What We Take For Granted

I pause in my frantic preparations for another possible power outage to blog this little thought. It is amazing what we take for granted. Like: washing dishes, vacuuming, flushing the toilet, heat, lights, maintenance men, and a million other little things.

Our power being out for the last 17 hours or so was the worst. We didn't have any indicator of when it might come back on and now that it is on, we don't know how long it might be until it's off again. There are heavy snow/slush/freezing rains predicted for the next few days and we might be going back and forth between the here and now and Little House on the Prairie. Fortunately, I have the most wonderful husband ever who just loves it all and gets out his camping stove and makes hot chocolate and Ramon Noodles and plays music on the little battery powered speakers.

A long game of Scrabble and several rows of cross stitch and I was tuckered out last night. We were scared we might not have power for several days so this morning we sponge bathed and conserved water as much as possible, using heated water from Andy's camping stove. That poor little thing is about done for after all this. When the lights suddenly kicked on, I was ECSTATIC. Thank you, Lord, for all your blessings including fast working power line men that are willing to get out in blizzard conditions and fix our power so we have HEAT! Those guys should get a medal! And Paul and Jason too for being on top of stuff here at the school.

The Amazing Appearing Shower Head!!!

Whenever my parents are here, they tend to "fix up" our house a bit with a few gifts. They bought us a new table cloth (for my birthday). One time, Dad fixed our freezer and this time a chair and the stroller. You know, having them come is always awesome and feels a bit like some fixer upper show.

After they left this time, Abby was playing with a box and I saw that it was an unopened shower head. For a week, it just hung around and I finally got around to calling my dad to see if it was one of the things he had picked up at Home Depot. He didn't remember buying anything like that but you know... maybe. Josh was here too and I wondered if he had bought it and left it. He didn't remember either. We figured someone had purchased it and forgotten. We needed a new one and had been talking about getting one and just hadn't for lack of time. So, we put it up and started enjoying evenly dispersed water in our shower again.

A week later, I was collecting stuff that Josh (the toddler who plays with Abby two mornings a week) had left around the house as he was going to be gone for the break and might want all his things. His mom came in and we took a quick inventory and she said, "You didn't happen to come across a shower head did you?"

Oh, man. Should I tell her that it is in my shower?! LOL! I totally did. We got a real kick out of the amazing appearing shower head that she had been trying to find for two weeks! She "gifted" me the shower head for my birthday and we left it at that. I mean, returning a used shower head is kinda like returning underwear or something... am I right people?

Cindy Lou's Mom

If you have seen the newest version of the Grinch, you know that Cindy Lou's Mom is in an unofficial competition with EVERYONE for the best lights, especially her perfect neighbor, Martha May.

Here at the school, there are several times during the year when we have these "potluck" like events. We are asked to bring a desert. My "Martha May" has always been this perfect haired goddess who makes the most awesomely wonderful tasting and beautifully table decorating deserts. She rarely has the time to actually participate in these potluck things but we all know who she is and how amazingly talented she is and we all wait with baited breath to see if she will show up with one of her gourmet concoctions.

This Christmas, we had our annual Christmas desert potluck. Now let me emphasize that the competition I'm about to describe all takes place in my own head (and probably the heads of all the women on campus).

I spend hours deciding what desert will be better than anyone else's and how I can dress it up to be PERFECT! This year I decided homemade, from scratch lemon meringue pie and key lime pie would be the key to me "winning" this cooking competition. Remember, I'm in contention with a culinary student, two cafeteria gurus and several mom's who make fondant covered birthday cakes... I'm really in trouble. Every year some disaster befalls my creation: soggy pastry, missing ingredients, time crunch issues or something like that. I'm plagued to never have that perfect desert.

My lemon pie is no exception. Today, I forgot to put in the egg yolks and had to start over, my meringue wouldn't stiffen up, and my filling overflowed the pan. As I clean up the GIANT mess, I think about the upcoming party with fear and loathing. As I wash sugar and egg whites out of my hair, I hope the mostly uneventful key lime pie will be better... It will most likely taste good but I doubt it will be pretty.

There is only one unofficial judge in my mind (as our boss has decided to go on a diet and this makes him totally incapable of judging). This person loves sweets and everyone makes sure he gets a little of their creation. Like Jim Carey being stuffed with fudge as the Holiday Cheermeister, our friend is watched on every side (albeit subtly out of the corner of our eyes) for his reaction to each and every bite.

Well, tonight I will find out how I did. I will be watching and it will be all in good fun. At least my presents for the gift exchange will be pretty! And so will my little Cindy Lou!

Potty Training

So we have arrived at the time in life where Abby knows when she needs to go potty. She asks to sit on the potty and then does... absolutely nothing. Then she will get up and down and up and down and I will put her in a new diaper and she will inevitably pee or poop. So, how do we get her potty trained? Is it worth it right now as she will have a new sibling in March? Ideas?

I have read Dr. Phil's ideas... crazy. I have heard about just leaving her naked for about 5 days and following her around all the time. If this really works, then Christmas break is the ideal time for getting it done as we are here and have minimal work to do over the break. I have heard about many different methods but I almost always hear that it's harder than any other part of parenting.

You're hiding where?!

I have seen this for years: children hiding behind their mothers or fathers and the parents pulling them out from behind and putting them somewhere else. I always thought, "Why? Just let them hide if they are shy." That's not it at all. Abby is just butt height. Grr.... When she get's behind me, which she does ALL THE TIME, she puts her face right in my butt crack! LOL! I'm laughing and freaking out like, "Kid, that is not a place for a face." Talk about being up your butt all the time...

Bed Time

Last night I was trying to put Abby to bed and I always start to get frustrated when she has come out of her room for the 3rd time (OK, the biggest and hardest part of putting her back in is that when she comes out, she's like waving and happy to see you sitting on the couch and you have to send her back to bed.) and I'm like, "Get to bed!"

But!!!!!!!!

How do you resist when she says, "Mommy? Book?" So you read her a book.

"Mommy, kiss, elbow?" So you kiss her elbow and any successive body parts she asks to have kissed like her cheeks and toes and hands and whatnot.

"Mommy, kiss mommy elbow?" So you let her kiss your elbows after she pulls back your sleeves because kissing an elbow through sleeves is not kissing an elbow, it's kissing a shirt.

"Mommy, drink?" So you hydrate her because she needs to be hydrated and child services doesn't look kindly on people who with hold liquid from their kids at night time.

"Mommy...?"

"ABBY! Time for sleep. Night night!" And you run out of the room because if you stay one more second, you will be pulled into yet another cute way for her to manipulate you into letting her stay up.

Man, she's good....

Back to the OBGYN

Went to the OBGYN today to have a glucose test. I had to drink this awful sugar water and then they drew blood. Abby wanted to get her blood drawn also. I could just see that... I would have really fainted. I have trouble with needles as it is.

I don't have another appointment until January. I'm really ready for all this stuff to be over. I just want to have the baby and be done with the pregnancy. I being a mommy.

Abby has been wanting to rock in the rocking chair more and more. I can't believe it because she was never a snugly kid. She just wanted to play all the time. Now she will point and say, "Rock? Sit, Mommy? Rock?" She get's her blanket and her milk and we rock. It's so great!

You know how your baby, when they start talking, says words wrong and you love it? In fact, Andy and I say the words like her sometimes just to be funny. It's so cute. Abby goes to nackies (gymnastics). She eats cackers (crackers) and she says pees (please) and da du (thank you). I love it. I do say the words correctly around her because I want her to learn proper pronunciation but it's hard because I think her baby talk is so cute. My mom still talks about certain words that we always mispronounced that she loved to hear. I guess that's part of your little one growing up.