Monthly Archives: October 2008

The Halloween that didn’t happen.

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"Do you want to get your costume on?"

No!

"Let’s get your costume on."

No!

"But don’t you want to be Superman? Fly with your cape?"

No!

And off he went, running around the office and refusing to stop and get his costume on. Before long it was clear our fun night of trick or treating was not going to happen. Trick-or-treating was held a day early here. Probably to avoid children running around on a Friday night, the main night all the drunks are out. (They are out other nights too, but Fridays are the worse around here).

Acting like children ourselves, his daddy and I got mad at him, then each other, and then I dragged him to the car and home again, cursing speaking sweetly and grumbling counting my blessings under my breath out loud to the tune of "How Great Thou Art" much of the way.

I tried again when we got home. This time the “no” was calm, but firm.

He didn’t want a costume. He didn’t want to go trick-or-treating.

So . . . .great.

We would just sit in the house and watch TV like losers while everyone else, including their normal, non-brat children, had a night of fun. Lovely. (I won’t mention that later I witnessed one of these "non-bratty" children being dragged down the sidewalk by their loving mother, screaming the whole way. The child, not the mother. Or maybe both. Couldn’t see well. It was dark after all.)

Today I’d hoped to have adorable and smile-inducing photos of an almost 2-year old in his Superman outfit.

Instead I’ve got nothing.

Nadda.

Zilch.

I could have posted a photo of two grown people throwing a toddler-like tantrum, but I’m guessing that would not have been as cute or as endearing.

The only cute thing about all this was the “Oh wow. She’s pissed,” look the kid gave me when I told him I was sick of hearing the word “no” come out of his mouth. That was as I struggled to get him out of the car seat he had only 10 minutes before refused to be buckled into.

That look did very little to quell my anger however and I find myself still fuming over it all. I am amazed at the determination a child that small can have and now understand a little more the concerns Heather has with the determination her 4-year old shows at times.

I’m sure she and I would agree that there are days we’d like not to be so nice and call it “determination” but instead spit out through gritted teeth that they are being “bratty, not determined.”

Someday we may be happy with how they stand their ground and aren’t swayed.

For now, however, that stupid “determination” is a huge pain in the rear.

___

UPDATE: So we couldn’t get Jonathan in his costume, but his cousins went trick-or-treating and here they are in a photo Hubby grabbed last night! Aren’t they just adorable?! They’re our girls! Hope Sister-in-law doesn’t mind us saying that!

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— An unfortunate addition to Jen’s Spin Cycle for this week. I’m sure others were much, much happier. Get it on the action for next week. She’ll post the theme today, as far as I know. Unless her husband has provided too much "background noise," which might create an overpowering smell.

WW: Fine. I’ll join the club. The weight loss club that is.

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Me

I shall forgo my rant on the evils of Wal-Mart until another day. Instead I have chosen to focus on the photo to the left here.

That is me during my senior year of high school, the night of prom (I went with friends, not with a guy). Don’t I look soooo happy. Well, I should have been, but I hated having my photo taken. Still do.

I weighed 99 lbs. Lest you think I was some 5’9" chick with a eating disorder — No. I was (still am obviously) under 5′ , so 99 lbs was a good weight for me. No, I’m not one of those people on Little People,Big World, by the way, though I do like the show. (When it is on Brother says things like "Look it’s your people, Sis’." Big jerk.)

I am short, but not that short. Not that being that short is a bad thing, but I just happen not to be that short.

Anyhow, the weight gain: I developed a rapid heart beat around my junior year of high school and the medicine put several extra pounds on me (like 20 or 30). By the time I graduated that had all evened out and I went off to college nice and slip (though still short and dressing boyish).

Today my dad or mom will hold a dress or shirt up and say "Imagine. You used to fit in this." Neither of them mean it as a jab, but it is enough to depress me sometimes because I know that I’m heavier than I want to be. I know my mom doesn’t mean it as a jab because she’s struggled with her weight for years and is still heavier than she’d like to be.

She and I joined Weight Watchers before I got pregnant with Jonathan and have both fallen off the wagon on this front. We’d both like to get back on it again. My brother and his wife lost a great deal of weight using that program and some other programs.

I started gaining weight sometime after graduating college while working late nights as a reporter at a small town paper (not the same one I am at now) and having easy access to a machine full of candy and chips and soda. I grabbed a lot of meals on the go, usually fast food, as I was on my way to meetings or rushing back to hit deadline. I continued the trend of bad eating from there, noticing that the more stressed I became, the more I reached for the sweets and junk food.

I’m still an emotional eater, reaching for comfort food when I am depressed, angry, lonely, annoyed, frustrated, happy…well, you get the picture. Like an alcoholic I always have an excuse to sneak some chocolate.

Which brings me to now where I am 30 lbs overweight, some of that left over from Jonathan, most of it from my lack of will-power to just stop eating garbage. And it also brings me to my reason for getting involved with this Club Half As Small as You, started by Casey.

I’m not going to make any bold declarations like: "I will lose 30 lbs in a month and I will stop eating chocolate and I’m going to go to Wichita and Nebraska and New York and Yaaa!"

No, I’m not goin’ all Howard Dean about this.

All I can say is I will try my best, encourage others to do the same, and work towards eating better for Jonathan, for Hubby and for me. And that I’d like to lose 40 lbs 30 lbs in the process. Ten would be a nice start. Heck, five would be a nice start.

—————

Also, don’t forget my first ever giveaway, details of which can be found HERE. No, not there…HERE.

Part of Angie’s Wordful Wednesday. Click the icon and find more Wordful Wednesdays!

Giveaway extension

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I’m extending my giveaway until Saturday night (Nov. 1) at midnight with the plan to announce a winner on Monday night. In case you missed the giveaway post, here is what it is:

1) A birthday memory book, complete with eight pages to enter the name of the child, the guests, the gifts and a place for photos, as well as an envelope to slide cards and other mementos into.

2) A 12" x 12" scrapbook with 20 pages homemade by me. This will include pages all ready for you to put your photos on, as well as some stickers and other embellishments to help you brighten your pages. There will also be spaces for you to add journaling and some blank pages if you want to add more information, such as a short write-up about an event (like for you bloggers, a blog post or two).

You can choose from a variety of themes for me to base your scrapbook on if you are the winner: birthday, fall, spring, summer, or baby. If it is for a baby book let me know what sex the child is. If it is general then we will just go with the flow.

What will be great about this book is that all the work will be done for you, all you will have to do is add the photos. And then, if someone says "Oh, wow! Did you do all that work?!" you can be like "Yes! I did. Aren’t I amazing?!" because I’ll never know the difference!

To win his giveaway all you have to do is comment on here before midnight Nov. 1 and let me know that you are interested. Pretty simple stuff there.

You can let others know about the giveaway on your blog if you like, but it isn’t a requirement to win.

I can also make scrapbooks and will be launching a blog to showcase the work that can be done for you so you have less work to do, but still can get creative with the photos or embellishments!

For now, here are some samples of my work. They are not necessarily the best I’ve ever done, but they are a few I put together fairly quick and then took photos of. My scanner is not working at home, so excuse the less-than-pristine quality of image here.

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Another_scrapbook

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Don’t compare your stats to others

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My mother once told me not to compare my child to other children. I heeded her warning and accept my child as an individual.

If only I had taken this advice and applied it to the stats for my blog, such as those found in my Google reader, showing how many subscribers one has or doesn’t have. I’m not sure if these are the same as those in my Feedburner stats or not. That stuff totally confuses me.

The other day I found myself looking at my stats and then the stats of some others (Navel Gazing At Its Finest, The Diary of a Mad, Mad Housewife,   The Lawsons Did Dallas, PapaTV ) comparing them and then cursing them repeatedly while shoving chocolate ice cream in my pie hole  feeling a little jealous and quite crappy about myself.

"I am a unique individual," I told myself, taking a deep breath and closing my eyes. "Not everyone can be so cool or so perfect as they are."

And I let the breath out. Then I sobbed like a big baby moved on with my life and decided I would just have fun with it and hunt those women and that man down and steal their talents  — sucking their power away like a character from Heroes not worry about the stats.

Statistics. They have to do with math right?

I always did suck at math.

Finally! A giveaway for you!

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OK. Finally! It is here! My bloggy giveaway. My first ever bloggy giveaway!

Is it exciting? A little. Is it mind blowing? Nah, not really. But it will be fun.

Here is the loot:

Album4 1) A birthday memory book, which I just love. It has a space to enter your child’s name and which birthday it is and then spaces for photos, a list of guests and a list of gifts and then a pocket to put cards and other "souveniers" in. It is so cute! In my humble opinion anyhow.

2) A 20-page homemade scrapbook made by little ole’ me! It will feature a theme of your choice and will be complete and ready to go for you to add your own photographs. There will be space to add journaling as well. Themes which can be chosen from include: fall, birthday, baby, or summer. If it is a baby book then I’ll need boy or girl or both and a name of a child would help. If it is a general scrapbook that you will be using for all kinds of photos let me know that too.

 

Here is a sample of what the pages will look like, or might look like:

Album3

 

 

On to the terms, or how to win these babies — scrapbooks — not babies. I can’t giveaway babies. Sorry, not in my job description. Plus I think it is illegal.

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Anyhooo….to win all you have to do is comment on my blog, telling me if you are interested in the giveaway or not. You don’t have to link to my blog, unless you want to, or tell anyone about the giveaway, unless you want to. And, I’m sorry, but you can’t be a relative. Sorry Anna K., Brother (like I’m sure you would want this) and Sister K.

The deadline for entering is midnight Halloween. Jonathan and I, or Hubby and I if Jonathan does not want to cooperate, will choose a winner over the weekend through a fair process and announce the winner on Monday.

Needing some serious help. Mental that is.

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Hubby and I need help. Seriously.

The phone rings the other night. The cell phone. The little orange and blue one. Nemo’s on the other line. He’s asking if I want to go visit the coral reef with him.

Dude. He’s asked me this like four times in the last couple of days. I told him ‘no’ already. What is his problem? I tell Hubby I’m pretty sure the little dude has been smoking something — something very intoxicating because the dumb fish can’t remember he already asked me and I already said "no."

Then there is that Oswald. He flooded all of Big City. Again.

And no one seemed to care. One little "Ohmygosh" and it was fine. Excuse me? He flooded the city people!

Before we knew it the whole place had drained — in a flash.

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Hubby asked how that was possible. I told him they had a drain installed because Oswald, the big blue crazy Octypus he is, is always doing something weird.

"Remember the time with the popcorn and how he flooded the whole apartment building? And what about that dang cake he made and then dropped it in Big Pond and turned it all pink and white? Then there was that big bird he got stuck on and a bunch of people had to rescue him. How about the time he thought there was a parade coming and he got everyone all excited and it turned out to be a big tree carrying a radio? The octopus is a walking liability, babe."

Seriously, these kids cartoon characters are way out of control.

You know what I mean?

. . . what? Why are all you looking at me like that?

I haven’t slept normally in two weeks people! Back off! Fine. I’ve lost it. LOST IT!

My toddler REFUSES to sleep at normal times. He takes naps. I CAN’T TAKE NAPS!

Brother can take naps. With his cat Seamus (an awesome cat I might add. But that doesn’t make Brother awesome. Just his cat).

He can also mock me for my toddler not sleeping.

"Well, reality is setting in now isn’t it?" he asked in that mocking tone he does so well.

I’ll show you reality, you big…

Oh. I’m off an a tangent again aren’t I? You want to hear a tangent? Come back tomorrow when I flip out about the evils of Wal-Mart. You heard me…I mean, you read that right. Wal-Mart is EVIL.

I’ll tell you why.

I’ll also let you know about my first ever give away. The one I promised way back in September.

Give me a break, people. I’m TIRED! EXHAUSTED. I barely know my own name.

You think this would have tired the kid out:

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Another day in the leaves (though it looks similar to the previous jumping session because he is wearing the same coat).

But nooooo….he was still awake at 12:30 a.m. Sunday night. And he also showed that he now knows to call daddy, "Daddy" and not "mama" as proved by him crying "daddy! daddy! daddy!" over and over. Apparently he thought daddy was going to rescue him from having to go to bed at — 12:30 A.M.! Oh the horror. What horrible parents we are. Forcing our child to sleep. IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!

Tonight I’m drugging his milk and he’ll be in bed by 8 p.m. Whoo-hoo! Then maybe I can finally start my "walkin’ at home" or in place, or whatever the heck it is called so I can be cool like the other bloggers out there like Casey, and Steenky Bee and everyone else who is part of this club.

I’m kidding! I’m not going to drug my child’s milk. Don’t call the authorities. But if he doesn’t go to sleep, I may stumble into the middle of the street in my nightgown and beg for mercy have a little cry over a bowl of chocolate ice cream.

Trust me, no one would be surprised. I’m the neighborhood crazy lady who once chased her dog around the backyard with a broom in her night gown, practically flashing those poor neighbors trying to get drunk enjoy their late evening cookout on the back porch.

Am I still talking? Er..writing?

Oh wow. Gotta end this now. They’re coming to take me away! (As Hubby would say!)

When did you get so tall?

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When did you get so tall?

When did you get so confident?

When did you grow from a baby who clung, to a child who walks ahead without a care in the world?

How far you’ve come. How much you’ve grown.

How much I love you can’t be measured in words or by the thousands of photos I snap of you, but only in how much it aches inside my chest when I see you walk away and know that one day it will be for good, at least from the house and from seeing you every day.

Grow tall, grow strong, grow healthy, but don’t grow too fast.

Let me hold you a little longer, let me kiss your face and ruffle your hair and cuddle you as you drift off to sleep.

Let me be your mommy, you my little boy.

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PhotoStory Friday
Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Yes, we have a new kitchen floor. Don’t tell my parents

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Did I mention we have a new kitchen floor and a new floor for our downstairs bathroom?

I didn’t?

Yeah, that’s probably because I wasn’t really going to tell my mom and dad because I thought they’d say something responsible like: "Oh? How much did that cost? Tell me you didn’t put it on the credit card," and then "Oh? You don’t have to start paying for it for another year? Does that include interest then?" and then, "Well, I hope you know what your doing. You’re in enough debt, you know."

They are, many times, our voice of reason and our conscience, so as snarky as this sounds, I’m kidding. The advice they give us is appreciated. The guilt we feel that we might have let them down is not their fault, but ours. We simply like to make them happy, me because they are my parents, Hubby because they have been more parents to him than his biological ones.

 

But, alas, they will have to find out someday, so, hey, mom and dad, should you accidentally stumble on my blog this week (yes, my mom said something like his to me one night this week: "I’m pretty sure I got there by accident, but I was able to catch up on some of your posts, so that was good." Thanks, mom. Don’t sound so excited.) you will learn that Hubby and I have new tile in our kitchen and our bathroom and it cost blah-blah-blah (that is blah-blah-blah and not blah-blah-blah-blah) and we will be paying it off in the next year. No we won’t ask for a loan. Well, not for awhile. Promise.  Hope. Will try our best.

[UPDATE: Mom claims she doesn't remember saying she got there by accident. Hmmmmm....really? She also doesn't remember if I am her favorite child over my dorky brother. Wha'eva'. How can I trust this woman when she can't make a decision like that?]

Anyhow, this is the toddler playing on the floor the morning after it was installed and the first time the kid noticed we don’t have carpet in our kitchen anymore. Yes, the previous owners had CARPET in the kitchen. Yuck.

Tile

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Check out some of my photos on my new blog at Views Behind the Lens.