable and unacceptable. And truthfully I have never filtered myself in that way because that kind of thinking has never been something that even crossed my mind. So, when I wrote that post I just wrote it lightheartedly, to make people laugh, the idea that someone might read it as something else was not even in my thoughts and now that I have thought about it, it turns my stomach. So apologize if I offended anyone with that post and want you all to know that I take full responsibility for my laziness. That is unless I can find a way to blame it on that Phelps kid. ;)

Hello 31. I’m so glad you’re here

31 things to do in my 31st year

1. Learn to cable knit
2. Visit Jason and Mandy
3. Make a collage every week
4. Write in a journal
5. Plant a vegetable garden and can extra veggies
6. Take a photography class at the Art Center
7. Do a painting with wade for outside our back door
8. Go on another road trip, maybe even back to the beach
9. Make weekly deposits in Henry’s college fund
10. Plant 2 trees
11. Send my sisters care packages
12. Spend the night at the circle S with Wade
13. Make a Christmas gift for each family member
14. Send birthday and Christmas cards to all my family and friends
15. Use my swim cap
16. Compost
17. Plant blubs in the fall
18. Make a new friend.
19. Record my parents telling a few of their favorite childhood stories
20. Learn how to screen print
21. Take Henry sledding
22. Brush up on my World Geography
23. Read 3 classics and 3 new authors
24. Sell some cupcakes
25. Get back into my size 8’s
26. Take Henry to see a waterfall
27. Take 2 classes at KU
28. Make lunches for all three of us every morning
29. Learn to make wheat bread, tamales, pita, and a really good pizza dough
30. Get 8 hours of sleep every night!
31. Buy a bike with a basket to ride with Wade and Henry (Henry is getting a bike trailer for his birthday…shhh…)

Blue

The verdict is in and by an overwhelming majority (11-1, sorry Babe) the blue table won. I’ll need to get more paint but I will post photos as soon as I can. Let’s hope it looks cheery and fun and not tacky and crazy :) Thanks for your input guys!