Every generation...

Henry David Thoreau said that every generation laughs at the previous generation's fashions, but follows religiously the new. How true, how true...
I am in love with this pair of boots.... but I am imagining Madeline going through the attic one day and finding them and saying, "Mother? What on earth were you THINKING?"

Ugly or Cute?

For Real

Fashion I can't belive is still acceptable or If you must wear fur please don't let it touch me

Yesterday my dear husband and I celebrated Valentines Day. We decided to "beat the rush" and go out early. My mom came up to babysit so we could go out.



Too bad I accidentally poisoned him with my chili. He ate it Monday night and I don't think he came to bed the whole night he was so sick... I felt terrible! (Especially since I didn't eat any myself) I kept telling him we should cancel our evening out but he insisted we forge ahead. (Surprise surprise to anyone who knows my husband). We were going to go to Outback, but decided to go to Chilis instead since he wasn't really in the mood to eat.



Afterwards we went to Emens Auditorium at Ball State and saw "Evita." I didn't know what to expect as I had never seen it. We got settled into our seats (which were fantastic!) and right after the lights dimmer I realized I felt something hairy touching my leg. Hmmmm.....



I knew it wasn't my husband so I started groping around to see what it was. I finally latched on to a handful of what looked to be Mink.



Ok, first of all, it's Ball State people, not Broadway.



Secondly - Do people still really wear fur?



I've always been anti-fur, but especially since my Junior year of high school when I did a research paper on animal rights. I couldn't believe the laws (or lack thereof really) regarding how animals were treated who were only being raised for their skin (or our dinner tables for that matter). I remember my mom supporting me, until she saw the pile of cashmere and angora sweaters that were destined for Goodwill. I mellowed out a little when I realized that at least the animals weren't killed for their fur, as other animals were.



I just thought it todays day and age that 99.9 percent of all people felt that wearing fur was cruel and disgusting - not to mention , most of it is UGLY!



But whatever, as much as I wanted to get my red pen out and sneak "FUR IS DEAD" onto the back of the coat (my paint can was at home) I know this lady has a RIGHT to wear whatever she wants. She also has the right to wear her hair so big that I have to sit on my knees like a 5 year old to see over it.



What I hated is that I couldn't get away from it. I shifted, I sat on one leg, I crossed and uncrossed - I sat like a man- and still it was drifting down on me like a Yeti snowfall.

At least the performance was good. Rather - outstanding. I wasn't sure I'd like it going in - but it was just beyond wonderful. The young girl who played Evita was truly out of this world and I suspect she'll be quite famous someday. I pretty much annoyed Steve all the way home singing my own little variations of "Don't cry for me, Argentina." (Complete with arm raising and fake crying.)

What a trooper...

Locks of Love

I really really want this hair cut - but I am a big weenie and afraid to go get it. I am afraid it's a little too much for my skinny face. However, Ms McCarthy also has a skinny face.

I mean, hair grows back right?

Just call me Oscar

Sorry for the lapse in posts, I've been busy with a grouchy baby (apparently we took her off the reflux medication a little too soon) and I think some of it's rubbing off on me because I've been a real wench latley. I think I'm becoming more sensitive with age. I found this the other day and couldn't believe how well it nailed me. *note to self - make husband teach me how to hyperlink!* I am a "Melancholy-Sanguine" personality.

Mr. MelSan is usually a very gifted person, fully capable of being a musician who can steal the heart of an audience. As an artist, he not only draws or paints beautifully but can sell his own work- if he's in the right mood. It is not uncommon to encounter him in the field of education, for he makes a good scholar and probably the best of all classroom teachers, particularly on the high school and college level. The melancholy in him will ferret out little-known facts and be exacting in the use of events and detail, while the sanguine will enable him to communicate well with students.
Mr. MelSan shows an interesting combination of mood swings. Be sure of this: he is an emotional creature! When circumstances are pleasing to him, he can reflect a fantastically happy mood. But if things work out badly or he is rejected, insulted, or injured, he drops into such a mood that his lesser sanguine nature drowns in the resultant sea of self pity. He is easily moved to tears, feels everything deeply, but can be unreasonably critical and hard on others. He tends to be rigid and usually will not cooperate unless things go his way, which is often idealistic and impractical. He is often a fearful, insecure man with a poor self-image which limits him unnecessarily.

Longing for REM or Why my dog has soft lips

In the set up of our Master bedroom, somehow - BOTH of the dogs sleep on my "side" of the bed. Austin (big dog) sleeps in his own bed in the corner and Sugar Baby (backup dog) sleeps on a little paw shaped pillow right by my bed - literally I mean where I would put my feet in the morning. This was especially fun when I was getting up 3 times a night to nurse the baby who was....you guessed it...also in our room. But I digress...



My husband and my routine is to watch the news, make marital chitchat, and then I turn over to read whatever various book in which I am, at present, engrossed. (Which happens at the moment to be Freakonomics which is FANTASTIC) By this time the dogs are in deep sleep which means -



SNORING.



Snoring by an 85 pound, 8 year old Labrador. Imagine a fog horn with paper towel stuffed down the horn. It is SO LOUD there is no possible way I can focus on my book, let alone trying to enter REM sleep. I try whispering his name but that's useless and even I can't hear myself over his snoring. So the conundrum began - how do I wake him up and get him to shift positions without waking up my husband, freaking out Sugar Baby, or startling him so much he goes into a barking fit.



I spent about a week trying to figure this out. Adding to the nocturnal noises is the train that runs through Pendleton. It runs all day and all night and even though we're miles away and one CERTAIN husband assured me you "can't hear it from the house" when he was trying to coax me into marrying him....alas, I can still hear it. AND, it often plays little tunes on said horn since it assumes NO ONE would be up listening to the trains.



Unless, of course, they have the great snoring dog.



So, one night, not to long ago as I tossed and turned in bed listening to my dog saw logs - it came to me. What do we do to our husbands when THEY snore? We jab them in the ribs with our elbow until they slightly wake up and roll over, and then we roll over quick so they don't know we jabbed them.



Well, since I can't exactly nudge Austin - I had to come up with another option. Throwing things at him. Don't get all upset, not rocks or chocolate or books or anything - just little things that I would have on my nightstand at a give moment. This usually ends up being chapsticks and floss. (Floss on my nightstand being the topic for another post) So the other night, as I was finishing up my chapter, I heard the rumbling from the corner. I slipped down under my duvet, checked to make sure my husband was asleep (not exaaaaaaaaaaactly sure he'd appreciate my plan) and sneaked a chapstick off my nightstand. Then, I slowly - carefully - lobbed it at his head.



It worked! He startled, and then shifted and it was back to a nice quiet room. Ok ok, I didn't hit him in the head, I just hit his leg or something. But it worked! Joy! Too bad I couldn't throw chapstick at the train....



2 nights ago the snoring got out of control again. I hadn't restocked my arsenal, so I felt around on my nightstand to see what I had... the only thing I could find that wouldn't cause harm was a paper clip. Not the dinky ones, but like the black ones with two "legs" that fold down and snap over a larger group of papers. It wasn't sharp so I thought it would be just fine as my chosen projectile. I checked on my husband, and tossed the clip ever so lightly at the dog.



It didn't work! He didn't move! It was the only bullet in my gun. I felt around my nightstand - mints - no, a water bottle - no, reading lamp - no. ARG! Then I heard him move a little. SAVED! He stopped snoring! Thank goodness! I turned over and cuddled up to my husband, very proud of myself. But then I heard a rattle.



He had lain back down ON TOP OF THE PAPER CLIP! So with every breath he took he was making it rattle. And within a minute he was snoring again. FOG HORN....rattle rattle.....FOG HORN....rattle rattle. You can't make this stuff up folks!



I was sort of losing my temper and thinking about just throwing myself at the dog, but got ahold of myself. (Literally) Next thing I knew, I was waking up the next morning.



I haven't come up with a solution, but I've given up on the projectile theory. Austin was starting to have both softer lips and cleaner teeth than me.

"It's sorta like playing Monopoly"

These were my words to Steve last night as I was "helping" him with our taxes. We had a little snack on the couch and then he said he was going to go start getting our tax stuff together to send to the accountant. I had a terrible headache, so he told me to go relax upstairs. BUT - I decided to poke my nose into his office to see what preparing for taxes entails as the only time I've ever filed by myself I did so over the phone and they involved the letters "E-Z." But wouldn't you know I got drafted into helping!

Segue - Steve has taken multiple days off work to stay home with Madeline. This has allowed him to get the true "stay at home parent" experience. Although I have worked my entire life and have a good idea what getting up and putting a full day in at the office entails, I don't give my husband the credit he deserves a lot of the time. He's up at 6am to let the dogs out, feed them, pack his lunch, and leave for work in the cold cold car. He puts in a full day at Ball State and then drives 45 minutes home to be greet ed usually by a frazzled wife and whiny baby - plus 2 dogs who want to play. He immediately takes over and plays with Madeline while I finish up dinner, gets her ready for dinner, feeds her dinner, plays with her while I clean up, gives her a bath, and puts her to bed. After that he pays bills, mows grass, empties trash or a myriad of other "Honey-Dos". Usually without a thank you from me.

Steve assigned me the job last night of going through the checkbook, credit card, and medical receipts to figure out how much money was spent on medical bills in 2007. It was an arduous job to be sure. It involved sorting, and computing, and listing, and calculating, and eye straining. Then it involved coming to terms with the amount of money we had to spend on medical bills last year. I thought my eyes were going to bug out of my head. Yes, I couldn't help thinking about all the shoes I could have purchased - or nice sports car for that matter, but I was amazed that my husband had been able to finagle our savings to pay it all off without medical debt.

Sometimes you got to get in someone elses skin and walk around in it to really understand what their life is like. I have no idea (literally, none- I am not exaggerating) about how to balance a checkbook, put money into IRAs and 529s, invest in mutual funds and the like. If he dies before me I will, literally, be lost. I don't think I've ever once thanked him for being so wise with our finances, for working so hard so that I can stay at home with our daughter, taking out the trash and alllllllll the other yucky jobs he does that he doesn't like either - that he does because they need to be done. Sitting there, on the floor of his office, I was doing something that he normally did. If I hadn't done it, I would have no appreciation for the job. I would have been like "Ohhhh sorting receipts - BIG DEAL." It makes me wonder how many other things he does that I take for granted. Picking up toys at night isn't a personal high of my day, but it beats paying bills and doing all that complicated stuff. It was up to me I'm pretty sure we'd be in financial ruin because I'd keep forgetting to write checks, let alone trying to keep track of bills.

So, after I finished my job, I took out "the packet" - the big thing we have to fill out for the accountant. So I sat there and read the questions aloud while he worked on a website.

"Did you operate or otherwise take part in a S Corporation purchase or franchisement?"
No

"Did you or any of your dependants pay a luxury tax of 5,000 dollars or greater?"
No

"Did you purchase or sell any real estate this year?"
No

Ok, so I'm making some of those questions up, but it sounded like the Monopoly game from Hell. Apparently there is a tremendous amount of work in getting ready for someone else to do your taxes. Who knew?

Thank you, dear husband, for taking care of me. For not complaining that you paid for a baby instead of a new car. For sparing me from doing things, not because I'm not capable, but because I just wouldn't like doing them. Thank you for always walking into the house with smile on your face, and open arms for your daughter. Thank you for all the times I should have said it and didn't. I love you.

But please don't ever ask for help with taxes again.

I can solve the crime problem!

So - after hearing the latest killing here in Indy of 2 mothers and their babies I have figured out a way to stop all killing of innocent children.

1. Let me and my mom friends have about.....10 minutes alone with the people hurting them.

2. Show it on TV

3. No one will every hurt a child again.

I'm not one to normally feel like I should take the law into my own hands but I tell you latley.....it makes me sick to my stomach

Pics from the trip!

Like I already said - we had a GREAT time in Canada and obviously the Canadians had missed Steve!!

This was the view from our room on the 28th floor. Steve has this tradition of taking pictures of me at the window on vacation. I don't know why, but I always seem to gravitate to the view. We had a spectacular view in Toronto - we overlooked the skating rink that was outdoors and the cool apartments that you can see in this pic!

This was the television interview with Coach Hoke the night before the game. We were invited to go, and as it got boring I kept thinking of questions to ask like they do in the Coors Light commercials at the fake press conference. Don't worry, I refrained.

The view of the end zone from Windows Restaurant

Hangin' out at the Pre-game luncheon.

Hardcore.

Charlie Cardinal Reminding us what number we were!

The Country Mouse

Steve and I had a GREAT time in Canada. (I'll post more pictures later that I actually took with our camera.) We had a couple of AWESOME meals, found some funky shops, went ice skating, and enjoyed fantastic seats to the Bowl Game.

I have to admit that I am totally in love with Toronto. Steve and I walked about 3 miles through the art and fashion district and every other store was a womens clothing store or a shoe store! We didn't have time to stop in all of them, but we did get to sample a real taste of that part of the city. Sort of Broad Ripple with SOHO prices (thus why we didn't buy much).

There are few places I like enough to wear I actually fell like I could move there and be happy, but Toronto was one of those places. There was so much to do, the arts had a HUGE presence there, and it's a huge, fast moving city. I saw lots of people out with babies in the parks and in the shops. So the kids wouldn't have a yard to play in.... grass is overrated right? I know my husband would NEVER live in the downtown of any city, but I could totally do it. Being in Toronto made me miss the city terribly. I wish there was a way to be a city and country mouse.