Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters

A while back I was tagged by Vick for a meme. I am supposed to post 7 weird things about myself.

Mercy, only 7?

Actually, I have been thinking about it for a while and I am not sure if the problem is narrowing it down, or coming up with 7 things to share.

I mean, I don't want you all to stop reading!

Because I am so completely normal.

eh hem.

Anyway.... I think I may be able to finally possibly participate and list out my silly little quirks. I mean really, they are not even worth mentioning. Simple and small and not even really that weird. Absurdly normal if you ask me.

So here they are in no particular order.

1. I have a jukebox in my head. No, not a juice box, a JUKEBOX. As in music? No seriously. I do. There is a song playing in my head 24/7. Many times I will hold on to a song for days - D A Y S!!! until I am absolutely, positively sick and tired of the song and have absolutely no clue as to why it is playing over and over and over in my head. It drives me insane at times. Currently the song is this: I think I have posted that one before, but the incredibly fabulous musicians at our church performed it last Sunday and I have been replaying it constantly ever since. It is a strange thing to wake up at 3 AM to a baby crying and a gospel chorus singing "It makes me want to SHOUT! Hallelujah, thank you Jesus..." :) Of course it is much better than what was playing for days on end before Sunday...ACK! I can't remember it now, but it was Willie Nelson singing about bourbon - and no, it wasn't Whisky River.... anyway, music in my head. Always.



2. I am basically a chronic hand washer. I am constantly washing my hands throughout the day and it is especially bad when I am cooking.



3. I am fairly superstitious. Not in a step-on-a-crack sort of way, but more in a words spoken may come to fruition sort of way. There are certain things I simply won't talk about and certain common expressions I won't say. I don't like it when others talk about certain things. I would get more specific, but the fact that I am typing this out, however cryptic, is freaking me out a little.



4. I am also a bit of a germaphobe (thus the hand washing). You would think this would make me a better housekeeper - but sadly for some reason it doesn't work that way. I am particularly peculiar about shoes and floors. I don't often sit on people's floors and in my house, shoes are rarely ever allowed to be anywhere but on the floor. Case in point, it drives me absolutely batty that we keep Kiddo's shoes on top of his dresser. That dresser top is forever tainted in my eyes. I will never set anything other than shoes on it again. Hubby committed the most heinous of foul moves a while back when he set his shoes ON MY KITCHEN COUNTER!!! I was so completely grossed out that even after cleaning it several times over (and by several I mean about 20 or 30 times) with bleach, I still wouldn't use that part of the counter for a few weeks. I just couldn't do it. I am ok with it now, but for a while there I thought we might have to replace the counter top.



5. I do not eat or drink anything with artificial sweetener in it (if I know it's there). I think aspartame and sucrolose are the absolute worst things you can put in your body. I can taste them almost every time. I bought a box of cereal when I was pregnant that had sucrolose and I had to throw the whole box away. I refuse to give my child anything "lite" or diet. I would rather him have the sugar than the chemicals. This puts me in a tough spot sometimes because people think that when something is "diet" or sugar free that it is better for you. I just don't believe that and I would rather eat full fat and sugared things in moderation than put all sorts of unknown chemicals in my body. I am sure that there is someone out there that will try to convince me otherwise, but I'm not changing my mind on this one. Likewise, when I cook, I use real butter. So shoot me.


6. Hubby says I should include in this that one of my favorite dishes to make is Spinach and Eggs. It is a dish my mom used to make and has always been one of my favorites. Basically you put a can of spinach (drained) and four slightly beaten eggs in a skillet and mix it all up. Cook over medium heat, stirring and scraping the pan until it scrambles like scrambled eggs. Season with Lawry's Seasoned Salt. This is a wonderful finger food for small children as well. I don't know how this makes me weird, but Hubby said to include it so there you have it.


7. I don't know what to put for the last one. I could tell you that I learned how to play pool (billiards) at 3 years old, I pick my kids noses, that I am very particular about what one can put in my kitchen sink (no glasses please) or that it completely irks me when someone isn't kind enough to hold a door open for a mom with a stroller...those things don't make me weird I think. [except maybe the nose picking]


8. Here's one. A bonus for you... When Hubby and I lived in Phoenix I did a modeling gig for an ad that was published in a very obscure magazine. In the ad I am holding a sign up in front of me and it kind of looks like I might be um, ah, well, nekkid behind the sign. I assure you, I was not. I was wearing a strapless top and a skirt. Funny thing about that shoot - it happened on a day that Hubby was back in Texas visiting family. After the shoot I met up with an old professor of mine and we attended a concert on the ASU campus that was premiering one of his compositions. We went out to eat after and I didn't get home until very, very late that night. My cell phone had died (unknown to me) and apparently Hubby was trying to get a hold of me the entire time to make sure I was ok after the shoot. (It was at some guy's house, and though I knew the photographer [a woman I worked with] it was still kind of a weird situation and Hubby just wanted to make sure I was ok.) So Hubby had been calling me and leaving messages every 10 minutes or so all night and I had no clue until I came in at 2 or 3 AM. Hubby was a wreck; ready to hop on a plane back to Phoenix and find me - poor guy, I scared him to death. Another funny thing about that shoot - I had a makeup artist do my hair and makeup and I was really, really made up. In order to meet up with my old prof in time I couldn't go home and clean up. So I was in my street clothes with this big bouffant hair-do and 4 pounds of makeup on my face. I looked like a $2 - well, you know. Anyway, I think my old prof got a kick out of it. That whole experience was weird, so I guess it qualifies.

Ok, so there are my 7 - er, rather 8 things. I am also supposed to include a self portrait. Since these days I look like doggy doo - I will leave you with this instead.

And look it's in pewter!! ;)

I officially tag anyone who wants to participate.

Until,

D :)

We Love to Read

As you may or may not know, I read a lot of blogs. A Lot. I am online in one way or another for most of every day, and the majority of what I do is read. Some people read books, I read blogs, online news and message boards.

I think the reason I like blogs so much is because I just don't have the time to sit down for hours at a time and read something. And I love to read - so when I pick up a book I hate to put it down until I finish it. Suffice it to say I don't read books very often. But I can get into a blog because, like a good book, most of them have a "story". But blogs are broken down into manageable snippets; I guess like short stories. When I finish an entry I feel complete until the next "chapter". And, blogs being mostly personal, hold my interest much better than a typical novel.

My blog roll in the sidebar is pretty long, and I typically visit about 80% of what's listed there every day. Others I read about once a week and a few about once a month (all based on how often the author posts). I love blogs that post every day - I tend to go to those first thing in the morning and then cruise through the rest of the list throughout the day.

Lately I have come across some brilliant and touching posts, like the one I linked to in my Saturday entry. I need to share a couple more with you.

Jenni over at One Thing (check out her new blog home!) posted this entry a couple of days ago. I read it this afternoon and about bawled my eyes out. She just gave birth to her 12th child (a few days after Port was born) and is in true baby bliss right now.

One of my favorite blogs that I tend to forget about is Mental Tesserae, authored by Julie. I say I tend to forget about it because she kind of posts in spurts. I love, love her writing and her insight and she often inspires me. She guest posted on another blog last week and I ventured over to take a peek. As usual, she wrote so eloquently that I just had to share.

I know that my grammar is atrocious and that my writing style is poor, but I hope that when people read my blog, they get as much out of it as I get out of my daily reads.

I hope you enjoy the links. More to come later.

Until,
D :)

Talk

What a beautiful post. I hope she doesn't mind me sharing the link.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Started on Saturday, Finished on Monday:


So what can I say? I am at a loss with Kiddo right now. He is just, well, at a stage that is so very frustrating for both of us. He can communicate, but he still doesn't understand some things that really make it difficult to have conversations with him.

Prime example: today (Monday), well actually for the past few days he has been asking me for an Incredibles book for his LeapPad system. His way of asking is "Mommy can I play my Incredibles book for my LeapPad?" He doesn't have the Incredibles book, so I have to translate that into him asking me to purchase it for him. I told him we would have to look for it at the store, so now he is asking me over and over if we can go to WalMart - so we can look for his Incredibles book. *sigh*

Getting out anywhere these days usually takes me a day or two - so though I was planning on going to WalMart today, it just didn't happen. I decided to look online for the book, just to see if it was even in stores like WM or Target, and from what I can tell it is not. Kiddo caught me looking online and when I found the book on the LeapFrog website (on clearance) he got all excited. I also found it on Amazon, and decided it was such a good price that I should order it. So Kiddo was asking me why I was looking at it and I told him that I couldn't find it in the stores and that most likely we would have to order it on the computer.

That really didn't register with him, so I said if I ordered it on the computer it would come in the mail.

I should really learn to keep my mouth shut.

He ran into his room and put on his shoes. You know where this is going don't you?

"Mommy let's go check the mail and get my Incredibles book!" (all smiles and excitement)

Oh dear Lord. What have I done?

Now, try explaining to the 3 year old that you haven't actually ordered the book yet, and even if you did it would take a few days to come in the mail and then try not to lose your temper while listening to said 3 year old whine and fake cry and also pitifully real cry for the next couple of hours about a book that you are really regretting ever laying eyes on, and kicking yourself for ever mentioning the possibility of ordering it on line.

And part of you wants to go ahead and order it because you know this will be an ongoing thing for the next month and then the other part of you wants to never order it just out of spite.

Geeze I am a fabulous parent, aren't I?

Now he is stuck on Tuesday for some reason - I NEVER said it would be here Tuesday; where does he dream up this stuff???

So much for the silly post I wanted to make today.

Until,
D :)

Something To Talk About

It's Milestone Friday!

What, you didn't get the memo?

Well, let me tell you what's going on here today. Today, Port SMILED! Kiddo, Port and I were all sitting on my bed and I was holding Port up where he was facing Kiddo. We were talking about migrating to the front of the house and fixing lunch and my stomach growled. I asked Kiddo if he heard it and then I said "my tummy said ggrrraooowwwwwww!". Kiddo started to giggle hysterically and I looked down and Port was looking at Kiddo with this huge smile on his face!

Ok, I am a bit disappointed that his first smile wasn't directed at me, but oh well...

Also today....

He SPOKE!

I put him down on a play mat and he stared at this picture of a rabbit for the longest time. The next thing I knew, these sweet little coos started coming out of his mouth! He talked to that rabbit for 5 minutes! Kiddo and I just stared at him and giggled. It was adorable!

He is growing up so fast. I can't believe it.

In other news, we had a lovely sleepless night last night. Today hasn't been very nap filled either. I certainly hope he is saving it all up for tonight. Thank goodness it is Friday, because I have a suspicion that Hubby is going to get an early morning rib poking while he's handed a bottle of milk and told to get out of the room! I am a mess today.

I do believe Port is having a growth spurt. Suddenly I cannot keep up with the milk production.

And speaking of milk production...

Parents of mine and Hubby's - you may want to stop here. I am about to talk about my bOobIeS. I am so sorry for any embarrassment this may cause you. :)

What I have learned from pumping 6+ times a day:

1. I hate pumping


2. Boobies are a miraculous creation


3. Boobies hate it when you attach machines to them and extract their contents (at least mine do)


4. I have a new respect for moms that work outside the home and have to pump at work. I simply cannot imagine doing this anywhere other than my house


5. Just when I think I simply cannot pump any more out in a session, all I have to do is mash on certain parts of my breast and I can get another half ounce out (at least). If I were actually breastfeeding, I never would have known this.


6. Just when I think I simply cannot pump any more out in a session, all I have to do is pretend I am going to stop and suddenly they (the boobies) start producing again.


7. Just when I think I am done, I realize it is time to pump again.


8. Hooking up the pump has magical power - suddenly everyone else in the house needs something.


9. Just when I think I am too sore to pump, I somehow manage to do it anyway.


10. After all is said and done, I may have to consider buying myself a new pair (if you know what I mean. lol!). [sing with me now, swing low, sweet cha-ri-o-ot!]

I know there is more, but I just had to get that out. It is a love/hate relationship I have with my breasts right now. I love the fact that I am feeding my child 90% of his nourishment, but at the same time I hate the time, pain and inconvenience of it all. I was hoping it would get easier, but so far I am not seeing it. Maybe someone who has BTDT can enlighten and encourage me. Do you ever get used to it? Does it ever get easier? Do I need a different pump?

Sorry that last question was kind of out there. I ask it though, because the pump I have is kind of, well, ancient by pump standards and I am only able to pump one side at a time (it simply isn't strong enough to do both at the same time). I am thinking that things would go much smoother and much more quickly if I could pump both sides at once. Perhaps I should look into getting a hospital grade pump or something. It might be worth it for my sanity.

Anyway, that is it for today. Stay tuned for more milestones - I am sure that now that the ball is rolling, they will be coming far to quickly for my liking. ;)

Until,
D :)

3 Weeks

Three Weeks Old
...and just because it was Thursday, Mr. Incredible stopped by.

What? You don't do Costume Thursday at your house??

Until,

D ;)