Scrapbooking

Since my hubby is gone and my evenings are full of... well, nothing... I set me up a table in my bedroom (directly under the A/C, FYI) with all my scrapbook stuff. During kiddy naptime and after kiddy bed-time I sit myself down for a little creative creating session. It's like water to my soul. Except when I drop a little piece of paper that would have looked so nice under that one photo under the bed, got down on my hands and knees to find it, and then came up empty handed. Then I wanted to cuss. That wasn't a very watery moment, frankly.

But usually it's watery. You know, refreshing.

While we're using the strange term watery to describe scrapbooking, let me apply it in another way.

My baby boy is growing up... WAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

[tears streaming down my face]



Currently I am re-doing H's book from the beginning. And this is the beginning.

Me. Prego.

And I have to say, that this is a taaaaaame photo of me prego. I mean, if you saw one of the pictures of me when I was NINE months pregnant, you'd be shielding your eyes from fear that that belly was gonna pop ya right in the eye.

And if you, heaven forbid, happened to see the photos that my mother actually had the nerve to take of me actually in labor?! Well, then you'd be shielding your eyes, smacking your laptop lid closed and calling up the hospital for an immediate tube-tying.

I know I did.

Just kidding.

I did not. But you already know that, cause you know that I did the whole thing again, two years and two months later.

Aaaaanyway, after the small human being that had been taking up residence in my body managed to find it's way out... this is what we had on our hands...



Lord help us all.



My baaaaaaaaaaaby!!!!



learning to sit up *sniff sniff*



and just llllllllooook at those eyes!



He was in Aunt Julie and Uncle Curt's wedding at eight months old.

And now aunt Julie and Uncle Curt are going to have a wee wittle baby of their OOOOOOWN!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAH

(happy crying, this time, of course!)



I can't take it.



Turning one. I don't know how this happened so fast. Or why it had to.



And this haircut.

This is the haircut that made my baby into a boy.

Please God, why?!



This day I remember so well. Friends. Pool. Toddler. Chips. And that belly on that boy.

Oh my. That belly.



This too.

I can't decide if this was yesterday or sixty-five years ago.

Whenever it was, it was wonderful.



Our boy. When he was the age that our girlie is now.

Goodness.

What treasures they are. What a privilege to watch them grow.

Typical

Today the kids and I went to the mall.

Don't picture mall like you normally think mall.

I mean, kinda picture what you know of a mall, but shrink it like 5 or 50 times. And then transplant it to North Africa. Then put a metal-detector at the front that beeps every time anyone walks through. Then place a security official there next to the always-beeping metal detector who acts like he never hears the beeping. What beeping? And picture escalators. But picture them broken (for years). Then multiply the prices by 2 or 20.

There. That's about right.

And picture me there, with my two kids, chillin' in a decent coffee shop in the center of the mall. Kids are climbing all over the 'leather' couches while I attempt to shove chicken and tomatoes from the inside of my sandwich into their mouths. Then I kick a dead cockroach under the table. Then I dip a fry in ketchup. Then I speak very sternly to my boy... "Do NOT touch that floor. We put our feet on this floor and nothing else. Do you understand?!" And then I take a sip of Pepsi. And then I notice a man a couple of tables over.

He's a big man, we would say. Not cause he's physically big (although he is) but because you call an important looking African man a 'Big man'. I dunno know why. Just go with me okay?

He has a big fancy coffee sitting in front of him. It seems fitting of his big-manness.

His phone rings.

"Allo? (Hello?) Yes. Yes. I am coming. I am coming now."

Then he sets the phone down and continues to leisurely sip his cappuccino or whatever.

Huh. Funny. He doesn't look to be going anywhere to me.

So funny.

So typical.

Mama's in Charge!

Mike is in Kenya at a conference. I am holding down the fort with the two littles here in the meantime. It's only for five days.

My coping strategies are:

1. Find someplace to go every day. This is harder than it sounds.
2. Don't be afraid to spend money. Money buys food at restaurants and sometimes a restaurant is about the only place to go.
3. Drink a strong caffeinated beverage at exactly 12 noon every day. This should propel me through kiddie nap-time awake but (hopefully) not keep me up at night.
4. Ignore the way the car is acting funny. Denial is ignorance. Ignorance is bliss. (?!)
5. Eat that chocolate bar I found at the bottom of the drawer in the fridge.
6. Remind myself that Mikey will get his turn to be in charge of the two littles next week when I get to be the one on a solo trip.
7. Call my Mom and ask her to please tell me that a child's brain function cannot be permanently harmed from several days of over-exposure to television.
9. Organize stuff. This always helps me cope with life.
10. Scrapbook.
11. Sew.
12. Finish that novel I am reading.

Huh. That list somehow turned into a list of my hobbies. I suppose hobbies help me cope.

Aaaanyway... I've never been alone with BOTH kiddos in this country for an extended amount of time before. I have been alone with them on airplanes across the world. And I figure that's way harder. Therefore I'm not concerned about these five days.

Check back later for the actual outcome.

If water cuts or power cuts or internet cuts or if the crazy political happenings that are currently spreading through this region spread here then it might be a different story.

But I'm pretty sure we're gonna be just fine.

Eat it Up

I am a think-aheader.

A save-the-best-for-laster.

Totally.

And now we've realized that our summer travels are gonna begin in less than three months. So soon?

I know.

Time flies when you're having fun.

Anyway, do you know what that means? I mean besides the obvious mile-long list of preparations that must be made to leave this home for a few months and travel with a family of four around the world and stay in approximately 94 different places along the way before we land back here at the end of the summer? [exhausted just thinking about it]

It means it's time to eat it up!!!

Do I hear cheering?

Yes! I do! From my own stomach!!

See, we carry in quite a few food items that we can't get locally. Cheddar cheese, powder cheese, Velveeta 'cheese' (please note the use of quotation marks there), Parmesan cheese. Apparently we import a lot of cheese. Never realized that before. But that's not all. There's Craisins and dried blueberries and cake mixes and a Ghiradelli brownie mix (I think I hear the Halleljuiah chorus), muffin mixes and gravy packets and pesto packets and dressing packets and various and sundry other packets and Cheerios and Goldfish crackers and I'll stop naming things now. People send us stuff too (which we love!) and also this year Mom and Dad brought a lot in their luggage at Christmastime.

Hallelujah and amen.

I've had a lot of it around for months, but my plan-aheadedness and save-the-best-for-lastestness won't let me use more than a couple things on occasion. I can't possibly use it all up until I know I have to. For me, half the fun is just knowing it's there should I want it. And now I know that if we don't use it up soon it'll sit around all summer (in a kitchen warm enough to bake something without even turning the oven on) and go to waste.

So happily, gladly, joyfully and gleefully we are gonna start eating it up!



This is just a taste (pun intended) of all of the imported food goodness that is lurking in my fridge and pantry and freezer (helllllo pepperoni!!!) Only there are a few too many cookie mixes and chocolate chips for my own good at this point. Bummer. Why didn't I space those out a bit more? I'm really kicking myself about that now. Why can't I be one of those people that can receive a prize brownie mix in the mail, shout "Carpe Diem!" and pre-heat the oven immediately upon arriving home?

I'm gonna try harder from now on to shout "Carpe Diem" when I'm at the post office.

Except that I'm never the one that goes to the post office.

Nevermind.

Better late than never, right?

Pardon me, I may go pre-heat my oven now...

Quote of the Day

Me: Do you know what H? (as he's laying on the floor in his towel all wet and clean from a shower)
H: No.
Me: You are one of the best things that have ever happened to me.
H: Noooooooo. (silly grin) You da best thing dat ever happened ta MEEE!

I Love...

I love clean sheet day.



That's all.

These Moments

Moments like this are some of my favorite.



Ever.



In all of time.