Where have I been?

In case anyone who doesn't know me in real life still bothers to stop by...

Approximately four days (nights to be exact) after my last post, I threw caution to the wind and well.....see for yourself!

I'm 19 weeks pregnant with baby number three and just starting to feel like I'm keeping my head above water.  We're excited and feel very blessed.

I Love Mac!

Look what I got!

A few questions....

1. Do you suppose he looked in the mirror before he headed to the beach and thought to himself, "Self, I look good!"?
2. Do you think he ever experiences self-doubt, self-consciousness or self-awareness?
3. What's your best guess as to what's playing on that ipod? I'm think something by Right Said Fred....I'm to sexy for this beach......
4. Notice, the ipod is tucked into the "bathing suit". Do you suppose he was concerned about ipod lines? Or chafing?
5. Why don't more men wear these?
6. If I got one for Brad, what color would you suggest?
7. Do you think I'm really mean?

Somewhat ridiculous...

but I can't help but wish I was going to see them in concert. What could be more fun than a bunch of 30 something mommies acting like they are 15 again while a bunch of guys who are pushing 40 dance and sing?

Anyone with me on this?

Oh, and did you see the girls with the mini skirt and shorts on? Her legs look exactly like mine. It was like looking in the mirror

Hi

Wow, it's been a long time since I've gone this long without posting. In case anyone's been missing me or was concerned that I dropped off the face of the earth...I'm still here. I've just been really busy and a little frazzled. I'll be back though...

A very serious concern

A little background is needed so that you can fully understand my concern.

Grace was born on October 25, 2006 at 7:58 p.m. After three hours of back labor with no drugs, one of my first thought was, "LOST starts in two minutes. I wonder if they can get me in a room in time to see it." They didn't and I missed it. I still look at her sometimes and think, "You made me miss LOST."

I LOVE LOST. I watch it religiously. When it's over, I go to bed and think about it for hours. I read the message boards, I even comment sometimes. I read the blogs and comment often. When the writer's strike took it off the air, I wondered if there was a way to raise enough funds to bring the LOST writers back.

Are you getting it? Do you feel my addiction?

The reason for my current concern is that my sister Michelle is pregnant. She was due on Sunday. She wants me to be present for the birth of her son and to photograph her labor and delivery. My concern is multifaceted.

Many of you know a photographer friend of mine, Tabitha photographed Grace's birth. She is incredibly talented. And brave. A few weeks ago, I was looking at the photos from Gracie's birth and I saw one that made me go week in the knees and PIMMAL a little. It shows Grace crowning. It's not cropped or blurred or anything. It is what it is. A photograph of parts of me that I have never seen, with a babies face peeking out (Grace was sunny side up, so it is indeed her face). I saw it and thought, "How on earth am I going to take these kinds of pictures of my sister?" Besides the fact that my longest lens is 50mm, (which basically means that in order for me to get a close up like that, I will have to be standing right next to her doctor. Close enough to catch the baby.) I hate blood and I hate pain.

My concern grew when Sam cracked his head a few weeks ago and needed staples. I almost passed out while trying to clean his wound. Again, I wondered how I was going to pull being present at a birth off.

Today, my concern reached new heights when I realized that tomorrow is the two hour season finale of LOST. What is she goes into labor tomorrow? I called my sister and told her that if being at the birth of her son in any way conflicted with getting to watch LOST, I wasn't going to be able to make it. Know what? My crunchy, all natural, dread lock sporting sister understood. She proclaimed that she'd been thinking about it this morning and has decided that if she has to, she will get an epidural so that SHE can watch LOST.

I'm not sure which of us is a bigger fan.

Twenty Things That I Will Never Do

BooMaMa did this today. So did my bloggy friend Beth.

1. I will never win So You Think You Can Dance, American Idol or America's Next Top Model. I am too old.

2. I will never never have a butler, chauffeur or personal manager. I may get a Super Nanny though.

3. I will never live in a spotless house.

4. I will never have 16 children. It is very likely I will never have four.

5. I will never have a child named Seven, Coco, Fifi-Trixibelle, Calico, Paris or Apple.

6. I will never live on the estate next door to Angelina and Brad's new 60 million dollar home.

7. I will never fit into a pair of size 2 jeans.

8. I will never give up carbs, meat, dessert or red wine.

9. I will never fit into a size 4 pair of jeans again.

10. I will never understand how a microwave, the Internet or even television works. I think I'm pretty smart, but there are definitely people 100 million times smarter than me.

11. I will never complain, be upset or lose sleep if Hilary manages to steal the nomination from Obama (I know this is a complete reversal of my earlier opinion. However, after watching months of news coverage, I have come to the conclusion that she is less scary than he is.)

12. I will never water ski or go tubing in the ocean. I've seen jaws too many times.

13. I will never wear ugly or uncomfortable clothing just because it is stylish.

14. I will never wear Lee Press On Nails (do they still make them?).

15. I will never use a tanning bed again.

16. I will never be embarrassed that I saw New Kids on the Block in concert. Tiffany opened for them.

17. I will never think that Napoleon Dynamite was as funny as the rest of the world thinks it was.

18. Unless my family is starving, I will never hunt, butcher an animal, break a chicken's neck or fillet a fish.

19. I will never have a job that pays much money. Sigh.....that MSW was so worth it though....

20. I will never climb Everest or participate in an Extreme Sport. I do however wish I could get my friends to form a Dodge Ball team so that we could play in the league at the Y.

If you make a list let me know!

The real reason why I am not skinny...

It's either the critters or the 13x9" pan of the most amazing and sinful brownies in the world. They are so rich, that you can only eat a 1/4" piece at a time (which means, you can eat a 1/4" picee several times a day for MANY days).

I wish I could take credit for these, but I actually got the recipe off the back of the Ghiradelli brownie mix. Try them! They're so good, I have committed the recipe to memory.

Make brownie mix according to package instructions.

Melt one stick of butter in the bottom of your brownie pan.

Pour brownie mix on top.

Cover brownie mix with

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips (I used white chocolate instead)

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup diced pecans (I didn't have any so I used sliced almonds)

1 14.5 oz can of sweetened condensed milk.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until the top is bubbly. The top will be a little wet but firms up as it cools.

Quoting my favorite tank engine,

"Oh bother!"

I have jury duty in the morning. Anyone have thoughts on getting out of my civic duty? It's not that I lack respect for the process, or don't want to pay my dues. It's just that I got called to a court 40 minutes from my house. So on top of the fact that I still nurse Grace at least one time during the day, have to worry about childcare, be there at 8:30 and can't bring a cell phone into the building, it will probably cost me $15 to get there and back tomorrow...

Busted

The problem with writing about your husband on your blog is that he will probably read it.

On our way to dinner Saturday night, I noticed that the jeans I was wearing had a rip on the knee. When I mentioned it to Brad he replied, "Honey, why don't you let me watch the kids and you can go shopping for jeans tomorrow?"

Oops.

For the record, I can go shopping for jeans whenever I want. Brad would never say I couldn't and he would be happy to watch the kids while I shopped. I just haven't because I am determined to either get skinnier or get pregnant. No new jeans till one or the other happens.

Better with age

My friend Jenn sent this to me yesterday to remind me of "how far we have come".

That's me with the "Shane" jean purse (it's to bad you can't see all the patches on the other side) and acid washed jean jacket (There was a rock and roll patch on the inside of it, I remember thinking it was very cool, even though I didn't listen to a whole lot of rock.)

How about those white Reebok aerobic high tops? Jenn's look pink and if I'm not mistaken, her jeans are "pegged" to be higher than the tops of her sneakers. Speaking of jeans, how are those for retro? No back pockets? Where did we keep our green "mood" lipstick? Do you remember that stuff? Oh, and don't you love the big white sun glasses? I think I kind of look like Paris Hilton. Okay, maybe not so much. I have a feeling that they may have said "Coca Cola" or something equally ridiculous across the glass.

In case you are wondering where we were looking so svelte...We are in DC, at Washington for Jesus. We slept on The Mall, in the rain. Unfortunately, I can't blame the look on the weather or lack of a hair dryer. It's all 1986's fault

Jenn, Do you remember how we stalked DC Talk? I can't believe they weren't all over us.

Things a mother knows and a father should....

This made me laugh and I thought I'd share....

One day my mother was out and my dad was in charge of me. I was about 2.5 years old and a little tea set was my favorite toy. My dad was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought him a little cup of "tea", which was just water.

After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Mom came home.
My Dad made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was "just the cutest thing"! My Mom waited, and sure enough, here I come down the hall with a cup of tea for Daddy. She watches him drink it up.

Then she says, "Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?"

More ways to waste time...

Remember the moon survival quiz? Apparently, there is a plethora of useful information to be learned about yourself! For example:

18 But I get the crap kicked out of me every day by one 16 month old! 3.5 years till I'm victorious!

36% Must lose the rest of the baby weight. I think I'm a little too effective!

I Scored a 100%!

Shocking....

18% Geek
Only 18%? There were no questions about wearing retro jeans. If there had been, I am certain that I would be a bigger geek. Or, am I confusing geekiness with nerdiness? I guess it is possible that I am more of a nerd than a geek. I'll have to go back and see if there is a nerd test.

$5275.00The Cadaver Calculator - Find out how much your body is worth. This may be more than my net worth. It is definitely more than the social security benefit that my family will get if I die.

So I'd be dead....

48%
Saw this on Lifenut and thought it looked interesting....Turns out, I wouldn't do so well if I ever found myself stranded on the moon. Fortunately, the only travel plans I have at the moment include a trip to CT for Easter, and that's not even certain.

If you take the quiz, let me know how you did. I need to know who to invite in case I ever have the opportunity to go.

Why Blogger, Why?

Spell check has not worked for the entire month of February, and now it seems that comment notification is no longer working either. How am I going to stay on top of the 100's I get each day? What is someone says something nice about an old post? I'll never know!

Okay, I'm not really that upset aout it, I just really wish this free blogging service would get it together. If we can put a man on the moon, I would think that the folks at Google could figure out how to fix spell check in less than two weeks.

Update: I added my google e mail address and am getting comment updates there but not on my primary, Comcast account. Any ideas? They're not going to spam and they are not blocked.

My very sophisticated sense of style....

I spend a lot of time poking around Etsy. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across an artist who has painted tributes to the characters of my two favorite shows, Lost and The Office. I'm telling you, if I had a bigger house with a designated home theatre room I would buy some of these in a heart beat.






Okay, so I probably wouldn't buy the Lost ones, they're fun but they don't have the same impact on me as these. I'm envisioning them on stretched canvas hanging over my couch...I think they would make me smile every time I walk into the room. Especially Dwight.









Check out Elloh's art on Etsy! If you don't think she's fun, I don't know if we can be friends.

New Government Study...

I may just be really over tired, but I keep giggling every time I think about this....I think it's safe to say that panties really can't get any smaller!