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. :-)