Tuesday, October 31, 2006

An Eyeful of Sympathy

Q: What is better than having someone stand outside the bathroom door and laugh hysterically as you vomit?

A: Having someone stand beside you in the bathroom and watch you vomit because you didn't get the bathroom door closed fast enough. It's really good when, tired of trying to catch the stuff coming out of your mouth, that little someone decides to stick his little razor-tipped fingers in your eyes each time you retch. So helpful.

Monday, October 30, 2006

I Dreamed a Little Dream of You

Yes, you. If you are a regular reader (and commenter) of this blog, chances are good that you have recently appeared in my dreams. I think I am jealous of all the blogging ladies getting to meet their blogging buddies in real life, like Chili and Shannon did this weekend.

This morning, our featured player was Mopsy from Lifenut. I was supposed to be helping her put her children to bed, as her husband was busy at work. In real life, she has six children, but in my dream ... she had 10. We did ok. The kids went to sleep, eventually.

Ok, this sounded much more exciting when I woke up at 5:30 this morning.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Birthday Boy



Today, my wonderful Daddy celebrates 68 years of living life to the fullest. This is a man who has been a teacher, a firefighter, an EMT, a school principal, a stained glass artist, a handyman of the highest order and now spends his retirement renovating churches, schools and homes on a volunteer basis.

My Daddy is a quiet man. He's never had much to say, but he's also never missed a chance to lead by example. He works hard and plays hard, and has never, ever made me feel like an afterthought.

When I was a little girl, too young to read, he would read the comics to me over breakfast, describing the pictures and then telling me what the word bubbles said. Later, in high school, he and I ate breakfast together every morning. I don't remember what we talked about, or even if we talked at all, but he was always there.

In middle school, we rode the Cycle Across Maryland tour twice - once on separate bikes and once on a tandem. Even though he was (and still is) an excellent bicyclist, he never left me behind so that he could ride with the faster guys and finish at the head of the pack. He rode beside me every minute of every mile, encouraging me when I was tired or walking beside me when I had to push my bike up a hill. The year we rode the tandem we had these really fun tie-die bicycle shirts, and we made quite a pair. I think riding across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on the back of that tandem is still one of my favorite memories of all time.

A couple of years ago, he rebuilt my kitchen for me, including making custom counter tops. Let me tell you, it was so much fun to see how he did that. I had no idea how counter tops are made. It is not easy or quick. My kitchen is now perfect and amazing, and there is no way I could have done it without him. (Or mom, or SuperHubby, or the rest of the team, for that matter. But Dad did most of the manual labor himself.) Here are some before and after shots of the great work Daddy did in the kitchen. (Note: the decorations in the before pictures are not ours - they are what the house looked like when we purchased it, with the previous owners' stuff still in it.)


Before

After


Before

After


Before

After


So, happy birthday, Dad. You are a fantastic dad and a wonderful Pops. I love you very much.

Breakfast Blessing

Yesterday, I bought eggs from a market I don't usually frequent. I am not brand specific, so I buy whichever eggs are a good price.

As I cracked an egg this morning to make my goat cheese omelet, I noticed a strange message inside the carton.






It's silly, but suddenly my gray, dreary rainy day looked just a bit brighter. So, thanks, Mr. Heister at Lewistown Valley Egg Ranch. The ranch is a locally owned farm, and if they had a website, I would link it. Since they don't, I'll ask any of my readers in eastern central PA to make a beeline to your nearest Valley Farm Market and support these guys. I love it. (PS, the eggs are good, too.)

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Linklicious

I have three new favorite reads that I hope all of you will check out.

Scribbit is an amusing Alaskan who has wonderful stories about her family as well as gorgeous photos of thier adventures. Her recipes look fantastic, too. Take a second and go say hi. She's worth it.

The Wallpaper of My Mind is a great site that I only recently stumbled across. She has decided to spend more time Mommying and less time blogging, and thus only updates on Fridays. But she's worth the wait.

Total Mom Haircut is a funny, funny lady with great stories about her impossibly cute offspring, Sam. Don't miss her story about strollercizing.

Friday, October 20, 2006

Random Photos and a Pumpkin Patch

We had visitors last weekend, and in a celebration of all things autumnal, we decided to take a trip to a local pumpkin patch. The weather was perfectly crisp, and I had visions of Tom tromping through the pumpkin patch as happy as could be.
But Tom had other ideas. If you click on the picture, you should be able to see him bawling his little head off in the middle of the pumpkins. My kid is not all about squash.



I did, however, get a pretty shot of the orange pumpkins and blue, blue sky.



He had a little more fun with the petting zoo - he really liked the llamas. But he was still more interested in the wheels on the big tractor parked next to the petting zoo than he was in the animals. I wish we'd gotten a picture of his face when he saw the tractor.




Even if Tom didn't have the best time at the farm, the adults enjoyed ourselves. We had planned to pick apples in the orchard, but the line for the buses was very long, and we didn't feel like sitting through all that with an infant and a toddler. So we just bought apples at the fruit stand instead. Samantha assured me the apples were just as good as if we had picked them ourselves.

And this is what Tommy likes to do for fun on our french door.


Thursday, October 12, 2006

14 Months of Sympathy

Last night, just as I was about to pull dinner from the oven, I was overcome by a sudden urge to worship at the porcelain throne of St. John. I dashed to the loo, closing the door behind me.

I retched, I kecked, I moaned. And from the other side of the door, I heard lilting laughter. He chortled. He guffawed. At me.

I hadn't had much to eat, but that didn't keep my stomach from trying to revolt, again and again. And each time, the laughter followed me. Apparently listening to your mother throw up is hil.ar.i.ous.

Oh the love.

Monday, October 09, 2006

My Fetus is Trying to Kill Me

I had planned a wonderful, happy, babyriffic post to tell the world about the next duckling in the queue. The one who will arrive sometime in May.

The one who is currently running a full-court press for matricide.

Early life with the Tominator wasn't this bad. I wasn't 100%, and I was absolutely exhausted, but at least I could eat. In fact, there were foods I wanted to eat. Fried mozzarella sticks, primarily. And beef. And chips with french onion dip, which threw SuperHubby for a serious loop, since I never eat potato chips.

But this baby? Oh no. Apparently this baby feels that anything in excess of half a cup of wonton soup is too much to handle. Maybe she's planning to be an itty-bitty string bean of a ballerina. I dunno, I just wish she'd let me eat something.

Anyhow, so that's my good news. Whoopee!

Friday, October 06, 2006

What My Weekend Was Not

Well, our weekend away was not the cable TV gorge-fest I had anticipated, but it was still a great weekend.

I guess after so many years of living a cableless life, I had forgotten just how pointless most television shows are. SuperHubby said my standards have become much higher, and I was sorely disappointed in the selection, even though I had upwards of 70 channels to choose from.

But cable TV was not the point of the weekend. The point of the weekend was to get away and visit with our friends, and that part was lovely beyond lovely.

The wedding was gorgeous, and the bride was one of the prettiest I have ever seen.

The reception was lovely and the food was delicious. Catching up with our friends was the best part, though. I had real adult conversations, not punctuated by "hold on just a moment" while I ran frantically after the Tominator. I sat through a whole meal, and only had to feed myself. Oh, the joy.

The purse I carried? Tiny! So small I could only fit a tube of lipstick and a compact in it. No shoulder-pulling diaper bag for me! I was a liberated woman for 48 whole hours.

After the wedding, SuperHubby and I crashed in our hotel room for a late-afternoon nap. When we woke up (of our own accord, not to the baby cry that is our standard at-home alarm) we decided to dine out at a local Italian resturant. We lived on the edge and ordered brick-oven pizza with spinach and tiramisu for dessert. Yummy. The resturant served water in mason jars with long tubes of pasta as straws. That part kind of creeped me out, because by the end of dinner, my straw was melting into my drink. Plus, as a veteran straw-chewer, I was thwarted in my attempts to gnaw on the end of the pasta without biting off nasty soggy raw pasta.

But other than that the meal was good.

On Sunday, we got up and went to church, and I got to sit through the WHOLE service and actually listen to the sermon. I did not have to read The Very Hungry Catepillar in an undertone, or entice a wiggly 14 month old behind to sit on the pew beside me. I did not have to leave church while the priest blessed communion, because I did not have someone sitting on my lap who wanted to loudly "help."

And then we went home, and what a homecoming we had! The Tominator's grin nearly split his face in two, and I wasn't sure he would ever unlock his little arms from around my neck. Can't beat that with a stick, I tell you.