Leaving . . . on a Jet Plane

I have a decent sized headache. I blame the children. I had three tonight. Did I say I wanted more babies? I thought so. My friend Karen had a job interview this evening, so I watched Owen (nearly 5) and Emma (nearly 4) for a couple of hours. Woo, am I tired. And tomorrow we leave for Daytona, Quinn and I. I think we are just about packed, carry-ons and suitcases, except for the last-minute stuff, like toothpaste and toothbrush and sippy cup and dragon lovey. I guess we're ready! Now I should probably practice my deep breathing and mental relaxation so I don't freak out around my mom. Any available prayers for calm would be appreciated!
Quinn got his hair cut today. He was looking pretty shaggy. I thought after the first cut, we would switch to someplace that doesn't charge an arm and a leg and feed my child animal crackers throughout the visit. But thanks to some bad experiences with Great Clips, we're sticking with what works. Most of those bad experiences are my husband's. But since his coworkers actually teased him yesterday about a cut, and since twice GC has refused to charge him for his haircut, I back down on this one. I'm not the one with two "crowns" after all. They are. Hey, at least he got a yellow bouncy ball! Woo hoo!
So the prayer vigil is still on for Stellan. I'm constantly updated MckMama's Twitter page (but don't assume that means I have the slightest idea what Twitter actually is) since she doesn't have much access to her blog. I ask you all (all four of you!) to pray for Stellan and his family. They have a lot of peace about what God is doing, even while they pray for another miracle, but more prayers are welcome and needed. Now, I need to get going and finish my last edit for the week. I probably only have three more commercial breaks before Private Practice is over and I have to wake the sleeping chainsaw and send us both to bed. Hmm, maybe I can fit in some dessert. I think I saw ice cream in the freezer! By the way, I won't be back online to update until probably Monday since I'm leaving the laptop at home. Love, Us.

Praying for Stellan

MckMama's little baby Stellan is sick again, with the same kind of heart issues as he had when he was in utero. Please join me in praying for Stellan and his family. You can find details here and also read his story from the beginning, but I don't recommend starting at 9 p.m. and reading straight through until 2 a.m. Bad idea. We'll update later about how we've all been (pretty good). Love, Us.

Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Jalal had to work today, so Quinn and I went to church by ourselves. He was kind of tired before we even left, and he was not in a great mood. He started crying when we got to the nursery. Poor kid. Usually he is ready to run away from us and go play. A couple of weeks ago, he ran in as happy as could be and then freaked out. Jalal had to take him outside to calm him down. It was so out of the blue and unlike him that I wasn't really sure what to do. Today he just took a little distraction before he was fine.

During the sermon, one of the musicians, the violin player, came and sat down next to me. It was really nice since I was sitting alone. After I picked up Quinn from the nursery, I went back in the sanctuary and introduced myself. It was nice to meet another person face to face. I'm getting there! Maybe I'll start going to the women's Bible study or something soon. (Oh, and I always peek in the window trying to see Quinn before he sees me. He saw me right away today and ran across the room pointing and yelling "Mama!" The adults in there thought it was so funny. There's no need for nametags with that kind of reaction!

Yesterday was Supermom day. I haven't gotten that much stuff done in one day ever (or at least as long as I can remember). I emptied the dishwasher, filled the dishwasher, washed all the pots and pans, baked cookies (oatmeal chocolate chip!, and no I haven't eaten them all yet), vacuumed the whole downstairs, did two loads of laundry, finished an edit, ironed 6 shirts and a pair of pants, and took a 30-minute walk with Maureen, after which we let the kids play. Woohoo!

Oh, and saving the best news for last, I got a job! Another freelance job that I can do from home. It's with an educational media company proofreading flashcards. It's way more intense than I expected when I applied, but I already got work from them! I'm currently edited flashcards about business and marketing for the Praxis II. Here's to taking exactly a year to find something to do other than Arcadia! Man, when people said freelancing was hard to break into, they weren't kidding. All the more reason to be grateful that I've been able to stay home with Quinn for the past year. I have to go on a recycling run now. Love, Us.

Wanted: One Jedi Master

I am in need of a master, someone from whom I can learn the necessary tools to get along in the crazy life of mine. Specifically, right now I need somebody to teach me how to seem respectful and loving and kind toward my husband while I'm really performing some master Jedi mind-tricks on him to get him to do exactly what I want. Is there an online course perhaps? Maybe something where I can get a few credits toward a master's in manipulation?

I don't know if I have talked about the chore list before, but it's a list of all the regular daily, weekly, and monthly chores that need to be performed for the house to not fall down around our ears or bury us in our own clutter, though it doesn't even address things like cleaning off the coffee table or going through junk mail. Anyway, we made it together after the seventh breakdown (mine) in less than a year as a result of someone's lack of any significant contributions around the house (his). He picked the one daily chore he wanted, washing pots and pans, two weekly chores, and one monthly. The only one he has kept up with is the weekly grocery shopping. He even said, after he picked out his chores, "But that still leaves you doing almost everything. I should do more." Ahem. Well, yes, that is true, but I suggested we start small and work our way up. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't expect the chores to be 50/50. I work at home, and only part-time (let's ignore for a moment the fact that Quinn is a full-time++ job all by himself), so it is natural I do more around the house. MORE, not ALL.

One of my biggest issues was when he would fall asleep on the couch at 8:30 while I worked, then wake up at 11:00 and come into the kitchen, where I was washing all of the dishes, and ask [in super sleepy, "I don't really want an honest answer to this question" voice] "What can I do to help?" Hmmm. You, my love, are an accomplished man who runs not one, but three, distinct food-service operations with aplomb, lived alone long before I came along, were raised by a single mother, and have a WHOLE brain in your head. And you have to ask me almost every night what you can do to help. So, when the chore list debuted, and he asked me to post it on the fridge, I said, now you don't have to ask me what you can do! It's all there in black and white and dry-erase-board gray! So, imagine my (carefully controlled) rage last night when I remembered I had to move the laundry over to the dryer right before I decided to go to bed at 11:30 (he fell asleep on the couch around 9:30), and he leaned into the kitchen to ask [gasp] "What can I do to help?" Oh, no he didn't. Thank you Lord for trying to teach me patience and character. Seriously, but now can we move on? What other virtues can we work on that don't make me turn into a raging, spitting, hateful, ugly person? And how about that online course?

Love, Me.

My First Video Post (Let's See if This Works)

I had to take this video after Quinn came up to me asking if he could wear his hat. I'm sure you will agree that he is a very cute and very smart boy. And his daddy and I spend way too much time teaching him funny things to do (see Not Me! Monday post). Enjoy! Love, Us.

Update: It didn't work. It looked like it worked but I guess it didn't. Sorry!

I Think We're Paci Free

I was just looking back at my blog and realized that it has been two weeks since Quinn had a pacifier at night. And that means it has probably been about 10 days with no paci at all!! Holy moly! I can't believe it was just that easy. Now don't get me wrong. These past few days, when he wakes up from a nap, he cries hysterically for another 20 minutes or so, and I want to shove a paci in his mouth so bad I can taste it. But I didn't. I comfort him, I distract him, I set him up like a king on the couch with his blanket and a Veggie Tales movie. No paci. Part of the process that has made it easier I think is that we haven't been going out much. Not out to eat, which is our biggest challenge with the paci, and not out to shop much. I can handle him losing it and showing his butt on the playground or at Karen's house. But I hate when he pitches a fit in a restaurant. I think we're saving money, too. I mean, theoretically, if you eat at home and don't go out to eat, you save money, right? Well, yes, if you don't buy Oreo Cakesters, Klondike bars, Karamel Sutra B&J ice cream, and cheese danish. I would be so embarrassed to admit that those things are in my house right now--IF I HAD BOUGHT THEM! I neither purchased nor asked for any of these items. But I'm not doing the grocery shopping anymore. In one sense, that makes me very happy. But who stays home all day and has to give in to, I mean resist, the temptation to snack on these very items? Not Jalal. Me. (I guess I really didn't need to spell that out for you, did I?)

So Sarah and Maureen are going with us tomorrow to Mother Goose on the Loose, and then we're going to have a picnic lunch if the weather stays nice. I can't wait! Well, I didn't have any work to do today until almost 5:00, so I have to make up for lost time. I did, however, apply for two jobs today off Craigslist. Let's see how it goes. Good night. Love, Us.

St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone. We don't have much going on today. Yesterday, Sarah was supposed to come over and play with Quinn while Maureen had to do some stuff, but then her plans changed and Sarah didn't come over. I was pretty disappointed. I even bought sidewalk chalk and planned to go outside. It wouldn't have worked anyway because it rained all day. We are all going to the library tomorrow for storytime, so that should be fun. Or crazy, or both!

Bowling last night was a bust. We won our final game but only by three points. Every single one of us sucked. I don't think any of us improved our averages at all. Although Ceal and Alissa pulled out some crazy strikes and spares at the end to save us. We need to get our acts together for next week. I went out Saturday night to bowl with Maureen, Karen, and Bryon (a guy from another team). We had a good time but I didn't do anything special. It was hard to bowl well when no one else paid attention to taking turns. There was absolutely no bowling etiquette there. And if I were the woman playing on the lane next to us, I would have plenty to say for Not Me! Monday, like "I did not take my 10-month-old baby out bowling with me, my pubescent husband, my cigarette-smoking mom, and her butch girlfriend until after midnight. And if I didn't, I wouldn't have let my child sip soda out of my cup." Seriously? I'm by no means a perfect or even great mom, but that's just messed up.

Quinn and I watched the Elmo ("Momo") Potty Time video yesterday over lunch. Oh boy. I guess I need to commit a little more to the potty training thing. Maybe I'll have to break down and buy training pants. I guess I don't take him often enough to try, but it's such a pain taking a diaper off and on. It was kind of funny, though. The movie had some "adult" jokes, like "This episode is brought to you by the letter P and the number 2." Get it? And when Elmo asked Baby Bear if he was potty trained, he said, "Does a bear go potty in the woods?" Hah!

Well, I better go find us some green clothes in case we go out today. I didn't buy Quinn any special St. Patrick's Day clothes this year. I know, big surprise! I did get him an Easter shirt, so you'll see that soon enough. Love, Us.

Not Me! Monday

Okay, one of my favorite blogs is My Charming Kids, written by a woman who calls herself "MckMama." She is hysterical and such a great role model. (You can link to her blog at the top of my blog.) She does Not Me! Mondays every week where she discusses all the things that she would NEVER do because it would be so wrong. I decided to jump on the bandwagon, as have dozens and dozens of other people, and post my own. Here we go!

I did not go through all the elaborate technical steps to link my post to MckMama's blog just in the desperate hopes of winning one of her awesome giveaway prizes. I would never neglect my own work just to mess around online. Not me!

I did not just put Quinn down for a second nap today, even though he could probably have made it a few more hours, just to get some quiet time for myself. Even if I had done that, I would never try to convince myself that I just wanted Quinn to be well-rested for his evening with Daddy. Not me!

I did not repeatedly let Quinn run around with his onesies and rompers unbottoned around the crotch so it would be quicker to get him to the potty, if and when I decided to take him. I would never let me adorable boy run around looking like he was wearing a dress. Not me!

I did not eat an entire box of Girl Scout cookies last week in a single sitting within an hour of buying them outside of Walmart. Even if I had, I would certainly not make sure the box was hidden underneath other trash and neglect to tell my husband that "a few" boxes started as four. Not me!

My husband and I most certainly did not try to teach Quinn to gesture "Kiss my butt" this week. We do a lot of crazy things with him, but that is just wrong, and we would never do that. Imagine what people would think! Not me!

So, those are just a few of the things I absolutely did NOT do this week. If I had done these things, I would plan to start watching that new show "In the Motherhood" next week to help feel better about myself. Love, Us.

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It's Champagne Thursday!

Not for me; that's just a shout-out to Caroline and Willie. I need to start a tradition like that. Maybe Wine Wednesday? Schnapps Saturday? Stiff drink Sundays? Actually today is kind of blah. The weather is turning colder and grayer again. I don't really want to go out because I don't want to spend any money. I don't have any work to do, so that's frustrating. It's just a blah day.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Quinn and I went to the Mother Goose on the Loose storytime at the public library. We went a few times over the summer and had a good time. I don't know why we stopped going. Quinn had a great time. He can actually do most of the stuff on his own now, like patting and clapping and stomping his feet. I think we'll try to keep going on a regular basis. Then, after a record short nap, we went over to meet Karen at the park. There were earthmovers everywhere and half the playground was torn up, so we went over to Karen's house instead. The kids played outside, and Quinn wore himself out. It was great.

Well, Quinn just woke up and I got a new edit, so let me go spring into action. Duty calls. Hopefully I can make more time later to write, but I'm planning to go to a Passover dinner demonstration at my church tonight, hosted by someone from Jews for Jesus. (I told my sister that and she laughed. When I asked why she laughed, she said it was because of the movie "In Her Shoes." I was so relieved because I have to hold it in myself everytime I hear "Jews for Jesus" for that same reason. At least I'm not alone!) Love, Us.

Spring Fever

Now I'm generally a cold weather person. I love bundling up in front of a fire and feeling the brisk air in my lungs, not to mention I think scarves are a fabulous fashion accessory. But the weather we've had these past 5 days has been absolutely gorgeous! It's nearly 80, but it's so beautiful that I can't complain about that. I went to the park yesterday with Karen and her kids and another friend of hers. Karen went home to get some of those folding park chairs, and we just sat out in the wonderful spring day and enjoyed the fresh air. I even got to hold the other woman's new baby! He is only about a month old, and he was just the tiniest little thing ever. He was actually smaller than Quinn was when Quinn was born! They are all going again today, but Jalal's off and wants to go to Commerce, Georgia, to the outlets. I'm torn. We have a history of overspending at places like that and we need to be super careful about our money right now. But I do have to get Quinn some navy pants for Easter. I found his shirt at a consignment store. It's navy and yellow and white gingham (or plaid maybe?), and long sleeved and button-down. I want to get him one of those newsboy caps so badly to go with it. But Jalal just gave me "the look." You know, the one that says, "Really? You want to dress up my child like that? Wait for a girl and then do your worst."

So we had position night at bowling yesterday. We didn't bowl last week because of the snow, so we were all a little out of practice. Alissa couldn't come at the last minute, so we had to use her average score minus 10. That was an 80. Not good for position night! Most everybody didn't do so well, although Karen got a 190, just one pin away from her best ever. I was pretty happy with my scores: 108, 116, and a 155! Woohoo! That's an average of more than 20 points above my previous average. But it didn't matter. We lost all our points. [You get 2 points for each game your team wins and 2 points if you have a total win in pins for the night, for a possible total of 8 points.] We only lost the first game by 2 pins! Man. That's okay. We'll pick it up next week. We had a great time, though. The team we were playing was a lot of fun. That always helps, when you can interact with the other team well. It didn't hurt that it was Bryon's team. To give you a visual, his nickname is "Big Sexy." He's pretty crazy. And we've all agreed to go to the New Kids on the Block concert next week. We're going to have a blast. I need to remind Ceal to burn me a copy of her CDs. She bought one of their old CDs and their new one at the last concert she went to. Well, I better go get Quinn dressed for our day of shopping. Hope everyone is having as beautiful a day as we are. Love, Us.

From Snow to Seventy

So on Monday it snowed 4 inches or so. Today it hit almost 70 degrees. Jalal didn't have to work until the afternoon, so we went to the playground with Quinn this morning. It was very windy though, like blow you over windy. It was crazy to see how busy it was. And the variety of moms in attendance was so funny to see as well. I mentioned how some kids were in jeans and sweatshirts and others were in these boutique gingham rompers with smocking and lacy dresses with tights and white shoes. Really? Jalal pointed out that this must be where the upper-class moms come because every woman there had a huge rock on her ring finger as well. Hmm...did we crash a party? I could care less. My child was sweet and well-behaved and said "Hi!" to the other kids. Plus, my hubby was there! I wish he and Quinn got to play together more often. Oh, and Quinn is doing this cute thing now where he has to tell everyone I'm his mama and Jalal is his dada. He informed the lady with the bread samples at Costco of this, and she said, "Really? That's your daddy? And there's your mommy? Great." I said, "As if you couldn't tell."

So we didn't get to bowl on Monday night because the weather was so bad. I don't know what we're going to do to make it up, but some of the girls want to go bowl tomorrow night. I really wish I could go, but I can't seem to find a babysitter. EVER. I have got to find a group of sitters to draw from, preferably with people who will call me back. Why is that difficult? I am also working on finding someone for St. Patrick's Day. My bowling team (have I mentioned that our name is the Gutter Gals?) has a plan to go to a concert: the New Kids on the Block! Wouldn't that be hysterical? But I'm dreading what will happen when I pay for a ticket and then can't find someone to watch Quinn. Oh well, guess I'll just keep a positive outlook and keep calling around. Wish me luck! Good night. Love, Us.

Growing Up and Letting Go

I'm so proud of Quinn. He has gone two nights now without a pacifier. When we got back from Charleston the last time, we went back to only using it during naps, bedtime, and moments of extreme distress (mostly his, sometimes ours). When that went well, Jalal suggested we stop using it overnight and see how he did. To my surprise, he only cried for a couple of minutes each night. He's such a big boy. I told my sister about it today, and the poor thing burst into tears. She feels like she's missing so much of him growing up. I completely understand and I wish I knew what to do about it. We are planning a trip to Daytona later this month (I know, another freakin' trip!) to help Mom go through some of our old things as well as Dad's stuff. So hopefully that will help. I guess there's no use hoping we'll ever live too near each other. Wade refuses to leave Woodville, and I can't imagine Jalal ever finding a career path that leads to (or even through) Tallahassee. So instead we can just work toward one or the other of us becoming rich enough so we could afford monthly visits. Hmmm...lotto tickets anyone? Well, Jalal and I have to go look over our tax returns now. Yay! (insert sarcastic font here) Love, Us.

The Numbers

For those of you who want the official numbers from Quinn's checkup, here they are. [Drumroll please. . . ] Weight: 25.81 lbs (50th %); Height: 32.5 in. (57th %); Head circumference: 18.5 in. (28th %).

I thought he had a huge head because it's tough as nails to get a shirt over that noggin, but the numbers don't back me up. Oh well. Also, we now have a dentist's appointment scheduled for the end of this month. Won't that be fun? (Where's a sarcastic font when you need it?) He gets to watch me first, which is a much better idea than him watching Jalal. I won't scare the pants off the kid. I don't mind the dentist. I actually liked going to my old dentist. Everyone was so nice and it usually didn't hurt, at least not as much as the monotony of my work cubicle did. Jalal has only been to the dentist once in the last 10 years and that was because a crown broke off. I shudder to think . . . Well, maybe he is smart to fear going to the dentist. We'll see because he is also going to the dentist soon! I have the power to make appointments for him and the power to make him go whether he likes it or not. (I think. I'll let you know how this one plays out.) By the way, I've marked off six items on my to-do list. And yes, I actually did all of them before I marked them off. Naysayers. All of you! More later. Love, Us.

It's a Two Skittles Day

For those of you who don't get the title of today's post, two Skittles is the reward Quinn gets for going number 2 in the potty. He did it! Now, if you've been reading, you know that we are sort of gearing up for potty training. I know it's early, but there's no harm in getting him used to the idea. He has started calling his little potty chair "Bobby." He's been saying "Bobby" for a while now and we have no clue what he means by it. He always says it very enthusiastically, like "Bob-EEE!" He sounds like a cartoon character. So when I started to say "potty," I guess he confused the two. Now he calls his potty Bobby. Cute, right? I admit we haven't been super consistent about it and I seem to be the only one who will suggest he try to go, so that's tough. This seems like it takes way more effort out of me than Quinn. One of the blogs I follow just had a post about potty training the other day because that mom has gotten two boys out of diapers by age 2 so far. Unfortunately, one of her techniques is to let them run around bare-bottomed while plying them with lemonade. NB: She has wood floors! I have carpet, and I'm not ready to let him run around peeing on the floor yet. Anyway, while I was on the exercise bike this morning (just four more minutes!!), he started grunting and going on. I said, "You're going to the bathroom right now, aren't you?" to get him to associate the feeling with the words. He runs over the gate at the hall and starts saying "Bobby, Bobby!" So I get down from the bike and take him to the bathroom. Now, he eats way too many bananas, so number 2 is not always effortless. He sat on Bobby for a while and then wanted to get up. I got him to sit on the toilet instead and after a few minutes, we had success! I let him flush and say bye-bye, then we had to wash his hands (better than usual because he actually put his hand in the toilet before flushing). He has his own soap now, too. Then he got two Skittles and lots of praise. When I finished getting everything and everyone cleaned up and put back together, I looked at the clock and saw that it was only 9:00. REALLY? I feel like it should be noon by now! I'm exhausted already. And my to-do list is staring at me right now. Other than running the dishwasher and doing most of my bike workout, NOTHING has been done. Jeez. Did I mention that Jalal had a day off yesterday? Hah!

Seriously though, some stuff did get done. We bought a new router so our wireless is back up. Don't assume that I'll blog more as a result, but I am trying. I have a couple loads of laundry to catch up on, plus I'm still behind on my work work (that's the paying gig) thanks to that really bad edit the weekend before last. I admit I didn't get much done on Monday because we had friends over. Some of you not on Facebook may not know this, but we got snow! I'm talking anywhere from 3 to 6 inches of the stuff! It started Sunday afternoon. We had a great time playing in it, but we didn't expect as much as we ended up getting. Starting about 8 p.m., Jalal's work phone went nuts and everyone called to say they would not be coming in to work the next morning because they couldn't drive two or three miles in the snow. Now granted, it was supposed to be pretty icy, but those people didn't think about how far Jalal would have to drive to get to work. The phone didn't stop after we went to bed, so neither of us got a good night's sleep. Crazy-suicidal as it was, Jalal did get up and leave for work at 4:00 in the morning. He took his time (hour and a half instead of 35 minutes), threw on his hazard lights whenever it got slippery, and tried to stay out of the way of all the stupid people (18-wheelers included) who didn't think they should slow down at all. He called I-85 the "85 Luge." Nobody could believe he made it to work, but what was he supposed to do? Almost everyone else called in, the restaurants were slammed because everyone was snowed in at the hotel, and even his own boss (who assured Jalal he could handle it) couldn't make it out of his own driveway. Some of his night crew did volunteer to be there, so they got through, but it was a crazy day. Yesterday, when the power went out (some 17,000 people were without in Spartanburg and Greenville Counties), people were yelling at the front desk because they couldn't blowdry their hair, and the whole reason they stayed at the hotel was that their power was out at home! Anyway, my friend Karen's power went out Sunday afternoon and I told her she and the kids were welcome to come over on Monday if it wasn't fixed. She took me up on it and grabbed Happy Meals for the kids and Quinn on her way. She and I ate the yummy chili that Jalal made the night before. Even though her kids are older, 3 and 4, they had a blast playing with Quinn's toys, and by the time they left, every single one of us was completely wiped out. Quinn loves Karen. He always tries to sit in her lap and cuddle with her whenever she's around. I think it's great. Gives me a break! So the snow is about half gone now, but it was so beautiful! I just kept taking pictures because I never thought it would snow like that here, especially not in March! And now it's supposed to be up to 70 degrees by Friday. Crazy! Well, I better jump into my to-do list now. The washing machines is calling to me "Use me!" and the dishwasher is whispering "Empty me." Darn talking appliances. Love, Us.