2008 March 15 — slackermama . com

Wow, was last night ever a blast. We were invited to a friend’s house for a barbecue and some Rock Band playin’ to celebrate a birthday and we had so much fun it’s not even funny. We had a great time, as did the kids (at least, I think Harry did. He left in tears but I think that’s because he was Officially Exhausted). We left close to 11pm because both Liam and Harry were showing signs of imploding and I could tell Kile was getting tired (alcohol does that to the poor dear, you see). I was tired too, but heck, I’m ALWAYS tired anymore so that’s hardly an indication of anything. Mostly, I was just impressed that Liam lasted that long without going thermonuclear. I credit it to him sleeping in Friday morning and taking an Awesome Nap that afternoon. STILL, as late as we left, we were still the FIRST PEOPLE to leave. And we weren’t the only ones there with small kids either (the kids threatened to outnumber the adults and they may very well have done so but I never saw them all together in one place long enough to count them all)!

Liam crashed out as soon as we got home and Harry stayed up for about an hour after that, to make sure Liam was well asleep first and to talk some Important Stuff with me. We had a good mom/son talk. I recognized a lot of his emotional behavior was due to him being so tired, but it was still nice to have the opportunity to talk heavy stuff with him and actually have him listen. We went to bed shortly after he did because by then, we were mere shadows of our former selves. And wouldn’t you know it? It still took me at least a good hour to fall asleep. This happens EVERY NIGHT. I cannot sleep for shite anymore, people. Not at night, at least. I guess that’s why my afternoon nap is so blessed, because I’m sure not getting any sort of decent sleep at night. We even all woke up late this morning: 9 am. With a toddler around, that’s just about unheard of. Of course, this doesn’t apply to Harry and he didn’t wake up until about 11 am.

Since then, our day has been occupied with getting the room ready for painting and then the actual painting. Which isn’t to imply that *I’VE* done anything towards this end. Because I haven’t. I’ve done several loads of Harry Soup (he has the nastiest laundry known to man, I swear) and boxed up and organized Liam’s clothes and moved them to his new digs in “the boys’ room”. But then I started to feel crummy. And then I got a back spasm. The sort that lays me out like a writhing worm. They are AWFUL. I get spasms often these days, but usually one or two and then they move on, leaving a sore back in their wake. Not today. One spasm after another after another after ANOTHER. I was in agony. I sat on a heating pad, took some Tylenol and even got a backrub from the saintly Kile before finally succumbing to a nap. I woke up feeling a bit better, no more spasms, just the sore back.

The boys just got back from a trip to Home Depot to pick up painting supplies because apparently the stuff we had was Unfit. So Kile is up there now, doing the painting. Or so I assume. I am down here watching Liam run around the downstairs like a maniac and making sure he doesn’t do Something Awful. Because he totally would. Still, I feel rather useless. As always.

In the meantime, would you mind terribly if I asked you to take that lovely BlogHerAds survey that’s going around? I know you’ve seen this on about a dozen other blogs by now. After all, as it says, “If you love this blogger”. So if you love me, of course you’ll take it. I guess even if you DON’T love me, you’ll take it anyhow. Because who knows, you could win a trip to the BlogHer conference! Or something. Plus this will be all sorts of good for my site here and will help BlogHerAds to only show us the ads we want to see. As opposed to the ads we don’t want to see. Or something. Anyhow. If you see it there in my far right sidebar, click on it. Or, if you’re looking at an add for Shutterfly or something, you can click this link here and take the survey too. I’d totally appreciate it. Muah!

In other news, before I leave you for the day, I took some pictures of The Belly yesterday. I’ve been wanting to take these before the impending birth but wanted to put them off a reasonable amount of time. It’s not the same as getting them done by a professional, of course, but I think they turned out rather nice. Kile helped me out and we took them before going to our friend’s party last night. Since I was all made up and my hair all combed and stuff. Might as well take advantage of the glamor, right? And I wanted a nice, special picture to remember this last pregnancy by. I think it worked out great. What do you think?

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Five days left until my baby is here! Unreal. And I apologize right now for how short this week’s list is. I have 155 feeds piled up in my feed reader this morning from yesterday. But yesterday was such a hectic day and then we were at a friend’s birthday bash last night (where a heck of a lot of Rock Band was played) and were up awful late and then slept in this morning… so you know how it goes. I could go through all those links and put off publishing my list until later in the day, but I’d rather get it up for you all right now. Instead, I’ll include any possible links from yesterday in NEXT week’s list. Which reminds me: I will have to publish next week’s list from the hospital. I’m not sure exactly if that’ll happen or not. I’d like to think it will, but you know how it goes. So maybe, just maybe, next week’s list will have to be put off until the FOLLOWING week. Which would mean a super-duper double-sized YNTR list. I don’t know if the internet could handle such linky love. I guess we’ll have to find out. In the meantime, enjoy these super-fabulous links because they are super-fabulous.

The 40 Foot Gorilla in the Room from Crunchy Carpets. Boy, do I know where she’s coming from with this one. And her son reminds me so much of mine that it’s eerie. What a sweet little boy she has, with such a great heart. It’s hard to deal with the heartbreak and disappointment of losing our babies ourselves, but to see our children go through the same emotions is agonizing.
Shaking it off from flawed but authentic. Is this ever a rough subject. When people in our lives read our blogs, and object, or when random hateful people read them and send us vicious emails… it’s hard to see WHY we put ourselves through this. I just have to remind myself of this post and the beautiful and honest sentiments this author puts forth the next time I feel myself bogged down by the harshness of it all.
Great Ways To Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day With Kids from Buzz Off. I love these ideas! Melissa always comes up with the most clever activities to celebrate the holiday. I know better than to think that I will actually do even half these activities, but I like the thought of doing them. And perhaps you aren’t as sloth-ish as I am at the moment and will actually do some of these fantastic activities with your kids.
The Long road to recovery from Running Stitch. Brit is awesome and this post is one of those that just SHOWS how awesome she is. I love what she has to say about the Harry Potter books because I feel exactly the same way. And I do often wonder if those books aren’t necessarily for kids, but moreso for adults because some of the themes involved are fairly mature. What do you think?
A Sh***y Post from Citizen of the Month. Poor Neil has had a time of it lately. I wouldn’t say this is a “sh***y post”, but the sort of thing a lot of of write when we feel we are out of ideas, out of inspiration, needing a little understanding from those out there who read us every day. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?
Newsletter Spam from leahpeah. I want to send out a big AMEN to everything Leah mentioned here. I hate when newsletters make it downright impossible for you to unsubscribe. Half the time I admit to just marking them as spam in gmail and letting the filters have their way with them, even though I know that’s beyond wrong.
Black Heels to Tractor Wheels: A Love Story. Part XXXI from Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. OMG, if you aren’t reading P-Dub’s love story, you’ve GOTTA start. And you need to start from the beginning (just look up her “Black Heels to Tractor Wheels” category on her blog). I did last week and I was a spastic mess by the end of the evening. It was THAT GOOD. And this installment was perhaps the icing on the cake, the post I had been waiting for (since, you know, last week). If you are a die-hard romantic, you NEED TO READ this series. Seriously.
The Baddest Mommy on the Block from amalah . com. There is nothing bad about Amy as a mom. You all know how I feel about the c-section debate (or at least you should know by now). It’s a personal decision and no one has any right to make anyone else feel bad about it. I wish so many of us didn’t feel we had to explain WHY we make the decisions we do. I wish we didn’t have to feel so defensive. But we do. So big kudos and hugs to Amy. As long as she made the right choice for HER, that’s what matters.
Official: Two Parts for Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows… from The Leaky Cauldron. SQUEE!! I’m so excited about the last Harry Potter movie! Well, I’m excited about the second to last one too, but I will admit to often daydreaming about how the last movie will turn out. Knowing that they will not have plenty of time to give the story justice warms my heart. And I say a big BOO to naysayers who can only see studios wanting to make buckets of money (which of course they will) out of the whole deal. Who cares? As far as I can tell, it’s a win-win situation for everyone!!

So that’s all this week. Pardon me while I go have a Braxton Hicks, change my child’s rancid diaper and try to make a dent in the chores that need to get done this weekend. It’s really going to be a rather crazy weekend around these parts. Want to come help?

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