Archive for April 16th, 2008

It’s been a while (and by that, I mean more than a week) since I’ve done a random stuff post.  I know I’ve missed it, I don’t know about you.  (I suppose it’s too bad if you haven’t missed my random posts because you’re going to get one anyhow.)

• Am really, really wanting Nintendo’s “Wii Fit“.  It comes out May 21st (hey, that’s the same day AndyZ will be born!).  Have you heard of this?  I think I heard of it back before we even got our Wii and it was one of the big reasons I wanted to get the Wii in the first place.  Now, reading more about it, I think it’s not only something that I want, but something that I need.  At least, that’s what my hips are telling me.  And my non-existent stamina.  So I’m hoping this isn’t too expensive because I’m not a rich woman (in case you haven’t noticed).
• Have you seen my review blog?  I’m sorry, there are only three reviews on there so far, but that is something that will be fixed soon.  No worries.  I have a couple of book reviews that I need to put up and I have some movies I want to talk about.  Plus, I joined the Parent Bloggers Network so there’ll be plenty of fun to be had, don’t you fret!
• Have discovered the coolest Firefox add-on ever.  Well, maybe not EVER, since I’m fairly fond of the add-on/plugin for WordPress that allows me to install themes and plugins on my blog with the click of a button.  That’s pretty handy, that is.  But this is cool too.  It’s called the Better GReader extension and it lets you do some nifty things to trick out your Google Reader.  But my favorite thing by far is that I can now actually go to the actual blog post I’m reading without having to leave Reader at all.
  
  Now, all those blogs that do not have full feeds or that I want to comment on or have changed their design, added a poll, etc… I can just easily click over and visit their site RIGHT THERE.  No new tab or anything.  This is a MIRACLE.  For someone who is as uptight about their laziness as I am, this is nothing short of a technological epiphany.  Praise be!
• Like many of you out there, I have also become a huge fan of Pioneer Woman’s Photography site.  Through her, I have become enamored of Photoshop “Actions” and have used hers as well as others rather obsessively over the last several days.  I’ve gone back over old photos from YEARS ago to play with these darned things.  And it’s so fun.  Where has all this stuff been all my life?  These actions make my pictures look so much better than they actually are!  Judge for yourself:
  Before (not 100% the same, but close enough)
  
  After
  
  Neato, huh?  Like I said, I’ve been having WAY too much fun with this.
• Lastly… I’ve been hanging in there with the whole “house full of monkeys” bit.  It helps to have reasonable children, I’m sure.  The greatest challenges have come from the times where Liam either needs me for comfort or loves or he’s doing something completely rotten and I’m stuck nursing Evie.  But either scenario is a deviation from the norm, for the most part, so we’ve gotten on just fine.  And I have had to learn to loosen my standards on a few things because I simply just can’t be all places at all times.  Sucks, but there you have it.  My biggest issue right now is that it seems like Evie wants to nurse constantly.  Am feeling rather cow-like at the moment.

Filed under General Snark |

I hate to say it, friends, but my life is virtually unrecognizable these days.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing either.  (Okay, so why do I “hate to say it” then?  GAH, you make no sense, woman.)  Four years ago, it felt like our luck was nothing but bad.  That if there was a divergence along a path, that we would automatically be sent down the thorny, brackish path instead of the clear, bright, happy path.  We seriously got to the point where we just expected to have rotten luck.

Good luck was always something that happened to other people.  We would be eating out (often at Mimi’s, because a) their french onion soup rocks and b) everything else they make rocks too), and see a family sit down at a nearby table.  They would have several children in tow, a baby in a high chair, a rowdy toddler… I would have a hard time taking my eyes off of them.  Wondering what it would be like to be them.  Wondering if they knew just how lucky they really were.

So it’s strange to find myself on that side of the divide now.  We’re now the ones at Mimi’s (triple berry stuffed french toast rocks my world) with our 8 year old, rowdy toddler and baby in tow.  We feel eyes in the restaurant follow us as we are led to our seats, watching us as we get the kids situated and read over our menus.  And I think, “So this is what it’s like.  I do know how lucky I am.  This feels so weird.”

I have a hard time still, thinking of ourselves in these terms.  I may say “two under two” a lot, but I think that’s more to convince myself than anything else.   Is this really who I am now?  Do I really have THREE children?  Two of whom are so young that they’re both considered babies?  I feel like we’ve gone from famine to feast and while, at the time, it felt like that transition came about awfully slowly, it now feels as if it all happened overnight.

Four years ago I was sitting in our rental house, trying to pick up the pieces of my heart and wondering if in fact we would be moving into our first house in a couple months time.  After all, that might resemble good luck and lord knows we didn’t have that.  Now, here I sit in our house, my oldest son waiting to walk to the bus in 15 minutes, my youngest son sitting in the pack n’ play with a sippy cup of milk and playing with a board book and my newborn baby taking a catnap on my chest after having breakfast at my expense.  It’s surreal.

If you had told me then that this is what my life would be like now, I would never have believed you.

Filed under General Snark |