Crazysaurus / BIG NEWS

Sometimes in the afternoons Anja and I go upstairs to hang out in the bedroom, which is now the perfect child-friendly place for her to play. Yesterday she was a bundle of energy! When we got there, the cat was sleeping on the bed, and Anja LOVES to attack the cat. Strangely enough, the cat doesn't mind much. Theodore purrs and purrs while Anja mauls him. It's really weird! And absolutely hilarious! Yesterday she was trying to catch his tail that was flipping around, pulling on it every time she caught it. Then she got some other weird idea in her head, and started going after it with her mouth. She was just tossing her head back and forth after the flipping tail with her mouth open, trying to eat it! Finally she gave up her exact technique, caught the tail with her hands and took a big bite. Purrr.... purrrr..... purrr...

I had an Annie Car Day yesterday and when I picked Martin up from work all I could think about was how I didn't want to eat the vegetable soup we had at home for dinner. I made it a few days ago and didn't cook it long enough the first time we tried to eat it. It was gross. So the next day I added potatoes and cooked it all day long... but it still tasted kind of gross. The idea of having to eat it a third day in a row made me nauseous... so we went to Arni's for dinner!! I was totally craving an Arni's Junior salad, and it ended up being PERFECT. I never can finish them, but last night was the closest I've ever come. Anja loved eating the ham (we'll be a good pair--I don't like ham, but evidently she does!) and cheese bits and we also got her a cup of cheese soup, which she didn't eat much of so we brought it home for today. It was a nice little family dinner out.

Martin got me up when he got up this morning. We went to bed at 9:00 last night and Anja slept relatively well, so it wasn't hard to get up. My days go so much more smoothly if I can get up and completely ready before Anja wakes up. Now we are both here in the back room eating Cheerios together! What a life.

So, we've had this big news to tell for about a week but wasn't given the go-ahead for public announcement until yesterday... when I forgot to post it! Haha! Anyway, the big news around here is that MARTIN GOT A NEW JOB!!!!! He'll now be working at Ivy Tech as a student advisor, which is a job he can be pretty sure about since it is my brother-in-law's old job! This new job will mean only good things for us; normal work hours, no commute, an easy bus ride from the library to the school, NO TRAVEL, among others. We're super excited! He starts on December 1st, and he's got some days of travel between now and then, be we are counting the days to his start date. And just in time! I don't think I could do another snowy winter with him driving up and down 231 every day.

So that is our big news. I've been very eager to post it!

I'm off to check Mike Prangley's forecast. I was planning to walk up to my mom's today to visit the invalid, but Martin called the Time & Temperature and they said thunderstorms. Now I'm remembering that Mike Prangley had mentioned that too.... so I'd better make sure before I set off on any long walks.

Gee Whiz!

I was looking forward all morning to getting online and reading people's reaction posts about the election, and hardly anyone has even posted!!! What a bunch of sillies.

Well, our man didn't win, but the bright side is Obama didn't become King-O-the Universe, he just got elected president so he's a definite out in 4 or 8 years. We can handle that. He can screw a lot of stuff up in that time and pass a lot of crazy/awful things, but if things get bleak enough the country will demand "Change" again and we'll be back on track in time. And I'm not going to start the "I'm Moving To Canada!" whining because that's exactly what all the democrats say every time a republican gets elected. And besides, we've got to stick around and put up a good fight!

HOWEVER... if I were to come up with a plan for us all to avoid all this, it would be for John McCain and Sarah Palin to set up shop in Alaska and for all the die-hard republicans, true Christians (not the social Christians, but the real-deal Power Christians) and true Catholics to make our own new country there while the liberals, the wishy-washy swing voters, and those crazy American Bishops who are always going against Rome stay here and bask in their liberalism. Or socialism. Or whatever they end up having here. I've heard Alaska is beautiful and maybe if we lived there, Martin would let me have a baby seal for a pet!!!!!!!

Okay, that's all for politics!

I'm tired of this Indian Summer. I have a few cute maternity turtlenecks that won't fit me once I get too big and I'm eager to wear them. This morning Anja and I went out to Hobby Lobby to price some crafty things I'm looking at for Christmas presents. I didn't really find what I was looking for, but I did find some gorgeous floral fabric that made me want to make [another] quilt. Yikes. As if I don't have enough quilts going already, with no time to work on them!

I think my rag doll is going to be Anja's birthday present instead of Christmas present because I'm almost finished with her dress and then she's done! I will post pictures when she's completely finished.

It might be time to clean the kitchen.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I'm thinking about starting a little blog series on here called "These Are a Few of My Favorite Things." It'd be a pictoral tour of all my favorite stuff. Because I really do love so much of what I have. A pitcher here, a mirror there... the mirror, in fact, is what made me think of it. Upstairs in our Book Nook we have a really neat little mirror on the wall that our friend Zula gave to us as a wedding gift. I love it! And it fits PERFECTLY where it is in the Book Nook. But that is just one of the many little details I love about my house. And I would like to share them!

In other news, Anja and I had a wonderful morning out together, came home and she went right down for a nap! Since she went down (about an hour ago) I've gotten loads of housework done including DUSTING (something I rarely do) and getting a pot of soup going on the stove. I know we all have our trying days, but overall, I think there's nothing better than the life of a stay-at-home mom.

And speaking of moms, mine evidently broke her foot! Haha! I mean, it's not actually that funny, I guess... but if we're being honest, it kind of is. She was playing "Mother May I" for heavens sake. Who breaks her foot while playing "Mother May I"?! "Red Light, Green Light," maybe, but sheesh!

And this is the end of my second, non-political post of the day.

Okay, I think Martin looks SO CREEPY in this picture.

At Your Friendly Neighborhood Poll!

We've done our civic duty here at the Schap household this morning. Martin woke me up at a horrible hour to get up and go vote. I did--just down the street at the police station--and saw a whole bunch of people I knew, or at least recognized as downtowners. It was actually pretty fun. My mother in law was there, along with my highschool friend Charlie who is a police officer now. I asked him how far apart in age his little boys are, knowing they were close, and he said, "Fifteen months. Are you pregnant?!" When I told him Anja doesn't sleep through the night yet and she'll be one on Sunday, he said I am mommying her too much, and I said, "well, yeah!! Of course I am!" I like Charlie.

Martin has been going around this morning chanting "Yes We Can" in Spanish. I finally said, "You voted for Obama, didn't you?" He replied, "I voted for Change, Annie. Because I want to kill babies with guns that don't belong to me. And after that I'm going to go after all the retarded ten-year-olds, because, really, they should've been aborted." (Obviously he's kidding.) I may be delusional, but I think McCain has a real chance today.

But what is all this?!? I don't talk politics on my blog!!

Well, a Happy Election Day to all my blogosphere friends. I'm spending my week in giant preparation for next weekend, which will be very busy including Elisabeth and John's wedding on Saturday (even though it's in the evening, any family outing around here takes all-day preparation) and Anja Pie's birthday party on Sunday! I'd like to deep-clean the house before the weekend so I can just concentrate on the cake on Saturday and Sunday. I'm kind of nervous about it. It's hopefully going to look like a duck, but I'm not much of a cake decorator.

After a Long Weekend

Well! We've worked hard this weekend, and I'm happy to say that our house is very nearly COMPLETELY in order! And after close to two years, I'd say it's about time.

Okay, I said we worked hard this weekend, but that's not exactly true. Yesterday we literally sat around all day. I don't even remember what we did, it was that boring. I think we took a nap. Oh yeah! We did! We went somewhere... obviously nowhere important, since I can't remember where it was... and when we got home our neighbor Doug was talking to some young Obama supporters who were walking through the neighborhood dispensing their literature to stupid poor people in the ghetto. Ha! They chose the wrong house when they chose the Cooks'! We watched through the window and Doug looked like he was really getting into it. Hand gestures and everything. And you could tell that these poor Obama suckers were sooooo not expecting anything like that. The girl looked like she would rather have been dead, and the boy just looked extremely uncomfortable, though he kept his smile whereas the girl looked a little bit... well, to be honest, she looked a little scared. (She didn't need to worry. Doug is not a big man, nor a violent one. He's just opinionated!) Well, we really didn't want to deal with these people [again] (they come through our neighborhood about every weekend. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration, but the come by a lot) so Martin put a Post-It note on the door that read "GO AWAY" and we went upstairs to take a nap. And wouldn't you know it, they didn't even knock!

So that was yesterday. We all slept until about 6:30, then woke up and went to dinner at Chipotle. I don't really like Chipotle all that much, but this was a completely free dinner, a value of just under $18. FREE! After RiverFest, my dad had a whole load of Chipotle cards to give away--free burritos, free dinners, all sorts of stuff--so we ended up with a good pile of them. The one we used last night was "Burritos for Two" and it was the entire dinner. Two burritos, two drinks, plus chips and guacamole (AWESOME guacamole that Anja adored as much as I did, and the salt they use on the chips is amazing as well) all for nothing! It was pretty great. Especially since we were all sleepy and hungry and ready to get out of the house.

This morning we went to 7:30 mass (and thanks to my dad, we got there at 7:30 instead of 6:30!) and afterward went to Vienna, where we spent a $5 gift certificate we had leftover from a couple that Dan and Laura gave us! I think they gave them to us when Anja was born, so we've had them for a long time. So our two-coffees-and-one-scone-for-Anja breakfast cost us all of seventy-three cents. What a deal! But the funny part was that as we pulled up, so did our friend Matt, and so we all had coffee together and it was nice. That's the second time that's happened in recent weeks. Very strange.

We took a drive up to the cottage straight from there, intending to just pick something up, but Martin's mom was there and Anja fell asleep, so we didn't really stay, but we also didn't pick up the piece of wood he wanted. Oh well. It was a really nice day for a drive, and it gave Anja a great nap.

When we got home, we hit it hard upstairs in our bedroom, and in just a couple of hours it was completely done, which also means that Anja's room was emptied out, since all of her crib pieces were still down there until the crib could be fixed (minor breakage) and put back together. The room looks great. BOTH rooms look great, in fact! I even tied back the curtains into storybook pigtails with some white satin ribbon I had. Everything looks really nice, and everything is clean, and even if Anja never starts sleeping in the crib, at least it's up there for the new baby right away. I think I'll go ahead and take the bassinet up tomorrow too. I told Martin today, when I was pregnant with Anja my whole idea of preparing her room and the house was "Meh. We have plenty of time." (And when she was born, nothing was ready, surprise, surprise!) This time, all I can think about is what limited daily work time I have and how much we have to do to prepare, and even though we still have five months left, can we really get it all done in that amount of time?!? So today felt VERY good to get two rooms completely in order. Now the only addition to Anja's room will be a cover for the footstool that I've been working on up at my mom's, and is definitely no emergency except the footstool it's being made to cover is incredibly ugly.

The above picture is Anja, unable to decide what to make for dinner. (One of her favorite things to do is to play with my cookbooks and take all the recipes out of them and scatter them, or carry them around. No big deal until today when the dog drooled water all over them. Oops.)

And now... Halloween:

That's the three bears chasing Goldilox out of their woods. Martin's costume was especially good this time since he didn't have to bundle up, and therefore could show off his chest hair and leg hair. And for some reason he wore his slippers instead of regular shoes. Hm.

Wiggle, Wiggle

I had a doctor appointment this morning, and took Anja with me. She was AWESOME. Totally smiley at everyone and through the whole appointment (which was slightly prolonged because he couldn't find the hearbeat, and even though the baby was clearly still alive and well by the way my belly was flopping around, he brought in the ultrasound machine to get a heartrate anyway) she just sat on the floor looking at her animal book and playing with my wallet. She's so good! I guess it's no wonder she's such a crappy sleeper... if she were perfect at night she'd be too good to be true!

Speaking of her sleep though, we are making progress. Not so much in STAYING asleep, but in GOING to sleep, she is making improvements. For the past two nights I've been able to put her down by walking her around the dining room, singing. This is amazing. We haven't been able to successfully walk her to sleep since she was probably three months old. She used to only nurse to sleep or be driven, and once she was weaned she's just changed her constant eating habits to a bottle. I'm reeeaaallllyyy hoping this lasts, because it is SO much cozier to walk and snuggle a baby to sleep than to drive or feed her to sleep with a bottle. And I LOVE it when kids fall asleep on your shoulder, and you can tell the moment they do because suddenly the just go limp and heavy on you. It's so adorable! And we have a giant mirror in our dining room so I can see her cute little sleeping face, and her fat cheeks all squished up against my shoulder. I love it! She's so cute!

I can't believe tomorrow is Halloween. It feels like it should be later in the year than it is... October has gone by surprisingly slowly for me. I feel like I should be gearing up for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but really I need to wash our bear costumes and find some buckets or pillow cases to collect our Halloween loot. I think we're going to skip the traditional walking around the neighborhood and just go to all our friends and family who'd like to see Anja. Since she doesn't care how much candy she gets, it'd be more fun to be able to see more people we know.

This weekend will be pretty laid back except for some major housework needing to be done before next weekend, which is Anja's birthday party. The back room will definitely not be in order by then, so maybe we can figure out a way to close it off and let the rest of our house be open. I really need to do a deep clean of the kitchen before then too....

Okay, instead of rambling on about all this garbage on my blog, I think I'll hang it up and get to work!

Funny Duck

Anja's favorite thing to do is stick out her tongue. Although, she does have some other tricks, among them a funny little fake cough that she does whenever someone around her (including the dog) coughs, sneezes, or makes some other kind of noise with their mouth that might resemble one of the two. Also, she does it randomly sometimes just to make me laugh.

Okay, I'm totally ready to have another baby. It seems like EVERYBODY is having babies these days. Plus, I'm ready for Anja to have a playmate. Last night she and I went up to my parents' house for dinner and the Antonios were there. She had SO MUCH FUN playing with them. At one point I had an errand to run, and she was having so much fun with Grace that I left her there and when I got back, she didn't even notice me. And then she only woke up three times in the night!! She must've been beat after all that fun with her cousins. But another good thing about her having a playmate here is that I'll be able to get stuff done. I often think about how appealing the idea of downsizing is. I love our house, but a part of me really adores the idea of purging half our stuff, and moving into a small apartment. A house can be overwhelming by way of housework, but on top of that, I have to take Anja with me wherever I go. I can't leave her alone because I can't always hear her if I'm in another room. Sometimes I dream of living in a apartment where everything is visible from the main room, except the bedrooms and bathrooms, which obviously have doors.

I've been cleaning out Anja's room and it's looking great. Did I ever mention that I lint-rolled the carpet? After vacuuming it a number of times and it STILL being covered in dog hair, I took the lint-roller to it and it took awhile, but it worked! Now her room is not only usable, but also very enjoyable. It's the warmest room in the house, and I've started keeping the door shut in order to keep the dog permanently out. Anja has a basket of toys in there and there is nothing in there that is "off limits" to her, so she can go to town and with the door shut, she can't escape! I feel like I've posted all this before...

Yesterday Martino was able to spend some time at home in the afternoon! It was pretty great. He was going from his conference in Indy up to Fort Wayne for school visits, and in the time he was at home we were able to have a giftcard starbucks date (I know it seems like we have a ton of starbucks giftcards. This is true. People keep giving them to us, even though we don't even like starbucks and I don't know why anyone thinks we do! But who complains about free money, right?) hang out a little bit, and take a family nap late in the afternoon. It was awesome. When we all woke up, he packed up quickly and hit the road, and that's when Anja and I headed up the hill for dinner.

Tonight is the last night of the travel season! Martin will be home tomorrow evening and then it's over! Hooray! This season went by a lot faster than last year, for a number of reasons, and I'm really glad it did. And glad it's over!

Here's Anja all ready for the winter! The hat in the top picture is the one I made and the one in the bottom is the one I got from GlobalFest. Her little red sweater is the same one she wore last winter, when she was so tiny. It looks smaller in the pictures than it does in real life... and she had a winter coat, but the red one makes a nice thick jacket for fall because it's lined with fleece. And it has those cute toggles!