7 weeks

I am very busy these days. Guitar Hero is taking up most of my time as is my friend Tanya that is visiting me from Arizona. I am a day late on my week 7 tummy pics but here you go! Uhhhhhhh, yeah I definitely got bigger this week. My stomach muscles are no match for my stretching uterus apparently. Hooray for third pregnancies. The good news is that I don't have terrible morning sickness yet. I wont consider myself out of the clear until next week though. I sort of wish I did feel sicker though. It makes me think something might be wrong with the baby because my symptoms aren't as strong this time around. My baby this week is as big as a BB pellet. How cute! My belly on the other hand...not so cute.





I can't find my original outfit so I am wearing paint stained shorts and a different workout shirt.

Christmas traditions...

In my little family, we are learning to make our own traditions. The last few Christmas Eves, we go out to dinner, drive around and look at Christmas lights, then tuck in the kids. Once they are tucked, then Jeff shakes jingle bells under their windows.

wellll.....last night there was a slight hiccup in the plans. After dinner, we were driving around and Kennen piped up from the back seat, "I want to go home now!"

"We will soon buddy...hey look at the snowman!"

"Uhhhhhh, my belly hurts!"

....huh...huh.....huuuuuuuuuuuurl! Blech! cough cough! Huh....huuuuurl!

Yep my son barfed all over my Tahoe and almost covered his sister and my houseguest, Tanya. I did the right thing and sat with him in the back seat on the drive home and comforted him. Then I did what any good mother would do and I took a picture. Merry christmas y'all! :D

6 weeks!

Only 34 more weeks to go! Damn, that seems really really long. Oh well there isn't much change from last week, but I am going to religiously document each week this time since this will be the last baby. Well, I think it will be the last. But now that I'm having 3, I want 4. Psycho much? Anyway, here's the belly pics:



a


And yes, I do have more workout clothes, but I want to see if I can fit into this little ditty the whole pregnancy.

In other news, my friend Tanya is going to fly in from AZ tomorrow to spend Christmas with me. I am so excited to have her here. She is just a sunny funny girl and she always puts me in a good mood. She wants me to take her somewhere 'Texas-y'. Where the hell would that be?

Okay I give up.

I haven't been posting much lately! The reason I have been slacking is because I have baby on the brain. And even though I have 2 kids and I suppose this is a Mommy blog...I really am trying to avoid getting all 'Mommy Blog' on y'all. But I give up. Every time I start a blog post it is very baby specific. Well...I can't help it. Even though babies happen to woman every day, I feel like the only human on the planet that is this fucking tired.

The other thing I am going through is hunger! And not just random hunger, but I have to eat exactly what I am craving. Otherwise I will probably cry in frustration. For example, the other day the only thing I wanted was an egg sandwich on an english muffin with sharp cheddar. I heated the pan...cracked open the egg...and almost barfed. The egg was full of fucking blood. First I gagged, then I cried for the poor egg because it reminded me of my own little chick growing inside of me, then I cried because now I am never going to be able to eat another egg for the rest of my life. It was so disgusting.

Tuesday was my first appointment. My new OB/GYN is a doll! It was easy to get a prescription out of her for morning sickness medicine (Reglan...just in case!) plus she gave me an ultrasound. I was really nervous about the scan because I was 5 weeks 4 days at the time and it was a coin toss on whether I would see the heartbeat or not. When the tech zoomed on on the blob though, the whole little body was thumping. She said it was the size of a grain of rice and I swear the little beating heart took up 3/4 of the body. I didn't get a count on the beats per minute and it was too small to actually hear anything through the transducer but I saw it! And there was only one baby! Jeff was wrong...he was conviced that it was twin boys. I think that it is one baby girl. Any other guesses?

Long story short, I'm back but you are going to have to deal with me prattling on and on about my new symptoms because I'm a little obsessed. It's like I told Jeff after I peed on like 15 pregnancy tests. I said, "You would be obsessed too if you had a little alien creature growing inside you!" Tomorrow I will be 6 weeks, so more belly pics will be up soon!

5 weeks 1 day

When I look back on my last two pregnancies I realize that I am missing something...pictures! I have promised myself to at least document my weekly growth. I have somehow come out of 2 pregnancies without stretchmarks or saggy skin...but who knows what a third will do to me. So here we go people...watch me wreck my body with baby number 3! :D

5 weeks, 1 day

I swear that my tummy is already bigger. Unfortunately it is too soon to blame it on baby weight...It is just lots and lots of gas. :D

My first mental breakdown.

There was a post on my pregnancy message board asking about your first mental breakdown. I'm too lazy to come up with an original post for my blog, so I am cutting and pasting:

The other day my husband and I were in the bathroom getting ready to go to a party. I had a huge pile of laundry in front of the shower door that I still hadn't washed and my husband was moving it out of the way as I was laughing and apologizing. Then he said, "When does the nesting phase start?" (as in when am I going to start cleaning like crazy). I laughed and said,"not for a long time!" Then he said, "It looks like the nesting phase has already begun...except baby you aren't actually supposed to collect pieces of material and make an actual nest!"

I started laughing hysterically because the laundry pile did look like a bird nest but almost as quickly, I started crying! My feelings totally got hurt and I was crying and yelling at him not to tease me and he can do his own damn laundry wha wha wha!" He was already in the shower at this point and had to wipe the steam off the shower door to see what the hysteria was all about. Then he started laughing even harder and I started crying even harder and then he realized that he better be nice to the hormonal girl and he stepped out of the shower and gave me a soaking wet hug and apologized. Yeah, I think I've caught the crazy.

So...these last 2 days I don't even feel pregnant. I feel compelled to buy more tests. :D I mean I must be pregnant still right? I've had no bleeding...everything is still in my uterus, right? I really can't wait until my first appointment and especially I can't wait for my first ultrasound. Waiting patiently...

I'm a parents worst nightmare!

Hee hee

The other day I texted a group of people, "Guess what? I'm pregnant!" I recieved the obligatory, "Congrats" from most people. But from my friend Lisa, it went down a little differently. Apparently Lisa changed her phone number:


"Lisa": I sorry but i dont know you :( i am emily. 7:03am

Me: Stella! 4:19pm

"Lisa": "Hi" it's me emily good for you 4:22pm

"Lisa": "Hi" 4:25

Me: Thx! I had this number for my friend Lisa-sorry that it was the wrong number!

"Lisa": It's okay.you can text me any time :-) 4:30

"Lisa":Im glad you are pregnat :-) 4:34

Me: Where are you from and how old are you?

"Lisa": I can't tell you where i live but i am 10 years 4:40

Me: lol, im 29!

"Lisa": Nice to meet you stella. would you like to be my freind? ;-) 4:51

Me: Sure 4:52

"Lisa": Great....:-) 4:53

Then around 9:20pm or so, my cell starts to ring and it is "Lisa". Eep! A little girl who thinks I am her new bff is calling me! I send it straight to voicemail. A few minutes later, I get this text:

"Lisa": Hi iam emily's dad i don't know who you are but i don't think you have any reason to test msg my daughter 9:26 pm

ho.lee.shit!

Just so you know, I am not interested in have super secret 1o year old little girls as my friend. I was sort of thinking that 'emily' might be new to Texas since she just got this new phone number (I just talked to Lisa last week). When she was going on and on about my pregnancy, I thought that maybe it was a lonely Mom that just moved here and didn't have any friends or something. I am a friendly girl and I have actually made a good Mom friend off myspace....soooo how is that much different than through wrong number texting? When the little thing told me that she was only 10 though, I thought it was funny. When she asked to be my friend I didn't have the heart to say 'no'. So I said 'sure' with no intention of ever communicating with her again. I'm passive aggressive that way.

And now I have an angry Dad on my ass thinking that I am some sort of a predator. A minute later my phone rang and this time, knowing it was her father, I answered. I told him the whole wrong number story-including the part that I don't want to be his daughters new bff!!! He was understanding and after a 5 minute conversation, he congratulated me on my third pregnancy!

So fucking bizarre. Long story short, there is someone in the world that thinks I am a huuuuuge creep! Oh well. whaddaya do?

I'm back from my Turkey related leave of absence!

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was great. It was the first year that I cooked for a group of people in my home so I really had fun with it. Jeff and the neighbors were drinking beer and frying turkeys at 10:00am and I was baking and roasting and melting and cooking and stirring and drinking wine by 11:00. I actually drank a lot during the week of thanksgiving. About a bottle a day. I did it because it was my last hoo-rah...Jeff and I tried to get pregnant this month and I was having a fare thee well with my friend, cheap white wine.

The good new though is that I am indeed pregnant! It is very early in my pregnancy...today I am only 3 weeks 6 days. Gotta love those First Response Early Result tests! I have peed on about 10 of them because I just don't believe that I am actually having another baby. I am going to be that lady in Target with too many kids taking up space in the aisle so that no other carts can steer past. I am so very happy. Like very very over the moon in love with my blastocyte.

In other fabulous news...Jeff got offered a new position at his company. It is a total career change for him, and no international travel! I am so relieved because he was scheduled to go to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia next year. Oh, and he had to bring his own drinking water in his suitcase. WTF? I can just imagine myself 7 months pregnant and unable to contact him when he is on the other side of the world...and having a nervous breakdown. With the way everything is lining up, I feel like our new little family member was meant to be!

Just because I want to gross you out, want to see my pee sticks? I have them labled 'dpo' which stands for days past ovulation. As soon as the fertilized egg implants itself, you start producing enough HCG hormone to be detected on a pregnancy test. You can see that on 8dpo, the test was negative but on 9dpo there was the faintest pink test line that showed up on the left side of the control line. Isn't that just so exciting? yeah, I think so too!

Old man

Yesterday my amazing husband turned 33 years old! His parents are in town for Thanksgiving and they offered to take him out to dinner at the restaurant of his choice. What did he choose? Chucky Cheese! He said that the kids would have more fun there. I think that is just a testament to the kind of father than he is. His joy comes from his childrens happiness. And also he is a big kid himself and while we were there, he racked up 600 tickets for the kids to trade in for prizes.

You know what I just realized? I've knows Jeff since he was 25! In January it will be 7 years of being married to him...that is crazy! That is like real deal married. That's like living in suburbia and having a third kid crazy.

Kimberly, bless her heart, made Daddy a birthday card while she was at school today. The cover said, "I love you DaD" She drew a heart and a green dollar underneath that. On the inside it said, "Happy Brthday DaD. You are lucey that you have me!" When Jeff read it outloud he burst into laughter and said, 'Yes love, I am very lucky to have you!'

Twilight!

OMG I just got back from seeing Twilight and i am sooo happy! I loved the movie and Edward was sexy/scary/sweet/brooding...perfect! I didn't like Bella in the previews but she was a great fit I think. I have heard some bad reviews but I think it is only because people are expecting it to be another Harry Potter or something. I must say that I loved it! I am even more in love with Edward and I can't wait to see a more grown up Jacob in future movies. He is a hottie. TEAM JACOB! Or maybe TEAM EDWARD! Can't I have them both?

And now we wait.

I've temped, I've tested with ovulation predictor kits and I've done what people do when they are trying to get pregnant. I ovulated on Friday, and now all that I can do is wait. It's sort of weird thinking that there are millions of little swimmers in me trying to find my egg...how bizarre! I'm sort of thinking that this is not the month for baby number 3, but we will just have to wait and see. :D

Yesterday I was a sneaky wife. Jeff's birthday is this week and I had a little surprise party for him. I had my neighbors Dr. N and Joerilla get Jeff out of the house for about an hour while I had the girls come over and help me set up, make enchiladas, and Patty even swept my floor! :D He was so surprised when he walked in the house! The look on his face was so cute. I will post pictures later when I get them from Patty.

My in laws will be here soon and I still have so much to do so I will keep this post short and sweet...have a great Thanksgiving!

I think...

I think I have a Tween on my hands. Well, Kimmy-girl is only 6, but I just caught her mesmerized in front of the tv watching a Jonas Brothers music video.

She said, "Mom...these boys...they sing this song...you hear this song right now Mommy? It's called Lovebug...just like Daddy calls me Lovebug."

OMG how friggin cute it that? She likes a boyband, hee hee. I like these boys. One of the lines in the song is, "modesty is just so hard to find". Awww, someone actually encouraging that Modest is Hottest. I just watched her bobbing her little head the the music with her little ankles crossed on the sofa. Awww, six year olds rock.

This new interest is helpful because I need ideas on what to get her for Christmas. She's just not really into much of anything...CD's and a cd player for her room it is!

Going green...and I'm a happy evil republican

I know that I'm not even pregnant yet, but I have made a decision for my new baby to be! Let me back up a little. I feel a little guilty. I *totally* want a third baby, but does that put me into the 'breeder' category? Am I one of those jerks that is carelessly overpopulating this precious Earth we live on? Yes, yes I am a jerk. Actually, to be completely honest I was okay with never having another bio kid. Jeff and I were looking into foster care because I wanted more kids in my home and there are so many in need.

I went to the first Foster care information meeting and I decided that as much as I wanted a baby, I was more interested in an older child. I felt greedy wanting a baby when so many people do turn to foster care when private adoption of a baby is too expensive. I decided on a child between the ages of 3 and 7. Then I got cold feet. Sorry to be blunt, but my main concern was that I didn't want an older child to act out sexually against my children. My kids still are innocent and I plan on keeping it that way. Until they are 30 or so. :D Also, after Jeff agreed to foster kids I think he started thinking of more bio kids. He is adopted and I think that seeing people that are genetically related to him is sort of thrilling. Long story short, we aren't doing foster/adopt for now.

In one fell swoop, I have gone from doing something good for this world, to pillaging its resources and polluting. You all know that laundry is a huge thorn in my side, so cloth diapering has always been out for me. Then I saw this...presenting the flushable gDiaper:



Isn't that so damn cute? Look at that little 'g' yo! Hee heee. Anyway. Anyway gDiapers are sort of like cloth diapers, but they have a plastic liner inside that you tuck a flushable pad into. Voila! Flushable diaper! You can also compost it...but that just makes me laugh hysterically. Flush I can do...compost? Not so much. I went to Whole Foods yesterday and bought a starter pack and they are so cute that I want to eat them! Sheesh!

If I am unfortunately suddenly infertile and never have a third baby, well then...maybe I will give them away. But for now I took at them, and hold them, and read about them online and hold them and stare at them and pat the little invisible baby bottom to be. I'm glad that there is an alternative to adding to diaper hill.

***********************

In other great news...Glenn Beck is moving to Fox news in the spring! I have been a fan for a long time and his show was pretty much the only reason I would flip to CNN. I was exasperated when I sat down to watch Glenn Beck one night and he was...gone! I was so sad until I saw him on Bill O'Reilly last week. In all honesty Bill is just snarky and annoying, but I am thrilled that he is going to have Glenn Beck on his show every Friday. www.glennbeck.com just announced that Mr. Beck is going to have his own show starting in the spring. Hip hip hooray! The evil republican in me is happy.

I'm sorry if you have an eye patch but this is too funny not to post:

From Liam :D

Flirty Girls

Yesterday was the first day of my new exercise regime. Or so I thought. I was all dressed in my Nike workout gear but I couldn't find my damn sneakers. I had to race Kennen off to school, so I just put on my flip flops and decided to come back and search for them after I dropped him off.

I know it shouldn't matter what I wear, but I felt like the hugest poser wearing workout gear and flip flops when I got to preschool. There were lots of Moms going in and out the front doors and most of them were wearing their workout uniforms...complete with sneakers. Oh, and people always look at my feet. I'm very tall and I think they are double checking for high heels or something.

Long story short, I came home and still couldn't find my shoes. I opted not to run in flip flops, so instead I found an exercise video on Comcast on Demand for free! It was "Flirty Girls Booty Shake" It was fun and even though I'm sure I looked like a Giraffe but by the end of it I felt like Britney Spears. How cool! I can dance and pretend that I'm not an old lady that never goes out past 7pm*. I want to do this every day!

Um yeah. Apparently I am too old to be cool. I woke up at 5am with a huge back spasm! I could not fucking move and every time I tried it was soooo painful! I popped 4 motrin and I can at least sit up enough to order my kids around. I guess this means no more 'Booty Shake' video's for this old lady.

*actually I did go out past 7pm last night...we have a new Walmart in town. It was glorious! Beautiful! Clean! Not full of...all those kinds of people that usually shop at Walmart. I think I might actually be able to shop there from now on! Jeff is happy. He is sick of me only going to Sams Club.

ctrl C ctrl V

I copied and pasted this from my trying to conceive message board:

I was talking to my husband earlier today and he mentioned that he has a business trip next week. Ack! I told him he had to be home because I was going to ovulate around the time he was going to be out of town. Being the understanding wife that I am (ha!) I just told him that we would dtd the morning before he left, and then the night he got home 3 days later and that it should be fine.

Well, he just called me and he is sending his assistant instead! Woo hoo! Not only are we going to have a nice big open window of time for getting busy, but this shows me that he wants this as much as I do. This is our third and at this point I wasn't sure if he was just surrendering like a beaten down man, or if he really wanted this baby as much as I do.

Can I just say I love this man? He is just as nuts as me.

Sorry officer!

Last week when Jeff was out of town, I made an impulse purchase. I need a preacher bench/something that will fit in my entryway that I can store my kids shoes and backpacks in. It was pretty much just a knee jerk retail therapy reaction to our new president elect but as soon as I got it home, I realized that it was all wrong and had to be returned.

I packed it back up into my truck and Kennen and I drove the 3 miles down the road. Even though it is the main road in my area, the speed limit is only 35 mph because it is still considered to be in a neighborhood. Led Zeppelin was blaring from the classic rock station and I was...rocking out. I didn't even realize that i was speeding until a police cruiser was suddenly behind me with his lights on. DAMNIT!

I never get out of tickets. Like EVER! And this time I had to. There is just no room in the budget for 'speeding tickets'. I had my window rolled down, engine off and as Deputy Officer Dork walked up I smiled at him in the rear view mirror. As he walked up, I handed him my drivers license and said, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" He laughed and said that he thought a jet was trying to land on the boulevard with how fast I was going (50-ish mph).

"Are you late for work?"

Me: "No, I am going to Kirklands to return something. I was just listening to a really good song and I didn't realize how fast I was going!"

"What were you listening to?"

"Led Zeppelin..." and with that I turned the volume up and Misty Mountain Hop was still playing on the radio.

He laughed and then said, "Oh I know how that is. I'll be right back."

A few minutes later he came back and gave me a warning! Whew!

"OMG thank you so much! Wow...thanks!"

I called Jeff and told him and he said he was going to take away my keys. :D Hooray!

And just for fun...here is Misty Mountain Hop backwards! I'm going to church now, lol.

I'm better now.

So this is how all you democrats have felt for the last 8 years?

This election made me just sick. I had a few freak out moments yesterday and a full fledged panic attack while I was driving, but all is well now. Obama is my new president. I trust that he will lead this country the right way. And as far as I see it...it can only get better than the mess George W. made.

Nothing made me feel better than my husband though. He talked me off the ledge and told me to just relax. Of course this was coming from a man that was on a Marlin fishing boat in Cabo who himself was very relaxed...but whatevs. I felt better when he told me that no matter what, we-as in our little nuclear family of 4 (5 soon)-will be okay. That he will always make sure we are take care of.

I do have relief in the fact that the choice has been made. Now I just have to learn to accept Obama (and his asinine ideas!!!) Ack sorry...there i go again. And of course I'm sure it is healthy for our country to have periods between reactionary and reform.

So Obama is our president. And our first lady wears ugly dresses. Damn! There I go again. Okay I'm logging off now.

more election coverage

omg! I am so tense tonight! I can't stand watching...seeing Obama ahead just makes me sick to my stomach.

I am a huge republican (bordering libertarian) and the thought of public healthcare makes my skin crawl. However...there is a small part of me wondering if I will get free maternity care when I get pregnant this month. Hey...if you can't beat them...join them! I am looking forward to my medical care being on the same standard as one would get at the Department of Motor Vehicles. Ugh...i know I am so bitter.

Enough with our new socialist president to be...

I'm gonna have a baby! I have started charting my temps and if you care about that sort of thing, you can click on my fertility friend ticker. Oh yes. You can know when I ovulate if you are interested in that. I looked at the Chinese Lunar calendar predictions to see what it said I would have as far as gender...and it's a girl! You should check out the link. It is fun to see what it predicts for you...any other girl babies out there? I would name her Korinne...to stay with the whole 'K' thing we have going on with our other kids. Hee hee, I am not even pregnant and I'm already naming my child...nice. If it was a boy...I have no K names...any suggestions?

Election day!

Go vote! That's all I have to say about that. :D

Well no, that isn't all. Obama is probably going to win. The republican in me is weeping, but he seems like the least evil democrat. At least it isn't Hilary. *shudder*

In the spirit of re-immersing myself into all things baby related...I am going on a playdate today.

**************

Okay scratch the playdate. I was driving to a pumpkin patch farm to meet up with my Moms group. It was supposed to be hours of hayrides, corn stalk mazes and a picnic under a shady oak tree. Instead I started driving toward the country and I heard, 'Urp,' come from the backseat that was quickly followed by crying from my son. I look back and Kennen is covered in vomit! Ugh. I calm him down and we talk about how we can clean his clothes. We can clean the car. We can clean his body. Being covered in puke really messes with the psyche of my little perfectionist son.

Blech. The whole ride home I have the windows down because the smell was making me sick and I was kicking myself for adding sliced banana to his cheerios this morning. You would be surprised how much slime half of a banana can add to the horror going on in the back seat of my truck this morning.

So today my new plan is to surf the net and watch the election all day. woo hoo!

We have done gone and lost our minds

Jeff and I are officially trying to conceive #3. Am I crazy? I am crazy right? Holy smokes!

I want the baby, but the pregnancy scares me. I don't want to get morning sickness, stretch marks or an episiotomy. Again. However...if I am not pregnant by February...I am stopping. Then the baby will be born in September and will miss the Kindergarten cutoff in 5 years. Then I will have to stay home 6 years. And Kennen and the baby will be one more year apart at school...and that just seems too far for me. Am I nuts? I'm nuts right. In the past, one of us has wanted a baby while the other hasn't...but now we have decided to hold our noses and just jump in the damn water. Plus we make such great kids...it seems a shame to leave all of the breeding to the Catholics and the Mormons.

Family of 5, here I come!

That's what friends are for...

I was a slacker on Halloween so I had to swipe this from Patty's facebook page! She and Dr. N. threw a rocking halloween party/haunted house this year and it was one of those parties that will go down in SBHL history. I am too exhausted to write out a full blog...well I think I'm too lazy too....

Anyway, here are Mama and Papa Vamp:

You like? It's nice?

afternoon phone call...

I just called Jeff at work and here was our conversation:

J: This is Jeff

S: Hey baby. Am I on speakerphone?

J: Yeah. (long pause. I hear him typing and thinking)

S: Baby take me off speaker phone.

J: (I hear him pick up the handset) Yeah. What do you have going on?

S: So I just saw the wine bottle from last night...I drank more than half of it! Holy crap I am a wino!

J: (he laughs)

S: Will you still love me if I have to start going to those meetings?

J: Yes (he's typing again. long pause...)

S: What if I start drinking listerine because you cut me off from wine? Will you still love me? (did you ever see that episode of "Intervention"? Homegirl was drinking mouthwash y'all.)

J: (silence. more typing)

S: Baby?

J: Of course. I'll always love you. You're my baby.

S: Okay, cool.

J: okayloveyoubye.

S: bye.

Maybe I've just been married too long but I am actually swooning from the romance right now.

Woo hoo!

Hooray for the little man! Hooray for the ability to organize and petition to your peers to fix a corrupt system. Okay...maybe the system wasn't corrupt but there was definitely bad blood between us and the hoa man.

Last night was a very happy night on SBHL! We as neighbors have rallied together and voted the biggest douchebag out of the HOA! No more nastygrams from the idiot who talked down to us. who was a huge doublecrossing moron. Ding dong...the witch is dead! Well, it is a man who has been dethroned tonight...so peace the spork out douchbag! You will not be missed.

Ahhhhh, seriously you don't know how happy this makes me. The middle aged idiot was letting the HOA power get to his head.
************************************************************************

I know my blog has sucked ass lately but I have been having too much fun lately. For example...Sunday night I went to the Rick Springfield concert at the House of Blues! Oh yes...the soap opera star/'Jessie's Girl' crooner was so much fun! He's what...like 59? I do know this though...he's so sexy! I went with my friend Sara and she batted her eyes and got us awesome seats upstairs in the Mezzanine, instead of the standing room only general admission section.


When Sara and I first found each other...we sat in a construction zone and ate burritos. See Sara's big ass purse? Yep she had 2 Chipotle burritos in there.


This is the self picture before we rocked out 80's style:


And here we are rockin'. Do you like my orange nail polish? It's for Halloween...the 2nd best holiday of the year:


Rick Springfield in the flesh. He was such a great performer and totally interacted with the audience. I have a huge crush on him now! Isn't he sexy? I think he is like 59 but I have always had a thing for older guys. :D



Now I have been running around my house belting out, "DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS!" and "I FEEL SO DIRTY WHE SHE STARTS TALKIN' CUTE...tra la la JESSIES GIRL!"

On top of the kickass concert, I had a blast with Sara. She makes me laugh so hard and my face was hurting by the end of the night from my perma-grin. Ugh, I just looked at Rick's pic again...isn't he dreamy?

Not sleeping beauty

Sorry but I just don't have the words to blog lately. But I do have pictures!!!

Last night, Kennen choked on some candy and it scared him. He was very cuddly and he let me rock him to sleep. :D Then I dozed off too and Jeff took pictures.

I am an ugly sleeper. But my boy is an angel! :D

Want to know what I'm gonna be for Halloween?

Here is a hint:

Scary Daddy in action:

Grrrr.....Rawrrrrrr!:

Awww, don't let him scare you! He's just happy to be here!:

The haystack is gone.

So I'm not a natural blonde. I have been thinking lately...I really have no idea what I look like with my natural hair color. I have been dying my hair since I was 13 years old. I probably only have a few more years until I go gray...then I will have to dye my hair to fight mother nature and her nasty aging.

So anyway, not only do I dye my hair blonde...but I dye it blonde myself and my hair was so dry and tangly. I hate to brush my hair. I hate to wash my hair. I get headaches because my ponytails are heavy. Yesterday I finally did something about it.

I went to a salon and told 'Helen' what I wanted. She said...."Nooo! Don't cut that much!" What the hell??? Usually stylists are more than happy to hack off your hair and give you a new look. I was insistant though and told her to cut! She cut off the first big piece and held it out to me..."Do you want to keep this?" LOL! Maybe I am rare, but I just wasn't upset about hacking off my hair. I told her, "Be brave and keep cutting! I'm not gonna cry!"

She cut. She dyed it brown. She blowdried. She added a few chunky hilights. She dried it and styled it. She spun me around when she was done to I could face the mirror...I fucking love it! I have been in the best mood ever since. I feel like a new girl. Jeff was home for his lunch break and when I walked in the door he said, "Wow! What's your name?"

Behold...the new do.


Don't mind the horror film effects...but this is the only pic that shows what the back looks like. Do you like my wonky eye?:


chunky hilights:


And see? It is longer in the front! Damn I look old as hell in this picture. Botox maybe?

A new friend...sort of

2 years ago, I was trolling through classmates dot com, and I found a profile of I girl I thought I recognized. She was one of the rare profiles that had filled out the 'about me' section. I remember her being 'bad'. I remember her offering me and my friend Angela an Altoid , but Angela didn't take one. She later told me she was afraid that it had drugs in it. Ohhhhh, yes Sara was a bad girl.

As it turns out, she is the biggest sweetheart and could not hold a candle to the delinquent teenager that I was. She is now a nice catholic girl married to a doctor. I have talked to Sara since I have lived in Texas, but we have never gotten together. She is on the other side of the big bad city of Houston, and we are both busy in our suburban bubbles with kids and stuff.

Yesterday we finally(!) got together and I had a blast. It started off great because we went and had my new favorite food...vietnamese noodle house! Yum yum gimme dim sum! Actually I had the rice noodles with rare beef and meatballs. It has a name, but I don't know what it is. It's that soup that you add fresh cilantro, basil and bean sprouts too...oh my mouth is watering again!

After that, we went and painted pottery. We were the only customers and we totally took over. Kennen napped on the employee sofa and the rest of the kids went wild with the paint. It was a lot of fun! And totally by coincidence, both of our elementary school aged kids were sick. Kimberly was slightly feverish and was having tummy troubles, and Sara's oldest son was having respiratory problems and she had to pick him up from school. And what do we do as good and responsible parents? We had a playdate!

The best part of all is that Sara totally rocks! We seriously laughed and had so much fun. I can't wait until we get together again. :D I have a new friend!

Here are some pics from our day!Another bonus is that I got my baby fix! I worked really hard on this one because little Lourdes is a Mama's girl and the first time Sara handed her over to me, she just screamed and reached her little arms to her Mama. I had to be super stealthy and distract her and not look at he when I held her and she was okay. Isn't she lovely?

Accidentally on purpose.

This morning I was so late taking Kennen to preschool. Jeff was sick and up all night and I was worried enough to sit and listen to him breath for an hour after he finally fell asleep. On top of the cough from hell all week, he had his first migraine and it was pretty pitiful because he was coughing, puking, and gripping onto his head all at the same time.

I was running late but my plan was to walk Kennen into class, then go get my hair done. I had my vampire book and I was looking forward to the silence. As we were walking to his class, a little girl waved frantically at us and said, "Hi Kennen!" awwww, he has a little friend. I chit chatted with the Mom of the little girl and she asked me if I was going to the Moms group that morning. I was like, "Moms group? What Moms group?" She said it started in 15 minutes so I went!

I am so happy with the group of Moms there. We really talked about so many things and we were having a very funny and open conversation. I think I was getting a little too comfortable. When the group leader gently urged that I could pray and that she said that my husband would eventually come to know Jesus.

"Oh, that's not going to happen. He's Jewish."

"Well maybe not now, maybe not 5 years but as long as it is before his last breath, he will be saved."

blink. blink.

I got a little candid here and said, "Well, he actually thinks that Jesus is just a Golden Calf that is distracting people from the one true God."

OMGoodness that was the wrong thing to say. Not because she judged me for what I said, but because she truly looked hurt. I was pooping on her peeps. It was worse than a fart in church. It was a bitchslap in church. The conversation rolled on afterwards without a hitch and it made me love these ladies even more. I think I wanted to say something sort of awful because I am a bitch. I am not goodness and light. I just think I was testing the water to see if I would still be accepted if I didn't plaster a spacey smile on my face and say catchy Christian things like, "Love letter to Jesus" or "My sins have been washed white as snow". Nope, instead I wanted to say things like,

"I wonder if Jesus is just a golden calf and we are all blasphemous. Plus, I want to be a Christian and I feel God guiding me lately (in fact I think he led me to this Mom's group accidentally on purpose) but can I still drink a glass of wine after the kids go to bed? What about before they go to bed?"

And they liked me anyway. God found a place for a girl like me to feel comfortable enough to stay. I'm looking forward to next monday...

Insomnia...

I don't know what is up with me lately! I fall get really tired early in the evening, fall asleep quickly...but then I am up at 4:30am in the morning. Drumming my fingers. Wondering if I should just give in and make a pot of coffee or try to lay reeeeeeally still and hope I can fall back asleep. Today the pot-o-coffee idea won. So annoying!

I could read my vampire book. I wont though because I'm on Breaking Dawn now (book 4) and I'm trying to linger over it a little. I want to make it last because I want to be lost in that little world for as long as possible! Seriously people...read the series!

Oh, I have a great idea! I could go for a run! Heck yeah, that's just what my restless body needs! Oh wait...I can't. Jeff is fishing. Again. He had my blessing last night but now I'm annoyed. I can't leave the kids in the house by themselves. It is times like this that I wish I had a nanny. I could never have a real nanny. I was talking about this with my neighbors last night actually. It makes my stomach turn to think of someone else with their hands all over my babies. But wouldn't it be convenient to have someone waiting in the wings...ready to just be there when you needed to step out for a 30 minute run. Or if you need milk but the thought of tromping through Super Target with 2 kids is just more than you can handle. Wouldn't it be nice to bring your nanny along to sit in the car with the kids while you made a mad dash for milk? This aversion to hired help would be completely different if I had a career I was passionate about. But I don't.

So this means no nanny. And long story short...no morning run for me. :/

Twilight

Apparently I am the last person to read the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer! Well, that's not true. My running buddies haven't read it either but I am forcing them to read it now too. Can I just say, OMFG! I have the hugest crush on Edward Cullen. He is so damn sexy in the book. My stomach was doing flips while I was reading...who knew that a fictional vampire could have such a profound effect on me. Then...THEN I saw this movie poster for the Twilight movie coming out tomorrow and the Edward in the poster was so like the Edward I had in my head. Take a better look at the scary/sexy vampire front and center...it's Cedrick Diggory from Harry Potter! Except now he looks a little more menacing...and a little less 'golden boy'. That girl he has his arms around is his human girlfriend. He really wants to bite her but then his girlfriend would be dead so...he tries to be good. That's all I'm going to say.

If you haven't read the book yet...read it! Then drive back to the store two days later and buy New Moon (book 2). Then take a break for a day to clean your house, and then go back again and throw your cation (and money) to the wind and buy books 3 (Eclipse) and 4 (Breaking Dawn). And buy your husband a new outfit while you are at it so that he doesn't realize that you have spend $40 on books in the last week. Or you can just borrow the books from me. :D

I raced!

Saturday was awesome! I really needed that event to jumpstart my ass into a lean mean exercising machine. I have somehow managed to gain 10lbs this summer. Not a huge deal since I'm tall but I really had no desire to start exercising again. After running the race, I felt so GREAT! Like beyond great. I think I was high on endorphins or something. I don't think humans are meant to live such sedentary lives. Running is exactly what I need in my life to stay balanced. I had forgotten that.

Anyway, I ran the first 2 1/2 miles. it hurt. it burned. it made me want my mommy. But there were people on the sidelines cheering me on and it absolutely helped. My demise though was the hill. Why the hell would a mutha funkin hill be at the END of the race? Ugh. I actually ran up the hill but once I reached the 'summit' I was tapped. I walked for awhile until I saw the finish line and I ran in at 45:43.

What a great feeling! I friggin did it! The girls and I are toying with the idea of the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving day but who knows. This race kicked my butt and I was a sleepy girl the rest of the day. I absolutely hate the picture above. I'm the albino giraffe in the middle. And that would be stampingtxmommy on the left and keikicakes on the right. I'm kind of excited though because I entered in my bib number at the race for the cure website and they said that if any picutes with my number show up, they will email them to me. Awesomeness.

thank you everyone for your support...financial and with your well wishes! Y'all rock!

Race for the Cure

This weekend I will be joining my neighborhood girls in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. I just registered today because I am a huge slacker. And a broke slacker. But somehow the direct deposit gods must have decided to shine their warmth on me because I got paid a day early...just in time to register before 2:00pm today!

If you would like to add a donation in my name to support breast cancer awareness, please click here:

Hooray for boobies!

Oh, and please be thinking of me on Saturday morning. I will be running at 8:30am. Sob!

Couch man

Couch man is living in my house. My husband has the sniffles and he has been milking it for all that it is worth! OMG men are such babies!!! Okay so he does have a sore throat, chest congestion and his fever came back but good lord! Get yo' a$$ to work! Or at least fold some laundry while you are supine! Or is it prone? How 'bout cattywhompas couch cuddling.


Aww then he looks at me with his pitiful flushed face and I run and make him some tea with lemon and honey. Ok...I am kinda happy that he is home. Forget the laundry baby...

When I was young...

Have you ever happened upon a movie or song that reminds you of when you were younger? I just randomly flipped onto Romeo and Juliet (the one with Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio) and so many emotion are running through me. Not only is it the ultimate tragic love story...but it was made over a decade ago when I was an impressionable and broody teenager. I loved the soundtrack...I loved the movie...I loved Leonardo DiCaprio (this was when he was still hot)...I loved Claire Danes (remember "My so called life?")...I loved the soundtrack and listened to it endlessly.

Ugh.

I am in a happy nostalgic place tonight. Peace.

Fishing

Jeff and I took the kids fishing last night. Fishing is his passion and from a young age he taught them how to cast their own line out into the water. They practice in the front yard...at passing cars.

Here is my sweet boy, concentrating hard...and he has not yet realized that he has no hook on his pole. (c'mon are we really going to give a 3 year old a hook to swing around? We don't do that until they are 4!)


Kimberly is all business...I think she has my nose...

Or maybe like the rest of her face...she has her fathers nose.

All that I know for certain is that she doesn't have her front tooth...but she did catch her very own baby bass.

Since nobody takes pictures of me, I have to take them myself. I call this one..."Girl enduring mosquito bites for the sake of good clean family fun."

I call this one "Nose."

Jeff always lets the kids reel in the fish after he sets the hook. This is Kennen's catch of the day. Despite the look of disgust on his face, he was smiling and saying, "Cheese!"

By this time Kimberly had abandoned fishing for her new little friend. Mr. Turtle.

And this was about the time that Kennen realized that he didn't have a hook on his fishing pole. I told him to get up and keep fishing and he replied with, "I can't...I don't have hook!"

farm animals.

Tonight Jeff made dinner. Well he dumped a pile of chips on a plate, covered it in cheese and microwaved it for me. I was laying on the couch...watching 60 minutes...eating my chips...minding my own business. My plate was balanced on my stomach and Kennen came running into the room...


..."BUTTON MY PANTS MOMMY! PWEEEEEESE!" (hey the kid at least goes potty and wipes his own butt...I don't mind snapping his pants!)

I had a huge cheesy nacho in my hand so I put it in my mouth and held it between my teeth so I could use both hands to snap his pants back together. Suddenly Kennen burst out into raucous laughter and said,

"Hahahahaha! Mommy! MOMMY! You look like a COW Mommy! Mooooo! MOOOOOO!"

Success!

This weekend I decided to try something new. I made my first 'Honey Do' list and taped it to the refrigerator. If you can't decipher my note it reads:

1. Clean out garage.

2. Hose/Sweep garage floor.

3. Put M.R.E.'s and bottled water back in attic crawl space.

Love You Babe!

You know what? It friggin worked. Jeff woke up and got started on it as soon as he ate. Granted he slept until 11:45 am but my garage is clean and I can actually park in the garage and even better than that...I can actually open the truck doors all the way open to get the kids in their carseats. He lugged all the 'hurricane' bottled water back into our attic for the next storm, along with the M.R.E.'s. That would be 'Meals Ready to Eat'. Like army food. Cool huh? They dont expire for about 20 years!

I am impressed with the Honey Do List! It is much more effective than nagging. I highly recommend it! Hmmm...now what should I put on next weekends list?

A week ago today...

...was my first hurricane party. This is my favorite picture. Enjoy! :D

The damage of hurricane Ike

Wind damage? no.

Flooding? no.

Electricity out? no.

Water off? no.

Ice and food shortages? no.

I just heard the announcement yesterday that the kids wont be going back to school until next Monday! (insert knife stabbing horror movie sounds...reeee! reeee! reee!)

Wasn't summer long enough? I could just let them watch too much tv and deal with the whinings of "I'm boooooored!" Or I could sit them down at the table and play Teacher Mommy and listen to them cry and whine because their brain is working too hard.

Okay now I'm whining. I wonder where the kids get it. :P

We are blessed.

Jeff went back to work today to assess the damage at the site. Nothing it too terribly wrong with the building except for some minor roof damage. However, a lot of Jeff's coworkers are still without power and water!

Jeff called me and said that his boss and another guy were coming to our house for ice. When they got here we loaded them up with capri suns for their kids, water and lots of ice and frozen bottles of water. One of the guys had a tree land on his house! We really lucked out because in our neighborhood, it is business as usual. People are jogging, shopping, watching movies just like nothing happened. We definitely dodged a bullet. Thank you God!

Electricity is Awesome and some awesome parenting!

Friday we had a proper hurricane party with the neighbors. We made our master bedroom into 'The Saferoom' by boarding up the windows with plywood. I tucked the kids into my bed and then proceeded to go outside in the wind and get drunk off my ass! Smart, right? I think it was just a coping mechanism for dealing with the hurricane. I puked in the street and my 15 year old neighbor walked me home. Apparently I babbled on about how she should never drink and after she deposited me into my house, I smiled and said, "Happy Hurricane!" Then I curled up with my kids and passed out.

Jeff was full of even more drunk awesomeness! After I went home, my neighbors watched him follow me inside 2 minutes later. The party was over, the wind was picking up, and all the families went into their own houses to hunker down for the storm. This was around 10pm. Over the next 3 hourse Jeff went on a little adventure. He was still ready to party apparently. His wife, who is usually the voice of reason, was passed out so he was free to wander the neighborhood in search of more fun. He doesn't remember being out at all during these 3 hours but various neighbors vouched for good time guy. We were told that he puked in one friends yard, he snoozed in another friends yard, and then he knocked on the door at 1:30 in the morning at another friends door 'to see how they were doing.' Rick was still awake and so he stood outside and hung out with Jeff and laughed when Jeffs hat blew away. I'm so glad this was Jeff's last stop because Rick is responsible and I'm sure he told Jeff to go home before he blew away.

I woke up at 3:00am to the howling wind. Kennen was up with me and he was my little buddy. We ate a bowl of cereal together and looked at the storm on tv. I saw Jeff sleeping on the couch and I covered him with a blanket...having no idea that he probably had just gotten home. He is such a shithead...but he's my shithead. The power went out at 3:30 and Kennen and I cuddled up. He kept murmuring, "it's wowd!" "it's dart!" "Mommy, big hur-wa-cane" "it's big, not tiny" goodness I love that boy. Kimberly slept through the entire thing!

We were lucky enough for our power to turn back on at around 12:00 noon the next day so that is only about 9 hours without power. I feel bad because there are many parts of Houston that are still without electricity. Once the power turned back on Kimberly was flipping through the channels on the tv and she said, "Electricity is Awesome!"

The End.

This just in from Dr. N

My neighbor just sent this update to us. Ike is going to still be a Cat 3 when it is on land just 15 miles south of me.

dun.dun.dun.dunnnnnnnn!

yowza!

The hurricane is coming! Okay I must admit I am excited but a little skurred. I have water, food and a gun. I should be all set, right? Category 3? Direct hit on Houston? woo hoo

Things that nightmares are made of.

What scares you? The dark? A bumpy ride in an airplane?

Want to know what scares me? When I go to the dentist and he says that he must crown my 6 year olds tooth with a SILVER crown. What the fuck? Am I living in the ghetto? Am I just uptight? Should I just embrace baby's first bling? Should I celebrate this by requesting a diamond encrusted "K" on her new grillz.

I'm going to call my local dentist Dr. Poop. You can know his true identity by removing the last two letters in his name. If you google him and go to his website, he will allay your fears. He will make you feel like going to the dentist is fun! He will make you think that even though he isn't 'in network' on your PPO that he is worth the extra money because he is up to date on technology and aesthetics. His silly smile on the 'about me' page will make you think that he is great with children. He has a choo choo train whizzing around the ceiling of his roof. When you walk into his office your kids will feel at east because 'Beauty and the Beast' is blaring on the tv in the corner of the room. There are puzzles! Toys! Smiling receptionists!

But let me tell you something. Dr. Poop is no different than Krusty the Klown. He is the angry carnie at the fair. Oh yes he is wearing brightly colored scrubs with choo choo trains on them, but he is an ASS! He tries to pretend that he likes children but I am quite sure that he is in the back room drinking whiskey sours while the sedation is kicking in on his little patients. Yes I said sedation. That is what he recommended to my perfectly cooperative 6 year old. I must pay $175 for 'kiddie cocktail'. "She wont remember anything," he tells me. It isn't even necessary to stay with her during the procedure. I can go and further my suburban mommy image and go next door for a pastry and coffee.

"What about laughing gas?" I asked. They don't do laughing gas. The children are a little too coherent on laughing gas apparently. I guess this 'pediatric dentist' just doesn't want to deal with the antics of his 'pediatric' patients.

You know what though? It is less about the snarky attitude he showed my 6 year old. It is less about the overpriced 'kiddie cocktail'. It is more about the metal crown he thinks is appropriate for my child. This is what freaks me out:


Kim only needs one piece of bling in her mouth but there is no fucking way. I found another dentist that has porcelin faced stainless steel crowns. I am having her x-rays transferred. I have heard from another neighbor that he is an ass too. At this point though, I think I will choose the ass that will keep my 6 year old from looking like....Okay I can't post a pic of a child with a silver tooth. That would make me asshole of the year. Lets just say I don't want my daughter looking like Paul Wall.

Thirsty?

How about a hurricane? You want one? Do you? Are you ready for a mutha phunk-in hurricane?
Well ready or not, here he comes! Bring it Ike! I've been waiting for 2 years now to feel the wind blow! Don't disappoint me this time!