I’m off to Juju’s for a few days. She’s having her baby tomorrow! EEEEEKKKK! I have been on pins and needles for weeks, jumping up every time the phone rings thinking it will be her. So, I shall return next week, hopefully with pictures of a sweet new baby girl! Think happy baby thoughts for us.

P.S. Here’s a big shout out to my in-laws (bro-in-law, sis-in-law, mom-in-law & dad-in-law) for helping out with the kids in my absence. You’re the best!

My daughter is not a big eater. This week, due to a crazy growth spurt of some sort, she has been requesting various food items on a regular basis, which is totally not like her. Requests for corn-syrup infused candy or marshmallows? Yes. Requests for sandwiches and grapes? Not so much.

Tonight she requested a “jelly sandwich” and it is Friday night and I am sitting at home with two small children waiting for my husband to return from that nefarious land known as “Work”, so I gave her not one jelly sandwich, but two jelly sandwiches, which she devoured in five minutes flat. As I was preparing the second sandwich (Smucker’s Simply Fruit seedless black raspberry and a hamburger bun — I need to go to the grocery. Don’t judge me.) I used all of the jelly and thought “We’re all out of jelly.” which led me to think of the lyrics to this song which led me to think of a particular high school boyfriend and all of my superfluous teenage angst and heartbreak when he up and moved away and left me behind which led me to think “God, please let the girls be like their daddy and not care about affairs of the heart until they are older. Much, much older.” which led me to think “Fat chance, sister.” Didn’t I suffer enough for all three of us? Can’t they just skip over all of that nonsense? Pretty please? And then I thought about all of the break-ups and longing and tears I’d been through in my youth and how if I hadn’t gone through all of that, every bit of it, I wouldn’t have met Bubby and I wouldn’t have my two beautiful girls and then my brain exploded.

And on that note, I must leave you with this. You’re welcome.

Last week (was it only a week ago?) Bubby and I journeyed to New Harmony for our annual anniversary get-away. We stayed three nights this year and it was the first time Lokie spent the night away from home and the first time she spent that much time away from us. I think everything went ok with the kids while we were gone. The worst my sweet, sweet mother-in-law said was that Lokie was “a handful”. But she was teething something fierce last week and I’m fairly certain (based on her hideous behavior when we got home) they pretty much just held her for four solid days. Not that I can blame them.

We had a really good time and the days flew by, of course. When we checked in to our room the people in the room next to ours were outside romping on the grass with their two kids. And I thought, “You have GOT to be kidding me.”  We leave home for four days and the people in the room next to us brought THEIR BABY. Every time I heard him cry I started to jump up and see what was wrong. Oh, wait. I don’t have to do anything. I left mine at home. But they were gone the next day, so all was well.

We walked all over town, rode bikes as much as we could, did a little shopping, a little movie watching, a LOT of CNN watching and a lot of eating and drinking. I gained six freaking pounds in four days. Tom The Bartender, we can’t wait til next year.

Additional pics can be seen on flickr, if you’re into that sort of thing.

OK, maybe “amazing” is overstating things a bit, but here are some recent strange happenings from my life:

• One day last week Lokie and I went to the grocery to pick up a few things while Arwyn was at school. I inadvertantly left my bag in the grocery cart in the cart return thingee in the parking lot. I did not discover this fun fact until I had driven all the way home and pulled into my garage. I immediately hauled ass back to the store, trying not to throw up the whole way, screeched to a stop in front of the cart return and saw my purse still in the front of the cart where I had left it in my rush to load groceries and baby into the van. Every single item was still in my purse: cash, wallet, cell phone, ipod.
• Friday night we went to a local Mexican joint for dinner. Arwyn took along one of her new Kelly dolls that I got her for a little Halloween treat. She was playing with it in the foyer while we waited to be seated. As we were getting ready to pull out of the parking lot after dinner, we discovered that the doll was nowhere to be found. I ran back inside the packed restaurant and found the doll sitting on the window sill in the foyer, right where she’d left it.
• Today we stopped in at the grocery (again, but different store) and as we were checking out, Arwyn hit her head on the handle of a grocery cart. I was trying to carry her, push the cart toward the door and quiet her cries when the man who had been in line behind me came running up, asking if I’d lost my keys. They had fallen out of the cart and I hadn’t even noticed.

I’m thinking it may be time to purchase a lottery ticket.

Get out there and VOTE, people! Please.

Seven years ago today we said “I do” on a beautiful, sunny and warm autumn day, without knowing what that vow would truly entail. We were young, in love, and optimistic. We had no way of knowing the hardships we were sure to endure. But endure them, we have, together, always standing by one another, not knowing what the future holds but knowing that, whatever it is, we will meet it head on together. We’ve seen each other through job loss, depression, health scares, pregnancy, child birth, child rearing, drama, stress, joy, loss, grief, doubt. But always, always together. Always talking, loving, supporting. At times with lots of words, at times when there simply are no words.

You are always the one I want to talk to, the one I want to share things with, the one I long for when time is scarce. Thank you for being there for the past seven years and in all the years to come.

       ]]> http://letajoy.com/2008/11/03/seven-year-itch/feed/ letajoy annv-card-7yrs annv-card-7yrs-inside http://letajoy.com/2008/10/31/halloween-halloween-trick-or-treat/ http://letajoy.com/2008/10/31/halloween-halloween-trick-or-treat/#comments Sat, 01 Nov 2008 01:33:19 +0000 letajoy http://letajoy.wordpress.com/?p=1030

Presenting Strawberry Shortcake:

and her little sister Apple Dumpling:

I originally had plans to be Plum Pudding to go along with the Strawberry Shortcake theme, but, due to lack of time and energy, that didn’t exactly pan out. Instead, I culled the house for everything pink/black/skeleton and came up with this rock star/punk rock/roller derby character. Also, I was the ONLY MOM who dressed up at Arwyn’s school, so I get some kind of bonus points for that.

I tried to get Arwyn to take my picture but she kept cutting off my head. Oops.

All of our Halloween photos can be seen here. Hope you all had a safe and happy Halloween! All treats no tricks.

Yesterday, in between mopping floors and tending to crying babies, I decided I desperately needed to roast a squash. Even though it wouldn’t go with our dinner, even though no one in the house would eat any but me (you should have seen Bubby’s face), even though I had 14 other things going on. Except for all the chopping and cleaning the pan afterwards (foil line your pans, people. learn from my mistakes.), it was really easy.

I used this recipe, but I only had one squash so I cut the recipe in half. After looking over the recipe again, I just realized that I halved the squash and pepper, but not the rest of the ingredients. Oops. It was still really yummy. See, you can even screw up and it’s still good. I only baked mine for about 30 minutes. It was very tender and brown. I’ll admit I ate a few forkfuls straight off the pan. Of course, it was cold by the time I had a chance to get a bite, so it might be even better hot, who knows. It also made the house smell very fragrant and fallish, which puts me in the mood to grab some apple cider and snuggle up.

Arwyn’s preschool class went on another field trip last week, this time to the pumpkin patch. We went there last year as well, and it was my favorite field trip of the year. Even though I was juggling a baby this time around, I was not pregnant and as I pushed the stroller over tractor ruts in the corn maze I tried to stay positive by telling myself, “Hey! At least you aren’t throwing up!” That’s me being all silver lining.

At the end of the tour we once again visited the farm market store to stock up on pumpkins and gourds for decorating purposes. I’ll have to try to remember to take some photos of the front porch. The squirrels haven’t started chowing down on them yet. Arwyn picked out her pumpkin and a little tiny one for Lokie. We also had to get one for Mommy and one for Daddy. Mommy’s is a Cinderella pumpkin. I haven’t decided yet if we are going to carve them. I might wait a couple of years before I begin that tradition.

I cannot believe it is almost Halloween! This month has flown by. I’m thinking about dressing up as a rock star for Arwyn’s Halloween party on Thursday. I’ll be sure to take plenty of pictures, don’t you worry.