Category Archives: Life in general

Missing something?

image
The above photo was taken in our hotel room in Sydney, because we are nerds. Shown are the Coke bottles we collected during our time in Australia… sadly we were never able to find one with Jack’s name on it. But 3 out of 4 ain’t bad!
And maybe someday they will start selling bottles with names on them here in the States then I can Photoshop a “family” portrait together. Because who doesn’t want that? (Dear Coca-Cola, Could you send me a “Jack” bottle? I’d super appreciate it!)

I love…

Well, no mushy Valentine’s posts from me… I’m really ambivalent about Valentine’s, I love it for the sake of the kids, but I don’t really need to go above and beyond on a particular (slightly manufactured) day for my husband – though I did get him some of his favorite beer (Dirty Bastard – the name of the beer, not at all a description of my hubs) and he got me roses because I do appreciate flowers (ANY time).

But I’m going to take a page from Sandy (who took a page from the PW) and list the things I love, in no particular order (except the first five, because, duh).

Simon
Liam
Jack
George
My parents
Anything that comes in a box from Amazon
Sunshine, with no humidity
Honest to goodness rainbows
Family, near, far and everywhere
My First Rooks girls
My MOPS ladies
All other friends from everywhere else
Coffee
Dark chocolate
Books and Kindles
Water
Diet Coke
Monkey bread
Meijer Gold tomatillo salsa
Entertainment Weekly
Paper
Accents
My crazy long toes
Jack’s adorable little hand
Liam’s angry face
Laughing until I cry
Walking with Sandy (but of course)
Homemade chocolate chip scones
Coffee granita from Kava House
Pulled pork tacos (my own recipe)
Being crafty
Sleeping
My blankie
Candles
Painted toenails
The automatic sliding doors on my minivan
Sterling roses
The Time Traveler’s Wife (the book, not the movie)
Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version, not the book)
Traveling (without kids, someday I might like it with them)
Colorado
Lake Michigan
Going to camp at Camp Roger
Awesome praise music at the start of a church service
A handful of good-looking actors (not naming names, but here are a few)
Live music
Music on my iTunes
Blaring music in the car
Listening to either of my boys sing
Baking
Girl’s night out
Making lists
Being the youngest
Christmas Eve
Christmas lights
Pristine, untouched snow
Autumn
Making a client happy
Making people laugh
Vanilla java stout
Seeing the sunset from a plane
Watching the sun rise in the mountains
Puppies
Babies
Flower buds poking out of the ground
Texting
Facebook
Our DVR
Having insurance
Living in the US (not that it’s better than anywhere else, I do just love it)
West Michigan and Dutch bingo
Chicago at Christmastime
How excited Liam is to see me when I’m at his school
How Jack throws anything in his hands to the ground when I get to daycare
Community, doing life with others
Being understood
Being heard
Being loved

A to Z of Me

Something a little fun because I actually love filling out questionnaires (like for real; and also, talking about myself, which is why I have a bloggity blog) via Jive Turkey and agirlandaboy.

A. Age: I will be 34 at my next birthday, which is something I absolutely cannot remember and then have to do math in my head when someone asks me how old I am and apparently I cannot do math fast enough because not only do I keep telling people I’m already 34, I’ve also said 32 and 33 recently. But not 35, I know I’m not that old 🙂

B. Bed size: Queen, but in my heart I want a king size, in our next house, we will have one! Darn it!

C. Chore that you hate: Cleaning the bathroom, and I know I will grow to hate it even more when I have three boys who [try to] put their pee in the potty

D. Dogs: George, the 9.2-pound miniature black poodle, he’s turning into even more of a barking little pill than he ever has been

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. After my shower.

F. Favorite color: Sunsets

G. Gold or Silver: Silver

H. Height: 5′ 9″ – though for a while I shrunk because my neck was screwed up, I don’t look forward to osteoporosis

I. Instruments you play: I have taken lessons for violin, piano and guitar, currently I play none of these.

J. Job title: Business partner, mom, blogger

K. Kids: Two boys + one manchild of a husband (never grow up he says!)

L. Live: The best city ever

M. Mother’s name: Donna

N. Nicknames: My dad always called me pumpkin dunkin’ and my friends call me Chelle/Shell and when they want to annoy me, people call me Shelly (notable my brothers and my college friend, Matt)

O. Overnight hospital stays: When I had my babies and when Jack had RSV at 3 weeks old, I wasn’t the patient but I didn’t leave the hospital once in 3 days.

P. Pet peeves: People who are not problem solvers, who instead whine about what is happening to them but don’t do anything about it.

Q. Quote from a movie: [this one stumped me, which is odd because I LOVE movies] I’d love to say something that really touched me, but instead I’ll go with something from The Princess Bride because it’s the one I quote most often: “Wuv. Twu wuv.” (Love, True love…)

R. Right- or left-handed: Right.

S. Siblings: Two aforementioned brothers, Mike and Marty (or Michael and Martin if we’re being formal) my parents liked the “m” names though they do argue that they were going to name me Robin Renee until I was born (thankfully they came to their senses, I much prefer Michelle)

U. Underwear: Always.

V. Vegetable(s) you hate: lima beans, always have, always will. Vegetables I’ve hated but come to love: asparagus and brussel sprouts

W. What makes you run late: See aforementioned two boys and manchild (though, really, just the smaller children and even more honestly, we are seldom late, we are annoyingly early)

X. X-Rays you’ve had: sprained pinkie (pinky?) finger in middle school (injury gained while swimming – laughably possible); random knee pain in 20s; head CT when I had a five-day headache (to check for a brain bleed, you know, after I might have already had it for 5 days); and ultrasounds for children and gall bladder.

Y. Yummy food that you make: pulled pork tacos, chicken enchiladas, lentil barley stew (for Jesus), pesto, cheesecake bars, caramels, peppermint patties, cake balls

Z. Zoo animal: A swimming bear or a kangaroo that I can feed.

Want to play along?

Happy birthday to my hubsand

No, that is not a typo in the headline, it’s what I have always called Simon since we got married… it was too strange and unreal to say HUSBAND so we switched it and he calls me the Wif (rhymes with sniff, though I guess I’m not sure how you’d pronounce it but that’s neither here nor there).

My poor husband, not only does his birthday fall the week before Valentine’s Day so our date plans are always tinged with a few too many hearts, but once Jack was born three days before his birthday, he was relegated to second fiddle for any family birthday gatherings. He’s the kind of guy this doesn’t really matter to, but still, you gotta feel a little bit bad about it all.

This year I decided to surprise him for his birthday and arrange to have some friends meet us out for dinner. I didn’t even mention to him that we had plans on Saturday night until two days prior and until we got to the restaurant and people started showing up, he had no clue what was going on (because I am a very good liar, it would seem and he’s a very “take things at face value” type of guy, which means it’s good for him that I only lie for good, not evil). It was so much fun to do something like that for him, it really wasn’t big or extravagant, and didn’t take much planning, just caring and wanting to do something special. Because he’s my special guy and the craziness of the past two years and especially the last few months haven’t just been hard on me, but on him as well. So I’m glad we got to celebrate him!

Happy birthday, Simon, you are definitely a “Thing I Love [on] Thursday” and everyday! I hope your birthday a great start to an even better year ahead of you (and us)! I wish you blocks and blocks of Cadbury chocolate with no weight gain. Toned muscles with no effort. Hours of laughter and entertainment with little to no tears and tantrums (your own or the children’s). A killer fantasy team for Premier League soccer with no injuries sustained playing actual soccer on Fridays. More hours sleeping than awake in the middle of the night. And happiness, always. 

Bad dream

Last week Monday I ended up going to bed very early (8 pm) thanks to a cold and a lovely cold pill that helped me breathe (love that Muscinex D). Whenever this happens (a.k.a., I get enough sleep), I end up with very vivid dreams. That night was no exception but this particular dream was awful, truly the worst I’ve ever had and that is saying something since I can still remember handful of bad dreams from the childhood that all included something chasing me (gorillas, headless horsemen, lions) and trapping me someplace (junkyard, school, my house) – to this day I don’t like to look out windows at night for fear something or someone will pop up in them. Anywho… back to last week’s dream.

In the dream we (Simon, Liam, Jack and I) were all hanging out on a frozen over lake with a bunch of my college friends and their families. We were ice fishing and also sitting around a campfire (on the frozen lake, not sure the logistics of that one). Jack got antsy and so he and I were taking a walk around the lake and were away from everyone else and suddenly we fell through the ice and into the water. I can still feel the fall from my dream, it was so real and it makes my heart race just thinking about it. The water was ice-cold and the minute we fell in, I thought, we are going to die. I knew it without a doubt and yet I fought with all my might to push us upward, to get Jack out of the water because without me helping him, he was for sure not going to make it. And I remember kicking my legs wildly, fighting against the icy water and just praying that I would be able to get him out. It was awful, horrible, terrifying… whatever adjective for very bad you’d like to pick.

And then I woke up and I could not get that scene out of my head (still can’t). It was only 2 a.m. and I wanted to go back to sleep but every time I shut my eyes, it was on replay in my head, I could not escape the desperation and the cold grasp of death that was prevalent in that dream. After an hour or so I ended up reliving it fully in my mind and playing it out so we did get rescued and then I was able to fall back asleep. But I still can’t get the dream from my mind and the next day it made me think how it’s sort of a metaphor for all of parenting. We have children and we spend the rest of our lives fighting (on some level; some might call it raising) to push our kids to the surface, to give them the best advantage, the best chance of living a good, full life. It’s no wonder that being a parent is exhausting and at times terrifying, we’re kicking to the surface, trying to keep everyone afloat; sometimes the water we’re treading is only a couple of feet deep and in a nice backyard swimming pool but sometimes we are fighting with everything in us, in bone-chilling waters. I pray the waters we face are lukewarm and welcoming.

I have no idea where that dream came from in my sub-conscience, but I tell you what, we won’t be going out on frozen water anytime soon (if ever). Add that to the list of my fears.