Always seems to be my problem. Too many books I want to read. I would like to figure out a way that I could get paid to listen to NPR all day and read books. I don't want to comment on them or write reviews...I just want to listen. How can I get paid to do that?
This evening, my Big Human and I did something together that we've never done. We went to the library together. It was one of the most fun things we have done together in a long time! We go to Barnes and Noble together a lot. We usually look at books and that is fun but there was something so much more enjoyable about going to the public library. We go a lot as a family. But we've never gone as a couple. And we went to my favorite branch. The downtown branch. It's housed in an old bank building so it is this grand old structure in the middle of downtown (which is fabulous and charming all on it's own). I picked out a number of books that I can't wait to sit down and read and in fact, I had a hard time choosing which one I would start with. But I've decided (I think) to start with This I Believe II. I haven't read This I Believe I, but I don't think it will stop be from enjoying this one.
In totally unrelated happenings, my Big Human and I stumbled upon an interesting conversation last night that has continued throughout today. We were discussing the naming choice of a soon-to-be-born baby in our peripheral world and my Big Human started talking about how IF we were to have a baby and IF it happened to be a boy, he would not want to name it a junior because he felt that it would be offensive to the two boy small humans that already exist. I agreed with him in part but mainly because I don't like the idea of a junior anyway. Then we started discussing names. I told him some of my favorite boy names, Elijah, Judah, Nicholas, and he thought they were a joke...except for Nicholas. This continued for most of the evening and has kept going today and this evening. I am personally loving it. I'm not sure where it will end up but it started with a bunch of IFs and has gotten to "Patrick...yeah I can handle Patrick..." which is a big step. So maybe my prayers are working? Late August/Early September is right around the corner!
Monday, July 20, 2009
Saturday, July 18, 2009
For the Love of Sleep
I love my family. I really do. Sometimes that love is so palpable that it hurts.
Yesterday was one of those days. It started out very badly. Cycle Day 2 and the cramps were HORRIBLE. I woke up at 4:15 AM from the pain and I was unable to go back to sleep even after resorting to my prescription pain medicine. So that left me super sleepy and groggy from the meds as well as still being in pretty severe pain. Luckily the small humans stayed asleep until 7:15 when the smallest boy human woke up. We were able to ease into the morning because it was my day to work from home while my Big Human did his work stuff. I woke up the other small humans so I could serve breakfast by 9 AM (I try my best to keep them on a regular eating time schedule) while I continued to work on my computer. Even in my sleep-deprived, leftover pain meds fog and still in pain, I was enjoying being with my small humans. They were so delightful.
After breakfast, they got ready quickly, sat and watched two DVR'ed Arthurs from PBS and then without a fuss, turned the TV off and set about finding something to play with. I spotted a bag of leftover balloons, handed them to the biggest small girl human and off she went to find her brother and sister. They quickly created alien babies out of the blown-up balloons and spent the rest of the morning naming the babies, feeding the babies and protecting them from the thunderstorm outside. It was so awesome to watch them play so nicely together and let their imaginations come up with funny things. The morning flew by and soon it was time for lunch. The three smaller humans requested to eat lunch in the safe spot they had created for their babies in the master bathroom so after coaxing me a bit, I agreed and laid out the picnic blanket for them. They ate their lunch there without any arguments and the biggest small boy human and I enjoyed our lunch at the table.
After lunch, we went downtown for a few hours to the children's museum where the three smaller humans continued to play together, they read stories to each other and created another story line that seemed to involve them being polar bears? Not sure about that one but they were having a blast. We came back home and they quickly resumed playing with their alien babies. I made dinner, washed some clothes and then my Big Human came home. We spent the evening hanging out and the small humans convinced some of our neighbors to let them wash their cars the next day for cash.
After baths and the regular bedtime routine, I popped up to the neighborhood grocery store for a few essentials that we needed for breakfast the next morning including a gallon of milk and a carton of OJ. By this point, I was so sleep deprived and just generally out of it because I had had no rest and had been taking my pain medicine throughout the day so that I would be able to function. I came home from the store in the middle of a downpour. I ran in the house, put the bags down in the kitchen and proceeded to get the small girl humans tucked into bed. I quickly followed because I could barely keep my eyes open. When I woke up this morning, I went into the kitchen and guess what was sitting on the counter? The gallon of milk and carton of OJ from the night before. I had left it out all night. Grrrr....But despite all that, it was still a good day.
Yesterday was one of those days. It started out very badly. Cycle Day 2 and the cramps were HORRIBLE. I woke up at 4:15 AM from the pain and I was unable to go back to sleep even after resorting to my prescription pain medicine. So that left me super sleepy and groggy from the meds as well as still being in pretty severe pain. Luckily the small humans stayed asleep until 7:15 when the smallest boy human woke up. We were able to ease into the morning because it was my day to work from home while my Big Human did his work stuff. I woke up the other small humans so I could serve breakfast by 9 AM (I try my best to keep them on a regular eating time schedule) while I continued to work on my computer. Even in my sleep-deprived, leftover pain meds fog and still in pain, I was enjoying being with my small humans. They were so delightful.
After breakfast, they got ready quickly, sat and watched two DVR'ed Arthurs from PBS and then without a fuss, turned the TV off and set about finding something to play with. I spotted a bag of leftover balloons, handed them to the biggest small girl human and off she went to find her brother and sister. They quickly created alien babies out of the blown-up balloons and spent the rest of the morning naming the babies, feeding the babies and protecting them from the thunderstorm outside. It was so awesome to watch them play so nicely together and let their imaginations come up with funny things. The morning flew by and soon it was time for lunch. The three smaller humans requested to eat lunch in the safe spot they had created for their babies in the master bathroom so after coaxing me a bit, I agreed and laid out the picnic blanket for them. They ate their lunch there without any arguments and the biggest small boy human and I enjoyed our lunch at the table.
After lunch, we went downtown for a few hours to the children's museum where the three smaller humans continued to play together, they read stories to each other and created another story line that seemed to involve them being polar bears? Not sure about that one but they were having a blast. We came back home and they quickly resumed playing with their alien babies. I made dinner, washed some clothes and then my Big Human came home. We spent the evening hanging out and the small humans convinced some of our neighbors to let them wash their cars the next day for cash.
After baths and the regular bedtime routine, I popped up to the neighborhood grocery store for a few essentials that we needed for breakfast the next morning including a gallon of milk and a carton of OJ. By this point, I was so sleep deprived and just generally out of it because I had had no rest and had been taking my pain medicine throughout the day so that I would be able to function. I came home from the store in the middle of a downpour. I ran in the house, put the bags down in the kitchen and proceeded to get the small girl humans tucked into bed. I quickly followed because I could barely keep my eyes open. When I woke up this morning, I went into the kitchen and guess what was sitting on the counter? The gallon of milk and carton of OJ from the night before. I had left it out all night. Grrrr....But despite all that, it was still a good day.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Ebay experiment
As you may or may not know, I sell the clothes that my small humans outgrow on ebay. I also sell stuff that I find at goodwill that they can't wear but it still a great find. In the past, I always put my listings up for 5 days and I had about a 50% closing ratio which was in line with what other people that sell a lot more on ebay have experienced. I tried an experiment earlier this week. I listed 12 items on ebay and put them for a 3 day auction instead of a 5 day. NINE items sold! How freaking awesome is that? So now that means I can have a faster turnaround time, money in my paypal account sooner and more things selling! Wooohooo!
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Jack's gonna make me cash
I'm loving my new blog. It's consuming my thoughts. I want to have a gazillion posts RIGHT now. I'm having to pace myself so I don't write all my posts in one day. I made a list of upcoming blog topics and emailed it to myself so I don't forget all my good ideas. When I made the blog, I added google adsense and an amazon link to advertise. If people read my blog and then click on one of the ads, then I get some money. I must say that the Amazon ad is a little freaky...it's like it is able to read my blog post and then choose a correct ad. Kinda scares me. Anyways, my goal is to be like this lady and make $40K a month...hey a girl can dream right?
Friday, June 26, 2009
Work-Free Days
I have officially started my vacation. Oddly, with my to-do list growing by the second, it doesn't feel like I am on vacation right now. Tonight, I am babysitting. Tomorrow night, I am babysitting. Sunday night, my small humans come home so I get to be a parent again. At some point during this weekend, I will have time to rest, grocery shop, do laundry, clean and be well prepared for my small humans' arrival Sunday evening...hahahahaha! That's sooooooo not going to happen but I can dream right?
I am working on enjoying the moments right now. For instance, I am sitting outside, enjoying the late June heat of Virginia evening with a fabulous cup of coffee and wireless internet. Great, right? This upcoming week, I will have at least three mornings where we do not need to be awake and off to do something so we can wake at our leisure (which really means I will be awake by 7 AM because my smallest human is apparently solar-powered) and basically lounge around in the mornings. We plan to go to the pool one day with my mom and her charges and then on Thursday, we jet off for our long weekend trip to Philadelphia. YAAAYYYYY! I am SUPER excited about this trip but at the same time a little freaked out. We usually do not go on trips with the small humans somewhere that I have not been in the past. Meaning, our trips are usually pretty well planned out because I have been to the location before and I know where things are and how to navigate around. I have ZERO knowledge of Philly. Never been there. So I have been spending an obscene amount of time studying google maps in the hopes that the streets get burned into my brain. I have also been in search of recommendations from other people online for family-friendly restaurants i.e. cheap, good food and can tolerate LOUD children. Surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be a Zagat's catagory for that.
This leads me to a new development. I have decided to start a new blog. It's not a replacement of this blog. In fact, I don't want the two connected. The new blog that I will be creating will be an attempt to get readers other than my friends. So it will be pretty "out there" as far as being on google search and things like that. I had the idea to try to figure out how to write a traveling-with-kids-on-a-budget-type book and then I thought, hey, I can just write a blog, do the google ad-sense thing and try to make a few pennies. So that's what I am going to do. I haven't thought of a clever name that isn't taken yet. I came up with Traveling Zoo but someone already has that. So I'm open to ideas...
I am working on enjoying the moments right now. For instance, I am sitting outside, enjoying the late June heat of Virginia evening with a fabulous cup of coffee and wireless internet. Great, right? This upcoming week, I will have at least three mornings where we do not need to be awake and off to do something so we can wake at our leisure (which really means I will be awake by 7 AM because my smallest human is apparently solar-powered) and basically lounge around in the mornings. We plan to go to the pool one day with my mom and her charges and then on Thursday, we jet off for our long weekend trip to Philadelphia. YAAAYYYYY! I am SUPER excited about this trip but at the same time a little freaked out. We usually do not go on trips with the small humans somewhere that I have not been in the past. Meaning, our trips are usually pretty well planned out because I have been to the location before and I know where things are and how to navigate around. I have ZERO knowledge of Philly. Never been there. So I have been spending an obscene amount of time studying google maps in the hopes that the streets get burned into my brain. I have also been in search of recommendations from other people online for family-friendly restaurants i.e. cheap, good food and can tolerate LOUD children. Surprisingly, there doesn't appear to be a Zagat's catagory for that.
This leads me to a new development. I have decided to start a new blog. It's not a replacement of this blog. In fact, I don't want the two connected. The new blog that I will be creating will be an attempt to get readers other than my friends. So it will be pretty "out there" as far as being on google search and things like that. I had the idea to try to figure out how to write a traveling-with-kids-on-a-budget-type book and then I thought, hey, I can just write a blog, do the google ad-sense thing and try to make a few pennies. So that's what I am going to do. I haven't thought of a clever name that isn't taken yet. I came up with Traveling Zoo but someone already has that. So I'm open to ideas...
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Recipe to Wellville
Here's how I get rid of horrid, awful cramps...
- one prescription painkiller
- 4-5 episodes of Sex and The City
- 1/2 glass red wine
- healthy version of haystacks- a few tortilla chips, brown rice, homemade lentils, baby spinach and salsa...mmmmmm good.
Sorry I Don't Know...no baby this cycle...I don't want a winter baby anyways...our December/January birthday calendar is already chock o' block full...think good thoughts with me that my Big Human will suddenly decide oh around August that it's a good time to make a baby...I think a late May/early June baby would be best...we don't have any other birthdays then.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Cheese baby
Last night I dreamed that I saw a positive pregnancy test. Now before anyone gets too excited, that could be for a number of reasons. The most obvious reason would be because my Big Human and I were hanging out with our best couple friends last night and she found out she was pregnant the day before. This is a much wished for and worked for pregnancy and so we were all very excited. So I had that on my brain before I went to bed.
If you believe in this sort of stuff, it could also be foreshadowing for something in my near or not so near future. It wasn't clear in the dream whether it was my pregnancy test or not but whosever it was, the second line was super dark. Super dark lines = lots of preggo hormones which is generally a good thing. It means that things are sticky. It could be because I have been a little concerned this cycle because there was an *ahem* INCIDENT about 4 days before I ovulated. It wasn't an "oh well, that's it...guess we better start looking for a crib" incident but it was an "are you sure everything was o.k." incident. Soooooo....who knows?
In other news, my quest to use Google to self-diagnose all that ails me is ongoing. I thought I had it figured out. I had identified lactose and possibly dairy altogther as the source of all my pain. So no problem right? Just eliminate sources of lactose and dairy in my diet and take the lactase pill if I must eat cheese or something that may contain cheese. Well that would be a big fat no. Turns out after a couple of doses of the lactase pill, my body has decided that it is even more evil than the cheese so every time I have taken it in the past three weeks, I have vomited. Numerous times. Accompanied by severe abdominal pain. No fun. Now I get bloated, gassy, abdominal pain, nausea and burping for no reason at all. I could have gone all day without eating anything remotely resembling something that has come from a cow and I still get sick. So who knows? I go to the doctor next week to have blood tests done for food allergies. In the meantime, I will continue to look for all sorts of odd ailments that could be the source of all my issues. Cause wouldn't that be cooler to be able to say you have some rare issue instead of saying that cheese makes you so bloated you look 4 months pregnant?
If you believe in this sort of stuff, it could also be foreshadowing for something in my near or not so near future. It wasn't clear in the dream whether it was my pregnancy test or not but whosever it was, the second line was super dark. Super dark lines = lots of preggo hormones which is generally a good thing. It means that things are sticky. It could be because I have been a little concerned this cycle because there was an *ahem* INCIDENT about 4 days before I ovulated. It wasn't an "oh well, that's it...guess we better start looking for a crib" incident but it was an "are you sure everything was o.k." incident. Soooooo....who knows?
In other news, my quest to use Google to self-diagnose all that ails me is ongoing. I thought I had it figured out. I had identified lactose and possibly dairy altogther as the source of all my pain. So no problem right? Just eliminate sources of lactose and dairy in my diet and take the lactase pill if I must eat cheese or something that may contain cheese. Well that would be a big fat no. Turns out after a couple of doses of the lactase pill, my body has decided that it is even more evil than the cheese so every time I have taken it in the past three weeks, I have vomited. Numerous times. Accompanied by severe abdominal pain. No fun. Now I get bloated, gassy, abdominal pain, nausea and burping for no reason at all. I could have gone all day without eating anything remotely resembling something that has come from a cow and I still get sick. So who knows? I go to the doctor next week to have blood tests done for food allergies. In the meantime, I will continue to look for all sorts of odd ailments that could be the source of all my issues. Cause wouldn't that be cooler to be able to say you have some rare issue instead of saying that cheese makes you so bloated you look 4 months pregnant?
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