Unexpected Kindness

Love Dare Day #2 -- Along with not saying anything negative to BabyDaddy, (the dare from yesterday which is a feat in itself I assure you), I had to show him an unexpected act of kindness. After a bit of thought, this manifested itself in a love note written in blue crayon - it was early this AM and that was the only thing I could find - and taped to a can of Mountain Dew in the fridge, and then a large pineapple milkshake picked up from the DQ on my way home from work this afternoon. Good eh? Yeah, I know.

I'll tell you, today was one of those days. You know what I mean? I had so many things going on at once, my eyes were crossing. Now you all know what I have to do when I have one of those days right? Pray until quittin' time - then bolt out to my car for some serious grooving. My current auto bootie dancing song of choice is "Just Dance" by Lady GaGa. Different kind of gal that one - but she's from the UK, so what do you expect? However, I find most all of her music insanely addictive ('Pah-pah-pah-poker face, pah-pah-poker face') and have discovered that it lends itself quite nicely to Club Corolla. And having been given a generous dose of mercy from the heavens, as soon as the song ended on one radio station, I switched to another AND THERE IT WAS. The only thing that could have made it any better was a set of disco lights.

One stitch at a time....

It's another Sunday night. The Muffin is asleep, I'm curled up on the couch watching the Oscars, and BabyDaddy is out in his man cave debating the realistic quality of two rival brands of deer eyeballs. Another Sunday night, another weekend gone, another Monday ready to smash into my consciousness. Bah.

Friday, Lil' C and I made the trek home to God's country for my big family bday lunch. (I swear my birthday was like Hanukkah this year - it lasted forever!) We had a great time, even though the Muffin conked out before the guests arrived. Literally - by conked out, I mean we noticed it was suspiciously quiet, and then found him splayed out on the hardwood floor, mouth wide open, and snoring like a man twice his size.

This morning, it looked like someone had set up a snow blower outside my front door, but we pushed on and made it to church only ten minutes late - which for us is a miracle. We didn't really do much of anything productive after that - Lil' C decided that he wanted to "knit wike my Mom-mee", so he spent a great deal of the afternoon destroying what was once a perfectly decent skein of yarn.

Speaking of, I'm coming right along with my scarf. TRANSLATION: You can recognize that it is a scarf. At this point, I'm content to take that as an accomplishment.

Like I said, it's recognizable. You TOTALLY can't argue that. And you are not allowed to comment further anyway. The next one will be better!

Baby Daddy and I finally, after a week of "meaning to", started The Love Dare. We decided to read our daily 'dare' the evening before, because we knew we wouldn't have time to do it in our ridiculously crazy early morning routines. After the Muffin went to sleep, we sat down on the couch, turned off the tv, and got started. Day One's lesson? Patience. Wow - way to knock us on the head right at the start. Our dare for tomorrow is to not say anything negative to each other. Like, At. All. The first words out of my mouth were, "Are you serious?!" BabyDaddy said, "But how are we supposed to communicate?" Ahhhh, we have a way to go it seems.

And, just because it makes me smile.......

"I WIKE Ice-Cweam!"

'Nuff said. This is totally going to be Lil' C later...

One Life to Love

They played this song at our church this past Sunday. It is amazing - and it reminds me, as it should us all, that not one single second of life should be taken for granted. Not. one. second. We only get this one shot, so we better make it count.

Welcome Boggs!

I am so pleased that another one bit the dust - Congrats on giving in and starting your blog Boggs!

"What does your Daddy do?"

After I got home from work today, we were all lounging around the house watching Lil' C play with his cars. "Firetwuck say 'woo-woooooooo'" the Muffin screeched. 'WWWoooooOOOOOOooo!" BabyDaddy and I looked at each other with that disgusting-to-outsiders 'our child is such a brilliant miracle' look. BabyDaddy then proceeded to get down on the floor next to the Muffin.

BD: Someone you know drives a fire truck. Do you know who it is?

Lil'C: No.

BD: Does your daddy drive a fire truck?

Lil' C: Noooooooo.

BD: Well, then what does your daddy do?

Lil' C: Pway video gameeeessss.

**Oh yeah - take THAT mister, "I really don't play XBox that much." HA!

Me: Does your Daddy do anything else?

Lil' C: Uh-huh.

Me: Okay, well what else does your daddy do?

Lil' C: He toots! Hafta say 'scuse me!

From the mouths of babes my friends...

I have had a good but quite eventful past few days. This past Saturday of course was Valentine's Day, (also the five year anniversary of BabyDaddy's proposing to me), and so we had fun looking back at some of our old pictures - what has happened to me? Oh, that's right, there was that baby, and all those Fudgey Little Debbie Cakes, and the fact that exercise and I are like those polarized magnets that repel each other across the room. Alas, I don't have the metabolism that I used to, so I have broken down and begun saving for a treadmill. And you know good and well that if I ever do follow through and lose my two-year-old baby weight, that will be about the time we decide to have another. That would be just my luck. Oh well, live for today yes?




Sunday night, BabyDaddy, the in-laws, and I all got to go see comedian Jeff Dunham (the dude with all the puppets). Thanks for the tickets Dad! It was hilarious. I laughed so hard my head hurt.

Today, I had a lovely pre-birthday visit with Mom and Nanny - they drove all the way up from God's Country just to surprise me! We had a perfectly sophisticated lunch at a fancy-pants tea room - It was 'Tea Tasting Tuesday', so I totally tried a serving of Pomegranate-Ooolung/Ohlong something-or-other, just because it came in fancy china, but excusing the pun, it really wasn't my cup of tea. The food however was mah-ve-lous. But I did constantly feel the need to lift my pinkie when drinking from my water goblet. Of course, Nanny found someone she knew, and I think before we were done with lunch, she had somehow connected our families, and we figured out that we were all long-lost cousins. (Leave it to Nanny, the genealogist in the family. She could probably just about connect all of us.)

Then tonight we had a bit of an early birthday celebration for me with BabyDaddy, since he has to work tomorrow - the in-laws came over and watched the Muffin while we went out to dinner. BD ordered me a sangria that was the size of my head, (which I now believe to be premeditated to dull my reaction to the events that transpired after we got home), and on the whole we had a lovely time. We got home, and he then produced a splendid cake and some ice cream.

The only problem is that I'm turning 26. Not 25. Big oops. Oh well, it's the thought that counts I hear. **Big sigh** I was still pretty happy from the sangria, and Lil' C was perfectly content to help me blow out the candles, (even if they were the wrong number), so it all turned out well in the end.

Happy Valentine's Day lovelies!

Don't forget to give lots of hugs and kisses to the important people in your life today! So far, Lil' C found that he had a visit from the 'Love Bug' last night, and he is equally enjoying the chocolates and his new T-Ball set. BabyDaddy gave me the edict, "the day is yours", and so I am enjoying my morning snuggled up in bed with my laptop, book, and a cup of coffee he made for me, (a little strong, but hey, it's the thought right?). I think I'll pause, stretch like a happy cat, and postpone getting up for a while longer. Since it's 'my day', and I've been dying to get my hands on some of the nearby letterboxes that we haven't found yet, I will probably drag myself to the bath in a bit and start getting ready. I hope you all have a truly 'LOVE-ly' day.

Even butt-heads deserve to be loved...

My guilty pleasure of the day was Lil' C falling asleep super early tonight. Not that I don't love to spend time with my kiddo when I can, but it was nice to be able to have some time to myself aside from the hour after I put him to bed before I collapse. BabyDaddy is out saving the world, so here I am blogging, watching the crazy 2-hour crossover Grey's/Private Practice, and making some fudgey brownies for BD. I'm as happy as an east coast clam. Tomorrow is Friday, Saturday is Valentine's Day -- can it get any better?

The bear is still here, although he's naked. BabyDaddy derobed him, the meany-pants. However, since BD isn't fortunate enough to be here this evening, he'll return home to find Mr. Fuzzybuns (I've christened him officially now) decked out in support of BD's favorite sports team - with the addition of some snazzy glasses, because it makes him look quite distinguished. I figure, heck, if I have to look at him every day, it might as well be entertaining, instead of just making me cringe.

American Idol has made it's triumphant return, as some of my other loyal readers have seen. (Have you been glued to the tube Ames?) I'll have to say I was quite disappointed with some of the choices in the Top 36. Norman/Nick?! Come on! However, I refuse to make a snap judgement - we shall see what happens now that the show is getting good and wound up.

In other news, I have decided that "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is one of the best movies ever made. How did I not know that Bette Davis was so amazing? The only time I had ever truly seen her in a movie was in "The Watcher in the Woods". Have you seen it? It's fabulous! But anyway, back to Baby Jane. Normally, I just surf right over those old movie channels on cable that no one pays attention to. But Baby Jane was on last night, and being curious, I stopped to watch. I absolutely loved it -- Bette Davis was so perfectly evil!

My guilty pleasure just woke up. Now I'm trying to type with one hand wrapped around a chubby little body who is currently requesting 'more milk', and 'pway game on disney dot com pwease'. So, I'd better wrap things up. I'll leave you with my fresh-out-o-the-oven brownies - and yeah, he was being a butt-head, so he totally deserved it.

Grrrrr - I have a new roommate.....

I meant to blog a bit over the weekend, but we decided to head down to God's Country and visit Mom and Grampa J. (Excuse #1). Then Sunday night I was busy making Valentine cards for this week. (True, but Excuse #2). Then, last night, I was fell asleep with the Muffin. (Excuse #3). So having sucked up my quota of excuses this week, here I am.

We had a lovely visit, as usual, with Mom and John-boy. We letterboxed, flew kites, and even had time to play a mean game of Scrabble with my Uncle, (the self-proclaimed Scrabble King). By the way Uncle Doc, I stand by EVERY one of my *ahem*madeup*ahem* words thankyouverymuch.

Kite flying at it's best - the Muffin found extreme amounts of joy in letting go of the kite string and watching everyone chase it down.

'Cause that's how I roll. For real.

And then we come to the matter of the day. Those of you who have been following for a while will remember back in the summer when BabyDaddy went to Canada for Hunterpalooza, and returned home with a bit of a souveneir, (all 350 pounds worth). Today, my friends, the souvenier came home. BabyDaddy cheered -- I almost threw up. The unfortunate thing for BD is that the "taxidermist" that we commissioned to do the work, (yep, that's right, BD was too nervous to do it himself, since this was the 'bear-of-a-lifetime'), ordered a form that was too small, so instead of taking a bit of a loss by paying for shipping costs to return the bad form, and then ordering the correct one, he just wadded up all the extra skin on the smaller form. Real world example: Ever seen a formerly obese person who has lost a tremendous amount of weight? Think of all that extra skin. That's pretty much the situation we have here -- lots of bear on a little frame. In essence, it makes the bear look a whole lot smaller than it really was. BD was NOT happy. But there's not a lot we can do about it at this point. (Hey, at least it takes up less space, which is TOTALLY good with me.) Needless to say, BD has spent a good part of the evening moaning and groaning, so I finally ordered him out to Lowe's just to get him away from the house.

My contribution -- I think he looks quite dapper. Don't you? (BabyDaddy was not impressed, but hey, at least I tried!)

I hate 'Bikini Girl'. And by 'hate', I mean, "I want to jab her eyeballs out with my new knitting needles...)

Lil' C and I are lounging on the couch, watching Idol. Actually, I'm lounging on the couch, and Lil' C is counting down to blast-offs of various proportions. A hot wheel, a drumstick -- "Ready Mommy? Kay! Free, two, one, BWASTOFFFFFF!" Was that a plastic eggplant that just whizzed past my head? We're having a grand time.

It's been a long week already. The weather has continued to be nasty, everyone in the office is sick, yada, yada, yada.... In other fun news, I taught myself how to knit, (albeit quite crookedly, and very unevenly), I made a delicious Pineapple Upside Down Cake, and I almost passed out donating blood at work -- picture with me, a large matronly woman in faded teddy bear scrubs and a smoker's cough, hacking out, "She's goin' down ladies, she's goin' down!" I tried to protest, weakly squeaking, "No, I think I'm fiiiiiinnnnneee..." as my vision started going all sepia around the edges. "Now honey," matronly smoker says, "don't you tell Marnie what Marnie done knows. Now you just lay back chile..." That's the last thing I remember before I inhaled a ragged breath of some hellacious bleach/Aquanet/Ajax/nail polish remover/liquid fire concoction that immediately brought me back to heel-kickin' life. "Now, take a deep breath girl, thataway..." I sputtered and coughed, somehow choking out,"I can't breathe, let alone deeply....ACK!" At least 3 lucky people got some blood, (and I got 4 hours of comp time), out of the deal.

Look! It's a whole row! (You can totally see that right?)

Oh yeah -- it was just as good as it looks.

The Sunday School teacher told him to pick out a face that looked like him. Yeah. Go figure.

This reminds me of the importance of balance - everyone needs a little Hulk to go with their heels you know.... (This reminds BabyDaddy that he needs to lock my closet, and get out his hunting boots again...)