Filed under: Parenting
Okay, second child. I learned my lesson with the first and refuse to use/buy another “diaper bag”. Firstly, they are usually bulky, ugly and just a pain in the ass to use. Secondly they never really hold enough. I got a Skip Hop bag as a gift the first time around and while I really wanted to love it. I hated it. It didn’t close at the top so everything got wet when it rained, if you used the pockets for sippy cups or bottles in the front it made the interior pockets too small, its heavy and it really isn’t my style. But this little canvas tote by Christy studio would be perfect. Not to count not ugly. She also stocks a fantastic looking Everyday bag that would also work brilliantly. Check out all her beautiful bags at the Christy Studio etsy shop.
I know the holidays are over but I really want this Alexander Girard poster, I don’t even know if you can buy it but I love it and I love his work.
Filed under: 1
Okay, so here is something you might not know about me I am mildly obsessed with the secret service. This isn’t anything new. Well, the secret service thing is– but all through college I was really interested in the FBI and the CIA. I don’t know what it is, maybe it is the gear or the idea of everything being so covert. Anyway, I REALLY wanted a pair of night vision goggles.
My dear friend Bob, joined the military and has been in now for some 10+ years. He way over it and wants out but since he has been in he has tried to be in the FBI he actually got accepted and TURNED IT DOWN! He said it wasn’t that cool. Which was disappointing to hear but I had already kind of moved on to new obessession with the secret service. Bob confirmed with me that the secret service is indeed cool. So it seems FBI not cool, Black Ops, not so cool, Secret Service cool.
To feed my obsession I want to get this National Geographic DVD that details the ins and the outs of the FBI.
Filed under: Misc.
So today I did something that I NEVER thought I would do. I watched the Presidential Inauguration. Not only did I watch it but I was absolutely rivited by it. I was like my dad when he watches sports. I cried when Aretha Franklin sang America. I am not a politically minded person, but this was so surprisingly powerful to me. All I kept thinking was, I will be able to look at my kids and honestly tell them that they can some day be President of the United States. Which might not seem like a big deal. I never thought it was, I thought I always had enough self confidence to overcome whatever barriers, that the only real barriers were the ones I put in front of myself. But apparently there was doubt. I guess when the world holds a mirror that reflects something contrary, all the self confidence in the world can get weakened. So while Obama might not be the perfect candidate in my eyes (is there any perfect politician?) I will never forget the occasion of witnessing his inauguration.
I will never forget being in my friend Laura’s apartment watching the first African-American president to being sworn into office. Watching, while the kids ran in circles, screaming and and playing. They have no idea of how life became a little bit different for their grandparents, parents and for them.
All day I have been feeling thankful to God for blessing this country with this, all day I have been thinking God Bless America.
I realized that I haven’t posted a single pregnancy photo or given any kind of pregnancy update. Things have been so crazy with the holidays and the family stuff and all the everyday madness, that this pregnancy is just flying by. I am already 6 months! I went for the dreaded gluclose test today. It really isn’t that bad. the solution isn’t that syrupy thick and it just taste like Sunkist soda or a melted orange popsicle. The challenge is chugging the stuff in 5 minutes. I’m used to taking a more leisurely approach to my beverages. I almost feel like they should give you one of those beer bong funnels to make it a little more exciting. But things are going fine, everything is checking out, baby looks good and sounds good thank God.
Besides the husband and the boy and the person I am growing inside my gutt, I’ve been working a fair amount all on the same job but I have enjoyed doing the work. It has been a nice distraction and I find I enjoy doing my design work so much more now that I don’t have to be chained to a desk for 8 hours a day. Its still all kind of stressful with clients and deadlines but I like being my own boss so much more than I like working for someone else.
o, yea and happy freaking new year! Its been that long. Of course I have a list. I usually have a list of New Year’s Resolutions but this year I decided to take it easy on myself and just make a list of things I would like to do in 2009 and I will post some kind of belly/pregnancy photo in the near future.
1. Take a refresher in letterpress printing.
2. Take a screen-printing class.
3. Go on a vacation to someplace warm.
4. Save enough money to buy a newer car.
5. Sew more.
6. Knit more.
7. Volunteer.
8. Loose the baby weight.
9. Run in a 5k.
10. Kiss my husband more.
11. Take better care of my husband when he is sick.
12. Read one book that has nothing to do with parenting, childbirth or homeschooling.
13. Take lots of photos with my new camera.
14. Rediscover my fashionista without the youthful vanity.
15. Grow something somewhere.
16. Really think about where we want to live and make some steps in the direction of getting there.
17. Be less serious.
18. Enjoy being the mother of two and not let it freak me out.
19. Do a will.
20. Write thank-you cards.
Filed under: friends + family
Oy! What a couple of weeks it has been. Tobias’s dad passed away at the end of October. Everyone thinks that his heart just gave up. He had been in and out of hospitals for awhile and every time we thought it was the end, he would power through and surprise us. He was a big man in both in the physical and in personality, he loved his kids and while he might not have always done the right thing, he was always worried about doing the right thing. We weren’t particularly close but I will miss him. Most of all I will miss what he meant to those around him. He spent the last year of his life doing the right things, he got right with God as a priority, spent time with is family and did the things that he enjoyed doing. So that happened like I said the end of October, there was the viewing, the funeral and then the mess of settling the estate. We extended our stay in Ohio to deal with all the things a death brings up. While we were at home my brother-in law suffered a massive stroke.
This was definitely one of those when it rains is pours times in our lives.
On a Sunday morning my sister called my mom’s house to say that Mason (my brother-in-law) had a stroke but it was okay and no big deal. Later in the day the news only got worse, my sister, maybe not ready to deal with the truth herself, hadn’t been as up front as we had hoped. My brother had suffered serious brain damage, the doctors said that he would only survive as a vegetable, in a nursing home, on life support, for the rest of his life. The news was devastating. He had a family, two kids, pets, parents a wife…he is forty years old. How does a forty year old have a stroke so massive it would turn him into a vegetable? He hadn’t taken his blood pressure medicine for 3 months. Besides being overweight, he is diabetic and works a really stressful job. We drove up to Columbus to see him and my sister, she seemed great, very calm, very concerned with everyone else, delicate, sure but not nearly the wreck I would have been. We spent hours sitting in the ICU waiting room…waiting for what? The most painful kind of waiting, not knowing what your waiting for waiting, waiting for the results to some test that you don’t understand waiting, waiting for the good news followed by the bad news waiting. Desperate waiting. So we waited. We drove the 3 hours back to Cleveland and waited. But each day the news only got worse. After being on life support for almost little two weeks with no real progress, no good first or second opinion, my sister told us they were prepared to take him off of life support and wait for him to take his last breath.
She made the funeral arrangements along with her in-laws and prepared her children for what was going to happen in the days to come. The Monday they decided to remove the life support her friends and family gathered at the hospital as they had been doing for weeks, but today it was to say goodbye. Her pastor from her previous church along with her current pastor decided it was a good time to pray over him one last time. They went in together and began, as they had both done separately to pray. While they were praying, Mason opened his eyes. He was able to communicate with them through nodding and blinking and asked for my sister. He looked at her with real presence and responded to her remarks of how much she loved him. They continued to bring in person after person and to each he responded with real awareness.
And all I can say is Thank God.
Is it all good news? No. He will most likely be paralyzed on the left side of his body. My sister is still left with the overwhelming task of supporting two kids and now a husband on her minimal salary. But there is hope. Hope the he will be able to at least see his kids get a little older. To share another year of marriage with my sister. To take care of the self he is left with. There is hope.
So everyday is a wait and see day. More waiting, but for me the seeing is different now.
Now we are back in NYC and things are a little more calm. The pregnancy is going well, especially considering all the stress. We’ve only been back for 24hours and already our downstairs neighbors are complaining about the noise. So nothing has really changed, at least for them.
Oh! and I realized why I hate politics so much. I never really thought about it but I grew up in OHIO, a battleground state. Yea, totally different vibe, not only politically but the media is just overwhelming and distracting and distressing. So it took me years to figure out where my absolute dislike for all thing political comes from and now I know. Yes, i did vote, via absentee ballot, and my guy won. More hope.
Thanksgiving is tomorrow so I am doing what any exhausted pregnant women should be doing at 11p the day before Thanksgiving. I trying to throw together some kind of dish to bring with me tomorrow to my wonderful hostess Joy’s house. I settled on a pear cranberry crisp. The butter got too soft so now I am waiting for it to firm up a little so I can crumble and get that thing in the oven. I am also trying really hard not to take my cast-iron pots and pans and drop them “accidentally” on the floor (happy thanksgiving neighbor!).
Anyway, good cheer and happiness tomorrow. Count those blessings, kiss those babies, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends moms and dads. Enjoy each other and your time together and don’t forget to CHOW DOWN!
Filed under: 1
Okay, so I haven’t been so good at writing, a busy girl yes, but more than that…I am pregnant. Yep! In my second trimester and cruising along. Hoping that the nausea doesn’t make a come back. By the way I will never eat McDonald’s again.
We are excited, nervous, busy cleaning and storing, worried, wondering from where the time, money love will come. But we are so, so, SO incredibly happy and blessed by this second pregnancy there are no words.
I will put some pics up of my blossoming self (not too many) and hopefully be better about writing and posting, even though I am pretty sure that I am the only that reads my blog.
Filed under: Misc.
I am so upset to hear Paul Newman has passed away. My favorite movie is Cool Hand Luke, I’ve watched it at least a dozen times. Besides being a total dreamboat, he seemed like a very nice man. I am hoping that Turner Classic Movies will do some kind of retrospective where I get to sit and eat apple pie and watch a bunch of his movies. This is a photo of him and his wife Joanne Woodward. What a good looking couple eh?
Filed under: Misc.
So despite my surprised reaction to the end of summer, I am totally ready for fall. I am sick of the hot and the summer clothing. The skirts, the shorts and the tanks that don’t even try to hide my bra straps. I long for warmly knit sweaters, and jeans and corduroys and shoes that cover your toes. Finley is ready too, and has been for some time, he keeps asking to wear his flannel lined pants, and turtleneck sweaters.
I get it man, I really do.
So this is what I want to do this fall: Go apple picking, make lots of apple pies, attempt to make delicious cinnamon rolls (that I will only have to share with Fin as Tobias does not like cinnamon rolls), read more about homeschooling and actually get up the guts to go to one of the meetings in Manhattan or Brooklyn, maybe finish the quilt I started last year, sew more shirts and dresses, drive upstate to see the changing leaves, make some mozzarella cheese, finish Tobias’s anniversary sweater.
Filed under: 1
Summer is over, when did that happen? My cousin back in Ohio started school today, SCHOOL! I thought that kind of thing was at least another month away, shows you how plugged in I am to that whole thing. Which brings up an interesting question in our lives, and one that comes up at least once a week from various neighborhood folk and friends. What are we going to do with Finley for school. Well here is what is decided we aren’t doing any kind of preschool programs. Besides the fact that we flat out cannot afford it, I don’t really see the benefit besides the socialization thing which he seems to get in fine amounts. This isn’t by any means a cut to those who decide to do the preschool thing. I totally get it, we are just going to skip it. As for kindergarten, as mentioned previously in this space we are considering homeschooling. We are considering it for lots of reasons, but I have to say I am terrified. Not that he will grow up some kind of reclusive, spelling bee champion, not that he won’t learn all the “stuff” he is supposed to know but I am terrified of…see that is just it, I don’t even know what it is is I am so scared of. Is it the stigma? Is it the fact that he will probably have to make new homeschooling friends and so will I? Is it the amount of work that it will entail? Maybe it is all of it. The thing is I am also SO excited. I think it will be so interesting and so enriching for our entire family but I would say I am 75% confident and 25% freaked out.
Maybe I just need to do more reading, and research. Maybe.
Anyway, besides the obsessing about education, I have been: working on a monster bid for a job that I so so so hope I get, making jam, delicious sweet peach and apricot jam, finished another skirt, started my anniversary sweater for Tobias, cut pieces to make a rabbit for Finley, bought more fabric and more yarn, searched on ebay for a vintage fisher price barn with the door that moos, got a pedicure and wished that I had gone to the Mets game with Tobias and Finley so I could see his face when he got to run the bases on the field.
