Giving Thanks for a Full House

I am happy to report a successful Thanksgiving! I've been on hiatus from blogging for a bit because all 14 members of my family were at my house for the holiday. Whew!

Last week at this time we were welcoming my dad and Carol in from Florida. Noah was immediately spoiled. So were we; they cooked us salmon just for hosting them.

Then last Tuesday night we welcomed Rachel (aka: Mimsies) and Jared from Ohio. Noah was immediately spoiled. So were we; they occupied him so we took naps.

On Wednesday we cooked and then welcomed our brother Rich and his wife, Andrea also in from Ohio. He told jokes, we all laughed, we all drank wine, and the jokes became funnier. :) Andrea bought me delicious candles just for hosting them.

On Thursday my other sister's family came over (Jenn, Dustin, and the 3 boys) along with all of the aforementioned family members so we could dive in and savor the fabulous gourmet meal we prepared. Ahem. I mean, so we could give thanks for all the blessings in our lives...

Friday and Saturday each brought some goodbyes.

Saturday night Noah choked on a carrot while coughing until he turned blue and went limp as a ragdoll and passed out cold for 12 seconds. (He's fine now, thanks to my lightning quick reflexes and current Red Cross card...)

Sunday we bid farewell to the rest and found ourselves alone in a quiet house, thankful for our family but sad they live so far away. As we were dropping Rachel and Jared off at the airport, Rachel made the comment that next time she sees Noah he'll probably be talking. Life is too short to live so far from so many of the people you love! We made a pact to live close sometime soon. Until then however, the emails and picture swapping will continue. The holidays and vacations together will continue. And, of course, the blogging will continue.

Why, Mrs. Robinson...

So I tried to seduce Greg last night. He was reaching into the pantry to get something, and with great sexy flair, I grabbed his arm and pulled him back towards me. Apparently he had one hand on the doorhandle, and, well, basically I ended up smacking him in the forehead with the corner of the door. He didn't move or say anything for quite some time. Just stood there with his lips pursed and eyes closed. He had no idea what had happened, or why, when he finally opened his eyes, I was standing there half naked with a horrified expression on my face. He asked me quietly for some advil, and by the time I got back (still half-naked), he had a huge red and purple bump above his eye. All he said was that that's gonna leave a mark, and that I might as well just go get dressed.

Rejected.

My New Prize Possession

So I like soccer, specifically the MLS. I go to most of the games here, and Greg and I watch others on TV. A good friend of ours does rehabilitation for one of the MLS teams. I was chatting with him on the phone the other day and the conversation started out talking about moving a piano or somesuch, and ended with him telling me that last time he was in L.A. working the soccer game, he asked if he could get Landon Donovan's jersey for me. Who is Landon Donovan, you might ask? Shame on you. He is one of my favorite MLS players, is on the National Team, and has gone to the World Cup several times. Oh, and he looks like this.


This was actually removed from his body and given to my friend to give to me.


And now it's on my body. According to the transitive property of Geometry, I think that pretty much means we've touched bodies.

No More Counting in Months

Although he celebrated it with the final remnants of the stomach flu, as of last Thursday, November 2nd, my baby boy was officially a 1-year old. It didn't seem official, however, until this past Sunday, when we had his 1st Birthday Party.



Since we had just invited a houseful of friends over for Greg's 30th birthday party, we decided to make this one more relaxed, more quiet, more family. Did I actually say relaxed and quiet and family in the same sentence? Do you know our families? Cousins galore, nephews eating 15 chicken nuggets each and then playing contact soccer in the backyard pausing occasionally to hold their stomachs, babies and toddlers everywhere, doting aunts, uncles, grandparents, and sisters taking all manner of photos of all the chaos, mountains of tissue paper, and half-eaten plates of food and cake on every solid surface. What a site! What a fun site!


The big cake, (which had a raspberry filling and was decorated to match the plates because I am a first-time mom), and the obligatory "Smash cake" for Noah (which came free when I purchased the big cake, because I am a first-time mom who's cheap).


This is the messiest my house has ever been. For once, though, I didn't even care! Listen to me, the martyr. I actually had to make myself not care so I could fully enjoy my kid's birthday. I swear I am Monica from Friends.


All the fabulous presents he got and he loved the tissue paper most!


Calling all parents, pinatas are the best birthday game ever. Your husband gets to be in charge and all the kids remember for weeks that your party allowed them to hit things and get candy. This is nephew Numero Uno.


Nephew Numero Dos.


Bye Bye!

Crappy Halloween! Poopy Birthday!!

Oh my word, what a crazy week for me. And what a crazy post this will be! Here goes:

Tuesday night: Happy Halloween! Got Noah all dressed up for his first Trick-or-treating (actually, just planning to take photos and hand out candy with him dressed up).


Aslan, the Mighty Lion of God. :)


We walked around to a few neighbor's houses and had our picture taken (poor Greg was stuck for an hour in traffic trying to get home).


Noah was definitely the fiercest Lion around. Until we got back to our house, I set him down, and he promptly puked all over the front porch, with innocent trick-or-treaters walking by! I took him inside, where he puked again, & this time little splashes of the puke got into my bowl of candy and on a few wrappers. I took him to the sink. Yep, puked again, and got most of it in his mane and down his chest... It contained chunks...


Run for your lives! One wrong move and he'll anoint you with regurgitated strawberry yogurt! I called his daycare provider who said two other kids had been sent home last week with a stomach virus. Sweet.

Wednesday: I was off, stayed home with him, and pampered his little tummy and butt.

Thursday: NOAH'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! I baked cupcakes for his daycare. He was feeling great and hadn't puked in 24 hours. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, NOAH!

4pm I got a call at work. He'd been vomiting for several hours so I picked him up, brought him home, cleaned poop off the RUG that ran down his leg and was being licked up by my dog before I noticed, and waited for reinforcements to get home. About 6:30pm Greg walks in and says, "Um, I don't feel so good." The rest of the evening was me dealing with the sounds of stomach virus season: Gurgling, vomiting, be creative...

Today things are fairly back to normal. Greg's at work. It's my day off and Noah is napping. I'm blogging. And thus far I don't hear any gurgling coming from my own stomach. At least not yet...

The Big Three-Oh

Greg turned 30 on Saturday!!! It's been SO hard not to blog about this up to this point because I've been planning and scheming and flat-out lying for 6 months. Basically, his best friend flew out from California (they hadn't seen each other in 3 years) and he had NO idea. Then after a couple of days of hanging out and celebrating casually, I threw him a huge surprise party on Satuday night with like 30 friends--again, he had NO idea. Also, I painted and re-did our entire front room office so it would look good for the party, and, of course, Greg had NO idea why I was in such a mad rush to undertake and finish this project in one week. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure. Greg's the one with the sexy specs on.


I told Greg we were picking my dad up from the airport when lo and behold, Andy hops in the front seat of the car!


At the party on Saturday--Greg just walking in the back door...to see 30 faces staring at him...


The food at the party--the chafing pan had meatballs on one side and mashed potatoes on the other. Yes, we totally had a mashed potato bar and yes, we got so many compliments on it. Who doesn't like mashed potatoes? Also present: apples, pears, and cranberries with fruit dip, baguette slices with 3 dips, spiced pecans, mozzarella and cherry tomato skewers with basil, and cinnamon raisin biscotti. We also had a massive vat of homemade sangria.


When I went to pick up the cake I ordered, they had made the wrong kind. After I shed a few stress-related tears in the middle of Central Market (cut me some slack, it was like 2 hours until partytime and I had no cake, was unshowered, and was 30 minutes from home), they gave me these two chocolate mousse cakes for free. They were so good and saved me moolah. I stopped crying.


The entryway with all sorts of embarrassing photos of Greg growing up (including one of him smoking a cigar by a campfire wearing only undies, a poofy jacket, and a beanie), as well as some hot ones from college and recently. :)


There were about 30 guests total; here are about 20 of them. Greg is the one just to the right of the cake (not the one with the halo of glowing light standing over our bouquet of flowers).


And finally, the two fabulous ladies who helped me for weeks to plan and keep it all under wraps. A friend will help you with a party. A good friend will help you tell bold-faced lies to your husband for months in order to more adequately embarrass him in front of his friends on the day of his first old-age milestone. Thanks, girls, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! You're still sexy after all these years...

P.S. There were several really cute pictures of me and Greg together that my friends took with their cameras and I didn't end up with any on mine. :(

Not in Highschool Anymore

Well, after a very busy past week, I am finally blogging again. In reponse to Sarah and Rachel's recent posts about highschool reunions, here's mine.

So I went to my 10 year reunion last weekend. Some people changed quite a bit and some look and act exactly the same; I like to think I'm one of the ones who has changed. See for yourself! The me in 1996 sported the poofy, swept-to-one-side, no-bangs look, whereas the me today is sporting the non-poofy, parted-to-one-side, no-bangs look. Totally different.

You've read in previous posts about my highschool group, the Beautifuls. Well, we all met up before each event so we could go together. We had a pact entitled "No Beautiful Left Behind" which basically meant that if any one of us was left alone at any of the homecoming or reunion events, the others would have to leave whomever they were with to come to the aid of said lonely Beautiful. Pretty much a failsafe so no one was left to feel like a loser. Thankfully, we didn't have to enact the plan at all because we had a great time talking to our old friends, and, um, people we never had a conversation with in 4 years of highschool. Here are the Beautifuls, then and now:



Finally, I tried to upload a photo of our class' "Favorites and Least Favorites" list, but with no luck (glare on the picture). In any case, here are some of the ones that best highlight the overall coolness level of my graduating class:

Favorite TV Show: Party of Five (embarrassed to say I was addicted)
Least Favorite Show: California Dreams (watched it every Saturday morning)

Favorite Male Vocalist: Chris Isaac (don't know any of his songs)
Least Favorite Male Vocalist: Michael Bolton (I know all the words to "When a Man Loves a Woman")

Favorite Clothing Store: Old Navy
Least Favorite Store: County Seat (what? I have no idea what this is)

Favorite Restaurant: TFI Friday's (totally the cool place to go back then)
Least Favorite Restaurant: Pancho's (Have to agree; they serve Monday's tacos on Friday)

So that's about it. We were nerds. I, apparently, was a bigger nerd. But at least now I have a hot husband and gorgeous son to show off. :)

The Great Pumpkin Caper

I have officially turned into that mom who takes her kid to the local Pumpkin Patch for photo opportunities. I went today with my friend Stacey, and her son Carson.

Hey mom, what are these big orange soccer balls and why don't they roll?



Noah and Carson, chillin' in the ole Radio Flyer. They were obviously the cutest babies there. They were also wondering why they'd been subjected to sitting in a wagon with pumpkins for 20 minutes while their moms took picture after picture until they both looked in the same direction.



Both hands MUST be occupied at ALL times. Notice his Junior Harley Rider shirt? He can thank his ultra hip grandparents for this outfit. It came with a wool-lined leather jacket that he had on earlier. They're pretty much his only winter clothes at the moment, and with our current brisk weather of 60 degrees, I thought I'd 'bundle' him up. Apparently this is what bundling looks like in Texas...



So on our way home from the pumpkin patch, I spotted this house in our neighborhood. It doesn't quite compare to the creepiness of Rachel's neighborhood halloween decor (because it is without bloody corpses and lawn gallows), but it was still fairly creepy. What an interesting season this is; I think of pumpkins and hay, and other people turn their front lawn into cemetaries. Ahhh, the diversity!

Fabulous Fall Weather

I got an email from my good friend in Colorado today in which she showed a great picture of what she woke up to yesterday. Ahhh, to be able to wear a sweater at the end of October.



As for those of us down in Texas? Well, it's supposed to rain today. It is currently 87 degrees, sunny, and there's not a cloud in the sky. I took a picture, but it's having trouble downloading so... Just imagine what a beautiful day in May should look like, and that's what we have here today. Great for May, a little frustrating for OCTOBER! I have 3 pumpkins on my porch and I'm afraid they're going to bake themselves.

Two Things of Note

Yes, two noteworthy, or rather blogworthy things happened recently.

1) Noah started walking! He took about 8 steps at the end of last week, but didn't do it again until yesterday when he took about 5 more. Today he walked all over and with much more confidence. I'll ask you to excuse my hideous double-chin in this one.



Mostly though, he just likes to be pulled around the house with his huge body stuffed into a toy wagon. Rachel, you can officially be jealous of his huge thigh-rolls I get to grab everyday.



And #2) I FINALLY got a haircut after six months of wearing ponytails.



How did we celebrate these wonderful occurances? Photo-ops and cuddling, of course! (SO posed.)

We're not in college anymore

Sorry I've been away for awhile; we went up to our college homecoming this past weekend and had a great time seeing friends, family, and showing off Noah for the first time (last year when we went up, I was 36 weeks pregnant and had him 3 weeks after we got home--I was enormous and swollen and was determined to go back this year looking skinny). So after a 5 hour drive in a car with my friend and both of our babies, we finally got to some other friends' home. I'm not really one for "small talk" with people I haven't really talked to in years (I'd rather just stand aside, hidden, and see what everyone looks like), so I mainly stick to my good friends and go to one or two of the main events.
Truth be told, homecoming has changed dramatically since we started going 6 years ago when we were younger, free of responsibility, and no one had kids. It was like the best of college all crammed into one weekend. Now, the days are filled with kids, kids, and more kids. It is definitely a time for everyone to bring all the kids they've had that we knew or didn't know about, out of the woodwork, and show them off (myself included). We walk around and see the familiar expressions and smiles of our old friends in these new, tiny little faces, and we realize they are seeing us in our son as well. When did all of this happen?
But as soon as the kids are in bed, out comes the pizza and the beers, the sweaters and the cold weather, and like 6 hours of re-hashing college stories of who dated whom, who streaked where, and who got caught doing what where (sadly, none of it is very scandalous, but is still funny to us). We don't go anywhere sketchy or do anything crazy, but we talk about the days we did. And then we go inside to get another beer but end up checking on someone else's baby because we heard them through a random monitor sitting on the counter. Things have transformed pretty significantly, and with or without spouses or kids, everyone seems to fall right in step with all of these changes, enjoying the continual realization that we have, in fact, grown up. Who'd have thought?
I didn't take any pictures of the 'debauchery' that took place after hours, but here's one of us at the soccer game:


And of course the highlight of the weekend, my son and his friend staring at two naked girls in the bathtub (mine's the blonde boy with the dimply butt). A picture of what's to come?

Death of an ivy

I heard a crash while I was, of course, blogging the other day and I went into the guest room only to fine this...







He ate a handful of dirt while I went to get the camera. He wasn't even sorry.

"Beautiful" additions

I think I mentioned in my list of 101 Things About Me that I am part of two fabulous groups: The Beautifuls and The Ramrons.

The Beautifuls is a group of 4 of us from high school who have kept up all this time (we're about to have our 10 year reunion next month) and we get together every summer for a weekend retreat at which time we bring a big cake we've ordered and open presents for all of our birthdays (none of which are really IN the summer). Our name is an inside joke, rather, an inside long-story that has nothing to do with our thinking we are actually beautiful. Here we are a couple years ago at Amy's bridal shower. L to R: Brooke, Cheryl, Amy, me. Anyway, this post is really to CONGRATULATE Amy because she just told me that she and her husband found out they are having a little BOY! Noah is quite excited to have another friend. Congrats Amy, boys are so fun!



Okay, so now I have to congratulate another friend of mine, from another group of mine. :) The Ramrons is a group of 7 of us from college who also get together for a retreat every summer. We've been doing this for about 7 years, and have recently included some husbands and kids, but then decided that the purpose of a retreat is to get away, and therefore it might be just the girls again next year... In any case, I also found out last night that my friend Christy (below, in the green maternity shirt I purchased for her, thank you) just had a baby GIRL last night. CONGRATS to Christy and her husband on their first! This picture is only 6 of us, the 7th is in the Ukraine for the next several years, and I couldn't find a picture of all of us in my computer. We miss you Kelly!



By the way, since there have been a few blogs floating around about people feeling pressured to have children, I feel I must add that this in no way is meant to add to that. Both couples I'm writing about have members in their late 20s-early 30s and have been married several years!!

In Answer to the Clothes Whore

Many of you may have read my sister's recent blog about being a "Clothes Whore No More." Needless to say, I was in the midst of cleaning out my closet at the same time, and was inspired to clean out a little more than I originally intended. Here's the original pile:


My husband then asked for the honor of throwing out anything in my closet that he hadn't seen me wear in about a year, so I let him. Interestingly, he is a much bigger clothes whore than I am, ask anyone who knows him; he's such a Gap ad. Anyway, another day another blog... Sooo, he started with my shoes. I was embarrassed as he tossed out shoes so dusty I couldn't tell if they were brown or black. Check out the dust film and the squared toes on these babies:



So, Rachel, be proud! I stand united with you as a Recovering Clothes Whore, determined to only make good quality, well fitting purchases from this moment on. Here's the final pile set to go to those lucky guys down at the Salvation Army:



P.S. Is it ghetto to give away non-holey, washed but "gently used" underwear?

Spit? Swollow? Vomit?

Before I became an Occupational Therapist, I worked on the acute wing of a psych unit at a hospital in the midwest. I was thrown against a wall by a 41 year-old mentally handicapped sex addict, was pooped on by a man just after he told me I didn't look like all the other Russians he'd dealt with, and I walked in on an 87 year old man trying to masterbate. However nothing prepared me for what happened last night...

I picked my 10-month old son up from homecare yesterday after work and took him home and we were playing all kinds of fabulous games. He was all smiley and giggly, so of course I was tossing him up in the air and swinging him all around when it happened... He puked. Not like baby spit-up either. Adult vomit complete with the smell that only adult vomit has. Guess where it landed? You can imagine that if I was holding Noah up something like this... (this is an old picture but for dramatization's sake):


Yep, right in my mouth and down my neck. I actually choked a little and swollowed some of it before yakking it out all over my neck. It was warm. It was running down my chin and chest and filled up the inner parts of my bra cups. Noah looked at the drippy vomit and he literally laughed. Little pecker. Sorry I didn't stop to take a picture for this blog entry, I ran into the bathroom and began throwing water on my face and into my mouth. I think I spit like 100 times, then brushed my teeth for about 6 minutes before throwing the toothbrush away. I then took a bath with the kid, but kept his diaper on b/c I wasn't going to tempt fate...

Apparently this is like a rite of passage for parents, but it is NOT cute and I would rather it NEVER happen again. Oh, and the worst thing about it is that the rest of the evening Noah would look at me and say, "Daddy?" over and over. Everything I went through and he can't even reward me with a little jarbled "mommy." He's gonna hear about this for the rest of his life when he does something wrong. The only thing I could think of that could be worse would be if it were your dog...

Big Bang Theory

Always wanting the cute kid from the BabyGap ads with long, wavy, blonde hair, it was difficult for my husband and I to make the decision to get Noah's hair cut--for the first time. I'll admit my decision was heavily influenced by the fact that I wanted to decorate the "first haircut" page of the baby book. However, the deciding factor was that my 10 month old was brushing his bangs from his eyes regularly; I guess the cute long-haired kids have achieved this look in a controlled way to assure they don't end up looking like cousin It.


Before. Note the reverse mullet that Mimsies constantly reminded me of.


During. Unsure of the whole process, I had to bribe him with treats.


During. The Baby Faux-Hawk.


After. Mullet, No More! A successful visit to SnipIts and my son can see again!