New Kid on the Block

So Patton and I got married in June. Just the two of us went down to Montego Bay, Jamaica and spent a week lying on the beach before exchanging our vows. It was the most magical week. It was a great get away from all the work and family stress and we got to document our love for one another and make this thang official.
While there we talked about lots of things, but it seemed that the majority oonversations centered around family.
It seems that we had found our match in one another. Our families had a ton of similiarities and it seems that we were raised in similiar ways with similiar values. So the thought of having more children with him was very exciting.
Seeing him accept the challenge of taking on the father role in Jackson's life and excelling at it. I get to see first hand beyond a doubt, he will be/ is an amazing father. We have created a solid foundation and on that foundation we have put much love and happiness.
That's why we were very excited to create many more happy memories and get to growing this family right away.
In September, we found out that we were going to have a baby! I even saw Pat tear up abit. If you know him you know that doesn't happen often.
So then came the happy task of sharing the news with our family....
I searched the internet for ideas and came up with a super cute way to tell my dad.
Every Saturday my dad, aunt Sue and Granan go to lunch and everytime we visit we go to lunch with them. It seems like we always go to eat Chinese food. So I found the idea of putting the message in a fortune cookie.
Pat helped me find just the right website to order them from and I placed an order for 50 ( that was the smallest order they had ) fortune cookies that read "A baby is in our future!"
So the plan was to go up the first weekend of October, the weekend of my dad's birthday, and spring the news. I e-mailed my dad to suggest we have Chinese food. I swear every weekend in the past this has not been a problem because that is what we eat, but of course the one time I want it I get flack. "NO! it's my birthday I want steak!" or something similiarily contrary was his response. I tried to plead with him and use every angle I knew and long story short we had plans to eat Chinese. Whooo

So the Saturday came and Pat and I left a little earlier then everyone else to give the fortune cookies to our waiter to be passed out after lunch. My adrenaline was pumping so much I could of run a marathon.

So lunch came and went and the waitress comes with the cookies. Only 5 cookies! Not the 6 that I had originally counted out. Immediately I say I don't want one and pass one over to my aunt to my right. To which she responds "no, you get this" we spend a few seconds sliding the cookie back and forth and finally I persuade her that she NEEDS this cookie.

Just then before anyone else, Jack grabs his cookie and starts tearing into the wrapper. Pat is quick to respond and grabs the cookie out of his hand and Pat and i share a quick " This is a nightmare" glance at one another.

So then the tradition goes my dad (who can't read the small type on the cookie) reads what he thinks his fortune says and then passing it to someone with "better" eyes to read what it really says. Well, that's not what happened this time. He opens his fortune, says "oh that print is easy to read.", reads it, then says, "that's not mine" and passes the fortune down the table to me.

WTF family??? seriously?

So then my Granan and Aunt Sue follow suit... same fortune, same passing of the fortune down the table to me. I was in the twilight zone.... then they all start discussing about how weird that is that they all got the same fortune. So then not to let the whole thing go over their heads I grab the bag of extra cookies out of my purse and say "Yeah and all these have the same fortune too!"

My dad sits there with a look on his face like he is confused as to why I have fortune cookies in my purse. My aunt slowly turns to me and goes "Your pregnant!" and give me a big hug and then the light bulb clicks for the rest of the peanut gallery and there is much rejoicing.

The rest of the family was a much simpler task I think. Pat's mom offered me a glass of wine and after I declined his parents picked up on it almost immediately.

By the time we got to tell my mom we had just gotten the sonogram from the doctor so we gave her a sweet card addressed from her new grandbaby with a picture of the sonogram inside. She was very touched and that was a sweet moment.

It has been fun breaking the news to our family, but I am glad that the traveling is all over and I am also thankful for things like facebook that make the job of breaking the news that much easier.

I am very excited at the place I am in life and very ready to make Jack a big brother. I sat him down and told him about the baby growing in my belly and I think he is a combination of excited and confused. He's at an age were he isn't totally lost, but maybe nervous that his will live up to the big brother label. Nevertheless he is still adorable in his reaction. One night he called me into his room around bedtime and lifted up his shirt and stuck out his belly and said, "Mommy, I have a baby in my belly too." and then started doing a goofy dance. Another day he crawled into my lap and started yelling into my bellybutton. "Hey! baby! I am your big brother! I love you!" TOO CUTE for words.

So it with great love and happiness that we welcome our new addition. I can hardly wait!

Jack's first knock knock joke.

So I am in the kitchen the other day and jack walks up to me with a big smile on his face and goes:

"Mommy knock, knock." instinctively I say. "Who's there?"
Jack: Apple
Me: Apple who?
Jack: Are you gonna let me in????

And then he busts out in this big bright laugh that lit up the whole room.

It wasn't a very funny joke. I am still kind of scratching my head on where he heard this from or what the orginal joke was and how it changed for the purpose of Jack's joke.
Still I couldn't help but laugh because of his reaction to his own joke. He was so excited to tell me a joke to make me laugh that it made him laugh. He was so excited just to see me smile that it made him smile.

Three days later I am still telling that joke and I get the biggest kick out of it. the people I tell it to probably think I'm crazy and don't appreciate it as much as I do, but it's still greatness to me.
I wish I had a video camera so I could show the whole world how cute that moment was.

Pin-Ups

I have always been fond of more retro styles. That's why I was pleased when I discovered rockabilly several years ago. I was at a reverend horton heat concert with my old coworkers and I could of given a hoot nanny about the music, but the girls on stage who served no purpose but to stand on stage and look fabulously fifties and do kichy dance moves ... well, I fell in love I wanted to be that girl. I have admired the culture from afar and then I started to see this pin-up trend emerge. I never cared much for Betty Paige and the like ... she was always a bit dark for me, but I like the more classy 1940's pin-ups like the iconic Betty Grable. So mix that musical subculture and a little nostalgia and that's where I'm at. Anyway, when I started dating Pat he expressed to me his love of pin-ups and all things WWII well I thought that was neat. As our relationship grew that something neat turn into a kind of wacky idea for a Christmas present. Anyway, I had these pictures done in November of last year and I just got all the final retouches back (there were two orders) so I thought I would share... In case anyone's out there.

Drake and Sade

zSHARE - Sade_The Moon _ The Sky Remix ft. Jay-Z _produced by Noah _40_ Shebib_.mp3

Thought I would share this song for anyone reading. I love Sade and I LOVE Drake. Also, it's got a nice little something in there with Hov. I love melodical music and besides Imogen Heap who I think has gone bananas, there isn't much "trippy" music out there right now. Besides that this is the type of song that no matter where you are in your life you can have a soft spot for it. Just take a listen and you will see what I mean...

hiatus...

So I took a little break from writing. A.) I have thus been uninspired and 2.) I have literally been too busy to write anything. I got engaged to the most wonderful man last July and life has kind of sped up from there I guess you could say.
I have been without a fulltime job since 2006. When I sat down and thought about it yesterday I have been either unemployed or working a contract job for over 4 years now. So in August I accepted another contract assignment for a company called Quantum. The pay was good, the people were nice, and it’s in my field of interest, accounting.
So I liked it, but didn’t get my hopes up because “in this economy” I have been met with every excuse in the book why I didn’t cut the muster. It’s taxing on ye olde self esteem. So you learn to live in this sort of disconnected bubble while trying to find the strength to show up smiling and be a part of the team.

But with this job something clicked … because they gave me an offer at the first of the year! I consider myself a religious person and this truly was a blessing. The offer was more than I needed and the insurance and benefits are amazing and having more certainty in my job just puts all the juggling balls back into motion instead of just suspended in midair while I hold my breath. Translation: I have stability

PLUS! It gives me the footing to do more important things like, PLAN A WEDDING!!!!! I am literally pumped and a little giddy to be marrying the man of my dreams and I am being extremely careful to do this just the way he and I want it. The first order of business….. procuring the reception venue….

And the winner is:


http://www.saintarnold.com/



St. Arnold’s brewery!! Patton and I both love this beer and have visited the brewery on a weekend tour. It’s a big open hall with long tables where people bring board games and sandwiches and for $7 you get three tokens and each token buys you a pint. Friends can sit and play games and drink beer pints at the actual place the beer is brewed. It’s a simple, quaint and charming place and I love it and can’t wait to share the experience with family and friends. Very laid back and cool place!

More details to come…

My son is the Edward Cullen of toddlers

Ok so here is today's lesson in genetics.... Take one man with thick, curly, black hair. Add to that a woman with straight, fine strawberry blond hair. What do you get? Me with mousy brown hair and a head full of strategically haphazard calics.


I have one calic that is just shy of being in the right place on the front of my hairline which makes for a wicked crazy part, and volume in a place where it's really not needed. I have to use tons of mousse and bobby pins and blow dry for hours to get the look I want. Most of the time I am too tired to deal so I just let my hair fall where it may.


My brother was blessed with the same hair and when we were younger it was a competition to who could wake up with the crazier alafalfa style do in the morning.


My son ,as it were, has received this hair curse. I decided to get him a cute little hair cut that was short on the sides and longer on top. Which all that really does is showcase were all the calycs are.
So in the mornings before we go to school I come into his room with a wetted washcloth in hand and a hair brush. As he sleepily rolls off his pillow... there it is "baby bed head" Most metrosexuals would kill for this style.

I hope for his sake that future popular culture does not adopt the slicked back look as commonplace...
Dear Jack, I apologize in advance for any future agony this may cause you.
Love, Mom ;)

Learning and growing... sort of.

Jack is getting old enough to be independent from me for extended amounts of time, and take basic instructions, and he's also old enough to ask billions of questions… mostly “what’s that?”
He is two and a half and his mood swings from total and complete bear to sweet angel of light to chief mommy button pusher. Not too many shades of gray between those three.
Besides being charming and sweet and happy the personality trait, to the good, that I recognize the most is how helpful he is, when he wants to be that is. Other times he can be as a said before, a real bear.
But it’s fun to watch him help and learn chores. Right now the one we are going through the paces about is him taking his plate to the sink when he is done eating. The key to success? REPETITION!
We started out small. I would give him his snack in his room, a yogurt cup with a plastic spoon. He would sit at his table and chairs in his room with the instructions “throw the cup in trash and the spoon in the sink.” And then I would let him to it.
Time would pass and he would come to me with minimal yogurt smoodge to be wiped off his face. “All done!” --- We will see about that I thought.
So I went into his room and in the trash were the yogurt and the spoon inside. So I would take the spoon and praise him for the good he did… All the parenting magazine say praise is good. Tee hee  and then gently correct him about the placement of the spoon. Then we would walk into the kitchen and put it in the sink together.
This happened a few more times with the spoon ending up in the trash. Then one day it stopped. He came to me “All done” . We went to check the trash and no spoon! So we rushed to the sink …. No spoon. So I checked ALL the trash cans in the house. At this point thinking that I may need to call an ambulance and that a plastic spoon is going to show up on a chest x-ray of my son. "where is the spoon?" I asked. "It's right dare" he would answer pointing at nothing.
Not under the bed, the kitchen table… no where. HUH.
So the next day at snack time I pulled the drawer open to get a spoon and sure enough the crusty yogurt covered spoon is laying in amongst his other clean (now unclean) spoons. Then Jack points to the spoon and goes “ I did it” yes Jack .. you did it. It was so sweet and cute I was the furthest thing from being annoyed.
We are still on the dirty spoon in the drawer phase and it not uncommon to find a dirty spoon or fork in any drawer in the house at anytime. I kind of like it that way. It reminds me how he is learning and it’s so innocent and sweet and it gives me a smile every time. Maybe one of these years I will teach him to put his spoon in the sink.