Tuesday, September 30, 2008

"We Have Something to Tell You...."

So, my dog just ran away. And I really don't care. I figure she'll come back, but she is a bad dog for running farther when I call her name, and I am not going to chase her through the neighborhood while Anja is here asleep. I left the gate open and she can come back if she wants too. Hopefully she won't mess with anyone other than the german shepherd across the alley who is really nice and their tails were wagging when they said hello to each other. Anyway, I'm not too worried about her. I am surprised she did it though.

I was thinking the other day about how strange it is that nobody has asked me any of the following questions in the past few weeks:

"Annie, whatever happened to your dental saga? Weren't you supposed to have a root canal? What happened?"

"Annie, why are you getting so fat? I thought all you did was walk around town? Do you have a thyroid problem?"

"Annie, why is your refrigerator filled with jars of green olives? Are you on some funky sodium-only diet?"

"Annie, your birthday is coming up... would you like liposuction?"

Well, nobody's asked me these questions and that's probably a good thing since I never thought up any good answers. But the big news that the Schaps have been announcing this weekend is their newest zygote! Well, I guess it's more than a zygote now, it's practically a fetus. And in fact, it might be. I have an ultrasound on Thursday and that's when we'll figure out how far along I am. I thought I was sure, but when I went to the doctor some weeks ago, he didn't think I was as far along as I thought I was. (Which basically means I was even fatter than I'd thought. Greeeaaat.)

There are both some wonderful and some horrendous things about this pregnancy in comparison to the last. The wonderful thing is the first trimester: GLORIOUS! Sure I had some daily morning sickness, but that's ACTUALLY what it was, believe it or not! A few barfs in the morning and I was set to go for the rest of the day. Not nearly the puke-a-thon that came with Anja. It's been incredible.

The really, really, REALLY depressing part about this pregnancy is my weight gain. When you spend the first four or five months of pregnancy lying on a couch in your underwear eating Easter candy and drinking ginger ale (not to mention the late-nite Taco Bell runs) you can't be too surprised when you gain your whole 35lbs of pregnancy weight in the first trimester. However, this time around I have been GREAT at taking care of myself. Not neccessarily because I knew I was pregnant, but because I felt so good and we ate really well this summer and I have stayed so active. I started getting fat before I knew I was pregnant. I had no idea what was going on. I had even been working with my kettlebell and was still putting on weight. IT'S NOT FAIR. I might have already gained more weight in this pregnancy than I did in the first months with Anja. I'M HUGE. And I'm not just saying that so people come back and tell me it's not true. Don't even try to tell me it isn't true--I'M WEARING MY POSTPARTUM JEANS!!!!!! And I've been wearing them for weeks!!!!!!! But butt is huge. It's so depressing.

The other major part, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing, is that my milk for Anja has dried up. The great thing about this is NO MORE BREASTPADS!! The too-bad thing about this is that I hadn't planned on weaning her until after she turned one. The also too-bad thing is that she still wants it, so I'm still nursing her for comfort, (thought it's becoming more infrequent every day) while giving her bottles of formula for her regular meals. I guess it's okay to be forced to wean since it's got to happen sometime, and I've heard it's easiest when they are just about this age and a little older. And it's not like I really miss breastfeeding... I mean, my second run at it is just around the corner. But it's always a little too bad when a choice like that is made for you.

Okay, the dog still hasn't come back. Should I worry? Should I call Animal Control? I told her when she kept running away from me that I was going to let her be picked up by the pound. She didn't seem to care. Hm. Maybe she'll still come back. I hope she doesn't get lost...

One thing that has made my life a thousand times easier these days is that Martin rigged the gates so now our yard is closed in. This means I can just open the door and let Karenin out to do her thing. This means no messing with putting a leash on a crazy dog while holding a baby at the same time. So far, it's been a great setup. Martin's been afraid since the beginning that she would jump the fence and run away, but I told him it wouldn't happen. Oops! It happened yesterday! The Cooks were in their yard and Karenin immediately jumped the fence... except she more jumped on top of it, then scrambled over and fell on her head. When she got over she didn't know what to do it was pretty funny. Tara brought her around to the alley, but since I was holding Anja, I wasn't able to shut the gate behind me coming into the yard. It was open all night because I forgot to go back and do it, and then this morning when I noticed it and went to shut it is when Karenin got out. But she's fine. I just went out to the alley and she's out there at the fence of Shadow, the nice german shepherd. She probably is trying to figure out how to get through Shadow's fence so they can play. Silly dog. She still wouldn't come home when I called her.

So anyway, that's our big news! We told our families at the Feast. We wanted to buy the new baby a baby-sized pack basket like Anja's, but they weren't selling the small size this year!! So our plan was ruined, and we had to think up a new clever plan and it didn't work out until Sunday when the Feast was very nearly over. Instead of a pack basket, we got the new baby a VERY hilarious chicken bank (as opposed to a piggy bank) and a very nice bead because Mrs. Schap told AnnLaura and me to go buy a bead for each of the babies. Heh heh heh. When we came back and showed her the three, she didn't get it. Oh well!

It's only going to be 60 degrees today!!! I need to figure out what cute fallish outfits Anja and I will wear!!!!!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

A Feast Recap

Well, the long looked-forward-to weekend is over. The closing words of Martin were, "A good time was had by all" and I think that sums it up. It had it's overwhelming points, but overall it was a darn good weekend.

This is Anja and me when we arrived on Saturday morning, MUCH later than we'd planned. Getting out of the house proved to be much more difficult than we had anticipated. But, we were there, and look at how cute my baby girl is!!! She's wearing a very bizarre leatherish poncho with fringe and a hat that I made for myself out of yarn I got from the Feast a few years ago. Unfortunately, it's the slightest bit too small for me. It looks cute on Anja though.


We actually spent most of the weekend walking the grounds either shopping, putting Anja to sleep, or messing with annoying stuff that comes up when one's car decides not to start while it's sitting in the middle of a field far from home.


We got some VERY cute things. For Anja we found the very perfect little mug and wooden spoon. She ate a lot of rabbit stew out of that mug this weekend and loved every bite. In the end, I purchased three bowls of rabbit stew over the weekend and I only got one bowl for myself. Anja ate literally the entire bowl the first two times I bought it. She's also been pooping carrots all weekend as a result! Haha!


Anyway, we also bought her an adorable doll that can [sort of] be seen in this picture:

Also, what would any photo stream be without a dragon face? Hahaha. We saw this little doll at the store where we bought her wooden spoon and she was pretty fond of it so we went back later and bought it for her. It's a really sweet little doll and she fell asleep with it while I carried her in her wrap in the afternoon and it was really cute.


Yeah, we really didn't work at all. In fact, I didn't do any stirring of the soap on Saturday and I barely talked to the people who stopped at the booth. I did a much better job of being a booth employee on Sunday.


On Saturday afternoon I went to the car with Anja and she enjoyed some quiet time there with her books. I intended to put her to sleep, but really all she wanted was to have some time away from everyone and she was so incredibly happy and then she ended up falling asleep in the wrap, which was awesome, since when Martin and I went back to the car after the Highland Games (more on that to come) it wouldn't start! Aaah!! John Mooney looked at it and thought it'd be the battery. It was. They replaced it the next morning and it started up and now is driving fine. Anyway, it did put a little extra stress on the end of the day, and it didn't help that around 5:30 when we were cleaning up the booth and getting ready to head home Anja had a major meltdown that lasted approximately four hours. It was a long night!


Amazingly enough, I woke up feeling more refreshed on Sunday than I had on Saturday morning. We made it out of the house by 7:00 and was out at the grounds by 7:30. It was much colder this morning than it had been the day before, and we thought we had forgotten Anja's accessories on the dining room table, so here she is wrapped up in my cape with me, wearing my muffin hat as a sad attempt to keep her head warm. A few minutes after Martin took this picture he found her poncho, wool cap and shoes, so everything worked out fine. I wrapped her for mass and kept her snuggly inside my cape and I think she was perfectly comfortable.


Okay, now here comes the part that I just can't leave out, as barfy as it is. I just HAVE to brag on my super hot hubby who took second place in the Highland Games both on Saturday and on Sunday. Go Martin! He's awesome. The Highland Games, for those unfamiliar, consist of throwing a big rock, a sack of straw (sack-o-kittens seems to be the running joke) a "hammer" which is more like a bowling ball on a chain-type thing, and a caber, which is essentially a small tree with all its limbs cut off. Okay, this might sound really stupid, but it is actually quite impressive. Especially the tree part. The guy who took first is Rob, the same guy who took first both days last year, and always wins by a longshot and is basically unbeatable. So I consider Martin's second place a very big accomplishment!!! I was super sad to miss Saturday's Highland Games because that's when I was spending time with Anja at the car and we didn't make it back in time to see any of it, but apparently during the straw bag toss (you stand backward and throw it back over your head) Martin's bag of straw went forward and he went back, flat on his back! He says he still has no idea how that happened, but I wish SO MUCH that I could have been there to see it. I really missed out! The second day he did it right, which is cool and all, but it's funnier to see someone fall down.

This is the caber toss. Or flip. Or whatever it's called. The rule is, it has to flip in the air once and the goal is to get it landing at twelve o'clock. About 5 out of 11 guys made this goal, so there was a tie breaker afterward. In the regular caper toss two other guys help you lift the caber to your shoulder, get you situated to throw, etc. In the toss-off you've got to do it all by yourself. I think only one person (Rob) did it, but Martin came close!


Okay, but the barfy part I just have to put in is that I was pleasantly (and I mean that, they were all really nice to Anja) situated between a couple of 15 or 16 year old girls on my right, and a couple of maybe 14 or 15 year old boys on my left. From the girls, the whole time Martin was out there, all I heard was how handsome he was. From the boys, after he was finished, all I heard was "dude, that guy's strong." The girls were so funny and it took all my self control not to lean over and tell them proudly that he was my husband. Of course, he came over at the end while they were still there, so they probably figured it out. And the proudest part of all was that none of these kids had those kinds of comments for the others--just for him! He was probably the youngest guy there though, or at least one of the youngest.

So anyway, now it's Sunday and the day finished out nicely with only a very short exhauastion-induced fit from Anja, who is now sleeping soundly. I'll probably make another post tomorrow, depending on how the day goes. I'm sure I left out a thousand fun details! This is kind of rushed because I'm eager to join Anja in her state of sleep.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Eating Cookies

I did end up making a batch of chocolate chip cookies yesterday, and I knew I shouldn't have done it because, as I'd imagined, I've eaten almost nothing but chocolate chip cookies today. And I've been feeding them to Anja! I'm such a bad influence! Okay, it's just microscopic crumbs I'm giving her, but still.

I'm finished with all my sewing, all costumes are in order, and we are ready for the weekend! Last night Martin and John loaded the truck and the four of us (Mrs. Schap, John Mooney, Martin and myself) went out to the Fort and set up the booth. Except we didn't really do much setting up, it was more like just dropping everything off, walking the grounds a little bit and then going out to dinner. Haha! Anja had taken a very late nap so I figured she'd be fine to stay out a little later than usual. And it was perfect! The only trouble we had was that she got VERY hungry by the time we were at the restaurant. I got chicken and dumplings with applesauce and mashed potatoes, and Anja gorged herself on potatoes and applesauce, then slept for four hours once we were home. That might not sound too impressive, but trust me, a four hour stretch is a miracle these days! I've never been to Cracker Barrell when we haven't had to wait in line for two or three years, but last night the place was almost empty. It was a really nice time. And Anja took water from a straw--something I'd never even thought to try--and it was sooooo much easier than drinking from a cup!

Today we all woke up super duper early for Martin to get to work in time for a special breakfast they were having. It felt like winter leaving the house while it was still dark outside. I drove him down and he'll bring a college car home because his traveling starts back up on Sunday evening. (*sniffle!*) I'm glad it worked that way though because I got to drive home as the sun was coming up and it was a GORGEOUS morning! The fields were all covered in a thick, fallish fog and the sunrise was soooo pretty. It was perfectly autumn and I loved it. Plus, I had some great music to listen to. The other day (Wednesday) was a sort of anniversary for Martin and me--it was three years since we decided we were "more than just friends"; it was the day we became manfriend and ladyfriend. So Martin celebrated by telling me he was staying late at work but actually coming home at the regular time and stopping by Von's on the way to buy the newest James McMurtry CD!! Track 6 ("Hurricane Party") is incredible and there are some other really good ones on there too. So it was a very enjoyable drive!

The only problem with having gone out to dinner last night is that Martin and I had already eaten when he got home, and we knew we'd be going out to dinner with the Schaps but we thought it was going to be on Friday, so that means we ate two nights of dinners yesterday and I don't have anything to make tonight!! I guess we'll just have to have eggs and toast.

Have I mentioned that my jerk of a sister gave me her cold?!? Ugh!! I've been sneezing and hacking my lungs out for the past two days. Martin seemed to be coming down with it last night too. Oh, but there is something kinda funny about it...

So when I was little my mom would constantly be having these "sneezing fits." They miraculously went away when she quit smoking (when I was 15), but they were a very large part of my childhood. And, oh my gosh, they were SOOOOOOO annoying. You'd be having a normal conversation with her and all of a sudden she'd sneeze, and you knew, there went your conversation right out the window. She'd be sneezing uncontrollably for the next ten minutes and by the time she stopped neither of you could remember what you'd been talking about. Plus, she'd be all puffy and snotty afterward and that's a little bit gross. Well, last night in the car I was telling Martin a story and all of a sudden I sneezed--and couldn't stop!!!! I sneezed almost the whole way home from Cracker Barrell to our house!!!! And it must have been SO ANNOYING because I kept trying to tell my story, but I also had all these sneezes coming on so it was really difficult. And all Martin could do was keep laughing and telling me I was turning into my mother!!! Wow. So, I guess it really does happen to everyone. It's inevitable that even in the weirdest of ways, you will become your parents.

Oh, I forgot to talk about the rest of my day. So after the gorgeous drive home, Anja and I ate some breakfast then went over to the Cook's house and ended up staying awhile. I don't think it's ever happened that just Kenna (the youngest Cook) and Anja have gotten to play together, so it was really nice to let them be together. When we got home we were to get dressed in our outfits and go out to the Fort because Mrs. Schap and one of her CC classes was running the soap booth for all the 4th graders today. I hadn't planned on going out until it was mentioned last night; I used to go with the Dulcimers and play my guitar. However, Anja suddenly decided she was going to throw fits whenever I tried to do anything that didn't involve holding her, and even then sometimes if she faced the wrong way she lost it. So finally I decided we just wouldn't be able to go, and I took her upstairs for a nap. Well, we both fell asleep and slept for an hour and when she woke up she was in an incredibly good mood and it still wasn't noon yet, so I went ahead and got dressed and went out there anyway! And I'm really glad I did. we didn't stay very long because an hour nap doesn't take her very far, but it was really nice to be out there when it wasn't incredibly crowded. The class she brought was SO GREAT. They are a short story class made up of mostly boys (I think there are only three girls in the class, eleven kids total) and they were so enthusiastic about being there! Out of all the groups of fourth graders that came by the tent, I only heard Mrs. Schap giving the presentation once. Other than that, the kids all jumped up to do it, and they were so good at it!! It was so fun to be around such a nice group of kids, and they all loved Anja, AND they shared their pizza with me, so of course they were instant friends of mine. But it was really fun! They all got really into their costumes and everything. That's how I remember high school. A bunch of really fun, nice people doing fun, nice things.

Oh, and the other day we saw a baby deer pooping in a field. How often do you get to see that!?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Quickly, Quickly!

I've changed my banner to the more appropriate autumnal look. I stole it from the internet. I like it!

Today (and probably tomorrow and the next day) I'm making some Feast pants for the neighbor boys. Well, one is a boy, the other is a Dad. I made some for my dad last year the night before the Feast when he couldn't find his, so I'm hoping this goes quickly and smoothly, ending with success. Shouldn't be too hard since I've done it before and it's a simple procedure anyway.

And I'd like to make some cookies because I'd like to eat some cookies. But I guess the pants should be my first priority.

It took me more than an hour to get Anja down for her nap today so I'm not very optimistic about her staying asleep for long... so I'd better get mooooving!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Back in the Saddle

Anja seems to finally be back to her old cheery self! I am so thankful for that. It was a long week of carrying around a screaming baby. We knew last night that she must really be on the mend when we went to the grocery and she actually enjoyed herself. Then in the parking lot a big flock of birds flew by, and she loved them! Welcome back, the Anja we all know and love.

It's been a pretty packed day, although I feel like I haven't accomplished all that much. We all got up at the same time this morning, which always makes the mornings a little rough. Martin and Anja took their morning walk together and I was able to get completely ready before he left for work. Anja and I ate some breakfast, I got dinner in the crock pot (Irish Stew, which is a lot of chopping--another clue that Anja must be back to normal! She played happily the whole time!) then we threw some diapers in the stroller and set out for my mom's house to (finally) finish her Feast costume! She slept the whole way up there (a good morning nap) and was happy almost the whole time we spent there. I finished her cute green stripey skirt and it was absolutely adorable. I hemmed it once at the bottom knowing it would be extra long, intending to put another hem in so I could let it out and she could wear it again next year. However, I didn't realize HOW LONG I had made it... this skirt would've fit a four-year-old! But it turned out so cute, and I had worked hard on it, not just making it a square with an elastic waist, but giving it some shape and body and the stripes even looked good! This skirt is adorable. So I just didn't have the heart to cut half of it off and hem it shorter, but to hem it to fit her would put the hem seam right in the middle of the skirt. I started doing that and it looked terrible, so I ripped it out.

And then I found the scrap fabric and in about two and a half minutes made a very nice (though not quite as carefully made, nor as cutely shaped) Anja-sized skirt. It will work, and I'm pleased that I was able to fix my problem by just whipping up something else. Plus, I have her costume entirely finished! We will buy her a bonnet when we get there on Saturday morning.

My mom made us lunch, then we headed back home. Anja fell asleep right away, but it isn't too long of a walk, and she woke up right when we got home, which is NOT a good afternoon nap. She stayed up for awhile while I started making some Irish Wheaten Bread then eventually I took a walk with her and she fell asleep. Woke up when we got home, but I was able to get her back to sleep upstairs and she's still sleeping, which is good. She needed the nap. I finished my bread dough and now it's almost finished baking! I'm interested to see how it turns out. There's hardly anything in it, so I can't really imagine it tasting all that good, but dipped in stew it should at least be edible.

So now my kitchen is a disaster area, I have clean laundry scattered all over the house needing to be folded and put away, dirty laundry that needs to be washed, and a whole list of other household chores that haven't been done today. But I feel like I've been run ragged since this is my first chance to put my feet up and catch my breath all day!

I'm a little bit worried because I woke up with a sore throat this morning and it has stayed with me all day. Usually if I wake up with a sore throat it goes away within an hour. This one is different. I don't care about me, but I'll be so upset if Anja gets sick for this weekend. I'm really hoping she doesn't get this! The poor thing has been sick for two weeks in a row, surely she won't come down with this as well.

Monday, September 22, 2008

DOUBLE YUM

Anja's asleep, my mother-in-law gave me a basket full of apples on Saturday, I have frozen dumpling sauce from last year, and I am TOTALLY going into the kitchen right now to make some apple dumplings!

Happy first day of fall! The most wonderful season of them all!

p.s. Anja and I took a walk this morning over to Starbucks where we spent the $5.00 giftcard my mom gave me last week on a slice of pumpkin bread that we shared and a caramel apple cider for me. Delicious! And a wonderful little cool morning treat to celebrate this equinox.

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Roseola

Soooo....

Remember how I took Anja to the doctor on Friday? Well over the weekend she just was acting more and more sick and the rash that I was told would come never appeared. So I figured the fever was something else and I didn't know what was making her feel so bad. Then today just after we arrived at the Indy Irish Festival, she broke out in a rash all over her face and head. I had noticed it a little bit earlier, just that her face looked a little splotchy, but now it was definitely a rash. And she was acting all weird--cranky, and throwing her head against me and nuzzling me weirdly. So we decided we should just go back home and take her to the Urgent Care because we had no idea what was wrong with her. They'd told me that Roseola wouldn't be on her face, that it would just be on her trunk and maybe a little on her arms and legs. But her limbs and belly and back were clear, this was just on her head.

So we drove back to Lafayette, straight for the Urgent Care, and when we got there she was a basket case and the rash had spread down her back and was a little bit on her tummy too. We told the doctor the whooooole story, starting with the fever last Wednesday, and he didn't seem very concerned at all, and said it was probably Roseola, but he'd do a strep test too. He looked her over completely, checked all the things that doctors check on babies, and they did the strep test, which came back negative. He said it's Roseola and that sometimes the rash is on their head and that sometimes it itches them (hence the nuzzling, and then when we were there, the actively scratching at her head with her hands) and that she might have a headache but she'll probably start feeling better now.

And boy did she! It was actually kind of weird. As soon as I nursed her and we left, she seemed almost back to her old self. Martin thinks that maybe going to see the doctor had a psychological affect on her and that's what made her feel better. Then he also suggested that maybe the onset of the rash was uncomfortable, maybe it was all the ickies leaving her body, and now she feels much better. Well, whatever the cause, she is definitely more back to her old self. WHICH IS GREAT. It's so much easier to have a happy baby than a baby you carry around crying all day.

It was actually really sad at the festival because she didn't have any fun. She would have LOVED it, with all the music and all the dogs (there were TONS of dogs there) but when we showed her the dogs and pet them, she was hardly even interested. It was so sad.

But now she's sleeping and I hope she sleeps better since she seems to be feeling so much better. She's already eating better--she ate half a jar of baby food before bed! Way better than the three bites she's been taking for the past few days.

So the Irish Fest was kind of a bust for us, except for this one REALLY FUNNY thing that happened on the way down. We stopped for fuel in Lebanon and I got out to go use the restroom. Martin said, "hey, wait, your skirt is unzipped" as I was walking away from the car. I felt my waist band and it was zipped up all the way, but the zipper doesn't match at the top. I said, "No, it's just uneven, it's all the way up." And he said, "No, it's completely unzipped!" And I looked down and sure enough, my zipper had separated from the bottom up and MY bottom was on view for the whole gas station to see!!!!! It was too funny to even be embarrassing. We had gone out to breakfast at the Trails with Martin's family so I texted my sister-in-law begging her to tell me that my rumpus had not been hanging out of my skirt all morning!!! She assured me that it hadn't been... so it must've happened on the car ride. Thank goodness!!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Macaroni and Cheese

Yum! I just finished off a big bowl of Kraft macaroni and cheese. I don't care how childish it seems, I LOVE that stuff. And it's great to have it on hand when Martin is traveling. It's kind of sad... I'd been doing a really good job of eating an awesome diet all summer, drinking water, making good meals at home. But now that Martin travels I have absolutely ZERO motivation to eat healthy. I still go for walks because Anja enjoys them so much, but as for nutrition, it kind of went out the window the day he took off on the road.

However... he is home this week! Hooray! Each of the counsellors gets a "week in the office" so that someone is always there to take phone calls, etc. and this week is his! That means I have to actually think about making dinners this week, go to the grocery store tomorrow, and I won't have the car for a week. But trust me, it's totally worth it. All morning we were saying how nice it is to have a Saturday where we don't feel like we have to squeeze in everything into a few short hours, because he's not going anywhere tomorrow! Today we are taking care of around-the-house maintenance that has been put off for far too long... and tomorrow we're going to Indianapolis to the Irish Fest to celebrate my sister's birthday! What is she this year? A quarter of a century?

Yesterday Anja was soooooooooooo crabby. Her fever finally broke sometime overnight but she woke up so incredibly grumpy and basically cried and screamed all morning, so I finally took her in. We saw the NP instead of the doctor, which is fine, and she suspected Ros..e... something. Now I can't remember what it's called. Anyway, it's a rash. She said the rash shows up when the fever breaks, but Anja's fever has been gone since yesterday morning and still no rash! So I don't know what the trouble was, but last night in the middle of the night she woke up, nursed, and then decided it was playtime, so I know she must be feeling better. She's still a little crabby today, but not so much, and I think it's just because she has some leftover sick feelings. Maybe it was just a little bit of the flu or something, I don't know. Poor little thing. But I'm glad she's on the mend!

A few weeks ago while I was having a music practice Martin sat in the car with Anja under the shade of a tree and when I came out he suggested I do that someday if I had to drive Anja to sleep for a nap. Park in a shady spot and read a book. So yesterday I did! She fell asleep on the way home from the doctor, so I picked up a Subway sandwich for lunch and parked over at Columbian Park where I read a few short stories from my big book of stories from the class I took that one time. It was so pleasant! And I had the stroller in the trunk, so I figured if she woke up we could walk around the park and maybe go to the petting zoo to see the little goats.

We had to pick up Martino from work yesterday, but Anja was crabby in the afternoon so we went down a little early so we could hang out on campus and take a walk. We ended up getting there and walking down to Campbell's, the coffee shop, for a muffin! It was so much fun. I love our little dates. And she loves muffins, so everybody wins! We sat outside at one of the sidewalk tables in hopes of seeing some dogs, but we saw zero dogs, much to our disappointment. When Martin finished work he walked down and met us. Anja seriously ate half the blueberry muffin by herself. She's such a good little eater!

Now Martin is mowing and I reeeaaallllyyyy should do something productive while he's gone and Anja is still sleeping. The problem is that I have these lazy tendencies.....

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Big Huge Bummers!!!

UGH!!! I am such a moron!!!

So this afternoon I was sorting out select clothes from the laundry basket to wash for the weekend. As I pulled them out of the hamper I piled them on the bathroom counter. When I had everything I wanted, I heaved the pile into my arms and carried it as one load to the laundry room where I dropped it all into the washer... with a weird thud. I thought I'd somehow gotten a shoe in there, so I dug around for a minute, but didn't see anything so I went ahead and ran the cycle.

Well, I just went to switch the loads. In the dryer were a load of Anja clothes, and when I pulled them out I found that a lot of them had mildewed!!!! Not only that, but one of the things was her SUPER CUTE pair of antique-y floral pants that look so cute with her little poncho that she's only worn ONCE!! SAD FACE!!!! I also found a bib, and I was too scared to look at the rest.

So I just put all of Anja's clean clothes on top of the dryer to deal with later and went to put the grown up clothes in. I opened the washer and thought, "That's weird, that looks like my makeup bag." So I pulled it out, AND IT WAS MY MAKEUP BAG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had washed all the makeup I own. I was seriously speechless!!! And too scared to look at the damage it all did to the clothes, so the whole mess is still sitting in the washing machine as I write this. I am so incredibly bummed!!!!

Another bummer is that Mike Prangley is forecasting SEVERE WEATHER for the Feast weekend!! That will definitely ruin my year.

And yet another bummer is that Anja is a little bit sick. She had a fever last night and it's been running off and on all day today. It seems much better now, and she hasn't been ACTING sick, which makes me think it's just the final body battle over her throat thing. However, if it's still running through tomorrow I may call to see if they think I should bring her in.

There is one bit of bright news and that is that Martin didn't think he'd be home until about three o'clock in the morning, but as it turned out, his dinner got cancelled and he's home now!! Hooray!!! When Anja woke up shortly after he got home, he made me bring her down so he could give her her presents, which are both VERY cool and from the Science Center in St. Louis.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Getting Ready...

I'm going to have to side with Clare in her beliefs that the full moon was to blame for all the crazy people (Karenin and Anja) around here yesterday. Today they were both delightful! Anja woke up so incredibly happy and pretty much stayed that way all day. Also... and I can't believe I'm going to jinx myself by saying this out loud... but last night she slept for two four-hour stretches and tonight she seems to be on track to do the same!!! I can hardly believe it! O Happy Day!
I spent much of my day up at my mom's house making this:
It's a chemise for Anja to wear to the Feast of the Hunter's Moon, not this weekend, but the next. I'm pretty proud of myself for making without a pattern in one afternoon. Of course, it did take me two tries and giving up entirely on the first and harder one... but I think this is perfect for her. Mrs. Schap gave me some super cute green stripey fabric from which I'll make a skirt for her tomorrow or the next day. That should be an easier job. I am so pleased with how this turned out though!
I'm so glad the mornings are cool. I love fall. I driving with my windows down and getting coffee and going for walks wearing sweaters and jeans.
But nothing else is really new. My parents fed me again, which is always nice, and tomorrow I'll be stranded at home all morning waiting for the Vectren man to show up and replace our meter. Kind of annoying, but at least it isn't costing us anything, and he'll check out our furnace too, which is nice.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Bad Dog

I don't know what's up with Karenin but she has been HORRIBLE lately. She's been doing stuff that is completely out of character for her. I know she can be a little bit obnoxious with her everlasting puppyness, but she's rarely BAD. Mostly she's started eating things, the worst of which are Anja's toys. Also we haven't been able to keep her out of the kitchen trash. She's barely ever shown an interest in it before, even when it's overflowing. Now suddenly she lifts the lid and shoves her whole head down inside, even when it's empty. And if it's not empty, she gets garbage out of it and drags it all over. She gets into the laundry room and takes the dirty clothes away. I find shirts and towels all over the house. Yesterday we got a blueberry muffin at Vienna for Anja but she didn't eat it there, so I saved it for us to share for breakfast this morning. But when I let Karenin out of her cage this morning, in the 2.5 seconds it takes me to fill her food dish, she had already gone into the living room and eaten the muffin (wrapped in plastic wrap) right off the table!!! She has never done things like this before!! And it's constant. As soon as I let her out of her cage, the first thing she does is something bad. For instance, this afternoon I let her out of her cage and expected her to ring her bell right away. When it had been a few minutes and she hadn't rung, I went looking for her. She was in the dining room eating one of Anja's puzzle pieces!! I was so angry!!!

Ugh. I was going to write some political stuff on here, regarding a comment I posted on Joannie's blog, but now I'm just all mad about the dog again and I can't really concentrate on anything else.

Anja only just went down for a nap at 3:30. It's been a loooooong day with her. She was throwing toddler-like fits all morning whenever I messed with her. We went for a walk and it was colder than I'd thought it was so I put a sweater on her and she threw a fit. She never regained control so we had to go home. Then later I put her shoes on her and she threw another fit. It's very weird. And she's screaming, not so much like there's something actually wrong, but more like I've done something that really bugged her. And she's started doing this thing when she's mad where she throws herself backward and screams. She does this every morning when I dress her. She HATES getting dressed. Seriously, if you were in our house while one of us is dressing her, you would think she was a victim of really horrible child abuse. She isn't. She just doesn't like clothes, evidently.

She's wearing this really adorable corduroy jumper with a pink long-sleeved shirt underneath and pink tights today. I think she looks so cute like a little school girl. We went into one of the stores on Main Street and the lady asked her (okay, side note: I hate it when people talk to Anja as if she can answer. I never know if I'm supposed to answer their stupid questions or not) why she was so dressed up and told her she should be wearing sweat pants and a hoodie. Um, no thanks. You can dress your own babies like scummy college kids if you want, but I like my baby to look cute. This lady was weird. She asked me if I lived on the West Side and I told her no I live down here, over by the library and she said, "Oh, well let me give you a map of downtown!" and she did, along with a flyer for some downtown events. Right after I told her I lived down here. It was so strange.

We're going up to my mom's house for dinner. She's baking a chicken and making....... MASHED POTATOES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will please Little Miss Anja Pie greatly. And luckily for her bowels, I bought six jars of prunes today!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Weddings and Hurricanes and Pony Rides, Oh My!

What a busy weekend we've had, starting all the way on Friday with a wedding rehearsal. I got to play music with Heasty Puddin' for a very simple and pretty wedding out at the Battle Ground chapel. It was SO MUCH FUN to play with them again. And they're such sweet people. So the rehearsal was on Friday night and I took Anja out there with me and Martin met us there as soon as he could get there from work. Until then everyone loved on Anja, but I was very grateful that he came because the place was so incredibly crowded and hot that she would've been miserable and I wouldn't have been able to play at all. But everything worked out perfectly--the groom and groomsmen were all late, which gave Martin time to get there before I needed my free hands. It was a fun rehearsal.



On Saturday Martin and Anja went for a morning walk together while I showered and met them down on 6th Street. Martin had gotten breakfast sandwiches from McCords for us!! DELICIOUS! We ate them as we walked through the Farmers Market, then back home for a late morning nap for all of us, followed by a quick getting ready and getting out to the Battlefield by 1:30. The wedding went nicely, I sang the processional song and thankfully didn't screw it up, like I did at the wedding where I had to sing the John Denver song that I still can't believe I messed up. That was a long time ago.



Anyway, after the wedding we sped home to eat snacks and change clothes and make it over to the St. Boniface GermanFest in time to have some fun before my work shifts started. We met up with Martin's family, including AnnLaura and Aurelio, ate some kraut dogs, some goulash, and Anja was crabby for awhile until the CC band started playing and then she cheered right up. She really loves music. It's very cute. I worked at the brat/hotdog/potato salad booth for an hour (funnily enough, and by chance, with my parents and brother-in-law!) before being relieved there and moving on over to the Football toss in the Kinderville. Halfway through that shift Martin came to relieve me and I took Anja (who was happy to see me at last) and we kind of wandered around for fifteen minutes killing time until finally Anja was just too tired, and we asked my parents to take over the last 15 minutes of our shift and we headed home. But what a trooper our Anja Pie was! And she looked ADORABLE. Unfortunately, I don't think I took any pictures of her, because I am an idiot. Oh, but the best part about GermanFest was the pony rides. !!!!!! I was serving hotdogs and scooping kraut at the time of this happening, but Martin took Anja on a pony ride, and SHE LOVED IT. I wish so much that I could've seen it. He said she held on tightly with one hand, waved to the ponies across the way with the other, and squealed and screeched happily the whole entire time. I can only imagine how adorable she looked. The pictures on my camera didn't turn out very well (*sniff*) so I'm hoping AnnLaura might send a good one from her camera. If she does, I'll post them!



This morning we were up early enough to walk over to the 7:30 mass where during the announcements at the end I took our hot and sleepy Anja outside to the steps and let her sit on the sidewalk, where she found an ant. First she just touched it with her index finger... then she touched it a lot... and finally she just squashed the thing. I think she was very pleased. An old couple came out and told me that they admire her from behind us and that she's always well behaved. Haha! Yeah right! It's not neccessarily behavior, but she's always pretty tired by the end of mass and ready for a nap, no matter what time we go. And an Anja in need of a nap is not always a pleasant Anja!



After mass we went for a nice country drive where we saw some wild turkeys and let Anja have a nap in the car before meeting up for breakfast with the Schaps and TusaRebecca's friend Kevin who is visiting from Ireland. (We'd actually met him the night before at German Fest.) He is so sweet--he brought us gifts! He gave us a box of chocolates and for Anja, an adorable little book called "Glorious Things to Do" and is full of everything you could think of from cloud and bird identification to scientific explosions to baking to crotchet flowers. It is ADORABLE!!! And has so much stuff in it! There are cute little games, one part that teaches three guitar chords and then has a song to go with them. And it's Irish, so all the recipes are really funny and it has all the fun spellings in it, like "yoghurt." Such fun! And so generous and thoughtful of Kevin.



Straight from breakfast we went out to Ivy Tech where I played music for their homecoming. I just played for half an hour, by myself (a rarity) then we listened to the amazing Amanda Fletcher play a few songs and headed out. Martin needed to get on the road for St. Louis and we wanted to hang out with our friend Matt. Turns out Matt is out of town for a wedding, so instead we did some necessary around-the-house work, took a trip through the remnants of Ike to the hardware store, and ended the afternoon with a family date to Vienna where we got warm drinks and a blueberry muffin and sat in Martin's college van with both back doors open and enjoyed the last bit of the rainy afternoon together. We went our separate ways then--Anja and I homeward, Martin to Crawfordsville and then on to St. Louis. He actually just called and is still on the road.



I loved the rain today. It's not every day that a Tropical Depression comes through Indiana!

OH MY GOSH!!!!! I just accidentally highlighted this entire post and replaced it with "n" and sat in shock for some moments before thinking to close it all out quickly, and go back to the auto-saved draft! And it was there!!! In it's entirety!!! LUCKY ME!!!!!

So anyway..... I'm happy that the cooler weather is here too. Anja has some really cute fall clothes that she's eager to wear. (translate: that her mother is very eager to put on her and then parade her about town.) I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

I haven't decided whether or not to cancel rosary group tomorrow for Anja's throat thingy. She seems much better but since I don't know how long she is contagious it might not be a good idea to have all the little kidders over to our germie house. Hummm....

All in all, a good weekend. Next weekend might entail an Irish festival and somebody's birthday...... then the next weekend is THE FEAST!!!!! Soooo excited! I'm going to spend much of this week up at my mom's house sewing up a little Feast costume for Anja. Should be pretty quick and easy... and I'm obviously going to make it kind of big so she can at least wear it next year too.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Idiotic 14-Year-Old: TEN POINTS!

I was so close to running some kids down with my car this morning.

Okay, I wasn't really going to run them down. I was going to roll down my window, warn them to get out of the road, and when they didn't I was going to just kind of tap them with my car. I've about had it with these damn kids walking down the middle of the road making the cars wait for them.

Scattered about our neighborhood there are probably about 15 kids between the ages of 10 and 15 who hang around and are generally annoying. I wouldn't mind them so much, except I WATCHED them come up onto my porch one day last year and take one of my pumpkins, the day after another one of my pumpkins had been smashed in the street right in front of my house. GRRR. At the time I didn't have the nerve to open the door and say anything--or maybe I was just too stunned by their own nerve--so I just stood there in my living room and watched them come up and take it. Anyway, really for the most part these kids are okay. They don't commit big crimes, they're just kind of loud and obnoxious. But one thing that they do CONSTANTLY that really drives me nuts, is the way they all walk down the middle of the road. (Actually, of the group of them today there were two who were politely walking on the sidewalk, God bless 'em.) And the thing is, they don't walk. They saunter.

So today, at 7:30 in the morning, I come driving down Alabama Street and here is this whole herd of tweens and teens taking their time, making their way sloooowwly down the middle of the road. So I came up behind them and crept along while they walked. Well, when I got very close and almost had to stop, these two boys turned around and looked at me. Then they turned back and just kept walking. DIDN'T MOVE. They just kept going right on their chosen path down the middle of the road.

Now I understand that two and three-year-olds don't always know better than to run into the street. I know that even some older children, say five-year-olds, sometimes forget their rules and go into the street. But these kids are FAR TOO OLD to be doing this, and I've about had it. They know better, it's dangerous, and I think that if they're just going to keep doing it they need a lesson taught to them, and I would love to teach them that lesson with the bumper of my car.

Now of course, the problem is justifying it to the court when I get arrested for it. I'm seriously tempted to call down to the police station and just flat out ask what kind of trouble I'd get in for tapping them with my car.

It reminds me of the time Martin and I were driving down Old 231 coming into town and there were a couple of teenage girls walking down the middle of the right lane. Traffic had to go around them and everyone was honking at them, but they wouldn't get out of the road. In fact, they were yelling at the cars who were honking at them. They screamed at us that "These cars need to stop blowing they damn horns!" Um, if you want everyone to quit honking at you, maybe you should get out of the road. They weren't even walking to the side of the road. They were walking side-by-side right down the middle of the lane. Martin was going to call the police that time but he didn't have the LPD number in his phone.

So anyway. The next time I post may be from my jail cell....

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The Yuckies

Okay, first of all, my dog is well on her way to getting cancer. Whenever the microwave is running she goes over and stands right in front of it until it's finished. She's really obsessed. It's weird.

I took Anja to the doctor this morning thinking she might have an ear infection. She was really crabby yesterday then her crabbies escalated to screaming in the evening. It was hooorrrribble getting her to sleep and she didn't finally fall asleep until about 9:30. I had given her some Tylenol earlier and I think it helped her sleep... but then even when she nursed at night she would cry a little bit, which is VERY unusual. I figured if she was still acting so weird in the morning I'd take her in--and she was, so I did. But I was wrong about my ear suspicion. Evidently she has some viral yuckies in her throat. He said if the best case scenario is if it stays at the three little sores that it is... if I'm not so lucky it'll turn into hundreds and last about a week. And there's nothing I can do for it! How sad. Is viral stuff contagious? Should I keep her away from her cousins? I forgot to ask about that.

Martin comes home tonight! But he won't be home for dinner because he's taking his boys to Pizza Hut for dinner to try and convince them to participate in something for him. Lure them in with pizza, that's the way to do it.

There isn't any other news except that Anja looks SO CUTE today--she is wearing a tiny pink poncho!! She's wearing these kind of antique floral pants with a white long sleeved shirt and this adorable little pink knit poncho with embroidered flowers on it. Except she's not wearing the poncho now because she wouldn't let me put it back on after her doctors appointment... she was kind of in hysterics after Dr. Beardmore touched her. She smiled at him when he came in, but then when he started doing his actual job she decided he wasn't so cool after all.

I made a good mix CD the other day with this amazing song on it that I don't know what it's called or who sings it... but I'll find out and I'll also post the playlist because I think it's pretty good, though a bit short. Only 13 tracks.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

I've got a case of the Uglies.

Ugh. I'm feeling so fat and ugly and gross. I hate my hair. I thought a few weeks of growth would fix it's awfulness, but in fact it just made it worse. The mullet part of it has grown out and the top is very bushy. I look like a mom from the 90's. A mom from the 90's with really bad hair. And I'm really fat these days. Like, seriously fat. Like I've gained my "freshman fifteen" six years late. Serves me right... I never gained my freshman fifteen. I actually LOST weight after highschool. Not that I really went to college... but whatever.

Last night Anja and I went to my mom's house for dinner. We had lentil soup which I thought I would avoid but it ended up being pretty tasty. Anja DID NOT like it. She chose to eat her baby food sweet potatoes. Haha, I wish I would've gotten a picture of her face when she tasted the soup.

After dinner we took Maizie on a walk through the neighborhood and ended up walking over to my Uncle Johnny's house. It was really fun! It's so fun to sit around and listen to my uncle and aunt and mom talk. They are all clinically insane. Anja had a great time too... they have soft new carpet and she loves to roll around on clean carpet. I don't allow her on the carpet in our house because it is BEYOND DISGUSTING, and I think she likes the change from the hardwood and linoleum. Anyway, it was a funny night.

This morning Anja woke up too early and was super grumpy. She went back down for a nap a little after nine and is still sleeping. This is good because we are meeting up with my sister-in-law, TusaRebecca, for lunch at 12:30. She hasn't seen Anja's ears yet! I think we'll walk over to meet her for lunch--it's another beautiful day!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Somebody's a Big Deal!

Back when my niece, Gracie, was six months old, I accompanied my sister and sister-in-law to the boutique at the mall to get her ears pierced. She was sooooo good; she didn't even cry until they'd done the second ear. So when last night during dinner at my parents' house my sister invited me along to get Bella's ears pierced and thought I might like to have Anja's done at the same time, I went along with only a teensy bit of reluctance. And after a long time of stalling and hemming and hawing over it, after listening to Bella scream her little lungs out and then recover within three minutes, I sat myself down in the chair with Anja in my lap and the result was this:
Isn't she too cute!? And here's a picture of the other side:
In this one you can also see her super adorable fall outfit that she wore today because the forecast high is only 73 and it's not supposed to hit that until way later this afternoon. Sorry for all the squinting; we were on a walk and the sun was in her eyes. She's trying to smile for the camera though. And that friendly plastic thing you see in her hand is actually her new toothbrush! I bought it at the store yesterday so I could start brushing her teeth, but she doesn't seem so interested in oral hygiene as she does in just clutching the toothbrush and carrying it with her everywhere. She is so weird. Who needs a mitten when you've got a toothbrush?

Speaking of mitten, it's lost. It got lost shortly after I made that post about it. We left it on the bathroom floor while we took the dog out to go potty and when we came back it was gone. That means my jerk of a cat, Theodore, got a hold of it and who knows when or where it'll turn up. I felt bad about it until Toothbrush was introduced.

Here are more pictures for your viewing pleasure:
The grandchildren (Aurelio and Anja) with Figgy and Grandmama at GlobalFest

Happy Anja hanging out at her daddy's office

Bella, just before her piercing!
Martin at GlobalFest
Gracie, about four and a half years after her own ear piercing experience!
Back to last night's adventure--it was really a lot of fun, after I got over the parental terror of having holes gunned through my baby's earlobes. The babies WERE very good, even if they did get a tad (okay, a lot) more upset by it than Gracie did. The crowd was my mom, Grace, Sarah, Bella, Anja and me. All the girls! My dad stayed home with the boys (yikes!) while we went out to do this. I had called Martin and asked what he thought. I knew he'd think it was a fine idea because we've been talking about it for a long time. And last night was the perfect time to do it because if he had been in town I would've made him come along with us and then we both would've chickened out together. As it was, I had my sister pressuring me to just do it, and I'm SO glad I did. I really would've regretted not doing it. Because I would still WANT to do it, but I'd be that extra little bit scared after seeing it done again on Bellie-Bellie. Afterward we got cookies at that cookie place in the mall and Anja LOVES being at the mall, so pretty much as soon as we left the boutique she was immediately cheered up. And she loves cookies too.
This morning we got a good early walk, setting out at around 8:30. I was totally craving a McCord's breakfast sandwich, so I bypassed the Farmers Market and went straight there--but they were closed!!! Evidently they don't open until 9:00. Bummer! I was too hungry to wait, so I went back to the Farmers Market and got an apple cinnamon scone from Great Harvest and shared it with Anja while we walked up to campus just for the fun of it. It was such a gorgeous morning for a walk! So cool and mostly cloudy, although it sunnied up by the time we were coming home, so I put Anja's shade over her stroller and she fell asleep.
She woke up as soon as we got home so we hung out for a little bit then drove out to CC to visit her grandmother and show off her new bling. Anja met two of Mrs. Schap's classes (they were very taken with her, even the boys) and one teacher we'd never met before, along with a few we already knew. When we got home she went down for her afternoon nap and she's been sleeping since then, which is good because her naps have been terrible for the past few days.
I was invited to my parents' house again tonight for lentil soup, so Anja and I will go up for that, but we'll contribute a loaf of Asiago bread and a jar of dipping sauce from Panera. I'd been drooling over those items since the weekend, but of course I can't eat a whole loaf of bread by myself! So tonight will be a good, cold night to share. The low tonight is in the 40's!!!!!!!! Hooray for Fall!

Sunday, September 7, 2008

A Weekend

Our weekend was nothing thrilling, but it was pretty fun, and definitely nice to be a little family again after the long week of travel for Martino. On Friday night I was going down to pick him up at the usual time when he called and said A) he didn't need a ride after all because he'd gotten the college car starting that day; and B) he wouldn't be done with all his paperwork by 4:30. Since I was already on my way, I continued down and while he finished up some stuff at his office, Anja and I took a walk around campus. We saw lots of dogs. We eventually made it back to Martin's office where we hung around before going to Johnny Provolone's for a pizza dinner. It was a festive bit of an otherwise lame Friday night; Martin ended up working until 10:00 or so. Barf!

On Saturday we walked over to Vienna and had a really nice morning over there. I think Anja eventually took a nap... I made a big salad for lunch, then Martin and I joined Anja for her nap and didn't wake up until 2:00. We met our friend Matt out for coffee, from there went to Petsmart to see dogs and buy cat food and dog food, and then we went up to my parents' house to drop off some dry cleaning I'd picked up for my mom and to pick up Pig, whom I'd accidentally left there the day before. They were on their way to 4:30 church, but Martin and Anja and I hung around after they left and drank chocolate cokes and iced tea and relaxed. My parents had invited us out to dinner with them after church, and we didn't think we would go because we thought Anja would be too crazy by that time. However, she took a nap at 5:00 and when she woke up I gave her some banana and she was very happy to be alive, so my parents' came by our house and we DID all go to dinner. We went to the Brew Pub! It was a Mosey Down Main Street night (doesn't it seem like they have one every weekend?) and we did the mosey thing and saw lots of people we know. I almost bought a skirt from Amused, but I didn't. Anja had a good time and when we got home we all went to bed.

...and didn't wake up for 7:30 mass, AGAIN. We decided to get coffee before church and go to the noon mass at St. Ann's. Martin and Anja took a morning walk while I took a shower, and we had a nice time at Vienna and got to mass incredibly early. We haven't been early for mass since Anja was born. You'd think it wouldn't take ten months (or more) to adjust to the time-difference of having a baby, but we still haven't found the groove yet!

Our Sunday was kind of nothing after that. A quick lunch of leftovers at home, then I had a practice to for a wedding I'm playing with Heasty Puddin'! I'm reeeaaallly excited to be playing with them again. They are SUCH nice people, and I like playing tunes and I especially like the simple combination of instruments in the group. So even though it was kind of a bummer to miss out on time with Martin since he has such a limited time at home these days, I'm not sorry I had to practice cause it was loads of fun. And he could've come in too, but Anja was finally asleep, so he stayed with her instead.

After the music practice we got cokes from the Custard (the practice was right nearby,) went home and took a nice walk together. Anja was SUPER grumpy when she woke up from her nap, but we put her in her stroller and as soon as she was outside she was her happy self again. She is so funny. Anyway... Martin packed up, it was an uneventful early evening, then he suggested another walk before he left. And he led me to Panera for a chocolate pastry (MUCH more delicious than it looks) as a last treat. On the way there and back we passed through some kind of democratic rally down at the Plaza. They had all sorts of booths set up on the bridge, bands, signs... loads of people. I'm sure we fit right in, Martin in his Hofbrahaus (sp?) shirt, I in my Birkenstock clogs, wearing my baby in my colorful wrap. We saw a VERY cute and cutely dressed little baby girl in an Ergo carrier! She had on the cutest little stripey tights. VERY adorable.

I'm really looking forward to the cooler weather and dressing Anja in her own cute tights that she had last winter but that never fit her skinny little legs. They'll be perfect now.

I posted before about the little ear-flap hat I knit for her and how I was making matching mittens. Well, I finished the second mitten tonight, but it didn't match the first one at all (the first one was much better.) But while I was finishing up the second one, Anja kind of confiscated the first one and for some reason really loved it. She kept smiling at it and holding it up high. And she held onto it all evening... she even fell asleep with it! Isn't that adorable!? She is so weird. So I'm not sure if I'll finish the project by re-making the second mitten or if I'll just have to give up and let her keep the first one as a... well it's not exactly a toy... a friend? Whatever. Weird baby.

She's sooooo cute... she loves bread. But I think it's making her constipated so tomorrow I'm going out to buy some baby food prunes.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

And Another Thing...

I saw a car the other morning with two stickers on the bumper: on one side, an anti-abortion sticker. On the other, a Barack Obama one.

How's that work?

Big Day!

Wow, did Anja and I have a fun and not very typical day today! We woke up at the usual time, both got ready, and headed out to the bagel shop because I was dying for a six cheese bagel with garden veggie cream cheese from Einstein's. When we got there? NO SIX CHEESE!!! No Asiago either!! In fact, they were almost completely out of all the bagels, except for the spinach and chili pepper ones, and the power bagels. I settled for a challah roll with garden veggie cream cheese, and it ended up being very delicious, but not as filling as the six cheese bagel. Anyway... I was slightly thrown off by their lack of selection and also by the VEERRRYYYY friendly man in line behind us. The touching-my-shoulder kind of friendly. He was really nice, and not exactly creepy... it's just that he was so incredibly friendly that I wondered if we actually knew each other and I just didn't remember him. By the time I left I realized no, he didn't know me--I could tell by our conversation (he asked if Anja was my first child)--but I was still really confused by him. So I didn't order my coffee. But I reeeallly wanted some, and so I went to Big Apple Bagels in hopes that they had some delicious Flavor Of the Week--AND THEY DID!! It was CHOCOLATE AVALANCHE!!!!! However, they too were out of my favorite kind of bagel, so I didn't even feel bad about going to Einstein's first. In short: I had a yummy, if a bit hard to come by, breakfast.

When we got home Anja took a nap. A THREE HOUR nap. I was amazed. She had a really rough night last night, though, so I guess she needed the sleep. I called my mom and made plans to go to the dry cleaners together when Anja woke up. You see, whenever I go to the cleaners it seems like a huge pain in the neck to get Anja out and take her in with me, but I worry too much leaving her in the car at the curb. (I did it one time, and was sooo nervous... the lady assured me that everybody does it and one time someone's school-age children climbed up front and drove away.) When I came back there was a State Troopher pulled up right by my car and I thought for sure he was going to arrest me. He didn't. But it still tipped my nervous scale too far to be able to do that ever again. So anyway, now I either take my mom with me or drop Anja at her house and go to the cleaners on my own, which is a few blocks from my mom's house.

Aaaaanyway.... she said she'd ride with me this time because while I was dropping off, she had some stuff to pick up. She also had another errand to run and I suggested that if she brought her dog, Maizie, along with her, we could all go to Petsmart after the errands. So we did! And it was sooooo fun! Anja LOVES animals, especially dogs. She also really liked the birds and the cats, but was a little freaked out by the fish. I don't think she's ever seen fish before today. I try to show her the fish in my mom's pond, but I don't think she knows how to look through the reflection of the sky to see them. She never seems to notice them at all. Today she would put her hand against the tank and the fish would swim up to her hand and she'd pull it back and flinch. It was so cute! We also tried to look at the hampsters but they were all sleeping.

The best part was the BULLDOG that was coming out from being groomed. What a handsome devil! I SOOOOO want one. And they are so lazy, they'd be the perfect dog for me.

A funny thing that happened was that there was this woman in the store, just walking around looking at all the animals like we were, and Maizie would not stop barking and growling at her. It was so strange because Maizie never barks and growls at ANYONE, and she was really going nuts, trying to get at this lady, being really ferocious (as much as a 7 pound dog can be...) and while it was kind of cute, I kept wondering if this lady was going to shoot us or something. Maybe she was just carrying a lot of drugs. I dunno. It was pretty weird though.

So from there we went to my mom's house so I could feed Anja and my mom could feed me! She made me a grilled cheese sandwich--yum. We hung out and then went home. Once at home Anja went down for her afternoon nap. It was a little after 3:00, so I told myself I wouldn't let her sleep past 4:30. Then I thought, "gosh, I could use a ten minute nap..." so I went up and laid down with her... and didn't wake up until 6:00!!!!!!!!! For a little girl whose bedtime is typically between 7 and 7:30, six o'clock is MUCH too late to be sleeping! So I woke her up and started thinking of things to do to fill our evening since she probably wouldn't go to bed until MUCH later than usual... and I decided to see if my good friend Alison wanted to meet up for dinner. And she did! We went over to the Olive House in the Village, which is where it seems we always end up eating together, and it was a lot of fun. It wasn't crowded and the owners children are super friendly and only as crazy as most kids are. They really liked Anja, and toward the end of the evening Anja played on the floor with them. I had the Lamb Biryani which was awesome, and not tooooooo spicy... I like to get it with the yogurt salad and an extra yogurt salad as well and then I mix them. The yogurt cuts the spice and makes it extra delicous. And of course, it's always good to see Alison. By the time we left if was about 8:30 and Anja had gotten fairly worn out. I put her to bed around 9:30 and she's still asleep.

It's such a wonderful, cool, rainy night. I love it! The only bummer is that Martin isn't here. We both thought it would be a perfect night to drink yummy hot drinks on our porch. I love nights like this. I love fall.

I've recently made Anja a hat with ear flaps and tonight I finished one of the mittens that match it. It's perfect! It turned out way better than I'd expected it to, so I'm quite pleased. The only stupid thing I did was not writing down the pattern as I made it... so now I've just got to eyeball the second one and hope that they match well enough that nobody notices. Whoops!

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

And So it Begins...

Martin's travel season officially started today. He left last night for Bloomington where he is spending most of this week before heading down to Evansville on Friday morning, and will be back home at his usual after-work time that afternoon. It was sad to see him go! We had a nice weekend though; after our Global Fest fun on Saturday we slept in a little bit and went to the 9:30 mass at St. Boniface, where we haven't been in AGES. We ran errands all day in an effort to get stuff done before Martin left, and in the afternoon we met up with our friend Joel who was in town. We went to Vienna and had chais and Anja was pretty happy for awhile, and then decided she'd had enough, so we left.

Most of our Labor Day was uneventful. In the morning we had breakfast at the Sunrise Diner as a sort of last hurrah, but for some reason Anja wasn't digging it and Martin and I took turns standing outside on the sidewalk with her while the other ate. It would've been fun to do something festive like have a cookout, but instead we ran more errands, met up with our friend Matt and TusaRebecca at Vienna, and left town for Crawfordsville around 6:00. Martin had a little work and packing up to do at his office, and we were going to go out to dinner, but decided it would be better for Anja if we just got something quick and ate on the picnic table outside Martin's building. So while he was off getting Wendy's sandwiches, Anja and I chased a couple of cats around the building, then took a walk around the circle drive on campus and saw tons of dogs! Anja LOVES to see dogs. She wiggles and squeals and waves at them. It was such a nice evening and there were so many people out; it ended up being a really enjoyable time, even though the reason for being there was kind of depressing. We ate our Wendy's and Anja played on the giant front steps of Trippett Hall, then we took one last walk together around campus, got in separate cars and headed our own directions for the night. Anja cried most of the way home and eventually fell asleep as we were coming into Lafayette.

The good thing about the travel season finally starting is that now that it's started I can begin the countdown to it being over!

The dog started having some slippery poops again yesterday and this morning, so I'm monitoring her carefully and if they continue tomorrow (they've solidified considerably this afternoon) I'm going to call the vet and ask about a prescription diet we can put her on.

I went to lunch today with my dad! He called me because he was downtown for a meeting and parked near my house, so when he got out of his meeting he took Anja and me to Scagnoli's for lunch. I had the most delicious (and enormous) sandwich... I'll have the other half for lunch tomorrow. It was really fun though and Anja enjoyed herself and ate half a jar of sweet potatoes.

After lunch Anja and I went out to Nature's Pharm where I bought some shampoo. We were going to go to Petsmart too, but my sister texted me about story time at the Ivy Tech library at 2:00, so we met up with them there. Anja really liked the little songs and rhymes.

Anja took an afternoon nap then and we went to my parents' house for dinner. My mom had stopped by earlier in the day and I told her I'd supply the peppers if she made pepper steak and invited me to dinner. Haha! I had a few good sized peppers from my garden. I'd picked them to make pepper steak for us over the weekend, but never ended up making it. That's probably okay though because my mom makes it better.

And now Anja is asleep and I'm about to be...