Category Archives: Random

For two weeks in a row you get some Wednesday randoms… lucky you!

• Liam is reading up a storm which makes me so very proud (in 4th grade I filled a small handful of large index cards with the titles of books I read – our teacher tracked them for RIF – Reading Is Fun(damental) – I was a bit of a book nerd, still am). He’s also started the Magic Treehouse Series and I’m excited to read those with him. I wish he loved math as much as he loves reading (and also making things out of Legos).
• Speaking of Legos, I made an alligator out of Legos yesterday which impressed the pants off of Liam – he kept saying, I really like that alligator you made, mom, you did a great job! Liam’s love language seems to be words of affirmation.
• My hair is officially LONG, but I still want to grow it out a few more inches before lopping it off for Locks of Love – sorry, Simon, you’ll just have to wait about 6 more months (my husband is one of the few who prefers shorter hair)
• I know I just posted a search term thing last week, but the following just came through and cracked me up: “how to care for a duckling” you are barking up the wrong tree with this blog, sorry.
• The Civil Wars Radio station on Pandora is the awesome. Listen to it. You will be happy.
• I believe that desserts should be all-in, if you are going to indulge, then make it worth it. To wit, I made the following: put a layer of ice cream sandwiches in a cake pan, top with half of a large container of cool whip, pour jar of caramel over top and chopped up oreos (I used a row of Double Stuf); add another layer of ice cream sandwiches, cool whip, swirl butterscotch on top and sprinkle (liberally) with chopped PB cups. Freeze and serve. It was well-received.
• We went out with part of our small group on Sunday night and I ordered two meatless things at a restaurant where I normally get a Cuban and I think that my friend, Stef, was almost disgusted with me. I said, “You feel like you don’t even know me right now.” It was good – meatless “meatloaf” was the entree with mashed potatoes that had a delicious smokey flavor. SO good. But I promise to order the Cuban next time – with sweet potato fries.
• I believe that if you almost run into someone with your car, you should at least wave and mouth sorry to the person you’ve almost injured. You should not continue driving, staring straight forward and pretending like an accident did not almost occur. If you do that to me, I will want to then hit your car with my car – I won’t actually do that, but I will want to.
• I get worked up over people who use double spaces after periods (not necessary unless you are using a typewriter), serial commas (they are evil) and random capitalization (all caps for emphasis is okay, capitalizing words that don’t need it just because well, not okay). I am a word nerd (while I’m laying all my nerdiness out there, I’m also a pop culture nerd but not quite a music nerd – more like a music admirer). Thank you for still loving me.
• Jack has been waking up in the night for the last two nights saying he can’t sleep – last night he also mentioned his ear hurting but this morning it miraculously doesn’t hurt. Hmmm… I think it’s a growth spurt, which would also explain his crazy behavior of late… he’s been in and out of timeout more times than I care to recount, picking on Liam and instigating a six-year-old’s indignant wrath and also coloring all over every surface in our kitchen while I was going to the bathroom yesterday (seriously, I should be allowed to use the bathroom without a fear of what he will get into). And then last night, he woke up 8 times before midnight and each time needed to cuddle on the couch and snooze until suddenly he’d awake and want to go BACK. TO. BED. But he did do this:

So all is forgiven because these cuddles I get like NEVER, ironic considering our sitter last night said that Jack is always the cuddly one. Um, what?

• I mistakenly typed “ransoms” instead of “randoms” for the title of this post, it made me laugh. I’d like to imagine I’m holding things hostage – like all the Legos I find strewn through our house, or a last can of Diet Coke in the house.
• Liam randomly said on our way to small group on Sunday, “I think instead of a spanking, you should give me a hard wedgie instead.” I don’t think anyone could blame me for laughing out loud at that one.
• October is the month of Sandy’s due date – I cannot wait to meet that baby girl! (It should be noted it may not be the month of Sandy’s actual delivery – and for noting that, Sandy may kill me the next time she sees me and I would be deserving)
• Liam has often fixated on doing one thing over and over again (you know, until the next thing comes along and to the point of annoying his dear mother). The current “annoying” habit of choice is snapping his fingers; he’ll be putting toys away or playing with a friend and stop mid-whatever to snap his fingers over and over again. I’m sure it’s some type of coping mechanism but I can’t help but tell him to stop it.
• Jack has fully mastered the art of telling me he loves me just as I’m about to be fed up with his bad behavior.
• He’s also mastered the art of wrapping every adult he meets around his little finger. Help me.
• Fall television is making me happy. So nice to have a stocked DVR for my viewing pleasure.
• Triple Chip Blondies are delicious – I have to mention these again – but trust that if you have invited me somewhere or I am bringing you food – I will be making these. Also trust that you may not want to think about the quantities of butter and brown sugar in them.
• My husband very kindly folded all our laundry this week, this makes him a better person than me.
• I’m praising my husband on my blog, therefore I am also pretty awesome. I mean, right?
• The boys were upstairs watching TV over the weekend when Liam came down to tell us Jack had gotten into some lotion (it’s never good when the six-year-old notices something is amiss despite the TV being on). While pretending to be a “minja” (a.k.a., ninja), he had managed to fling the contents of a bottle of sleep aromatherapy lotion all around our bedroom – hitting the dresser, the bed, the ceiling, the nightstand light, inside of one of my shoes, a pair of pants sitting on the laundry basket across the room and a pile of books. It could have been worse, it could have been chocolate or the stuffing of our couch. It’s all a matter of perspective – it’s sad when splattered handfuls of lotion doesn’t even rank.
• Monday night I got to go to my first [non-family] concert of the year with my friend, Sarah. Ingrid Michaelson was phenomenal (and hilarious – she performed a spoof of Lady Gaga’s bad romance with lyrics about a goat, trust me, too funny)! I love the Calvin FAC and I love live music and I really love a night spent with a wonderful friend!
• Ingrid (I can call her that because we’re totally friends now – yup) had an opening act that I also loved: Sugar and the Hi Lows. Check them out if you want some mellow, catchy music… rest assured I’ll be featuring them soon on Music Monday.
• Remember when I said that the school year wouldn’t be so different from our normal summer routine because I still work and the kids were used to daycare? Or maybe I just thought it. Either way, I was wrong, wrong, wrong. School, even with one kid, is very different and very time-consuming and very much screwing up my schedule and making me feel overwhelmed with busy-ness. That is all. And also, I should never have thought that.
• I cannot say enough how much I enjoy our small group at church. Get theeself a small group – it might end up being one of the best things you’ve ever done.
• We had curriculum night at school last week and Liam’s teacher amazes me with her positive, energetic attitude – if I were a first grader I would adore her (as an adult, I like her just fine). She and her hubby were high school sweethearts which is the cutest – I believe that awesome people marry (and stay with) their high school sweethearts, it’s not for everyone. I myself had a series of high school obsessions crushes, I am not that kind of awesome.
• Liam (and by extension, Jack, see above lotion incident) is OB-sessed with ninjas. He had to depict a story problem for homework, he drew ninjas; at PT on Monday morning he was telling the therapist about his favorite Lego Ninjagos; he drew a picture for his cousin Mitch, it was of a ninja and when he made a coaster/tile for me at daycare, he painted a ninja on it.
• Jack seems to know when I am just full of it or not taking him seriously. Sunday morning I was trying to get him to leave the nursery and he was insistent that he had more pictures to collect that he had colored, although there was only one on the counter with his name on it. When we finally discovered a stack of about ten more on a shelf, he looked at me crossly and huffed, “You say me there was no more… but there were!” Like, I have got your number, woman and I will have none of it. Trouble.