Category Archives: Five Question Friday

Happy Friday! This has been a LONG week, but not a bad week, just a long one! I think the next two months are just going to be busy (who am I kidding, the next two decades are going to be busy) so I’m just going to have to embrace the crazy.
I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s flashback photo – I’ve got a few more to share in the future thanks to FB friends with scanners. They are pretty awesome (if awesome = entertaining for you and embarrassing for me).
Here are some things I’m thinking about:

• I’ve worked out every day this week (except yesterday) and eaten well and as of this morning I’ve gained a half a pound – what the heck? We’re going to pretend it’s all new muscle. But it makes me a little stabby crazy.
• We’re going to a potluck at Simon’s old work (a camp) tomorrow and I’m making everyone’s favorite buffalo chicken dip and my favorite pineapple zucchini cake with cream cheese frosting (linked here)
• Liam has another birthday party on Saturday for his friend he was in daycare with from 6 months to 3.5 years – they were born 4 days apart and oh how they loved each other. It makes my heart happy.
• Date night on Sunday night, on the lineup: dinner at The Electric Cheetah (it’s delicious) and a movie (Captain America or Horrible Bosses, but NOT Friends with Benefits)
• Yeah for walking with Sandy today after too long of a break. It’s hot and the heat and humidity makes me grumpy but we have such a great time!

Huzzah for the weekend! Hope you have fun plans, too! And now, a little five question Friday!

1. Vow renewal ceremonies-yay or nay?
Nay, I feel like staying married is vow renewal enough. But I am not adverse to anniversary parties for 25 and 50 years… or week-long tropical vacations for 10 and 15 years.

2. What sound/s annoy you the most?
Simon’s eyes squeak sometimes when he rubs them and the sound totally creeps me out. I also really hate our neighbor kids’ voices, they are all high-pitched and nasally and they yell all the time when they are outside and only call their mom “honey” which when they say it, sounds like “hahn-knee.” We call the neighbor kids the children of the corn because when we are outside on our deck, the kids often stand at the windows and watch us but if you wave at them or make eye contact, they just stare at you and don’t move. Perhaps they think we can’t see them if they aren’t moving but it’s still strange.

3. If you had to pick, would you have only all boys, or only all girls for kids?
All boys, all the way and not just because I have two boys (though they are awesome) and not because I don’t like girls (I totally do, because girls are also awesome). But I always said, (when we were considering a third child and people would ask “but what if it’s a boy again?”) “The only thing worse than having three boys would be having three girls.” Girls are drama and are often at odds with their moms in their teenage years, why would I wish for that? Boys are a different kind of difficult, for sure and we’ll just leave it at that.

4. Do you believe in alternative medicine?
Yes, but I also believe in modern medicine and that they can work together to best benefit a person and their needs but I don’t think you should have one without the other.

5. Would you take a family member’s children and raise them if they needed it?
Absolutely, no question.

Happy Friday to everyone! Hope you have big plans for the weekend. Liam has a birthday party this afternoon and then tonight we are hanging out with friends. Tomorrow Simon’s going to Chicago to see Man U play the Chicago Fire (he’s a little excited, I’m less so) and the boys and I will be hanging out with some of our favorite people in the evening (THAT, I am excited about). Plus I cleaned the horror that is our basement last night and aside from 8 boxes of clothes and a bunch of baby toys that need to go in our MOPS consignment sale, it’s looking good – cross that one off the list!

1. If your husband had the BIG V and you got pregnant what would your first reaction be? For the dudes, what would your first reaction be if your wife told you she was pregnant after the Big V?
I would be surprised but not sad, I secretly would love a third child but know that Simon is not okay with that and I kind of need him to be on board with it. Now if it were Simon, he would be super ticked and not at all happy, that I can promise you. Especially because he hates it when something does not react the way it is supposed to – and that’s definitely an instance of something not doing its job!

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And once again we are at the end of the week. Phew… are we already at mid-July? Guess I’d better get my soon-to-be five year old’s birthday planned (I at least booked the venue – bowling, FTW!).

It’s been a strange week, one I’m glad to have over. Here are the highlights:

• Work, work and more work
• Oldest child freak out while going on normal walk – complete with crocodile tears and refusal to walk one more step [Resolution: He walked many more steps once he realized I was ignoring him and not stopping.]
• Youngest child freak out while checking out at Costco – complete with alternating between limp body and flailing limbs resulting in smoothie being poured all over the floor and then no one would get behind us in line. Awesome.
• Service Engine Soon light on in Explorer so it is next door at the mechanics getting checked out – this will be the sixth time it’s been in the shop since January (though more than half of those were to fix problems stemming from SIMON sliding on ice and running off the highway in into the overpass – he was fine so I can hold a grudge, it’s in our vows)
• Finally decided that random, lingering nausea (NOT pregnant, not even in the least) was not normal so booked doctor’s appointment where she determined that best case scenario, I have an ulcer. Super. I find this amusing. Blood tests and other testing will commence and we will figure it out. I’ll keep you posted.
• Did get to see a movie with two friends this week – that was such a nice treat. We saw Water For Elephants – it was better than the book and made me appreciate the fact that Robert Pattinson can act, it’s just that everyone in Twilight is brought down by Kristin Stewart.
• Yesterday Jack did this, thankfully it was on Simon’s watch so I did not have to refold all those clothes. Also resisting the urge to rearrange his drawers after Simon put everything away (yes, I’m a control freak, why do you ask?)

And on to our regularly scheduled programming…

Five Question Friday
1. If you knew your best friend’s spouse was cheating on her or him, would you tell her (him)?
I had to think about it from my perspective and whether I’d want my best friend to tell me. And I’d say yes, because I’d want to know. But first I would let the cheater know that I knew what was going on and give them the chance to come clean on their own before I told my friend.

2. Soda in a can or a bottle?
Typically in a can since that’s what we have at home but if I’m on a road trip then a bottle will do. I really don’t have a preference, except that it’s Diet Coke (or the occasional Strawberry Crush).

3. What do you wash first, hair or body?
Hair first and then when I put my conditioner in, I wash the rest and then rinse the conditioner. I have thick hair, it needs some extra love.

4. What advice would you give to any new mama?
It’s funny because I was just talking about that this weekend… here are the pieces of advice that I received that I most used myself:
1. Don’t just stay home with your baby in the evenings and on the weekends – take them places and get them used to sleeping outside of their crib and falling asleep in strange places. They will be more adaptable and less constrained to a bedtime routine. Plus, then you can hang out with friends and put your kids to bed at their houses.
2. You will not have more than 10 bad nights with your child (not certain if this last until they are 18 or just for babyhood) so when you are having a bad night, remember it’s just one night and there are only 9 more to go. You can handle one bad night and really, 10 nights in the grand scheme of things is NOTHING. The person who told me this has five children and she said she never surpassed 10 nights.
3. Children go in phases and bad temperaments or habits typically last about two weeks, so give something two weeks and it will likely go away. When you are in the middle of a stretch of frequent nightly wakings or bad baby moods, know it won’t last forever and will likely change in two weeks (give or take a few days).
4. All kids are different, yes, but you are not the only one going through whatever it is that you are going through. Seek support with friends or online. Reading blogs and baby-related sites helped me see that I wasn’t alone.
5. Sleep whenever you can, everything else can wait (you know, aside from baby-related needs).

5. What is your best hangover remedy?
Taking ibuprofen and drinking a bunch of water before going to bed. Repeat when you wake up. Eat a carb-alicious breakfast. I’ve never thrown up after drinking and certainly not because I’ve not drank enough so perhaps my method works, I don’t know… at least it works for me.

Happy Friday everyone! So glad it’s a short week and so looking forward to going to Chicago for the weekend (well, the suburbs of Chicago for most of the weekend and then to the city for the DMB Caravan!! Whoot!).

Do you want to know what the favorite part of my day is? (Well most days except for today when it didn’t happen.) It’s first thing in the morning (which is crazy because I am NOT a morning person. But, most of the time, when I wake up, Simon’s already downstairs (he often wakes up very early and then goes downstairs to watch TV and snooze – I do not understand this as I never wake up before I need to and I would never get out of bed if I didn’t have it; instead I just take forever to actually fall asleep). Anywho, where was I… yes, waking up. So Simon’s downstairs and the first thing Liam does when he wakes up is run upstairs to come see me (read: wake me up) and he is so happy and tells me how good he slept. Shortly after that, Jack will wake up and Simon brings him upstairs and he says, “I wanna cuddle, mommy.” So we all get on the bed and have a happy little moment before starting our days. I love it.

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Guess what? Today’s my birthday! Happy birthday to me! I’m 33, which I’m going to consider 1/3 of the way to dead – living to 99 doesn’t sound so bad, so it’s completely non-morbid to think that way, I promise. My boys seem to think I’m having a party, won’t they be disappointed when this doesn’t happen? I think I’ll tell them the 4th of July parade we’re going to on Monday is a celebration for me – that’s what I used to think when I was little – all those fireworks were just for me! In actuality, we celebrated last weekend with my family (my SIL’s birthday was Sunday – happy birthday, Joan!) and at the U2 concert (technically my birthday present from the previous year). Today I’m at work and then lunch with my hubby (at a new-to-me restaurant, Marie Catribs, which I know will be delicious and helps me mark a small think off my list). Then tonight I’m going out with two sweet friends while one of their husbands watches his two boys and our two boys – bless him!

I’m hoping to make it to the farmer’s market tomorrow, church on Sunday, date night Sunday night and a parade on Monday – who knows what else we’ll do, I’m just looking forward to a long weekend! Hope everyone else has fun plans!