Oh my word!

Just in time for Labor Day (yes, I know it's actually the day after) comes this fun factoid:

We are going to have baby number four!

Yes!

Really! I have proof!




Can't mistake that screaming pink line there. That means I'm knocked up. Squiggy is due May 10, which is right after Portia's and Shawn's birthdays. Poor, poor Shawn. He'll never get another present again. He says he'd rather have a baby so perhaps it'll work out just as long as he doesn't expect a new one every year.

In other exciting news, Evie turns two—count 'em: one! two!— on the 14th. Her party is this Saturday. Remind me to put up some pictures. :)

Imagine my embarrassment...

Another year and... a lot went by without an entry. I can't say that I blame me because I know my excuses (I'm lazy). I'm sure the one reader I had stopped checking for updates long ago. But that's OK because we follow each other on Facebook. Oy, Facebook. Crackbook more like. And then Twitter. My life has been reduced to a 140 letter soundbite.

Let's see, what happened. We have a high schooler, a first grader, and an about to be two year-old. We were going to move to Seattle. Then we didn't. Then we were. And then we weren't. And here we are, still in Texas, still contemplating the move but not until next year. Big times, big times.

Sadly, I don't have very many pictures of all three of my girls together. If you squint you can see how much fun they're having.

It's been how long?

So I haven't updated this blog in over a year... I am a lazy, lazy blogger. I haven't even looked at my blogroll in well, a year, I guess. As soon as I'm done writing this bit of nonsense I'm going to check to see who's still around and who's had babies. Because it's been a year - someone must have squeezed a couple out I'm sure.

So, what's been new with me? Not a whole heck of a lot, though It feels like I've been pretty busy. Dearest, sweetest Olivia is in the middle of eighth grade, Portia Boo started Kindergarten, and Evie Bee turned one last September.


Me? Oh, I've done a little writing, a lot of reading, a lot of refereeing, and not nearly enough sleeping. Because Evie does not sleep. Therefore I do not sleep.

Who says moms don't work hard? Ha, I tell you! Ha to the tenth degree!


So, New year, new day, new blog... well, of sorts. I'm going to make a concerted effort to post more often from now on. Hopefully, you'll make a concerted effort to come back.

Deal?

Spring

Happy New Year!

Last Sunday I saw my ob/gyn in the Pottery Barn Kids store. It was weird to see her in a non professional setting. Especially when she's usually looking at me from a non-flattering vantage point - the last time I saw her she'd just finished stitching me up after Evie was delivered and most of our interactions involved me on a table with my pants undone and shirt pulled up. Perhaps it was just as weird for her to see me upright and fully clothed as it was for me to see her with her kids and also fully clothed. (She wears scrubs at the office.) We said hi, I showed her Evie (I haven't been back for my check-up. My car battery died that day and I never rescheduled), she showed me her four kids and then we went in seperate directions.

You'd think we might have more to talk about, though perhaps wrangling seven kids total in a crowded store in a crowded mall isn't the ideal spot for a chit chat; but, the more I think about it I'm not sure I have much to say to someone who peers into my vagina for a living, you know?

Anyway, after that Evie no longer looks like a huge meatball sub. I think her age finally grew into her weight and she looks like a healthy breastfed three month old.

Now if only I can convince my arms of it.

Whheeeeee Christmas!

Normally I ignore Christmas until after Thanksgving but this year I decided to embrace it no matter what the month is. So instead of waiting until the week before The Big Day I started my Christmas gifts early.

But I'm not telling you what they are until I have them shipped out. At least not until the first two have flown the coop, after that it doesn't matter. But I think it's a neat idea. I only wish I could draft patterns to make them more somethingier but maybe I can use this as a start and learn from there.

We started going back to the library again. Close your eyes, Peg.

I don't like libraries. I hate giving books back and libraries are so particular about things lke returning books for some silly reason. Funnily enough a few months ago I got a call about a book we'd checked out last December. Close your eyes, Peg. Last week I finally located it and trepidatiously returned the thing - I don't even know if Olivia read it. Fortunately the library's no fees policy is still in effect and the librarian was very nice about it and we were able to check books out again. And I guess they're still buying books because the pickings were still pretty slim after a year (the library's new). They got a - close your eyes, Peg - billion dollar grant when they opened and for some reason I think they're finding it difficult to spend. Shyah. They do have a book request form and you fill it out and they buy the book but maybe no one's using the forms? Whatever, it's still a kajillion times better than the one room place they were in before and I'm sure eventually it'll be packed with books.

Anyway, I picked up Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South to see what the fuss is about.

I actually liked it. I didn't go in expecting to hate it but there are certain people on a certain board who gush over it as it pertains to another novel and while I can see how they got to their conclusions about the similarities these are also the same people who actively look for similarities in everything they watch and read and it's so friggin' annoying. So I started reading it with a meh? attitude and came out with a well, wasn't that sweet? Exactly what I wasn't expecting if I was expecting anything at all.

I haven't seen the miniseries but I looked on You Tube and found only one scene and it was the proposal scene (the rest were fanvids filled with Meaningful Looks accompanied by Soulful Music - not interested). Um. WTF? Is the entire series as jacked up as that was? Because if so then I'm going to skip watching the rest of it.

But I will buy the book.

The library didn't have Wives and Daughters but they did have Cransford which is pretyt light and funny in its way and that's also on my to buy list.

teenage decorum - yeah right

The other day we were sitting at the dinner table just about to eat when Portia decides that it's her turn to say grace - for, like, eternity. And it's really cute and she singsongs "Thank you for gibberish gibberish gibberish candy and gibberish gibbeish toys gibberish gibberish AY-MEN!"

Olivia: I'm so embarassed!

Shawn and I: Why??

Olivia: Because that embarassing!

Me: But no one is even hear. And it was cute.

Olivia: I'm embarassed in front of God.

Me: Why? You didn't say anything. And I think he can interpret that.

Olivia: I'm still embarassed.

I have to say I'm loving this newly easy to embarass kidlet of mine. It's as if on the day she turned thirteen something inside her brain switched all the moody and hypersensitive-to-opinion toggles all the way up to eleven. This is the girl who, when I'd burp, would tell me, "good one!" and I'd thank her and we'd wind up in a burping contest. Now, when I burp I want to do it in front of her friends and with crash cymbols for the grande finale just so I can get a picture of her face . Something I'm wont to do when she gets her head stuck in things. For instance, here's Olivia at the zoo last Friday:

Funny

As tired as I am and as stressed as I am trying to get anything done; despite teenage hormonal mood swings and four year old temper tantrums; over looking the trashed house because I have no time and the old feeling that I'm Bossie the cow (mooooooooooooo!)...

I'm really digging on this three child thing. I highly recommend it.