Category Archives: Tidbits

October 17, 2015 · 11:25 am

Story of Two Mountains.

Last night, Tony was excited. We had scheduled a day off this weekend to decorate for Halloween. Blow ups! Fog machines! Big scary spiders and webs! Yard stakes (made from election stakes they stuck in our yard a few years ago ha)! He even made the grave error of saying, “Tomorrow we can sleep in!” I gave him the side eye, because with an almost 4 year old in the house, there is no such thing as sleeping in. Sure, the child would love to sleep in on weekdays, but weekends? Nope. He is up at the butt crack of dawn.

As would happen, 5:33 AM I wake up. The house is silent. I have no idea what woke me up. So I rearrange my pillow, lay back down and pretend to myself that I’m sleeping. Tony’s wisdom from years ago echoes in my mind, “Even if you’re awake, if you’re resting it’s kind of like sleeping.” So, I laid there.

6:42 AM, “Mommy? Mommy?” I get up and go to William. “Mommy? Can you lie down with me?” I do.

He’s quiet for a few minutes, I listen to him breathing and feel his heart beating. It’s a peaceful moment, but my mind has been awake for over an hour by now, and the thoughts of a mother run through my head. Remembering how when I was pregnant with him, toward the end of the pregnancy he used to practice breathing and I’d watch my belly move up and down where his lungs were, and how I would listen to his heart with a doppler every day just to make sure he was OK. And I feel inordinately blessed that he loves to snuggle, and I wonder how long he will want me to snuggle him.

His mind was apparently working, too, because he says, “I’m going to tell you the story of two mountains now.”

“OK. I’m listening,” I encouraged him.

“Once upon a time there were two mountains. The first mountain is called Big Bear Mountain and at the top of it is a cabin,” he continues.

“That sounds nice.” I observed.

“In the cabin is movies that you watch.” He pauses, collecting his thoughts, then says, “The other mountain is a SCARY mountain. At the top of that mountain is a scary magician!”

“A scary magician? That sounds frightening!” I grasp William tightly.

“Hey! it’s OK, it’s OK! The scary magician put dried corn in the oven and he made popcorn! He’s not scary anymore! And that’s it. Let’s go see what daddy’s doing.”

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Filed under Our Kid is Cute, Tidbits

August 5, 2015 · 2:03 pm

Monthly posts.

I’m smiling right now as I write my monthly update post or, rather, my “letter to William” for this past month. So much has happened and some of the things he says and does are so sweet.

I love all the things we do with him and all the memories we make together as a family. I know the monthly posts are long, and I always think I’ll post shorter snippets throughout the month, and then I realize the month is past, and I haven’t!

Blogging has sure been an evolving road of communication for me over the years. Most of the people I’ve met through blogs are now Facebook friends with me, so snippets have a tendency to make their way there instead of here. So, if you’ve been a long-time reader and you haven’t already, please feel free to friend me on Facebook.

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May 13, 2015 · 9:00 am

Weight on my Shoulder.

How about something random today? Like, things I have in my purse:

-purple plastic spoon
-small plastic bottle of Hershey’s syrup
-pink lipstick
-small bottle of lotion
-Nikon camera (point & shoot variety)
-small pink hairbrush
-wallet
-credit card holder
-small notepad & pen
-Cover Girl compact
-Neutrogena stick sunblock
-small dental floss
-small bag holding Advil, Tylenol and Claritin
-several packets of Splenda
-nail file
-flash drive
-cell phone

William and I were using a food scale to weigh each item in my purse, and then the entire purse. We discovered that somehow, all these tiny little items all add up to 5 pounds that I lug around with me everyday.

If that’s not random, I don’t know what is…

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Filed under Tidbits, Weird is Fun, Who I am

April 18, 2015 · 11:20 am

Oh, Snuggy

This morning, William was snuggling with me on the couch. Snuggy, my anti-social black kitty was walking in circles around my feet. As he would circle, at some parts in his circle, I would see just his tail swaying in the air. I pet his tail and tried to coax him to hop up next to us on the couch, knowing that it wouldn’t happen. In the 13 years I’ve had him in my life, I can count on one hand the number of times he has hopped up next to me of his own volition.

He finally got close enough to us that I was able to reach speedily under him and lift him up next to us. I got a couple of pets in of his head, a scritch behind his ears and then William reached for him. Now, Snuggy is one of those cats whose memory is never ending. He has been terrified of William since we brought him home with us. William has never done anything to him, it’s just the way Snuggy is. He is highly sensitive, I’m pretty sure there’s some Siamese hidden in his genealogy. Snuggy’s eyes widened in horror and he leaped off the couch.

William called after him in a sad little voice, “Oh, Snuggy. You don’t have to be afraid of me. I’m not a… I’m not…” There was a pause as he searched for just the right word, and then declared, “I’m not a MONSTER! I’m just a boy.”

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April 26, 2014 · 11:03 pm

Inspiration

I’m sitting here painting my fingernails. It’s Saturday night, the child is sleeping and the husband is upstairs with a messed up back trying to sleep. He threw it out Thursday night picking up a basketball. You know, you never mess up your back by doing a crazy, wild something or other. It’s always the mundane thing, like picking up a basketball or getting a roll of toilet paper out from under the sink that does it. If someone says they did hurt their back by doing something they shouldn’t, I’m not sure I’d believe them! ha

My community is heating our pools again. I think my favorite time of year is right now as a result. Every April, it’s too early in the season for most people to go swimming, or maybe not everyone realizes the pools are heated. Whatever the reason, it’s typically just me and the birds and planes overhead. I get a little giddy feeling each time I head out on my bicycle for the pool, which is a nice change from forcing myself to go to the gym and trying to find something redeeming about swimming in a cesspool of germs blanketed by chlorine.

Another recent highlight — for the first time in a long time, maybe since I left the other company (so four years ago?), I was given something for Admin Professional Day. Given by the newest boss I’ve taken on just a couple months ago. I kind of think it’s one of the Hallmark holidays, but if someone wants to honor it, well, I won’t scoff at it, that’s for sure. Plus, the card he gave me was really pretty.

Aaaand, my fingernails are nearly dry. No clever ending here.

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March 24, 2014 · 9:41 pm

Randomness in the Brain.

How often do you relax? I mean, really, truly relax? Like you’ve just gotten up from a massage table, disjointed bones, melting muscles kind of relax? It’s been too long for me. I realized yesterday when Tony did a 10 second neck massage, and I resisted it for the first 5 seconds, that maybe relaxing is a learned thing. I don’t do relaxing well, apparently.

I got another summons for jury duty. At least it’s just one so far. The last time before this I was called to show up the month William was due, so December of 2011. I was getting summoned every 6 months at both my post office box and my street address. Kind of ridiculous. I had my doctor write a note to excuse me, and while I was at it, I mentioned the address issue… I didn’t hear from them after that until now, 2 years later. Someone at the jury office put it on their calendar, I’m thinking. I can’t wait for the one that I just know is coming in the mail to the street address! Either that, or they’re going through the employee list of my company, because my co-worker, our CFO and our Compliance Manager have all been called in the last month. Talk about relaxing, huh?

In the same day’s mail I received a payout from a 401K account from my previous job from a contribution that came in after I rolled the account over? From year 2009? With taxes taken out of it? I had no idea they could do this 5 years later… strangest thing ever.

And… a suspenseful ending to my weirdly random post: I’ve been trying to paint my nails for the last week. I just started them now, let’s see if I can finish before William wakes up to go to the bathroom.

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Filed under I Worry A lot, Tidbits

January 25, 2013 · 11:45 pm

Random Thoughts…

I bought a new camera a couple months ago. Again. It’s sleek and amazing looking. I actually had to bust out the owner’s manual to figure a couple things out. The owner’s manual is on a CD that was included with the camera, instead of a printed book. I guess they figure if you own this camera, you’ll have a computer that has a CD player…

I think I’ve drank an ocean’s weight of water in the past 2 years.

I want to bring a can of whip cream to work for my hot chocolate. I’ll be the envy of all my co-workers if I do that.

I had an embarrassing moment the other morning. I got to my desk and logged in. I looked up and standing in front of me was my friend, the dad of 9.5 month old twins. He chit chatted for a second, looked over my shoulder at my bags, held his finger up, disappeared and reappeared holding the flange to my breastpump. He said, “I thought that looked familiar, just wanted to make sure it was yours…” I guess the thing had fallen out of my pump bag. I was embarrassed for a second and then remembered that, ummm, well, a good portion of the milk I have in deep freeze is being given to him for his babies. Then I was glad it was he who found the flange and not someone else.

Another co-worker of mine is about 18 weeks pregnant. I saw her rubbing her just rounded belly, and her baby within, in an absentminded, comforting way the other day and I immediately missed that. When I get nostalgic like that, I put William in my Lillebaby carrier and wear him when we’re out and rub his back and bottom while I walk through the store. It’s my way of feeling my baby next to my heart again.

… and I just finished pumping for the preemies, so I gotta go put the milk in the deep freeze.

Hope you have a great weekend!

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October 23, 2012 · 9:56 pm

Need some bricks.

Me: We need to get some bricks for that toilet upstairs that William likes to flush.
Him: Why?
Me: Because the water bill has gone up from $30 a month to $42 a month.
Him: What???
Me: I know. It’s because he likes to stand there and flush the toilet non stop, and when it’s not flushing, he likes to flipple the handle.
Him: Haha… you had to say flipple didn’t you?

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Filed under Best Husband, Tidbits

August 28, 2012 · 12:42 pm

Random Unedited Tuesday Thoughts.

I wonder how other people back up their photos and documents. I currently back up stuff every Friday to an external hard drive. But it’s tedious and time consuming and I wonder if there’s a better (but also free) way to do it.

I am starting to find it irksome when people constantly comment on who William looks more like. I used to do it ALL THE TIME with my nephews, without even realizing I did it, and now I would like to offer a blanket apology to their parents. I am SO SORRY for being annoying or irritating about anything and everything that I might have been annoying and irritating about without realizing it. I didn’t mean to be. Your kids are adorable and it goes without saying that they inherited some traits and looks from both of their parents. Because, duh, gene pools are cool.

Why do cities seem to repave their major streets in August and September? And it seems as if they do this on a schedule of every four years. Someone once told me that it was linked to election time, but that makes no sense to me, but I wonder if that’s true or coincidental?

The only thing I like about pumping is that I can get things done that I can’t get done otherwise.

I’ve stopped eating watermelon for the most part because I think it makes me bloat, and I have no idea why that would be, because it’s supposed to be a natural diuretic.

I wonder if getting a Mifi would be a good alternative to the hard wired ISP access I have at home. We have 4-5 computers that we run at home, but I’m tired of paying $40 per month… some of the mifi’s I’ve seen offer support for up to 6 computers. Hmmm.

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April 10, 2012 · 1:07 pm

Tuesday Tidbits.

* At work, there is a crevice between the elevator carriage and the floors when the door opens. I don’t know why, but for some reason I always want to throw a gum wrapper or some small piece of trash down it. I won’t ever do it, but I always think about doing that when I step in or out of the elevator.

* My community is heating its pools 2 weeks early this year. Which is really great because we had some really warm weather this past weekend and so I had a couple hours of amazing swims. Pure bliss for me.

* Traffic has been lighter than usual this week. I assume because of spring break everyone went away. Instead of a 30 minute commute each way, it’s 20-25 minutes each way. Every minute matters!

* Another free oil change this past weekend thanks to the strange “loyalty” card the dealership gave me. I say strange because I’d only ever had my oil changed there once before, and they sent me a card for five free oil changes because I was loyal? Two used, three to go!

* We went to Sea World on April 1st. It was two years ago on April 1st that I miscarried our first baby. It was one year ago on April 1st that we found out I was pregnant with William and I was peeing on anything that stood still long enough because I couldn’t believe it. Now we have a beautiful baby boy who pees on us.