Joy

I have a poster that has some kitschy sayings on it. My favorite line on this poster has really reverberated in my life and has stuck with me a while.
The line is, "Don't postpone joy to clean the bathroom or scrub the kitchen sink."
For some reason, this line goes through my head a couple times a day. Even before I had children I held on to this saying.
I think the reason it means so much to me is that it is an easy way to say, "Hey, slow down, enjoy life, don't get worried about stupid sh*t."
I tend to get uptight and obsessive about things sometimes. I enjoy a clean, uncluttered home. However, the ideal picture of perfection is not always attainable.
Let's put it this way. When I was working, I could come home from work and stress about the unwashed laundry and dirty kitchen, or I could sit down and have a nice chat with my husband about his day.
On the weekend, I could spend all day scrubbing floors and toilets, or go for a nice walk and enjoy the sunshine.
Now that I have children, this is even more important. I can vacuum floors, or color with my son. I can dust cabinets, or snuggle with my newborn.
I always kid one of my good friends. It seems like she is always ironing or getting ready to iron her fresh laundry. I kid, "Ironing? What's that?" I retired my iron a long time ago. If it needs ironed on a daily basis, I don’t' buy it. My husbands work clothes go to the cleaners. It's just a few bucks a month, and the time I save by not ironing is invaluable to me. If I win the lottery, I'm having a cleaning person come four times a month, just to clean bathrooms.
It's a good thing we like to entertain friends and family. If we never had vistors, my house wouldn't get cleaned as often. In fact, I told my husband the other day to invite a co-worker to our house, just because I needed an excuse to clean.
Which is not to say that I never clean. My philosophy is just this, if you are in the moment enjoying shared time, it isn't necessary to jump up and do housework.
If I'm doing dishes, and my son brings me a book that he wants me to read, I usually put the dishrag down and cuddle in with him.
If I'm putting clothes in the laundry and my son wants my attention, we play a fun game of sock basketball.
It's all in how you spend your time. Remember not to postpone joy. We only live once. If you die tomorrow, does it really matter if the bathrooms are clean?

Tater Head

As all of my family knows, I have a love of potatoes. My dad used to say that I was probably Irish in a previous life.

As a child, I used to eat them raw, with just a little salt sprinkled over them. At an early age, I perfected the perfect hashbrown. Golden fried in butter, soft and white on the inside.
Strangely, it wasn't until I was older that I discovered other types of spuds. I now love parsley buttered red potatoes, crusty rosemary roasted Yukon’s, and baked sweet potatoes heaped with brown sugar and butter.

My brother-in-law loves my Hashbrown Casserole, made with hot sausage and frozen prepared hashbrowns, baked with a sour cream and cheese base. He paid me a dear complement when he declared, "You make the best hashbrowns."
My husband is a big fan of the Hot German Potato salad. It has about a pound of bacon in it, and it tastes better if you don't drain off all of the bacon fat. Not the healthiest dish, but very good. The German heritage in my blood approves. Now all you need is a good pilsner. Hey, that's what a German Fest is for, right?

If there were a potato recipe contest, I would enter it.

In fact, I think my mother-in-law thinks I'm a little odd. Every time she asks, "What's for breakfast?" I reply, "Hash browns, of course." Sometimes we do have potato pancakes.
As much as I love potatoes, I really hate peeling them. The drudgery of it all gets to me. I could never peel potatoes for a living.

Have you ever picked a potato from a garden? Actually, they grow underground. When you dig them up, they are unpleasantly dusty and dirty.

One potato I haven't tried is the purple potato. They look interesting. I bet they would make a garish potato salad. If I ever see one in the store, I'll buy one and let you know how they taste.

When I was pregnant with my first child, I had a craving for potatoes. At one point, it was all I could eat without getting sick. I kidded around that I would name him Tater. Funny enough, mashed potatoes are his favorite dinner. With my second, I craved Salt and Vinegar Potato chips, which my husband kept taking away from me. He didn't think they were very healthy for the baby or me.

One of my son's favorite toys is Mr. & Mrs. Potato head. Now, you can buy all sorts of alternative outfits for them. I just bought the safari outfit, which comes with a monkey, an elephant, and a bird costume. It's too cute. He learned his body parts that way. I would hand him Mr. Tater heads nose, and he would put it in the correct spot. They also have a princess outfit I'm considering buying for Mrs. Potato head. Every girl deserves to be treated like a princess by her Spud in shining armor.
So what's for lunch? I'm having potato soup!

How to freeze your butt off

It has been freezing cold here in Indianapolis. So cold in fact, that you can leave your drink in the car and it will freeze into a solid chunk of ice. I am very glad we moved and got a garage so I can keep my car from freezing into a giant green colored ice cube.
The thermometer has been hovering around 0. Today, with the wind chill, it was in the negatives. It was the kind of cold you can't outrun on your way inside.
So, braving the cold, I headed out for my bi-weekly shopping day. I go sans kids, which makes shopping day almost a treat for me. I decided to range a little farther from home today, forgoing my usual Wal-mart run in favor of a Meier run. Meier is farther away, but they have a lot more selection and some good deals.
The place was a madhouse. It seemed like every person in Indianapolis was out buying beer and Fritos for the big Super Bowl event tomorrow. In Indiana, you have to buy your beer on Saturday, because for some idiotic reason you can't buy any kind of alcohol on Sunday. Dodging around Colts fans dressed in blue, who were buying anything that was dyed blue, I managed to completely fill my cart with assorted household products. None of which were dyed any shade of blue.
So heading out of the parking lot, I about hit about 3 old ladies (dressed in blue), 5 men toting light beer in commemorative Colts packaging, and 10 women (in Peyton Manning jerseys) carting out tons of Super Bowl party supplies. I finally got my shopping wedged into the truck of my Taurus around my huge double stroller. I even managed to find space to tuck in my free commemorative Colts flag they gave me at the door.
As I turned onto the main road, I gave my sporty sport Taurus SES a little gas and chirped the tires, dreaming that I was headed to the airport to catch the next flight to warm and sunny Miami to watch the Super Bowl. But alas, I lack the proper massive fundage to actually buy tickets. Well, maybe if I took out a second mortgage on my house and drained my savings, we could afford to go instead of just going to a Super Bowl party.
A few miles into my daydream, I head an ominous thumping sound coming from the rear of my car. I glanced at the road, wondering if it needed repaved. Alas, the sound continued. I pulled off into a fancy subdivision, put my blinkers on, and popped out of my car.
The expletive that flew out of my mouth next can only be rivaled by my drug free pontification a few weeks ago at the birth of my daughter. I had a fricken FLAT! It was only negative who knows what outside, I had a trunkful of groceries, and I had left the cell phone home with my husband.
On a good note, I do know how to change a tire. Thanks again dad, for making me learn how to change a tire before you would let me get my license. It has come in handy now on two occasions in my life.
I buttoned up my heavy coat, pulled my hat over my head, and stared at my gloveless hands. (Sigh). I knew this was going to suck BIG TIME. First, I had to haul all the groceries out of the truck and place them inside my car. Then I had to haul the big double stroller out of my car. Next, I took out the false floor of my truck and prayed that my spare was in working condition and that I had a jack.
Luckily I did. After laying on the cold pavement trying to find the correct spot to place the jack, and then wrestling with the jack to slowly slowly slowly turn its frozen handle the correct way, I managed to use every bit of strength I had to break the lug nuts free. Then I had to man handle the old tire off and put the donut on. Finally, after loosing all feeling in my hands, legs, and butt, I managed to get everything done and everything back into the truck.
And it only took me 45 minutes of intense painful cold to get this done. Of course, I took just as long to warm up.
And that my friend, is a great way to freeze your butt off.

New Baby Girl Miller

Our new baby girl arrived on Saturday, Jan 5th. She is cute as a button. She came early, just like her brother, but she was a week older at 36 weeks.
Apparently, I have a problem with getting sick and having complications when I'm pregnant. With both, I had preclampsia, which is a bad thing. Basically, you can't control your blood pressure. It gets all out of wack. In the initial stages, it causes headaches; spotty vision then can progress to seizures and strokes. It can also develop into a condition called HELP, which I had with my son, which causes your liver and kidneys to shut down.
I was really sick with my son. They really didn't catch it very early, and I was working. I was kind of clueless. Finally, when they did catch it, I had full-blown preclampsia. It's a wonder I didn't have a stroke or seizure. I had to be on all these monitors at home on bed rest. When I finally had him, he was born at 35 weeks. He ended up having to spend a week in the NICU with some problems. I was a mess. A TOTAL mess. I was so worried and sick. However, almost two years later, he is a happy and healthy boy.
So when I found out I was expecting again, I was terrified. I took my butt to visit a very good local OB/GYN who told me that it was unlikely I would get the condition again. Apparently, it is more common to get it the first time, and then never again. He said that my chances were about 20% to have it again, but then he checked my chart and said that because I had it so severely, that I would have about a 36% chance.
So he said that really, there was nothing I could do to prevent it. Just try to be healthy, and not overdue it too much. I was told to "take it easy" at about 32 weeks.
When I moved, my new (well recommended) doctor told me the same thing. She began to monitor me closely. She got worried when I started showing some early signs, and then it seemed like I was there every day.
I was really worried I would have another sick baby. I behaved myself, and was on strict bed rest. Let me tell you, strict bed rest is really hard when you have a two year old who doesn’t understand why Mommy can't play and have fun.
Luckily, I had great help from family and friends. Without them, I don't know what I would have done. Special thanks to my Mom, who spent four days with us. She took excellent care of my son. He was really happy to have grandma, and I know she made the situation easier for him.
Thanks to my good friend Claire, who helped out watching my son when I had to make sudden trips to the doctors and for being such a good listener and friend.
Thanks to all my other friends (you know I love you all) who have been so supportive and have offered all their time and love to us.
Anyway, little girl Miller arrived at 36 weeks healthy and happy. She takes after her father. She loves to eat, and seems to be a happy and contented little thing. She got to come home with us, which was awesome, and I got to have all the newborn experiences that I missed out on with my son.

On a funny, ironic note, the new double stroller I ordered arrived on the same day as the new baby. It has been on backorder for six weeks!
Now I just have to get used too juggling two kids. It's going good so far, but my husband is going to be home with us this week. I'm dreading next week, but I'm sure we will get through it fine. Thanks to all!
New pictures are posted on our web site!

Just read

I am a firm believer in education. I don't think you can go wrong investing in any type of education for your child. There are so many good educational programs out there; art classes, music classes, overseas education, scouting, acting, dance, and sports.

However, the most important educational keystone starts at home and is the easiest thing to do. All you have to do is read to your kids! Anything! You can read science or fashion magazines, fiction, non-fiction, bios and informational flyers. As long as it holds their attention. I scan yard sales, thrift stores, and used bookstores for children's books. I rarely pay over .50 cents for a book. Occasionally, I do buy hard to find children’s classics new at the bookstore because they are hard to find used. People tend to keep their favorites at home. They don't want to let go of old friends. I bet you have a book that you fondly remember from your childhood. If you don't, I feel really bad for you! Some of my best memories are my dad reading "The Hobbit" and "Little House in the Big Woods" to me before bedtime.

I recently found out the county that we live in offers a literacy program called, “Dolly Parton's Imagination Library” to every resident preschooler. Basically, a book is mailed to the child every month until they turn five. This is to encourage literary and to help parents help their children discover a love of reading.

The program is offered in over 40 different states and many Indiana counties. What I found interesting is that some people have a skewed opinion of this program. After an article appeared in our local paper, a local citizen wrote:

"Applause for Dolly Parton, and for Cass County for creating the potential for its children to develop love for reading and appreciation of literature; however, before those books can become effective the children need to learn to read and comprehend the material."

My response was:

"Children’s books can be very expensive, especially the "classics". Our family participates in this program, and I can't wait for the book to arrive every month. It is an opportunity for me to have lots of books on hand that my son loves to read. He is only two, but he loves to go get books from his special bookshelf and bring them to me to read to him. He also "pretends" reads to himself. To Mr. Willett who posted "before those books can become effective the children need to learn to read and comprehend the material." I think Mr. Willett is missing the point. Building a love of reading starts at an early age, not just when a child is "able to read and comprehend." By that time, it might be too late!"

Even though this program is offered and administered in our area by the United Way, it is intended for all children to have this opportunity, no mater what their income. I have recommended this program to many of my neighbors, and some think it is some kind of charity program for "poor" people. This isn't the case; it is just intended to promote literacy. If they don't want to accept "charity" when they send in their registration form, they can gift the program $30. So if you live in Hendricks County Indiana, or in another location that offers this program, by all means take advantage of it. Your kids will love it, and you will love getting free books!

Post Holiday

I'm in a post holiday letdown mood. Today was not a good day. I felt like everyone was a grouch, and they kept sending "bad energy" my way. And I don't even believe in all that jazz.

My first mistake was going to Wal-Mart. That is usually enough to put me in a bad mood. I wanted to use some of my leftover Christmas money to buy a humidifier. My house is dry as the Sahara desert. We wake up in the morning with killer dry mouth. Your lips feel like you have been licking sandpaper all night. So I wanted to buy one of those massive, easy care units to leave on permanently, in hopes that some moisture would return to Death Valley.

Purchases in tow, I walked my big tummy and cart to the nearest checkout lady. She didn't have any customers, and was standing at the end of her aisle. She saw me coming, smiled, and said, "I can help you here." Then, from out of nowhere, a woman with a HUGE cartload of groceries flew around me and cut me off. I just started in disbelief at the vixen. Well, whatever. A nearby aisle was also open, so I just diverted there. I just couldn't believe that someone could be so rude!

So soon I was checked out and on my way out the door. Now, you know for some reason Wal-Mart is incredibly insane about security. If you buy batteries or VHS tapes in the electronics aisle, you have to pay for them back there. They won't let you out with your 3.99 batteries. I guess I can understand they have a lot of losses on DVD's and CDS, but for gods sake let me pay for smaller items with the rest of my groceries.

Anyway, I'm pushing my cart out the door with my kid playing happily. I have in my cart the three items I have purchased which include the humidifier and two white bath towels. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a disembodied voice starts giving me instructions to stop. This mechanical voice scares the crap out of my kid, who begins wailing at the top of his lungs. I continue on my way, as these stupid security gates go off on a regular basis. I have never actually seen anyone ever stop for one. All of the sudden, I am practically grabbed by the crazy old coot greeter who declares, "You have set off the security alarm," In a crappy rude way. He glances suspiciously at my bag.

I sigh, and hand him the receipt. Meanwhile, my kid is still screaming, this time at the crazy old coot. "You see," I say, "I just bought these three things and I paid for them." I was thinking he would just let me go, but NOOOOO.

He mumbles something under his breath, grabs my humidifier and receipt and says, "I'll be back." What? Can't you SEE I bought the damn thing? I have a PROOF OF PURCHASE! Anyway, I stood there, fuming, while the little man ran off with my merchandise and receipt, while my kid continued to wail. Sigh. Some days you just can't win.

What seemed like decades later, the man comes back, gives me my stuff, and indicates that I'm free to go. It's great to know that I won't get arrested for attempted humidifier and or towel robbery!

My child is still upset, and I across the palatial parking lot. I stick him and my purchases in the car, noticing that I was not parked in a convenient location to the cart return. Normally, I always return my cart, but as my child was screaming his head off, and I wasn't feeling that great due to being 8 months pregnant, I felt this was an okay time to just leave the cart parked between the aisles. As I left the cart, a middle-aged man comes up to me, gives me a crappy look and then points to the cart return. "It's just right over there," He says accusingly, waiting for me to return the cart.

I just stared at him unbelievingly. "Right," I said, heading for my car.
He sighed, gave me A LOOK, and them proceeded to grab my cart and head for the return.
"Thanks!" I said brightly, closing my car door.

When I got in my car, it hit me what a colossal jerk that guy was. Plus, my kid was still crying. I put my head down on the steering wheel, took a few deep breaths, and then started feeling around the back seat for kid snacks and a sippy cup. A few gulps later, my kid was quiet, and I was headed home, away from the crazy people in a post-holiday world.

When you assume you make an a$$ out of yourself

I have a problem with assumptions. I am quick to assume things are the way they should be. Have you ever heard the saying, "When you assume, you make an a$$ out of yourself?" I have done this on more than one occasion.
I've heard of people coming up to a women and asking her when she was due, assuming that she was pregnant. Then they found out they just made a huge a$$ out of themselves because the woman is just FAT!
In work situations, this can be disastrous. If you assume something is correct mistakenly, but never double check, it can lead to disaster. I learned early on to double check items, if only to keep my boss from asking why I "assumed" something was true. Well, it made sense to me.
So funny story, when we moved into our new house, we were pleased to find that the new fancy smancy fridge had a filter. Our water is really hard here, so we have been using it a lot. My husband commented the other day that he thought we needed a new one because it seemed the water quality was decreasing. I agreed.
Then we had some family over for dinner. Our cousin commented that the water tasted icky. I told her to use the water from the fridge because it was filtered. She said she did, and it still tasted funny.
The next day, I went to pull the water filter out. It has a little plastic cover that encases it in the fridge. I snapped the clasp open, and was shocked to discover that there wasn't even a filter in there! The compartment was empty! It had a little blue cap on the back that said bypass cap. Ha ha ha. I laughed so hard.
So, I know this may be a boring story to you, but I found it hysterically funny. We have been using this fridge since September. We have commented many times how nice it was to have filtered water cold from the fridge. We assumed that we had a lovely new fridge feature. But the joke was on us. The cheap bloke who sold us the house never put one in the fridge after he bought it.
Needless to say, I used some of our Christmas money and ordered a new filter today. It should be lovely when I finally get it installed.

O Christmas Tree

It's that time of year again. Time to push back the annihilated turkey carcass and pull out the Christmas decorations. My neighbors have already set up the fake lighted deer and the huge massive snow globes with Frosty in them.
I am a big fan of the less is more approach. A simple wreath and a few tasteful white lights suites me. But I have to admire the gung-ho Christmas enthusiast who spends several thousand dollars on light displays and plastic critters.
Last year, a family that lived just north of us went a little crazy. You see, the dad was an engineer. Do you know what happens when you give an engineer free reign with the Christmas lights? Things get a little crazy. This guy had about a million lights on his house, synchronized to electronic type music. It was something to see. In fact, so many people wanted to see it that the city asked him to please turn off the display. He was causing traffic problems in his neighborhood. He lived in a standard American sub-division. Wouldn't you just LOVE to be his neighbor? His display was so impressive that he was featured on the Today show. I'm just wondering if he is going to do it again?
I don't ever remember my family going over the top at Christmas with the decorations. At most, I think we just strung a few multi-colored lights around the windows, trees, or whatever happened to be handy.
We always had the fresh Christmas tree. We would travel to the nearest tree lot and pick one out. We always argued about what tree we were going to get. Then the tree man would lash the tree on top of our 1982 escort and away we would go. When we got home, it was with much grumbling and mumbling that dad finally got the tree into the stand. One year, the tree was horribly bent, and we had to tie it up with some wire. Another year, our cat Hoggles decided that it was a good place to hang out. He would piss all over the tree, marking his territory. It was a little rank. This cat also had issues, so he would hide in the tree, and then pounce out and attack your ankles. That was a great cat.
I found quite by accident several years ago that I'm actually allergic to live Christmas trees. I was sleeping on the couch at a family members house with my face about tree feet away from the tree. I had a terrible allergy attack, and could barely open my eyes. I was a mess.
So now we have a lovely fake tree. Last year, I upgraded and bought the tree with the lights already on it. All I have to do is take it out of the box and plug it in. It's the best invention ever.
My son has discovered the tree this year. Luckily, I had the foresight to buy all plastic ornaments. He likes to pull them off and throw them around the room. Last night, I picked up about 10 bulbs and reattached them to the tree. He has also decided that he really likes the plastic bead garland I have on the tree, and throws a fit every time because he can't quite figure out how to get it off.
I guess in a few years I'll be able to put the fancy glass ornaments on. Until then, I guess I'll just have to grin and bear it.
Happy Holidays!

Bedrooms and Bathrooms

I've been working on getting the house in order lately. Maybe it's a nesting thing. My mother-in-law came over and helped finish the nursery.

I wanted the baby's room it to be just perfect. My son was early, and with the following chaos, I never really got to do the nursery the way I wanted. Luckily, it had been previously painted blue, so at least it wasn't just plain white.


I also didn't want it to be too pinky pink. So I picked out a nice pale purple color and some lovely decals. I went with the decals because I'm too lazy to do stenciling and I didn't want to mess with borders. Plus, once she gets a little older, we can just peel them off. Easy!

So we took a grand trip to the fabric store and bought yards and yards of pretty frilly eyelet and fabric. Luckily, my mother-in-law is really good at that kind of thing. When I start a craft project, I usually end up over buying fabric.

So we spent the weekend planning cutting and sewing. I think that it turned out fabulous. Now we just need the star to make an appearance.

In other news, we are starting to THINK about potty training my son. I’m really not pushing it, but we bought a potty and put in a bathroom. He has been ignoring it, but today decided to test it out. I made sure to make a big deal about it. Now his potty is his favorite place to sit.

My little cowardly lion

Here are some pictures of my son dressed up like a lion for Halloween. I was surprized that he actually consented to wear the mane/hat. He was cute as a button. We took to a few houses, and he even got to munch on his first candy bar, a Twix. He loved it. He had chocolate all over his hands and face. He got a little scared at all the strangely dressed kids that came to our door. He was my little cowardly lion. It would have been perfect if I had dressed up like Dorothy, and my husband the tin man, but we didn't get that together.