Life and Maggie

Happy Birthday Mom! (September 23rd)

Me and Aunt Karen


My grandma has to lay down a lot because her back hurts when she sits up.


At least she humored me for one picture.

After returning from 4 hours of hobnobbing with the doctors of Troy, I think we still look pretty damn good.

The King and Queen of Ren Fest! (Don't those boobs look obscene for a cutout?)

Another cutout. We love these things!

MY Knight in shining...khaki?

I have lots of boring things I could write about....like TV this week, or the dinner Kendall and I went to to welcome him to Upper Valley Medical Center. But I have no interest lately in writing about my life. It seems boring. And busy. And I'm lazy. :)

Those are just a few pictures of us from recent trips and now for a quick story about Maggie...with video! (My first!) I figure all those other moms are posting video...so I should get to post video of my "kids" too!

So this is the "aftershock" of Maggie EVERY time a squirrel goes by the patio doors. This is mild in comparison to her raction when the squirrel is actually on the deck. This usually lasts a half an hour or more. Basically she'll do this until I yell at her to stop...until the squirrel comes by again. In her defense, the squirrel does taunt her. It walks the edge of the deck all the way around, slowly, while she goes schizo. I'll try to video them both if I get a chance.

Small Rant

I am SO SICK OF THIS WEATHER!!!! It goes from raging hot to nicely chilly weather to raging hot again! We just spent the last two days sweating our asses off at school. Now it's going to be pleasant for a few days....but looking at the 10 day forecast....back up into the freaking 80's by next Monday!

I can't even retire my summer wardrobe for the year! It's so frustrating! Plus, this is the kind of weather that ends up giving me a sinus infection. I can't handle it!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone needs to get on this global warming shit. As I said to Jessica yesterday, global warming has definitely become an "inconvenient truth". Stupid Al Gore! This is all his fault.......

:)

Friends with Children

Let me apologize in advance if anything I say/observe offends any parents who read my blog. But I found this interesting and felt the need to share my feelings on it.

Jessica and I had an interesting conversation on the phone yesterday that I wanted to share. Now that she is pregnant she has made the observation that she has suddenly become "more interesting" to our friends that already have kids. And I have to say that her observation is pretty accurate, and I don't think it only applies to our mutual friends.

Before, when she lived in the land of inferility with me, friends would politely ask how the whole conception thing was going. Especially when we were all trying at the same time to have a kid. Slowly but surely, everyone else started to have kids. Suddenly the questions stopped. I know that part of that was because it was starting to get awkward. But I also think it was because they no longer had anything to talk about with us. Their lives had moved to another dimension. The "having a baby" and not "wanting a baby".

Jessica and I were left behind. It was sad and disappointing. But at least we still had each other. We both became very comfortable with talking about our problems. No one else asked and we stopped telling. When we got together with our friends that had kids, their kids (and pregnancies) were almost all they could talk about. I didn't (and still don't) mind hearing about people's kids. I enjoy a funny story about poop or a new fascination with one's orifices. But it seemed there was nothing else to really discuss anymore with some people. Maybe they didn't even realize it.

When Jessica finally got pregnant, suddenly she was the center of attention. We were all excited that it finally happened for her. But to her, it felt like all of these people who had become absorbed in their own lives as mothers were only now ready to pay attention to her again because she was joining their club. I noticed it, she noticed it.

The great part about Jessica is that she understands how it felt when they all kind of abandoned us. And quite honestly, the pregnancy hasn't become the only thing her life is about. Occassionally she'll complain about being sick and she always mentions her doctor's appointments, but I want to hear about these things. She's my best friend. I don't hold it against her that she got pregnant with a healthy baby and I haven't. What I truely appreciate though is that while she's conscious of the fact that I may be sensitive to hearing about it, she still tells me things. She offers to let me see the video but isn't offended if I say no. She mentions she went to the doctor but waits for me to ask what happened. She doesn't force it one me.

She also commented that having a baby doesn't "consume her life". Which it did for many of our friends. They wanted to talk about being pregnant all the time. She wants to talk about our favorite TV shows. In many ways it's almost like she's not even having a baby. Maybe she does it for me. I'd like to hope it's really because our friendship is strong enough that we have more in common than our shared past of infertility.

Who knows, it could all change come March when that little baby is at home and she's up late at night and trying to figure out the breast feeding thing. But I'm optimistic that it won't. I'm hoping that we still have all of those fun things to talk about like TV, and the books we've read lately, and how annoying our husbands can be.

I guess the greatest observation is that I notice now more than ever who I really have things in common with. It's the people in my life who have kids, but don't feel the need to constantly talk about them, almost like we have nothing else to discuss. I find Karen to be a good example of this. I feel like she's found a good balance in her life for talking about her child and her life without her child.

My final thought for my friends that are mothers: I may not be part of the mommy club, but it doesn't mean we still can't have things in common. And I hope you feel the same way too.

I lightened my blog by one shade so that it will be easier for Martha to read.....because I'm nice...and I love her! :P

My Weekend

Friday- Kendall and I went down to our old neighborhood and had dinner with Jessica and Aaron. We got to see a video of their baby on the ultrasound. It was HILARIOUS! It looked like you were watching the dancing baby from Ally McBeal! It was GREAT! It's amazing that something the size of a snap pea can be dancing around inside of you and you don't even feel it!

Afterwards we all went to Urban Nights downtown. We were able to tour several lofts and there were lots of local artists. We were unimpressed with most of the apartments, we did however notice that most of the people that lived downtown have incredibly nice furniture. The coolest thing we did was take a tour of the Arcade. I'm not sure that many people know that Dayton has a really cool complex of buildings that date back to the beginning of the 20th century. The sad part is that it is slated to be torn down in January if the back taxes can't be raised to buy it back from the state. We donated some money and bought a button. The weirdest thing we saw that evening was the "freak show" in the Cannery. Some girl was doing a performance with egg timers and a sledgehammer. It was lame. And there were some guys making noise in the back corner that I think was supposed to be something deep and art like, but we thought it was loud noise and nothing more.

Saturday- My dad came down to visit for the day. We hung out around the house for a few hours waiting for Kendall to get home from work and then went out to eat at Max and Erma's. I was starving and tried to joke around with our waiter about it, but he really didn't have a very good sense of humor. I told him I needed some mustard so that I could gnaw my arm off. He didn't even crack a smile. At one point Kendall made my sister blush. I was sitting next to him with my hand on his leg. He turned to look at me while I patted it and said, "That's not my leg." I laughed out loud! My sister on the other hand turned red! She turned an even deeper shade of red when I said, "Well Sara, then you better be careful not to touch his other leg!" LOL!

We went down to the Renaissance Festival in Harveysburg and had a great time. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and saw things like jousting and a Viking performance in the Muditorium. If you've ever been to the Festival, hopefully you've enjoyed a performance by the Mud Men. They're hilarious. As they told the audience that afternoon, "If you don't want to have to explain what the word innuendo means to your small children, you should leave now." They say whatever comes to their mind, even if it's naughty. It was also pirate day. There were lots of crazy people to watch. We had a great time. We all left with a "dragon egg", geodes from Mexico. I got a very pretty dark amethyst.

We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel and then they left to go home. It was kinda sad, we wished that we could stay, but I'm glad they came to visit. They also brought us some very nice house warming gifts, including some pictures from their vacation. I have a hilarious picture of my father in a red spaceman suit. When we get a new scanner I'll post it here so you can enjoy it too.

Sunday- We slept in, I mowed the lawn, Kendall trimmed the bushes, and we went to Sam's Club. I cleaned out the garage. Not a very exciting day but a productive one.

On another note, it feels like September is going by very quickly! In just two weeks Karen will be moving into her new house! We can't wait to see it! In just two weeks we'll be going to a dinner to welcome Kendall to Upper Valley Medical Center. In just two weeks the first quarter of school will almost be over! WHOO HOO!!!!! Hopefully in just two weeks I'll be busting out my cold weather clothes. Is it going fast for everyone? Or is it just me?

P.S. BFJ is on a two day out of school suspension! He walked out of his Friday detention after two hours. PLUS, he now has to serve another Friday because he didn't finish that one! It's craziness!

P.P.S. That website about Hobo Teacher that Sarah recommended is HILARIOUS. I feel that man's pain!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Random Things I Want to Write About

1. Kendall had a dream two nights ago that Sheryl Crow wanted to hang out with us on New Year's Eve and we brushed her off because we already had plans to hang out with our friends Todd and Kerry. But then we told her she could tag along! LOL!
2. I had a dream two nights ago that my car got towed when I used Valet Parking. The bellhop at the hotel offered to buy me a new stove to make me less mad.
3. I busted out my first pair of knee socks for the fall season yesterday. It was cold enough here to wear pants so I pulled them on and was so happy. I LOVE knee socks!
4. I'm already getting annoyed by one of my co-workers. I've complained about her in the past. She's the other English teacher. It seems that each year she gets more annoying and more difficult.
5. I bought two pairs of jeans from GAP.com and they were totally worth the 90 dollars I spent on them. I haven't bought a new pair of jeans in at least 2 years and my old ones were getting ratty at the bottom. These jeans are nice and long and I don't even have to worry about putting them in the dryer and them shrinking at the bottom! WOOO HOO!
6. We've been taking the dogs for a walk every night. We walk by this house that has a beagle. He runs out every night to bark at us from behind his invisible fence. I've named him Duke. Because I hate just saying "Hi doggy!" Kendall is worried that other people will hear my calling him Duke and start doing it too! I think it would be funny!
7. I busted two girls for cheating today. I totally ripped into them in front of the whole class. Made an example out of them. One girl was letting the other one copy her homework for Science. The lame excuse the one girl gave, "She said she just wanted to check her answers." Yeah, my response, "Her paper was blank! What was there to check?!?!" It was awesome. At the end, one girl said, "I was scared Mrs. Erdahl!" And another kid said, "I'd never do that in your class now!"
8. We're totally in love with our new next door neighbors. They're awesome! They're our age, they love to go out, and they don't have any problem leaving their kid with a sitter so we can have adult time. I think that we might see if they want to go to Las Vegas with us after their daughter is born this winter. They love going there and we've never been. Plus, he's a pilot....free/cheap flights?????
9. Morrie has a serious gas problem. Ever since we put him on this prescription dog food he has ginormous farts. They practically propel him across the room. And they sound like human farts! How is that possible?!?! He has no butt cheeks! Isn't that part of what makes a fart a fart?
10. Speaking of ginormous....Kendall gave me a Nike golf ball that has that word printed on it. That's AWESOME! I LOVE that our language has evolved into blended works. I say ginormous all the time. I also say Fantabulous.
11. I've decided that I want to name a second son Mitch. I like the name. It sounds fun on the tongue. Kendall dislikes that you can rhyme is with bitch. I told him that no one would ever call our kid a bitch. Mitch is a strong name. Mitch sounds like the cool kid. I know, I'm weird. But if we ever have two boys, their names will be Max and Mitch.
12. I am officially tired of attending baby showers. So everyone stop having babies for a while! I've attended at least 10 showers in the last 6 months. I have forked over way too much cash! If I get invited to too many more, I'll be broke! But let's put it this way, at least I'll have a nice long list of people to invite to my own future shower. Can you say reception hall? LOL! Just kidding.
13. My dad is finally coming down to see our house this weekend. The dumb part? They're driving 3 hours to see it, staying the day, and then driving 3 hours back the same day. My aunt and uncle did the same thing a couple weeks ago. I don't get that. Just stay one fricking night! It feels so rushed when they don't stay overnight. Oh well......at least he's finally coming to see the place.

Nickname

So I've decided to nickname "the boy" BFJ. I'll take guesses on what it stands for....but I don't think I'll tell you here. *grin*

So he didn't show up to school on Friday, which I bet on with the assistant principal and won. I knew he'd fake sick before he'd serve the 3 hour detention. Of course, it gets carried over to this coming Friday....he's still going to have to serve it. But, my greatest hope is that he'll keep missing school on Friday to avoid it and eventually just get in school suspension. This benefits me in two ways: 1. My Friday's are better for the immediate future 2. He will then be sent to in school suspension, which makes the REST of my week better. LOL!

It was unbelieveably hot this week. We all suffered. I went home two days with soaked shirts. Yeah, not fun. And I mean it was soaked EVERYWHERE. They're saying the heat should abate a bit here this week. It just makes for miserable teaching and learning conditions.

Today was an "education day" for us.

We went to Brown & Sons Nursery this morning for a big auction they have every year. It was a madhouse. They were having CRAZY deals on huge trees. But we weren't looking for trees. We were looking for boxwood bushes. But so was everyone else! So we only stayed for like an hour, just to get a feel for it, and we left. We may go back next year when we re-landscape the front yard and actually landscape the back. It would be worth it then.

We also test drove a GMC Yukon XL. We were disappointed with the second and third room seating space. But we were totally pumped about the front row and all of the options available on the car. We aren't planning on buying until this time next year, but we want to be prepared incase the Explorer dies unexpectedly. We learned a lot about end of the year financing and rebates. The sales lady was really nice. We're actually thinking about going back and looking at the Expedition EL, it might actually have more room. Maybe not as many bells and whistles though. We are concerned about our guests' riding space though. Why? Because we're considerate like that. ;)

Now we're off to run some errands and hopefully "stay cool".