Group Costume

Since Girl 1 could partake in trick-or-treating (i.e. walk on her own because I am not carrying her throughout the neighborhood*) we have themed the Halloween costumes. So the kids don't know anything else and dr soc and I will never tell them otherwise. 

*I did not apply the same logic in 2018 and carried 3 month old Girl 2 like a fool but almost 3 year old Girl 1 still walked when we were My Little Pony

This year we were Mario World:

Rosalina, *Power-up, Peach and Luigi
*people asked if they could punch dr soc a lot and he said yes if he could punch them back

One of my favorite Halloween *group costume stories of all time is from my early 20's and I wasn't even a part of the costume.

*favorite group costume in my early 20's was the sins. Yours truly strutted around the party in lingerie* as lust and totally got the boy I wanted.

*once again: early 20's     

Anyway, favorite story: I was getting drinks with some friends who had gotten married in September (I had been a bridesmaid btw). 

Newlywed girl (dreamy sappy voice of smug newlywed): It's our first married Halloween! We have to do something together! 

Newlywed boy (enthusiastically): Let's go as a horse!

Me and everyone else: (laughs)

Newlywed girl: (purses lips, glares at all of us)

They aren't married to each other anymore 🤷

Secrets

Dr soc took Little Turkey shopping with him for my Christmas gift, and reminded her don't tell mommy which she took to heart. She was well aware this was a secret. They get home from shopping and she is so excited. While daddy gets things out of the car she comes right over to me with her little hands covering the biggest smile on her face. She leans in and very emphatically whispers:

girl 1: Mommy! We didn't get you ponies!* --pause--
(dr soc walks in the house) 
girl 1: We got you a mug! 
dr soc: (face palm, laughing hysterically) Little Turkey! I just told you that was a secret! 
me: (laughing hysterically) That's why she whispered!

We were both laughing so hard that she actually started to look a little unsure that maybe she hadn't  done the right thing. I felt bad about that, so still giggling I beckoned her over and stage whispered if she wanted to know what we got daddy for Christmas. She nodded eagerly.
me: okay! We got him a pineapple! But shh! It's a secret!
girl 1: Okay! (turns around to face dr soc and whispers emphatically with hands over her mouth again) Daddy! We got you a pineapple!   

*Her gift suggestion. Also her suggestion for what we should get daddy, what the baby wanted and what she asked Santa Claus for. Got to hand it to her, she covered all her bases so that one way or another she was going to get those ponies.

My Little Pony

So girl 1 is all about My Little Pony at the moment. In the spirit of full disclosure I totally love watching it with her and we sing the whole theme song together. Plus Pinkie Pie is my spirit pony - true fact. Anyway. I was zipping her into her purple jacket and asked:

me: Honey do you want to be Twilight Sparkle for Halloween this year?
girl 1: YES!!!!!
me: Okay sweetie, mommy will make your costume.
girl 1: Oh thank you mommy! You will be Pinkie Pie. And Daddy Apple Jack!
me:  Okay darling.
--I think of the baby's wardrobe and know we have all white for her--
me: Your sister can be Rarity. 
girl 1: Okay! And Jules can be Rainbow Dash!

So it was decreed. Halloween 2018 we were My Little Ponies. I made the costumes while on leave and while the kids were at the sitter, and girl 1 was SO EXCITED she wanted to wear and show her costume off the whole week before Halloween.

Twilight Sparkle (pre-princess w/wings mainly because I didn't feel like it), Pinkie Pie carrying Rarity, & Apple Jack walking Rainbow Dash (our Fluttershy was sick) 

And you want to know who got the most attention trick or treating? The dog!😆

Family Resemblance

I can usually see a family resemblance like everyone else when comparing people. Except in me. And my family to some extent. It's not like I don't see resemblance at all, but I just don't see the strong/twin/carbon copy/clone moniker people typically assign. I've never been able to see that really. People say my sister and I look alike, but I can almost always tell who's who even if it's just one of us in the picture.

me on the left, my sister on the right
see also: I am taller and older

My husband captioned this Mother's Day 2017 picture with "the resemblance is strong" 

me, my girl, my mom

Yeah, I see we look related. But the mom-clone thing is lost on me.          

And yesterday I posted a side-by-side Easter picture of my daughter and I at 2 years old: 

I wonder who had the better basket?
And isn't that orange kitchen great?

Everyone, and I mean everyone, made some sort of remark about that being the same kid. Even my mom (who at times is the most obtuse person out there) said we are spitting images of each other. And it's not that I don't see any resemblance at all. But I legit do not see twins. I see two extremely adorable but distinctly different little girls.    

Who knows if I'll ever be able to see it. I wonder if I'll see twins in my own kids. But it doesn't matter really, little lion is going to be a cutie just like little turkey. Twins or not.

Thanksgiving Play, Act 2, Scene 3

Since we've been in North Carolina, dr soc and I have hosted Thanksgiving. Neither one of us really has the time from work and now with Little Turkey's birthday, hosting has been what works best for us. We know what works as far as the food, guests sleeping arrangements and things to do, so the weekend runs well, is a lot of fun and we look forward to it.  
But in the issue of full disclosure: it did not start that way. It started like this:

--SCENE SET UP--   

I cook. Dr soc cleans kitchen behind me, including stuff still being used. I use another spoon/dish/pan since I can't find anything. Dr soc washes new dirtied item. We continue to get in each other's way throughout the day. Tempers shorten at 1:1 ratio of missing:dirty items.

--BEGIN SCENE--

me: (pour olive oil in pan. decide to forgo whatever meal that was. look for clear space and place pan on top of drying rack to left of the sink)
dr soc: (sees pan with liquid. grab dish towel. start wiping oil)
me: (blurt across kitchen) Oh no honey! That's not water, that's olive oil!
dr soc: (exasperated) Then why was it on the clean side?
me: (completely frazzled. look at dr soc)
dr soc: (eyes widen. throw up hands) Sorry! I'm sorry! (backs out of kitchen-fearful) 

--the next hour--

dr soc: (slink* into the kitchen to clean)
me: (see slinking. screech) I'm not done! (flail hands) Still using that! (strangled incoherent gargle) 
dr soc: (leave kitchen)

(repeat 2-3 more times at random intervals throughout flurry of holiday activity)
--END SCENE--

At the time it was just ridiculous but now it's one of my favorite memories and I crack up whenever I tell it (seriously I'm giggling hard core right now). But needless to say, we've gotten a lot better.

*this is very hard to do with an open plan like we have

Fall Game

So we upped our fall game this year.
We took the kid to a pumpkin patch:

Yeah, I leashed her. She loves the monkey backpack
and oh yeah she's my kid so your opinion is invalid

We did a group costume including the dog for Halloween:

Our Peanuts Gang from L to R: Snoopy, Peppermint Patty,
Charlie Brown, Lucy and Linus (Jules!) VanPelt trick-or-treating

And the pumpkin from the pumpkin patch was carved in the group costume theme:

Totally squelched a F-bomb when the head fell in.
Next year I'm just carving a face.
Or whatever the almost 3 year old tells me

But what really upped the fall game from last year: it was all documented on Instagram, so it really happened.
Happy Autumn!

Music to My Ears

For valentines day dr soc gave me tickets to for "Music of the Beatles with the Charlotte Symphony." The event was on Saint Patrick's Day and it was amazing! It was so much fun, so entertaining, people were dancing in their seats (and waving their phones like lighters) and so many songs gave me the feels/goosebumps. I spent the entire song "Good Night" clutching my heart knowing I need to learn that for the baby (and her hopefully one day sibling).  If this amazing group comes back in the area I would buy tickets in a heartbeat

You know, I'd forgotten how much I love live music. I've said before I'm not really a "music person," but that's not really true. I was in choir from fifth grade until high school graduation. I was in color guard/marching band for 3 years of high school, and in elementary school I played the (bigger than me) cello and the clarinet (that was also too big for me since my hands weren't big enough to reach the bottom holes) a year each. I could sight read sheet music. I loved going to the philharmonic with my parents and have a true appreciation for the skill and dedication professional musicians have. I recognize classical pieces and can sometimes give you the name of the composer. I mostly listen to NPR in my car now, but I sing along to the radio if I know the song.

But my music education fell by the wayside in college and "music" at that time became more along the lines of going to a rock concert. And I pretty much only went and to John Mayer before-he-became-a-total-douche concerts. In my 20's I stopped singing along with the radio because my ex would always ask if I was singing about him no matter the song or was an ass and changed the station in my car. (after I very pointedly said I didn't touch his radio he stopped that). And the only live shows we went to were in smokey bars where his heavy metal band was playing. So because I didn't like his music, I probably said I wasn't a "music person" to get him off my case at some point and believed that after a while. So I didn't go to any type of concert for a while and turns out I missed it.

So I'm so glad we went to this concert. We had babysitters so dr soc and I had date night and it was wonderful. We went to dinner, heard some of the best music ever written live and I remembered how much I enjoy live music. What a great night!    

Santa's Bag

Want to hear how I was almost the asshole who ruined Christmas?

Dr soc and I were out to dinner the other night and we were talking about our friends who are going to keep the magic of Santa going for as long as possible since their 10 year old still believes. Which we love and intend to do ourselves because we're both Santa fans.

me: Oh how great! Because I remember how bummed I was when I found out --
--I abruptly stopped--

I realized at that moment there were young kids all around us who may or may not still believe in Santa Claus. And several of them kept looking over towards our table and smiling at the baby because she's adorable. And I had almost let the cat out of the proverbial bag. I beckon to my husband to come closer and in a hushed tone I said we were surrounded by kids and I could have almost ruined Santa. He glances around and a look of understanding crosses his face because, like me, he assumed since our baby doesn't understand 75% of what we saying yet, it didn't occur to us other little ears may be listening either.

So then in a normal voice we continue our conversation but I amend my statement a little.
me: I was so disappointed was when I found out how much my parents helped Santa out.

Phew, 2016 will go down as the year I wasn't the asshole stranger who ruined Christmas for those kids. Because let's be honest, we all remember that asshole who ruined Santa for us. (I eventually figured it out on my own, but admittedly I was pretty slow on the uptake)    

Daddy's Day 2016

Last year my dad passed away two weeks before Father's day, so I was understandably but incredibly sad the whole day. Since I was pregnant then too I assumed 2016 Father's Day would be much better, and it was. Baby girl got her daddy a matching shirt and onesie and a mug for his office. (Mommy's gift had to be returned because it wasn't going to fit where it should in the garage. Boo. I did get something else that works so it wasn't a total gift fail)  And the Cleveland Cavilers WON THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!!! Seriously. It's a big f*cking deal.

But it was also harder in some ways, something I didn't expect. I was shopping for Father's Day cards and as I was looking for one the baby could give her daddy, I realized I didn't know how to get a card to my daddy. Because how do you send a card to heaven? My heart started to ache and I teared up a little in the store. But it's ok, because I'll always be a daddy's girl and I'll always I love him. I don't have to give him a card to know that. I just miss him.
 

Breech of Contract

At my last doctor's visit the doctor was feeling around my belly but couldn't quite figure out where baby's head was. So out comes the ultrasound machine and baby is breech.
That little punk!
However, at that appointment I was just over 34 weeks, so there's still time and space for baby to move head down and butt up. My doctor gave me the okay to try and flip the baby on my own with some yoga positions, so I every night I give it a go. She also mentioned an Indian ritual of walking over hot coals, but I'm just going to leave that one alone. As a last resort maybe I can convince baby to flip by telling him/her it's like flip cup, which is mommy's favorite drinking game.
Hopefully baby gets with the program and moves into the proper position by 39 weeks. Or else baby's probably coming out via c-section before Thanksgiving. Which, nope, OMG, not even going to process that right now. Becasue OMG. Before Thanksgiving.

Father's day

Today will be the hardest father's day for me. Next year I will tell my baby what a wonderful grandpa they had, but this year I am just going to miss my daddy.

I will tell them: 

How he could always comfort me.

I guess 80's babies were allowed to sleep on their stomachs...

How he was always willing to help and had the biggest sweet tooth.

Making one of our birthday cakes (both of our birthdays are in July)

How supportive he was and how we had so much fun.

Swings, roller coasters and building sand castles, dad had our back

 And that he always listened to me chatter on.

And on... (I'm sure he tuned me out at some point, but you can't blame him)

He was so proud of and loved both his girls so much

Even if his signature look was just shaking his head at our teenage girl antics

But most of all, I will tell them how much I will always love him, and how much I know he loves them. 

CHEESE!

So next year as we're wishing dr soc a happy fathers day, I will also tell them that before mommy was a mommy, she is and always will be my daddy's girl.

I love you daddy. Happy Father's day.

This Little Piggie

Valentine's Day 2015 was brought to us by urgent care. The couch attacked a husband who shall remain nameless and said husband needed an X-ray.
Yup.
I was at work on my lunch break when dr soc (oops, just gave it away!) called me and said he though he had broken his toe on the couch. We got a new couch before Christmas so we're still getting used to the new layout. His littlest piggie was at a 90 degree angle from his foot and it was also swollen to about the size of his biggest piggie.    
So we had a romantic valentines day at an urgent care, doing romantic things like taking sexy x-rays of his feet.
And then for the rest of the night we made toe puns. Like toe-pocalypse. Catas-toe-phe. It wasn't the Christmas season so we didn't have any miss-the-toe!    

Happy New Year

So. My 2014 started off with a bang.
New Years Day we drove to Kentucky to visit my parents and our friends. Saturday we were headed to cinci for a college friends wedding, and Sunday we were headed back to Charlotte. But those plans were scraped because:

My dad was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia.

The day after Mike and I arrived (Thursday), when dad came home from his adult day care, he was moving incredibly slow, barely had any coordination and balance, and he was trembling all over and leaning heavily towards his right side. I hoped that it was just his blood sugar being low due to his diabetes, but the shaking and leaning had me so scared that I feared this was something far worse (a stroke). Dad has lost most of his ability to talk, so even if he did know and could describe what was wrong, he couldn't even tell us anyway. With his doctor's office closed for the evening and the doctor on call being busy when my mom called, Mike and I exchanged and look and decided we were taking him to the ER now.

With a lot of difficulty we got him in the car and with even more difficulty we got him out of it. Dad was like a rag doll at this point, so it took all 3 of us to move him from the car, and even then if it wasn't for the help of a good Samaritan, he would have collapsed on me and than both of us would have been hurt. He was checked in and taken back to an exam room pretty quickly, and then we waited. (Turns out I went to elementary school with the ER admitting tech. She couldn't remember if I was the older or younger one (older), but she did remember that one of us sucked our thumb for a really long time (that was totally my sister).) Eventually from all the tests, blood draws and other hospital stuff, the doctor diagnosed a clear case of pneumonia.

He was given antibiotics and admitted for treatment after that, but he would have to stay in the hospital for at least a few days. And you know, it never occurred to me he would be admitted. Even though pretty much anything with the exception of low blood sugar would probably require hospitalization, it didn't even cross my mind he would have to stay in the hospital for some reason. Mike said that was due to being in crisis mode, we were so focused on finding out what was wrong that we couldn't fathom anything past that point.

I could go on and give more details about the rest of our visit, but frankly I'm so tired and I'll finish up the rest of the story tomorrow. But my dad is recovering very well and he can leave the hospital tomorrow! Yes we were in crisis mode, but all things considered, it was a manageable crisis and it put mom, my sister and I on the same page of dad's care, which is something we have never had before.

So yeah, my dad certainly started 2014 with a bang.

Update 1/10/14:
Dad went home on Wednesday the 8th and he's doing very well. There really isn't much more of the story anyway. We spent the next few days rotating shifts and staying overnight with dad. We decided to not go to the wedding and missed seeing my college friends, but everyone understood and we did get a little more time to see our Lexington friends. And my mom finally, finally has started accepting help with my dad's care. So I'll reiterate that while this was a crisis and really scary, all things considered, things are going to be ok.    

Girl's Best Friend

My niece on my husband's side is 15 months old and she's starting to talk, but she isn't so much into the walking yet. Her main mode of getting from point A to point B is to scoot super fast on her butt, but sometimes she grapples along side a piece of furniture.

Well, over Christmas she and I were playing and we both had out hands on the coffee table. She grabs the center stone/halo part of my engagement ring because it has a high profile. Knowing she can't get it into her mouth (because that would involve removing it from my cold dead hand), I pull my hand away, show her my ring and say:
me: Look Ella! This is a diamond!
Ella: OoooOoooo!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend!  

Feivel Goes West

Fourth of July we decided to be patriotic and grill like all the other houses in our neighborhood were doing. Mike went outside to preheat the grill as I was prepping everything, when he comes back inside to tell me:

mike: Well, I cannot light the grill right now because, and this is something I never thought I would say. Actually, just guess, do you have any idea?
me: Is something wrong with the grill? I mean, other than that I can't think of anything else.
mike: No, the grill's fine. I cannot light it because --pause for dramatic effect-- I just saw a mouse run in there.

--I stare at him to make sure he's not just making shit up. Then I realize that's way too oddly specific to be made up, and I don't think he's that good of an on the spot story teller so if he didn't want to grill he would just say so. So there really is a mouse in my his grill. Ewww.--

me: Ewww! You're right though that is something I never would have eve imagined either. Now what do we do?

I call upon my trusty sidekick (to the internets!) and turns out that mice in grills are not super uncommon because it's a dry place they can nest. I want to start cooking, but neither one of us is willing to just turn on the flames and risk essence of mouse. And we want to disinfect the hell out that thing and all it's parts too before either one of us feels comfortable putting any sort of food on there. So Mike is taking the pieces out and I'm just about to pour the vinegar/water/soap mixture (an internets concoction) all over the grill when the mouse runs out and across the concrete slab the builder thought was an acceptable thing to call a a patio* and disappears into the grass.

Startled, I scream bloody murder. Due in part because OMG I have just seen a MOUSE run out of my grill!!! And also omg I just saw a mouse run out of my his grill across my patio over there and I'm not wearing shoes.**

So now Mike is on his own to take care of all the man things outside, clean and disinfect the grill, and laugh at his wife who flew into the kitchen and is currently jumping and flapping around in wayward circles still freaking the fck out. Needless to say, I made dinner in the over that night. And wore my rain boots that go up to my knees the next time I went outside.  

*it's not
**What can I say, I grew up in Kentucky.***
***Nope. No brothers.****
****EWWWW!!!!!

OMG

My mom doesn't text. Granted, I don't text much either because I am the slowest texter ever. I have a dinosaur for a phone that can only do one thing at a time, so it (ok, me) can't keep up with rapid fire group messages, plus I insist on spelling everything out since I hate text talk with the exception of STD because that is hysterical.  Though I on occasion I use btw or fyi for brevity's sake, and sometimes things happen and the only thing that can be used to describe something is an OMG.   

Anyway. 

After seeing my sister and I use/play/facetime on our ipads, my mom hinted heavily that she would definitely want one when there were grandchildren. And since my sister is due in September (!!!), grandchildren are no longer an abstract thing. So for Mother's Day, Amy and I (and our husbands) got mom and ipad. It was scheduled to arrive the day after Mother's Day, and we didn't give her any hints, so she said she would email us when she received her present. Mom's email subject line when she opened the packaging slip? OMG!

Frankly I am just amused that my mom a) used OMG and b) even knew OMG in the first place!

Got it? Flaunt it

My husband put the sweetest valentine in my lunch box today! We are obnoxiously happy newlyweds and I don't care if I'm flaunting that today.

I don't. And honestly I'm a little tired of all the single bitching I see on facebook. Yes, I know Valentine's day celebrates couples, everything is covered in hearts and sweet sentiments adorn everything.  If you're single all that sap is hard to swallow. But it's one day and a boatload of chocolate goes on sale the next day. And while Valentine's Day primary focus is about romantic love, it's also about love in general.

Love for family. Love for friends. Love in the shape of two spaztastic dogs curled up for cuddles. And while I've had my fair share of single valentines days, I can honestly say I have never had a single day of being unloved.

So you know what? I'm flaunting it!

2012 Recap

Ok, I know it's a cliche to do a best of/year in review, but I had some big life events (with pictures!) so i feel the need to share. The cliff notes version of my 2012:

Went to the Kentucky Derby:

best bachelorette party ever!

Married the love of my life

the date, the venue and the happiest couple in the world all in one picture

with the best bridal party possible

the people that mean the most to us

and the coolest groom's cake ever

it was the talk of the reception!

I turned 30

Yep. 30. 

 Then we went to Costa Rica on our honeymoon: 

my favorite honeymoon picture

I started graduate school:

My first 1st day of school photo. Look how adorable I am! 

Became an aunt

Look how beautiful she is!

Went to a Panthers' game

too bad the Panthers didn't show up that night

and started 2 new library jobs:

We mean it when we ask "please don't re-shelve the books." Seriously,  don't put them back.

All in all, a very big and happy year for me! It was definitely busy, but overall wonderful. Hopefully 2013 is just as wonderful!

Here's one last picture for the year: 

Happiest day of my life

Happy New Years!

Holiday Card

In 2011, my 2012 Christmas card/gift plan was clearly wedding pictures. Really easy. Do you hear what I hear? Yeah, that's the holiday elves laughing at me.
And then 2012 actually happened. There were parties and trips and the wedding, starting grad school and two new jobs, hosting Thanksgiving for 7 people, grad school projects and readings, dog fights and dog training, a half marathon and 800+ professional wedding photos to go through. Needless to say, by the time December 2012 rolled around, I decided to scrap the holiday card in general becasue I had other things to do.
Except. That this is really the only year that I can send the wedding picture as a card. Next year using a wedding picture would not only be too late, it would be weird and attention whorey. Not to mention once the semester ended I had time to send cards though. And address lables already typed from the wedding guest list. So really I had no excuse for not sending Christmas cards except that I was tired and didn't want to sort through the 800+ wedding pictures.   
But, I got my act (sorta) together, ordered, ordered a 2nd batch, and between my husband's and mine several post office runs we got enough stamps, we sent out 91 of these things:

Somewhat on time even! (though the same can't be said about the timing of this blog post...) Most people got theirs right before Christmas too, so phew! It also helps that we live close to a Shutterfly printing place so we get our orders pretty quick. And now I can say I'm a grown up and we sent our Christmas cards!
So my 2012 plan for 2013 is to still send cards. But I'm not doing the picture again!*

*ok, at least no pictures until there are babies/children. After those come into the picture you, uh, send a picture.

Icing on the Cake

me: I have the gingerbread dough made, it just has to chill and then I can make the cookies.
mike: Cool. Do we have stuff to decorate the cookies?
me: -snort- No, you know I don't decorate cookies.
mike: You don't?
me: No.
mike: Oh yeah, we had this conversation last year... (sad face)

I don't decorate cookies. The closest I ever come to decorating is tossing a couple shakes of sprinkles on a cookie before they go in the oven. If a recipe calls for icing, glazing, rolling in sugar, or any other sort of  nonsense, forget it. Which is why my gingerbread usually looks like this:

Plain. But tasty 

But.

My husband loves icing. And I love my husband. And we're newlyweds so we still do sweet crap for each other like leaving notes in each other's lunch box and finding a recipe for royal icing for the gingerbread cookies. So this is what my gingerbread looks like this year: 

Fancy! And still tasty

Yep, I decorated the cookies this year! Not only that, I made the icing too. My husband looked so disappointed when he remembered I don't normally ice cookies that I couldn't bear to see him that way so I had to. They may not be the prettiest cookies ever, ok, even a little bit pretty, but my husband is happy. And that makes the best wife ever.