Category: Life as I know it

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Help!

Ok guys, I need some assistance. Our 5 year wedding anniversary is coming up in just a few weeks, and I have NO IDEA what to get R. I mean I’ve got nuthin’. My mind is completely blank on this one for some reason. Usually I can come up with something pretty decent, but every time I try to think of anything now I just get tumbleweeds rolling around in my brain.

Any ideas?? What do you get the guy who gets everything he wants for himself? He’s the one that knows all about the latest tech stuff and gadgets, so that genre is hard to sneak past him. Plus he knows WAY more about all those gizmos than I do. I’d also lean towards getting him an “experience”, if you will, as opposed to a “thing”, since we have very little room left in our house for more things that just sit there and look pretty.

We are going out to a really nice dinner to celebrate, which we agreed would be a joint present, but I’d still like to have a little somethin’ just for him. I have already warned him, though, that I’m lost on this one and not to expect anything (which he said goes the same for me, and with which i am TOTALLY fine), but I’d still feel kinda bad giving him nothing. 5 years seems like a big one.

The 5 year gift is wood. Umm…. wood? Let the brain-wracking commence….

I am open to any and all suggestions. Thanks in advance!

Love, SM

*I really hope this isn’t the day R decides to check out my blog!*

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Top o’ the mornin’ to ya!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Is everyone wearing green? 🙂 Not me. I realized this morning that I have zero green clothes that aren’t t-shirts, so I had to settle for shamrock socks for my touch of Irish today. And I have a little shamrock pin on my jacket that I’ve had since I was a kid (same one as in that picture). Maybe I’ll have to work on an emerald-colored wardrobe addition for next year.

Even though I’m not Irish, St. Patrick’s Day has always been fun for me. Decorating the house with leprechaun footprints and cards for our youngest sister when we were kids, the good spirit everybody seems to be in on this day (much of that may be green beer-induced, but hey, that’s fun too ;)), the start of March Madness, and one of my personal favorites, the annual treat of Shamrock Shakes. My birthstone is emerald and R and D’s is peridot, so those fit right in today, too.

The best part about this St. Patty’s Day so far? It was 50 degrees on the temperature gauge I see each morning, climbing to a high of 60! Wahoo!! And check these out:


You see those? Tulip sprouts!

 

And these:

Buds on one of my lilac bushes!

 

Tulips and lilacs and crocus, oh my! Has Spring finally sprung? I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think maybe it has. The forecast is calling for 40s and 50s for the next 10 days so far, so keep your fingers crossed. I might even try to drag my out of shape butt outside today for a jog after work to take advantage of this balmy spell. Who cares if there’s a little rain shower? It’s gonna be 60! And did you notice what’s decidedly missing from those pictures above? Snow!!

The Badgers play their first-round bball game tonight too, so hopefully Belmont will end up being the easy opponent everyone is expecting. R is making some delicious reubens for dinner, and we might have to pick up some Guinness to add to the Irish spirit.

Slainte!

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Oops!

That is not the title I was planning for this post, but it’s now quite apropos seeing how this morning started off… Saturday morning I had set my alarm forward 45 minutes and completely forgot to change it back to my normal time last night. Nothing like having your first thought in the morning be “Oh shit” when you realize that mistake. And so much for remembering to set the clocks ahead for daylight saving time, since I woke up 45 minutes late today anyway. Oops!

Then I had to scramble to get ready this morning so I was out of the bathroom in time for R when his alarm goes off at 6:30 (I didn’t get up until 6:15, so getting ready in 15 minutes is a world record for me!). I got D changed and dressed in a flash and fed her so she was all set for daycare, but didn’t have time to pump the other side before work. So I’m now all lopsided and feeling ready to explode. (sorry, tmi, but it’s no fun being me right now) Double oops, or ouch, I should say!

Then when I took the floor mats for the car out of the dryer on our way out the door I discovered that a) they still weren’t completely dry, and 2) they had gotten dirty, muddy water all over the dryer that was now caked on the drum. Fantastic. The car wash shampooed them yesterday with just a big pressure washer/vacuum hose but warned that they wouldn’t be totally dry, so the cashier recommended putting them in the dryer to finish the job. Obviously their shampooing system isn’t the greatest, and putting floor mats in the dryer isn’t exactly efficient. Triple oops!

So you see, Monday morning strikes again, ugh.

But on to what I really wanted to write, which was a little weekend recap. Saturday morning I tested the waters in my first swim practice since D was born. It went well, probably because I swam shorter distances than everyone else and got out early. Hey, I can. 😉 But it was great to see everyone on the team again, and it always feels good to stretch out the flippers after a long break out of the pool.

That afternoon the second of our friends in this string of Ron Dayne 33rd birthdays celebrated his, so we went over to their house for a couple hours before everyone headed off to the bars on a pub crawl. D doesn’t crawl yet, so we headed home at that point to clean the house. Ooo-wee! Yes, very exciting. I must admit, though, I always feel great when the house is clean and laundry is done. Nerd, I know.

We have such a great circle of friends, and it’s so much fun getting out and about again with everybody. This coming weekend will make 3 weekends in a row of many of us being together, which is practically unheard of. We said that probably hasn’t happened since a bunch of us lived downtown within a few blocks of each other a couple years ago. Too bad it also means we keep spreading our winter germs around and getting each other sick each week. Ah well, c’est la vie. 🙂

Yesterday R watched D for a couple hours while I ran some errands, which were nice to get done. My final stop was at the Coach store near our house to take advantage of the 25% off offer I mentioned last week. And yes, I did end up getting that swingpack I’ve been eying. They were sold out of the one I wanted online and at the store, but they were able to order it for me and have it shipped directly to our house. Kudos to you, Katherine at Coach. So someday this week I should have a pretty little package waiting for me when I get home. It’ll be just like Christmas! Ok, or maybe St. Patty’s. 😉

I wrapped up yesterday afternoon with a little of this, which adds a bit of wonderful to any day:

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To kid, or not to kid?

That is a question I guess most everyone must answer at some point in his or her life – do I want to have kids, or do I not want to have kids? And if I do, in what way will I begin that process?

It is a very personal and sometimes very private decision. And I know for many it is not always that simple; some who so very badly want children are unable to have their own. It can become a very heart-breaking struggle, and in no way, shape, or form do I want to give the impression that I am making light of anyone who has had to endure such hurdles in building a family. I just want to share a little of my own tale…

Never was I the type of person who thought, oh I can’t wait to be a mom! Not that I definitely didn’t want to – I always assumed that someday I’d probably have kids – but more that it just wasn’t something I really thought about that much. I was always more of the vein, “Oh your kids are really cute, but you can keep them over there with you.” 😉

Even once R and I were married, baby fever never set in like it does for a lot of people. We didn’t really discuss kids either – when we wanted to start having them, if we wanted to start having them, how many, etc. I think we both just figured we’d have them eventually. I knew R wanted kids for sure, but I still wasn’t 100% convinced that being a parent was right for me.

Fortunately we never got the “So when are you going to have a baby?” prodding from either of our families, so I never felt any pressure to hop on that train.

I loved our life as a couple – we could do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, we could go wherever we pleased, and we could do it all with very little advance notice or planning. We had a ridiculous amount of fun, and it was just the two of us. That was my biggest qualm about having kids – I didn’t want to share R. Oh yeah, I’m selfish, too. 🙂

Then I turned 30.

Ugh.

The big 3-0.

Some people are like I’m 30, woo hoo, let’s par-tay!! I was like I’m 30, barf, I’m old, it’s the worst thing ever. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if the world ended on my 30th birthday, that’s how much I was dreading the day.

But it was also a biological turning point. I thought well, I’m 30, if we’re going to try to have kids, we’d better get started because I’m certainly not getting any younger.

I really believe it was not having a 2 to start my age that was the baby catalyst for me. Kind of like oo, 30, that’s very adult-sounding, you’d better have some kids soon if that’s what you want to do. Hmm, typing it out like this makes me sound more like a weirdo than anything, but that’s pretty much what my thought process was.

I was very lucky, too, that R was so chill about the whole thing. Like I said, he’d already revealed that he wanted to have kids, but he never pressured me either. So when I finally decided I was ready and asked him what he thought, I will never forget the sweetest words of his reply: “I’ve just been waiting for you.” ::melt my heart::

And when I told him that the biggest roadblock for me was not wanting to share him and missing having “just us”, he said, “It’ll just be a bigger us.” Well ok, now that you put it that way, it doesn’t sound quite so scary.

And so it began.

Now, I’m the type of person who likes to know exactly what’s going on instead of just leaving things to chance and seeing what happens. So I started tracking everything I could to figure out what my body was doing and how things were shaping up to make this happen. I had gone off the pill about 9 months before we really started “trying” to try to get my body back on its natural track. I was on it for roughly 10 years prior, so I was afraid I’d messed something up on the inside in that length of time.

Fortunately that wasn’t the case, and even though my natural cycles ended up being pretty long, I got pregnant on our second real attempt. D was starting to bake.

Fast forward just under 39 weeks, and we had a baby girl. Yikes!! Now what?

Utter and complete infatuation and love like I’ve never known, that’s what. As soon as we were out of the delivery room and trying to comprehend that we were now a family of 3, that’s when my baby fever set in.

I was in heaven.

It was the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced – in seemingly an instant I was a mom and it felt oh so right. Never in a million years would I have thought I would enjoy this, let alone love it. But I do. D is the most amazing thing we’ve ever done, and R was right – it is just a bigger “us” now.

Now here’s what’s been on my mind a lot lately. How do you know if/when you’re ready for more?

You’ll think I’m nuts, but as soon as D was born I immediately wanted another baby. I just really thrived being a new mommy and knowing that every single thing she needed came from us. That automatically became my #1 job – take care of and protect her.

And these past 7 1/2 months have been awesome. She is a beautiful, hilarious little person, and spending time with her just makes my day that much better. And I know we definitely want more kids, but I’m kind of back to my original question – how can I possibly share D with another child?

Will it be unfair to take time away from her to care for another baby, even though it will obviously be necessary? I certainly won’t ignore her when another one comes, but will she see it that way? Will she feel like Mommy loves the new baby more since that’s the one that will need so much attention at first? How long should we wait before trying for another, and how do we know what age span between the two (or more) we will be able to handle? And how can I possibly love someone else as much as I love this little girl?

I guess I just have to keep remembering that with each child I won’t be losing space in my heart or life for everyone else, I’m just expanding it exponentially for the newcomers. So, god-willing, hopefully we can add a few more to our brood and Mommy will be ok. Well, maybe not a “few” more, but hopefully at least one. 🙂

Stay tuned for D v2.0…

A mother is not a person to lean on but a person to make leaning unnecessary.  ~Dorothy C. Fisher

 

 

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Do you?

Happy Lent! Don’t often hear people say that, now do you? 😛 Probably because you either associate it with a time of restriction of some sort, or you associate it with nothing, really. I happen to fall into the latter camp. Lent has never really affected my daily life for these 40-ish days one way or another (I know, I know, but I’m just being honest!). I am not Catholic, so I don’t feel the religious pull to give up something for Lent, or try to do something better during Lent, or not eat meat on Fridays, or whatever. Not that Catholicism is the only religion to practice that, but I have noticed that those “rules”, if you will, apply predominantly in that faith. And not that all Catholics follow that regimen, but I think you catch my drift.

So I’m curious – do you do anything differently during Lent?

When R and I first started living together out east, I did try to tag along during the pre-Easter season (he’s Catholic, but not really a practicing one. even he’s since given up on the Lenten rules.). He was foregoing the Friday meat, so I tried to turn my back on sweets for the duration. Now, let me clue you in on something… I rarely go 40 hours without having something sweet, let alone 40 days. But I gave it a shot. If everyone else can do it, why can’t I? And I must say, I was doing a damn good job of quelling my sweet tooth….

Until that fateful day, 1 week before Easter, when R’s mom sent us Easter baskets overflowing with candy. Oh.my.god! There were jelly beans and m&ms spilling all over the box, and I lost all control. I couldn’t let them suffer and melt in there, strewn all about like nobody loved them! So I proceeded to trash the previous 33 days of dessert-free progress and gobble up that candy like I’d never seen a Cadbury egg before. 1 week to go! Geez, epic fail, SM. That was the closest I’ve ever come to succeeding at giving something up during Lent, so I just don’t bother trying anymore. 🙂 And to be perfectly honest, it doesn’t concern me in the slightest. Call me a bad Christian, call me weak, call me what you will, but that’s just how I roll.

So for those of you who have begun a month and a half of giving up a few of your favorite things on this lovely Ash Wednesday, hopefully you enjoyed your Mardi Gras celebrations yesterday and aren’t suffering from too terrible a hurricane-induced hangover.

 

 

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You must be joking

I am sick… again. And I swear to all things holy, if this run of sickness continues much longer, I’m going to flip my shit. In the past 6 weeks, I have had the stomach flu twice (TWICE!) and a cold for pretty much every day in between the puke fests. What gives?? When am I going to get and stay healthy again? D has had a cold since she started daycare at the start of the year, but I can’t believe that is what keeps plaguing me. Hers is just a little one, too – runny nose, some coughing, but nothing major. Fortunately her sunny little disposition hasn’t been affected by it either, so it can’t be that serious. Even our pediatrician said that’s very typical for kids in daycare, which I knew as soon as she started.

Plus I can’t take any of the super-whammy meds like NyQuil or DayQuil to knock these things out since I’m still breastfeeding D. The first time I got sick I actually called the doctor to see what is approved while nursing, and it’s basically nothing. So suffer I must. Oh, and Mother Nature? You’re not helping either, thankyouverymuch. This disgusting weather of rain/snow mixes and temps in the 30s is obnoxious. Bring on Spring already, or else you and I are going to box. I may be sick, but Momma Said Knock You Out!!

So yet again, breakfast today consists of the following…

+ = Cold remedy cocktail

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My two cents

For those of you who know me well, you know I hate – no, HATE – discussing politics. They are just conversations that don’t end well. I rarely see a debate between people of opposing views turn into anything more than a verbal vomit session. Throw in the name-calling that often ensues (especially when alcohol has been consumed prior to said debate), and it’s just a recipe for disaster. I basically hate debate itself, so there you go. Another reason I like to just stay out of those topics all together.

I’m also a very un-political person, if that word exists. I try to keep up on current affairs and all, but honestly, it’s just not something I feel that passionately about. Yes, I cherish my right to vote and keep abreast of candidates’ platforms when the time comes, and I like to know what’s going on around me and whether or not the masses are teetering on erupting due to the political upheaval story of the day, but I will be the last person to engage you in a spirited convo on how the housing market meltdown has ripped the faces off so many people or how the government continues to keep the Man down. It’s just not my style, never has been, and most likely never will be.

All that said, however, what has been going on in Madison for the past 3 weeks has really sparked my curiosity and interest. No matter which side you’re on, I just think the rallies and protests surrounding our state’s capitol building are intriguing. “Well that’s great, SM,” you may be thinking, “but fess up. Which side are you on, hmm??” Ok, I’ll expose my semi-political bent just this once, but don’t get used to it! I do not agree with Gov. Walker. There, I said it, flame away. I understand the great Badger State is running a dandy deficit and a balanced budget is necessary, but I just don’t see how limiting collective bargaining rights is the answer. The public-sector unions have already conceded that they would agree to pension contribution and health care benefit cost increases, so why Walker and the Republicans refuse to budge on the bargaining aspect is beyond me. I know there are countless more facets to the issues causing the stalemate in Madison and how dare I try to simplify the whole thing to such an extent, but if I were to get into all that now this post might never end. So there you have it, my brief, cut-and-dry opinion; take it or leave it. See, I told you I hate debate. 😉

One more thing… Something that did really bother me about the protests in Madison is when they were compared to what’s happening in the MENA region of the world. Seriously, people. Yes, there have been tens of thousands of protesters marching on our Capitol, but no one is giving their life here. Countries such as Egypt, Libya, and Saudi Arabia are enduring civil wars, air strikes, rebel regimes, “Days of Rage”, essentially political and governmental chaos. So far, thankfully, the events in Madison have remained peaceful and under control. So please, for the love of god, don’t even try to equate the two. You just sound dumb, and ignorance is contagious.

There it is, my two cents. These posts will be few and far between, but I just wanted to get that one out because it’s one political topic I actually have been following. Like I said, I prefer to avoid conflict and arguments (which is into what “debates” tend to spiral, I’ve noticed) in general, but especially on such heated topics as politics. I am much more content to sit back and watch everyone else hash it out, interjecting only when necessary. I will leave you with one parting shot, though. A few weekends ago when we were in the Madison area, I received nothing but compliments on this sticker I was sporting: