Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Making Bread. A post by Evelynn

HIIII! Or as I like to say- HEEEYYYYYY!

Evelynn here.
So you want to make bread? Well here is what you will need:
One cute baby sidekick


Oh and that kitchen aid thingy, but most importantly a cute baby sidekick


Next you follow this recipe... http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/the-bread-in-his-words/
Then you cover it with plastic wrap, Mom can I touch that? Can I? Can I?


Oh you will need a dutch oven or a pan with a lid. This is actually Mommy's roaster.



Next you wait for the bread to rise. I suggest catching a nap with Daddy and Willow.


Then you bake it and if you are lucky, it comes out looking like this!



Way to go MOMMY!!!


Then you eat it. That is the best part. Trust me.




Would this face lie to you?

No. Neither would this one.


This one might...


Thanks for visiting my Mommy's blog! Please come again!

Love (Bread making),
Evelynn Ann

PS
Please remember to vote for my Nanna, Teresa Whitehead, this November!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

There are two motives for reading a book: one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it.

Yeah, there is a reason you have openings
Right by where I turn to leave our neighborhood and get on one of the main thoroughfare streets there is the world's scariest daycare in someone's house. The grass is all overgrown and there are nightmare induced lawn ornaments and gnomes. The house is all raggedy looking and stuck randomly throughout the yard are hand made signs, that look suspiciously like real estate signs that hell's minions absconded with and put poster paper over and used finger paint to make. It really makes me uncomfortable. I really want to march up there and check it out for child services and ask to see their license. Today there was a new sign that said "Lot's of openings!!" and even I knew that grammar was wrong. It took everything in me not to pull in the driveway and knock on the door and say "REALLY? Really."

Bread...attempt 1
So I'm going to attempt to make THIS bread. I don't have a dutch oven though, so I'm going to try and use the way he suggested in the comment section if you don't have one. Hopefully it will be super easy and I will be able to use the recipe without purchasing a fifty dollar dutch oven because that is what they are running. Seth wouldn't let me get one last night at Walmart. I would say that I might put it on my birthday list, but I think I'm going to try and get Lady Gaga tickets for my birthday. They go onsale Thursday, she is coming to Omaha in March. Anywhoo, I have my trusty assistant in her bumbo and my kitchen aid, so it may not go badly at all.

College football
I don't like college football as much as I like pro, but Seth pointed out that we hadn't seen a lot of our friends in a very long time, mostly because he has been working like a mad man. So I'm throwing together a little Chili/Soup/Bread party for people to come watch. Hopefully my bread turns out!!

Love (to think out loud),
Carrie

I despise the pleasure of pleasing people that I despise.

Well lookie here, it's TUESDAY. I have to say things like that because generally these days I can't remember what day of the week it is without looking. It's not as awesome as you think.

I don't remember agreeing to S&M in this marriage

Seth forced me to go to the dentist today. Because he's mean and evil and enjoys seeing me rethink giving up my anxiety medicine.
He's been going to the dentist regularly for years now. I finally found out why. His dentist office is full of hot women! Not including the actual dentist, who had a mustache and bad roots. So you would think I would make an ass out of myself at the dentist office like I do the doctors office when I get nervous. I probably would if they didn't have shit in my mouth constantly and were picking at my teeth. Mostly I just lay there and exude an uncomfortable silence while making mental conversation with myself. Here is a sample of what I could say if I had a mind reader for a dentist:

Oh boy a total mouth x-ray, these things freak me out. Oh look a handy little mirror to stare at while I get radiation. Holy shit I look rough today. So glad I didn't put make up on or anything, it would be like walking on silts on Amazon Woman island since all these women are so pretty. Did she just say shut my eyes? Why the fuck would you put a little mirror here if you want me to shut my eyes? Fuck, fine. *shuts eyes* Will I go blind if I open my eyes? I should have asked...I feel so vulnerable with my mouth on this stupid stick. *machine slowly goes around my head and starts to ram into my shoulder.* Fuck! Fuck! Am I not supposed to move?!?!? She didn't say anything about not moving but I'm assuming...SHIT. *moves to the side* God I hope she doesn't yell at me, but what the fuck? How about you put the machine in the right position there night school?

More x-ray's in the chair. Really? You didn't get everything over there in x-ray land? These chairs are suspiciously comfy...this is a nice new office. Where are the TV's? The dentist office I went to three years ago had flat screens. Way to be behind the ball. I guess we are spending too much money on hair supplies. What is with this music? It's like classic rock but all acoustical. Is this supposed to relax me? Well it does the opposite, it makes me hate you for trying to pseduo relax me with the unplugged set. Now if you had acoustic gansta rap that would be better because then I could still identify with the angry lyrics but mellow out with the acoustic.

Oh thanks for the "anitbacterial mouth wash" to start out with. You can just call it scope, because that is what it is. Scope.

Okay let me get this straight, you are going to clean my teeth and then a hygienist is going to come in and count and check my teeth, and then the dentist will come in and do what? A dance? What is she shooting up in back? Or what? You realize this is a fucking racket, right? You guys are doing all the work and she's in back fucking taking a nap. Whatever. I guess if you are okay with it. But remember, she gets paid WAYYY more than you to pop in and go "Good job on the tooth cleaning!"

How am I doing? Oh good, I'm thinking of painful ways to pay my husband back for this, its going to be at least a week of head drilling dirty looks in his direction.

Yes my kid is small, sorry you had ginormous kids and a flappy cooter. Don't be jealous.

I hate the part where you stick the sucker in my mouth and I have to close. I feel dirty for some reason.

Oh gross the flossing part. Here is the part where all the blood starts. Oh great and now my mouth tastes like a garbage can, or that time I got my wisdom teeth pulled and a week later went back and they "flushed" the cavities and there was all this old decaying food and it was the reason my mouth smelled like ass, but it tasted even worse and I vomited. I could vomit right now. Okay I need to floss. On my way home I'll stop and get those individual flossers. This could be why my breath smells in the morning. Ugh-water and suction thingy please! Also, please check your pluck job on the eyebrows on your next break, you have more than a few errant hairs.

Oh boy next beautiful lady! *mocks* Oh hiiiii! Seth, what a beautiful baby! Meh meh meh. I'm pretty. I'm pretty sure I can reach that stabby looking thing from here and put it in her eye.

I wonder if those mouth covers come scented.

Please don't find any cavities, please don't find any cavities.

Phew.

Hey lady, what is with the shoddy suctioning? Why aren't you telling me to close my mouth? Am I just supposed to swallow this shit I have in the back of my throat? Fine, then. I will.

Yes I would love some chapstick. FUCCCKCKKCKCKCKCKCKCK what is that? Pure alcohol? It's burning my lips and my EYES! Is it menthol? Are you sure that isn't a tub of vicks vapor rub?

Did she just turn the overhead light off by waving her hand in front of it? I HAVE to try that when she leaves the room. But first... *Shoots Seth a dirty look over shoulder and ignores his gentle reassurances* Holy shit! It does activate by handwaving! It's like the sinks in the bathroom-only it works! Crap someones coming! *waves hand frantically* Shit it's still on! Maybe no one will notice.

Oh boy! Here comes the dentist! HOLY SHITBALLS. Is that a mustache? What is she like 100? MY GOD. I'm almost thankful you didn't do all that other stuff the other ladies did. Oh my God, oh my God, she's coming closer to my face! *snickers* she just tried to turn the light on only it was already on and she made angry eyes.

Then it was over. The end. After not going to the dentist for three years and never flossing I had no cavities but was told to be more gentle with my gums on the incisors because I was starting to lose gum or something or other, I wasn't listening. I fucking hate the dentist.

Motherhood-a mantra.

Last night I was in the shower, and we had just replaced the light above the shower (many thanks to my Dad and his good friend George for installing it for me, it really makes a difference) so the light was super bright. As I was washing I looked down and realized the "bruise" I had noticed on my boob and had been telling myself must be a pretty bad one because it had been there a while was actually a stretch mark. A FUCKING STRETCH MARK. Now I know I shouldn't complain because I didn't get any on my stomach (which I totally owe to a regimen of Avon face lotion (nighttime), vitamin E drops, cocoa butter lotion, and belly butter twice daily). I sobbed quietly in the shower and then wrote myself this mantra/poem in my head:

Motherhood
I wear the scars both outside and in
my beautiful child who is without sin
The worst thing I have done to my body
The best thing I have done to my soul
I'll bear the wounds until I am old
But I'll memorize the smiles, the shape of her face
I will only begrudge her when I feel out of shape
Motherhood
Has changed so much of me
I am whole because of she

So I was repeating this in the shower over and over, silently sobbing and stroking my stretch mark, when I hear this high pitched squeal. I jumped about a thousand feet and probably peed a little since bladder control is another adverse effect of motherhood. But thankfully I was in the shower and didn't notice one way or the other. See Seth thinks its funny, when I am in the bathroom having my private, mommy-freedom time, to randomly sneak up on me or push the door open and pretend it was Evelynn. Because he's bored and doesn't really know how to entertain Evelynn for more than five minutes, or maybe because he misses me. I don't know. Sometimes it's cute and I can't help but laugh and sometimes it's so GD annoying that it takes everything in me not to slam the door in his face and rip him a new one. It depends on how hard of a day it was for me.
SO here I am in the shower, to all unknowingly appearances inappropriately touching myself and crying and Seth and the baby sneak up on me and scare my half to death.

MOTHERHOOD.

Good idea, bad execution
So all my sun tea jars leak and it pisses me off. Lately I have been downing decaf sun tea like its going out of style. (I guess really it is...). Recently Evelynn has acquired a taste for giant pickles, so I got her a jar at Sam's. After they were gone I washed the jar, threw my sun tea jars in the recycle bin, and used it to make my next batch of sun tea.
I have just tried said batch of sun tea. It taste like pickles.
FAIL.

Speaking of the recycle bin

I am either the worst or the best recycler EVER. See I don't really pay attention to all those stupid rules they sent me, printed on the side of the can, and emailed me. I don't wash the cans, I don't fold the paper, I don't break down the boxes. Fuck I'm lucky if half of it even qualifies as recycle. (Like the sun tea jars) We pay them to take it away now (Seriously, really?) and they give us meager points for recycling and advertise that we can buy all sorts of gift cards and cool rewards with our points. Except a 25 dollar gift card costs about 10000 points and we make 50 points a week. Maybe. If Cody has been here and drank a couple cases of glass bottles of beer. So no, I'm not going to wash anything or break anything down, or take the lids off my pop bottles or sour cream containers. What the fuck am I paying you for? To NOT do your job? How about I just don't do it and you have something to do for that 5 bucks or whatever it is a month you are charging me, what you used to do for FREE.

Nap time!
Okay fine friends! Evelynn has finally gone down for her long nap and I'm going to join her...because I can...MOTHERHOOD!

Love (motherhood),
Carrie

Monday, September 27, 2010

To be great is to be misunderstood.

Happy Monday world!

Why aren't you my facebook friend?
I wonder how many people have hidden me from their news updates on Facebook. See I suffer from chronic facebook status updating. If you were my friend, here is what you missed this weekend from me on Facebook:

Seth is on his way home and we are excited!
giving our Birdie a bath after ice cream!
oh Castle I missed you!

watching Sesame Street with Evie. What the hell happened to Sesame Street?
Burt and Ernie are creepy claymation, Cookie Monster eats veggies now and he's a cartoon, and there are new puppets that are just annoying. And I'm pretty sure they just said we were going to Abby's flying fairy school...which sounds like a club for men who like glitter.

errands done, Seth is home whining about wanting to go to the nighthawks game tonite.
making soups!

Dear Kitchen-aid mixer, you never cease to amaze me. You just julienne four bags of carrots in under a minute for my panara inspired broccoli cheddar soup. I love you. Please don't ever leave me.
so Willow likes to eat Evelynn's foam letters. Seth just caught her eating one and because we were watching Sesame Street this morning he goes "Willow, this ass kicking will be brought to you by, THE LETTER Y!!!" I almost died laughing.

Evelynn has entered the stage where she comprehend when I tell her no or to stop and she does NOT like to listen one bit.
little Sons of Anarchy before bed? Why yes please, give me some motorcycle man meat dreams. Thankyouverymuch.

football and errands and dinner with my parents! Sounds like a good Saturday!
Hellbusch conversations: Seth- Carrie for the last time they are called uniforms not outfits. Carrie: Whatever point is you aren't supposed to wear white after labor day and those pants that look like they have a giant pantyliner are a huge faux pas. Seth: *deep sigh*

making some ricotta! All the supplies were on sale so I took it as a sign I should make some.
just saw the hillybilly neighbors all decked out in bridesmaid and groomsmen gear carrying sleeping bags and camping gear and coolers into a car. Creepirs.
In their defense the dresses were beautiful and the sleeping bags looked uber fancy and new.

dear Arkansas, your outfits are cute. I especially like the shorts. Love, Carrie
off to buy new running shoes...blah, I think Seth is only agreeing to it because he knows I will feel guilty for spending that much money and then never using them.

I am so sore from working out last night. I'm not sure why it is catching up with me now.
finally getting to soak these sore muscles! Tomorrow I try my new Reebok "Ree-toners". Hopefully I will magically get a butt like the ladies on TV.

woke up to a singing Birdie. Seth woke up to Birdie puke in his ear. Guess that will teach him to pretend to be asleep when she is sleeping.
Hellbusch Conversations- Me: What I'm wearing today is a indicator of my commitment to this day. Seth: You are wearing your pajamas. Me: Exactly.

Hellbusch Conversations- Seth: Why are we watching the Giants game? Me: Because I want to see if that guy throws his hat again. Seth: What?...Carrie for the last time its called a helmet, not a hat. Me: Does he wear it on his head? Then it can be a hat too.
taking the shoes for a test run.

I need a nap before TV tonite...Sister Wives starts on TLC! I'm obsessed with polygamy. also Mad Men and The Glades. Oh and Seth's disgusting cartoon Metalocalypse.
thinking Evie has an excessive amount of snot. Also thinking now is a prime time to make Seth hold her.

Pictures I posted to facebook this weekend...
\

I hate this picture of myself, but Evie is impossibly cute in it, so I guess it can stay.
When she isn't screaming, this is how my kid looks in her carseat. We like to think she is giving Carlos the singing bee the stink eye. She is probably really just throwing us that look in her baby mirror.

Stinky Baby
Every since we have been feeding Evelynn real food, she has begun to stink. She has the WORST smelling vomit, which makes her breath smell horrendous, and her butt smell even worse. I used to think that her Diaper Genie was the most magical expensive trashcan in the world. Now I just know she didn't stink all that bad before. Even her pee stinks. Blech. We had broccoli cheddar soup for lunch and it was so bad I'm thinking of a Mommy and Baby afternoon shower. I'm also sad because she threw up all over the really cute outfit I put her in.

Wadda you doing?
We really don't have much going on this week since Seth starts school tonite. Yuck. But he is on the downward slope of school so that helps.

Sister Wives
OH MY GOD THIS SHOW. I love it. I love polygamy, or at least goose necking it. I have so many wildly inappropiate questions. Some of them get answered in this show. You can feel the hostility towards the other wives and husbands. I can't wait to watch more!!!

Alright
Better get cracking.

Love (Sister Wives),
Carrie

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.

New Fall season review
Okay so here is what I thought of my TV watching this week...because I know you care...
Sunday:
The Glades- Would they finally let the two main actors come together, I hate all the give and take and waiting for them to get it together, trust me a show will not die because you actually do what you have been building up to. You die because you don't, look at Gilmore Girls.
Mad Men- I have no idea what is going on. At all. It's getting too arty for me and I hate Betty. Am I supposed to hate Betty?? I liked it better when I was just scared of Sally and was hoping Betty would start having an addiction to pain killers or start taking "diet pills" which were really doctor prescribed meth.

Monday:
Chuck- Very good comeback. I was enthralled the entire show. PS they just signed Summer Glau (Firefly nerds, which this household is enthusiastically-rejoice!!!(
The Event (new)- Ehhhh, it officially has one strike, even if it does have Luke from the Gilmore Girls. I wasn't ever really into Lost, I don't like not knowing what is going on half the time and this show felt like a poor man's Lost, plus it has Luke from Gilmore Girls, but he plays a scary pilot trying to kill a bunch of people. And his hair looks painted on.
Mike and Molly (new)- LOVED IT. Seth actually watched it too and we were laughing so hard. We realized why at the end of the show, the guy who created it is the same guy who does Big Bang Theory. Seth says it is as if Family Guy came to life and I think its a King of Queens with a less annoying female lead. Plus it has a Pushing Daisies alum (the mother) who I love. I could live without the sister. The cop partner is hilarious though.
Castle- Could this show get any better? Nathan Fillion you are my favorite guy on TV. Amen.
Pawn Stars- Seth wants me to tell you they filmed this in Vegas when he was there because Bob Dylan was playing at his hotel.

Tuesday:
Glee- Cute concept in the beginning with the summer recap, but then what the hell happened to my show? On a different note, WHEEE Cheyenne Jackson! My first ever Broadway play I saw on Broadway was "All Shook Up" staring him and I have been in love since. In fact he was one of the first people I knew that had a blog.
Raising Hope (new)- Ugh. This was so bad I gave it two strikes.
Life Unexpected - More weird annoying decisions from Lux, but still a pretty good start to the season. I'm sad Bug is gone though, he was nice to look at.
Parenthood - Just when I thought that this show could not get anymore awesome, Clayu has a line like "I don't recognize your bullshit MC" and I am talking about it all week.
Sons of Anarchy- More great lines and the storyline is moving at a good pace. The thing I really like about this show is the characters react to situations realistically and well within what you expect from their characters. For example, just because Jax is mad at his Old Lady doesn't mean he goes off and bones someone just for a storyline twist, he's loyal, its a hallmark of his character (I'M LOOKING AT YOU GREY'S!)
Teen Mom (don't you judge me.)- Amber and Catelynn get on my nerves so much I sometimes fast forward thru their segments.

Wednesday:
Undercovers (new)- Eh. One strike. I'm not connecting with the characters at all.
Criminal Minds - Another example of shows going off the hinges and out of character for storyline twists. Writers we like the characters just the way they are. People have been killed in front of Morgan before and he didn't go all Robocop like he did this episode. What the hootenanny?
Law and Order SVU- Well done, I liked the carry thru of the characters between the two hours.
The Whole Truth- Loved this, even if it does have leads from two of my favorite canceled shows, Abby from ER and Epps from Numb3ers. I really liked that they showed you what the truth was at the end, I just thought they would show both sides.
Top Chef Just Desserts - Eh...some of the Chefs are getting annoying and the challenges are starting to stretch it.
Top Chef - Best news ever! There is going to be an all stars episode in December and it has a lot of my favorite chefs!

Thursday:
Big Bang Theory- Great episode. Way to come back strong and in a new time slot! I like the Penny/Sheldon interaction. That being said the B line story blew. Really? Robot masturbation? Who called it as soon as they say the robot hand?
Bones- I like the way they brought back the team together and didn't make a big deal about Angela and Hodges being pregnant. I hope they keep it that way
Destination Truth- I wish they would focus more on the paranormal and creatures that actually have a chance of existing. I mean as soon as they said they were going to Africa to look for a long lost cat man eater I was like "Didn't Val Kilmer do this and die?"
Grey's Anatomy - Parts of this episode I liked, others...not so much. I like that Avery is becoming part of the inner circle. But a lot of what is going on is out of core character. I mean I know trauma does crazy things, but really...some of it just doesn't feel right. Like Izzie not calling or even coming back. And Bailey pushing away the hot guy from Eli Stone (Eli Stone...sniff, I miss that show.)
Ghost Adventures- Okay here are the parts that scared me: Zak's uber pointy hair, the random old lady scream, the giant picture, Zak's strange muscles on his forearm, Aaron in the Christmas room. That is all.
Blue Bloods (new)- I haven't watch this yet, but my parents have (holy crap! I never get beat by them unless I'm not watching the show) and they said it was good. It has Donnie from NKOTB in it so how can it not be? I'll follow up later this week when I know more.

Seth thinks he can dance
So Seth was in Chicago changing planes this last trip and he saw a choreographer from SYTYCD. Sonja! He told her we "appreciated" her work. Which is exactly what my husband would say. I'm glad I wasn't there or else I would have been so nervous I would have told her I saw her vagina once when she did the air splits which is why I have never even attempted air splits, mostly because I can't and partly because of the whole vagina expose that could happen.

Our little cuddle monster
Evie is getting cuter by the millisecond. She has spent most of this weekend singing us songs, dancing for us, barreling back in forth on the couch in between Seth and I while we watch TV and football. Snuggling in the duvet, crawling so fast we can't keep up with her, throwing her hands in the air during the FloRida song "Club can't even handle me" and Taio Cruz "Dynomite", flirting with random people in stores, getting some of the cutest clothes at baby gap, and modeling her pj's for us all. It's hard NOT to love her, even when she is putting a cat tail in her mouth.

Lovely dinner
We had dinner with my parents tonite to celebrate our anniversary with them. The food was really good and Evie was a doll. Then they came back to the house and played with her for a little while. Mom brought her some used library books she got on sale (which makes me feel less guilty when she eats or tears them. Then Mom read to her while she sang a song and she played her piano for Dad. She got super active and then had a hard time going to bed so it's one now and she snoozing with Seth. Seth is just happy to be in bed and I'm happy to take a nice long bath and read my book "Saturnalia" which I haven't decided what it is about, besides a mystery novel set in Roman times.

I would walk 1000 miles...
Tonite I spent 99 dollars on new shoes. I can't even comprehend that, mostly because they aren't the coveted pair of Ugg (or Ugg knock off) in the darker caramel brown color that I have been dreaming of wearing all winter (I've decided to embrace comfort full bore and hope to have knock off knee high Ugg's in tan, black, and caramel for this winter-ha, fat chance I know right? I'm going to have to get a hooking job to get all of those!) But I got a new pair of walking/fitness shoes, those retones by reebok. So we will see how those work out. Pam told me some of the people she worked with had them and they hurt their ankles. I was going to get a knock off pair at Payless but I figured that's not really something you should tempt. Seth agreed and we picked them up today along with his other two suits and more baby gap clothes for Evie, including an impossibly cute baret/shrug knit hat. I'll have to take a picture when it's clean.

Time to soak the soreness
I'm off to the tub to read! Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Love (Warm fuzzy boots in the winter),
Carr

Being a woman is a terribly difficult task since it consists principally in dealing with men.

Happy Hump Day all! I had a really nice day, well late afternoon really. Evelynn's Grandma Busch came down and we visited and played. I gave her some recipes I cut out for her and we talked about various things we tried and wanted to try. Then we went out to Five Guys with Uncle Chet and had a good laugh at Evelynn eating french fries (or I guess I should say ketchup with french fries since the ketchup was all she really cared about-something I learned she gets from her Dad) and lemons (because I'm mean) and puffs. Then Janet called me when she got home and told me that I was really a great Mom and she is just so proud of how Evelynn has advanced and she can tell I'm doing a great job. Which made me all warm and squishy inside, because not only is it awesome to hear that stuff, it's even more awesome to hear it from your mother-in-law.

Evelynn's first taste of meat
As many of you seasoned blog readers know, I'm a vegetarian by choice, going on almost 20 years now. I have no qualms or anything against meat eaters, and if our kids choose one way or the other, I certainly won't begrudge them. For some reason people constantly ask me if I'm going to give Evelynn meat. And the answer is yes, I plan to let her have it and if she likes it she can eat it and if not she doesn't have to. I'm not going to be one of those clean your plate Mom's because Seth is INCAPABLE of not cleaning his plate and he swears it is what made him fat and let's face it America has a problem with portion control. ANYWAY so Evie was playing in the kitchen while I cleaned off her tray from snack time or as I like to call it: "Let's see how much fucking puff slime we can get in various places and on things that are hard to clean" It doesn't help that the cats think the puffs are cat treats and try to snatch them and make the mess worse. Anyway I got Evie clean and sat her on the floor and started to clean up her mess. Bagheera (the prince of the household) gets a can of the worse fishy smelling wet cat food a day because he loves it, he has anxiety issues, and he makes HORRIBLE noises if we don't give it to him. His food is served in the dining room on a mat, because he feels the need to make an even bigger mess to eat it. So I'm talking to Evie and I swear I turn my back for one second and somehow she has gone all the way around the outer walls of the kitchen and into Bagheera's cat food in less than 20 seconds. And she ate it. And I almost threw up for her. She smelled like cat food the rest of the day. Even after scrubbing and washing it down with juice. I wonder if this will affect her desire to eat meat? All I know for sure is that it is going in the baby book.

Anniversary gifts
For our anniversary we got a four inch memory foam mattress topper. I was pretty excited because we had been planning to get this thing for MONTHS since my best friend got one and said it changed her life. But the sale timing was never right and then Target stopped carrying the one I wanted and the biggest one around town I could find was 2.5 inches and that just seemed lame. Finally Walmart started to sell a reasonably priced 4 inch one. So I got that for our anniversary and Seth got ANOTHER Transformer (that brings his collection of giant honking Transformers to at least 15.) When we moved into the house I successfully negotiated the Transformers out of our bedroom (CREEPY) but I noticed the other day when my stacks of books started to deplete all of the sudden they started to be replaced by Transformers, in particular the airplane models. I decided then that I needed to go back to the bookstore and to tell Seth to get those damn things off my bookshelves and take them to work. Anyway we have a SUPER bed and now it is even greater because of the memory foam topper. Thanks honey! Now if I could just get the two cats, the baby, and the husband out of there it would be a PERFECT bed. That or just some good 50 degree weather for some duvet snuggling with the family.

Nighty Nighty
Alright friends, busy day tomorrow, lots to do. Not really but I would like to pretend that I'm going to bed and not going to stay up all night and watch "The Reader" since Seth refuses to watch it with me and is giving me crap about holding up the Netflix Que. I mean Prince of Persia and Robin Hood is out, what am I thinking?

Love (memory foam),
Carrie

PS I promise to leave the format of the blog alone for at least a week, but seriously, how funny are the new pictures? And I have to change the background because sometimes you can't read the font very well when I caption the pictures.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

How do I love thee?

I was bored and I thought I'd tell give you a survey about Seth and I, in honor of our anniversary:

1. When is your “engagement” anniversary:
September 20th, 2007

2. When is your “marriage” anniversary:
September 20th, 2008

3. How long have you known your spouse:
Since May 2006

4. How long did you date/court before you were engaged:
A little over a year

5. Where did you meet your spouse for the first time?
At the house I was sharing with our good friends Pam and Jason, we threw a fake party just to have an excuse to invite him over. He got shitcanned and fell asleep on my futon and then spent the rest of the day in bed with me and my roommates watching Beetlejuice. He almost missed his intermural football game which I still think Cheeto hasn't forgiven me for.

6. What is your spouse’s full name:
Seth Albert Hellbusch

7. Do you have any children:
Evelynn Ann, 6 and some change months

8. How many – boys/girls:
One very stubborn smart little girl

9. Do you have any house pets:
Bagheera and Willow

10. Do you own a house or rent:
We own a home, and it sucks, I hate homeownership, mostly the fact that when shit breaks you have to fix it.

11. Do you live in the country or town/city:
City

12. What is one of your favorite activities together:
Eating, watching tv, and snuggling in bed

13. Do you have a favorite vacation spot:
The first vacation we took together was to Cancun and that was one of the best times of both our lives, but shortly here we are taking our first family vacation to Orlando

14. When did you first kiss?
I'm not allowed to tell that story, but I will definitely tell you that it was not the first time we met. Maybe. WINK.

15. What church do you attend?
We have attended two churches locally but nothing really stuck. Seth is home so little these days we like to spend our time together as a family. Maybe one day if we get it together we can go, I'd like to for Evelynn. I was a bible banger once upon a time. (Wait should bible be capitalized like God is capitalized?)

16. Is this the church you were married in:
One of them is, my parents church, St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Papillion


17. What town is your current address at: Omaha, Millard District

18. Do you work or stay at home:
Stay at home

19. Where did you go on your honeymoon:
Funny this question came up, because just yesterday I was telling Seth my biggest regret is that we didn't go on our all expenses paid honeymoon. He was busy working and I used up all my vacation for the wedding so we kept putting it off and never went. So that is my biggest regret. That and not having a destination wedding in Mexico.

20. What was the funniest gift you gave when dating?
I gave him this shirt that said "Its all fun and games until someone loses a nut" and it had a picture of a squirrel dropping his nut and I thought it was the funniest shirt ever. He finally put it in the vets bin after not even wearing it once and admitted to me that he hated it.

21. How long have you been together?
Since May 2006, you can do the math, I can't

22. How long did you know each other before you started dating?
He worked with my roommate

23. Who asked who out?
He asked me out, finally after making me wait three days, which is some insane rule he made up that he says all guys follow. But the truth is he broke his stupid rule by trying to text me but I don't get texts so I never got it.

24. How old are each of you?
Me? I couldn't tell you, I get mixed up about it, I stopped keeping track after 21. I think somewhere around 28 and Seth is a year younger than me so he would be 27, if I'm right about the 28.

25. Where do each of you go to school?
I went to Dana College which is bunked now (sad) and Seth went to UNL but on the UNO campus, he also played for UNO football team. I played team Mom to the Dana baseball team...

26. Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?
Learning to say no to our respective extended families, in extension to that, for me especially, learning that Seth and Evie are my primary family unit now. My family and I are VERY close, due to all the military moves and me not having many friends or normal experiences outside my family unit, so a lot of time I struggle with either including my parents and brother in a "family" activity or conversation or not including his extended family in the conversation/activity. Because in my head this is old school China and we all should be living on a family compound and its always expected that my family will show up for dinner or be included in family pictures.
The other hardest part is me learning how to be a stay at home Mom and Seth working WAY too much for being on salary!

27. Did you go to the same school?
Just the school of life. HAHAH. Yeah, I mean no.

28. Are you from the same home town?
That would require me to actually have a hometown, so no.

29. Who is smarter?
Depends on the subject, like Seth always says, I am the strength to his weakness and he is to mine. So if you need anything that involves numbers or computers, ask Seth. Anything on the other side of the brain, ask me.

30. Who is more sensitive?
The girl on the crazy pills, who is now off the pills, but is still crying randomly at mushy scenes in TV shows, especially those involving children. You can usual find me on Tuesday nights cradling my child sobbing watching "Parenthood"

31. Where do you eat out most as a couple?
We just love to eat out, when Seth can squeak the money or someone gives us a gift card or I have a coupon. I'm a giant foodie so I love trying new places and eating out. Then I love to go home and try and cook the things I eat.

32. Where is the farthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Chitchen-Itza Mexico. And it was hotter than hell, I almost died of heat stroke. My brother and his girlfriend got sunburns so bad I had to give them my clothes to cover their blisters, Seth got accosted Mexican gypsies who jumped out of bushes with backpacks and he "haggled" a lot of black onyx from them

33. Who has the craziest exes?
Me. Or at least I think so. Seth is actually on good terms with most of his. I on the other hand routinely scan the obituaries with my fingers crossed that I see their names and the words "drunk" and "choked on vomit" in the same column.

34. Who has the worse temper?
I've only seen Seth really mad maybe four times. So it would be me. In the words of Garth Brooks "She will rage just like a river and then beg you to forgive her." There is also a Dustin Kensue song that Seth says reminds him of me, and it's entitled "Pistol" if that tells you anything.

35. Who does the cooking?
Me but we do like to cook together, but since the baby, for major parties (where I inevitably overcook) we tag team a lot of stuff. I like making stuff for his work events because he never has work people come over to our house!! And I like to show them I'm actually doing something besides blogging and eating my way thru the fridge.

36. Who is more social?
Seth, he was the king of parties in college. I was the queen of hiding in my dorm room or going home on the weekend or being the person you called to come pick you up at the end of the party for a safe ride.

37. Who is the neat-freak?
Him, and it makes me feel bad because I'm a terrible housekeeper.

38. Who is more stubborn?
I used to say me, but then I met our daughter.

39. Who hogs the bed?
I do, but that is only because I have Evelynn on my side so I need more room. That and he has been traveling so much I have gotten used to spreading out.

40. Who wakes up earlier?
Neither one of us if we can help it. But usually I do, to feed the baby.

41. Where was your first date?
First real date? Biaggi's and it was fun until I demanded to pay and old school farm boy about had a freaking meltdown.

42. Who had more boyfriends/girlfriends?
Uhh....me?

43. Do you get flowers often?
Last time I got flowers was from Seth's work when Evie was born.

44. How do you spend the holidays?
We used to bounce between the two families, but I'm putting a stop to that since Evie is born and we want to start our own traditions and it will help me solidify "my" family.

45. Who is more jealous?
That would be me, the expert Internet stalker.

46. How long did it take to get serious?
About five seconds, I truly believe now in "When you know, you know"

47. Who eats more?
The fat girl who had to break back into her maternity pants and borrow clothes from her mother

48. Who does the laundry
Me although Seth will help switch the loads if asked

49. Who’s better with the computer?
The man who is passionate about them

50. Leave a piece of advice for the other couples.
In the words of Seth, be each other's strengths to your weaknesses.

Love (that guy I married),
Carrie

Monday, September 20, 2010

Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.

It's anniversary day!

In with the old, in with the new

So this weekend Seth and I read thru some of my old blogs and somewhere along the way I forgot I used to do paragraph headers and Seth said they really helped the blog along and he missed them, so I'm bringing sexy back. Wait I mean paragraph headers. So there it is.
Also Seth has been encouraging me to take my funnier blog posts and try to make them into a book. So I've been trying to find a way to get all my blog posts into a PDF with the pictures or at least a Word document. Bar going thru one at a time (as of today there are 430 of them), copy and pasting them into a word document, I don't have any brilliant ideas. There is this website that will make it into a book for you, or a pdf for 7.95 but of course the man I love says that's a lot for something I can do myself. Apparently he still thinks I'm at work and have all the time in the day to dink around on the computer.

I'm slow to post
So of course I started this post yesterday but then all sorts of other things happened. Most excitingly, I got to spend part of the day in the hospital because I have been having dizzy spells. Of course they couldn't really figure it out.
Of course I want to the vagina doctor to find out why I was dizzy. Because I was dizzy and wasn't thinking. I have always went to the Olson Center for "Women's" health, but apparently that doesn't cover if you are dizzy. However they did address the rash on my boob from breastfeeding. Both cases they were like, we aren't sure, try this. What the hell?
And of course we had a lovely experience with a student. he did most of the exam and consultation. He was SUPER good looking so I was all about letting him see my boobs. Rash and all. His name was Ben. I like to think we are friends now. Although Seth and I had a few weird moments with him. One was he asked me if anything was coming out of my nipple in regards to my rash (which is no where near my nipple) and I went "Besides the breastmilk?" the other was when he was telling us about head injuries he randomly says "Last year when I got mugged, we I had some dizziness and it felt like I was drunk walking". We just kind of sat there for a minute, like what the fuck do you say to that? Finally I said, "That blows, getting mugged."
Then he brought in Dr. Hibbert from the Simpsons. No really, this guy looked and acted just like the guy. It was hilarious.
Why are all my doctor's visits comedy? Probably because I let the students in. I let the student nurse do all of my vitals, she got yelled at a couple of times for dinking things up. When she weighed me I almost cried and made some jokes but she didn't respond. How do you politely tell the students they need to work on their people skills?

I scream, Evie Screams, we all scream for ice cream
After we got cleared from the doctor, we went and Seth picked up some stuff from his work. (of course, even when he is ordered to stay away from work he can't) and then we went over to Dollar Tree because I had a project I wanted to work on for Evie (more on that in a hot minute). Then we went to Verizon where Seth almost threw his phone at the lady in there, so we had to leave. Then I went over to the used baby junk store and got Evelynn a cute little car (more on THAT later). After all that we headed to Olive Garden because remember when I "watered" the neighbor's plants? Well I found out what I thought was a 10 dollar gift card was actually 25 so we used that for our anniversary dinner. It was funny because we were both starving and Evie fell asleep and so both of us barely talked to each other thru dinner because we were so busy shoveling food into our mouths trying to finish eating before Evelynn woke up. She ended up waking up at the very end of dinner and then she just wanted to play with her food and drink some of my raspberry lemonade. (Really spellcheck? There is a "P" in raspberry? Who knew...)
Then we went to Cold Stone for ice cream because I had a coupon. I got the new oreo filling ice cream and OH MY GOD. It is amazing. Luckily I'm smarter than Seth and I ask for like four kinds of ice cream, one at a time and the scoopers don't really know how to measure the ice cream accurately so I always get a TON of it. In fact I ordered the "like it" and got enough ice cream for the "ours" to go container. I justify it that I have to share with Evie so I can get a lot.

Fun things for Evie
So I noticed when we were in the doctors office, Evelynn really liked the shit they hung off their ceiling. Lately its been a helluva chore to change her pants or anything involved with the changing table because she squirms around and pulls herself up to see what is going on. Anything but laying on her back, GOD FORBID. So I went to Dollar Store and got some wall art and wrapping paper to put up on the ceiling in fun colors and some cut outs from the teacher section. Hopefully it helps. They had sheets of the stickers you can put on the wall for a dollar so I got TONS of those. I just redid my bathroom with bamboo reeds. Maybe I'll post a picture.
I have been looking for something to give Evelynn to push on when she walks around, hopefully to get her something to balance on and start walking sooner. I only encourage it because she hates crawling SO much. So we went to the used store and I got her this little push car that converts to a walker. She LOVES the car. But of course she has her Mother's princess genes and demands to be pushed around in the car. She will go over and sit on it and then put her feet up and start humping the handle to get it to move. She squeals with delight and then tries to get us to chase the cats around (as if I don't have enough problems with Baggy's anxiety). I also got her some foam letters that were for the bathtub but she likes them out of the tub more and we just do letters and she puts them in her mouth, no harm no foul, unlike the flashcards which get soggy and gross.

What I WANTED to post about on my anniversary
I wanted to do a cute little interview with Seth for a blog post on our anniversary but I couldn't find a good set of interview questions. So if you all have any, leave them in the comments or hit up the email and I will ask him. Here are a few I tried to ask him,
Me: Were you nervous to ask me to marry you?
Him: No, you were nagging me about it for almost a year so I knew you wouldn't say no.
Me: Shut up, I might have said no.
Him: No you wouldn't, you really wanted to marry me.
*Discussion descends into a fight about if I really would have or not, ending with him being right and me admitting it begrudgingly.*
Much later...
Me: What was the best part of this year for you?
Seth: Having Evie and getting to work on *super secret work project named withheld*
Me: Okay, I meant about with me.
Seth: Watching you become a Mommy.
Me: That's not really about me, that's about me and Evie. But ok. Why was that good?
Seth: Oh because I was worried you would have problems with it, but you didn't and that was good.
Me: What did you just say?
Seth: No you are a great Mom, I mean, I didn't have doubts you would be, but you used to worry all the time that you wouldn't so it was good to see that didn't happen.
Me: Okay but we don't say those kind of things aloud around the kid-ok.
Seth: Why, you said it.
Me: Oh Jesus. How long until you have work travel again?

So my own interview questions weren't working and I couldn't find any in google land besides pre marriage counseling questions. Any help my readers out there have would be most appreciated.

And I'm out
Alright the kid is awake, and demanding to be taken in her chariot to where Bags is hiding.
Hope you all have a great day!!

Love (being a pusher),
Carrie

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.

So as promised, here is the post about what my week looks like next week with the fall season kicking into high gear. Straight from my DVR...

Sunday:
The Glades (this is a summer show, but I have been enjoying it, I like the main actor)
Mad Men

Monday:
Chuck
The Event (new)
Mike and Molly (new, has Sookie from Gilmore Girls)
Castle (SQUEEEE)
Pawn Stars (this is Seth's)

Tuesday:
Glee
Raising Hope (new,I'm a sucker for a show or movie about people learning how to raise a kid)
Life Unexpected (really enjoyed this last season although the girl who plays Lux is supposed to be all grown up and more mature than the parents but she makes some really nerve grating decisions that don't follow her character at all)
Parenthood (LOVE this show)
Sons of Anarchy (one of the best written shows on TV today)
Teen Mom (don't you judge me.)

Wednesday:
Undercovers (new)
Criminal Minds (SQUEEE, even though I'm pissed they fired JJ and cut Prentris's episodes)
Law and Order SVU (Really, a two hour season premire?)
The Whole Truth (new, the concept is really intriguing, court drama from both sides of the table)
Top Chef Just Desserts (Oh man this show makes me so hungry, and so scared of dessert making)
Top Chef (this is over, this is just a reunion special)

Thursday:
Big Bang Theory
Bones
Destination Truth (Josh Gates makes reality TV fun)
Grey's Anatomy (Am I the only person still watching and caring about this show? I feel like I am)
Ghost Adventures (or as Seth and I call them, Meatheads yelling at ghosts. Funny stuff even if it isn't meant to be)
The Soup

So the new stuff, of course as always gets the three strikes and your out rule. I'll let you know how everything fairs.

I may have possibly killed our fridge. Seth is in there now trying to fix it. You may have noticed it's two am while I post this. I don't know what is wrong, but I do know if we have to go buy a new fridge tomorrow, we won't be going to Orlando for a vacation or doing anything nice for our anniversary. Since Seth will be pouting thru our anniversary for having to spend that kind of money. I didn't get the door shut all the way when I pulled the meat out of the fridge this afternoon and so the fan part that made the cold air stopped working. I discovered I fucked it up and left it open three hours later, but of course I didn't turn the air on today, I just slept with Evie thru the hottest part of the day, and the water melting fucked something up. I just cursed and shut the fridge door and had NO plans on telling Seth about what I did. But of course when he was going to get ice he noticed everything was still melting and wasn't cooling.

Well Seth just gave up. He is going to the gas station to get ice to put our stuff in.
Shit shit shit fuck shit.
He wants me to tell you all that he fixed the light at least. I think he doesn't want you to think he is completely inept at fixing things. Poor guy.

Better start loading things out of the fridge and into the coolers. Shit how am I going to cook for Jazz on our green tomorrow.
Aye dos mio.

Love (for the fridge to be working),
Carrie

Thursday, September 16, 2010

The most dangerous strategy is to jump a chasm in two leaps.

As I type from the confines of my "safe" zone (i.e. the bathroom) I can hear Seth trying to get Evelynn to say "Dada" or "Daddy" or any other remote variation of the word. Yes it's true, Evelynn now routinely calls for her Mama. And it pretty much makes Seth feel like a schlump, although I don't know why since I'm with her 24/7. But still, in between her squeals and giggles, Seth is tirelessly drilling her to say his name. It's like Destiny's Child with Wyclef up in here. Circa 1999. Yes that was a very random pop culture reference. You are welcome.
So I have SUPER exciting news. Hat tip to Seth's lovely co-workers who read the blog HI ALL YOU POOR PEOPLE *waves* I only have to listen to him chatter on about work maybe three hours a day, you guys get it ALL DAY LONG. I pity you, I do. Maybe you know what he is talking about half the time. I don't. But I make a hell of an attempt to make him feel like I do, or at least that I care to listen. Most of the time he just needs to do what I call "talking it out". If he can get it out of his head and try to explain to someone, he tends to solve his own problems. I have a very tried and true method of ensuring that he thinks I understand by zoning out just enough and repeating words or phrases back to him randomly to make him think I am listening. I love him, I do, and I wish I had even a CLUE of what he was talking about. But I like to think he does the same thing when I tell him about my theories on what is going to happen on Grey's Anatomy this year. It's called MARRIAGE.
So anyway because I'm a whiner, and I forgot Seth's co-workers read this blog (OH MY GOD he is so embarrassed by the way. He's totally afraid I'm going to talk about things he doesn't want people to know, like the fact that he doesn't snore, BECAUSE APPARENTLY HE'S A FUCKING Princess and Evie and I and the cats keep him up all night with our snoring) so they made magic happen and he's going to be around Monday for our anniversary and he is banned from working!!! HUZZZAAHHHH!!!
Now if I could just get him to take a real non working vacation, we might be in business. :-)
Thanks guys (and gals!)!
Evelynn and I had a great day of cuddling. She must be going thru another growth spurt or just taking after me all day but we spent the whole day cuddling, reading books, and snoozing.
Alright I'm so excited for fall TV to start next week, I'll try to get up for you tomorrow what I'm watching and trying out this year. But I'd better get a shower before Evelynn realizes that dude trying to explain to her why it is not condusive to knock down what he is trying to build for her and teach her about sound structures is NOT "mama".

Love (the power of the blog),
Carrie

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.

How do you like the redesign blog friends?
It feels like Evelynn is going down to play by herself for while so I thought I'd share some of my random daily thoughts, because I miss you bloggy.
Yesterday I had lunch with my Mom and a lobbyist and I got all dolled up and got the baby looking and smelling cute. I was so excited to have intelligent conversation. Of course I go in there and flub it all up by talking about Kanye West on the VMA's.
On the way home I stared longingly at a guy who had his music bumping up at the light. I remember when I was the one bumping at the lights. Now I'm like, turn down that music you are hitting my kid's ears! And oh, is that the new Nelly? Nice.
I had this discussion about stay at home mothering with my husband last night. I think I would feel better about my decision to do it if society and the government supported it more. Basically, as awful as it sounds, I think stay at home mom's should get a stipend. I mean I'm not expecting to make bank here but a couple hundred bucks a month would be nice. I don't know how Mom's who are on formula are doing it! The lobbyist I met the other day went on and on about how being a stay at home mom is the hardest job. If it's the hardest job, why does society not respect it as much as say, someone who is a social worker. I don't know, I'm just rambling here.
Okay friends the cats are fighting and Evelynn is trying to get involved. Bagheera is obviously feeling better on his new drugs. He is more lovely, wants to play with Evelynn more and lets her just smash him with her love.

Plus she just crawled into my lap to cuddle, and I can't miss out on moments like that. Maybe that's my stipend. Works for me.

Love (cool fall days full of baby cuddles),
Carrie

The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is.

I was going to celebrate the fact that I made two posts in one day, but I realized its 12:15 so it is now a new day so I'm just going to say instead, two posts in a row! Woot!
The new stats feature has made me all self concious and I check it almost as obsessively as I check my blackberry for facebook, email, or twitter updates. Thanks, just what I need, another electronic connection to tell me my social status in the world. Ah electronic validation.
If my husband had gotten home before 9 pm, here are the things I would have told him:
I bought a new candle warmer at Hobby Lobby. It was 4.99. Its literally a hot plate you sit a candle on, this one has VENTS, which is a fancy feature, and the reason its a dollar more than the 3.99 model well worth the extra dollar I think. And then he would have been like, why did you buy another candle warmer, we have one, my mom bought it for you for Christmas. And then I would have said, well the lightbulb on the damn thing went out and I can't find a replacement bulb because apparently, the company that makes the candle warmer bought the bulbs for the candle warmer from THE FUCKING FUTURE because these bulbs exist nowhere. I have looked at three stores now, including hobby lobby, which is where I found the NEW candle warmer, while looking for a replacement bulb. And look, the new candle warmer is just a hot plate so I will never need to buy a replacement bulb or go looking for one. Now if you would like to invent a time machine so I can go into the future to get a bulb for the warmer, I'll just take this new warmer back and use the time machine instead.
You know actually I would probably use the time machine to go into the past to just keep the damn candle warmer from my mother in law in the box and re gift it in the future. But don' tell her that. I actually liked the candle warmer, it was a very effective candle warmer, I mean it didn't have side vents or anything rad like that, but it did it's job, until the fucking bulb from the future went out and now it's a useless lump of junk cluttering up my already too cluttered house.
I also would have said to my husband-look I made six dozen cookies. Why did I make six dozen? Well, apparently Jesus Christ died again and the church is having a funeral for him and they needed four dozen. I know I made six dozen Seth. I made you two dozen, because I made the cookies a day early, and you will inevitable sneak at least a dozen cookies. And I'm pretty sure you will go to hell for stealing funeral cookies. Especially if that funeral is for Jesus. So I decided to just head you off at the pass and save your eternal soul and I made you your own non-funeral cookies. Once at a Bible Banger meeting when I was a teenager the leaders told this girl that she and her Mom were going to hell because her Dad was an alcoholic and didn't ever come to church. And apparently in the church I was attending at the time, your father was your represenative in heaven, so if your father didn't come to church and wasn't all holy, you all were on a one way ticket to hell, no matter how much you prayed. I don't know they said it was in the bible somewhere. Probably Leviticus. Anyway I'm just covering my bases in case that is true.
Your daughter pressed herself up against a window today and screamed at a squirrel. She was only wearing a diaper. Pretty sure the neighbors are going to call child protective services and tell them I'm teaching her how to be a good window hooker in the red light district.
Hey speaking of fun experiences your daughter had today, I think she met her first meth addicts. When we were in line at the grocery store this crazy looking guy and girl got in line behind us, after skipping around four lines. Then the guy stood so close to me that I was going to do an Usher style dirty dance grind on him because he was standing right up on my ass. But then I noticed he obviously did drugs. And liked vulgar tattoos. And then the girl who was with him, who also gave the "I need to be on Intervention" type apperance started to be really nice to Evelynn so I couldn't do it. Plus she looked like she could beat me up in a heart beat. I noticed they were buying four toothbrushes, a giant can of zippo lighter fluid, tampons, cold medicine, and ding dongs. I don't know what kind of meth that makes, but if it involves ding dongs, I'm in.
Anyway she was being really nice to Evie, and of course Evelynn was being a giant ham, per usual. Our daughter is a social butterfly. And then the woman starts asking me the standard set of questions and responses:
She is so cute! How old is she?
6 months.
Wow six months! She is so tiny!
Yeah, *insert witty response here*
What's her name?
Evelynn Ann
Oh that is such a sweet name! Fits her perfect!
Thanks! *insert clever comment here*
Then our friendly neighborhood meth head made a comment that threw me for a loop-she says "Whoa you look great for having a baby six months ago!" And then I had no witty response, but I really wanted to hug her. Lately I've felt pretty bad about myself, body wise. I've been trying to get out and walk with Evie, but the weather has been so erratic. I've tried to refrain from eating the ENTIRE contents of my fridge, but some days are harder than others, and some days my parents make excellent food.
(Speaking of which dad, when are you going to make mexican again? It feels like forever since I've had a good dad burrito)
So anyway the meth heads and I are friends now. BEST friends. You just don't understand how great a comment on your body feels when you are feeling chunky yourself. Especially from a skin and bones meth head. Love you methie!

So I had to finish this post in the morning because I was exahusted. Evelynn is still sleeping for once, Seth didn't wake her up with all his banging around he does in the morning. I might even sneak back to bed for a while once he leaves. Of course knowing my luck she will wake up as soon as he leaves and want to play.
Hope you all have an excellent day!

Love (people who tell me I'm skinny),
Carrie

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Idleness is not doing nothing. Idleness is being free to do anything.

So the good news, I'm back on the food committee at church! My mom swears I was never off of it, but I'm not so sure. Anyway I think I have redeemed myself in the salad department. The bad news, for some reason the requests for food this week are LARGE.
Jesse and I went to Sam's and dropped two and a half bills, and for some reason I grabbed the bag of shredded salad, which I had told myself I wasn't going to do anymore because even though it was uber cheap and the lettuce was perfect...for about two days, if that. But for some reason I felt moved to buy the lettuce. That night I got a request for salad for 8. So someone must have been talking to me up there.
Then today I got a request for a funeral, but just cookies...only 4 dozen. Who died? Jesus?
I just finished banging them out, and then re-read the email and realized I made them a day early. Shit. Oh well, as long as Seth and I don't eat them all before Thursday, we are golden.

I have bad news about Bagheera. The baby is giving him anxiety, and he is peeing on things. Pretty much everywhere AROUND the cat pan. I really don't deal with cats who pee on things. After some google-diagnosing, I've decided he has anxiety because Evelynn has become increasingly mobile, including chasing him down the hall with her weirdo half crawl (which looks suspiciously like Bagheera walking). So today I went to Petco to get him some kitty drugs. Now he is wearing a funky collar and has some drops to put in his food. I also got him some special treats and some more wet food. Hopefully that's enough to have him stop peeing on things or else he is going to live somewhere else. Maybe the garage. Or the laundry room. Stupid cat.

I'm excited for fall tv to start, although none of the new shows are really jumping out at me. I'm DVRing a few of them just to see what's happening but I'm not counting on any of them to come thru.

Seth and I's two year anniversary is next Monday. I have nothing for him and he will be out of town. He says that our trip to Orlando in November will be our celebration but he is going there for work, so I can't imagine it will be much of a celebration. Is it wrong to wish your husband would get moved to a different project so you can see him more? I mean, it wasn't very fun when he was working on a project he hated with people he hated. But it's almost as bad when he is working on a project that he has a passion for with people he likes. Then he feels committed to make the project its very best and to not let the people he likes to work with down. Which means that he works insane hours. For example he went in at 7 this morning and as I write this, it is 7:41 pm and I haven't heard from since noon when I called him to ask what kind of cat litter to get. By the time he gets home we will have about four seconds to eat, and he will have about five seconds with the baby, and I'll bet you money he wants to work out which is an hour and a half of more time not with us, but time he thinks he needs to relieve the stress of his job.

But who am I to complain, I spent most of his money today and made 4 dozen cookies, right? Right.

Exciting! Blogger has put up this thing where I can see all sorts of interesting stats about my blog. I have 29 followers now too! Woot!

Alright well I'd better pay attention to the little one. Hope you all are having a good week!

Love (being back on the team),
Carrie

Thursday, September 9, 2010

We confess our little faults to persuade people that we have no large ones.

Here is some randomness I just thought to tell you on my walk...

Every time I see a bunch of marigolds, I smile. Not that they are a particularly pretty flower or that they smell nice or anything. I think they are just the first flower I remember learning about from my Mom. I also remember that she used to let me "deadhead" them and spread the seeds anywhere I wanted and for some reason that felt really special to me. Especially since if I did that with a dandelion, my Dad would come after me with a rake. (by the way, there is an "e" in dandelion? Really spellcheck? Huh.)

Today it is overcast and cloudy, but as you can see from the previous post Evelynn and I made Brownie's for Seth's celebration of the kickoff of the NFL season tonite (I would call it a "party" but I honestly think it might be just us there-which means, as usual, I have made ENTIRELY too much food) and I had to test to see if the brownies are any good since I am, categorically the worst brownie maker ever, even with the "perfect" brownie pan. So anyway after snarfing six brownie bottoms that got stuck to the bottom of the pan, and Evelynn's stout refusal to take a nap longer than five minutes we decided to take a walk even though it looked like rain.
I was pretty grumpy about it, but I ran out of ways to entertain her and was starting to get frustrated that she wouldn't just lay down and take a freaking nap. So off we went. Along the way it started spitting rain. Evelynn was taking in the sites, and generally having a grand old time, which is new for her in the stroller. I didn't want to pull the hood over her and make it so she couldn't see around her anymore and piss her off. As much as I read that I needed to invest in a one-hand operational stroller, it was just too far out of my price range. Carrying Evelynn and pushing the stroller is a feat best left to the gods. So we just enjoyed a little rain. She was giggling and holding out her hands and kept touching the top of her head to see why she was feeling wet on her head. We had our first walk in the rain. She felt the rain on her face for the first time. It was special.

So I'm going to go ahead and just come out and say it, because I've officially had it confirmed by three doctors and a nurse. Evelynn is advanced. I know that it may not last and she may even out eventually, but man, I don't know many six month olds with her fine motor skills, her ability to learn, and her determination to walk and stand up. If she could get the balance thing down, which she works on constantly by pulling herself up and hanging on with one hand, she would be on the move all the time. Its what she wants. She hates being left out. She hates having to look down to crawl so she has invented this sitting up one legged scoot thing. She opens drawers and is happier to be sitting on the counter in her bumbo than playing on the floor, but if the kittes are down with her or I am, she will hang out there a while.
I've been following all of the developmental games that Carol has taught me, I read to her constantly, yesterday when she wasn't feeling well from her shots we just laid in bed and read the original Winnie the Pooh stories. I recently got her some flash cards that are Dr. Seuess themed with colors and alphabet flash cards. I really like the Baby Einstein books. She loves to read those. I like them because it gives me a lot to read her. I kind of hate the normal baby books because there are like five words and they are usually boring. I need to start working on numbers with her. Right now we are teaching her mimic numbering, where we do a task like bang on the table three times and count aloud while we do it and then she mimics it back and we praise her. I can't wait for her to start talking, I just want to know what is going on in that little mind!

Alright well I'd better take my shower and go back to bed to snuggle. I just thought I'd say hello!

Love (marigolds and walks in the rain),
Carrie

Getting ready for the start of the NFL season

First we got dressed

Go Bengals! Mommy decided that was our team because she likes a lot of the players, like our good friend Dhani Jones, from "Dhani Tackles the Globe".
Then we learned a little about football from Daddy during the start of the college season on Saturday:

Go Huskers and Mavericks (Daddy played for the UNO Mavericks)

Now we are "helping" Mommy in the kitchen:

These are two of Mommy's favorite things in the kitchen, her kitchenaid mixer, and me
We are making Pioneer Woman Cooks! Brownie Bites - yum.



Happy start of the NFL season!!

Love (chocolate),
Evie

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

If we were not all so interested in ourselves, life would be so uninteresting that none of us would be able to endure it.

The weather grows cooler and I feel the need to wax poetical about how much I love this time of year. I love the feeling that fall brings, sort of like a settling in. Its like, spring everyone wants to open up and get everything out and clean, start afresh. Summer everyone wants to be outside and enjoying the sun and doing productive activities outside and cultivating life outside. Fall feels like the outdoor adventurous part is over and now we are settling down for the winter, canning things, preparing things. In our house we have rearranged the closets. I finally conceded the master closet to Seth. He needs the space as his career and wardrobe grow more respectable. Plus I was tired of having to reiron shirts that had been smashed into his closet.
Also I'm not that person anymore who cares to have 65 pairs of dress slacks, shirts, and skirts. I've finally let go of my desire to hang onto my youth and "fashionable" identity I worked so hard to cultivate in my teens and early twenties. Now I wear t-shirts, and I save my nice clothes for when I leave my house. I find I'm a lot less angry or disappointed when my kid poops on a shirt I got for free from a chiropractor.
Today I accidentally answered the door with no pants on. I was wearing a long tshirt I got free when I bought the "Troy" directors cut DVD. I could have sworn I was wearing my gym shorts, in fact I was not. And the revelation of the fact that I was not wearing pants came to me in the middle of a kid's song and dance about me needing to buy wrapping paper so his school could buy gym equipment or something. I quickly told him no and backed away slowly into the house careful not to lift my arms any higher. Yeah its come to that people. Somewhere a kid was sitting around his dinner table or writing on his friends facebook about the crazy lady with a flirty baby who answered the door with no pants on. I am that woman. So I'm going to own the identity and stop pretending I still need my white pant suit, which I'm sure, people could see my underwear thru as well.

Here is a random Motherhood TMI for you all-
I remember reading in Cosmo that blue balls wasn't real. I also remember rolling my eyes and scoffing at boyfriends claiming I gave it to them and calling me a prude.
People, breastfeeding has given me a phenomenon which I can only attribute the pain of as to that of what I have heard blue balls described as. (Kind of like when men say having a kidney stone is like the pain of childbirth)
I get blue boobs. Evelynn has started this thing where if there is anything remotely more interesting in the room- one of the cats, Seth talking, the television, my cell phone, a flying piece of dust- while she is breastfeeding instantly she yanks off the boob and has to play, talk, or watch it. There is this part of breastfeeding where you are like AHHHHH and all the swelling and pain go down and you get this relief that sometimes gives you goosebumps. Also it causes a waterfall of milk. Doctors call it "let down" I call it "OH THANK GOD." It takes a couple minutes of good strong sucking to get to that point. Also a good latch. With Evelynn's newfound attention span of a gnat, sometimes she gets you right to the edge of that point and the screws off and it is the worst pain in the world and it is so hard not to be so mad at her.
So I get blue boobs. And I imagine I owe an apology to all my high school and some of my college boyfriends. But not really about that apology thing. You all can go suck it you pushers. So I thought I'd share that little friendly motherhood tmi for you, because I know that is what you really come to this blog for.

Alright friends, it's two in the morning, I just got Evelynn in a deep enough sleep that I can sneak off and take a nice long bath and enjoy my book. But I missed you all so I thought I would say hello

Love (snuggling on these fall nights with Seth and Evie),
Carrie

PS if you head over to our photographer's website (http://www.ajzphoto.com/) he has redone his site and we are featured on it in his banner! I feel kind of special and beautiful because I know that when I was picking him I did it based on his work from his site and to know that other people might be doing it and thinking about how lovely my family is, well it just makes me all proud as a peacock. Yay!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Evelynn is six months old...insert first Mommy meltdown here (okay fourth)



Dear Evelynn,
Five months and thirty-one days ago Dr. Carlson called me and said "Are you ready to have a baby?" and I said "Um...no, not really" and she said "Too Bad, we are inducing you, you have high blood pressure" and I said "Yeah I totally cheated on that pee in a jug test, that was Seth's pee." and she said "See you soon."
Then I called everyone and freaked out.
Your Daddy took entirely too long to come home from work.
I had my bags packed and ready to go. I still forgot stuff, both Daddy and Grandma T had to go back and get stuff from the house for me.
I was not ready. How could I be?
How could I be ready for you? You have completely altered my world in ways I am still discovering.
Every hour you make me smile, you make my heart swell. You are so smart and so beautiful it scares me some days. I always used to wonder if I had a twin in this world-now I do, I can't believe some of the things you do that are just like me or just like people around us.
I am so lucky and blessed to spend every second with you, even if sometimes I need a break. Your Daddy makes such a huge sacrifice for us. He wants you to have the world and will do anything to give it to you.
Yesterday you started crawling. I cried. I miss the little newborn who I held for hours in the NICU just willing and praying to get better.
The weather is getting colder and I'm excited to cuddle with you. I can't wait to have conversations with you and read books to you and have you not eat the pages.
But time has gone by too fast already. Six months? Where did they go? I'm pretty sure we slept thru the first two months.
You are eating puffy snacks and solid foods now. I like having you at the table with us, but I miss feeling my breasts ache to feed you. Mostly these days you just have a couple drinks and then take a nap.
I'm glad you are warming up to other people holding you, but I miss feeling smug inside when you wanted only me.
Why is it as you are growing older you are getting messier?
When will I start to have thoughts that aren't random and more put together?
I hope I'm doing a good job. I hope I'm doing that little brain justice. I hope that little tumble we took on the ice before you came didn't damage your noggin. But I know I'm being silly.
Days you are a handful I take you to the store so old ladies can tell me how beautiful and sweet you are. Just to remind myself. Not that I could forget.
Baby tunes drive me nuts. I hope you like the music I'm playing instead.
I can't wait until you can watch "Little Einstein" for more then 5 seconds, because I could watch it for hours.
I need to get you more books. You just spent 20 minutes flipping the pages in your book. Oh and a gate for the stairs-I just caught you headed that way twice!!
As much as I wish you would give me the time to write more-I know you need me more!
Love (my baby),
Carrie