So yes, I've been MIA for a while. Miss Kathryn has not been particularly cooperative, and my energy levels are...less than stellar.
—1—
This is why.
(We're hoping this isn't indicative of how they'll behave together.)
So yeah, I'm pregnant again. I'm somewhere right around 17 weeks and due November 16. (If you're doing the math, yes, Kathryn was only 4 months old and yes, I'm sure exactly one month minus one day after Kathryn's first birthday.) And we only found out at the end of April, so it's really weird. We go for the full midway ultrasound a week from Monday. It's really bizarre.
—2—
Also, Kathryn is crawling. Although not like a NORMAL child. She crawls using her head, bum, and feet.
Proof. (I think. I'm on my phone waiting to have my blood drawn and it won't let me preview the video.)
—3—
And she likes to stand and try to walk.
She still falls over when she's sitting, but she wants to stand and try to walk.
—4—
She's starting to say "Mamamamama". It generally means she wants to eat. Or she's happy. Or there's something she wants to put in her mouth that she can't reach.
—5—
My husband is almost done with the school year. He just had to go back on Tuesday for a few hours, and then he's home for the summer. Kathryn should be happy with it, she gets very excited when he comes home.
—6—
Any tips for road trips with babies? We have a wedding 4 hours away and a reunion 2+hours away this summer, and we'd like to take a few other road trips this summer. We've only done hour long drives with her before, so tips on longer rides would be much appreciated.
—7—
I AM going to try to write more, I promise. Hopefully with my husband home to help over the summer, I'll be able to get into a better habit of writing.
Kathryn is going through a phase where her favorite toys are my clothing. She would much rather play with my sleeves, collar, or whatever else she can grab as opposed to her toys. Silly baby!
—2—
So I put her in this dress thing because it was 70+ degrees out. I bought it because it was $1.99 at the thrift store and she needed clothes.
Wasn't quite expecting her to be SO DANG CUTE. I kind of want to dress her in nothing but these and turn all of her onesies into dresses like this.
—3—
I like Lent and all, and I love the Triduum, but I will be very glad when it's over. It's just very tiring with all of the things we end up going to for RCIA since Shane is in charge. It will be nice to go to Mass 10 minutes away instead of 45.
—4—
My Verizon contract is up soon. For a variety of reasons (namely cost), Shane and I had decided to remain on separate plans (the cost of the combined plan was higher than two separate plans. Yes, it was ridiculous) after our wedding 14 months ago.
Instead of moving to a joint Verizon plan, right now I think we're going to sign up for Project Fi, a Google project moving into the phone plan business. It's a flat $20 for talk and text and $10 per gigabyte of data, and they reimburse you for data you don't use. (Which is great since I now work from home and hardly ever use even a full gigabyte.) It's currently only compatible with Nexus phones (5X, 6, and 6P), so I'll be moving from my Galaxy S4 (which has a better camera). I'm hoping that I can continue to use my old phone as a point-and-shoot camera since it's all I have. If not, we'll probably get a DSLR. (Which we want to get anyway, but haven't yet because they're expensive and we have to talk ourselves into spending that much money on one thing.)
If anyone has a Nexus 5X, any suggestions for good cases? Otterbox doesn't make them, so I can't just say, "Otterbox is very good" and use them. I'd like to get a waterproof case (because Kathryn wants to chew on my phone, and she will someday be mobile in addition to grabby), but they don't appear to have an option like the Otterbox.
—5—
I'm very ready for election season to be over. It feels like it's been going for over a year already and I just...really don't care enough to spend TWO YEARS out of every four thinking about this circus. I do believe politics are important, just not so much so that I want to immerse myself in it. (My husband likes politics. And spends so much time on it during the election season that he gets completely burnt out the rest of the time.)
—6—
I found this article today, "Why the Vocation Crisis is a Fiction". It makes an excellent point, and one that not enough people are thinking about — the actual number of faithful, practicing Catholic families, and the ratio of them to priests is up. Read the article for a more in-depth analysis.
The root of everything is that I am a perfectionist. I had the tendency mostly under control before Kathryn was born (well, except for in design, but it made sense to me there). But since she's been born, I've had a very hard time with trying to be "perfect" — the perfect mother, the perfect housewife, just...doing it all and doing it cheerfully.
But this tendency is making me completely miserable. I can't keep everything clean, and Kathryn is a stubborn little love who has her own mind about things like napping and letting me get work done (she doesn't like it). It's not even driven by anyone's opinion of me, and especially not Shane's. It's purely driven by my idea of what would make me "perfect".
So finally, three days ago, my husband gave me a new Lenten practice. I need to do one thing wrong every day. On purpose. It's AWFUL. Which is, I suppose, the point.
—2—
This. And this. And just seriously. As a new mother, neither of these posts is actually helpful, and somehow they both manage to make this breastfeeding new mother upset — I don't experience this wonderful bonding time with Kathryn when she's nursing. I actually spend most of the time she's eating trying to keep her eating and get your fingers out of the way gosh darn it. The reason I chose to breastfeed was not because of the nutritional benefits or the ease or the bonding or any of it. I chose to do so because it is cheap. That's the only real reason I breastfeed Kathryn, and it sucks. It makes me feel terrible because there are so many GOOD reasons to choose to breastfeed or to not, and I only care about what is cheapest.
I'm sure that I'm not the only new mother who doesn't find breastfeeding particularly bonding or pleasant, so seeing so much debate about something that you made a selfish choice for is very difficult. It just gave me more reasons to beat myself up for being a bad mother.
—3—
When Kathryn was born, we had a rocky start with breastfeeding. She was three weeks early, my breasts at the time were almost bigger and heavier than she was, and I have flat nipples. For the first day and a half of her life, Kathryn couldn't manage to nurse for more than a few minutes. When they finally had me pump so that Shane could syringe-feed her until the lactation consultant could come, it was terrible. It's the one thing that they say is natural, and I couldn't feed my baby. The lactation consultant prescribed a nipple shield so that Kathryn could nurse on her own, and while it worked, I was warned not to use it for more than a week because she would become dependent.
Four months later, she still can't really nurse without the shield. One of my night nurses came in while I was feeding Kathryn in the maternity ward, and said, "That stuff is silly. You should nurse without interventions." As I was sitting there, with my baby who had only been able to start nursing with the shield in the last few hours and pumped milk so that when she got tired she could finish eating, she told me that I was nursing wrong. I was failing my daughter.
This still haunts me. She is dependent on the shield, because while her maturity is no longer a problem, I'm still huge and I still have extremely flat nipples. I feed my baby, but I can't do it naturally.
—4—
We recently bought an ExerSaucer for Kathryn, because she started hating the bouncer and wanting to sit upright. Even on the lowest setting, when we first bought it last Saturday she could barely touch the ground with the tip of her toes. (Now she can touch with the balls of her feet. Yeah, it's not even been a week.) So I looked online and lo and behold, four month old babies shouldn't use these because it means you're basically a terrible parent, how could you possibly consider putting your baby in here so you can have fifteen minutes to work without having to hold your baby.
At the bare minimum, I need to be able to research and craft one Facebook post per day for the veterinary clinic that I consult for. This takes at least 15-30 minutes. That's the absolute barest minimum that I have to do, but I'm also redesigning their website, setting up their other social media, and maintaining their current site. And I can't really do it while I'm holding Kathryn. So yay for even MORE mommy guilt. Because I need to work, and my baby doesn't get 24/7 human interaction.
—5—
I do like to spend time with Kathryn, but it means that the apartment is messy. I don't always get the dishes done. Everything tends to have a layer of dust, and Kathryn's toys are all over the living room. Plus I had a mild case of influenza a couple of weeks back, and I'm still blowing my nose two-three times a day. And finding tissues from when I was sick all over. I grew up with a clean (well, clean-ish, there were five children in the house) house, so it bothers me that I can't even keep our small apartment clean.
—6—
Migraines suck. I thought having a baby was supposed to make them go away?
—7—
The fact that I just managed to fill an entire blog post with complaining and struggles feels remarkably self-pitying. But this is where my life is right now, and I'm going to state the obvious right now:
Parenting. Is. Hard.
I love Kathryn with all my heart. I love tickling her and blowing raspberries on her neck, seeing her smile, hearing her laugh. Watching her play with her toys or talk to her feet brings me such joy.
But.
Parenting. Is. Hard.
And all of the joy and the smiles make it totally worth it.
So we were on vacation last week. Saturday-Tuesday we were in Illinois, visiting my family, and Wednesday-Sunday we...well, apartment-hunted, went to Maine for an afternoon, signed a lease, and created a baby registry. So totally relaxing, right?
Anyway, the "look at apartment, sign lease, move a week later" is why I haven't been posting. We've been packing madly and my lunch hours have been spent transferring silly, unnecessary services like electricity and Internet.
Since moving is pretty much the only thing I can think about right now, here are seven quick takes on what happens when you move seven days after signing a piece of paper saying you can have a place.
We totally look like this.
1. It's a good thing we have friends who are willing to help.
Because otherwise this would literally be impossible. I think my doctor would freak out if I was moving couches and the bed and dressers and a kitchen hutch.
2. This undertaking is not for the faint of heart.
We did not decide that we were going to be moving tomorrow until...Monday or Tuesday. Of this week. This means that nothing was packed, etc. No boxes. NOTHING ready to go as of Monday.
3. Comcast is terrible.
Everyone knows this, but I just thought I would mention it. It took me 45 minutes to get them to disconnect at our current apartment, and find out that we can hook it up at the new place once we move in. FORTY-FIVE MINUTES. It could have been ten.
4. It's a good thing I work next to a warehouse.
About twenty feet away from my office is the shipping for the publishing house. I've been taking empty boxes all week, and yesterday was able to sweet-talk some of the sisters into bringing boxes straight to my office.
5. Grocery stores are another great source for free moving boxes.
I have never in my life paid for a box when I've moved. And I never intend to. Even if I don't live near the Daughters of St. Paul, grocery stores are always getting rid of boxes. Banana boxes are really great for extended storage. My parents always put the Christmas decorations in them. They're sized well for anything (except books) to have a decent amount, yet still be easy to lift. (Mostly.)
6. Not moving Labor Day weekend is great.
Partially because we can get friends to help — last year when I moved that weekend, literally all of my friends were out of town and couldn't help. And it made it much easier to get a truck — last year when I attempted to reserve a truck online a MONTH before, all of the trucks were already taken. At every U-Haul nearby.
Maybe we'll get one with a dinosaur.
7. My husband is wonderful.
He's had to do 95% of the packing by himself. I can't lift anything much heavier than a stack of board games, but he's moved all of our books, boxed up most of the stuff, and continues to do so without complaining. Meanwhile, I go to work (teacher = off for the summer), come home, eat dinner, can help with about three things, and then have to go to bed so I can actually go to work the next day.
So, I've mentioned that I recently got married a handful of times. Exactly six months ago today. So I totally have all kinds of wisdom and stuff on marriage.
OK, not really, but I thought that for today's quick takes, I'd share a few things that I'm grateful for from the actual day of the wedding. There's not really anything I'd change (except the time of the alarm) if I could go back.
Let's start with some music. Hmm...how about our first dance song? An oldie but goodie. (Although we cheated and used Michael Buble's version since it was what we found on Spotify.)
And now without further ado...
1. I didn't hire a makeup artist or fancy hair stylist.
Mom putting my makeup on. I apparently can't avoid making strange faces
even when someone else is doing my hair.
This is normally the kind of thing that brides say that they wish they HAD done, but I don't really care about normal. My sister Mary did my hair, and my mom did my makeup and helped me get the dress on. My other sisters (bridesmaids and junior bridesmaids) were in and out of the room, my maid of honor was involved, and my photographer was my cousin. Plus one of my uncles drove me to the church. It was a wonderful morning with my family that was both slightly hectic and incredibly wonderful.
2. We did most of our pictures with the bridal party before the actual wedding.
They weren't particularly thrilled with having to be at the church early enough for pictures before a 10 AM wedding, but they had coffee.
Except these two adorable stinkers. This is one of our favorites.
We got to spend some time with each other, and with the bridal party before things picked up with the rest of the guests. It was still peaceful in the church, and we had time to pray together before the wedding.
3. We had the Passion of St. John as our Gospel reading.
Fine, this was taken during the homily, but it's a much better picture. Plus, Fr. Tom talked about Gollum.
It really fit with Ephesians 5 (our second reading) and made the most sense to us. We are supposed to encourage each other to be Christ, and to have that kind of sacrificial love for each other. It's not normal, but it really seemed fitting.
4. We memorized our vows.
And miraculously didn't sob through them.
"I, Natalie, take you, Shane, to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.
"Take this ring as a sign of my love and fidelity, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
This was one of my favorite parts of preparing for the wedding, memorizing the vows. It's only three sentences, so it really wasn't hard. And seeing as we were making a lifelong commitment to each other, we could make the effort to memorize three little lines.
5. We didn't use the Ave Maria that everyone uses.
"Wait, you don't have to sing the Ave Maria during the Marian dedication?"
No, you don't. It doesn't really fit anyway, seeing as it's almost five minutes long. That's a long time for everyone to be watching you pray. I like praying and have obviously prayed for more than five minutes at a time before, but it's kind of boring to watch. So we had a chant setting of Alma Redemptoris Mater (seasonally appropriate to boot!).
6. Father didn't say to kiss the bride.
Also, how cool is this shot?
Instead, right after he announced us and people started clapping, Shane just leaned over and kissed me. I like that a lot better than being told to kiss — it was genuine instead of forced.
7. We didn't make everyone wait hours after the Mass for the reception.
It was fun watching his family be completely shocked that Shane knew how to dance.
(My parents taught him while we were visiting for Christmas, a whole two weeks before.)
The hall was open as of noon, and we got there around one. Doing most of the bridal party pictures before the wedding meant that we just had to do family pictures, and no one had to find ways to occupy themselves between the two on a 24 degree day. (January weddings: easy to get spaces, really cold to get between the spaces.) It was very streamlined, and while it did make some things slightly hectic, it really made it all work out really well. Pictures were split up, so we didn't have to stare at a camera for a long stretch of time, and we were able to spend more time with the people who braved the snow and cold to come to Boston for a January wedding.
Bonus: At the end of the day, we were married.
I get to spend the rest of my life with him, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Six months later, the trappings of the day are long gone, I can't wear the dress anymore, we're four months away from a baby, and it's been the best six months of our lives.
Has it been easy? No. Will it always be easy? No. Will it even always be good? No. I know all of this, and am extremely grateful for every day, be it good or bad, easy or hard. He makes me better, and he helps me seek Christ. In the end, that's what's most important.
I was driving home from work one day, getting pummeled by my unborn child, when I realized that I'm going to be 39 weeks pregnant on Halloween. (If I don't have the child early, but that's no fun.) So I started trying to think of non-lame ideas of what to be if I am, in fact, still pregnant and go somewhere that requires a costume besides "huge pregnant lady."
1. The TARDIS
I'm pretty sure the best part of this costume would be getting my husband to dress up as the Doctor. When he just kind of looked at me funny, I informed him that I have an entire person inside my body and he shook his head and went back to making dinner. I dunno, I think it's brilliant.
2. St. Gianna Beretta Molla
I mean, she did give her life for her last child. Also, All Hallows Eve is traditionally about the saints anyway. Plus, all I'd have to do is get a lab coat and a stethoscope, since she was a doctor. And she and her husband are eerily similar to my husband and I, as we discovered by reading their letters.
3. Prego tomato sauce
I don't hate this idea, but I'm not particularly excited about it either. I just prefer it to the zombie baby ripping its way out of the belly costumes. (I may be resorting to Google at this point since I only had two good ideas.) (I couldn't find a good picture, sorry.)
4. Things One and Two
Maybe not this exact method of execution, but it's a cute idea and I wouldn't mind doing it. Yes it's cheesy, but so are 99.9% of costumes anyway. Although it would be funnier if I dressed as the Cat in the Hat and then dressed my children as Thing One, Two, etc. But first I need more than one child.
5. The Death Star
This one just made me chuckle. (Mind you, I'm NOT of the "I'm pregnant so I can bare my belly ALL THE TIME AND NO ONE WILL CARE" school — more like "I'm still me, I didn't show my belly before and I'm not changing that now and don't you dare touch the belly because IT'S NOT YOURS TO TOUCH" school.) Maybe just a shirt patterned like the Death Star, and then Shane can dress up as Emperor Palpatine or Darth Vader or something.
6. Jack O'Lantern
Not really the most creative idea, but since all of my sisters and I were dressed up as a pumpkin for our first Halloweens, no reason not to start the tradition with this child too.
7. 8 Ball
I'm terrible at pool, but it's not a horrid idea.
So, let's see...one "I want to do this!", a few "this could be interesting", and some "I NEED TO FILL OUT A SEVEN ITEM LIST MUST FIND MORE". I think I'll keep working on Shane about the Tardis.
Sorry I've been absent, but life is such that I'd rather not be boring, and the vivid dreams stopped for some reason.
So here are seven facts about my pregnancy to date! (Yay!)
—1—
I am currently one day shy of the 20 week mark. Twenty. Weeks. Halfway. It's kinda crazy feeling.
—2—
I am hungry all the time. I feel like a teenage boy. This is a recent development — as in, I became a ravenous adolescent male as of four days ago. ALL THE FOOD MUST GO INTO MY MOUTH EVERY TEN SECONDS. Seriously, I'm hungry half an hour after dinner. So, the child is growing?
—3—
We had the 18 week ultrasound...about two weeks ago. So, you know...at 18 weeks. Yes, we know what sex (and gender) the child is. No, we aren't telling. The poor thing won't die because it doesn't have all pink or all blue items.
Yes, the child spent most of the ultrasound wiggling. Also like this - feet up, hands behind head, not a care in the world. Adorable little stinker.
—4—
I'm kinda starting to nest. Only instead of this coming out in any PRACTICAL format, like setting up a nursery (can't yet, we have no room or things) or cleaning the apartment (which should be done) or packing months before we move (I've heard stories) I'm making lists. Of things we will need when the baby comes. That we have no room for until after we move.
And watching kittens and begging my husband for one. Poor guy, the answer is always, "When we live somewhere that lets us have a cat." And somehow my head immediately goes "OMIGOSH YES" until the next day when I've forgotten the whole thing and go through the ridiculous rigmarole again. Sorry honey!
—5—
The child likes to kick me when I'm driving, or having fun, or sleeping, or in a meeting. Not anytime when Shane can feel the kicks (and oftentimes it's into the ribs or spine anyway), but when it's a nuisance. Stinker.
—6—
Like I said, the vivid dreams stopped for some reason. Although that's probably good, because otherwise after seeing Jurassic World I would have been writing about ten thousand dreams about dinosaurs eating people. (Good movie, by the way.)
—7—
My doctor keeps telling me that I have a boring pregnancy. Yay for healthy babies!
Sorry, I haven't really had any cohesive dreams and my stomach has desired me eating through lunch break instead of writing. Who knew?
Sixteen weeks tomorrow. My heartburn is finally at a point where I'm not miserable all the time and can just occasionally take a Tums. And I had a couple Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday. At least I think that's what they were. Don't know what else they could be.
—2—
I couldn't find the original link for the article, but I saw an article on Facebook about progesterone being used during pregnancy to prevent miscarriage. *all gasp* Such a novel idea! Why haven't we done this before?
Oh, wait. The Pope Paul VI Institute has been doing this for years. Europe is barely starting to catch on. And my OB told me that I didn't need to be on progesterone (even though when I was five weeks along, my progesterone levels were 5-10 points lower than it should be) and it was silly and why would we try to support my first pregnancy? They only think about trying to support pregnancies after at least three miscarriages. Three. Miscarriages.
Sorry, I'd much rather take a pill that has a strong chance of helping my babies than let them die. (I'm still annoyed with the doctor, can you tell?)
—3—
I love Dick Van Dyke.
—4—
This blog post is a good reminder, even if my current parenting "philosophy" is making sure the child doesn't completely deplete every source of nutrients in my body. If I'm going to be a parent, rather than a friend, I have to hold to "no". Even when they're tiny.
—5—
My husband now wants to grill using lava.
I still think that this is likely to end up with someone in the hospital. I'll stick to charcoal, thanks.
—6—
I want to go to Spain so I can buy secret cookies baked by nuns. This is why. (It helps that they go through with pictures and everything, showing you exactly how to get to the baked goodness.)
—7—
Shane and I finally finished Season 2 of Doctor Who.
And I kinda want an excuse to run around with old 3D glasses on.
It's kind of sad — I personally enjoyed Rose as the Companion, but it will be interesting to see how the show moves on. (Yes, we started initially watching the Doctor in February. We don't watch more than three episodes a week normally. So hush.)
Someday my quick takes will actually have some kind of organization. For now...um, you have these? And you can read the rest of them at This Ain't the Lyceum.
I'm still watching the kitten cam when I can. They are adorable and getting bigger and you should totally watch them.
—2—
We started apartment hunting. We're looking to move out of our tiny apartment into a place with enough room for a baby. It's interesting so far. All of the places that have shown up within our budget are currently about a two-hour commute in for me, and I'll still have to work for at least a couple of months. So that will be interesting to see the final result.
—3—
I'm starting to work on making a backlog of posts so that I can at least have two or three things a week. They're mostly wonky dreams so far (upcoming you can expect a lobster-sea monster and walruses joining a swimming team off the coast of Florida, just for a couple). Some days I don't have enough time to write things down, so I'm remembering as best I can. (Also, it seems that most of my dreams involve dinosaurs, big cats, and/or water.)
—4—
I discovered this song and I am completely in love.
—5—
I'm 15 weeks tomorrow and can still wear...um, about two of my old shirts. I'm getting more, bit by bit, but it's kind of a nuisance. Why exactly are maternity clothes so expensive when they just have a little bit of extra fabric? (I get my stuff at a thrift store, but still.)
I'm really tired of heartburn making my life interesting. I miss tomatoes, and lemon, and acidic things. But they make my stomach hate me, so I avoid them. Also, this over-strong gag reflex nonsense is making aforementioned heartburn even more interesting when I have to take pills. I've had several days this week when I wasn't actually able to get pills down because I was avoiding my gag reflex and tossing them all back out.
—6—
Has anyone else ever heard multiple Marian songs at Mass for the Ascension? It was remarkably confusing. There are lots of songs about Christ, why are we singing about Mary? (Not that I don't like her, it was just odd.)
—7—
It got cold this week. I'm quite ready for warmth to stop running away from Massachusetts and just stay here already. At least it was only 60 instead of 40-50 like it has been when we get cold spells.
Sorry. I had a boring week. It should start getting more interesting as we look at more apartments and start doing more things on the weekend. This one should include the chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries that I've been wanting.
So that this blog isn't just all my wacky subconscious and pregnancy whining/bragging, I'm going to be joining Jen Fulwiler at Conversion Diary for 7 quick takes on Fridays! That way I can pretend to be kinda normal-ish. (I mean, it's a facade that disappears as soon as you actually talk to me or read my stuff, but I like to pretend so I don't scare people away in the first 10 minutes.)
—1—
BABY!
These were taken at a 12 week birth-defect screening. (For those who are curious, everything came back normal. One more blood test at 16 weeks to just verify, but it looks like we have a healthy baby who will have plenty of other issues growing up with such a strange mother.) They had a bit of trouble, because while the baby was in the right position, the silly child kept moving around. (I can't imagine where he/she could POSSIBLY have gotten it...) During the 15 minute ultrasound, the baby waved, clapped, sucked its thumb, did barrel rolls, kicked the walls of the uterus (I think that's when this picture was taken), and...
LOOKED AT US! Isn't the baby so cute????
(Sorry, I know this was going to be a normal-ish zone, but how can you resist that?)
—2—
I'm an animal lover. I grew up with cats, birds, dogs...I even had rabbits at one point. (Remind me to tell you someday how buying one rabbit had me end up with seven. It's an amusing story.) At the moment, the current animals in my home...are two fish and a snail. Two bettas (and two tanks), and the bigger tank (and fish, strangely enough) has the snail. The blue betta and snail are Sherlock and Holmes, and the other fish (who was the replacement for a friend whose first fish I may have accidentally killed while fish sitting) is Puzzles the White. (Because his predecessor was Puzzles. Get it?)
Anyway, I am in dire straits because I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING FURRY. (I tried petting a fish. Sherlock spazzed out (completely normal behavior, he's a weird fish) and Puzzles went where I couldn't reach.) I would get into a similar position during college, and my roommate thought I was crazy because my solution...was to watch kitten cams.
Day old kittens in birth order!
I'd gotten out of the habit after I was home and when my roommate had cats, but I've been without access to furry creatures since September. I was getting desperate. When, lo and behold, I saw something on Facebook about Eve going into labor. (Eve is mama cat in that picture.) That was Tuesday. Pretty much ever since I have the cam going in the background. It's arranged so that I can glance at it from time to time without it interfering with work, and I occasionally get to hear kitten squeaks. THEY ARE SO CUTE. You can watch the Livestream here.
(Also, I hope that my labor is as easy as Eve's. Five kittens in four hours and she never screamed, just purred the entire time.)
(Although I am VERY glad I only will have one and not five children. They all seem to like the same three spots, and fights (adorable ones!) ensue.)
—3—
My husband and I watched Mr. Bean's Holiday on Wednesday night. Oh my goodness! It was so funny! I'd never really encountered Mr. Bean before I met Shane, but it is definitely worth taking a look. Family friendly fun, and it's mostly slapstick-style humor. At the end, though, I have just one word...
Oysters.
—4—
Also, just because this scene is a riot. He's stranded in this French city. His passport and wallet ended up left on a train platform. So this is his idea to acquire enough money to get to his destination.
—5—
This is turning remarkably video-heavy, but...oh well. Shane discovered this channel recently and promptly watched most of their videos. They're technically Lutheran, but this particular one is just really funny. Partially because it reminds me of a lot of our friends, who will spend quite a while debating different heresies.
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when you don't look at a thing for a month or two. (Or when you have a tendency to just binge-read mommy bloggers instead of being a normal person and checking on a regular basis.)
I debated just changing the whole thing, and I opted not to for a handful of reasons. (Yay for lists inside lists!)
This is still a remarkably new blog, and it seems fitting that I make flubs. If I fix my flubs before anyone sees them, where's the fun? Also, it will help me learn humility. And theoretically from making the same mistake again. (That last bit is questionable.)
My mom actually knows Jen. She's come for the Behold conference in Peoria (which unfortunately looks like it doesn't exist anymore), and my mom met her then. My mother has a great deal of respect for Jen, and her story, and it just seems fitting.
Also, I actually saw Jen speak at a Behold conference when I was...younger. I can't remember if it was when I was 18 or 19, but it's somewhere in there. She was the keynote speaker that year. (Whenever it was.)
It's May! Mary's month! Also, there's a bunch of saints whose feast days are today. I kinda wish that we didn't already have names picked out for our little munchkin, but I can always save them for future children! (For those who are reading and interested, "Caiaphas" is still off the list and will never be ON the list.) (For those who don't understand that...I can explain if you'd like. Just tell me so.)
Also, it's the end of the CCD year. Shane is (in addition to working in a high school) is a director of faith formation at a parish and I teach the ninth grade Confirmation class. (It's what happens when you marry the person in charge of CCD and they're short teachers. Also, Confirmation is a two-year class in this parish.) Anyway, their end-of-year retreat is on Sunday, and prayers for these kids would be great.
