randomness
i forgot to post this picture. i think this is either Amy and Salomon or Poppy and Tata. Whoever it is, they have nice big teeth. :)
i am so excited about this wonderful weather. before we moved, i was dreading the Texas heat. having been in Texas the past two September's, I knew the heat wasn't over just because it was "autumn". However, the one thing that has really been cooperative since we've been here is the weather.
in honor of Autumn, I have:
*burned constantly my favorite Hazelnut and Pumpkin candles.
*baked homemade peanut butter cookies (and apple bread tomorrow)
*cooked a huge pot of stew for the first time ever. it's nowhere near as good as my dad's, but it's pretty darn tasty.
*making chili tomorrow.
*dug out our fall/winter clothes and julian picked out one of my favorite long sleeve green shirts to wear today.
*realized I better come up with a baby name for this little one, whatever he/she may be.
*begun thinking about the holidays/birthdays. Dustin will be 31 next month and I hope we get to do something special. it's not like we don't live in a city with resources for a good time. :)
I have not, however, abandoned my daily requirement of lemonade. I think it could carry over into autumn quite nicely.
Randomness: Should I cut Annabelle's hair? I love how long it's getting, and so easy to pull into a ponytail or piggies if we need to leave the house quickly. She just hates the tangles and has been asking me to cut it short for some time now.
Randomness #2: Julian has been coughing like crazy now also. Their fevers are gone, just lots of coughing. He keeps saying, "Mama, I'm siiick. I wanna "chew chew chew"." (chew chew chew is either gum or cough drops)
Randomness #3: Julian won't keep his clothes on. He strips down (completely naked) and asks for his "big boy dunnies". I love that he calls his "undies", "dunnies". He has peed all over this house, but for the first time in his little life, he is actually showing an interest in using the toilet. He has done 4 poops in the potty and I am actually seeing some hope that someday he may want to actually be potty trained.
Randomness #4: I miss my family. especially Baby J with the chubby cheeks that is now army crawling and rolling over. But for those who have asked, Yes, despite all the setbacks, I love Austin and am so happy to be here. I promise I will take new pictures soon, I just need to get into the groove here.
check engine
The day I moved to Austin, I got an oil change. The next morning, I woke up to my "Check Engine" light glaring at me. Sure that the mechanic must have overlooked something minor during the oil change, I took the car in and was told that nothing was wrong with the oil change. The mechanic told me that sometimes with newer cars, the light will come on without reason after a certain mileage, in a way, forcing you to get a tune up. Check everything out, make sure everything is okay internally. It was just coincidental that it happened to come on the day after my oil change.
Our computer is less than 9 months old. The day that we got our internet turned on, we've had nothing but trouble. Slow speeds, problems with our connection. I was (and still am) sure that it is a problem with our internet service provider, or that the cable is possibly bad, but after an hour and a half of talking with a customer service rep, he's convinced that it is an internal problem with the computer itself. He suggested that I call Dell to check it out before sending a technician out, and just make sure that there are no viruses or anything. The timing of it's demise after our internet hookup....just coincidental.
On my second full day of living in Austin, I found myself in the emergency room, sure that I was dying, or going into preterm labor, or possibly just terribly sick from something I ate. The results showed that I should be perfectly healthy. Dehydrated from all the vomiting, and low potassium for the same reason, but otherwise...fine.
You will recall that Dustin was in the hospital last month as well, and the results are still inconclusive. We assume that he has stress related migraines, but we just don't know.
I am thinking that our bodies have a "Check Engine" light, going off right now, forcing us to slow down. Breathe. Concentrate on being healthy and happy and content. Nothing is really wrong with us, but we need to recognize the importance of taking care of ourselves. Routine Maintenance that we would otherwise overlook, had it not been for the "Check Engine" light.
I am realizing that there are more important things than getting all of my boxes unpacked RIGHT NOW.
There are more important things than clean floors, clean laundry, clean bathtubs.
There are more important things than stressing over bills that are late, because they will get paid, regardless of how much I stress about them.
There are more important things than being upset with my kids because they won't keep their messes in one corner, and instead must drag them all over the house.
A healthy home, healthy heart, healthy mind. These things matter. Why do I forget so easily?? Thank God for the "Check Engine" light.
we made it
we're here!!! our drive went so smoothly, around 7 1/2 hours. Julian started asking "Are we there yet?" around Dallas (hour #4) , and didn't stop until I let him listen to his favorite song by the Killers ("All these things that I've done") approximately 37 times. I am not exaggerating.
it's been very eventful and uneventful at the same time.
uneventful because we (me and kiddos) have been home without a car/phone/internet/television. but not anymore!! you should have seen us when the cable guy showed up yesterday. he said, "you haven't had anything for two weeks? You must have the patience of a saint." (he said this as Julian was tugging on his shirt, and repeatedly saying "I want your flashlight. I want your 'puter. I want your telephone. I wanna go with you. I want your flashlight....") I told him, "No, I don't. That's why I am refraining from hugging you right now."
The eventful part is that we have all been sick. Annabelle is in bed asking me to please take her to see Dr. Finck so "we can find out what's wrong with me". annabelle and julian have had fevers, and Annabelle has had a cough and "head breaks". (headaches) Because of how we've raised the kids to not eat too much sugar, Annabelle is convinced that she has had too many sweets and she needs a break from sweet treats. Then, she immediately asked me to buy her some popsicles tomorrow.
julian just mopes around the house and says "Mama, I wanna hold you." (which means he wants me to hold him. i don't judge him for his improper grammar, we're just happy that he is communicating in more than screams and robot gibberish)
on our second day here, i got food poisoning and pretty badly dehydrated and was admitted into the hospital overnight. it was horrible. at one point i thought that dying would bring some relief, and was trying to hold out until Dustin got home, so the kids wouldn't be home alone. Fortunately, as you can tell, i didn't die. I cried a lot, and thought for a second that i might go into labor, and wanted to die after throwing up all over myself in the hot bath that I was taking to try to ease the pain. Since I had no phone, I semi-dressed myself and the kids and walked to Dustin's grandma's apartment and had my brother in law watch the kids while Meme took me to the ER. Because I was pregnant they wouldn't give me much other than phenagren and tylenol. It was just basically a quiet, cool room to cry in until the pain subsided on it's own.
All of that sounds really horrible right? So let's move on to fun news.
*ACL was fabulous.
*I now have internet (which is running really really slowly for me, but I'm not complaining too much.
*I also have a telephone, and although I hate talking on the phone, it's nice to know that I can if I want to....especially to call 911 if I ever again think that dying would be better than the pain caused by bad tuna.
*Our cable package included DVR, which means that I can watch "Grey's Anatomy" and "Survivor" now that the kids are in bed, instead of trying to catch bits and pieces of it in between cooking dinner and giving baths.
*My mother in law is letting me use her other car for a bit (since Dustin has mine for work)
We found a mall, Super Target, WalMart, IHOP...only the necessities. We bought princess wands and a tiara for Bella in the $1 bin, and Julian got these little prince crowns and fake mustaches. He looked awesome. Annabelle decided to find other uses for the mustaches and created armpit hair, a unibrow, and a hairy buttcrack. Here are a few funny pictures. She seems to think that Poppy will really enjoy them. She and Poppy have a similar sense of humor, I think. But hairy butt cracks on a 4 year old girl, that's always funny, right? (click on them to see bigger size)
we're moving today!!!
i am about to take my computer apart, to pack it in my car. i just wanted to update everybody and let you all know that we are moving today. i won't have internet access until the 20th, sooooo, don't forget about me :) i will check in on all of you when i get my internet up and running!!!
the fair
we're taking the kids to the fair tonight. i'm so excited, some of my favorite childhood memories are from the fair.
*jumping like a maniac in the inflatable balloon house
*riding the bumper cars with my dad and uncle Kent and CJ
*winning ribbons for my construction paper artwork(and sometimes not winning, which was very hard for my little competitive heart)
*sucking helium out of the free balloons and singing loudly at the top of the ferris wheel
*getting free ride tickets (in high school) for picking up Subway sandwiches for the "tilt-a-whirl" conductor
*nearly putting a girls eye out with my free yardstick
*seeing the big shot from my high school get sick on the "Zipper", and vomiting his Sonic Cherry Limeade all over himself and the other riders (not fun to watch, but fun to laugh about later)
*getting free rides with my friend Heather on the aforementioned "Zipper", until we just couldn't handle it anymore and begging through tears to be let out.
that's the thing with small towns, there's not a lot to do, so when something as magical as a little fair comes along, you enjoy it for all its worth. we used to try to go every night that it was open (Wed-Saturday)
we're moving to Austin this weekend. I've been making a list of all the things that I'm excited about, such as living within blocks of a Super Target, Starbucks, Hobby Lobby and Michael's, & a huge movie theater. Living in a city that has an Ikea, Costco, Whole Foods Market and Pottery Barn. I told Dustin he may need to take on another job just to support my big city spending habits for the first few months.
However, I'm so excited about taking my kids to the fair tonight, that I am reminded that I am very much a small town girl at heart. We will have cotton candy and funnel cakes and lemonade, and try our hardest not to throw up on the rides. We will spend entirely too much money trying to win "priceless" stuffed animals. We will admire the elementary school artwork and ride the carousel and the huge slide and jump in the bouncy house. we will look at the huge animals and pet the bunnies, for as long as my pregnant nose can handle the stench, and we will come home exhausted, and a little smelly and very much content from a long fun day. if you live in my area...are you going to the fair this week? hope to see some of you there tonight :)
Baked sweet potatoes
this long labor day weekend has been full of yummy food.
my brother and my dad came home for the weekend, and between CJ's pasta and pecan crusted tilapia and dad's bbq, and of course, anything that my mom makes....well, let's just say that "the baby" gained a bit of weight this week ;)
Salomon said to my Mom, "Out of all your kids, it's your son that got the cooking skills. Amy's idea of a good dinner is a scrambled egg and an Eggo Waffle!"
Amy replied, "Hey, I cook when the Schwann's man comes! Those mini pizza's are great!"
My dinner's aren't too far from that either! Dustin is definitely the cook in our family.
I think I must get my love (or lack thereof) for cooking from my grandma, "Mimi".
Mimi doesn't cook often, but she makes the most phenomenal cheeseburger in Arkansas. We dubbed them "Mimi burgers" when i was much younger, and used to beg her to open her own restaurant. For the past several years, however, Mimi's "cereal for dinner" nights have far outweighed her "cooking" nights.
One night, she got a craving for a sweet potato.
She went to the grocery store and bought two large sweet potatoes, and put them in the oven for dinner. When my grandpa, PaBob, came home, he said, "Oooohhweee Mimi, what are we having for dinner?"
Very proudly, Mimi replied, "Baked sweet potatoes, don't they smell good?"
PaBob said, "They sure do. What are we having with them?"
Without missing a beat, Mimi replied, "Well....I was thinking maybe some butter."
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