Daddy and Dandelions

Let's Have Some Bubbly...

Mom felt guilty after retrieving Sparky from Grambeana's house after the weeklong honeymoon to Jamaica. So, yesterday, I purchased a Bubble Machine for Sparky. We broke it out this morning, and had the time of our lives chasing after these small globes of soap floating across our driveway.

Visiting the Gardens

Grayson and I had the pleasure today of taking a trip to the Missouri Botanical Gardens with some of the other children and moms involved in our playgroup. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day to make the trip. I really appreciated the time, knowing that I'll be going back to work sooner than expected; the school where I was hired (yesterday!) is on cycles and I'll be going back at the beginning of July. I've also been inspired to try to use our nice camera to capture some great photos of our little Sparkster... Here are some from our trip today.

Goodbye

Last night, we watched a show on the Discovery channel talking about those seventeen-year cicadas. The cicadas' evolutionary trait of "predatory satiation" allows for most of the cicadas to survive the advances of predators based on sheer numbers; there are always enough survivors to ensure procreation. After seventeen years of development as nymphs underground, the surviving adult cicadas only live several weeks... When they die, their bodies decompose and become a part of the soil, providing nutrients for the plants that will then sustain the nymphs who will live underground until the next seventeen-year cycle is complete.

I couldn't avoid making the connection of this circle of life to our pup, Regis. Right now, Regis is laying on the floor near my feet as I type this. I can hear Dave getting his keys now in order to bring him to the veterinarian. This time, it isn't for the chemotherapy that was helping him battle the lymphoma that he was diagnosed with three months ago; that treatment quit working weeks ago. Today, we will say goodbye to Regis.

We knew yesterday that it was time. Regis' lymph nodes were swollen so badly that it looked like he had golf balls stuck in his mouth and cheeks. He had two accidents, unable to make it overnight or let us know during the day that he had to go outside. His food bowl has remained at the same level over the past four days. Instead of bounding down the stairs, following us, he stood at the top, tentatively trying to make the first step, then backing up, knowing that the effort might be too much.

But, knowing that it is time doesn't make it any easier.

This morning, I had an interview. I tried to keep the entire thing out of my mind in order to stay focused. On the way home from the interview, I was torn between wanting to get home to see Regis and spend time with him or driving around for as long as possible, knowing that when I got home, Dave was going to take him to the vet. I kept thinking... "In three hours, in two hours, in one hour..." I saw the blanket in the back seat of the car, used for Regis when we would go "bye-bye." What do we do with the blanket now? Or his leash? Or the goodies that we never had the chance to give him?

When we first found out that Regis had lymphoma three months ago, we decided to have him cremated... We'll keep his ashes and when we move to our 'forever house,' we'll plant a tree and place his ashes beneath it. It seemed like the best way to tribute our friend. Allowing his ashes to become part of a living thing that would be a reminder in our daily lives of the best dog that anyone could ever wish to have.

And I know that the hurt that we have now is only a tiny payoff for the immense love, fun, and comfort that we've shared with Regis over the past years.

Wanna come over for dinner?

Our chapter of Chi Sigma Iota up at school is doing a holiday food drive, so yesterday I began rummaging through the pantry for things to donate. I won't go through all of the fun things I discovered during my search, but here's something I thought was worth sharing:

One innocent box of Tuna Noodle Helper*...

Not just expired....

But, so old that even the Box Tops for Education are too old to salvage.

Damn.

To reframe this in a more positive light, I guess this just means that I am such a wonderful cook, I don't need to use tuna casserole from a box. Right???

BTW - I did not donate the expired Tuna Noodle Helper to the food drive. That just wouldn't be right, would it?

And, for those of you who only visit the site for news of Sparky, here's a little clip to keep you happy.

*"I don't know why they call it Hamburger Helper... It does just fine by itself."
**What is my obsession with expired food? I guess I just find it funny... As evidenced here, and here. Although, there may be more posts that I couldn't find right away. I can't quite be sure.

Happy Halloween!

Now, if I could just get this thing out of reverse...

Not-so-little Sparky is growing faster than I'd ever imagined possible. At 5 1/2 months, he is almost out of his 6-9 month size clothes. Here is a picture of the five bags of baby clothes I packed up to hand-down to his cousin, Ethan, who will be born in a few weeks. While five grocery bags of clothes might not look like a lot of clothing, you have to remember that baby clothes are little. This is probably the equivalent of 5 or 6 huge trash bags stuffed full of adult clothes.


We did choose a few things to keep: The first little onesies that Mike & Paula gave us when we found out we were pregnant, the sleeper he wore in the hospital, the Daddy's team baseball outfit he wore in his three-month photos and one or two others. It breaks my heart to give any of his clothes away... When I asked Dave if there was anything specific he wanted to keep, he said, "All of it." He's just growing up so fast!

Part of growing up is becoming mobile. The Sparkster is now pushing up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. While this is not the best video of his skills, you get the picture. I asked a few moms that I know about how long their babies took to get from rocking to crawling. They said only a few weeks! It is possible that Sparky will be crawling by Halloween! Yikes! Slow down, baby!

On the topic of growing up too fast, I found the sweetest book today titled Let Me Hold You Longer by Karen Kingsbury. Written in rhyme, it talks about how we sometimes focus on a child's "firsts" and miss the "lasts" - the last bottle we give a baby, the last time he falls asleep in your arms, the last hit in a Little League game. I teared up in the store while I was reading it and am tearing up again now. I love my little boy and want him to grow into an independent, intelligent, loyal young man... but, it is bittersweet, because I don't quite want my baby to grow up.

A more detailed post....

So, it is 6:30 a.m. I've been up for the past hour and a half. "Why?" you ask. Well, it isn't because the baby has been awake. Sparky has typically been sleeping to about 8 or 8:30 in the mornings, which is a beautiful thing. (As a matter of fact, we've cut out the "dreamfeed" and sometimes we'll hear him wake up, talk to himself a bit, then go back to sleep on his own!)

However, this morning, I woke up at 5 a.m. and my mind has been racing ever since. Since I have to wake up in about an hour, I decided to just give up...

I can't believe how stressful things have been around here lately. The classes that I'm taking are completely and totally kicking my @$$. I guess I underestimated how much work I would really have to do and how much time taking care of the baby would take. I thought that if I wasn't working, taking a full load of classes would be no biggie. Wrong!

One of the biggest stressors is the practicum class that I am taking. I have to actually see several clients and video-record the sessions. Then, I have to watch the sessions back and make my notes about the session. Finally, I have to meet with my supervisor weekly to go over the videos and notes. It is time-intensive, to say the least. What caused me to wake up this morning is the fact that I have to meet with my supervisor at 9 a.m. and last night when I got home from class (at 9 p.m.) and tried to watch the video from my session earlier that afternoon, only the first 4 minutes and 9 seconds were on the flash drive. There have been some technical difficulties at the center, to say the least, but I'm freaking out about having to go to supervision unprepared. I did my best to do the notes accurately without having the video, but... *Sigh*

I have a paper due tonight... but, it is already done! Having Sparky around has increased my time management skills exponentially. I'm so worried that he is going to be fussy or something that I won't have time to get something done at the last minute. The paper was a major stressor this week; I have another paper due next Wednesday that I'll be starting within the next day or so.

I'm hosting a Pirate Playdate at the park on Friday, which I committed to way before I knew what this week was really going to be like. (Friday is "International Talk Like a Pirate Day;" one of my favorite secular holidays of the year!) I have a few more things to get ready today, like folding the pirate hats that the kids are going to decorate and making the frozen chocolate-covered banana pirate ships.

On top of everything else, my sister's baby shower is on Sunday. I'm in charge of games and decorations. I've gotten most everything done for this, too: the prizes for the games, ordered the balloons, created the game pages, etc. I still have to run to Kinko's and get copies of the games made, which I think I'll be able to do tomorrow.

The house is a freakin' mess. I can't keep on top of it. If the laundry is finally done, there are dishes piled up. If I've gotten the clean dishes put away, there is mail and junk all over the kitchen table and counter. If the counter is cleared off, the living room is a disaster.

Dave has been a total trooper, making arrangements with his work schedule to be able to take care of Sparky every time I have to be at school earlier or for something new. I worry that he is going to get frustrated, but so far it has been working out okay.

So, there you have it and there you are. I knew going into it that this semester was going to be killer, but hopefully, it will only last for about another 8 weeks before things settle down. And, for those of you who only really come to this blog to check out the pics of my adorable son (and don't think that I don't know who you are), here you go:

Boycott!

Have you seen these gas prices?


$3.39 a gallon? Are they serious? What kind of quality are we getting if we are paying less than $4.00 a gallon for gas?

I'm calling on everyone to go and fill up your tanks tomorrow! If everyone in the whole country does this, then the gas companies will know that we need gas, we need the good stuff, and we refuse to pay any less than top dollar for it!

Take that, Exxon Mobil!

The price is wrong, Bob!

Three classes.

Six total textbooks.

Four hundred sixty-seven dollars and fifty-five cents.




Oh, wait... And one free student planner!

Defining a Dive Bar

Let me just begin by saying this: I love dive bars. I would much rather go to a dive bar than some packed club or trendy (a.k.a. expensive) bar. I like the kind of place where I can wear jeans, Batman t-shirt, and a ponytail and still be one of the best-dressed people there.

Sometimes, when first visiting a bar, it can be hard to tell if you are for sure in a "dive bar" or not. Of course, there are your dive bars that are recognizable from a couple of blocks down the street. But there are also some that are borderline dive bars. If you visit these bars during off-peak hours, it may be hard to distinguish if it is indeed a dive bar.

I have found that the best way to clearly tag a dive bar is by examining the restroom. I have an advantage because women's restrooms either "ARE" or "ARE NOT" dive bar bathrooms. There is no in-between.

So... Here are some photos to help you indicate whether or not you are in a dive bar by only checking out the women's restroom.

Number One: No soap dispenser; just a bar of soap resting on a papertowel on the side of the cigarette-stained sink. (Although the fact that there is soap at all means that you are in a higher-class dive bar.)

Number Two: Toilet seat that is not attached to the toilet itself. (Lucky that in a dive bar, women usually "hover" anyway.)

Number Three: Religious message scrawled on the wall, complete with witty retort quipped beneath.

I hope this helps you to identify the next dive bar you visit. Be sure to have a PBR (preferably in a can) for me!

Thunder Thighs

Ronda is harassing me for a new post, so I'll humor her and put one up...

I found this other other day when I was cleaning out a gift bag of stuff I got around Christmas time:

CHOCOLATE!!! Score!!!

Chocolate should still be good seven months later, right? I went ahead and took off the snowman's head and pulled out a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. After removing the wrapper and checking out the enclosed candy, I decided it looked edible. I popped it into my mouth.

Unfortunately, the person who gave this to me included mint-flavored Hershey's Kisses in the mix. I am not a big fan of mint-flavored anything and the mint Kisses had infected all of the surrounding chocolates. Something about the combination of chocolate + peanut butter + mint that didn't quite seem right to me.

It is hard to admit my level of disappointment.

I tossed the candy but kept the snowman... It is something else that Dave and I can eventually put into our storage unit.

A Day at the Zoo...

Time has been flying this summer. I'm only taking one class, but that is plenty to keep me busy in the time that I am not running errands, washing bottles, or changing Sparky's diaper.

Today, however, we found time to take a trip to the zoo with my friends, Carrie and Susan, and their twin babies, Harper and Jackson. It was the first trip to the zoo for all three of the babies.

We saw the chimpanzees:


And the bears:


And, finally, we took a ride on the train. (That is friend Nurse Chris in the picture with us. Yes, the Sparkster is trying to sleep.)

While on a lunch break, we compared baby foot sizes. Harper was born on Valentine's Day of this year, so she is two months older than Sparky. However, he weighs more than either of the twins and as this pic shows, he also has much larger feet.


There's something to be proud of!

Catchin' Up...

Wow... It has actually been a full month since I've blogged. I'm such a slacker. BUT, to my own credit, at least I recognize the fact that I am a blogging slacker and I have accepted it.

Let's see... What's been happening around here? Why don't I give you short photo tour.

At the end of February, we had a "Leap Year" party.

Dr. Mike brought "Leaf Beer."

Mikey brought a "Leek." (He brought some "Peeps," too, but I didn't get a photo of those. Also, is Megan's face not priceless in this pic??)

And who said that men don't listen?

We've gotten the nursery all finished. It looks awesome. If you want to see more photos, you can go to the baby's website.

For our St. Patty's Day feast on Sunday, I made an Irish Creme Bundt Cake. It actually had Bailey's Irish Creme both in the cake itself and in the glaze on top.

It was pretty tasty. Dave even enjoyed the batter!

Ella was visiting the other day and Paula had the bright idea to put her in a box. It was pretty freakin' funny. At least I thought so at the time. As you can tell by my narrative from behind the camera. (Hey, in my defense, I've got a baby pushing down on my bladder, so most things make me feel like I'm going to pee my pants!)

My spring break is almost over and I am not looking forward to going back to work on Tuesday. My mindset is completely focused on the arrival of Sparky (17 days and counting!) and after this week off, I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to easily get back in the swing of things. However, I've been feeling pretty good and have no real excuse for "bed rest," so I guess I'll have to suck it up and work until the little munchkin decides that it is time to arrive. Probably better than sitting around, I guess.

I mean, what would I do with all my time if I didn't go back to work? Blog???

Groundhog Day Party

Life around here has been pretty uneventful lately. Well, that is, if you discount all of the chaos surrounding the upcoming arrival of the baby... But, other than that, it has been pretty uneventful.

As was exhibited by our thrilling Saturday night, a la Groundhog Day Style.

I actually felt up to cooking, since I hadn't done much of anything all day long. Mike, Paula, and Ella came over to join us for some Mexican Lasagna.


It was pretty good. Won't be a staple in our diets, but for a change, it was nice. It is basically lasagna with chicken, but you use tortillas instead of lasagna noodles and chili powder and cumin instead of the traditional Italian seasonings in lasagna.

Then, we had a bit of "Independent Study Time," as Paula put it.

Dr. Mike worked on creating his apparel for the Super Bowl Hot Wing contest. Gotta love a guy who isn't afraid to wear a puffy painted sweatshirt, right? Especially one featuring a chicken with his wings on fire.

Dave finally set up the Wii that "Santa" brought him for Christmas. You know, for someone who bitched and moaned about not being "allowed" to get a Wii, it sure did take a long time to get the game system set up.


And Paula and I ate ice cream. (Hey, we're pregnant. Otherwise, we'd have been doing tequila shots.)


Once everyone reconvened, we messed around with the Wii a little bit. I think Kramer got more enjoyment out of the whole experience than everyone else. I don't think I've ever seen him so excited.

And everyone was home and in bed well before midnight, because, as everyone knows, if you aren't, the Groundhog Fairy will turn you into a pumpkin.

Or something like that.

Everyone Needs a Mini-Me...

Throughout the baby-item-registering ordeal, Dave and I found the perfect little outfit that we knew Sparky would just have to have. Dave's typical spring/summer uniform is some type of variation of the following:

I think Dave is thrilled at the prospect of having a little clone. Like father, like son. Soon, we are going to have a little miniature Dave running around here. Only, hopefully, he will drink less scotch.

**********

We've also had the joy of attending childbirth classes over the last couple of weeks. Between watching videos of births from the late-80's and early-90's (who knew giving birth could be such a hairy and squishy ordeal?) and practicing breathing throughout imaginary contractions (hee-hee-hoo), Dave tried on The Empathy Belly.


Doesn't he look maternal?

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On another note, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this is the second time that I've posted within two weeks - an infrequent feat for me these days. (No applause needed... No seriously... Oh, you're too much!)

I happened to look back through some of my old blog posts today and found myself laughing. I really enjoy blogging and hope to try to set aside some more time in the near future to do it. I miss reading everyone's humorous or thought-provoking or petulant postings.

While I can't promise that a lot of them won't revolve around the upcoming birth of our son, I do intend to at least post more often. If nothing else, it is nice to be able to look back and remember what I was thinking/feeling/doing at a previous time in my life.