Sunday, October 29, 2006

%*^&%*% Girl Scouts!!!

So I read the ingredients list, hoping that I would find the secret ingredient (okay, I guess if it's a secret, it's probably not listed, then maybe) that makes me want to consume an ENTIRE FREAKING BOX. Oh, for the love of Thin Mints.

But the drugs I've been taking for my back have the bonus benefit of completely sapping me of an appetite. I've lost another four pounds. Woohoo! Punta Cana, here I come.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

What has MamaChris been up to this week?

A whole lot of nothing. And I mean that quite literally. I've been incapable of doing more than crawling to the bathroom. I posted about the carpet cleaning lady and how I couldn't vacuum because I hurt my back, right? So on Tuesday morning, I didn't just hurt. I couldn't walk. I actually asked someone for help - a sure sign that MamaChris is in some major pain. My dad took Miss G to preschool and picked Mr. T up from kindergarten. My mom picked Miss G back up from preschool. Any Baby S lifting was done by someone other than me too. Finally, I caved and made a doctor's appointment. The nice P.A. gave me some muscle relaxers, 800mg ibuprofen and a painkiller. So I took the muscle relaxer Tuesday night. Wednesday morning I woke up and COULD NOT MOVE. I tried to crawl to the bathtub because I thought the hot water would make it hurt less. I couldn't even get in the tub. Somehow I managed to get in, but then I could get my clothes off. Yes, I took a hot bath with my clothes on. Hey, I was in PAIN. P.A.I.N. Tom was home from school so I took the muscle relaxer (which really doesn't feel like it does that much to me) while I stayed in bed all day. By the end of the day I could move again. Barely. Thursday I could move a little bit more, but still had people moving the kids where they needed to be. Friday I could actually walk without limping or screaming.

And today? I went to the Notre Dame-Navy game. !!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, yeah, I remember the back thing, but it's NOTRE DAME. Don't you get it? Notre. Dame. And I was there. Sure, I'll probably be unable to move tomorrow and my back hurts a lot right now, but our seats were in the 11th row. OMG! It was awesome. Funny, but my back didn't hurt until we were in the car on the way home.

My house is an absolute wreck since I have only barely been capable of walking this week. I feel most days like I do nothing, but turns out I do something. It's almost like a strike, but without the teach them a lesson part. It taught me a lesson. Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on myself.

Monday, October 23, 2006

To the woman who tried to sell me carpet cleaning:

When I say "No, thank you," in a polite, but final tone, your "Are you sure you don't want that carpet cleaned?" with a sneer as you look into my house is not likely to change my mind. It is, however, likely to make me wish I'd taken your damned flyer so I could call your company and tell them what a bitch you are.

FYI - I did something to my back and can barely move. It's been 8 days now and that's mainly why my floor is still covered in toys. I brave great pain to vacuum every day (and that's probably why my back still hurts - that and the laundry I haul up and down two sets of stairs every day), but picking up toys every time my 15 month old empties the toy bin is not something I'm willing to brave pain for.

Friday, October 13, 2006

A case of the "I wants"...

Actually, two cases of the "I wants" - would probably be three cases if Baby S could say more than five words. We're starting to get catalogs and the commercials during kids shows have started getting more appealing or something, but we can't go an hour without hearing "I want that!" Mr. T brought me a catalog yesterday and literally pointed to everything on a two page spread and said "I want that and that and that and that and that..." Finally, I told him to look and want things all he wanted, and in a few weeks we'd go through it again and decide what he still wanted and maybe Santa could bring them. Fortunately, that sounded reasonable to him (although he asked if he could take the catalog when we go sit on Santa's lap), and he's curbed the "I wants." Miss G? Not so much. We can't walk through Target without the I want that and that and that and that litany. I've been relying on the "Why don't you tell Santa Claus that one?" for over a month now.

Want to hear how out of control it is? We just saw a commercial for a carseat that has some sort of carrying case. Mr. T and Miss G both: "I want that!" It's a carseat! You each have a carseat already. This has got to stop.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Spreading myself too thin...

creatively speaking, at least. I don't even know if it's possible, but I got in the mood to write yesterday and just didn't have the mojo. So I got to thinking - writing used to be what fed my soul, kept me going when nothing else around seemed right. I could escape into a world of fiction that I was creating (not that I ever finished anything, but still). Maybe I don't need that anymore, or at least not right now. I have so many creative hobbies (and for years I thought I was completely unartistic all because I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, let along a recognizable object). Maybe they're feeding that part of me. Fall is usually the time when I don't have enough spare time to do all the creative projects I want to do. This fall is no different, but now I'm adding a few knitted sweaters, landscape photos I can't wait to take (turn, leaves, turn), home decorating, and some Christmas presents with photos and scrapbooking things.

Tom asked me recently if I was embarassed by my hobbies, because I don't like to knit or scrapbook around anyone. I don't think that's it. Partly, I feel guilty because I'm spending money when I don't bring any money into the household, but that's something I deal with and DH always encourages me in them, regardless of money. I think it's more that I go into my head when I'm doing one of my creative things and I don't want to ignore anyone, which I do if someone's with me. Probably why I don't go to scrapbooking social events. I would either get nothing done or talk to no one, defeating the purpose either way.

Monday, October 9, 2006

Babies all around me...

Another of my cousins is expecting a baby. That makes two. These things tend to happen in threes, especially in our family. So we're all looking around at who might be the third. Apparently, I'm the odds-on favorite. But I don't think my heart has quite gotten that memo. I'm still completely torn, utterly undecided about whether we want to have a fourth baby. I know that DH does, but he also knows that I do the lion's share of the work with our kids, especially when they're babies. Therefore he has wisely told me that if I decide we're done, we're done. I struggle with this decision frequently. Emotionally I know that we can handle a fourth baby. I have no worries there. It's the financial stuff that gets me. Should one decide their family status based on money alone? Because that's my only reason for saying no right now. We need a bigger house (our little three bedroom townhome will probably not withstand a fourth kid), we need more wiggle room in our bills. I don't know where I'm going with this, just trying to work it out for myself.

Actually, I've already made the decision, if I'm truly honest with myself. Just sitting here thinking about seeing families with four kids in the future and thinking that I could have done that but decided not to makes me realize how much I will regret NOT having another baby. Now, that doesn't mean the trying to conceive will begin anytime soon, just that my heart is figuring it out. Actually, my heart is figuring out to tell my head to butt out.

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

I think I'll take a moment to celebrate my age...

Several things on this topic. One: Blog name change may be coming (probably not until July, which is the end of being 30, which is good since it might take me that long to come up with something). Two: That Tim McGraw song that line comes from has been my anthem for the past few months. Three: Why not celebrate it? I feel like a lot of times I'm just trucking along without taking time to appreciate where I am in my life. So I'm creating the opportunity.

In honor of being thirty, THIRTY THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY:
1. Tom laughing at my jokes
2. everything my kids do
3. fall
4. pumpkin bread
5. making grand plans that may or may not ever happen
6. Notre Dame football
7. taking a great picture
8. learning something completely new
9. a good cup of coffee - nothing fancy. I don't do Starbucks or anything.
10. losing weight without trying
11. songs I know by heart
12. Excedrin
13. baking
14. fitting into my jeans
15. painting a room a new color
16. a quick walk on the treadmill
17. planting a garden
18. sugar cookies
19. good hair days
20. curling up with a good trashy novel
21. new episodes of my favorite tv shows
22. being organized (unfortunately, this isn't often)
23. planning a room design and seeing it carried out
24. finding the perfect gift for someone
25. my favorite song on the radio
26. my kids playing together
27. baby names
28. the color red
29. kittens
30. Knowing who I am and liking me (most of the time)

Monday, October 2, 2006

Arrgh...

The Blogger monster has eaten two posts. And one was a way cool week of tv wrap-up - the other was just a knitting brag (okay, not brag, more a post about how I love to start projects and I have a cool new project started). I'm not up for recreating right now.

What I wanted to write about today is, naturally, related to television. And two of my hobbies (at the very least). When my sister and I were at the football game a few weeks ago, she saw me craning my head to check some guy. She looks at him. He's older, bald and with his gray-haired wife. She said to me, "You're checking out that man's camera, aren't you?" Of course I was. I do that everywhere I go. If someone has an SLR I have to know - is it Nikon, Canon, or could they be one of the rare Pentax people like me? Is it digital? What kind of lens? See? All these questions I need to have answered.

So the television-related part...I do the same thing on TV. Every episode of CSI features photography as part of their job. This week's episode, Gil was using a D200. Nice camera, I thought. Then I wondered if it was product placement. I mean, all you saw was that number in the corner (I think) and it would take a photography buff to know that's a Nikon, so not very effective product placement if it was. Then on ER, Sally Field knits with circulars? And she knows what she's doing, it seems. She really appeared to be knitting. But her yarn? Kind of fugly. Hope it wasn't for that poor baby. I don't really like circulars, but I've noticed in several commercials (for arthritis remedies) recently that people were knitting on circulars. Funny the things I notice.