So when is it appropriate?...

So when is it appropriate to put yourself on bed rest?  Tomorrow I'll be 3 weeks away from baby's arrival.  Does that seem too soon?

As my current body image is a little like this (but with smaller hoots {sad})

I think it might be time.

But first I have to finish a lesson for my church group about marriage and relationships.  Marriage and relationships and honest-to-goodness I look like this.

It's going to be awesome.  Mostly I think we'll talk about how the real secret to marital success is having separate bathrooms.  Nora Ephron said that.  Nora "Friggin' I was nominated for 3 academy awards for my romantic comedies including when Harry met Sally" Ephron people--if she doesn't know a thing or two about living happily ever after who does?

Maybe we should all pray to a higher power that I go into labor tomorrow and thus save my church group from any further romantic musings.

Happy Weekend

Remember in junior high how you made lists of what you and your future spouse would have in common?  You may have listed things like music, taste in movies, hobbies.

In my case, none of that worked out.  The hubbs and are pretty much exact opposites.   

The hubbs grew up in small-town America.  He grew up in a very conservative house where they didn't have TV until he was 16.  He loves sports and techno music, studied engineering, has an MBA and his favorite pastime is networking.

I grew up in a medium-size city and we were the most liberal family in the neighborhood.  Television was one of my best friends.  I only watch sports when I am forced, I have an degree in literature and if I could I would spend every evening reading in bed.

This difference manifest itself last night as we were getting ready for the weekend.  The hubbs said, "so what should we do tomorrow?  We could start out by going for a bike ride then we could head to Balboa park and play on the playground and take the trolly and head home before nap time.  Then after nap we can head to the neighborhood party and we have been wanting to try a new beach so maybe we could fit that in there."  

I said, "yeah.  Maybe something like that." But in my head I was thinking, "we could sit around the house, have a lazy breakfast, sit around the house some more, finish Moby Dick, put the finishing touches on our costumes and then go to the neighborhood party but only because I signed up to bring a salad." My favorite way to spend a Saturday is what is known as a Futon Marathon.  One of my roommates invented the term when she lived in Japan.  A futon marathon is not for the faint-hearted.  It's a complex day that consists of spending as much time as is humanly possible on the couch or in bed.  I have only talked the hubbs into having a futon marathon once and it was awesome.  We squeezed in two movies before lunchtime.

In my days before being a mom I used to do international sensitivity training for students who were going to spend time abroad.  In the training I told the students that their new mantra should be, "it's not wrong: it's just different." That phrase has helped me in all kinds of international settings but also helps in my everyday life.

That's the way the hubbs and I make it work--this morning he took Claire running and I vegged out in bed, made bread and did the dishes. When they got back we ate breakfast, snuggled on the couch, read stories and then headed out for a bike ride. It's nap time and I'm putting the finishing touches on our costumes and he is running errands. 

So whatever kind of weekend you're having--packed to the brim or futon marathon, I hope it's a good one. 

Yes, that's a fly swatter.  You know us and biking--just the necessities.

*There is one little thing that I can not accept as not-wrong-just-different about the hubbs' past.  He is still trying to convince me that Bobby Brown was, at one point, actually cool.  To which I say, NO. WAY.

**Something to know and love about the hubbs is that he still loves Bobby Brown and sings his songs all the time.

Fiscal Responsibility

I bounced the house payment. We have over draft protection and had plenty of money in another account I just did some bad planning. I guess it didn't really bounce but we certainly got sent a zinger of a fine.

Here's the thing, it happened on an account that's just mine (we get free bill-pay there so that's why we use it). A while ago the hubbs and I started using mint (which is totally awesome and you should use it if you're looking for a way to keep track of money and spending). For the first couple of months I was the one getting all of the emails and updates but in an attempt to be totally honest I added his account to the email list. That means that the hubbs got an email saying that we had an overdraft fee. We had to talk about it and the hubbs let me know that he had only done that once before (he was actually trying to joke about it but it didn't come out as very funny). It was painful. But being totally honest with my husband about financial matters is worth a couple of painful conversations. And if he's sorry that he hitched himself to a girl who occasionally gets overdraft charges, too bad. He's stuck.

**Added to a day where I was officially diagnosed with periodontal disease and had to schedule 2 more dentist appointments (where they scrape my roots to get them cleaned) and I got put on prescription strength mouthwash. Awesome.

**This video is pretty much the only thing keeping me from eating peanut butter right out of the jar. How did my baby get to be so dang adorable? Sorry if you come to my house and have to eat off of these utensils.

It's that time of year again

Saturday morning while the baby was napping I sidled over to the hubbs all romantic like and started talking about my trip to my parents' and his week away for work. I said, "after you drop me off at the airport you'll come home and it'll be pretty great."

I was going to say that his first day without us would be fun but by next weekend--he comes home Friday but Claire and I don't come home until Sunday--he'd be going half-mad missing us.

He interupted me and reminded me that he had to go to work after he dropped us off at the airport then added, "But next weekend--you're right. I'm going to have a great time. I'm going to watch uninterrupted basketball all night on Friday and all day Saturday and Sunday. Thank you NCAA championship!"

Yes, Thank you NCAA championship for that incredibly romantic moment.

When I told the hubbs what I was going to say he quickly added, "Oh, that's what I meant. I'm really going to miss you."

Happy March Madness to all.

Dancing with Myself

This weekend I went on a hot date.

By myself.

And It. Was. Awesome!

After his week in LA the hubbs had another busy week (much of the busy had to do with a man named Jimmer and a whole situation that involved the hubbs getting tickets to the game by doing hours of work which pretty much ended up earning him pennies an hour) so I had to put Claire down almost every night and then spend my evenings putzing around by myself (before you start feeling sorry for me I should tell you that the 1 night he was home he helped put her to bed, did the dishes, cleaned up all her toys and started our taxes). The hubb's brother was also here for the last part of the week and was involved in the whole Jimmer scheme. Come Saturday afternoon after a stunning victory for the cougs I decided it was time for me to do something I wanted to do (This is both unflattering and true and thoughts like, "who's thinking about me and what I want?" may have gone through my head).

So I took myself out to a movie. The hubbs told me that if I wanted, we could get a sitter and he would come. To which I responded, "that's sweet, but no thank you." I love the hubbs and I love spending time with him but dates where you have to spend money aren't really his strong suit. He sees every penny that we spend on entertainment as a penny that isn't going into our retirement (which is mostly great because we won't be eating dog food when we retire but can also be a little annoying when you need entertaining). If you can talk him into going to the movies (which has happened exactly once in the last year), if you look longingly over at the treat counter he'll get a sad look on his face and say through gritted teeth, "Do you want anything?" Which makes you not really want anything even though the Jr. Mints had been looking good.

That was not the kind of date I needed. I was looking for treats and popcorn and enjoying a little Colin Firth. Have you ever been to the movies by yourself? It's awesome. You can eat almost a whole package of Cadbury Mini Eggs and 1/2 a bag of popcorn and no one even knows.

Happy Valentine's Day

Today (on this oh-so-romantic day) the hubbs left for a week's business trip.

We are going to miss him.

I looked through my pictures for some romantic image to inspire the hubbs on this Valentine's day. I imagine him in his lonely hotel room opening the computer after a long day of training and seeing something made him feel loved and appreciated. All of the pictures we have of us are where we're holding the camera and taking pictures of ourselves. Our engagement pictures and actual wedding pictures aren't on this computer but our reception pictures are. Nothing lovey-dovey but this one made me laugh. I am so glad to have this husband standing next to me (while I face the world and make unflattering faces like this).


Happy Valentine's Day Babe. Hurry home. Two ladies are anxiously awaiting your return.

The "c" word

There is a moment that my husband dreads more than any other in our lives.

Let me set the stage.

We're lying in bed and I'm feeling sad, lonely and insecure. I snuggle over to my husband and say the dreaded words, "Honey, say 5 nice things about me." He hates that. Compliments--the dreaded "C" word--do not come easily to the hubbs. Normally, that's not a problem. I'm not really the kind of a girl who needs or wants compliments all the time (I tend to think that people are being insincere if the compliments flow too easily). But sometimes...sometimes I just need someone to say 5 nice things about me.

We've reached a stage in our relationship where he can say 5 nice things but there was a time when saying things like that made him so uncomfortable the he just couldn't do it. Those days weren't too pretty (tears, fights and hysterical accusations of "then you don't love me!" would ensue).

After talking to lots of ladies I'm pretty sure scenes like this are playing out in bedrooms all over. The details may be different but the idea is the same.

Here is my Valentines Gift to the men of the world. Last night I made this Mad-Lib style Valentine for our party and thought I would share it with the rest of the men-folk. I jumped into the dating game pretty late in life which means that I have spent more hours than your average girl scanning MSN and Yahoo for dating advice which I think kind of makes me an expert on what girls want to hear.

Men, all you need to do is fill this out, cut it out and decorate it. Depending on what your family budget allows this can also be accompanied by a gift card from Nordstroms (some people say candy is the best option but in my mind that's a mixed bag. I love candy but always feel guilty after polishing off a whole bag). Done and Done.

Happy Valentines Day.
Loves
S