Category Archives: Life in general

Thursday Randoms

Posted on April 26, 2012 | 2 comments

Have you entered my FIRST giveaway (let’s assume it won’t be my last)? Your chances are pretty good so go check it out and comment. Unless you are like me and slightly wary of Burger King, in which case, don’t be because they have some good stuff and for a free $25, it’s worth checking out. Just sayin’.
I’ve been watching two new comedies that I’d recommend checking out: Best Friends Forever (premise: recently divorced woman moves back to NYC to live with her best friend and best friend’s boyfriend, wacky hi jinx ensues) and Bent (premise: down on his luck, former gambling addict contractor convinces Amanda Peet’s character – recently divorced – to let him remodel her kitchen). Both are fast-paced, have slightly off-kilter characters and great supporting casts. Give ’em a look-see.
I painted my nails over the weekend (all by myself) with a new OPI color – Thanks a WindMillion – it’s a breezy sea green color, not at all my norm and I rather love it (thanks, Michelle – not me, Michelle, but my friend who is also named Michelle who introduced me to it). But let me tell you, maintaining a nail color is a project. I’ve touched them up a couple of times since then but I am super glad I bought a new top coat (Sally Hansen Professional, it’s actually pretty awesome).
Per a referral from Jill at The Diaper Diaries, I’ve been using Organix Moroccan Argan Oil this week and I kind of love it. My hair is super soft and perfectly shiny. I found mine at the local grocery store but I also found you can order it on Amazon for a cheaper price per bottle, problem is, you have to get 4 larger bottles so does anyone want to go with me to get some?
We were listening to fun.’s song “We Are Young” in the car at the lyrics in the beginning go, “My friends are in the bathroom getting higher than the Empire State” and so of course Liam asked, “What’s the Empire State?” And I told him it was a very tall building in New York and that the people in the song were jumping very high. He was contented with that explanation, but am I horrible for not taking that song out of rotation.
Liam still says “extra-size” instead of “exercise” and I will hurt anyone who ever corrects him. He also says, “Phineas and Firm” instead of “Phineas and Ferb” and I kind of love that, too.
Jack took off his pajamas and diaper the other night before falling asleep so of course his bed was wet in the morning so we have entered the backwards, zip-up pajama phase of having a child again. Liam did this same thing and now Jack is trying his hand at it. We tried duct-taping the diaper on, with little success but I think someone told us to try backwards pajamas and it totally worked. Here’s hoping because changing a bunk bed with a double mattress is not my favorite thing. [Sidebar: just realized I’ve been spelling pajama incorrectly, at least in my head and perhaps other places – sorry folks, I’m not perfect. If there was any question.]
Liam has his little belly button procedure tomorrow morning completely with general anesthesia. Fun times. I’m hoping it will be drama-free and very low on the pain scale. I’m very thankful my parents will be arriving this afternoon to help out with Jack while we are at the hospital tomorrow and for when Simon goes to work tomorrow night. They are staying until Sunday so we can go out Saturday night for our anniversary. Love them!
It’s our anniversary on Monday. Seven years. It seems like so much longer and like no time at all – which is probably a good thing – does that mean it’s a perfect balance (note: I did not say perfect marriage 😉 we are both flawed and fully aware of it).
Simon’s mom has been in and out of the hospital recently with some heart trouble (likely related to her recurring dropping blood counts and needing transfusions) but we’d appreciate prayers for her and Simon’s sister who has a lot on her plate with taking care of everything and needing to have surgery to figure out why her recently replaced hip keeps going out of joint (I think we can categorize that under “Not Fun”).
My friend, Sandy, is having a baby!!! She finally spilled the beans to everyone but I have known for a while now and it’s been killing me!!! [But apparently, I can keep a secret when it’s not mine to tell… I’m growing as a person.] She’s had a couple scares recently with the pregnancy so she’d also welcome your prayers and good thoughts! And HUGE congrats; so exciting!
Still super loving our new small group – the people are great, the study is thought-provoking and God is doing good things with our marriage and friendships with other couples. Happy day.

Here’s a question for you… is there anything you’d like to know about me or like me to blog about? I’d love your feedback/comments on that one (i.e., I’m in need of a little blog inspiration).

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Posted in Life in general, Random

Why, yes, I am making Instagram a verb… do you object? My apologies.

Liam’s finally blossoming with his creativity – last weekend he made a Hot Wheels track with construction paper and stickers (and a bit of tape). I love it.

I made brownies. Jack helped me clean up. Liam got the beaters to lick off, this was one of my favorite things to do growing up. It’s a testament of my love for them that I let them do the licking and didn’t keep that goodness all to myself.

Sad that this picture didn’t really turn out but this is a wild turkey in our neighbor’s yard. We live a minute from downtown and I’ve seen wild turkeys, deer and coyotes. So strange.

Shin guards are probably a good idea when it comes to his brother.

My pants-less artist-in-residence working on his gallery.

Liam’s also finally grown a love of writing. Such a sweet sentiment that I can ignore the grammar error 🙂

The Bloggess’ book finally arrived. I attempted reading it at a coffee shop but couldn’t help laughing out loud and thought it was probably better if I read it in the privacy of my own home so I wasn’t the crazy person at the coffee shop laughing to herself.

View during our walk at Millenium Park – blogged about here.

Jack’s “angry” face. This morning he asked me to “talk faces at me” and after asking him what that meant, I figured out he wanted me to ask him to show me his angry/sad/surprised/happy faces. My little monkey loves to perform.

I got a little baby time in this week… don’t you love our coordinating stripes? Love that baby Hutch! Do not so much love the bags under my eyes – holey moly!

My centerpieces for MOPS complete with custom banners.

Waiting for Simon and boys to show up for our kid exchange in the parking lot at Simon’s work. Spring really is here.

They take this sign very seriously – when they are open – I like to rebel and park here after hours. But once I parked there on a Saturday near the end of their open hours and walked over to the coffee shop after dropping some mail in the box and a postal worker stopped me and asked me to move my car.

So glad Squinkies are actually too big to be shoved further up his nose.

Yet another uncomplimentary photo of my youngest after he told me, “I just want to lick my feet.” And then he did.

This picture is from Easter but I just posted it this week as it still surprises me to see my dad with facial hair. Who knew he could actually grow it out so nicely; now he and my brothers look even more alike.

My Instagram name is ememby see you there.

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Posted in Instagram, Life in general

Five Question Friday

Posted on April 20, 2012 | 1 comment

1. Groceries are high right now what is easiest way you have found to cut back?
We’ve just decided not to feed the children anymore… which is handy since Jack has decided he only likes eating a few things – mainly toast with Vegemite. Really, we haven’t cut back on our grocery list at all so I’m not really qualified to answer that question. I’ve always been a coupon-user (my mommy taught me) so I just continue using coupons and purchasing things on sale. Though there are some staples we purchase whether they are on sale or not and we’re okay with that.

2. What are the top 3 things on your “bucket list”?
Hmmm… I have to put some thought into that one… let me go check my list.
I’m going to tie #2 and #3 together – hopefully these happen before retirement. I’ve had a story floating around in my head for years now, someday I hope to get it written down and I hope that when I do, it can be successful and I can quit my job. Then I’d go with traveling to and around Europe – at least a month in Europe would be perfect. But the most important thing on my list, at least to me, is have a great relationship with my children and their spouses as adults (seems slightly more important than making sticky toffee pudding).

3. Would you rather give up AC or heat?
I’ve always said I’d rather be cold than warm because you can always put on more layers but you can’t take off your skin if you are stripped down and still too hot. It certainly stinks to be too cold and Michigan gets cold to the point that it would be serious trouble if we didn’t have heat. But we have a fireplace and I’m going to assume we could use that rather than our furnace (the question wasn’t specific) and ultimately we could get a wood-burning stove/furnace set up. But I’d keep my central air – priorities. I hate being hot and sweaty.

4. What’s your favorite cocktail??
There is a bar in Chicago that serves 20-ounce Long Island Iced Teas. You get a class with 10 shots plus a little ice and Coke. Then they give you a second glass full of ice and a third with Coke. For only $6. Can’t beat that when you are 22. But now I’m an adult and have sophisticated tastes (though try as I may, I cannot like martinis) and I’d say that vodka tonics with extra lime and whiskey sours are favorites. And anything my brother, Mike, mixes up at the holidays.

[Side note: My parents, when they VERY rarely ordered a drink, would get a Seagram’s 7 and 7-Up so when I was all grown up and at a nice restaurant, I ordered one of my own. Umm… yuck. Guess I wasn’t all that grown up.]

5. What was your first job & how old were you?
My first non-official job was as a babysitter for my church youth group leaders. When I started babysitting for them, they had two kids (the youngest was a couple of months old) and when they switched to another sitter, they had three kids and the youngest was about 4 or so. Those boys are now all grown up and nearly all in college – I see them sitting in church when I visit my parents and I can hardly believe it – makes me feel very, very old.

My first real job (one that I paid taxes at/for) was at Dunkin’ Donuts where I worked for three years. I started out working out front, behind the counter and ended up in the back, making the donuts. I actually loved that job, it might even top my list of favorites (aside from the 2 hours I spent as a Bath & Body Works employee, of course).

Linking up with Mama M for Five Question

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Posted in Five Question Friday, Life in general

Things I’ve Thought

Posted on April 19, 2012 | 7 comments

I spend a lot of time without adult companionship – I’m usually the only one at work and when I leave work, I’m with my kids – which is possibly why I started a blog or text a whole lot more than I used to (which was not at all and now, let’s just say, I’m very thankful for having unlimited texting). Sometimes you think things and you want to share them with someone but talking to one’s self is a bit strange, even if no one else witnesses it, and discussing an annoyance with Uma Thurman is not really appropriate conversation to be having with my kids. So… here’s a list of things I’ve thought recently, it feels so good to get them out there.

Oh my goodness does it baffle me that people find Uma Thurman pretty or remotely attractive. But I do admire the fact that the role she is playing on SMASH is one of an actress who is not quite up to par for the task of headlining a Broadway musical, not all actors would take on a part playing a bad actress. And I kind of love and hate SMASH. I enjoy musicals. I do not always enjoy Katherine McPhee but she’s quite tolerable in this show and her legs ARE TO DIE FOR, seriously, whatever she’s doing, she needs to keep doing it. And Angelica Houston should maybe fire her plastic surgeon. Debra Messing is gorgeous and fabulous in a non-comedy role, who knew? And the British director, I kind of have a crush.
Christina Aguilera was on Leno last night and she looked great and then they showed a clip from The Voice and she looked horrible. I’m not sure how this is possible. I assume she uses the same stylist and hair/makeup people everywhere but if not, she needs to only use whoever got her ready for Leno. Also, she’s not as much of a b***h as you would think she is, at least not on Leno. I still don’t like her.
Kevin Smith was also on Leno and I’m pretty sure he was high, or else he rambles a whole lot when he’s nervous, but considering he gave a shout-out to his dealer, I’m sticking with high. But his rambling stories were actually funny and well-said, just very long-winded and non-stop. I sort of want to read his book now… sort of. But first I shall read The Bloggess’ book – it arrived yesterday. I’m so excited to read it.
The people working out at the gym yesterday (the one next door to my office) were quite, um… loud yesterday. As in I needed to question whether or not they were dying or in ecstasy, but never did they sound like they were working out. Awkward.
Jack was on the jungle gym yesterday, climbing up on one of those ladders that arch over like a half rainbow and I just kept envisioning him falling through but he did it over and over again without falling. He was proud and I was relieved (and proud). Glad my worry about what might happen didn’t win out and stop him from the experience. Does anyone else imagine the worst in these situations?
My husband has been obsessed with finding a missing shoe of Liam’s. He has searched the house numerous times, even called my mom to see if we left it there. I know we didn’t leave it anywhere, therefore it is somewhere in the house and it will turn up. It doesn’t worry me, but Simon is fixated on finding this shoe in an almost annoying way. He just texted me to tell me he found the shoe in the dirty clothes hamper – crisis averted. Whew.
Why are there never enough checkout lanes open at the grocery store? And why don’t the cashiers at least pretend that they care and would like to move quickly?
The people who work at the McDonald’s drive-thru on Michigan are the nicest, happiest people I’ve ever encountered at a fast food drive-thru which makes me go out of my way to stop there over other, closer McDonald’s locations when the boys earn a Happy Meal. I wish all people had the same kind of cheerful attitude, can you imagine how much happier the world would be? It should be noted, the people at Starbucks are also super cheerful, but for that I blame the coffee they are probably ingesting in mass quantities.
Last week my boys had four different babysitters, four nights in a row (this is highly unusual) and they LOVED it. Four different sitters meant that none of them were weary with my boys and all of them played outside with them. It also meant I didn’t have to do the bedtime routine for four nights in a row (my main mantra with sitters is that if I’m paying someone to watch my boys, I better not have to put them to bed).
Jack is on the fifth day in a row of no accidents – I’m sure that just saying that will ensure that he both poops and pees in his undies today but oh well, it’s still five more days than he’s ever gone. He’s finally taking it upon himself to tell us when he has to go, rather than us prompting him so I’m hopeful a corner has been turned. Also, I hate potty training.
We’re doing a really good small group study, watching videos on marriage from a church in Seattle but I find the pastor’s voice and mannerisms so off-putting that I’ve taken to reading the transcript instead of watching the video and that is so much better. It’s really too bad his voice is so annoying and condescending because he really has good things to say (though he does tend to repeat himself and be a little long-winded and unlike Kevin Smith, I’m pretty sure he’s not high).
Yesterday I was at a stop light with my window down a few inches and I could hear the teenage girl in the car next to me just yelling at her mom so of course I looked at them (don’t tell me you wouldn’t). I could hear what she was saying specifically, just that she was yelling it. And her mom, she was just sitting there with a knowing little smile on her face, taking it all in. When the girl was done with her tirade, it would appear that the mom calmly replied, because I did not hear her yelling back. When I have teenagers, I want to be that mom.
Last but not least… it would appear that we saved George from a puppy mill when we got him 7 years ago. In the local news recently was a story about a couple in a nearby county who had over 350 small dogs taken from them due to neglect and not being able to care for them. Most of the dogs were not very well off, it’s very, very sad and serious. In a follow up news story, they mentioned the couple had been living in our city which made me take notice and look up the address on handy Google Maps. Guess what? That old location was where we got George. In our defense, she came recommended from two other people who got dogs from her and we didn’t see any other dogs than George and his littermate when we were there; though she clearly had other dogs. George was healthy when we got him, aside from having dried litter in the hair on his paws (all the puppies were litter-trained). But I still can’t believe we had anything to do with this and supporting those horrible people. How do you accidentally end up with 350 dogs? Poor dogs.

I realize this list isn’t very different than my normal random posts but I put the effort into writing an intro so I get to call it something different.

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Posted in Life in general

Reset

Posted on April 18, 2012 | 6 comments

Sometimes you need to go off the books and do something out of the norm, push the reset button on life. Yesterday was one of those times.

When I met Simon at his work yesterday to do the kid trade-off both boys were in fine form. Even though I remembered to park on Jack’s side (I’d parked on Liam’s side the last time we met there and let me tell you do they keep track of who was last), he was still crying because I didn’t hug him before I got in the car but I did hug Liam, who was crying because I didn’t hug him properly (apparently). The level and intensity of their whinging was above normal. And while I was trying to zen out and maintain a calm voice, I had an inspired moment and decided that we’d go to Millenium Park for the afternoon. I needed to get back on the workout bandwagon and the boys needed to blow off some steam.

Now, my moment of clarity didn’t mean the boys were all on board with my idea but after a little convincing and coddling, they came around to see my way and were excited to go someplace newish to them (we’ve been there before but not in over a year).

I promised them that after we walked the trail around the lakes, we’d go to the playground. 45 minutes later, after a pit-stop for fruit snacks and their new favorite Mio-enhanced water (oh my goodness, they ask for Mio all the time, apparently that marketing campaign is stellar), we were all refreshed.

The weather was gorgeous and the views were so much nicer than our normal neighborhood walks. We apparently needed that change of scenery. Everyone was happy once again.

When I was tucking the boys in for the night, Liam said to me, “I had a great day today, thank you.” I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t have said that if we’d done our normal routine because at 2:30 we were on the road to him losing the Wii and me losing my patience but we averted that disaster and instead had a great afternoon. Mission accomplished. Reset achieved.