been a little busy....

flip flops

The fact that only one foot is swollen today made it interesting finding
shoes this morning. I finally settled on an old pair of ratty brown flip
flops. Yay pregnancy!

38 weeks "nesting...riiiiight"

Nothing new to report. I'm gaining weight, which means that the baby is
gaining weight. Maybe he won't be such a pipsqueak afterall?

I am looking forward to tomorrow...I have a salon date for a massage,
pedicure, and wax. I get to leave work early and spend the day with a
very good
friend <http://fintank.blogspot.com/>, then possibly out to dinner as well.
That is how I will celebrate week 38 - as long as I am not already in the
hospital.

Again, my "nesting" has come in the form of decorating the house...my recent
shopping spree included buying paint for the kids' bathroom. I decided on
orange. I can only say that my decision was influenced by a night light
that the baby received as a shower gift...it is orange and in the shape of a
monkey head.

The baby still does not have a dresser, but I decided that instead of trying
to cram another piece of furniture into the already packed room I will
reallocate some of Tooties clothes to the closet and give the baby 2 of
drawers in the chest of drawers. I also intend to paint the fronts of the
drawers green to match the walls.

I will also be hanging most of the baby's clothes in the closet as well. I
hate folding anyway. This means that since I am not buying a dresser I can
buy the over-the-toilet shelving unit for the bathroom that I have been
eyeing...

However, I may commission my children to do some of the painting that I have
lined up. Ziggy is slated to paint the bathroom (orange). I may have Beetle
paint the fronts of her dresser - I am sure she can handle it. That would
leave the only painting I need to do are the kitchen cabinets and the chest
of drawers in the little kids' room.

Blah Blah Blah.

I guess I feel compelled to do this now because I am almost certain I won't
have much energy for it after the baby is born. Besides, I really don't
want to spend my entire maternity leave decorating...rather I would prefer
to enjoy being in a "together" home for those 6-7 weeks. Taking walks, and
(hopefully) enjoying some sunshine.

niche

I am learning each partner has his or her own "niche" that they contribute
to the overall GOOD SUCCESS of thier marriage. I am learning that Caleb is
good at grocery shopping. Or at least, he is getting much much better. I
guess with practice comes perfection...

I say this because no matter what kind of list I send him to the store with
he always manages (I mean ALWAYS) to spend much much less than I do. I am
sure it is because he doesn't impulse shop like I do. He sticks to the
list, and spends less money and time at the store. It is amazing. Whereas
I go and I meander, and then I remember something that I had forgot to put
on the list...etc. etc. He sticks to the list. Sometimes he forgets
something on the list, but even those instances are becoming fewer as he
goes shopping more often.

Since our hours are different, Caleb has a much shorter work day than I
do...he has also taken over the chauffering around of the children. Soccer
practice, dance lessons, doctors appointments which all traditionally fell
on my shoulders regardless of my work day, have now been delegated to Caleb
since he has more time in the afternoon to attend to these things, which
frees up my evening monumentally. I also think that this is because I am
pregnant and he is trying to filter some of my stress. He's a good husband
for sure.

Another transformation is that he is slowly but surely coming over to what I
lovingly refer to as "The Dark Side"...i.e. OCD Cleaning. He has become
just as picky about our community living space (living room, kitchen, dining
area) as I am. He hasn't quite caught the knack of getting the kids
motivated (i.e. scared) enough to actually comply to his requests (demands)
of cleaning up their stuff...but THAT is an acquired skill that I have
developed over many many years of conditioning and craziness. [My son can
clean the bathroom like nobody's business and he washes his own clothes. I
did that, and yes I am proud. My eldest daughter can bake some crazy good
cookies - both of the older kids know how to make dinner. And the youngest
is learning how to vaccumm a floor properly, and she cleans a pretty mean
toilet].

However, Caleb's cleaning skills have improved greatly...and at this point I
realize I am critiquing my husband. But the fact of the matter is anyone
who really knows Caleb and I (I mean REALLY knows us = has heard our gripes
and complaints and still hangs out with us and considers us friends) knows
that this has been a struggle for us for a LONG time. AND being an instant
family is not easy for anyone. We all had expectations that greatly
exceeded reality. Looking back, I am quite certain that there was a lot of
smoke blowing during our courting days, and while we are still technically
"newlyweds" sort of (married almost 5 years) having the instant family
doesn't allow much room for the "getting to know you" stuff that other
couples are able to experience so that they can work out the bugs before
children come along and make things even more interesting. Nor do we have
parental units (i.e. mothers) to help guide us through our rough spots into
a higher level of understanding about marriage, children, and life. It's
all us, all the time.

Caleb has also taken on cooking dinner every night. Well, almost every
night. Sometimes I cook - because I really like to. But most of the dinner
making is up to Caleb now, since he is home at a decent hour and can get
dinner made by 6:00 rather than 7:30. He is becoming much better at cooking
as well, and thankfully I don't have to talk to him about crazy food
combinations. For instance; hamburger helper never should be accompanied by
corn, unless it is a Mexican type of hamburger helper. Corn usually only
goes with chicken, and you are pushing it if you serve corn with pork chops,
unless they are BBQ'd. And the only time corn should be next to a hamburger
or a hot dog is if it is corn on the cob. Yes, I am THAT picky about dinner
combos.

Never serve green beans or peas with Mexican food.

Never serve cole slaw and spaghetti in the same meal. EVER.

It's just wrong. And if you serve corn with spaghetti I might be offended,
in fact ANY pasta dish with corn is never acceptable...I could write a whole
post about combinations...and I just might just to add more proof of my
OCD'ness...

I on the other hand am in charge of paying the bills, balancing the
checkbook, and managing the household expenses - which amazingly I am NOT
very OCD about at all. But I am getting there.

For instance, I AM getting better at balancing the checkbook. MUCH better.
In fact, I am happy to report that the last three times that I have
reconciled the bank account, every penny has been accounted for. I have had
to go back and track transposed numbers, but I have found every penny and
our account is BALANCED. Granted, it is a LOW balance, but it's all there.
(Granted I have had to restart my check book balancing numerous times
because I would "forget" to enter transactions (i.e. totally avoid opening
the checkbook or looking at the bank account for fear of seeing the damage
that I have done). I am getting better at not avoiding...sometimes.

Now if I could just get better at paying the bills and managing the
household expenses then we would be set. Looking back on my expenditures
this past weekend (I.E. shopping spree at Ikea, Kmart, Target, Old Navy, and
Wal Mart)...I am wondering if Caleb might be interested in taking on the
household expenses as well. I am going to have to take some things back (in
light of needing to buy a set of tires), because I really did go a bit
overboard, especially at Ikea. But who doesn't go overboard at Ikea??

Of course...with the Scottish blood (Scrooge blood) running through his
veins the kids would be lucky to get new clothes every 4 years. However our
video game library would be awesomee - or at least his miniatures collection
would grow exponentially, not that it hasn't already reached limits far
beyond normalcy...but he could say the same about my need to decorate
decorate decorate. I am happy to say that I did stay away from the Home
Good store this past weekend. Though I will admit it did cross my mind to
stop in and see if they had any throw pillows on sale.

We are growing, but at least we are growing together in a way that works for
us. Or at least...we are finding a way that works for us. It's taken us 7
years to get to this point, I am looking forward to the well-oiled machine
that we become at year 14. Which in reality might likely be that I've
turned into Martha Stewart and he has a perfect recreation of the entire
world in miniature.

But at least there shall be no lasagna served with a side of corn. Grapes
maybe, a salad definitely, perhaps asparagus or artichoke hearts, but never
EVER corn.

post memorial day wrap up

We had an action packed weekend. No, the baby was not born (thankfully)
because I honestly don't know how we would have fit that in.

Friday night was spent getting our Saturday picnic ready. Beetle made
oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and banana bread (Tootie helped of course).
Ziggy helped me with put together the potato salad.

Caleb took the night off as all of the prep was really FOR his birthday
picnic AND he had spent the day running numerous errands, so I thought it
was fair to let him off the hook and hang out with the guys. Apparently
they went to a hookah bar and spoke Arabic all night.

Beetle and I stayed up late watching "Yes Man" on cable...not the best
choice as some parts were a little to risque for my 12 year old. We fended
those scenes off with plenty of "ooh gross" comments.

Saturday morning it was bright and early to hopefully get an early start
(HA), but instead I made french toast out of the banana bread that Beetle
made, along with corned beef hash, hashbrowns, and sausages. All of Caleb's
favorites. We gave him his birthday present, cleaned up the place, and then
headed out to Alma, MI (Scotland USA). A two-hour drive to the Highland
Games. The girls and I slept for most of it, which was probably a good
thing considering how much SUN and WALKING we put in.

It was fun though. We met Caleb's dad up there and had our picnic. Not to
mention, for driving 2 hours away from home we saw a good number of people
we knew - friends and family - who we didn't know were going to be
attending, so it was all the more a surprise to see them there on Caleb's
birthday.

After the Highland Games, we went out to dinner...then drove back home,
arriving at around 10:30 PM. A LONG day for this mama.

On Sunday we slept in, then after Caleb left to do his bagpipe gig (a
wedding) the girls and I headed out for our Ikea/ Target shopping excursion
so that I could pick up some stuff to do some "home organization/
decorating". Caleb got home before us and fired up the grill, which was
good because by the time the girls and I got back home we were STARVING.

I don't remember what we did on Sunday evening...I am sure it had something
to do with watching Caleb play his new video game that we got him for his
birthday.

On Monday (after a brief meltdown on my part because I did NOT want to spend
the day watching TV or playing video games and my family did) we went out to
run some more errands for "home improvement" (translation: Kassi's crazy
need to decorate the bathrooms) and do some summer clothes shopping at Old
Navy. While at Wal Mart, I ended up picking up some flowers and garden soil
because we have a flower bed that was being rented out by some gnarly
looking weeds and rocks (and glass and junk).

When we finally got back home (my deadline for returning home was 2:00 and
we actually made it home by 2:30), the girls and I started the flower bed
clean up and then planted the flowers. We finished around 5:30, which was
early enough for Tootie to talk me into taking her to the pool. So we went
swimming for about an hour while Caleb went to his favorite store (games)
and Ziggy stayed home (again).

Dinner was leftovers from the picnic on Saturday and BBQ on Sunday...which
meant NO COOKING (yay!!).

Then we finished off the weekend by watching "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
for a rousing performance of zero emotion by Keanu Reeves. Did you know that
he is Lebanese?

I had no idea.

As for today, I keep forgetting that it is Tuesday. I have deadlines
galore, and I will be leaving work early for my weekly doctor appointment.
I hope, that with all of the walking and activity this past weekend, we will
have progressed a little bit further on down the line of the pre labor
activity. I feel fine, just tired...which is why I am sipping on coffee
this morning. I actually don't want him to be born before June...for
logistical reasons (i.e. maternity leave). And I especially don't want to
go into labor today...Ziggy has soccer practice and I have grocery shopping
to do this afternoon....