Background noise

I got a lot done yesterday, but at the end of the day it felt like I did nothing because I a) didn't get dressed beyond yoga pants and b) had movies going in the background all day.

But somehow, the house got cleaned, the dishes and bottles got washed, the pantry got cleaned out, Spencer got several timeouts, three loads of laundry were washed, folded and hung (okay one was folded and hung but at least all three made it through the dryer instead of sitting in the washer until I have to re-wash!), and I made a steak dinner with risotto (box, so sue me - Target risotto is actually pretty awesome) and brussel sprouts while feeding Henry and policing Spencer so he wouldn't get in Daddy's way while Daddy fixed the dern Wii.

I went through kids movies yesterday trying to find one that Spencer would enjoy, because he still doesn't watch movies (except Elmo Goes Potty - you'd think he'd be getting something out of that one, he watches it so much). So we warmed up on Diego and Caillou episodes on Netflix and then we watched Anastasia which I love. Him, not so much. Finally I turned on Newsies, which is one of my very favorite guilty pleasure movies. I love it. I can recite every word and sing every song and Spot Conlon, be still my heart. I still have my little-girl crush on him, even though I found and watched his other movies and he really didn't age well.

Henry has a very stuffy nose, which he was fine with yesterday but this morning he's none too happy about. I'm thinking about breaking out the saline because I couldn't suck anything out without it, but every time he sneezes he blows snot bubbles. No other symptoms so I think he's okay.

Now, coffee.

Brain rot

I obviously am having a hard time blogging lately. I keep staring at the screen, thinking about what I want to say and then it doesn't happen. Yesterday I started Ten on Tuesday but I just couldn't finish. I'm going to go ahead and blame it on the fact that I have ONE WEEK LEFT BEFORE GOING BACK TO WORK. I just can't concentrate.

So here's what I've done since my last list update:

Watched movies -
Good Dick - listed as a comedy. NOT a comedy. Should have been a comedy. Someone give the script to Kevin Smith and have him make this thing funny.
I'll Be There - much better as What A Girl Wants with Amanda Bines.
Lost In Austen - I wasn't expecting much from this, so it was cute.
Forever Strong - have I told you about my serious love for sports movies? Even sports that I don't care about. Love them. Loved this.
Remember Me - good, received by accident by not keeping track of my Netflix queue
I Hate Valentine's Day - Oh. M. G. I know that my husband thinks Amy Pohler is the worst actress on the face of this earth, but he's never seen Nia Vardoles "act". She really is the worst ever.
Did you Hear about the Morgans - eh, cute
Leap Year - obviously predictable but sweet and ahh, sexy Irish accents.

Reading books:
I am Number Four - fan-freaking-tastic. I loved it. I assume there's a sequel and I can't wait to read it.
My Name is Memory - fascinating look at reincarnation. I loved it, but there's a subplot that is weaved in at the end that I wasn't fond of that lends itself to a transparent plan for a sequel. I would have much rather it been the straight story without out that subplot.
Life as We knew it - I didn't like the format (written in diary form) and it was depressing - sort of a cross between War of the Worlds and The Road written from the POV of a 16- year old girl.

Other things done:
-- Cut out all recipes that looked good from my two years back issues of Rachael Ray, Bon Appetit, and random other cooking magazines and recycled the rest
-- Took Spencer to the Children's Museum, Chuck E Cheese, and the playground.
-- played many hours of Fallout: New Vegas (but not nearly as much as my fair husband, who has been attached to the computer almost every night)
-- slept in until 9:30 two days in a row! And Spencer didn't tear the house apart!!
-- took good pictures of the boys
-- am on day 3 of keeping Spencer home from daycare and don't want to tear my hair out. yet. (We get one free week a year, and since Henry won't be eligible this year and I'm not taking any of the holidays off, I thought I'd keep him home for my last full week before going back to work)

I have officially done everything on my list except the working out and I've come up with a plan to start working out when I go back to work. I work on the third floor, and the coffee machine is on the sixth floor. I plan on doing stairs to get to my desk and to get to the coffee. I need to get a pair of flats that I can stick in my purse for this use (I'm thinking of getting a pair of City Flats). Once I start getting use to all those stairs, I'll work on adding to my regiment.

Other quick things:
We went to a Halloween party on Saturday, and this year I was the one that got sick. Before that, so much fun! Evidently taking jello shots every time the tray was passed was not such a good idea. But my hubby got me home in one piece, and I woke up on Sunday sans hangover.

Here's us before drunkenness set in:


I don't have any plans for the rest of the week except to maybe bust out the Wii with Spencer and see if he likes it, enjoy every smile and laugh the Henry graces me with and try to speak in normal volumes and lengthen my fuse. And maybe I'll blog.

Christmas shopping

The holidays are upon us.

In the spirit of spending gobs of money giving, most of us have an idea of what we would like our children (especially those young enough not to demand certain things) to get. I'm thinking that I would like Spencer to get a kid's camera, junior golf things, the Toy Story collection, books, and any electronic that can help him learn to read/spell/write without getting markers all over my wall.

Do you coordinate with people that will be giving your child gifts (like his grandparents, both sides) so that he gets the things that you think would be useful and cater to his interests instead of ending up with a bunch of expensive crap? Or do you cross your fingers and don't worry about it?

I started an Amazon wish list so I could keep track of what I thought of throughout the year that he would like, but I don't know how to share that with others - I don't necessarily care that they buy off the list but would like to give them ideas. However, I don't want to end up with 5 kid cameras either.

Ideas?

Menu Monday

Last week's menu:

Monday: plum-spiced chicken with rice and sauteed spinach
Tuesday: taco salads
Wednesday: Stir fry
Thursday: Out with Stacy to Byblos: Labneh, Shanklish and Falafel ... and wine :)
Friday: A pre-party mini-party with the a few of the same crowd from Saturday - a good friend was on leave from the Navy and wouldn't be able to make the main party, so we started early. I brought over a Mexican lasagna and chocolate pumpkin cupcakes so the host wouldn't have to cook, and we played Circle of Death and Jenga Circle of Death ... ahh, drinking games.
Saturday: Halloween party! It was crazy. I made guacamole. I drank ... umm, too much.
Sunday: Pita's Republic and Halloween candy, a match made in heaven.

I had three nights in a row of too much drinking, and while it was fun I'm thinking a little detox is in order this week.

Monday: Cajun Dirty Rice
Tuesday: linguine with pesto sauce and parchment fish and veggie packets
Wednesday: slow cooker chicken and dumplings
Thursday: steaks and cheesy risotto and some vegetable
Friday: out with Crystal?
Saturday: chicken pizza

Seven quick takes

I don't usually do this as a regular blog post, but hey, what the heck? Throwing caution (or more substantial blog posts) to the wind this morning:

1) I went out last night with a friend that I haven't seen in more than a year. It was a lot of fun, we were at the restaurant for 4 hours until they moved us to the bar so they could clean our section. Wine was drunk, appetizers were eaten, I found the difference in homemade falafel and tahini sauce versus the real stuff (the stuff of the gods, I tell you) and secrets were revealed. It was a fabulous time, and I really hope that we start seeing each other more regularly, because I did really miss her.

2) When I woke up at 3:30am to feed Henry, there were no clean bottles. This incensed me so much that after feeding Henry, I laid him back down, laid myself down, and made my husband get up with him to get him to sleep. Then I couldn't sleep because I was still so mad that I sat up and watched him rock the baby to sleep and finally said "Not to start a fight at 4am but for future reference, if there are no clean bottles please wash some before playing Fallout so I don't have to wash one at 3:30 in the morning". I think I was calm but I was still seething. I then went back to sleep. I am proud of myself because I usually either a) bottle it up and start a blow up fight the next time something small happens or b) bitch about it under my breath until we have a fight in the middle of the night, which is no good.

3) I still long for that fight in the middle of the night, as my irritation didn't wane except enough to let me sleep. And I still have no clean bottles.

4) Aren't my sons the cutest pair ever?


5) Potty training is really going to be the death of me. Like, I want to strangle myself with my bare hands every time my son stands in front of me talking and pauses to poop in his pullup.

6) I go back to work in 13 days. I'm torn between wanting to cry and wanting to jump for joy. Stocks in Excedrin Migraine should be expected to plummet.

7) I just put myself in for making a Mexican lasagna and chocolate pumpkin cupcakes for tonight's pre-Halloween party set-up party. This means I need to get my butt in gear for the day. Also means I need to shoot my coffee - anyone have an IV? I should have made more than one cup.

For more quick takes, visit Conversion Diary

The Ghost and Mr Buzz

Glad I don't live in the '50s

I hit a wall last night and decided I could not be a housewife. It was a good day with the kids, full of Chuck E Cheese with friends and cookies at the mall and library visits. And then I got home and cleaned out the under-the-sink in our bathroom and got rid of an entire kitchen garbage bag worth of stuff and organized the rest. Then I cleaned the kitchen and washed bottles (again) and made dinner and thought, I can't do this anymore. I can't be the only one to do anything around here.

So I told my husband, who was standing next to the pass-through between dining room and kitchen while I cooked, that I think I am finally ready to go back to work. I've been dreading that day (2 weeks and 1 day from today), and I'm still dreading that day, but I think I'm finally ready. And I said, "I'm ready. I'm going to miss Henry terribly, but I had a good time with the kids, and I got a heck of a lot done while I was out."

You know what he said? "WHAT EXACTLY DID YOU GET DONE?"

Seriously?

SERIOUSLY???

I cleaned our closet from top to bottom, I took two loads of clothes to Goodwill, I organized and decorated the boys' room, I cleaned EVERY DAY, I cleaned and organized our bathroom, I started Spencer's road to potty training, I read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies (I consider these things achievements too), I took Spencer to playgrounds and libraries and did sprinklers and made Buzz Lightyear wings, pulled Henry's swings and bouncy chair and clothes (that I had him looking for for two months before I had him) out of the attic. I've menu planned and cooked for him almost every night and most weekend breakfasts too, did laundry and entertained the children for 10 weeks. He hasn't even recently had to clean the kitchen after dinner, because I've been doing that too (because otherwise it's been left for me for the morning).

Seriously, what have I done?

I was especially hurt by this, and he didn't seem to notice that it was a hurtful question. He said, "what I mean is, what specifically have you done?" (please note this was about 10 minutes after I told him about our day, which was the library, the alterations place, Chuck E Cheese, the mall to return stuff, the dishes, and CLEANING THE BATHROOM UNDER-THE-SINK AND ALL THE DRAWERS. And I was standing there cooking dinner and simultaneously washing bottles).

We had two arguments in the last couple weeks, and they were both cleaning related. When I had friends over for the play date he mentioned that the rug needed to be vacuumed (usually his job because he's so anal about it), so I did so, and that night he asked if it had been vacuumed, and I said yes. "Because there's dirt here right on the corner of the rug." Okay? Was it where anyone could see it? No, it was in the corner under one of the side tables. I moved the chair and the coffee table and the couch to vacuum (which by-the-way, he doesn't do) and he's complaining about dirt under a side table?

Argument number two was a doozy, and I almost came directly here to complain but I thankfully waited until I calmed down. It was actually the same day, because I was doing laundry before the girls got here, and cleaned the house because it was a disaster from the weekend and Henry had been crying basically all morning so I got all the folded things put away and there were 3 items of mine to hang and 3 of his that I just didn't get to and put on our bed to hang later. So he comes home and hangs his three items and just leaves mine there. AAARG! I do everyone's laundry, not just mine, and wash everybody's dishes, not just mine, and clean everybody's house ... and you can't hang three items of mine? Especially when you know how much I hate to do laundry anyhow?? I was furious, and I let him know. I don't think he understood at all why I was upset, but I think he agreed to hang my clothes up if they are laying there in the future.

So yeah, I couldn't be a housewife. I understand that I have to do most of these things when I'm working too, but he seems to help out around the house more when I'm working, and at least there they appreciate me. Bah.