HBO is not good for people over 50

My parents were at my house the other day and I overheard my dad ask my mom something. She responded with "Most def."

I told my brother about this and he told me that he had been over for dinner one night and the words "You need to get up in this here rice." had been uttered.

My parents aren't allowed to watch The Wire any more.

Halloween overload

Let me just say that Joseph can throw one hell of a Halloween party.

Yes, the party was a big success. To wrangle eight kids we had six adults (me, Jesse, my parents and two moms who stayed during the party) and I don't think we could have managed with even one less adult. My parents did a lot of the "behind the scenes" stuff like getting games ready and cleaning up after each activity. Jesse and I ran the games and activities and the two moms jumped in whenever needed. It all went really, really well.

The kids really seemed to like the cookie decorating and the pumpkin decorating. I'm sure their parents loved having them come home with their Halloween costumes covered in glitter glue and frosting too. We got very lukcy with the weather because it ended up being such a nice day that we were able to do a lot of the games outside.

The most important thing was that Joseph seemed to really enjoy himself. I think he really got a big kick out of playing host for his very first party. He's already talking about doing it again next year. We'll see what my parents think about that idea. (Thank you again mom and dad for all that you did for the party. The food, the decorating, the dressing up, the fact that you allowed eight 7 year olds loose in your house - it all meant a lot to all of us.)

Other Halloween activites so far have included:
My dad and I taking the kids to a Halloween carnival where they ended up with (and I am not exaggertaing here) a grocery bag full of prizes.

My dad and I taking the kids Trick or Treating at the college where he works. Kids get to walk through the dorms and students pass out candy and ohhhh and ahhh over the costumes. Joseph's Harry Potter costume was a huge hit. Everyone thought Elle was Eeyore. Not a single person knew that she was Stitch. Also, she refused to say "Trick or treat" and instead opted for "I want some!". But both kids always remembered to say thank you.

Upcoming Halloween events include:
My parents taking the kids to a local grocery story that puts on a big Halloween party. There's trick or treating, a cookie walk (whatever the hell that is) and more.

Actual trick or treating on Halloween. My mom and I will be taking the kids to my grandmother's apartment complex. We figure it's better than wandering around our increasingly yucky neighborhood and praying that we don't stumble across a meth lab. Plus, we already have 8 million pounds of candy and at this point trick or treating on Halloween is more of a formality than anything else.

Man, when did Halloween become a two week event? I'm beat already. I better go have some candy.

I love you, don't touch me

I am not a touchy-feely person. I am a person who highly values her personal space. I enjoy the occasional hug or kiss or pat on the back but for the most part I really prefer that people not touch me.* I guess this probably has something to do with my upbringing. My parents were very loving but we were never a very physically demonstrative family. When I was a kid there were hugs and kisses goodnight but by the time I was a teenager that had stopped and there wasn't really a lot of physical affection. I don't mean any of this as a criticism, it's simply not the way our family operated. My parents showed us that they loved us in a million ways. Physical affection just wasn't really one of them.** Maybe it's our gruff, stoic German blood.

The point is that even under the very best of circumstances I just don't really like physical contact. I have found that when I'm pregnant it's even worse. I really don't want anyone touching me ever, at all. Even Jesse has to back off when I'm pregnant. I don't know if it's a hormone that's doing it or the fact that I feel so huge and bloated or if it's something else all together. Whatever it is, I just know that when I'm pregnant I'm really uncomfortable with any physical contact that I don't initiate. Jesse (who is much more touchy-feely than me) can attest to this. Often if I'm upset about something he'll try to make me hug him to ...... I don't know, make me feel better I guess. Almost invariably all this does is make me more upset. Which begs the question, why does he keep doing it?

So if you see me in the next 7 or 8 months and I appear to pull away from you don't take it personally. It's not that I don't like you. It's that I cannot stand the thought of you touching me.

*The exception to this rule is with my kids. I could live very happily with my children permanently affixed to me. I love snuggling my babies. They can often be seen squirming to get away from me as I squeeze and cuddle them.

**After thinking about this I remembered that there are pictures of Ben and I snuggled up to my mom and dad as they read books to us. When I read the Little House books to Joseph I can so clearly remember my mom reading them to me. I would snuggle up next to her and my hair would still be wet from my bath. I would lean up against her and my hair would make a wet spot on her shirt. Every book she would read would sound even better when I listened to it with my head leaning on her chest. I could hear her voice normally in one ear and in the other I could feel it rumble and vibrate through her chest and into my ear. If I close my eyes and think back I can still "hear" it. It's a really powerful memory. Every child should have someone read to them like that.

That's my boy

My mom just called me from Disneyland. Or rather, the hotel near Disneyland that they are staying at. Joseph had such a bad melt down that my mom had to take him out of the park. Do you get that? My mom had to take Joseph out of Disneyland. If you know my mom and know how patient and understanding she is with Joseph then you know how crazy that is. She said he screamed all the way out of the park. I'm sympathetic because I've been there, done that. I know how those meltdowns can be. It's rough. I'm glad I wasn't the one dealing with this one.

Joseph is taking a nap now and we're keeping our fingers crossed that he'll do better when he wakes up. We'll see!

Update! I just talked to Joseph on the phone. He doesn't really seem to see what the big deal was. He's worried that everyone is being (in his words) too hard on him. Sigh. That kid.

I'm beat

My mom came over today and we cleaned like crazy. Well, she cleaned like crazy, I got stressed and broke out in hives. And we got to do more tomorrow! I'm not complaining though because the house looks awesome.

Just a few days left before we leave for Florida! Yippee! And I haven't started getting ready at all. If I know me I'll put off packing until Saturday and then not get any sleep that night because I'm so worried that I forgot something. I am limitless in my awesomeness. I am limited in my spelling ability though......

That's good irony

Yesterday was mine and Jesse's 6th anniversary. Thank you for a wonderful 6 years sweetie, I love you!

We had a very nice time having dinner and seeing Beauty and the Beast at the Chanhassen dinner theater. The show was almost as good as the gaint piece of cake that we split for dessert. We had really good seats too, right in the center in the second row up.

The only sad thing about yesterday was that my fingers have swollen up all of the sudden and I had to take of my wedding ring. It was turning my finger blue and I was barely able to get it off. My stretch marks and ever-widening bottom don't bother me but I was really sad to have to take my wedding ring off. The good news is that I have my grandma's wedding ring to wear and it's quite a bit bigger than mine so it fits me for now. I hope my fingers won't swell up too much more since they already look like big puffy sausages to me. Oh well, all the better to match my ankles I guess.

Mom and Dad brought over a handmade shelf and three pictures frames for the baby's room. They are so cute! We hung the shelf on the wall over the changing table and mom gave me some pails filled with baby stuff (like diaper cream) to put on it. Fun! It's really starting to look like a baby's room. I guess that's a good thing since I'm due in just 8 weeks. Ack!

A few more things

We're able to check a few more things off our Need To Do / Need To Buy list this weekend. We got the changing table from Bill and Pam into the baby's room and it fits perfectly. Judy came on Monday and got us a crib matress, a baby sling/carrier and some other odds and ends. (She also got Joseph a SpongeBob Matchbox car set that he has not stopped playing with all day.) SO now we're doing ok, I feel like we're pretty much on track.

Mom also came over this weekend and helped (as in, did it all) clean the living room and Joseph's room. It was awesome. Well, it still is because we've all been working on keeping it neat. That's the trick, just don't let it get bad in the first place. I just need to keep telling myself to not let the little things slid or else they turn into not so little messes.

So what's new with the baby? She weighs about 3 pounds now and is about 15 inches long. That's what the experts say anway. Given how I can feel her stretch out I think she's built more like a giraffe. A really strong giraffe. The baby is also aware of light and dark and can even smell really strong smells and that's a concept so strange to me that I can't even wrap my head around it.

I can't believe that I only have 10 weeks to go. Ack!

Fun Mom memories

I meant to post this yesterday in honor of Mother's Day but I got distracted by other things. Here are a couple of fun memories I have of my mom.

1- One time Mom was making chocolate chip cookies and she made a special one for me. At that time I got home from school before Ben so I was the only one to get one. It was probably twice the size of a regualr cookie by in my distorted childhood memory the thing is as big as a pizza. She told me not to tell Ben I got the big cookie and when he got home his "special cookie" was a tiny one about half the size of a regular cookie. It was awesome. I'm sure I was able to not tell Ben for about 3 seconds.

2- Once Mom told Ben and I to dress up in some "fancy" clothes from our dress-up box. She then put a bad sheet on the table to make it into a "restaurant". Then she put out lettuce and salad stuff like a salad bar so we could fix our own salad. The best part was that she made up "menus" with all the leftovers in the house written on them so that we could order whatever we wanted. This is one of my most vivid memories from childhood. I even remember the color of the sheets that were used on the table and salad bar.

3- When we were living in the trailer park Mom came home from work one night and woke Ben and I up. She had a suprise for us, plastic Pac-Man mugs! The pictures on them changed when you moved them around. As young as I must have been at the time I remember that night so clearly. We were so excited, I can picture Ben bouncing around on his bed. I think we thought those mugs were the best things ever and it was made extra-fun because we were woken up to get them.

4- On our family trip to Disney World we went to eat after a long day of theme-parking. We were all kind of slap-happy and everything seemed extra funny for some reason. We were reading triva questions that were on the table and one of them was to name all 7 of the dwarfs. My mom's strategy was to just quickly try to copy whatever anyone else said regardless of if it made sense or not. This is hard to explain but to this day I get a chuckle when I picture her trying to look serious and counting off on her fingers "Sleepy, Dopey, ok, Sneezy, Sleepy, Doc, Right" and including "Ok" and "Right" in her count.

5- During a visit to some theme park in California (I think) we rode on some cheesy ride where you went "back in time!". The ride started with this scientist yelling at you to get away from the time machine and that you were going "back in time!". We got stuck there for about 2 minutes and when the ride started up again Mom gave the animatronic scientist the finger. We all laughed for the rest of the ride.

6- This is not one specific event but it has to do with the face my mom makes when she tries to do something like cross her eyes or roll her tounge or wiggle her ears. No matter what she's trying to do she makes the exact same face! Then she says "I"m doing it! Am I doing it?" but really all she's doing is half closing her eyes and pursing up her lips. It always kills me. I love my mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom! Thank you for everything you've done for me. Thank you most of all for showing me by example how to be a good mother so that I could do the same with Joseph. I love you!

14 weeks

I'm 14 weeks pregnant today.

I have been feeling pretty good this past week but the last day or so have been kind of rough. I was actually getting muscle cramps in my abdomen today from throwing up so hard. I was feeling a little better later and I was able to eat this afternoon. This has to end soon, right?

I met with the case worker from the school Joseph would be going to kindergarten at today. He was really nice and answered a lot of questions that I had. I'm going to hold off on registering Joseph for school for a few days though. His pre-school teacher is going to try to find out about the K teachers Joseph could have. We both agree that he would do better with a certain kind of teacher. One who's firm but not so firm that they can't be flexible with Joseph's needs. Anyway, once she's gotten some info for me I'm going to go ahead and register him.

Mom came over today and helped me clean, clean, clean. It's always nice to have someone come and help organize. Sometimes you just don't know where to start with stuff when you're right in the middle of it but someone else can help figure out where to put things or how to turn one huge, unmanagable projects into a bunch of small, do-able ones. Anyway, that was nice and we got a lot done. She's going to come again next Monday and work on Joseph's room and playroom with me while he's at school. It's impossible to get rid of anything while he's around so it can really only be done when he's at school.

That's all for now, we're late for Joseph's Monday night class!