Lush Period Piece

Sunday. Long Day. Pretty productive, though not at home. We needed to get out of here for a while. BADLY. With the weather being cool again and windy, the kids are dying to get outside. They started asking to "go bye bye" as soon as they woke up.

We got dressed and headed to Peru for some lunch at McDonald's. I thought the kids were going to explode with excitement at the site of it. Oh how they miss their beloved MCD's. We can't wait until the new one gets built in Princeton!

Then we went to Menard's and returned our broken rake. No one there seemed to know what to do or be able to make a decision. They kept passing me off onto someone else, asking them to make the decision if I could exchange it. Finally I just went back to the service desk with a replacement rake and told them that I had found the replacement and wanted to exchange it and they just took the broken one and I walked out. Simple. Eventually. Once I made the decision for them. Everyone important was out to lunch, (bah.) We happened across hooded towels on clearance for $6, which is a steal. Ardyn picked a puppy and Marek picked a lion. So $12 at Menard's and a new rake. Then to JoAnn for some white thread, which I was nearly out of. And I snuck in couple of 50% off Easter basket stuffers and got a half off licensed fleece throw kit, as Marek is outgrowing his John Deere fleece rapidly.

Then we came home and took a late nap. The kids were exhausted and I was too, needed a quiet break from their constant chitter chattering. Tonight Evan brought home Ardyn's request for Taco Pizza and we all ate and watched a movie together. It was nice. We just put the kids to bed and carried a cattle tank down to the basement for the chicks to move into. The darn thing is so cold from being outside, that I have the heater running INSIDE of it, to warm it up before transferring the chicks, so I don't freeze them to death. They are really really getting big! I have taken some photos. They are flying all around (well, like 6 inches off the ground) and the largest one is getting nice and tall, and not only does he? have magnificent little wings now, but also a tail coming in! Exciting!

I am watching another "B" movie. Well, I have found several lately that have been really good. I tend to look for period pieces, historical fiction, or anything that is English :) Tonight I am watching "An Education" and so far it's entertaining. The co-star was born in Illinois :)

Last night I watched "Heartbreaker" which is the subtitled version of the French L'arnacoeur. It was awesome. I LOVED it. Even subtitled. I didn't KNOW it was subtitled when I started it, and had every intention of NOT watching it, but it was really good from the get-go, so I just had to stick to it. I also watched FAME (the remake) which was also awesome. I am just trying to tide myself over till April when the next Masterpiece Theater starts. :) I LOOOOVE Masterpiece Theater. I think if I ever donate to a cause it will be PBS. I adore PBS.

An Education is about a high school girl in the 1960's who is 16 and hopefully heading to Oxford, who meets an older man, like out of college, and somehow her parents either don't see them as romantically involved, or just think him trustworthy, because they let him take her out to cultured events. He has money, and a sportscar, and convinces her parents to let him take her somewhere for the weekend (!) and.... that's what I am watching. He turns out to be in a questionable profession and she has to overlook or accept that in order to be with him and a part of his cultured life. In P.E. She sneaks off with her friends behind a tree to share Russian cigarettes bought in Paris, where he will supposedly be whisking her off to on her 17th Birthday.

It's not a to die for movie, but good enough to keep me from pausing it so far to go check the chicks :) Oh yeah, better check the chicks!

Okay, chicks transferred to their new home! I also raised the light up since it has been a week or so, but I am thinking I might have to raise it higher because the walls of this are so much higher, and metal, that I think it might retain the heat more, and it might be warmer in there than previously. I let Boyd come down after I had transferred them. This time he was really really interested in them. Sniff sniff... and lip licking. LOTS of lip licking. This will be an interesting journey!

OMG This movie just took a serious turn. I don't know WHY I didn't see it coming. wow. Her parents didn't see it coming either. LOL.

Hmmm. Have you noticed I seem to have nothing of any significance or importance to say tonight? Well. I guess Happy Spring Break to so many of you, and I will write more tomorrow if something noteworthy comes to mind. Perhaps I will start "Young Victoria." Since it is described as a "lush period piece" I am sure it will be right up my alley.

Happy New Year!

Hey Everybody! Happy New Year! The kids and I had a GREAT night, despite being without Daddy. The band thing can really be bittersweet sometimes. I couldn't be married to a real Rock Star. That would really suck. No amount of money can replace having your spouse (or daddy) with you, especially for a holiday. We did leave home and head to Jo-Ann Fabrics before they closed to get a tiny bit of fleece (it was all on sale and we had coupons) and then on to the Mall to return a couple of pair of slippers that we received as Christmas Gifts. They were Buster Browns and Stride Rite, and both of them started to fall apart on Christmas DAY (yes, the quality of things these days is really frustrating!) We ended up getting a knock-off pillow pet at Marshall's for $12.99, then enjoying dinner at Jimmy John's (Kids Choice, and Mommy's too!) and then we went back to the mall for the 7:15 showing of Yogi Bear. This was Marek's first ever movie in the theater, and my first time taking both kids by myself... and to a bigger theater nonetheless! It was exciting and went great. There were only TWO downsides. 1. The place was packed and there were many people who weren't paying attention at all and I think I said "Excuse us" Nicely about 100 times before I started to say "Please excuse us, we need to get through" You can't walk single file with a toddler on each side, it doesn't work. People can be very rude when it comes to this. Not to mention that I wasn't about to loose a child in the shuffle (although I almost lost Ardyn once because no one would move and I had to let go of her hand for a second and she went the other way.)

So the second problem? The movie. It was BAD. I rarely say a movie was BAD but this one, was BAD. Poor Yogi and Boo Boo seemed to be absent from WAY to many scenes. There was more bad acting by humans and a lot of boring crappy plot to go along with it. It was a serious injustice to Yogi. I have never been in a theater with that many people looking so bored. I have only left a movie theater once in my life, and I was dying to leave. The kids did amazingly well. Ardyn was a bit restless and a couple of times she asked if it was time to go (which has never happened before, and her first movie was a human/animated Alvin and The Chipmunks Squeakuel. The best part of the movie was a fast paced rescue scene towards the end, but when there was about 10 minutes left in the movie everyone was like "yeah yeah" and was putting on their coats ready to leave. Seriously, the whole movie should have held attention like that 15 minutes towards the end did. It was seriously slow and disappointing. Yogi and Boo Boo were so cute, but the movie didn't even seem to be about them, and they were absent from about 50% of the film, which was frustrating.

So, not the best first movie experience for Marek, but it was still nice to be together, and he sat through the whole thing... so I can't imagine how excited he will be for Cars 2. There were lots of great previews, including The Smurf Movie and HOP (which you have to check out if you haven't seen a preview. The kids are gonna love this one, and Mom and Dad too!) The kids were dancing in the theater and it was all I could do to not scream "Whoo Hoo!" right along with it. The website is cute too, and since there isn't much plot info from the teaser trailer, you can see more there. And no mother will be upset to sit through another CGI movie with James Marsden. :)

Father's Day.

Sunday. Father's Day. The day before the cleaning people come and I have to race around the house and pick shit up. Ugh.

Let's start with Friday night, which I anticipated I would spend at home. I ended up going to Mineral to watch my sister LIz play softball for the Michlig Ag team and then the Dawg House team showed up so I got to talk to people from the hometown (my current hometown) which was nice. Had a hot dog. Then after the game mom and I were at my house and we got the totes of baby clothes out and decided what that I have could be considered unisex and what is "girl" specific. We sorted all of the 0-3 months clothes into two clothes baskets, one that I can wash right now and one that she will take with her and not wash until the baby is born and we are SURE it's a girl. After 4 ultrasounds it's still a girl, so that is a good thing.

Saturday morning we had to get up early and go to prepared childbirth classes. I am really glad that we went but I have to say I was frustrated that it seems everyone but me thinks it's a better idea to have an epidural the second your water breaks than to try out labor and try relaxation techniques and waterbirth and hypnobirthing and see if you can do without. But I guess that's to be expected.

For lunch on Saturday we got to come back to Wyanet to the Community Club cookout at the locker. My hamburger seemed smallish, and I could have ate three, but I will chalk that up to the fact that I am pregnant and that all food seems small, and to the fact that I REALLY wanted a hot dog but told myself that two meals in a row consisting of hot dog weren't the best option. Although now that I think of it, Friday night I ended up eating half of a small Casey's Veggie pizza because the hot dog didn't do shit for me. LOL.

Saturday afternoon Evan suggested that I take a bath. Not because I was stinky but because I haven't had one in almost a month, because I have had to take showers. I enjoyed the bath immensely, and re-read a pregnancy buyer's guide. Then we got ready and went to Peru, where we saw the movie "knocked up" with Katherine Heigel. It was EXCELLENT and Evan commented afterwards that he went into it prepared for a chick flick but thought that it was awesome and would recommend it to anyone, and that it was really true to life... what with the dealing with becoming a parent and learning to sacrifice for your wife and children. We laughed so hard at lots of things in the movie, and I cried of course about 10 times, because that's what hormones do. I even cried during childbirth class. I don't know what makes me cry more, seeing the baby finally born or seeing the dad support the mom in delivery. SO anyway I used all the napkins from the popcorn to sop up the tears through the movie.

Then we ran to Target because there were a few things that I wanted to add to the baby registry that you can't add online, like baby spoons and bibs and some blankets and such. We bought some stuff that I had coupons for, diaper rash cream, baby lotion, a pack of 4 pink and white burp cloths. Evan got scanner happy and was looking at toys for a toddler, but I had to stop him and remind him that this is a BABY registry. Of course I wanted to add the "Happiest Baby on the Block" DVD to the registry, and although they have it online, you can't add it to your baby registry. WTF? and of course they didn't have it in store for me to add either. Damn. I know there's the book but I have read enough books and I want something that stressed out new parents can just pop into the DVD Player. I ended up calling Target for help adding the damn DVD.

What really pissed me off, was that I scroll through the 15 toll free numbers on their website to find the exact number that I am supposed to call for Gift Registries, and then dial it, and then I have to go through a 5 option menu and gift registries aren't even an OPTION on that menu, so I have to wait on hold for a person that then tells me that I need to be transferred to the gift registry department.. and then I get to a guy who barely speaks ENGLISH and keeps trying to walk me through accessing a number that doesn't exist and it very quickly becomes clear to me that I know more about Target's website than he does. ARGH. But in the end, the DVD couldn't get added to the registry because it's an AMAZON item and not a Target item. Whatever. They sholdn't be affiliated at all if they can't make it work. Bastards.

So after at the end of our Target trip last night I was having this really annoying pain in my upper belly, and I kept rubbing and rubbing it and Evan keeps asking if I am okay, and I tell him I am but that it hurts, and that when we get home I am drinking some water an lying down. When we got home, he felt the spot where it hurt and was insantly freaked out by the knot that you could feel there, and that knot has been there all week. I assume that it's an internal organ of mine that's squished, and Evan says "I thought you told me that lump didn't HURT!?" and I said "it didn't hurt until now" and so I ended up lying down in bed at 9pm, watching the last hour of Pirates of the Caribbean on cable, until I fell asleep at about 10pm and slept till 11am today. So. 13 hours of sleep later I am feeling much more refreshed. SO I talked to mom on the phone, took a long bath, and then proceeded to lie on the couch in my underwear and with a towel on my head and continue reading my book (Nicholas Sparks "A Bend in the Road") until Evan got up from what he called "the great Father's Day sleep-in."

Now he is getting me food because I am STARVING and I need energy to sustain me so that I can pick up the mess around here and get organized. I just don't have the energy to accomplish right now, so I guess I will go back to reading my book.

This and That

Let me start by saying that today was a freaking AWESOME Mail day. But I still have to take pictures of everything, so just wait another day or so and I will have photos to show.

I received a box from my friend Carrie in Utah, with new pictures of her kids, a pregnancy book that she is passing on to me and we will circulate... a baby CD's and some Green Day CD's that I have been coveting, AND a green gingham crib sheet.

I received a suprise box from a family friend Wanda, and it was LOADED with adorable puppy things for the baby. 2 board books, TONS of blankets she made, and changing pad type blankies, all with puppies. There was a stuffed dog, scrapbooking supplies that have puppies on them, an Adrorable outfit with bibs and hat (dogs too!) for 12 months.... and a cute cute tag blanket. I was so super excited that I couldn't even hardly stop squealing while I opened it.

I also got my lavender swap from shecraftz, and she sent the cutest little lavender booties for the baby, that are all fuzzy and have pawprints on the bottom, and tons of other great stuff like baby announcements and bracelets that she had made, and fibers... plus a great little note.

So the mail was Fabulous today! Yeah!!

Besides that, it's nicer, still cool but sunny. It's also Friday, and even though it's Friday the 13th, I am feeling pretty ok. I slept like a rock last night, only waking up at 7am.... not even ONCE through the night.

Yesterday at work one of the lactation consultants gave me the American Academy of Breastfeeding Book, and I was reading it silly last night. We also watched The Departed, which was excellent. I have to say Leonardo DiCaprio was EXCELLENT. As the pregnant one, what I really wanted to happen was DiCaprio's Character gets the girl and gets to reveal who he really is and they live happily ever after and make babies.... but that's just not edgy enough. LOL. It was really good. The night before last, we watched The Prestige with Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, and Michael Cane. It was also a very good movie. Two Magicians who become rivals and spend the rest of their lives trying to outdo and destroy each other. It was good. Evan and I were hashing out twists and turns almost till the very end.

Let's see, what else? Oh yes, my poor husband is finally getting to be as busy or busier than me! Including him in all the Dr. Appointments, Ultrasounds, and other appointments child related has been nice. I don't feel so stressed out like I have to handle everything. The key is to get him involved from day 1, so he doesn't have to come to me for all the answers. In the next few weeks we meet the daycare provider and the pediatrician, and then we take a CPR Class that includes infant and child CPR. We also have another appointment with the midwife next week. So there's plenty going on. Also keeping him busy around home, helping with dishes and laundry, etc.

Well, everyone have a great weekend!