Why yes, those are my boobies

August 14, 2008 – 9:07 am

I feel so chatty and no one is online right now :(  I’d call someone but the kids FREAK the heck out as soon as I get on the phone. So here’s everything in my head.

The End.

Just kidding ;)  My geek hubbie finally transfered all of our family pics over onto my computer from some silver computer thingy that he had to store the pics on for an undisclosed amount of time for some reason I either got bored trying to understand or didn’t care. Either way, they’re back!  And not only are they back, but Dustin set up a slideshow screen saver of ALL OF THEM.  I think that’s so thoughtful, he knows how much I love pictures, and all the memories they conjure up.  Thank you hubbie….BUT….there are some, um, private pictures, and I don’t know which file they are in so I can’t take them out of the slide show…yet.  So when the random freecycler comes over to pick up my junk their treasures, it’s a little awkward to see a picture of yourself stripped down to the skivvies breastfeeding your first born.

In other news, we’re going on vacation tomorrow!!!  I really, REALLY wanted to make it back home to Florida this year for my cousin’s wedding (most of my family has never met Dustin or my kids!) but finances have made that impossible. So we’re driving the 5 hours to Page and staying with Dustin’s parents for about a week. I love Page and I’m so stoked to get out of town and just hang out by the lake.  Being by water does something for my soul, and for a Floridian transplanted to the desert, I’m in some serious need of that “something”.

Baby Talk

August 9, 2008 – 11:06 am

While at the post office waiting in line to send off the Thistle Hill package to Christina, this happened:

Christian: (From his perch on my hip) “Where’s Daddy?”

Maddie: (Pauses from pulling all the padded envelopes off the shelf) ” Daddy’s at work”

I almost started crying right there. I looked around at the other two people in line expecting them to join with me in a chorus of “What a beautiful world”, but they didn’t. They didn’t even turn around.

Don’t you get it people? This is a milestone, a moment! My 16 month old and 28 month old just had their first conversation!  First ever!  This is the beginning of laughing at shared jokes, rolling their eyes at each other behind my back. The beginning of shared thoughts, feelings, history and memories. We’re talking about the beginning of a friendship!

They aren’t just two babies taking up space in my heart and my home anymore, they’re starting to share something just between the two of them!  They are brother and sister :)

Happy

August 7, 2008 – 2:16 pm

I’m sorry my posting has been so infrequent.  It usually drops off for me during the third trimester.

Can you believe it….She’s almost here!  Last week at my midwife apt. she said, see you in two weeks. Two weeks?! We’re to that point already? She smiled, put her hand on my shoulder and said “Mary, we were at that point last month, but you missed your appointments”.  Doh.  Seriously, I think I’ve only been to something like 4 appointments this entire pregnancy.  It’s not that I don’t take it seriously, or I’m not interested…Oh how I am, I mean the routine of get weighed, pee in a cup (which Christian spilled at the last apt), BP, “drinking lots of water?” No. “You should” I know; and measuring is fascinating…but it’s so hard to keep the appointments with all of the other things going on.

I remember with Maddie how I would prep for every single prenatal appointment with shaving my legs, pits and other places (just in case they look downtown). I’d pick my cutest maternity outfit, lather on the belly butter and sit dreamily in the waiting room with Dustin as we anxiously awaited our baby being the center of attention for 15 minutes.

This pregnancy when I manage to make the appointments I go with two toddlers in tow, yesterday’s eye liner smudged under my eyes (hoping they think it’s the smoky look), hairy legs and oh my gosh, did I remember to put on a bra? …. Whew!

Despite how different life is this time around, I’ve still managed to get so attached to this little one inside me. I never bore of pulling up my shirt and staring at my belly as she makes it dance around. She’s the most active out of all of them. I swear she’s doing jumping jacks in there.

I’m really big this time too. I’m already bigger than the day I gave birth to Christian and I have two months to go!  Other things are ..um…different too.  Like when I squat to get a toy I feel like my cervix is going to fall out. I’m also having contractions! I have about 6 good contractions a day.  I had Braxton Hicks with the other two, but they were usually in the top part of my uterus and not that noticeable. This time, they feel like early labor. The contractions start at the top of my uterus and pull and tighten their way down and then SQUEEZE.  I’m thankful for them though. It makes me hopeful that this time around my body will not treat labor like a VBAC but a normal vaginal delivery and be much, much, shorter.

I’m hoping to take some belly shots soon, and then I’ll share them.  Oh, and I’ve been a scrappin’ fool the past few weeks. I’ve got to scan in my pages and show you what I’ve been up to. :)

Chaos on the farm

August 1, 2008 – 11:04 am

We have made a ton of changes this year to live more simply and sustainable-y (?). Like:

  • Composting our kitchen and yard waste.
  • Stopped using trash bags and instead use grocery bags.
  • When I remember, I bring my own recycled shopping bags to Trader Joe’s for shopping.
  • Precycling - I think about how much waste something is going to bring into my home when I’m making purchases. “Is this packaging recyclable?”. “Is this packaging degradable?”.  By doing this we have reduced our trash by at least 50%. A weeks worth of trash for our family of 4 amounts to one grocery bag full!
  • We use our grey water to water our flowers.
  • Line dry most of our clothes and run the dryer only once a week for things I don’t want crunchy. (I just don’t dig crunchy panties and stiff sheets.) When we do run the drier it’s during the time of day that’s cooler so it won’t cause us to use more energy in AC use.
  • Our front lawn is xeriscaped
  • We use solar shades on all our windows.
  • I run the appliances during non prime times of day.
  • We built a chicken coop and are raising the chickens for eggs.
  • We fertilize our lawn and till it with the chickens and their….droppings.
  • I’ve made the kids clothes out of our drapery. J/k I’m not that far gone. Yet.
  • Dustin car pools and I only use the car twice a week-ish.
  • I use vinegar for cleaning.

So anyways, all of those things have taken adjusting and figuring out how to make it organized and not to much extra work for us.  Honestly I love the slowing down. I’ve noticed that so many products are geared for saving time and being convienient, but once people buy those products, rather than doing leisurly things with the extra time, they fill it with more productivity and join the rat race all over again.  I really enjoy the time when I’m hanging clothes on our laundry rack to dry. (Big attitude adjustment from back in the day, remember?) It forces me to slow down, and do a very simple task.  Suprisingly, all of these new ways of living have added some peace to my life rather than causing more stress.

Except for…..

The compost. It is my nemesis.  It started with us realizing after we dug a hole and placed the Earth Machine in it, that we’d put it in the worst place possible….right beside the house. Nothing we read warned us. We had fruit flies everywhere in the spring and now….roaches!  I HATE roaches. I called the ASU master gardening program about it and they said “It’s a good thing, it’s part of the process, they break down the soil”. Whatever. It’s gross. So we have at least 200 roaches in our compost, not to mention the food chain they bring with it. Spiders, crickets, weird skinny pinchy things, beetles.  It’s nasty. I don’t go outback at night.  So far, the roaches stay outside (most of the time)…why would they want to leave their cozy, damp home that I dump food into everyday?  But the other critters have invaded us.  Wikipedia suggested diatomaceous earth to kill the roaches (we want to keep it organic). So, we’ll see how that goes.

Until then I’ll hold my toungue while Maddie plays with the “buggies” and treats them like pets. EEEWWW

Something old, something *new*

August 1, 2008 – 10:11 am

Something old:

Something new:

Some of you have probably already noticed it, but my new blog name is “Perfektly Mary“. Tada!  Manchops is in the process of switching it over and we’re making slight design updates to the site. But for now, you can update your links to me with my new name!  No more confusing identity crisis’ here!

Have a great weekend!

And the winner is…

July 31, 2008 – 10:54 am

Has anyone else seen Drew Carey on the Price is Right? Is it just me or does he seem extremely bored with the gig and rude to the contestants?

Anyways….  Did I say I was going to pick a winner for the contest two weeks ago?  I meant two weeks ago “mom time” which is somehow akin to dog years.  I actually didn’t go with any of the suggestions, although I loved them!  The main reason being they were too long as an URL or it pegged me into mom blogging. But, since I love you guys/gals and you made the whole thing so much fun, I still want to give away the Thistle Hill gift package, because I just lovsh the stuff!

So, the winner, generated by the highly technical IM conversation with Manchops involving “Hey, pick a number 1 through 12″ came up with CHRISTINA DEESE !!!!  I’m so glad she won!  She is actually a very dear friend of mine from youth group back in the day.  I wish she had a blog and wrote about her three beautiful adopted kids, but the stinker doesn’t.  But then again, I don’t know how busy it is to have three kids…I will in October though :)

Congratulations Christina!  Email me your address and I’ll get you all the details of what I”m sending you.

It’s Like Crack for Parents

July 26, 2008 – 10:40 pm

Wordless Wednesday on Thursday - I’m that good

July 17, 2008 – 11:35 am

I seriously had to google how to spell Wednesday just now. It’s been that kind of day week month.

This makes me happy…

So you’ve moved on and got all famous

July 10, 2008 – 9:10 am

I’m the last one in the neighborhood :( Dustin moved his blog from the youngbostons.com last week and ventured out with a whole new niche and attitude. I must admit, I like the new writing style much, much, better. He blogs from the perspective of a Christian Man on hating chick flicks, camping, banging and destroying things, guns, bugs and world domination Manly things. It’s funny, totally not feely and I love it! There isn’t a tech article to be found. Oh Glory!!! Not that I hate tech articles, but I get my fill of pretending like I’m interested geeking out at couch time.

He’s been getting quite a bit of attention for his new blog too! Today he was featured on Unclutterer for one of his posts. Stop by and leave him some comment love. :)

I’m getting closer to moving my blog as well. I think I’ve settled on the name. Now, I’m contemplating what changes I want to make to design and functionality. Since the name I’ve settled on isn’t one suggested by my beloved readers, I’m going to put all the names of people that left suggestions into a hat and draw out a winner of the Thistle Hill gift pack anyways. I’ll announce the winner on Monday, how’s that?

In other news, owning the chickens rock and it’s surprisingly easy. Actually they don’t require much of anything. They’re pretty much on their own. I feed them every once in awhile, but other than that, they’re really easy to keep and forget about. Much easier than the dog. The kids love, love, love them. They’ve also tripled their size since we bought them and we’re looking forward to them producing eggs within the next month! Oh, and for the answer to the question on every woman’s mind….do they stink? No, they don’t! We built a “tractor coop” so we don’t have to deal with poop at all. Our coop doesn’t have a bottom and we keep it on the lawn. The chickens are free to poop and then till it into the grass as fertilizer with their natural habits of scratching at the ground. It’s great for the grass, great for the chickens to be able to peck at the ground and they also work as natural bug control :) We move the spot of our coop each day so the chickens always have a new spot to explore and our whole yard gets some poop love. And no, it doesn’t just make us have poop all over our lawn. Like I said, they till it into the ground.

Before you go, don’t forget to say hi to Dustin over at unclutterer!

Go ahead, I’m not looking

July 8, 2008 – 8:44 am

I feel like we have a newborn at home. We’re readjusting our schedules, totally clueless to what we should be doing, constantly trying out new scenarios, sleep is interrupted and I find myself being really grumpy and short during the day.

Why? Because Maddie is officially in her toddler bed now.

Up until this point (well, at least since colic) we’ve been totally spoiled by her sleeping habits. She would wake up at 7:30, take a 1 hour nap at 9 with her brother, take another nap at 1pm, again with her brother and then be out for the night at 6:30! Sure she is non stop when she’s awake, I love that about her, and the blissful sleep schedule the two of them shared helped me to keep up.

Now, there’s no stopping her. I try to keep her awake as long as my nerves can take it. I finally put her in her bed, her eyes red, she’s visibly exhausted and……for two hours we struggle. Each. Single. Attempt. At. Sleep. we fight. I hate it. I find her throwing things into her brothers crib, climbing on top of the dresser and dumping out all of the contents, emptying out her ENTIRE closet, jumping on her bed, crawling into bed with Christian and keeping him awake….and those are just some of the highlights.

We’ve tried positive reinforcement, we’ve tried spanking, we’ve tried laying down with her, we’ve tried casting demons out of her (just kidding). NOTHING IS WORKING!!!!! It’s been about 3 weeks now and I’m spent. Right now I’m sure she’s climbing into bed with Christian and teasing him my taking away his tiger. I’m so tired of disciplining her I’m going to pretend like I don’t hear it. Bad mommy.