Five

Happy birthday to my sweet boy, Liam! I can hardly believe I have a five-year-old and at the same time, I wonder if he isn’t 5-going-on-15 because he’s certainly got the attitude to pull it off and I can’t imagine what life was ever like without him.

After two visits to the hospital and a totally ridiculous number of hours of labor and nearly three hours of pushing, we just made the 8/8 birthdate that Simon was hoping for (in Australia it’s common to write the day first and then the month when writing the date so 8/8 is the same in the US and Oz – win-win). But it was all worth it because we greeted this little guy into the world:

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Five Question Friday

While everyone else and their brother seems to be on vacation right now (or getting ready for a blogging conference), we’re still life as usual at our house and will be pretty much up until school starts when the new normal begins. I don’t mind, we had our long vacation when we went to Texas this spring and I’m sure I’ll at least take a week off at Christmas. Continue reading

Things I Love Thursday: Delegating

Yesterday was a trifecta of things going wrong. First, our phones stopped working at the office. Next, our email stopped working and kept telling me my ID didn’t exist. Then our brake lights on our one-year-old van wouldn’t go off as expected and twice while I was driving the accelerator/engine acted like it slipped into neutral but would correct itself when I would release and then press on the gas again. Perfect.

The good news is, I have people I can call for these things and I can make my problem their problem to handle. I call this delegating, something I’m trying to be better at doing in the rest of my life and having problems I can’t handle myself means I definitely have to hand the job off to someone else. Do you think God knew I needed some practice?

So two phone calls and technician visits later, my phones get dial tone again instead of only static. One trouble ticket filed and my email is functioning again. And a visit to Toyota service and hopefully I’ll be driving the van to work in less than 30 minutes (keep your fingers crossed).

Not only did I get practice in delegating, but I got to experience how easy and stress free it can be to have someone else do things instead of trying to do it all myself. Now if only I can remember this and apply it to the other areas of my life because I’d rather not continue to have things go wrong so I can “learn” my lesson.

Also, I tried to make the Oreo pops I wanted to try for Liam’s birthday (linked to here) and they were an epic (but tasty) fail so I delegated the boys to eating the crumbled, half-dipped cookies. See, I’m learning already.


This post is linked up with Jill at Diaper Diaries.

High School Photos

For your viewing pleasure, pictures of me from high school. Remember, I was cool (or something like that).


Hanging out in the yearbook room, senior year. My friend, Julia, was brushing my hair – apparently I needed some help with that. My this stage I’d downgraded my ring-wearing to only one finger on each hand but I had not lost my love of turtlenecks. Adding to that, I developed a fondness for vests and Chuck Taylors (I owned three pairs and they were the only tennis shoes I wore for years – I liked to call my look preppy grunge).



In the yearbook room with my co-editor, Janet. I hear she is now a professor somewhere, I am not. She was the brains behind the operation, or at least the more dedicated one (she was valedictorian, an honor I only missed because of two “B”s on my report card – I cried, I was a bit of a nerd). But aren’t you jealous of my long hair (and my turtleneck)?



This was a staged photo for the yearbook – we needed a shot of someone in the classroom – being yearbook editor meant I also got to slip my own photo in as much as I could. Pursed lips = smarty pants. And another vest, though sadly, no turtleneck.



This was likely sophomore year since I was still sporting both glasses and braces but not a full hand of rings. This was also before I discovered thinning shears when I got my hair cut so my hairstyle was slightly triangular. But I did have a leather bomber jacket, so there’s that.



With the same friend, Pauline, as in the previous picture but this was two years earlier in middle school on our band and orchestra trip to Cedar Point. Wasn’t I too cute? I’m quite certain I got the curls in my hair from using sponge rollers the night before and the outfit I was wearing included a floral print jumper/shorts combo.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this forray into my clothing choices… the good news is, it doesn’t have to stop here, we got a new printer/scanner this weekend so now I can share more embarrassing photos.

Top Ten Reasons Having a Five Year Old is Freaky*

*I could have also said terrifying, disconcerting, exciting, fascinating or wonderful (though I fear that last one would be stretching it a bit – much like saying having a puppy that never stops barking or running in circles is wonderful; cute, yes and highly entertaining, but perhaps not wonderful). But I kid, Liam himself is wonderful, but the five year old stage is, well, interesting.

To commemorate Liam’s turning five next Monday, let’s have a little look at the reasons having a five year old freaks me out. Continue reading