Some assembly required

Ethan and I are no good when it comes to completing household projects as a couple. I think he will disagree with this, in which case I hope he comments his rationale for disagreeing so the readers can enjoy. When it comes to things like, oh say, assembling furniture or hanging pictures/blinds, it's generally not a pleasant experience. I believe it has something to do with the fact that one of us in a control freak and one of us is stubborn. And one of us is Ethan ;-)

We purchased the boys new 'captain' beds which have huge drawers underneath to help offset the fact we are cramming 2 people's things into what used to be 1 person's room. I'll spare you the lengthy details of every argument discussion that took place, but essentially there were problems because I:

1. Read directions
2. Do not buy the most expensive item that can be bought
3. That about covers it

In the end, the beds are assembled, Ethan is still speaking to me, and the boys are very excited about the new furniture and quilts. So I'd say a few arguments discussions are worth it ;-)

Maybe it would be okay.

In case you're some random stranger who has stumbled upon this blog, or lurks behind the scenes and knows nothing about me unless I post it, here's an update. I'm pregnant. Almost 4 months along now. Now the rest of this will make sense.

To be quite honest, the thought of having a girl freaks me out a little bit. Not in a way that will impact me in the slightest bit once she snuggles in my arms for the first time, but in theory? Freaks me out. I have 2 boys (3 if you count the hubster). I know what to do with boys, as much as you can know what to do with them. And, best of all, there are always things that I can say "you really need to go ask Daddy about that." With a girl, I don't think there are a lot of topics that Dad is going to have the infinite wisdom about. Besides, I am a girl (news flash!!), and I know what it's like to live with me and deal with my moods and episodes and good grief could I really live with another one of me? I spent many years living with my mother, who is probably as close to being me as a person will ever get and while my mother is a lovely woman who I will always love...it's probably a good thing that there are over 600 miles between us on an average day.

And what if I have a princess?? Or a screecher? Oh good grief, I need to get away from all the 'what ifs'

I had a revelation the other night that maybe a girl wouldn't be so bad. That there are the up sides to having a girl. Besides the kind of cute clothes (with minimal if any pink/lacy ruffles) and hair that doesn't need to be shorn like a sheep every couple of weeks. Are you ready?

The gas.

Evan and Eric are making great strides on sharing a room and oh dear God the smell in that room when I check on them at night is enough to bring back my morning sickness. Seriously, what are these kids eating??

And yes, I realize girls have gas and it doesn't smell like roses, but keep that to yourself and give me optimistic moment that I could survive having a girl and there might even be some perks ;-)

Classic

Eric and I went to a birthday party for one of his classmates yesterday. It was a better time than expected...I've become leery about parties at people's houses. But they had cleared out a room for the kids to play in, had a pirate/princess show that was a big hit, and pizza was on time with plenty for parents to enjoy. All in all, it was a successful party.

The birthday boy had a cold. As in, big ugly green goo hanging out of his nose that his parents did not seem to notice. Or maybe I'm the only one who noticed it because I am anal-retentive about things like that with my kids and cannot stand to see stuff hanging out of their nose even if they are sleeping peacefully. Some of you are rolling your eyes thinking "get over it woman" and others are saying "Amen, sister...I don't want to see that stuff either." Whatever, it bothers me. After pizza, his dad finally decided to clean his face and thankfully he looked normal again.

We move back to the table to sing happy birthday to the birthday BOY as a cake is brought out with PINK icing. But that's not the weird part. As we finish singing and wait for the kid to blow out the candles, he holds out his finger and cheerily announces "I have a big booger!"

I hope they submit that video and win some money. And buy the kid a lifetime supply of Kleenex and anti-bacterial hand wash.

The Power of Chocolate

I've learned a valuable lesson in parenting today...the power of chocolate.

The boys have been sharing a room since Friday night, and it's going 'okay' at best. And by okay, I mean they have been falling asleep (at least) 2 hours later than normal and waking up at the same time every morning. They're exhausted. Ethan and I are exhausted from repeatedly going in the room to tell them to stop talking/playing.

At dinner tonight, I told Evan I was going to come into the room at 9:00 tonight and, if he was asleep, I would let him have a piece of chocolate at breakfast tomorrow. I'm desperate. Last night it took until 10 PM for them both to fall asleep and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep about 3 minutes after that.

It's not even 8 PM and Evan is already asleep. Eric is still awake, but in bed and quiet and--most important--not disturbing his sleeping brother.

Thank you chocolate. Thank you.

Update: As of 8:30 PM, BOTH kids are asleep. And then Evan fell out of bed, got a knot the size of a golf ball on the back of his head, had a night terror, but is sleeping again. Oy.

I'm Confused.

I know, not the biggest news flash, but seriously. Here is a situation where I am trying to do the right thing and be a good customer, and, well...that's where I get confused.

After much persuasion, Ethan agreed we could replace the annual 'adventure' of picking out a fresh Christmas tree, stringing it with lights, cussing at the tree stand that doesn't fit right, worrying about kids eating needles, and all that other drama with an artificial tree. So after Christmas, we ordered one from a reputable merchant who shall currently remain nameless. Tree shows up in 2 heavy heavy heavy boxes, we assemble it and find two problems:

1. It's too tall
2. It's ugly as hell

Ethan returns the tree to the local store and refund is processed, no problem. All is happy in the world, right? Wrong.

About a week later, a heavy heavy heavy box shows up on our doorstep, looking suspiciously like one of the boxes the first tree arrived in, from the same reputable merchant. We have yet to open the box (or receive a second box), but I'd lay some good money down that it's half a Christmas tree sitting in our dining room and the store just messed up the shipping label when they tried to send it back to the warehouse.

I finally get around to calling the store today, to find out what I should do with this box. Ideally, I'd like them to give me a label so we can send it back to them without having to haul it halfway across town, but if we need to take it to the store, then so be it.

The lady told me to give it to Goodwill or throw it away or just do whatever I want with it. That she was very sorry for the inconvenience, but since I had my refund, that was the most important thing. And she made it sound like sending me a shipping label would be way too inconvenient FOR THEM. Because clearly, having half of a tree sitting in their warehouse is doing them a lot of good. And I'm sure Goodwill would love for me to drop a 100 lb box on their doorstep with half a tree in it.

Strange world that we live in...guess the economy and environment are doing a little better in some people's eyes!

Find wall. Bang head into it.

We are trying to make the move away from using paper towels and towards microfiber cloths. Hubby bought into the idea, we bought a set of cloths in different colors (so you have a pretty good idea that they're getting changed on a regular basis), and I moved the paper towels under the sink so they are out of sight/mind, but still there if absolutely necessary.

The second day of our conversion, my husband spills some egg on the counter. He gets a wet paper towel to wipe up the egg, and then a second paper towel to DRY THE COUNTER. Sigh. After an exchange on salmonella vs. throwing the cloth into the laundry pile, we move on. Things seem to be going well, the paper towel roll seems to be as full as it was a week ago, microfiber towels are being used to clean things up and disposed into the laundry basket at the end of the day.

This morning I turn around to see my husband wiping something off the table with a tissue, and then throwing it in the trash.

Sigh.

There are still some kind people in the world

We're in the progress of upgrading the electronics in our basement/rec room. Amazon.com has proven to have the best deals, but unfortunately that means everything has to be delivered and the deliveries require signatures and the delivery guys come for those signatures when we're at work. Boo. We came home Thursday night to a notice on the door that one of our items would be redelivered, or we could pick it up at the shipping center late at night in some scary industrial park miles and miles from our house. Boo.

After dinner, the delivery guy returned to our house with our beautiful new speaker system. Because he was "in the neighborhood and thought you guys might be home by now."

It's good to know there are still some kind people in the world, even if it's only our FedEx delivery guy :-)

Baby steps may not take you far, but they take you somewhere!

Last week I took a class based on the book 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.' It was a good class, and almost a week after completing it I have not opened the book to start my commitment of learning these 7 habits. Isn't it always the way? But there was a good portion of the class about time management which I'm sure Ethan would say if I became any more time managed I would start scheduling my own bathroom breaks. Truth is, I'm great at figuring out what needs to be done and not that great at getting it done in a timely manner. Take the steam cleaner that is still sitting in our basement, unused for almost 3 years...really, take it. I've been meaning to get rid of it for about 2 years, and have even put it in a place where I will literally trip over it on a daily basis, but it eventually found it's way back into a closet in the basement.

Too bad they don't have a class on how not to ramble aimlessly.

So, part of the class was telling you make a weekly plan and a daily plan. And today I made a daily plan. It was short, and relatively simple tasks, but I almost finished it!! Yay!! I will probably not go out into the cold rain to deposit some checks at the bank, but they are all ready for deposit tomorrow, so I can either stop on the way to work or take a break at lunch.

Maybe tomorrow's list should be to schedule a Purple Heart pickup so I can get rid of the damn steam cleaner :-)