Hallelujah!!!

A couple of months after I found out my sister was pregnant, I bought a cross stitch baby blanket kit and set myself to cross-stitching a blanket for my new niece. My sister made quilts for both of my boys and for me so I wanted to do something almost as awesome. Especially since I have a feeling I won't be as cool of an aunt as "Aunt Lori" is to my boys. I mean, seriously, I work when i go to work. I don't dress up like a wild animal and talk to kids all day. But anyway, back to the blanket. Originally, i planned on having it done before her baby shower, about a month and a half before Emily was due. I always forget how time consuming it is to cross-stitch an entire blanket...so the day of the baby shower came, and after spending all of my free time over the previous 2 weeks and the blanket was NOT done. Have no fear, I still had gifts...actually i filled up 2 gift bags with the other stuff I had. However, I wanted her to know I was working on a blanket for her. So I took the picture out of the front of the package and wrapped it in a gift bag. I put a post-it note on the outside of the picture that said "work in progress. i promise it will be finished before the baby is born." so, I knew I had given myself approximately another month....then the month of october hit...i spent the first two weeks basically confined to bed with a migraine that would not go away. now, when I have the flu I usually can still read or cross stitch or watch tv or something...however, this wasn't the flu. and so i lost 2 weeks of working on the blanket. Although any time I remotely felt better, I worked on it for as long as I can...October 27th, I got the e-mail that said I was going to be an aunt the next day...It was then that i finally admitted that the blanket was not going to be finished before Emily arrived. I still worked on it in all of my free time but I just wanted it finished before Christmas, when they will be down to visit. So now, a month and a half after my niece was born...I finished the blanket...I finished the cross stitch and I finished the backstitching. I gave it to my mother to put a backing on it (I do NOT sew...). And so I was so proud of myself...but I forgot to take a picture of it...so now, you'll just have to take my word for it. :-)

"Are you really?"

Let me begin by saying that I'm not someone who lets the opinions/fashions/likes of the crowd influence me any more. I might have in school but trust me, spend 5 years in front of a bunch of teenagers and you learn really quick that you have to be able to let opinions roll off your back. I also learned how much more fun and how much cooler it is to be who you really are all of the time. So thus begins (I just really wanted to use that phrase, how ever incorrectly I choose to use it), my foray (woohoo...big word) into the category of "embarrasing moms."
There have been a handful of times in the past where I have said or done something that made Blaine kind of cringe like, I can't believe she did that. And Blaine is more of a nerdy kid so that we've been trying to encourage him to not cry and whine about stupid stuff in front of his friends because kids are mean and they'll make fun of you (okay, so it is possible that I use the 'be yourself' whenever the mood strikes me...other times i encourage going with the crowd...just call me an oxymoron :-) Anyway, I got home from work today and like i always do, I changed out of my work slacks and into my jammie shorts (which actually happen to be tonight spandex...not a pretty sight!). I took off my Smurf jacket (trust me if you haven't seen it, we look like a convention of wal-mart greeters when we're at work) but left the plain white long-sleeved t-shirt on. Then I realized my feet were really cold...I had just pulled a pair of new socks out of a bag that my mom had brought me this afternoon so I decided to put them on.
This is probably where I should say, my individuality comes out the most in my socks...not over noticeable or "weird" but able to show some personality...and also a quiet way to rebel against the stupid new uniforms...So back to the new socks. I put them on. Now, let me describe my outfit from head to toe so you can get the full effect. A white long-sleeved t-shirt with a small stain spot right in the middle between my boobs (and no bra), black icky spandex bicycle shorts (very comfy to sleep in but not attractive at all, especially with my fat thighs), then on my feet, I was wearing a pair of blue, green, yellow, and red striped toe socks (socks that are like gloves in that they have individual spots for each toe) that come up to my knees.
I heard the boys playing around in their bedroom so I said to Lance "listen to this" (which by the way, he didn't) "i'm gonna tell blaine...". I came out the door into their bedroom and Blaine (the nosy little kid) said "tell blaine what?". I said "I'm going to go to your holiday play next week dressed like this, okay?" now i can't really put into words the look that came across Blaine's face just them. However his emotions played out very openly on his face. I could sense his loyalty to Mommy (oh yes, there is still some of that no matter how brief it will be) at war with the part that is saying "i will never be able to show my face in springfield again." He looked me up and down about 3 times then looked at me and said "are you really?"...i couldn't contain my laughter any longer and I hugged him and said "no sweetie". Then he said, "good because I wouldn't have been able to look at you and then when it came my line I would've had to say 'thats not my mommy in the crazy socks". i laughed and laughed and laughed because, unfortunately for blaine, most of the time, i won't hesitate to do something even if it will embarass him if its just being myself. However, you will not see me outside of my house dressed like this. Even I have my standards. :-)

"My mom is crase."

So, I'm not very consistent with this whole blog thing...on top of the fact that I have been extremely busy. However, cleaning out Blaine's backpack and his "friday folder" yesterday inspired me to write this blog. Every Friday he brings home a folder that has newsletters, weekly readers, and graded homework in it, along with notes on PTA, etc. Yesterday I got the papers out of his backpack and sat down to go through them. I like to do it first thing when I get home Friday because they are really bad about putting notices about things the kids can do over the weekend in there and I'd hate to miss something because I hadn't looked. So, anyway, I sat down on the bed and sorted through the papers. I must admit, I don't always read his homework, I just make sure he's getting good grades so that if he's not, I can help him. So I don't know what made me stop on this one particular assignment (the grade was excellent!). Maybe seeing the words "my mom" down towards the bottom were it. I think it must have been an assignment on punctuation and using capital letters. Questions 1 and 3 had to be rewritten, with the correct punctuation. 2 and 4 were blank. The kids just had to write a random sentence of their own. On number 2, Blaine had written something about playing outside with his brother. But then I read number 4...and then cracked up...then yelled for him...then cracked up again...Number 4 said (and this is a quote!) "My mom is crase." (Since this was a punctuation, capital letter assignment, he hadn't been graded on his spelling and first graders can't just look up spelling of words in the dictionary very easilyt.) When he came in the room, I asked him to read number 4 out loud. He looked at the paper, saw what it was, gave a sheepish grin, and said "um..." So I helped him out...i read the first word, he read the second, i read the third which left him actually saying the words mom and crazy...When he realized he wasn't really in trouble, he said "well you kinda are."
I've also had parent-teacher conferences since my last blog. I was sitting there talking to his teacher and when she started talking about working independently and sitting quietly, he got up and started straightening stuff up around the classroom. I think he knew what Mrs. McFarland was going to say. Would you believe that he talks too much??? :-)

Busy

I haven't posted anything in almost a month. that's because ALL of my free time has been spent working on the baby blanket i promised my sister would be done before the baby gets here. That is starting to look more and more unlikely...i always forget how long it takes to cross stitch something so detailed...it is taking me 2-4 hours just to do the hair on one angel! and there are 6 angels! and teddy bears! i've also been in bed with a migraine a lot of the time (i go to the headache care center on monday because my doctor has decided he can't help). however, megan did have her baby and i got to be at the hospital when he was born. he wasn't even an hour old when i got to hold him. its hard for me to believe that megan is a mommy! it seems like just yesterday i was babysitting and she'd come out of her bedroom and crawl up on my lap so i could help her take the braces off of her legs. where did the time go?? of course, i'm sitting here ready to go to blaine's 7th birthday party...i guess time has just gotten away from me. okay, i guess i should drag lance away from his call of duty so we can get on the road. but here's a picture of the newest member of the family, isaac timothy smith!

"I thought they were going to arrest you!"

SO, YESTERDAY MORNING I WAS GOING TO CHURCH…THE KIDS AND I CAME OUTSIDE AND WERE GETTING IN THE CAR…I SAW A COP CAR SITTING DOWN THE STREET TALKING TO ANOTHER VEHICLE BUT THAT'S NOT THAT UNUSUAL IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD…AND THEN AS I WAS BUCKLING CAMERON IN, ANOTHER COP CAR TURNED DOWN THE STREET AT THE OTHER END…STILL NOT THAT UNUSUAL…I GET IN THE CAR AND START IT AS THAT COP CAR GOES PAST ME AND TURNS AROUND IN THE NEIGHBORS DRIVEWAY…I PUT THE CAR IN REVERSE AND START TO BACK UP SO THAT I CAN GET AWAY FROM THE CURB…THE COP MOTIONS TO ME TO STOP SO I DO AND I ROLL DOWN MY WINDOW…HE POINTS AT MY HOUSE AND ASKS IF I LIVE THERE…I SAID YES SO HE POINTED DOWN THE STREET TO WHERE THE OTHER COP HAD GOTTEN OUT OF HIS CAR AND WAS WALKING WITH A WOMAN…HE ASKED IF I COULD WAIT A FEW MINUTES, THAT THE WOMAN WANTED TO TALK TO ME…AGAIN, I WASN'T TOO FREAKED OUT YET BECAUSE HONESTLY I FIGURED THEY JUST WANTED TO KNOW IF I'D SEEN ANYTHING BECAUSE I FIGURED ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS WAS BEING ARRESTED OR INVESTIGATED OR SOMETHING (KEEP IN MIND THAT THE SHOOTING WHERE THE OFFICER SHOT AND KILLED THE ROTTWEILER ON FRIDAY WAS JUST 2 BLOCKS FROM BLAINE'S SCHOOL….ITS A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD)…HE THEN GOES ON TO SAY SHE WAS WITH DFS AND THERE HAD BEEN A HOTLINE CALL TO MY HOUSE…AT THIS POINT, I STARTED FREAKING OUT…THE OFFICER LOOKED A LITTLE CONFUSED…(HE WAS STANDING NEXT TO THE CAR AND COULD SEE BOTH OF MY CHILDREN IN THE BACK SEAT)…HE JUST KEPT SAYING THAT THE WOMAN HAD ALL THE DETAILS THEY WERE JUST ASKED TO COME OUT WITH HER…I PULL BACK UP NEXT TO THE CURB AND PICK UP MY CELL PHONE AND CALL LANCE AND TELL HIM TO "GET OUTSIDE NOW" AND THEN HANG UP AND GET OUT OF THE CAR, TELLING THE KIDS TO STAY IN THE CAR…LANCE MET ME AT THE SIDEWALK AND THE OFFICER THAT I HAD BEEN TALKING TO ASKED ME HOW MANY KIDS I HAD…I TOLD HIM JUST THE TWO BOYS…THEN THE WOMAN FROM DFS GETS UP TO THE YARD FINALLY AND ASKS IF I'M MELISSA…DEEP BREATH…NO I'M NOT…DO YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER NAMED CADENCE?...ANOTHER DEEP BREATH…NO I DON'T…JUST THE BOYS (I WAS BEGINNING TO SEE WHY THE OFFICER LOOKED CONFUSED NOW)…APPARENTLY THERE HAD BEEN A HOTLINE CALL ON THIS LITTLE GIRL BUT THEY'D GIVEN THEM OUR ADDRESS…THEY APOLOGIZED AND TOLD ME THEY WERE SORRY THAT THEY HAD BOTHERED ME…I TOLD THEM THAT WAS OKAY, THEY'D ONLY SCARED ME TO DEATH (THEY COULD SEE MY HANDS SHAKING)…NOW, HERE IS WHERE I QUESTION THEIR JUDGEMENT, ALTHOUGH MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE THEY HAD ACTUALLY SEEN MY KIDS AND WE DIDN'T FIT THE DESCRIPTION…ALL THEY DID WAS ASK IF I WAS MELISSA AND I SAID NO…THEY DIDN'T ASK FOR ID OR ANYTHING…SO IF I REALLY HAD BEEN MELISSA, KNOWING THEY WERE RESPONDING TO A DFS HOTLINE CALL, WOULD I HAVE ADMITTED IT TO THEM??...SO LANCE HEADS BACK TO THE HOUSE AND I GET BACK IN THE CAR TO CONTINUE ON MY WAY TO CHURCH (BY THIS POINT, I WAS RUNNING REALLY LATE..I WAS ALREADY RUNNING LATE BECAUSE I'D BEEN BIDDING ON BABY CLOTHES ON EBAY)…I GET IN THE CAR, PUT ON MY SEATBELT AND HEAR FROM MY BACK SEAT "I THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING TO ARREST YOU."…I TURN AROUND AND BLAINE HAS THIS OBNOXIOUS GRIN ON BECAUSE HE THOUGHT IT WAS REALLY FUNNY THAT MOMMY HAD TO TALK TO THE POLICE…AND KNOWING HOW HE IS, BY THE TIME THE DAY IS OVER, HIS VERSION OF THE STORY WILL PROBABLY HAVE ME IN HANDCUFFS…THE MORAL OF TODAY'S STORY…IF YOU'RE GOING TO HOTLINE SOMEONE FOR ABUSING THEIR CHILD, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE ADDRESS RIGHT!!!!!!!!! :-)
And then, to top it all off, the outfit that i was bidding on, which was an absolutely adorable 6 piece outfit with squirrels on it, sold for over $15, before shipping, and i just couldn't bring myself to spend that! i'm thinking my next purchase should be a poster sized photo of me to hang in the baby's room!

"Hey An Empty Wal-Mart Bag"

Until you become a mom, and especially a mom of boys, the words "hey, an empty wal-mart bag" sound completely normal, maybe just someone littering...put those words between the words "mommy, i don't feel good" and the sound of puking and you've suddenly found your new favorite use for a wal-mart bag...this was the ride home from my mom's earlier this evening. Making the whole situation worse, in the last year and a half (since both boys got completely out of that "spit-up" stage) the sight and smell of puke makes me puke. and when mommy is puking, he's on his own! we've figured out that all the puking stops faster if we can just get away from each other. (and yes i say this like it is a common occurance, because it is...however, this was the first experience with it on just a normal car ride). all of this on a 2 way busy highway after dark, with lots of cars and little light. i'm not just pulling over off the side of any road...too many people get run over that way. so when i finally get to Kum N Go (they once again saved me! Gotta love that place!), i got rid of the bag, and we continued on our way...i had rolled all the windows down in the car and left them down until i heard "mommy i'm cold. roll your window up." ah! back to his bossy whiny self (whatever!)...i think he's going to make it...then before we get home (yes only a 45 minute drive in real life), they are fighting over who took who's pringles...ick...i would say puking is a good thing to tell my sister about that i haven't told her when it comes to kids...then i remembered that she's pretty good at dealing with that...blaine has pretty much managed to get sick on lori every time he's seen her...or pretty darn close anyway...(sometimes the sight of her makes me sick too! :-)
and then, on a totally different subject, when you're from somewhere like hurley, you really don't expect to hear a lot on the "news" front about people you know/went to school with, aside from the occasional drug bust or something about the actual school. so imagine my surprise (or the lack of...he IS doing what he always wanted to do) when I see an advertisement announcing the alumni weekend at a local university featuring the good dr who used to be a good friend of mine and who graduated only a year ahead of me...although, not to brag or anything, but i did get a higher ACT score. *tee hee hee*...the only claim to fame i have about that...surely that's as exciting as his new exhibit at the museum of natural history in new york...okay, so i know its not but i'm really happy for him....so many people never leave Hurley when their family has such deep roots and i'm always excited to see those who did...and speaking of...i also heard that tomorrow morning a certain sister of mine is going to be a local morning news star...be sure to tape it...i want to see if the camera adds 10 pounds *tee hee hee*
and have you seen the show on the discovery channel on ancient torture techniques??? totally awesome. that was on of my favorite parts of being a history major!
okay, bye now!!!!
P.S. anyone wanna buy cub scout popcorn?...how bout some pta junk? :-)

I'm Gonna Be an Aunt!

So, yesterday was my little sister's baby shower. In just a few weeks, I'm going to finally be an aunt! Her best friend was the hostess for the shower and she did a wonderful job. She's lucky to have a friend like that. There were between 20-25 people at the shower and she got a bunch of adorable things. I ran over to Dollar General yesterday morning to get a gift bag for my gifts to her. I had stored them at mom's and hadn't bothered to look at them before I went after the bag. When I got back with what I think is considered the medium sized bag (I didn't want to get the really big one because i feel bad when I give someone a gift if the bag is a lot bigger than the gift itself). Shortly after pulling all of the gifts I had for her out from under the bed, I realized I was going to need another bag. I'd hit a few more clearance racks and garage sales than I had remembered. And the main part of her gift from me was in the form of a sheet of paper that said work in progress with a picture of the baby blanket that I'm cross-stitching. Not that she needs a baby blanket. She's going to have the warmest baby on the planet with all the blankets and fleece sleep sacks and things she got yesterday. For my first attempt at a picture, while at the shower we posed my sister and 2 cousins who are all due within a month of each other so we could see all their bellies. I don't know if there is that much family resemblance between the 3 of them but there sure is a height difference!!! If we all manage to get together for the holidays this year, there will be 4 newborns (one cousin already had one this year). Earplugs might be a good thing to bring!!!

"Mommy, do you have a cup that I may use?"

Yep, that was the sentence I heard come out of Blaine's mouth right before bedtime. When I turned and looked at him, mouth agape, he was just standing there with that silly partly toothless grin. I'm beginning to figure out what the "nothing" he is learning in school is. I think obnoxious must be an actual subject for 1st graders. Oh yeah, the good grammar is great and all but sometimes that grin just makes me want to scream! (I was the perfect child. my parents never felt that way about me!!! :-) I was quizzing him on his spelling words and was informed that I didn't need to. He knew them all already. He learned them all in kindergarten *eyeroll*. He's all excited because tomorrow he gets to see his favorite person in the whole wide world...and we'll see if she wants to try explaining childbirth to him since she's the one who had him watching "Dirty Jobs" the night they were showing a vet delivering a calf! Because i told him he'd just have to ask her because she was the one telling him about it in the first place!
And the craziest thing happened today! When picking up Blaine from his after school program today, I ran into one of the other mothers who happened to be a good friend of mine when we were in high school but we really hadn't seen each other in over 10 years. The occasional myspace message. But that's it. Her daughter is the same age as my son but they attend different schools. Its a crazy small world!
Baby shower tomorrow!!!!! wooohoooo!!!!

Remembering September 11

Like many Americans today, I reflected on 7 years ago. I was wearing a red maternity dress. One of the only 2 maternity dresses I owned. Why do I remember what I was wearing? Not that it was anything special. It was picture day. The way everyone at CHS looked that day is preserved forever in the high school yearbook. Life had changed dramatically by the time all 600 students were photographed. I was in front of a sophomore world history class. I had just handed out study guides for the test we were getting ready to have. All of the sudden, the secretary came over the intercom and said "Teachers you might want to turn your tvs on. There is some major breaking news."...i turned my tv on but the only "news" channel my classroom got was Headline News (which, for the record, barely qualifies as news). At this point, only the first tower had been hit. No one realized the true depth of what was happening. I remember going up and muting the TV and telling the kids to get back to work because Headline News had moved from the plane crashing into the towers to what was supposed to be the major news story of the day...michael jordan coming out of retirement or going into retirement or playing another sport, i don't remember...something about michael jordan. I went back to my computer to work when the teacher across the hall knocked on my door. she told me i might want to turn the TV up because another tower had been hit. by the time i got it back up, all we could see was smoke billowing from the towers. throughout the day we sat with the TVs on watching as our lives changed before our eyes. we heard about planes being grounded the world over. experiencing this whole event through the eyes of teenagers made me realize how lucky we really were. Kids who never gave a thought to anything i had to say about government or world history were coming up to me and talking about how almost unimaginable it was that there were absolutely no planes flying in the United States right then. And I will never forget one freshman girl who came up to me in the hallway between classes and just said "why? i don't understand why anyone would want to do this to us. why do they hate America?" I was the social studies teacher. I was the one who taught them all about other countries and government. They expected me to be able to explain it. and how could i explain something that no American could even begin to understand? I remember when I got home that day, I wanted to see my mom. Here is was, married, a teacher, and 8 months pregnant, and all I wanted was to see my mom. I went to bed that night with the TV muted and the covers pulled up over my head and curled into a ball (as much as a beached whale can curl into a ball anyway). I knew no one in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, or New York but i wanted it so bad to be a nightmare and to wake up and not have to worry about my baby's future in the United States. Thank a soldier and thank God that we are lucky enough to live in this great country. God Bless America.
Just for the record, my pictures from that day were destroyed...the only one that i think probably exists is in the yearbook from that year...and at least that one isn't in color!

Where to Begin?

So for several months now, I've been reading my sister's (flying squirrel fan) blog and i think, wow, i could do that. nothing near as creative as she does. she got all the creative genes, i got the levis. (bad joke #1...probably shouldn't start counting those), but anyway, those cute kids she's always talking about (okay before my niece came into the picture.lol) are MINE! i could talk about them. I thought about calling this something like "the things kids say" or something else like that because according to lance, most of my conversations revolve around "cute kid" things that everyone else doesn't necessarily think is cute.
So, to start, my oldest is in 1st grade and obsessed with frogs. he's started a new school this year and is loving it, although apparently they even start getting political in first grade. "mommy, if barack obama becomes president, will he really destroy america?" once he figured out that barack obama wasn't the darth vader of america, i tried to explain what they meant by that. hard to do with a kid who still believes in the tooth fairy (and not necessarily in a good way...he's not real fond of the idea of a fairy sneaking into his bedroom at night and messing around with his pillow). and just so we're all on the same page, to completely understand blaine you have to understand who his favorite person in the whole wide world is. who else, but the aunt that gets paid to dress up like flying squirrels and who lets him eat ants (seriously...you'd think she would be smarter than that).
and then there's the little one. 4 years old and grandpa might as well call him "mini-me"...he looks and i'm afraid acts just like his grandpa. and when i try to get him to not attack/beat up his older brother, grandpa often reminds me that the little guys have to be able to defend themselves...i figure his principal will have me on speed dial. monday night, after eating dinner, cameron went around the table, put his arms around grandpa, laid his head on his arm and said "i missed you grandpa. now (pause for dramatic efffect), letsgoridethebluefourwheeler" and then the biggest grin and hug for his grandpa...who of course, got up immediately and went to ride the four wheeler.
so if you haven't figured out by now, my thoughts are rarely connected and i have lots of things that flow perfectly in my mind but don't come out like it on the screen. i realize while typing that my punctuation is horrible because i'm used to typing in all uppercase at work so between that and text messaging, i'm glad i'm not getting graded on this...plus, i think i tend to ramble...okay i know i tend to ramble...but soon i'll figure out how to put up pictures and then i won't have to talk so much...and everyone else can just look at how adorable...and adorably annoying...my boys are...and my niece that i intend to spoil rotten and turn into a girly-girl. :-) maybe i'll start writing a little more proper...and interesting...soon.