Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Cranky Family

Today was one of those rare days when I fantasize about going off somewhere by myself to get away. (The fantasy involves going to the bookstore, buying books and magazines for ME, getting a snack and decaf cappuccino at the cafe, and sitting and reading for hours - uninterrupted.)

My little family has been in a bad mood since last night, although I'm not sure why. Maybe the change in weather and air pressure is making us cranky. A was crabby last night, which annoyed me. But I was okay until this morning when R drove me absolutely nuts. I spent most of the night in his bed because he had been upset in the middle of the night, so that meant I didn't get very restful sleep, what with being kneed and punched all night. Then, when I got up this morning to use the bathroom (and told him I'd be right back), R started wailing and yelling for me when I didn't return quickly enough. After we got up for the morning, he threw fits when I went to take a shower and when I went to get dressed. And, he had to be on me constantly. He climbed on me while I was doing yoga (which was his idea, the yoga, I mean), he jumped onto my back while I was trying to read my devotional, he insisted on climbing into my lap during breakfast, and he just kept touching and poking at me over and over again. I love that boy with all my heart and soul, but sometimes I need a few inches of personal space.

When A finally got up, I told him I needed a few minutes to myself and headed upstairs. I prayed and asked God to help my mood. Things definitely got better. But we spent most of the rest of the day running errands and shopping, which got tiresome, plus R was super whiney.

So, now hours later, A is putting R to bed upstairs, I'm watching "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," I've had a lovely little glass of 14-year-old blueberry port, and all's right with the world again. :-)

Of course, the day wasn't entirely annoying. R and I had some time in the afternoon to play baseball and frisbee outside and to crack open the sandbox that's been left alone all winter. And, after lunch, I treated myself to a big slice of Swedish princess cake. (I bought three of them during our last trip to IKEA.) Oh my, it's so delicious. It has layers of sponge cake and whipped cream and strawberry jam inside, and the whole thing is encased in a thin layer of marzipan. Light and sweet and fluffy - kind of like a Scandinavian tiramisu.

Well, A is about to light a fire in the fireplace, so I'm going to relax with my hubby. Oh, did I mention that we're supposed to get A FOOT of snow between tonight and Monday morning? I think I'm going to need another glass of port...

Monday, February 23, 2009

Superhero Kristen!

I wish I had something interesting to write about, but I'm having a bit of a dry spell. So, instead, I thought I'd share something fun. The Hero Factory is a fun site where you can design your own comic book superhero. Here are mine:

In my first attempt, I tried to represent me as me. I'm not too fond of the pants, but otherwise it's cute.


My second attempt was much cooler. And, I think this one could represent me when I have PMS or when A splatters grease all over the kitchen or when I've stepped on a Lego (the pain!) that R forgot to put away. Or, it could be me someday when some girl break's R's heart.

(Note to my friend Rob: She just needs some heavy, butt-whumpin' boots and then she could be Apocalypso!)

If you make your own superhero, be sure to share and let me see!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

How've you been?

It's been so long! Or at least it feels that way. How are you all? Happy Valentine's Day!

Life has been a mixed bag for me lately. We keep getting bad financial news at work, and A is starting to stress out about that. We had been planning to go visit his family in California next month, but we don't feel comfortable spending the money now. And, that's bothering A a lot because his parents are aging quickly, and we want R to spend time with his grandparents before it's too late. So we talked today about skipping going out to eat and saving money wherever we can specifically so that we can make the trip sometime this year. But we don't want to raid our current savings in case we need that later to pay our bills if we both lose our jobs. *Sigh*.

So that's most of the not-so-great stuff. Now for the better stuff! All of a sudden, I have a social life! LOL. I've been reconnecting with long lost friends through Facebook and other venues, and it has been wonderful to have some time to meet up with these wonderful women after work for appetizers, drinks, and catching up. And, guess what? R was fine! Despite all my fears and worries, he was not emotionally scarred that I wasn't able to have dinner with him and read him his bedtime stories every single night of the last couple of weeks. ;-) So, I'm letting myself have one night a week that's for me - either to meet up with friends, attend my Bible study group, or maybe even just to go shopping or to the bookstore by myself.

The other great thing is that the weather stopped beating the crap out of us! It hasn't snowed in a couple of weeks, and we actually had two days this week in the 50s - yay! Nearly all the snow has finally melted, and we were able to take R to the playground. It was so wonderful to get outside and feel the warm breeze, to smell the damp earth, to stomp on the thinning ice and break it up into little melty pieces.

On my Thursday home with R this week, we spent a few hours making valentines for his classmates at school. (I stupidly forgot about his teachers - oops!) I was so surprised - R was really into it, and he did such a good job making a unique valentine for each of his 23 friends. (Some of them he never sees because they are at school on different days than him, but you have to include everbody, of course.) I cut up card stock paper into rectangles, and R used stickers and glitter glue and little jewels and letter stamps to decorate them.


I made valentines for R and A, and they came out so nice! I was really excited to do something creative for once. :-) I also bought teeny, tiny canvases and made a painting for each of them as gifts. R's came out GREAT. I've gotten really good at painting and drawing rocketships, so his was easy. A's didn't turn out like I'd hoped, but he and I had a good laugh about it. I was trying to represent our two hearts as strong and together even when surrounded by a storm, but it ended up looking like a sun wearing heart sunglasses, against a really cool stormy background. I got the storm part down, but the rest was hysterical. (Maybe I'll post a picture of the paintings tomorrow, and you'll see what I mean.) I don't think I've mentioned that A bought me an artist's set for Christmas, which was such a thoughtful and amazing gift. I wanted to paint him something to thank him, but I need a lot more practice first. :-)

My Valentine's Day has been quite lovely. A lazy morning with my boys that included homemade heart-shaped chocolate chip pancakes, time outside at the park, Lego time, a mini-nap on the couch, rousing games of Trouble and Mousetrap after dinner -- and now there's a warm, crackling fire in the fireplace, a glass of champagne, and a box of chocolates awaiting me. So I need to get off the computer!

Have a wonderful night and weekend! I'll leave you with my new favorite picture of R. It makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. (Those are my boots, in case you were worried.) :-)

Friday, February 6, 2009

My funny boy

A and I keep a pad of paper on our fridge on which we write down funny, silly, profound things that R says and the date. It's really nice to flip through it every so often and laugh and get misty-eyed at his quotes.

Here are a couple we added this week:

"Grandhog Day is when all the beavers come out of their dams." [And, that's not a typo - he said grandhog not groundhog.]


"My butt is going radioactive!" [We still don't know what he meant by that, but it was hysterical.]

And, we didn't write this one down but it still cracks me up whenever R says it:

"You're not the ruler of the universe, Daddy!"
[That's right. Because he knows that Mommy is the ruler of the universe. LOL.]