For your Amusement

I have seen a lot of bickering and whining and crying this week.  And most of it wasn't even ME!  Somehow, not having the older 2 around has allowed Callie and Delaney to hone their teasing skills on each other.  Add to this the change of routine and all that, and I have dealt with more than my share of unhappy girls. Some days I want to pull out my hair.  Why can't we just be friends?!

Yep, this is the sad, crying face I saw a lot of.  Note that I have already bribed her with a candy to get her cooperation.  I think we were late and I needed to get her out the door so I could drop her off at the babysitter so I could go see the OB.  (All is well, a strong healthy heartbeat of  150-160 beats)  Delaney has just been feeling extra fragile lately.

This is just for you my friends!  I know, people keep looking at me like I'm going to drop this kid any second.  I wish!  However, No, my official due date is Sept 27.  I have 7 weeks officially to go.  I'm just big. Shockingly, I have only gained 18lbs as of Friday, and at least 8 of it will be baby.  I do not know why I resemble whale proportions.  And if you didn't have perfect genes, and were on baby #5, I expect you'd look like a water retaining sea cow as well.  No, I'm not sensitive at all!!  And I think I look a bit bigger because Callie took this picture of me and its from her perspective.   That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

Back to the teasing and crying thing.....  As I was doing my hair this morning, 3 minutes before we needed to walk out the door to church, Callie somehow threw an empty water bottle at Delaney and nailed her around the eye.  I heard the "I'm really hurt" cry and hustled downstairs to see this lovely cut below her eye. It bled a little and puffed a little (and looked a lot worse than this shot conveys), and we eventually made it out the door to church.  One of my pet peeves is that this ward starts a good 10 minutes late (yes, EVERY Sunday!), but today I was glad.  It meant we were there well before the meeting started even though we were technically late.

This is Callie.  Her new favorite movie is "Spirit, Stallion of the Cimmeron" and she has watched it every day now.  I have not let her watch any TV since we got home, so this video is about all the tv she gets.  The funny thing is that it is a sad movie.  Every time she watches it, she cries.  She is so sweet and tenderhearted. Sometimes I have to sit with her.  It makes her so sad, but she loves to watch it.  Go figure!

Neurotic Me

As I grow older, I notice things about me that are different.  I'm not talking about physical stuff; that's a given.  I mean the little neurotic stuff.  For example, I use to ride my bike out to the stables, ride bareback for hours, and then bike home.  I don't actually recall showering as regularly as I went riding.  Nope, a little sweat and horse scent didn't bother me at all!  I don't remember caring, or even noticing that it might be the heat of the summer when I was out there in my horsey world.  Now, as a grown up, I am pretty fastidious.  I like to be clean.  I shower daily, and if I sweat, I want to wash it off.  If I'm going to do something sweaty or that will get me dirty, I have to plan around it so I can shower afterwards.  I have a lot of hair, which takes a while to dry, so I really have to plan my day around my shower.  This can get a bit complicated.  I must plan my exercise and/or icky activities (like house-painting in the middle of summer in Arkansas, or going to the lake or the pool) around when I'm going to shower.  Such a more complicated life than when I was 12!

Something else that's changed is the stuff that grosses me out is now different.  I think I may possibly have an actual minor phobia about this.  You may know that we had mice move into the kitchen while I was gone.  The exterminator came yesterday.  (As an aside, I'm disgusted that I could have done all the stuff he's doing, so we didn't really need him at all.  I just didn't know what to do with the mice.)  The man looked at where the mice were, guessed where they were sneaking in and set some snap-traps.  There are now 2 dead mousies in the house.  The man will be back in a week to check his traps.  Eeeew!  In a week, the sad little mousie corpses will be well on their way to decomposition.   Okay, that is a totally normal thing to be grossed out about.  

My problem is that I am certainly capable of disposing of the traps.  I should be able to pick them up and put them in the trash.  Somehow, I cannot yet seem to make myself do this.  My rational mind tells me it is fine. I know it is.  It won't hurt me.  It won't bite me.  It is just a dead mouse.  I am not afraid of mice.  When they are in cages, they are quite cute.  However, attached to a trap, and very dead...... well, I am having a really hard time with this!  Dan sweetly does not mock me.   He, being in Arizona (or perhaps California by now) cannot do the manly task himself.  Rather than laugh at my inability to remove the mice, he mentioned that we have neighbors and friends I can call to do it for me. I think he has forgotten that I detest asking for help.  So we shall see which is stronger:  My inability to pick up a dead mouse, or my inability to ask for help!

Things I miss

I miss being in Arkansas.  Shocking, I know.  I miss several things about it:

I miss the fruit.  Not as tasty here, for some reason.

I miss the fresh garden produce.  Cuke salad, tomato salad, garlic beans...... yummy!

I miss the endless space for the kids to play.  They don't miss it yet, but they will.

I miss the library.  It had a great kid's room.

I miss Diamond Head Chinese Restaurant.  They had a handy drive through and I could drive by, hand over my $3.51 and drive off with the most marvelous Crab Rangoon ever made.  Sigh.  The gal there knew me by sight.  I miss her. I miss those Crab Rangoon more.  No one else makes them so deliciously! Nothing else compares.

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And now that I am on the subject of things I miss.... I miss my body:

I miss being able to bend over.

I miss being able to roll over at night without needing a crane and pulley.

I miss being able to run 5 miles- now I can barely walk one.

I miss being able to squeeze into places.

I miss being able to drive without the steering wheel poking into my belly.

I definitely miss being able to get up and down without a lot of effort!

I miss being able to grab an errant child.  Now its almost too much work to discipline.  And that's not good.

On the plus side, in 6-8 weeks it will be over and 'll have other things to complain about! But I will NOT miss being pregnant!

Last 3 days!

This is what I've been looking at the last 3 days:

Yikes!  This was much more in focus when it was smaller!  Yes, Delaney napped nicely in the car.  She also teased her sister, cried, whined, giggled, colored, threw toys, watched videos, and did very well.

I finally saw the Arch in St Louis.  I have to tell you I was a bit cross though.  I had gotten on the 64, which was to take me almost all the way home, but it kicked me off onto a detour, and when I took this picture, I had no clue where I was or how I was getting back to the 64.  But I followed all the signs and there it was!

I saw a lot of nothing.

Callie got to be my co-pilot for part of the drive.  She was torn between getting to sit up front with me, or watching movies in the back.  Sitting up front won for an hour or 2 and then it was back to movies.  She was an amazing traveller.  It was a looong, boring drive for us all.  I ate a bag of M&Ms and a bag of Twizzlers to stay awake and I felt so pukey.

I saw waaaay too much construction!  Ug.  I hated it.  Plus, we had to stop almost every hour, and no, it wasn't for me.  Callie had to pee nearly every hour on the hour.  It meant we got to stretch legs regularly though, and that was nice.

We saw lots of lovely Kentucky.

This was where I was going to stop for the night.  Then I realized the hotel was in the middle of downtown.  Yikes!  I hate, hate, hate trying to navigate center-city streets.  So we kept driving.  Unfortunately, in West Virginia, there is nothing.  I mean nothing!  So we kept driving and driving and driving!  I think we went another 2 hours till we found a suitable stopping point.

Who-hoo!!  We made it to Virginia!

Yep, we're in Virginia.  I know it looks like there's plenty of space here, but this was bumper-to bumper, standing traffic from the time we got on the 95, till the time I got off.   I hate traffic!

So yes, Callie, Delaney and I made it home safely.  Callie is busy reacquainting herself with all her toys, and they are now strewn across the floor.  However, she has played quietly pretty much since we arrived home at 4:30 yesterday!  Life is good.

Say What?!

Yesterday as we drove somewhere, Marian asked about the flowers along the road. Right now there are a lot of pink flowers on bare stalks just growing in the middle of nowhere. I told Marian how flowers grow, and then added that that particular flower happens to be called a "naked lady" because of the way it looks right now in its lifespan- bare, naked stalk with a lovely flower on top.

My mother was not present for this conversation. So she was slightly alarmed when Marian came to her and asked "Why are there so many Naked Ladies in Arkansas?"