Friday, February 29, 2008

The Fun We Have

Happy Friday, everyone! This morning I joined the Jill Storey Fan Club and made some killer apple-cinnamon scones. I didn't know how they tasted until just about two minutes ago when I ate one. They are yummie! I succeeded! Wonder of Wonders! Miracle of Miracles!

Yeah, so anyway. Yesterday Anja took basically no naps at all. Yikes! I thought our evening would be the worst ever. Not so! After dinner (chicken and noodles over mashed potatoes, delish) Martin took us out for a surprise "keep Anja happy" date. He drove us out to the mall! I have a new appreciation for the mall now for a few different reasons. One is that it means I get to walk a lot. Also, it keeps Anja soooooo happy. She doesn't so much like going into the stores, but she loves walking out in the mall area. There is just so much for her to see! Another appreciation stems from the fact that I'm pretty close to being back in my prepregnancy body. Just knowing that I am wearing my jeans from two summers ago makes shopping for myself about a zillion times more enjoyable. Not that I actually bought anything last night. But it's just more fun to LOOK when you know you could probably fit into all the old sizes. It was a pretty fun time.

After that I put Anja to bed and went out to the grocery store to buy batteries for the smoke alarms and apples for my scones this morning. On the way home I stopped by Vienna and got Martin a chai and myself a decaf coffee, but when I got home Anja was awake and super unhappy, so I didn't actually get to drink my decaf before it went cold. However, she eventually fell asleep around 9:00 and didn't wake up until this morning at 6:00! Woohoo!!!

Yesterday afternoon when Anja wasn't taking a nap I bundled her up and took her for a walk in the wrap carrier. It was so fun! Such a sunny day for a walk. We went to the bank and to Three Blind Mice antiques. Anja loved it. She just loves to look around.

I wanted to get this posted hours ago so people could comment before the weekend, but oh well.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Target Clearance Bins! Woo!

Yesterday when I dropped Martin off at work he gave me a wad of cash for my day with the car. I guess it was supposed to be for coffee, since those were what my plans were--to go to coffee with Mary and/or Alison. Well, I went to Mary's house, Alison came to my house, and as you've read, I didn't get to do any spending at Nature's Pharm. So around 6:30 last night I was all alone with Anja feeling sorry for myself and trying to keep Anja awake while just waiting until it was time to go pick up Martin. Finally I thought, "Forget this, I'm going to Target!" and Anja and I went to check out the clearance bins. We went to the makeup aisle looking for yummie lipgloss, and I ended up getting a tube of DELICIOUS lipgloss that tastes like grape and has a really pretty color. I don't know how much I spent on it, because there was no price on it. I also got some body butter that smells deliciously refreshing, and it was only $2.50. And I also got some lotion that also smells delicious, and it was only $1.50! When I pulled out the wad of cash up at the checkout line I found that I had eight dollars. My total was $8.77! I had the change in my pocket!

The nice thing about being a stay-at-home-mom is that I have the option of wearing shoes. Today I don't really feel like wearing shoes, so I'm not! It seems like a good day to be barefoot.

Anja seems to be getting onto a divinely inspired schedule. Last night she went to sleep (in the car) at 8:30 and she woke up this morning at 7:00. She's been doing close to that for the past few nights, and it's been fabulous. I love getting up early with her, as long as she hasn't gone to bed at midnight or later, and I really like being up before Martin leaves for work. So if this schedule sticks, this should be a happy household!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Jinx!

Don't ever tell people you have a good baby. As soon as the words leave your mouth, you will most definitely be proven wrong. I went out to Nature's Pharm to meet my aunt and we had a good time sniffing the lotions and comparing hand creams and stuff for about five seconds. She asked me, as she looked adoringly down at my baby-sized slice of angelicness, if Anja was always such a good baby. I should have told the truth: that she only likes me, and her general motto is "my way or the highway." However, instead of being honest I said, "Oh, yes! She's such good girl! Blah blah blah! With every good thing I say about her, her waking volume will increase by five decibels!" And sure enough, a minute later she woke up. HATING THE WORLD. There was no consoling her. And this was not your every day waking-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed fussiness. This was an all-out fit. The kind where there are long periods of silence, which is never a good thing. You know the kind I mean, when they cry until they don't have anymore air so they go silent while their face turns slightly purple and then--GASP--they come back stronger than before (just when you thought it wasn't possible)!! That was the kind of fit Little Miss Anja Pie was having today at Nature's Pharm. So we left. She fell back asleep as soon as we got outside and now she's in her crib and she's still asleep.

I know I haven't learned my lesson. I do this all the time. She IS a good baby, she's smiley and cheerful and nice to be around most of the time. It's just whenever I tell that to anyone that the winds change and her demonic side shows through. With gusto!

Good Morning, Annie Car Day!

This is shaping up to be a pretty busy day with the car! This is not such a bad thing since Martin will be staying late at work (again.) Usually I leave around 3:45 to go down and pick him up, which means I have to be home long before that to get Anja changed and fed and ready to go, so my days sometimes seem pretty short. But today I won't be picking him up until after dinner so I've got plenty of time to do all the things that have fallen onto my plate.

This morning I'm going over to Mary Sheiko's house to visit. I'm looking forward to that because I want to see her house, and because going over to someone's house means not spending any money AND not worrying so much about Anja having a psychotic outburst. Oh my gosh, like she did last night whenever either of my parents tried to hold her. What's her problem anyway? She only seems to like three people in the whole world: me, Martin, and Sarah. Oh, and she likes Kim, she doesn't cry when he holds her either. What a little goon though! They are her grandparents, and they are ultra snuggly! Silly baby.

Anyway, in the afternoon I am meeting my Aunt AnnaMay out at Nature's Pharm to do a little health food shopping. (Or Burt's Bees product shopping, heh heh...) and then later after the school hours, I'm meeting up with Alison for coffee. This is good because Alison is in the middle of planning her wedding and I love hearing about it.

Aha, and now it's after ten and I'm late!

Monday, February 25, 2008

What is it with Cats and Dirt Piles?

First of all, thanks to all who responded to my last post! You can all keep it going if you want. Like I said, I wasn't trying to start fights, and I personally didn't want to take positions (on the blog anyway) but I thought it would be an interesting thing to put out there and see what kind of responses came.

So, anyway, back to the subject of this post. When I was little and my mom would sweep the kitchen floor she'd always get so annoyed by the cats who would come along and roll in her little dirt piles. I thought she was mean for getting mad at the cats. I thought, if it'd been me, I would make the little piles of dirt especially FOR the cats to roll around in. Well. Then I grew up. And I got my own kitchen floor. And a cat. How annoying!!!!! Not only does he think that me getting out the broom is an invitation for some kind of "eat the broom" game, but he won't stay away from the piles!!!!! If there are big pieces of dirt (dog food) in the piles, he bats them away, back across the kitchen floor. If there are only little dirts, he rolls around in them as if they are a cozy blanket. What a weirdo!!! So anyway, now I totally know why my mom was so annoyed all those years when she'd sweep the floor with those blasted cats around.

This would be a fabulous winter if Martin didn't spend half his life driving up and down 231. It's like a game of roulette every two or three days. "Will today be the day Martin slides on the road and gets squashed by a semi?" And people drive like absolute IDIOTS in the snow. When he was coming home on Friday when it was so incredibly slick and snowing so hard, somebody passed him IN A NO PASSING ZONE. ?!?!?!? Sane people don't do that in good weather, let alone in a snowstorm!!! He said he'd text me in Linden and Romney to let me know he was okay, since the driving in the towns is easier and so slow, and his texts read: "I'm in Linden. The roads are great!" and "I'm in Romney. Still great!" Then he got home safely and told me about how slick it was and how many accidents and slide-offs he saw. And while he was driving home Perkins called me to tell me she'd slid off 65 and into some trees. What a mess!!! So it's a shame that this winter will go down in my personal history as kind of a bad one, since I do usually love winter so much.

Perkins was here this weekend! As was Ryan Hill. They came over to our house at the same time. I love it when Perkins is in town because we can just sit around and drink tea and eat cookies and talk about stupid stuff till the cows come home. Lucky me--she'll be home next weekend too!!

I am so happy with the way our bedroom looks since I cleaned it up and rearranged it. It seriously looks so nice, and just like us. It took us awhile to feel at home in this house since we moved into as an already furnished place. But little by little we've made it much more "us" and I can safely say I am happy with pretty much the majority of the house. However, it will be nice when we get a couch for our front room. Last night Martin brought over one of the trunks he had in his bedroom at his mom's house and that's in the bedroom now to be used for socks and underwears. Using it every day will ensure that it doesn't get covered in stuff, which is important.

Rosary group is this morning. Anja is asleep and I've got the house pretty much cleaned up. Thanks to Martin for cleaning up the Courage Corner again! Sadly, I am wearing a shirt that used to be enormous on me and now is not-so-much enormous. I like breastfeeding--I don't adore it like some people, but I like it--but there will be some major advantages to being done with it. Like being able to button my shirts, and eat cheese. (Of course, if I eat too much cheese, I still won't be able to button my shirts, ha ha ha!)

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Please Respond

I've just gotten out of the shower (the place where everyone does their best thinking) and I'd like some opinions on what I was thinking about while shampooing my hair. Now please read this as a neutral question, not judging one way or the other. I'm not asking this with the intention of bringing out fists, I am just curious about what other people think.

Okay. So everyone is always super hypersensitive to sex scenes in movies, right? (Okay, not everyone, but the conservative sort of people, you know what I mean.) They think they are wrong because sex outside of marriage is immoral and imagining other people committing that sin is an occasion of sin for you, right? Do people think sex scenes are related to pornography? I don't know. But my question is, what's the big difference between watching a movie with a sex scene in it and watching an action movie in which everyone is blowing everyone else up? Couldn't a movie that shows normal people expressing their anger by shooting their enemy bring out the same level of sinful emotions as a movie with implied sex? And why do people refer to sex scenes as "bad" scenes? Think about it: If someone is reviewing a movie for you and says "there were ___ many bad scenes" you know they're talking about sex scenes. What's so good about violence? What's so not-bad about people pretending to kill each other for petty reasons compared to people pretending to engage in actions that should be reserved for marriage? It's all just pretend. It's not like the actors are really doing any of those things. So what makes the sex scenes so taboo and the violence so accepted?

I had never thought about this before today. But now that I have, I'd like the opinions of other people on this issue. Please, comment away.

Friday, February 22, 2008

Little Miss Grabby Pants

Anja is getting SO GOOD at grabbing things!!! She has this wooden hanging toy named Mr. Haba Man and it has a ring on the bottom. I hung it from her jungle toy and it's the perfect height for her to grab. She loves it!!

Oh my gosh, talk about a productive day. We might actually be able to start showing people the upstairs of our house again! During Anja's nap I started cleaning up our bedroom, and the end result is terrific. I moved some furniture around too, pulled the bed away from the wall, and made a little table out of a shoebox and a plant stand. I dusted and threw away the mountains of trash that had collected, I vacuumed, which was a task that also involved FIXING the vacuum! (You really don't want to know why it wasn't working.) And I fixed the curtains that had fallen down and rearranged some of the not-so-pretty stuff like a plastic tub of summer clothes and the CD player to go behind the curtains so you can't really see them. I am really happy with the way the room looks now. I'd already put the book nook back together last week, so now the only step left to having our upstairs completely viewable is to clean up that bathroom. Which will be a major task, since the only person who uses that person is not a person at all, but a cat.

Last night Anja was a really restless sleeper. She just wasn't doing well, waking up every half hour or hour all night long, not really nursing but not being awake. She just woke up fussy and wouldn't go back down. Finally, I went downstairs and got her carseat and when I put her in it, she conked and didn't wake up for five hours. I had had some curried chicken earlier in the evening... can babies get heartburn? It really seemed like she just didn't want to be flat on her back. Poor thing.

The scrapbook party at Tara's house last night was pretty fun. My sister and my mom came which made it extra loud, of course, especially since the rest of the girls there were pretty quiet people. It was put on by Tara's friend, who is the one, as it turns out, who was VERY pregnant during the summer when I was not quite as pregnant. She used to come over to Tara's a lot. So she had her baby and it was a girl, and she's 6 months old. It was funny to see what Anja will be doing in a few months!

My next daunting household task is to clean up Anja's room. Ever since we cleaned up the bathroom and resolved not to just throw our clothes in there, Anja's room has become the new hamper. Unfortunately. What's just now becoming a problem in her room is the lack of storage; she's currently in 3 different sizes of clothing (a big change from only being able to fit into 3 preemie outfits at the beginning of this adventure!) and there's just not enough space in her drawer. Yes, drawer. She has exactly one drawer for her clothes. Which was fine when she was only wearing newborn clothes and everything else could be put away someplace else. But now she's in a few newborn, mostly 0-3, and she's quickly beginning to fit into her 3-6 month stuff. I think I'll have to make a run out to one of the liquor stores sometime in the near future and collect a few boxes to put away the too-small clothes until the next baby.

Tonight's dinner is spaghetti sauce from a jar. I forgot it was Friday until about noon and was planning on finishing up the beef-vegetable soup. Whoops! Change of plans!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Regarding My Last Post

I put those pictures in after I'd made the post and then realized I didn't explain any of them. I mean, obviously they're all Anja. But I wanted to explain that that is her jungle animal play thing that she loves so much, and the first picture is her Wabash shirt which looks so cute with a long-sleeved onesie underneath and jeans, and the picture of Martin with the dog in his pocket is my mom's new puppy, Maisie! (Maizie? I can't remember the spelling.) She is soooooo adorable. Also, Anja is wearing her adorable denim paisley print overalls in those jungle pictures.

There was something else I wanted to say too, but now I've forgotten what it was. I made beef vegetable soup for dinner last night and I'm eating the leftovers today. It was good soup. Lots of veggies. Speaking of veggies: I really like lima beans, and they are so stereotypically yucky, so why are they SO expensive?

It's a Walk in the Mall

Seriously, if the above-fifty-degree-temperatures don't show up pretty soon, I'm going to have to become a mall walker, and I'm not really joking. At all. I am getting fat, just plain fat. You're supposed to LOSE weight after you have a baby, not lose a little bit and immediately start gaining it all back again. (And no, I'm not pregnant again.) Arrrggg!! So anyway, I'm serious about this mall walking business. Don't they open the doors at like 6am for the mall walkers? And Sarah, your all-terrain vehicle would definitely fit down those super wide ramps they have.


Anway, I need to do something because this weight gaining thing is getting old fast.

Could we have asked for more perfect weather for the lunar eclipse last night?!? I was driving down to Crawfordsville to pick up Martin and was thinking how pretty and bright the moon was. Then on the way home, I looked up and thought, "that's funny, the moon was almost full awhile ago." And then I remembered the eclipse! We pulled off to get McDonald's coffee and looked at it for awhile, then drove home. By the time we got to our house, there was only a sliver of moon left. Unfortunately, we missed it being completely covered because Anja woke up, but what we saw was pretty cool.

Tonight I'm going to a party at Tara's house. It should be fun, except that I won't know anybody and they're all mormons and I'm not.

Speaking of mormons... she and I were talking the other day about how funny and weird it is that some prodestants seem to really target catholics and mormons and say how awful they are. We think it's weird and kind of unchristian of them to do that.

Speaking of Power Christians--Scott Greeson called me yesterday!! I didn't answer because I was in the middle of changing Anja's diaper, but I'll call him back today.

Theodore smells like poop.

Anja has some of the cutest clothes ever. I'm so glad she's a girl!!!!

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Shopping Spree!

Yesterday afternoon I got a text message from Martin saying he'd like to take me shopping at TJ Maxx. So when he got home, we went! I got a really cute orange hoodie that is kind of almost sheer and perfect for spring, a sweater that looked kind of ugly on the hanger but when I put it on I think it's really pretty, and a pair of supercute plaid hipsterish sneakers. How fun! And how nice of him!

Today while I was feeding Anja on the couch, we both fell asleep. It was kind of nice.

I've got beef-vegetable soup in the crock pot today and will head out to pick up Martino before too terribly long.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Good vs. Evil (the prequel) 2003

OH. MY. GOSH.

Today I randomly remembered a video tape in the back of our video cabinet that was labeled "Annie & Friends 2003" in my mom's writing. On the top, in Tim Brisco's writing, it's labeled "the prequel to Good vs. Evil." I put it in with only a fuzzy memory of what was on it. Something about Iguana Woman and Chicken Man, (OBVIOUSLY,) but I couldn't remember the details.

It was AWESOME.

It mostly takes place in my parents' pre-addition house, complete with a drunken snow shoveling scene in the driveway. Then it moves to Tim's house, and his little brother is in it. Emily has a cameo, Perkins has one line, and Martin is the videographer. He doesn't say anything until the very end when he does the interviews. And that's how we have on tape me telling Martin that there should've been a more passionate love scene. He says "why don't you do the love scene?" and I tell him, "I don't DO love scenes." And I'm sure I said it right at him because that was the year I hated him the absolute most.

I really wish I knew of a way to put that on You Tube. Also, there's a fantastic phone conversation between Chicken Man (Joel Presti) and Iguana Woman (Lisa Loew) that's hilarious. In all honesty, the detective parts (me and Tim) are pretty lame. Another thing that's pretty lame is my haircut, but that was a complete accident. Very bad luck.

We had so much FUN during our Christmas breaks!!!!!!!!!! I am jealous of my own life!!

On Schedules

I think it's interesting that no matter what time Anja goes to sleep at night, she wakes up every morning at roughly 8:00, stays awake for an hour or so, and then goes down for her morning nap. Now, the length of her nap varies--she could sleep an hour, or for the rest of the day. But she always wakes up at the same general time every morning, and is always really happy. Last night she went to sleep around 10:00, woke up around 11:00 (we weren't asleep yet, so I hardly even count it as getting up with her) and then slept for seven hours! She ate at 6:30ish and went right back to sleep, and woke up at 8:00 her usual happy morning self. I brought her in bed with me, and she was soooooo happy. She likes to be in our bed, but she never falls asleep there, she just likes to play.

Okay, not to go on and on about my most gorgeous child, but she is being so cute right now under her jungle animals with the music on! She's kicking her legs, and squealing, and "ooo"ing and pooping all at the same time!!! She has the hugest smile that makes her face bunch up like an old person. She smiles so big her eyes disappear completely.

Last night we went to dinner with Mrs. Schap and this crazy friendly man from Wisconsin came up and fell in love with Anja. He took her off to show to his friends a few tables over. He told us all about his grandbabies and that he travels a lot and is always looking for babies about their age so he can hold them and miss them. Isn't that cute?

Mrs. Schap sent over a bag of clothes the other day and there were the most adorable paisley print OshKosh overalls right on top. She wore them yesterday for rosary group, and then pooed through them right after everyone left! There are some really cute dresses in the bag too and I hope they still fit her when the weather gets warm.

Ooo, Anna just called and she's coming over to do some laundry!

Yesterday when I woke up and came downstairs before rosary group I found that Martino had cleaned up the house for me! Washed the dishes, put away the ironing board, cleaned up his "Courage Corner" for us. So nice!

Maybe I'll post again later if anything exciting happens.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

A Marvelous Weekend

What a fun weekend we had! We didn't even do much... but things just for some reason seemed extra fun. I can't really remember yesterday; we hung out with Matt and I picked up a movie that Martin had put on hold for us on the library, so we started watching it after dinner. For lunch we ate leftover pot roast and it was yummy. Sometimes I like leftover pot roast better even than fresh. Then today we made attempts to go to both the 7:30 and the 9:30 mass, didn't make it to either and ended up driving up to Monticello for the 10:15. Afterward we drove the road across from the cottages to finally see the flood damage for ourselves. How creepy! We were going to go to our houses, but the amount of water coming over the dam at the time was amazingly huge, and Martin was afraid that the water would come up over the low part in the road while we were there and that we wouldn't be able to get out. I had the same thought. So we drove the other road, which I think was just as good. It's really creepy... we saw a teddy bear stuck in a tree. Nothing is where it should be. There are mattresses everywhere, and lawn furniture up in trees, and everything is just bizzarely out of place. Very weird.

When we got home the sun was shining and it was 55 degrees, so we strapped Anja in a sling, leashed up Baxter and went for a walk! Unfortunately, as it always happens, as soon as we left the house it got REEAALLY windy, and it was especially windy on the bridge. So we got to the middle of the bridge and turned around. Not too bad for a February walk with a baby. When we got home we watched the rest of our movie, then stopped by my parents' house so Martin could meet MY MOM'S NEW PUPPY (pictures eventually) on our way to Crawfordsville where he was going to make calls for the evening. Kind of funny... Mrs. Schap was in Ireland so one day when it was Annie Car Day but I'd been up late with Anja Lasagna, Martin drove her car to work and I picked him up at the end of the day. So her car was still there this weekend and the plan was for me to drive him down and he'd drive back in her car. Well, the THOUGHT he had the keys in his pocket when he left, but they actually were still in the pocket of a coat in the trunk of our car. So I drove back home with them! I had plans to go to the Cook's house for dessert, which I did... but shortly after I got there, Martin called and explained his predicament, so Tara and I strapped our babies in and drove down to Crawfordsville to rescue Martino. It was fun!

The only bad thing about making the drive down there is that Anja slept the whole time. So now it's midnight and she is wide awake and extraordinarily happy. However, she seems to be learning a lot this evening. First, she has figured out that she can touch stuff with her hand. She was completely enthralled by her little turtle on her swing. She'd reach out and grab it over and over again! So cute! And now it seems she's learned to scoot around. I put her under her jungle friends, but she is nowhere near the spot where I put her down ten minutes ago. It's really very cute. She still doesn't roll over, but I think she might be close. I'm not sure.

And that's my weekend! Tomorrow is rosary group. I really hope Anja goes to sleep soon so I can also go to sleep. She's just having so much fun right now though!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

To Be Me

Ugh. Sometimes I really hate being me. And one of those times was on Thursday when for the first time I was able to fit back into my very favorite brown Gap shirt, the extra-small long-sleeved V-neck that I only wear for dressy-casual special occasions, and I succeeded in going the whole day with minimal amounts of spit up on my shoulder until dinner time came and when I was dishing out our pot roast, I got grease ALL DOWN THE FRONT. I washed it right away, and I just got it out of the laundry basket to fold it... and the grease stains are still there. My favorite shirt is ruined. And not even by my baby... it's just ruined by me and my stupidity and my laziness for not putting on the apron that was ten ten feet away. UGH.

Friday, February 15, 2008

Another Weekend Begins

It's 9:15 and Anja is already tucked in!! This is not quite a miracle.. the miracle will come when she doesn't wake up in an hour and stay up until 3:00 in the morning. But whatever; tomorrow is Saturday so we can sleep all day if we want.

Yesterday for Schmalentines Day I made Martino a cookie shaped like a heart. I formed it on the cookie pan as a very wide-eared heart so that it would expand to be normal looking... but it still just expanded to look like a big blob, so I cut it into its heart shape while it was still warm. He got me "The Holiday" on DVD and 3 dark chocolate, milk-free candy bars! Also we were real lame-oes and got ourselves gifts "from each other." I got 5 new pairs of cutie boyshort undies and he got another Pavel Tsatsouline book.

Today was an extra Annie Car Day since my Wednesday got kind of taken over by Anja's ear infections. It was a great day. Anja and I went over to Vienna in the morning and it would've been more fun if I hadn't left my book in the car. We stayed there awhile and Anja was soooo happy to be there, and I read the Exponent but then I started feeling dumb just sitting there with nothing to do and not waiting on anybody, so we left. As soon as she left she was not happy. So we went to my mom's. I'm not sure if I can say yet what we did at my mom's though, so that'll be a mystery until my next post. After Ooma fed me and Anja took a nap at home, we went to the grocery store for shrimps (tonight's dinner, shrimp stirfry!) then drove down to pick up Martino. Ate dinner, washed dishes, and then went on a favorite date to B&N where I saw Greg Brassie and this woman I don't know who remembers me from some years ago seeing me play! How exciting! Anja really makes friends easily. All sorts of people stop to say hello to her, it's kind of funny... and awkward, because I don't know these people so while they stare at my baby with googley eyes, I'm just standing there grinning like an idiot, not having any idea what to say in order to make conversation with these over-friendly strangers. And then sometimes I try to leave but the strangers keep talking to Anja, and then it's REALLY awkward.

Kim brought over some CDs the other day, and on one of them is the song "On the Radio" by Regina Spektor, and it's really funky and fun. Martin's completely obsessed with it, and I think it's cute. I mean, I think the song is cute, not the way Martin's freakishly enthralled. Because I think that's kind of weird. (Funny thing: I couldn't think of a synonym for "obsessed" so I asked Martin, "What's a synonym for 'obsessed'?" and he replied, "hmm.... how are you using it?" and looked over to see. Heh heh heh...)

I can't wait till I can post the big secret from my trip up to Ooma's today. Maybe there will be pictures too!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun

Okay, so Anja's ammoxicilan (sp?) doesn't taste like Doublemint, but it does taste like bubble gum! The poor little thing has an ear infection in BOTH ears. She was crabby for a couple of days and one night had a teensy bit of a fever so I took her in yesterday suspecting an ear infection, and came out knowing she had two. Poor thing! But today she is a zillion times happier. Right now she is flirting with all her jungle animal friends.

The biggest thing that's happened to me today is that Anja actually listened to me play guitar for awhile. This is a BIG DEAL, people. She sat on the floor and watched me play for a half hour or more!!! It was GREAT!! The only reason I tried it is because it's Schmalentines Day, and I just couldn't bear to go the day without singing "Valentine's Day, Schmalentine's Day" so I figured she could suck it up and listen to one song. But then she liked it!! So I played a few more songs, and she liked them too!! We did gospel songs and kids songs and some Bill Staines and Wagon Wheel, and Battle Cry of Freedom, and she liked them all! It was amazing!! So now I no longer have to consider myself an ex-musician. In fact, while we were singing, Kim stopped by so I told him that I think I can finally start playing out again since Anja doesn't hate my singing anymore. Hooray!

Yesterday was a very long day. All the doctor-going really takes it out of you, and then I had to go down to Crawfordsville and get Martin. Before that I stopped by the store to pick up some butter to make some cookies for Martin's Valentines Day office party that is today. Dinner was pot roast in the crock pot. I was figuring I'd pick him up, we'd eat, we'd go out to get each other something for Valentines Day, and then he could play with Anja while I made the cookies. But as it turned out, his boss asked him to go back to work that night. So I picked him up and we did the Valentines shopping, then he dropped me back at home and went back to work while I tried to make cookies, but Anja was feeling lousy by that time and so she just cried the whole time. Martin got home around ten, so I started the cookies then and Anja kept crying. I fed Martin pot roast at 11:00 and only got half the batch of cookies baked before figuring that was plenty for his stupid office and I eventually got to bed a little after 1:00. Whew!

Aw, Anja just fell asleep on the floor underneath her jungle animals. How cute! She's never done that before!

One tough thing about the dairy-free diet is Lent. It seems hard to think of meals that exclude meat AND cheese. And I don't know how to cook fish. Last week we had tuna salad and crackers. I don't know what we'll do tomorrow. There's always tomato soup, but it's not the same without grilled cheese to go with it. *sniff*

And here is the card I made for Martin for this Schmalentines Day:

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

What a Difference 3 Months Makes!







A Post from Ninth Street

Oh my gosh, my parents' computer is set to be on old-people sized font, and everything on the screen is HUGE!! Also, I just broke a nail for maybe the first time ever. What a yucky feeling. My finger feels so violated.

Anja and I went to the library today. We got some picture books because she loves to be read to. Her favorite book is "Mog the Forgetful Cat" which I read to her at least three times a day, and she almost always smiles at the pictures. Today we got a book called "Kittens, Kittens, Kittens!" and another called "The Best Cat in the World." Other than our trip to the library and some happy playtime at home, she has been a champion grump today. But Martin had to work late tonight making up for all his missed work last week when he was sick, so I came here to my parents' house for dinner. Stir fry! Yum.

Luckily Martin isn't coming home till about 10:00 tonight, which will hopefully be enough time for the roads to be cleared of all the snow. When my brother was driving me up here this afternoon, we slid on Kossuth Street. If it weren't for Martin's daily commute, I'd always be super excited for snows like this.

Anja pie has been taking a cat nap. TIme for me to wake her up for a little bit.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Babies and Toddlers and Kids, OH MY!

This morning was our first rosary group! We had 5 moms, which was perfect since there are 5 decades of the rosary. And with the five moms we had 11 kids. Whee! Safe to say it was pretty crazy! But it was a good time and I hope everyone always comes back, forever.

Too I wasn't as peppy (nor as prepared) as I'd hoped to be... Last night around 3:00 I woke up with that old familiar throbbing knife in my head and I counted the hours till 8:00 when I could go to the Urgent Care and get a prescription for an antibiotic. My mom came over to watch Anja while I went, EVEN THOUGH I WOKE HER UP with my early phone call with that request. To thank her I brought her some Vienna coffee. I like Urgent Care because it's so quick and easy, in and out, no small talk, they look in my ear and say, "yes, you do have an ear infection" and write me a prescription. But they faxed it to CVS and when I went to pick it up it wasn't ready yet. They said it'd be 15 minutes. So I wandered around the store for about a half hour until I went back and sat in the chairs by the pharmacy and finally this other girl who hadn't been there when I'd first gotten there, asked me for my name and my prescription had been filled and was just sitting there waiting for me, collecting dust. They'd never called my name!! GRRR. But while I was wandering around the store feeling sorry for myself, I picked up some Burt's Bees strawberry flavored lip gloss and some Burt's Bees hand salve for my pooooorrr dry hands. I felt like pampering myself a little bit. Don't judge me.

When I got home, the Cooks were at my house! They had come to see Lizzie, the new "cat." Hee hee. And shortly after that, Mary and Colette showed up and then everyone else and the madness began. I think Mondays will be really great with this rosary group. I wish my house were more kid-proof. It's just that Martin and I have so far been able to afford being somewhat lazy because Anja is still immobile. Then it throws us for a loop when people with actual children show up. Good thing we have that weird chalkboard in the hallway though... that'd keep them occupied for ages. I need to get more chalk for it though as we're only down to nubs and even one of the nubs got dropped down the vent today.

Okay, Anja is so cute. Today she found her hand! My mom warned me that it would happen--she'd one day discover that this thing was attached to her and she could move it and even put it in her mouth and take it out again, and today was the day! She sat in her swing watching her hand for the longest time while I was washing dishes... very adorable.

Last night could've been a really great night for sleep. Anja fell asleep at dinner, around 7:00, and my parents came over so Martin and I could take our car in to the shop. She was dead asleep when we came home, so I put her down after they left, and she stayed asleep for hours. She woke up around 11 or midnight to eat and then I put her down again, and it was only because I was so awake that I got up with her two more times. I don't think she was ever really awake when I fed her either of the other times. I could hear her breathing change and I wasn't getting any sleep, so I got up and fed her, but she never even opened her eyes. Kind of dumb on my part, but hey, I was bored.

I really hate ear infections. They're just so obnoxious. The whole time everyone was here this morning I couldn't hear a darn thing anyone was saying. Ugh.

Well, anyway, enough complaining. Anja is sleeping here beside me on the couch and she is so cute! She's been so incredibly happy today.

Martin is working late tonight to make up for his three days of missed work last week. I feel bad for him because he still isn't feeling all the way well, and an eight hour day would've been plenty... but you do what you've gotta do, I guess.

I think I'll refill my Decaf Delight, and go read everyone elses blogs!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Reading History

Last night I started reading back through my old LiveJournal posts, starting the spring of 2005. Oh my gosh. I had such a fun life! I knew EVERYONE! And I did so much!! Every day I rambled off a list of fun things I had already done and then would tell what I was going to do that night! How fun. There was one period of time though that kind of depressed me because I was all excited about the plans Martin and I had been making to take a trip to Italy, but that, as you know, never really worked out. For various reasons. Well, first we didn't really save our money to go (he did, I didn't) and then we started dating so we couldn't go alone, and then we got married and before we had time to do anything (as if we had any money anyway) Anja came to us. So we've still never been to Italy or anywhere else, and that part of my LiveJournal history makes me sad, but whatever. All the rest is REALLY fun to read about.

And that summer was the best of everything. I had so many friends, and it was the prime of the Latitude Zero job as well as the Cajun Connection gigs. It was really, really great.

Speaking of Cajun Connection, I wish they hadn't gone under. I wish someone else would open a Cajun restaurant exactly like it now. I would KILL for a crawfish/shrimp boil. And some etouffee and some corn bread......... I'm literally drooling right now.

Tomorrow is the start of our Moms' Monday Rosary Group. I hope people really show up. I'll understand if they don't though... I mean I wouldn't come to my house knowing that I'd be mauled by a big dog, a rat dog, a vicious cat and a drooly baby. But we'll stay in the back room where Baxter can't get to us.

Today we had brunch at my parents' house! That hasn't happened in a very long time. It was nice! We watched Christopher's super cool tae-kwon-do video! Such a stud!!!

We're doing our grocery shopping tonight; since Martin missed 3 days of work last week for being sick, he's going to be staying late for some nights this week, and one of those nights is tomorrow, our grocery day. So here we go!

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Welcome back, Baxter. And Lizzie.


As if things weren't crazy enough already! Baxter has returned, and he brought a friend with him this time. Her name is Lizard, Lizzie for short, and she's about 1,000 years old in people years. So all of a sudden we've become quite the cluttered house. Cluttered with living things, that is. And the best part is, they always want to be in the same room with us!

I sound like I'm complaining, but it's not so bad. Especially since Martin was still home sick yesterday when they arrived. I might have been overwhelmed if they'd come while I was the only one home, but having him here was great. Of course he was really hacky and snorky and half-dead the whole three days he was here, but whatever. He was still able to take the dogs out so I didn't have to do it.

Theodore seems to be adjusting well, too. Every time Baxter has come over since he left in November he's not acted like the best friend that he was before. On the one hand that's good because it means they aren't constantly attacking each other. But it's kind of sad at the same time.

Ok, last night we watched the CUTEST movie!! It was "The Holiday" with Kate Winslett, Crazy Jack Black, Cameron Diaz and Jude Law. It was sooooo cute!! I loved it!! There were so many adorable little twists, it was just great. I'm SO glad I picked that over "The Namesake" which I couldn't even decide if I wanted to see or not because I know it would've just made Martin and me mad watching it, knowing it wasn't nearly as good as the book. And I forget what else I thought I might get, but anyway, I'm glad I settled on "The Holiday" and all of you should go out and watch it because it's just adorable.

Anja's Ooma has brought her a little play gym thing. It must be from the same makers as her swing because it's got some of the same little animals hanging from it... including a TOUCAN!! She's just in heaven. She stayed under it for really most of the day yesterday.

Okay, so anyone who can help me with this small medical issue is welcome to do so: I have this very strong pain in my face. It's only on the right side and it starts in what I think is the sinus that's in the corner of your eye/bridge of your nose, and then it radiates up through my forehead. What is it? Any thoughts?

And here is Anja flirting with her turtle:

Thursday, February 7, 2008

You Have a Baby!... Now What?

When some friends of Martin's had a baby shortly after Anja was born I was looking at greeting cards at Von's for them, and I found a card that said "Congratulations, you have a baby! What are you going to do with it?" And in a way, it's right. Anja is more than just a blob now, and I find myself not knowing what to do with her. What kind of things do you do with a three month old? I put her on the floor a lot, but sometimes I realize she's just there on the floor with nothing to do. And kicking her legs is great, but what about stimulation? We do the Itsy Bitsy Spider, and I dangle toys for her and rattle rattles in front of her face, but is that it? And when she's just playing on the floor by herself, is that okay? Or should I be having her doing more than that?

Anyway, tonight I found some toys in a box and she seemed to like the noises they make. But she can't sit up by herself and she doesn't really like being propped up so I worry that she's just staring at the ceiling all day and that I am being neglectful and letting her newly formed brain turn to jello already.

So if anyone has any advice on how to play with an infant, I'm here to take all I can get.

Martin has been home for two days with the flu and I don't think he'll go in tomorrow either. The poor guy, he gets sick so much during the winter and he always seems to get hit hard. He asked me if I was getting sick and I gave him the most honest answer: I can't. It doesn't matter if I DO get sick, because I can't just call into work and stay in bed all day. "Oh, hello, Anja? Yes, I'm sorry I'm feeling pretty miserable, so I won't be able to be your mom today. Sorry, see you Monday!" Haha, yeah right. Not that I'm complaining... it's just one of those things I never thought of until yesterday.
I think I'll make some chicken for myself now, and I will leave you with a picture of how we're all feeling tonight... a little on the sleepy side!

By the way, I know that in all of her pictures Anja's left eye is a lot smaller than her right. It just happens when she smiles, she's not really deformed.

Photos for your enjoyment

here are some pictures for you to enjoy. Mostly of Anja...
But also of some damage caused by my wonderful lovie-boy, Theodore....


















And this was the morning we went to Krispy Kreme in our pajamas!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

What Makes a Marriage Work? and other thoughts of the evening

Every month in Real Simple they have a question and readers can send in their answers all month long, then in the next issue they will print some of the best answers along with a "winning" answer. That person recieves... something. I dunno. A free magazine or something. I think it's Real Simple, but it might be Country Living. But it doesn't matter. Anyway, the questions are a range of things from "What's the best way to clean a counter?" to "What makes a marriage work?," which was the question a few months ago. I wanted so badly to write in an answer (as if I would know, having been married for a whole eight or ten months at that time) but I couldn't think of any one good answer. But I think I've finally thought of it, and my answer is: It's not worth it.

Not that marriage isn't worth it--it is. But all the stupid, petty little things that seem to happen BEFORE a marriage/relationship (I hate that word) goes sour are not. The dumb picking at each other for nothing. The making mountains out of mole hills. If I were a marriage counselor my biggest piece of advice would be, realize when you've been irrational, apologize, and let it go. For instance, Martin and I used to both have the habit of putting our dirty clothes ON TOP of the laundry hamper instead of INSIDE the laundry hamper. I, for the most part, have conquered this bad habit and started hanging up my clothes again, or putting them inside the hamper. Martin is having a little more trouble mastering this skill. But except for the fact that he'll probably read this post, I probably wouldn't tell him that it drives me nuts that he's still leaving his clothes all over the bathroom while I am not. It might be a little bit annoying, but it certainly doesn't kill me to hang up a pair of his pants every day, and throw a shirt into the laundry basket. And it's DEFINITELY not worth starting a fight over. Neither are the countless other little annoyances and idiosyncracies we both have. An example from the other side: Tonight Martin was being silly and goofing around and I just wasn't in the mood for it. So when he bopped me playfully on the head, I turned around and snapped at him. Why? I knew I was being irrational when I did it. He would've had every reason to get grumpy with me for that--after all, he really hadn't done anything wrong--but he didn't. He just played along and humored me until I came around and shook off the grumpies and decided to be his friend again. It was a dumb little incident that could've easily been blown out of proportion, but instead one of us took the initiative to keep it from mattering, and so it never did! It wasn't worth it!

It's my belief that if women treated their marriage the way they treat their best girl friendship, marriages would last a lot longer. I can't say what would work for a man, because I don't so much understand guy friendships. Maybe it's the same, I don't know. But I know that for some reason girls seem to be a lot more forgiving of their girlfriends' shortcomings than of their manfriends'. I guess it's along the same lines as the idea that people are more polite to strangers than they are to the people they love. Except it's a little different.

Anyway, enough about that. I'm reading this book called "Tilt" that I picked up from the New Fiction display at the library. It's not a chick lit book, it's just a regular novel, and it started out okay but now I'm a little more than halfway through and I'm starting to get annoyed by it. For one thing, EVERYONE has cancer or some kind of controversial characteristic. (And I'm not kidding. So far there have been eight characters, one is the storyteller, two have died of cancer, one has autism, one is gay, and one is manic-depressive. Then there is a narcussistic mother and an infant who doesn't do anything.) But that's not even the most annoying thing. The most annoying thing is the dialogue... everyone says the name of whomever they're speaking to in their sentence. "Talk, talk, talk, BRIDGET," he said, "blah blah blah blah blah." It's seriously almost every time anyone says anything and after however many hundred pages, it's getting REALLY annoying.

Martin was offered a free ticket to a Valentine's Day dinner in Indy on Saturday put on by the Indianapolis Association of Wabash Men. It's a semi-formal event, tickets are normally $45 per couple, and I would love to go, but we can't leave Anja for that long. For one thing, even if we DID want to leave her, I would have to pump, and I'm still too afraid of those things to do that. But it's all the way in Indianapolis, so that's at least two hours right there, down and back, and we'd be there some hours too, and that's just too long considering we've never left her. Well, except for that time I left her with my sisters-in-law when I went to the dry cleaners, but that was only about 20 minutes, it hardly counts as leaving her FOR something. Anyway, we said maybe next year.

Anja didn't take a nap today!! Aaaahh!!! But she was happy and snuggly and smiley all day long. We had a good day. We even walked down to the bank! And I guess she did take three tiny cat naps throughout the day, during which I vacuumed the front of the house and wrote my earlier blog post.

We went to Barnes & Noble tonight to keep Anja awake for a little while and to get me out of the house because I was feeling cabin-feverish, and we spent a good chunk of our time there in the kids books section. We looked around at our favorite books from when we were kids and read a Frog & Toad story. Then Martin pulled out a copy of "The Little Engine that Could" and showed me that they've changed the engine from being a male to being a female. This was after I had read an illustrated version of "Puff the Magic Dragon" in which they changed the last verse to be very PC, saying, "A dragon lives forever, but not so little girls and boys." Um, hello? That's two extra syllables, it doesn't even work for the song. It throws the whole rhythm off, and it's totally unnecessary. Jackie Paper is a boy, let's just deal with that fact, okay? And the Little Engine? He was a boy too. If it was the Little Tugboat, I could see that being changed to a female since ships are feminine, and actually, I guess trains might be too... but who cares?!? You know, believe it or not, people, while women and men might be equal, there are still men in the world and sometimes things are boys without being girls. Take Martin, for example. He's just a boy. I don't call Martin my HusbandWife because I think that it's sexist to just have a manly husband without the choice of him being female.

Okay, I know I'm rambling on and on, but I'm getting really fired up about this. I mean, really! Where is it going to end? When are we going to just stop trying so hard and agree that everyone is equal and nobody is better than anybody else??? Grrrr....

Alright, enough ranting for tonight. Anja woke up, surprisingly and now she is on my lap and wide awake, so I think I'll try to get her back to sleep and then head on up myself.

Decaf Delight!

Last night was grocery night, and we made an extra stop at one of my favorite places on the planet, GORDONS, where I picked myself up a box of 288 individual servings of that non-dairy deliciousness known as International Delight, in the French Vanilla flavor. And as if that didn't make my life worth living, Martin bought me not one, but TWO chocolate bars which contain NO MILK (quite a feat to find that, I'm telling you) at the grocery. Now my dairy-free life is complete.

Anja is so much more fun now that she's older and awake more and happy all the time. Today she played on the floor for so long while I cleaned up the kitchen, and then I was done and I didn't know what to do with her, she was so happy there on the floor. So I bundled her up and we walked down to the bank and deposited a check. She likes to go places. As soon as it gets just a teensy bit warmer/sunnier, we're going to start taking the trolley places. Think of the places we can go! Von's, Borders, Vienna, Rubia, Einstein Bagels.... okay, most of those things involve money so we probably won't go everywhere, but we can always go to Borders or Von's, just to look around. I am so excited for spring and taking walks with her. I was looking through her 3-6 month clothes (she is currently still in newborn size, or 0-3 months) and they are SO adorable. I can't wait until it's sunny and warm and springy and she can wear them and we can be outside all the time. And I can buy her all sorts of cute floppy sunhats.

Martin ordered me some Numi ROOIBOS tea and it came today! As soon as I finish this post I will be putting on the kettle and enjoying a delicious cup of tea. Perfect on this gloomy day.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Have a Groundhoggy Day!

Yesterday was Groundhog Day, and I was just on the Punxsutawney Phil website looking at all the cute pictures, and I realized that I might be wrong about what I thought Groundhog Day was. I have ALWAYS been under the impression that if the groundhog doesn't see his shadow, we'll have 6 more weeks of winter... but if he does see his shadow, we have only 6 weeks till Spring. I thought it was a joke that way, you know, that it doesn't really matter, it's 6 weeks either way. But I told that to two people yesterday and neither of them had ever heard that. So this morning I was still thinking about it and how ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN I was that that this was the case, so I just looked it up.... and it looks as if I'm wrong.

Which is not nearly as funny.

On the official website, it says that if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow it's actually a forecast for an early spring. There's no six weeks about it. Isn't that too bad?

Last night was our Circle party at Mary's. Very fun! Tons of babies! Anja was awesome, as she usually is these days. Before the party we'd been out to dinner with Mrs. Schap and John Mooney, and she was amazing at the restaurant too. No crying at all! And the other night we were at Vienna, and no crying! And this morning we went out to breakfast, and no crying!! She just sits in our laps happy as can be these days. It's really pretty fabulous.

We went to Christo's for breakfast after mass, and this family in the booth next to us started talking to us and complimenting Anja's wonderfulness, and they were soooooooo friendly. And itw as funny because it was a couple about my parents' age, maybe a little younger, and their daughter who was maybe our age, maybe slightly younger. And the husband just sat there and didn't even look over at us while the wife and the daughter just talked and talked to us and were SO enthusiastic! It was hilarious! The best part of breakfast was the non-dairy creamer they had, so I was able to have some decaf coffee!

For all his psychotic tendancies, Theodore sure is a snuggly cat... he's crawling all over me and now the computer keyboard is covered in cat hair.... Ughad. cant' seeee sccreen......

Friday, February 1, 2008

Slip Slidin' Away

Tonight I found out why Birkenstocks were typically made for people in California. I never fell all the way down.... but I definitely chose the wrong shoes to wear to Vienna in the snow!!

Anja Lasagna is still kind of a sickie, but she will DEFINITELY be the absolute cutest 12-week-and-a-day old little girl at Mary's Circle party tomorrow!! She is going to be wearing her new denim jumper dress! And for a jacket she will wear her pink furry one with the ears on the hood.... it was the most groundhoggish thing I could find.

I really like Vienna. I miss vanilla chai so much these days though... but it's funny to be in a place where you are clearly the racial minority and not feel at all out of place! Tonight there were probably only 4 or 5 white people in the whole place, and it was pretty full, but I've never felt out of place there when it's like that.

But while we were there Bethany Jones came in. She's getting married in May and her engagement ring looks a lot like my sister's. She drooled over Anja, and she was wearing a coat with really pretty buttons.

I can't get enough orange juice these days. YUM.

If anyone knows of any really great lotions, my hands are so dry I'm not sure they'll ever recover, and I could use some theraputic suggestions.

Snow Day!

I guess the weathermen were right in their prediction, they just got the timeline wrong! We thought the roads would surely be cleared by 9:00 this morning, but it was not the case. Martin got up and left for work, and I was just out of the shower and in my underwears when I heard someone coming into the house. I thought it might be a robber or a rapist, so what do I do? I just walk into the kitchen in my underwear to see who it is. Good thing it was only Martin coming home again! He said 231 was impossible, that he was sliding all over the place. So he came home and was going to try again a little later, but it started snowing a lot, and the lady at his office told him he'd better just stay home. So I just put a chicken in the oven and Anja just woke up from her morning nap (Anja, who slept EIGHT AND A HALF HOURS last night) and we're all set for a cozy day. Gotta love snow!

However, Martin and I both said that we're completely jealous of highschoolers these days. Okay, we NEVER had this many snow days when we were in highschool. I never thought I would wish to be 16 again, but I dunno now...

Anja's cough seems better today. Last night we gave her some Tylenol Cough & Cold, and it must've helped. (it knocked her out, that's for sure.) Anyway, she's super happy so she must not be too close to death yet.

I'm starving. I'm going to go find a snack.