It's Thanksgiving Already?

I can't believe that Thanksgiving is in a week. We have so much to be thankful for this year, and so much to look forward to.

I am thankful for my husband and son. They may drive me crazy sometimes, and there are times I may not like them so much (even though I love them to death) and that's OK. They are still my family, they still bring joy to my days, and I would not be who I am without them.

I am thankful for our life. I mean, there are so many people out there who don't have nearly as much as we do...a home, food, steady income, ability to afford new clothes and the feeling of safety and security. We take it for granted way too much that we have all of these things, and that we come by them honestly.

Believe it or not, I am thankful for my 2 dogs. They taught me how to care for another living being long before Monkey ever showed up. Although they may not get the level of attention they used to, they are still my first babies, and without them our household would not feel complete.

I am thankful that this pregnancy (although a bit of a surprise) happened easily and has thus far gone smoothly. After everything we went through to have Monkey, how horrible I felt most of the time, all the Doctor's appointments, needles, and monitoring, it is truly amazing that this one seems like any other normal pregnancy. I'm so happy I get to experience that side of it.

On the flip side, I'm thankful that I had a hard, high-risk pregnancy with Monkey. It made me so much more empathetic to women and families who struggle with infertility and difficult pregnancies. That only makes me a better person.

I am thankful that we are going to be able to visit family for a longer period of time over the holidays. Although I really wanted to be working full time, that would not have allowed me to take 3 weeks for visiting, and we really need that. Especially since Ben has not been back to our parents' houses since February.

Last but not least, I'm thankful that I do NOT have to cook a whole Thanksgiving Dinner next Thursday!Last year I cooked the full deal for the 3 of us, and it was a LOT of work for VERY little getting eaten. I think we threw most of the leftovers away. So, this year, we are doing Boeuf Bourguignon, Homemade Artisan Bread, and some form of dessert. Nothing big (OK, it's still a lot of work, but hey, it's Thanksgiving), something everyone will eat (mostly, Monkey's going through a picky phase) and we are comfortable at home without feeling the need to entertain.

Now...off to try to convince Monkey to eat something other than bread and cheese.

So glad tomorrow is election day.

Because then it will be over and Television, radio, internet, facebook, ETC will stop being FLOODED with political blah blah. It's not that I don't care about the election and the state of the country. I do. But there comes a point where enough is enough. It's like the little girl who cried because of Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney...

She's about 5 and even she's heard enough (my thinking is most 5 year olds don't really pay enough attention to get upset about things like politics).

Regardless of which side of the fence you are on, or if you're on the fence...I just want life to go back to normal, where a politician does something dumb or something great, we hear about it, laugh about it, and move on. I am over being completely bombarded with it. Well...until 2016 at least.

Wow, it's been a month!

I don't update this like a good little blogger...but then again, I never pretended to be a good little blogger, did I? In the past month, I have finished trainings for my new job, gotten passed over for full time at said job (not super happy about that, but that's how the dice fell), and .............drumroll please.....................we found out that

In case your screen is weird, as my dad's is, the cheesecake is blue. We're having another boy. The big dilemma now is a name. We fell in love with Monkey's name after MONTHS of searching online and in books. Now I'm just having difficulty finding another name that is as unique (but not weird) and that I love as much. Ugh. At least we have a little over 4 months (give or take) to think about it.

I'm also working on Halloween Costumes. Mine is easy...a little bit of bleaching/dying clothes, sew a quick sash, and I'm done. Monkey's is more involved, but if I would just get my butt to work I could have it done tonight. It's Ben's that has me nervous. It's involved, it's a lot of fabric, and, well...kind of ugly. Our whole family is themed, so they all go together and will make sense when they are put that way, but for now it just looks like a big mess in my dining/craft room. Yay for me.

So much happening!

Well, folks, we have a climber. Monkey is on the verge of being able to climb out of his crib. It's a little scary, because I know he's not ready for a toddler bed quite yet, but I don't want him to hurt himself either!

In the past few weeks, I have found him on top of the dining room table, on the coffee table, trying to climb out of his crib, and on the back of the couch. Oh, and did I mention that through all of that, he has also developed a taste for coloring on the walls? Luckily the crayons are washable and wipe right off. Although we've received lots of suggestions, such as giving him chalk or designating a "space" on the wall where it's OK to color, ultimately we don't want him doing it. For a 19 month old I think that designating times/places where it's OK and others where it is not is just confusing. So, he's not allowed to do it, and when he does there are consequences, such as...

...time outs. We were hoping to wait until he was a bit more verbal, but he's just not taking us seriously when we tell him no, so something had to be done. He's still getting the hang of staying where we put him, so a 1-minute time out usually takes about 20-30 minutes to complete, and by the end we have a tearful child who won't so much as look at us. Oh well. He also has to clean the wall where he colored, if that was the offense.

Now for the biggest news...

#2 is on the way! Due 10 days after Monkey was born, so there is a chance they could share a birthday. I didn't really love the thought of having kids with the same birth month, but that's what happened. We're thrilled, and we *think* we're ready. Of course, that means nothing at all...

The Sound of Quiet

I never fully appreciated the sound of quiet until I became a mother. Now if it's not the baby, it's the dogs, the laundry, the dishwasher, the phone, or my husband disturbing the piece.

It's funny, quiet used to drive me CRAZY. I had to have some form of noise...TV, Music, anything. Now if I can get a few minutes of NO SOUND I am in heaven! I don't know if it's that Monkey is so active, or me getting older, or some random shift in my hearing ability since having him, but I hear EVERYTHING! Right now I can hear the dogs breathing, the air conditioner going, electronics humming, and Ben's computer upstairs. This is as quiet as it gets.

And, of course, the more I focus on it, the louder it seems to get (at least to my mommy-vulcan hearing that Ben says I now have). The other day Ben took Monkey for a bike ride in his new bike trailer, and I got 20 whole minutes of...nothing. It was delightful. Then the dog started having a sneezing fit, and life resumed it's normal, noisy pace.

The New Furniture Is Here!

So, for those of you who know me, you know that I have been bugging Ben for YEARS to get new furniture. I loved my old red couch when we bought it, but over the years it's started to look a little sad. Oh, and each time we move I feel more and more like it's taking over the living room...and not in a good way.

See? It's just a bit big. AND it blocked about 1/3 of one of the entrances to the living room...meaning you had to kind of sidle by it to get in from that entrance, and then walk around it to sit down. 

How was it looking sad? After dealing with Ben, 2 dogs, and Monkey, there was some definite wear (mostly in the corner in the back, where I usually sat and therefore where everyone came to me) and water marks from cleaning that I couldn't get out. On top of that, the wood detail on the bottom was chipped in more than one place, and I had re-stuffed the cushions with polyfill so many times I may as well have bought a new one already. Oh, and you couldn't take the bottom cushions off...nightmare for cleaning purposes. That couch ate several things that were never seen again.

So, after at least 2 years of convincing him that I needed a new seating set, he gave in. We sold the old one the DAY I put it up for sale, and we got THIS:

I LOVE this. It's not microfiber, but a soft, durable upholstery. It's in a great neutral grey color, so I can sew new pillow shams or make a colorful blanket to change the whole tone of the room without buying new furniture. And it's super comfy...like, I want to sleep on it all. the. time. YAY!!

Now I just have to find at least 1 end table (Ben is currently using a small folding table for his end table) and maybe a new coffee table. I'm thrifting for those, because I want them to be larger, have storage, and need some TLC so that I can revamp them and make them pretty again. I'm thinking beadboard on the sides and modern hardware on any drawers/cupboards. Then strip them down, prime and paint/stain them (probably not black, probably a rich mahogany color) and varnish them to make sure it's all sealed in properly. EXCITED!

Why I Both Love and Hate Netflix

A few weeks ago Monkey was sick. As in: ear infection, teething (molars no less, which we *still* haven't seen), and a stomach virus. I was up to my elbows in vomit, diarrhea, and tears (both his and mine). Because he had all 3 at the same time, we didn't sleep much.
I don't do well on little sleep. He has spoiled me immensely since he was 3 months old by sleeping a full 12 hours at night, pretty much every night. Once in a blue moon he wakes up for an hour in the middle of the night, but I can count on both hands how many times that has happened in the past 13 months. Not bad.
However, sickness is a different animal all together. Sickness throws a wrench in your well-oiled machine, and decides that it needs to throw you a curve ball in the sleep department. It's like the girl in your group who likes nothing better than to cause problems just to have something entertaining to watch. You know what is apparently really entertaining? Taking a mama who has gotten a full night's sleep each night for over a year and saying "Hey, how about 1 hour of sleep for the next 48 hours. Sound fun? Let's do it!"

That's what sickness did to me. I went to sleep at 10, Monkey woke up at 11...screaming. Ben can't get up with him because he has, you know, a job or something and needs to sleep. Want to know when Monkey went back down? 5am. That means that I didn't go back to sleep at all...it was practically time for the day to start.
Back to Netflix. That night, I watched the entire 1st season of Dowton Abbey on Netflix Streaming. It was awesome. I LOVED it. So I (obviously) immediately put the second season on my Netflix Queue. You know what happened? the words Very Long Wait popped up next to it. NNNNNOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
That was a few weeks ago. I have selectively been putting other movies at the top of the queue in the hopes that after I send that one back the next season will be ready. Now those evil words are gone, and I should be receiving the 1st DVD of the 2nd season tomorrow.

HOWEVER...my Netflix account claims that I still have the last movie they sent me. The one I sent back on Saturday. The one I held for a WEEK and never watched, so I Notflixed it....AKA I sent it back without even popping it in the DVD player.

Man oh man, I need a job. I'm way too invested in my Netflix...