Mish Mash
I’ve reached the point where it is pretty obvious to the world that I am pregnant not just fat. Sunday marks 28 weeks. I’m even outgrowing some of my maternity clothes. I’ve gained way more than baby weight but for the most part am waiting until after the baby comes to freak out about it. Why freak out before I can do much about it (other than put down the ice cream and trust me when I tell you that wouldn’t end happily for anyone in this house)? But I’m feeling huge and lazy now. I am thinking about selling advertising space across my stomach. I was wearing red yesterday and was thinking of painting a white bullseye and asking Target to sponsor me.
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Speaking of ice cream, I heart Blue Bell. They make a 1/2 gallon that is half vanilla and half chocolate with no added sugar and less fat that is pretty darn tasty. At least I’m not eating Ben & Jerry’s.
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I had a small world moment today. At a play date, I met a woman who graduated from the same college as I did and is from a little town in Ohio that I’ve been and she has been to my little town.
Last week, the receptionist at the eye doctor’s saw my OU sweatshirt and asked if I was from Ohio. She said she was too but that it was a tiny town no one had ever heard of. Turns out I worked in that tiny town’s domestic violence shelter for a year.
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I’m obsessed with Pad Thai right now. I’ve pulled together a few recipes and made something that meets the need. My other obsession is fresh guacamole. Avocados were on sale last week and Steve begged me to stock up and make a bigger batch this time. No complaints here. I miss the cheap avocados in Antigua! I could make guacamole for just over $1 there…here I can get 1 avocado for that but only if they are on sale.
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Steve decided not to buy a lawn mower but to hire someone to mow our lawn instead this year. So I called a guy who left a flyer on our door. The lawn hadn’t been mowed yet this year when we moved it so it was getting rather long. The guy said they mowed several lawns in our subdivision already and quoted me the price which I thought was outrageous for our little patch of grass but I figured I could shop around later. I warned him the grass was long. He said he would make sure they got to it quickly. I received the bill this week. The bill was for $70 for 1 mowing – no where near what he told me he charges. Steve called him and told him there was a mistake on our bill. The guy said there was no mistake. His guy told him the grass was knee high and he had to mow our lawn 4 times to complete it so he thought he was being rather generous to only charge us $70. Funny, both Steve and I were home when he mowed. He had to go a little slow in spots because it was long (a little past ankle – not even knee high on Sabrina) but he didn’t make more than 1 pass in any part of the lawn. If the guy had called to say he needed to tack on a few extra dollars for the extra gas and 10 or 15 minutes of time of his employee we would have been fine but to send us such an outrageous bill for our little yard is ridiculous. And bad business because he lost a customer and we are refusing to pay the full bill.
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Sabrina’s newest words are “hi” (said 375 times a day in a cute little voice) and “cheese” (said only when the mood strikes her). She is deathly afraid of the garage – especially if the door is down. And is so sweet hugging and kissing her stuff animals it just melts my heart.
The girlie tendencies amaze me though. Her toys are pretty evenly spread along the spectrum of gender. She has 2 baby dolls but also a lot of animals. She has a toy purse but also 2 barnyard sets. Her clothing is largely pink and girlie but that is mostly due to hand me downs and sales. We don’t treat her in a particularly girlie manner other than often telling her she is beautiful. But she is such a little girl. She loves her purse and turns other items into purses. She will pick up the mulch on the playground and pour it over my hands and arms just so that she can clean me up again. She will brush me off until I am clean and start over again. And she will pat and rub my back when she hugs me and she will kiss and hug her stuff animals as though taking care of them. I don’t know if she is just imitating me because she spends most of her time with me or if the whole girl thing is rather innate.
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One bad thing about this time of year: the windows are open so the neighbors can hear me yelling at my child. Good first impression!
You can leave your mother of the year kudos in the comments.
It is a small world….I only got to your blog through the world of Guatemalan adoptions and I’m from a small town in Ohio too. Oh and $70 to mow grass is assinine. I LOVE to mow, too bad we’re not ready to move to Tennessee, I would mow for ya! I mow my neighbors grass, they just buy my gas…..I told you, I love to mow grass, its threaputic for me and its the only time I can’t hear “mom mom mom mom mom”.
I was horrified the first time I yelled at The Boy and realized the neighbors could hear. These are neighbors that wouldn’t dream of raising thier voices to thier child.
Yeah, I’d win that mother of the year award sometimes too. I always feel bad afterwards, but good golly she can push my buttons.
I wonder about the girly-girl thing too. Gabriella has had an obsession with purses since day one and makes everything into one too. She also loves to hug and kiss all of her animals. She does it to pictures too.
I would have been po’d at that lawn guy too.
We pay $85 to have our lawn mowed by two people at once…for several ACRES. In case you need a case study to dispute your ridiculous bill!! Sheesh. Reminds me of a guy who tried to charge us $500 for a very small sapling of a river birch tree. He got fired!
As for the Blue Bell – my all time favorite. Which I can’t get in the N’east. Cookies and Cream is my fave!!
You crack me up!
I’m with you on the girly thing. I’ve always tried to keep Liv’s toys even, dolls but also she has matchbox cars, A kitchen set, but also a big building set. But she always goes for the more girl things, so now I’m just going with it. She got a doll highchair and cradel for her birthday now she is little mommy 24/7
I LOVE THIS ENTIRE POST.
Im all about the little things in life.
who knew you liked the b-bell as I do?
that you, too, experienced the great MOWING bait & switch?
all that.
Carla
ps–I hate that here OU is OKLAHOMA Univ. I always forget—get excited when someone says they went there—and feel like a moron.
I think I hurt my neck while nodding like a bubblehead doll this entire post. I’m with you on the weight thing. It just seems kind of silly to stress right now when I’m only going to get bigger.
I had a new cleaning company come in to price out doing our tiny condo every other week….the price was ASTRONOMICAL I asked if he paid MBA’s to do the cleaning and not the standard illegal immigrants that I love so much. He didn’t think I was funny….incidentally I thought he was hilarious to ask for that much. This is just another reason why contractors and I don’t mix.
I outgrew my maternity clothes by around 7 months. By 9 months I had about 2 things that fit and they weren’t pretty.
The lawn price is way high. I’d definitely shop around.
I dress my girl in all the girly girl stuff. I sometimes think she’ll rebel in a few years and have the goth look. We’ll see.
Theo’s first word (and only word until recently) was “hi”. We heard it about a zillion times a day.
OK I’m done with my rambling thoughts. Thanks for letting me share.
Ok, I lauged out loud at the idea of Target sponsoring you. You are so funny!!
I enjoyed your hodge-podge. I am surprsed you can still afford the internet with what you pay to mow your lawn. That is just wrong!!!
I have a feeling that the girly thing is innate. I thought I had turned my girls “girlie”, but along came Reese who grabbed the Barbie car, threw out the barbie and pushed the car saying “vroom, vroom” and for the record his first real word was”vroom vroom”. So, I really think it is nature. It is fun to watch I remember the girls doing that stuff at her age. Wait until she discovers make up……………..
OH, and Happy Mother’s Day to the MOm of the YEar!! I live way back from the road. I can do ALL the yelling I want and noone will hear me!!
Great post! Made me LOL.
Happy Mother’s Day!!
Anne
So funny!! Great post!!
That is a CRAZY price for mowing… If I were closer I’d do it for you:)
Cerah is very girlie too…… but she does like to plat with rolly pollies.
I always have to “remember” the windows are open. Now I know why my mom would yell at us to to stop yelling when we were littel:)
Oh and when I was preggers..I wore the same jeans EVERYDAY and only hada bout 3 shirts that fit my last 3 months:) unless I was home I would wear sweatpants and my belly would hang out…who cares… you growing a human!!!
Happy Mother’s Day:)
OK I was totally cracking up over your last post! Toooo funny 🙂
Sabrina is such a sweetie! And yep, totally relate to the yelling! Good thing most of the neighbors are gone during the day… Alex starts arguing with sister who starts screeching (of course this always happens about the time I’m trying to put Mr. no nap down for his nap)!
I was thinking of you yesterday – you’re so well spoken on things like this… check out a fellow adoptive parents post re: an upcoming TV show that categorized adoptive parents as “non-moms”:
http://www.popehat.com/2008/05/09/how-to-piss-off-adoptive-parents/
grhhh!
Take good care 🙂
Leigh
‘
oh I can top that.
I was washing the window out front the other day and the neighbor WHO I NEVER EVEN MET before came up and handed me a baby gate because his mom, who must have been like 80 since this guy was well over 50, said she “couldn’t help but notice my little one getting to the end of the driveway.” Not to mention they are like 3 houses down so I don’t know how she could even see my house.
I didn’t want him to call DYFS on me so I politely took the gate. Which didn’t even work for the front porch as he suggested.
Then I got some of W’s toys to entice him to stay on the front porch. I wasnt’ thinking and brought out the riding toy too. Can you see where this is going?
He rode it down the steps! I caught him before he hit the pavement. Not a good day.
We are goign to stick to the back yard from now on.
Oh my goodness Michelle, I laughed and laughed when you talked about windows being opened and “yelling” at your children. OUR older daughter is constantly trying to “rough house” play with our younger daugher and doesn’t realize she’s about 20-25 lbs. heavier than the little “sister” so have our door open to the screened in room and OMGOSH was just thinking to myself that the neighbors must think I’m the most horrible mom yelling at my daughter to STOP laying on top of her sister and smothering her with a blanket!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Can’t say I blame you at all over that lawn mowing bill, what a racket they are trying to pull. Way to go in standing up to them 🙂
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY. You are truly one very speciall “MOMMY” and wife and I hope you get lots of extra “pampering”!
This post is so awesome! love the pics! I heart me some Blue Bell, too! LOL Also, even better than that, is “Skinny Cow”! OMG! you have got to try it!! RUN, Don’t walk… well, okay, you are preggers, don’t run! LOL
They have sandwiches, oh so good, and cones, i’m not a cone kinda girl, but they are good. (waffle cones, are a different story, but do not belong in this post.) They also have “skinny dippers” YUM-O! they are chocolate or vanilla ice cream, caramel or vanilla, and vanilla or mint ice cream on a stick, then “dipped” into a fabulous chocolate. No artificial tasting chocolate either. Heaven. My faves are the sandwiches and the dippers.
Tell Sabrina “HI!” and I hope you have a wonderful Mother’s Day!
spoiledmom
chrissy