Crappy Days

I'm sitting in a hotel room on my final morning in New Orleans thinking nothing can be better than this. Well, really what I'm thinking is I'm hungry and I'm not good at just sitting so I would really like us to get dressed and go find our final delicious meal in New Orleans, but C is still in that in-between where you're asleep-but-not and really doesn't want to move. Also it's only 6am or so, so I'll let him lay there.

So we have to return to reality, and while things have been good lately, I have eagerly signed up for a new round of the Crappy Day Present exchange. I don't know that I've ever actually blogged about myself for purposes of getting fun things, but hey. I've done three rounds of this and every round have been delightful. My favorite thing about the exchange is giving me an excuse to shop for other people! Something's about me:

- I love coffee, but lately it's been bothering my stomach (although not here in New Orleans, so maybe it's just office coffee, I don't know. I've been drinking a lot of tea at work though, and really getting into it. I love black teas, kinda eh on fruity teas and jasmine tea tastes like bath water.

- In the same vein on drinks, I love wine (we wine themed our wedding, people) and am now starting to get into gin drinks. Please come drink with me. It's fun. I swear I am not an alcoholic.

- I love color, especially jewel tones. I'm not good at mixing and matching colors though so I end up with my brights against a neutral palate. Like yesterday I wore my green capris with a tan and white striped shirt and a bright purple undershirt. I've now comfortable with the pink and orange color mix so I do that A LOT.

- I love all jewelry in theory but I usually wear earrings more than anything. Long, dangly, funky and colorful. Someone needs to teach me how to wear a statement necklace and leave the house with it, seriously. This same person can probably also help me with scarves, I'd assume.

- I read like it's going out of style. Well, maybe it is but not in my circles thankfully. My husband does not read but he spends the same amount of time I spend reading cruising reddit, so we're cool. YA, supernatural, steam punk, hardboiled mysteries, a really good memoir - I'm not terribly picky. In theory I like nonfiction but it's been a long time since I read any nonfiction that wasn't a memoir that I was able to get through.

- my make up ritual centers around making myself look less like death. I have genetic dark circles and bags under my eyes (my mom has them, my oldest son has them. Sorry, spencer!) so my make up is all about making those less noticeable. And my lips have a lot of color but lose it through the day - also deathly, so I have to paint them in. And I'm make up lazy too, so I stick with a product even if I hate it because I don't have any idea how to branch out.

- so basically I really like girly but I'm not at all girly, so it's a little like putting on too-tight spanx. You know they will make you look good but not sure they're worth the hassle.

- I love sweets but I have an issue w refined sugar and no will power to stop once I start so I get a tummy ache. I do not have this problem with gummies. Well, yes on the willpower to stop but they don't hurt my tummy - I could eat them forever. FOREVER.

- I love to cook. Like, love it. Also, I love to eat.

- ice cream is superior to cake, and cake is superior to icing. Fruit flavors over chocolate although fruit flavors WITH chocolate is good too.

- They Might Be Giants is my all-time favorite band. I love music but I am again hesitant to step outside my musical comfort zone of 80s and 90s hits and pop music from the early 2000s.

- I feel this is a silly list, but now I'm just killing time before check out.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Books I read: April

I spent three weeks reading GoT, so I didn’t think I’d get any reading at all done this month but I managed to get some major pages done in the last 1.5 weeks of April.

23 A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin I loved this but it was SO DENSE that it took me forever to get through it. I have the others, but I can’t bring myself to commit the time to reading them yet (although I did hear that the rest were not as hard to get through, because you know all the characters, etc). So we’ll see. Two thumbs up (I still haven’t watched the show).

24 To Walk the Night - ES Moore Fluff, which was well needed after GoT.

25 Gathering Blue - Lois Lowry Loved. I saw that universally this wasn’t as enjoyed as The Giver but I loved it for what it was.

26 Angel's Ink - Jocelynn Drake Eh. It was okay. It was also free which helps a lot.

27 The Taken - Vicki Pettersson Oh, this was strange but interesting and FUN. I haven’t enjoyed a book and not worried about plot in a while. And it was a good plot, fun. Still holes but I didn’t care. FUN.

28 Messenger - Lois Lowry I love that I’m seeing where this story is going even though I don’t know where it’s going. I loved this one too.

The plan and planning

So we’re going out of town sans-kids next week, and this week I was SUPPOSED to be out of town for work but it got canceled last minute. I did a happy dance. But now I’ve got my in-head list of things I want to get done this week but I haven’t committed it to paper. So hey! You get my list. This is what I’ve done so far, and what I need to do:

Monday- cleaned my closet. I don’t know why, except that my husband wouldn’t let me start laundry at 7:30pm, but now my shoes are organized and my clothes are organized and also I cleaned the kitchen.

Tuesday – no one was home to tell me what cleaning I should and should not do, so I cleaned the boys’ bedroom thoroughly (found: watch!) and did three loads of laundry (I can also disclaim that I’m cooking every night too; we tend to fall back on take out when we’re amping up for something and I really didn’t want to spend that extra money).

Wednesday – today the getting ready for the actual trip starts. I made lists of important numbers for my mom and in-laws (they are splitting the childcare, mostly at my house), wrote medical consent letters and copied insurance cards. My mom is coming over today to go over C’s car (she’ll be driving the kids in it, she drives a scooter otherwise) and the route to daycare. I need to make a list of things that need to be done (gerbil’s water, watering my deck flowers, change out the water on my green onions). Make sure she still has a key to my house.

Thursday – clean the bathrooms and sort my earrings and hair accessories. This way I can decide what I’m taking with me. Start lists of what I need to not forget to pack (I leave this till the end because I’m a good packer and don’t often forget things, if I don’t make this list it’s not a big deal)

Friday – rest.

Saturday – make sure all laundry is finished, pack the boys for their one night away at my in-laws. We also have a birthday party to go to and maybe a housewarming if we can get there.

Sunday – mother’s day. We’ll be stopping by my in-laws’, and otherwise just packing.

Is there anything I’m forgetting?

Ostrich

I fell off the blogging wagon at 2:50p on Monday, April 15. I planned on posting about how lovely my weekend was, how I successfully cooked for 15-20 people for a party for a coworker and had an amazing time with work friends that I always forget are my friends, I got a haircut and took the kids to their first time at Disney Quest, got caught in the rain and made it an early quiet time home. I was going to tell you what a joy my kids are right now, how fun our weekends are and how much I look forward to going home to spend time with my family lately. I was going to tell you how that day was my anniversary, and how much I love my husband for all the things we’ve been through in six years of marriage and ten years of togetherness.

And then the bombings happened.

I rarely keep up with news. I read the occasional news website or check out our local free newspaper, but I’m just not good with keeping up to date with news. I really dislike it, truth be told. My husband reads the paper and watches the news channels all day, and if there’s something I really want to know eventually I’ll find out (Today! Trader Joe’s is coming to my town!)

When big things happen, I grasp at the news that I’m not accustomed to seeing, immerse myself in information. I want to know the facts. All the facts, but not someone’s interpretation of the facts. I stare at twitter and news websites, unable to DO anything but watch the news roll in.

Then, two days later, the Texas plant explosion. More dead, wounded, more things I can’t bury my head in the sand about. More watching, more waiting.

By Friday I couldn’t handle anymore, and so I took the weekend off. I spent another full day of Disney (Animal Kingdom AND Hollywood Studios), late night book club, Sunday morning gardening and pool time with my favorite boys. All I CAN tell you right now is that my boys are a joy. They’ve been on the low side of whine central so we all seem to be getting along well. I’ve been setting up the pool and sprinklers in the backyard every night so once S finishes his dern homework (this is our main fight, truthfully) they play in the water and C and I sit outside and talk or catch up on whatever we want to catch up on (me: twitter, him: random downloadable games). I WILL tell you how fun our weekends are and how much I look forward to going home to spend time with my family lately. I WILL tell you how that day was my anniversary, and how much I love my husband for all the things we’ve been through in six years of marriage and ten years of togetherness, good and bad.

We have a drink, I make dinner and we sit on the deck and soak up the beautiful weather and the happy kids and the fact that we’re there.

So here’s my point, in all this. 10 days is what it took me to stop dwelling on things. I will remember, and it hit me harder than I could have expected given my nature of ignoring the bad. I cannot forget. And while I think that the whole “enjoy every moment” is just pure bullshit, one moment here and there. Remember those moments. Remember the splashing and the dirt and even the play guns (I can’t escape the play guns, with no guns they resort to fingers). Remember the first time your five year old goes on Tower of Terror and begs to do it again. Remember them eating ramen by stretching out the noodles as long as their arms to slurp them down. Remember five times in three days at your favorite tea place and cats curled up on your lap. Don’t dwell on all those hard times, so many hard times and so much whining and arguing and timeouts and tantrums, fights with significant others and hard times at work. You don’t need to embrace those times. Just take a minute when things are going really well to acknowledge it, and put it in your memory bank and when terrible things happen in the world, or even to you personally, you have something to grasp onto.

You won’t need to put your head in the sand, although that’s where mine will be.

A few things for Friday

It’s icky outside this morning, and all I want to do is sit here and drink my tea and not worry about anything. That’s not how today is going to go, but it would be nice.

I’ve been drinking tea for the past week or so, because coffee was upsetting my stomach. I do miss coffee but I’m unexpectedly loving my tea in the mornings. I like black teas: breakfast teas, earl grey, orange pekoe. Right now I’ve got my favorite, Numi breakfast blend, with a little honey.

I’m co-hosting a party for a friend on Saturday, and I’m doing all the cooking. It’s at my girlfriend’s house and she’s handling the cake and alcohol and I’m making chicken salad, pulled pork, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, and baked bacon jalapenos. I made the chicken salad last night and cut and cleaned the jalapenos because that was the most labor intensive of the whole ordeal. Tonight before I go to bed I’ll start the pork to cook overnight, and then the rest in the morning!

I’ve posted five times this week. Don’t expect this to be a habit or anything.

Every bullet (before this one) has started with an I. I don’t know why. (perhaps she’ll die. Sorry, random nursery rhyme in there)

My anniversary is Monday, and we’ve made FANCY reservations. I feel bad about this, because we are also going to New Orleans next month pretty much as an anniversary trip too. Should I nix the anniversary dinner? Embrace it? I think I’ll embrace it (there’s a dessert room, people. And a kitchen tour. And what’s billed as the best steak in the city). My inlaws are keeping the kids OVERNIGHT so we don't have to pick them up (they watch the kids on Tuesdays anyhow)

Tonight! Tonight I’m (hopefully, probably, almost definitely) meeting an internet friend for dinner with her husband and her adorable son with the same name as my son. Yay for pocket friends becoming real life friends!

I’m getting a haircut on Sunday, and I’m so overdue. It’s not really that bad except that I do nothing with it except pull it in a ponytail (and my usual request at the hairdresser is “too short for a ponytail”). So it’s definitely time.

I have new Kelly green pants, and I’m wearing them with an aqua undershirt and a black and white stripe shirt. I do hope they match okay. Some days I just feel hopeless.

Easter baskets

Jen wanted to make a list of Easter basket ideas for the future, and since my phone was washed this photo from Instagram is the only picture I have of the boys’ Easter baskets. Which I had to snag as a snip from Instagram because apparently you can’t download your photos back from there like you can Facebook (obviously I’m still in mourning for the contents of my phone).

In Spencer’s basket (age 5)

A new bathing suit and a beach towel (he had been drooling over this Monsters Inc towel at target for a while, reasons unknown).

A peanut butter bunny (since relegated to the freezer for future consumption)

A handful of jelly beans and Cadbury mini eggs

A headlamp (forgot batteries, 2 weeks later still no batteries)

A watch (the boy is OBSESSED with time, and I’m sick of him asking what time it is)

A new Thomas movie

A beyblade-like top

In Henry’s basket (age 2)

A new bathing suit and a beach towel (Cars2).

A peanut butter bunny (since relegated to the freezer for future consumption)

A handful of jelly beans and Cadbury mini eggs

A headlamp (forgot batteries, 2 weeks later still no batteries)

A Jake and the Neverland Pirates seek & find book

A new Thomas movie

A beyblade-like top


Obviously, I tend to give my boys pretty close to the same thing. They are always coveting eachother's things, and unless it's something they can share I would rather get two and not have to listen to the complaining (see: the Innotab. S got it for Christmas and I regret weekly not just getting one for H too, even though I wasn't the one to purchase Spencer's.)

Also, instead of baskets this year (I can never find the baskets) I got these buckets from Target because they were $3 and I thought they would be good multiuse for them afterward. When I was peeling the sticker off the bottom to fill, I realized they were St Patty’s day ice buckets. HAHA

The most recent holiday

So I know I’m more than a week late documenting our lovely Easter holiday, but I would be remiss if I didn’t at least through a few photos up here to remember it by. We did the same things we do every year: sunrise service at the zoo park, breakfast out with family, egg hunt and baskets at Grandma’s (and family baskets at home before service) and family dinner at Grandma’s. It was delightful, as usual.

So here are some highlights:

 

(two watches for Easter)