Month: July 2011

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Right or wrong, I am still the mama

Something I discovered as soon as I found out I was pregnant, actually even before that, was that there is an overwhelming number of choices to be made regarding how to care for your baby.

Do I breastfeed or bottle? Do I co-sleep or not? Do I use cloth or disposable diapers? Do I do this, do I do that, do I not do this, do I not do that? How do I know if I’m doing it right? And how do I not make myself crazy with all these decisions??

And honestly, it has been kind of hard for me to convince my brain that we are doing things right with the decisions we’ve made for D so far, because I often think well what if we’d done this or that instead? And, but what about all the reasons for doing it differently than we have? Here’s a peek into the chaos of my mind and what routes we’ve chosen:

Working mom vs. SAHM:  As much as I would love to, I can’t stay home with D right now. And it’s something I think about daily. If you’ll remember, I wrote about that whole struggle here.

This is probably one of the hardest decisions many moms have to make. If you go back to work some may make you feel guilty for deserting your baby at daycare, and if you stay home some may make you feel guilty for not having a “real job”.

I think this is one argument that needs to go away. Why can’t people  just respect each other for the choices they have to make that are best for their own family and support them as mothers period?

I certainly don’t look down upon anyone who is able to be a SAHM, because I know that this parent thing is absolutely a full-time job in and of itself. You just don’t get paid for it. Unless you count dirty diapers, spit up, and snot rivers as a salary. And I would definitely take offense if someone criticized me for sending D to daycare. Oh ok, are you going to fill the void left by my lack of paycheck in our bank account? Didn’t think so, so zip it.

Breast vs. bottle:  I think you all know the answer to this one by now, what with all my tales of magical boobs. But just in case, I breastfed D, and that is actually one decision that I have no qualms about whatsoever.

Co-sleep or their own bed:  D has never slept with us, and I really can’t imagine even trying to keep her in our bed. From the beginning, she has been a noisy little sleeper. And now she flops around like a fish.

As a newborn she slept in a wheeled bassinet that we put right next to our bed at night, then rolled out into the living room during the day so she could sleep in the same room where we were. We changed her diapers in there too, everything. It was extremely handy, and I highly recommend one (i didn’t want to use one originally, thinking she’d just go right into her crib, but i am now SO glad r’s sister-in-law let us use theirs for d).

She then moved into her crib around 5 weeks old I think. I haven’t done much research on co-sleeping, actually, because that was another thing that I was pretty sure on before she was even born – I never wanted her to sleep with us. Plus there have been way too many tragic stories lately of babies dying from accidental smothering in their parents’ beds. No thank you.

Babywearing:  This I did more when necessary, not really as the rule. We were lucky – D has never been much of a crier when she wasn’t being held (now she’s starting to get into a phase of this, but that’s a whole other post in itself), so we didn’t have to struggle through hours upon hours of ceaseless wailing.

When this did come in extremely handy, however, was when I wanted to get stuff done around the house and she did decide to be cranky. We got a Baby Bjorn as a shower gift, so I used that. I’ve also heard great things about Mobys and Ergos, but they’re expensive and we already had the Bjorn, so why bother?

D loved the carrier. I would strap her in there and vacuum, dust, whatever, and more often than not she just totally conked out asleep. Then when she got big enough I would face her outwards, and she loved being able to see everything I was doing. We took her for a hike in it last Fall too, which she enjoyed. So I did like babywearing, just not as a constant accessory.

Cloth vs. disposable diapers:  This is probably the one where I have the most guilt. For you see, I try to be as eco-friendly as possible with my product choices. However, we use disposable diapers instead of cloth.

I know, I know, boo on me and all the diapers I’m putting into landfills from one tiny butt. Trust me, I know. I say the same thing to myself. And I did even get a 3-pack of reusable diapers when I was pregnant, thinking we could try to start using them once we were out of the newborn stage and more used to the whole baby routine.

Yeah, they’re still in the package in a drawer, 100% unused.

It’s not that I don’t like them; in fact I think they’re quite lovely and cute. It’s just, here’s the thing. I do laundry one day a week. Not 3 or 4 or 7. I’m sorry, I just don’t have time.

I work full-time, I’m usually the one to pick D up from daycare after work, she eats dinner shortly after we get home, then R and I eat dinner, I try to find time to squeeze a run or workout of some sort in a couple times a week, then after that it’s usually bedtime for at least her, if not all of us.

I know that’s not a good excuse – I could have the laundry going while I’m doing that other stuff, but honestly, I just don’t feel like adding one more chore to my daily list of things that have to get done. And I’d much rather spend free time playing with D instead of washing, drying, and folding a shitload of diapers (ha, get it, shit? it’s in the diapers? i’m hilarious).

So disposables have been our choice. Am I happy that I’m contributing even more to the overflowing landfills and the pollution of our planet with all these diapers? Of course not. But disposables are easy, convenient, and preferred at her daycare.

We use 7th Generation ones (i loved Pampers when she was a newborn, but 7th Gen has pretty much been our go-to since she’s gotten bigger) that are free of chlorine processing and petroleum based lotions, but still aren’t biodegradable. I don’t think any disposables are. I do use biodegradable bags in her diaper pail, though. Does that count for something?

CIO or not:  As I’ve mentioned recently, D has been pretty much a champ sleeper until the past couple weeks. So we really never had to worry about letting her cry herself to sleep or not. I think though, if we had to make the choice, I’d let her cry it out. From what I’ve heard, it takes only a few nights of the heart-breaking sobbing themselves to sleep for them to learn bedtime means go to sleep, which I could handle.

I know the opponents of this method say it’s so unnatural for babies to cry themselves to sleep, that’s not nature’s way and animals in the wild don’t ignore their offspring when they’re calling for the parents, they’ll think you don’t love them, and on and on. But I just think that as long as you know they’re not crying because there’s something really wrong with them (besides the fact they just don’t want you to leave them in the crib), they can learn to do this on their own. And we’d all sleep that much better after those couple nights it takes.

Plus I find it really hard to believe that it would become some deeply-ingrained memory of hers that means we don’t love her – practically every waking second of the day she’s showered with love and affection. If D’s bedtime antics resume and we resort to this tactic, I’ll let you know if I’m singing the same tune or not. I think I will be, though.

Baby food:  R made a lot of D’s baby food when she was really young and first starting to eat solids. He would mix in breast milk and puree sweet potatoes, beans, peas, chicken (which she hated), and I mashed up bananas. Way to contribute, Mom.

We did buy the occasional jar, but more just when we were going somewhere and needed it for convenience. The stuff we made at home we froze in little individual tupperware containers, then would thaw them at meal times or send them to daycare with her until she ate completely off the menu there. It worked out great. And we calculated that buying the regular items and processing them ourselves did save us money.

That’s why we did it, not because we didn’t trust what was in the store-bought baby food jars. For if you just look at the labels, most all of them are simply the main ingredient mashed up anyway. You’re definitely not stuck buying jars full of preservatives and chemicals anymore.

Pacifier or not:  I chose no on the pacifier from the start. If you do this too, make sure you tell them that at the hospital as soon as the baby goes to the nursery the first time, if you decide to have them sleep there instead of in your room (do it! you’ll want some sleep that first night or two and believe me, they won’t remember it. that was one of the best decisions i made when d was born).

I just didn’t want her to rely on something to fall asleep or to be soothed or whatever, because I knew eventually I would spend all of her naps and bedtimes going in her crib to replace the fallen pacifier when she started screaming for it. And that wasn’t on my to-do list.

For us it’s worked like a charm. She took one for a bit around 1 month old, but that was about it. It did calm her, but she never grew to depend on it and then just didn’t want it anymore. And personally, I hate seeing toddlers running around with pacifiers in their mouths. I know the parents have good reason to let them keep them (noise plugs, anyone?), but I didn’t want to deal with constantly picking them up and cleaning them off when they would fall out of D’s mouth. So to try to make life simpler, I just decided to forgo pacifiers from day 1.

 

I’m sure there are plenty more decisions that I’ve second-guessed myself on along the way here, but this list is some of the main ones so far. Are there any I’ve forgotten that you’d like to know what we did? Please let me know – I’m happy to answer anything.

I guess you never really know if you’re doing things exactly right. But I just try to remember that D is healthy, happy, loved more than anything, and R and I have survived almost the first year (woah!), so we must be doing something right. And there really is something to be said for a mother’s instinct – trust your gut and don’t let others make you feel guilty about your decisions. That’s your baby, and you more than anyone know what’s best.

 

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Freeganism anyone?

Have you heard of this? Freeganism? I never had until today, but now I’m intrigued. Check out this article I found on HuffPost:

Gio Andollo, Freegan

From the first paragraph of the article:  “Freeganism is a lifestyle in which one employs “alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources.” Gio Andollo is a writer, artist, musician and freegan. Andollo became a freegan when he realized that artists don’t get paid much, but he didn’t like the idea of working a “crappy, part-time job” to pay the bills. So he found another way. Andollo performs on the subway for about 20 hours a week, typically in two-hour intervals. He makes $10 to $50 per shift and has a love/hate relationship with busking. Andollo will buy food, but very rarely. The majority of his food comes from trash touring, or dumpster diving. To learn more about Gio, visit his personal blog and portfolio here, his living-on-a-shoestring-in-New-York blog here and his blog about washing dishes here.”

Interesting. Too bad he didn’t live in NYC the same time we did, or else I’m sure I would have passed him at least once on my countless subway rides.

I’m having trouble deciding if I could do this or not. Employ my skills (which ones? that i have no idea) to make enough money without having a job to keep a home and pay bills, and dig through others’ garbage to find food for my meals? Hmm, that sounds pretty haughty of me, no? For if faced with the need, I’d like to think I would do anything I had to in order to feed my family. Fortunately, I don’t have to do that right now. But it sounds like Mr. Andollo doesn’t necessarily have to go on trash tours, rather he chooses to because he doesn’t want to work a conventional job to make the money he needs for such necessities. All right, to each his own of course, as long as whatever you’re doing isn’t a detriment to the rest of us. And his backstory is pretty interesting if you check out his blog. It’s honestly one of those lifestyles about which I always think, “What if I lived like that? Would I be able to pull it off like they can?” I don’t really think it’s a lifestyle to which I’d be well-suited, though, seeing as I’m not an artist of any sort and I do enjoy getting my food from sources other than discarded trash bags, but I think it’s kind of cool how there’s a whole subset of our culture out there who lives like this. Like the complete opposite of me. And they can.

What do you think? Could you be a freegan?

Also, I feel guilty because I threw away a plastic cup today that should have been recycled. Ick.

 

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I’ve heard Neptune is lovely in the summer

Let me start off on a tangent here for a second. Yesterday I had to get 3 fillings at the dentist to seal some sensitive areas at my gumline. Hey, at least they weren’t cavities. Yeah, whatever, they were still fillings and involved drilling. Fun. So anyway, why do dentists try to make small talk as they’re preparing you for this oral nightmare? I mean really – I’m sitting in the chair, one quarter of my face is numb from the giant Novocaine shots, I can’t move my lips properly to actually form words anymore, and you want to know what my plans are for the rest of the summer? Come on. I’m trying to psyche myself up for the fact that you’re about to drill holes. In my head. Let’s cut the chitter chatter and get this over with. Now don’t get me wrong, I really like my dentist’s office. The girls who work there are awesome, my dentist himself is really good, and if I’m just in for a routine cleaning? Fine, I’ll shoot the shit all day long. But when I have to get needles and drills shoved into my mouth, please don’t waste any time and prolong the torture. Ok, that’s all. And now back to our regularly scheduled posting.

I knew there was a reason I don’t like to read the news that often. Take a look at some of these recent headlines. And they all appeared on the same front page of a national news website. I didn’t even have to do any scrolling or anything!

“Norway hunts answers after massacre”
“Landslide kills 32 in South Korea”
“Gulf storm could become cyclone”
“U.S. Olympic skier kills himself”
“Why was skeleton in bank chimney?”
“Amy Winehouse’s final days”
“Teen bride talks sex with husband, 51”
“Actress: I got compliments for looking emaciated”

And over here we have some lovely ones from a local news site:

“One acquittal, one conviction for man in execution-style murders”
“City records fifth unsafe sleeping death of infant”
“Suspects in custody after armed robbery, exchange of gunfire with Milwaukee Police”
“Sheboygan teen charged with assaulting 7-year-old” (ok, well, that is from sheboygan)
“1 dead, 1 missing after boat accident in Minnesota”

And my personal favorite:

“Woman sues man for her herpes, seeks $350,000”

No, I promise I did not make that last one up either. I can send you the link if you really want it.  But seriously, what a grim state of affairs in which to be living. Not to mention all the debt ceiling bullshit that’s going on in Washington right now too. Where’s the good news? Is there even any to report? Is there nothing out there to uplift our spirits, or are we stuck with political battles, natural disasters, death, and STDs?

Maybe we can just hightail it outta here and set up shop somewhere new. One of the outer planets, maybe? Who’s in? I’ve got an aerobed and a bag of marshmallows for roasting. Jumbo size ones, too!

 

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The little things

Today I’m wearing a necklace that has been one of my favorites for about 10 years now. It’s nothing fancy, just a little silver necklace with some purple crystals every couple inches interspersed with pale lavender freshwater pearls. I wore it every day for the longest time after I got it, but it has since come to be worn mainly when it perfectly matches certain articles of clothing, like the lavender shirt I have on. Do you do that too? Match specific pieces of jewelry to corresponding outfits? It’s like I never think of some of my jewelry until I put on that one shirt or dress. Funny. Anyway.

The reason this necklace will always hold a spot dear in my heart is because it was the first gift R ever gave me. And I will never ever forget the moment either. It was my last minute in Madison before I had to drive home to Peoria and make the big move out to NYC in the summer of 2001. I think I moved out there July 1, so this would have been the last weekend in June when I left Madison. And it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do by then. For R and I had become so close (though we weren’t “dating”, mind you. that became official later), and I had some incredibly good friends who I couldn’t bear to leave. Fortunately they all came to visit me shortly after I moved out east, but still. The actual leaving process was horrible.

The whole day I was dragging my feet, putting off leaving as long as humanly possible. R had helped me load up the stuff I was taking in my car that hadn’t been shipped out on the moving truck, we grabbed some lunch at Qdoba on State Street, then we watched a movie over at their apartment on Dayton that afternoon. And believe me, those closing credits were the last thing I wanted to see. For they meant I had to go. So we were like ok, this is it. He ducked into his bedroom quickly as we were heading to the door, then walked me downstairs and across the street where I was parked. I gave him a big hug that I never wanted to end and said something dumb like, “Well, it’s been fun.” I honestly felt like I was never going to see anyone from Madison again, as crazy as that may sound. That’s when he reached in his pocket and handed me this little necklace.

I was absolutely floored. One, I was certainly not expecting a parting gift, but two, did this mean he actually had feelings for me beyond the “friends with benefits” thing? Holy shit! And now I’m literally getting in my car and moving 1,000 miles away?? Great timing. And I thought I didn’t want to leave earlier that day. Once he gave me that necklace I would have cemented my feet right there in the street in front of him if I could have. That was one long, lonely, confusing drive home.

Obviously he did have feelings for me, and I for him, which we finally admitted when we started officially dating a little over a month later. And whaddya know? We’ve been together ever since. Awww… sappy, I know. But sometimes it’s just the little things that really do mean the most. And every time I wear this necklace I’m taken right back to that day a decade ago when I first thought hmm, maybe this could actually turn into something more.

I love that the clasp is a heart

 

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Things they don’t tell you about pregnancy – #6

I took the train to Chicago yesterday afternoon for a class and parked at the Amtrak station in downtown Milwaukee, and it never fails – the car is always covered in huge blasts of bird shit when I return. Then this morning I stuck my hand in a big smear of it when I closed the car door. Awesome. I really hope it’s not a sign of things to come for today.

But anyway… I bet all you moms-to-be have heard how terribly important the birthing classes and birth plan are. I’m going to let you in on a little secret, though – they’re not. Gasp! I know I just turned your pregnancy world upside down with that revelation, so I’ll let you right yourselves before we continue…

See here’s the thing – labor and delivery is SO unpredictable (i guess unless you have a planned induction or c-section) that even if you have the way you want yours to go nailed down to a T with each minute planned out and choreographed to the perfect playlist, chances are that baby will flip you the bird and toss all your well-laid plans right out the window. He’ll be like birth plan? You expected me to follow a birth plan? Hahaha, suckers! Ready or not (no, we’re not!), here I come!!

Like I’ve said before, the actual labor and delivery process was what scared me the most when I was pregnant – what does it feel like, how much will it hurt, how long will it take, will I survive? (my answers: a lot of poop, a lot, 20 minutes, yes) So I did look into birthing classes. I mean after all, these people have gone through this numerous times so they should be able to give me some sort of hints about everything, right?

Well have you checked out those class schedules lately? At my hospital, at least, you had to go 2 hours a week for 6 weeks or 3 hours on a Friday night plus all day Saturday. Yeah right. Have you checked out our household schedule lately? We didn’t have time for that. Plus, getting R to attend a childbirth class? Hahahaha. Yeah, I might as well have tried to get him to take ballet lessons with me. Not a chance.

Now I still wanted to learn at least a little something about this process that was going to put the contents of my insides on the outside, and my hospital did offer online childbirth classes, so I signed up for that instead. Too bad it cost the same amount as the in-person classes and basically told me the same things I had already read in my books and online. So I’m going to do you a favor and just tell you what you’d pay to learn in those classes. Well, at least my version of it anyway, lucky you!

  • 10cm – that’s the magic number. Your cervix has to open that far, then the baby can come out. Here’s a totally harmless geometric representation of the expansion from 1-10cm to give you an idea of how big that is (no really, it’s just circles, not vaginas).
  • There are 3 stages of labor – early (latent) labor (0-3cm. not really painful at all, can even unknowingly start weeks out from delivery whenever your cervix begins to dilate), active labor (3-7cm, usually lasts a couple hours. ok, it’s probably really starting to hurt. if you’re having an epidural you need to get it now, before you reach about 7cm), and transitional labor (7-10cm, generally the shortest phase. holy shit this is killing me! get this baby out!! fortunately now is when you do, and then it’s all over. drinks for everyone!)
  • Breathing really does help during the painful contractions. During our whole ride to the hospital (when I was really already in transitional labor and didn’t even know it. um, duh) I kept trying to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth when I felt the pain, and continued doing so until delivery, and it honestly did help. My head never once exploded. I didn’t even need a class to tell me that! When you start pushing they will give you instructions on how to breathe too, so if you’re unmedicated at that point and in so much pain you can’t even speak your name (see my delivery story), you don’t have to worry about how many numbers you have to count to or how many times. They’ll count, you just breathe in, out, then push. Just don’t hold your breath until they tell you to. It’s really hard to deliver a baby when you’re passed out.

Now who needs a class just to learn that? See, told you.

And I know that list only has 3 things on it and that can’t possibly be all you need to know when you’re going to have a baby, but in all honesty, that is the crux behind childbirth classes. Just for liability’s sake, however, so no one goes into labor and says, “but SM said I didn’t need to do that!”, I do suggest doing a bit of research on your own about the whole process. I certainly didn’t want to go in blind, and I don’t recommend you do either.

I just don’t think you really need to take a class when there are so many free (and much faster) resources out there. This site alone does a great job of breaking out and explaining the various stages leading up to childbirth, some techniques you can use to manage pain, different childbirth options, etc. It’s from the same people as the “What To Expect When You’re Expecting” book, which I’m sure many of you have, so the information on that site will probably be very familiar to you.

And I do realize many people want a much more hands-on experience in preparation for childbirth and love the classes. I get that, I really do. It just wasn’t for me.

And a birth plan? Nope, don’t need that either.

Practically everything I read while I was pregnant said make a birth plan, a birth plan is so important, you can’t have a baby without a birth plan, don’t you know?!?! What the? Why do I have to have a birth plan? Labor was such an unknown for me, I thought how could I possibly even begin to try to plan it out when I didn’t have the slightest clue what was going to happen? Even the doctor who is now D’s pediatrician thought it was a ridiculous notion when I was talking to her for the first time last summer, before D was born.

So for me, the only thing I knew was that I wanted to try to go as long as I could without pain medicine, but if it got too unbearable I definitely wasn’t averse to asking for an epidural. Ha! Little did I know I wasn’t even going to get the opportunity to ask anyway.

I do recommend having at least a little idea of how you’d like to deliver in a perfect world (meds, no meds, water birth, birthing ball, music, who’s in the delivery room, what you want them to do or not do for you, etc.), but don’t get too attached to that plan. And if things don’t end up going according to your agenda, try not to let that ruin your birthing experience. Just go with the flow and remember that the most important thing is that your baby gets out here safe and sound and you live to tell the tale. If you didn’t get a chance to have your calming Enya playing in the background and the candles lit when all that happened, too bad. It doesn’t matter.

Maybe I should start my own childbirth class. It’d go something like this – do this, don’t do that, now have a baby. Ready? 1, 2, 3, GO!

 

 

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Takin’ it on two wheels

This weekend was R’s annual family picnic up in the Sheboygan area, and man was it hot. It was this exact same weekend last year, and I remember that because it was the same day my mucous plug came out (oh yeah, that again) and 8 days before D was born. It was equally as hot last year, but this year’s weather was more bearable for the simple fact that I wasn’t carrying around an extra 30+ pounds and going to the bathroom every 15 minutes. This is always a fun event, because R’s family is big and they’re a blast. His mom is 1 of 9 kids (this is their side of the fam that gets together), so all of his aunts and uncles and cousins are constantly coming up with crazy stories. Plus this was D’s inaugural appearance as an outside baby, so of course she was the hit of the afternoon.

The Murray fam (some of 'em, anyway)

Yesterday was one of our few weekend days where we had absolutely nothing planned, so we took advantage of it not being quite so hot and horrible outside and loaded D up into the bike trailer for her first ride. There is an awesome path that runs from just a few blocks from our house all the way into and through downtown, so we hopped on that and cruised along. R had her hooked to his bike and I followed, and he said she looked a little apprehensive at first. But as soon as we were halfway down our block, all I heard for the next half mile was her nonstop giggles. We rode all the way down to the lakefront and to the little man-made peninsula just out from the Summerfest grounds. It was so nice down there, too. The sun had gone behind some cloud cover and there was a cooler pleasant breeze off the lake, so we stopped for a bit at the point in the park to get D out and let her look around. By the time we got home we’d been gone for 2 hours, so that was a great ride. It was still pretty nice since the searing heat hadn’t come back yet with the sun, so R and I both got runs in after the biking, too. Talk about studs! I just did my real quick route, since the last time I had to do a bike to run transition was in the last triathlon I did, 2 summers ago. I ran 1.44 miles in 11:15, for a 7:50 pace. R did a longer run, and I called him crazy.

Ready to roll
In the park w/Daddy
More park, w/Mommy now

This is the bike trailer we got, and it worked perfectly. It holds 2 kids, so when only 1 is riding in it, the straps just turn around and make a harness in the middle of the seat. D loved it, so hopefully we’ll have many more weekend rides in our future.

Then after our runs, showers, and a Goldfish snack for D, we walked up the street a few blocks to watch the last leg of the International Cycling Classic, which happened to be running right through our neighborhood. Talk about amazing! I don’t know how those guys don’t wipe out each turn, they’re going so fast. We were there for the start, which was an awesome site as the field of riders charged down the street after the race car, then separated into a group of 9 leaders followed by the rest of the field, a gap that grew from around 20 seconds to almost being lapped by the lead pack by the time we walked home.  We stayed for about 30 laps, which was just over half the race. What a cool event, and how fun to be able to get to watch it just a short walk from our house. They have it every year, but this was the first time we actually went up to see what it was all about.

And I’m sure you all heard about Amy Winehouse’s passing on Saturday. I can’t say it’s totally surprising, but a tragic loss of life nonetheless. And I did love “Rehab”. She joins the infamous 27 Club – Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Kurt Cobain… R always said he was convinced he was going to die at 27, too. Sorry babe, I love you, but you’re not exactly the second coming of Mr. Mojo Risin. Sure glad you made it to this side of that fateful age, though.

 

p.s. One week from today I’ll have a 1 year old daughter. Wow!

 

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Did you know?

That it’s unhealthy to breathe someone else’s farts? Yours are totally ok to ingest, though.

 

Seriously, if you haven’t laughed yet today, go read this. I can’t believe I’m not dead yet, you know, living with R and D and all the ass gas they produce. I’m not kidding – D definitely takes after R in this respect. In fact, one of her favorite things to do first thing in the morning is rip a couple wake up farts as she’s scooting around in her crib. Like hi Mom, my butt wants to say I love you!

And wait, there’s more! Not fart-related, though, sorry to disappoint. But look at this awesome iPhone case I got yesterday:

Hi!

Are you kidding me?? How cute is that! One of the girls I raced with in the Milwaukee Challenge last weekend had one that she’d designed with a bunch of cool words on it, so I went to their site and made my own. It’s awesome – you can upload your own art or photos, pick from their stock art, or just start from scratch and make whatever you want. It arrived just 2 days after I ordered it too! Let me know if you’d like the site; I have some 20% off coupons too if you’d like to create your own.

And wait again! Guess what I did last night and the night before? You’ll never get it in a million years, so I’ll just tell you – I hung curtains in our bedroom! Um, so what? People hang curtains all the time. No, you don’t understand. This involved a power drill, drywall anchors, and a power screwdriver, 3 things with which I am completely uncomfortable. I don’t do power tools. None of them (yes, the 4 years and counting that we’ve spent remodeling our house has all been done by r). They scare me. Because I know that if I put a hole where a hole shouldn’t be, R will kill me. And I don’t just mean that metaphorically either. I’m pretty sure I would be in a body bag somewhere if I ruin our walls that he built. As such I have been terrified to adorn them. We barely have anything hanging in our house yet as a result. There are a couple pieces here and there, but those I was able to hang with simple hooks that go through the drywall and make miniscule holes that even R said are no big deal. We do have one big framed piece hanging in the kitchen, but he did that one since it involved drilling and anchors too. So you see, my hanging 2 curtain rods, which involved drilling 10 holes plus anchors and screws, is a HUGE accomplishment for me. The curtains are just cheapie ones I wanted to use to cover the lack of trim until we replace the windows and maybe get nice room-darkening blinds, so they’re no big deal in themselves. It’s my conquering the power tools and not ruining the walls that excited me most.

Ok, now class dismissed. Have a great weekend!