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Heidi Chronicles

Life (In London), Medicated

Busy Days

Filed under: Blah Blah Blah, Friends, Liam — Heidi at 8:38 pm on Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Yesterday I kept Jules so that Jen could hit a Dr. appt. in the morning. While she was gone, I experienced my first Julianne-style temper tantrum.  Thank goodness I’d already experienced a few of these with Emalee.  I kept my cool, so it wasn’t a big deal, but it did last for at least five minutes - that seems pretty damn long while it’s going on. In her defense, she had a long weekend and was one worn out kid.  Other than that, she and L played forever.

When they left, L wasn’t much better off.  He had full-on attention all weekend at the G-parents’ and has spent the last two days whining and following me around.  It’s sweet, but I can’t hold him AND get everything done at the same time.

Regardless, I’ve managed to get quite a few things done around the house - mostly during nap time. I finished priming L’s new room, moved toys around to try to clean up the family room a bit, moved beds to placate my dear husband, removed the baby gates from the stairs going up and down on the main level, prepared several boxes that I need to ship, and started organizing several rooms in the house that need it - BADLY.  I also ordered a few new maternity clothes from Old Navy.  I don’t have time to go to the store, so I really hope they fit.  And, I got this sling from luckybaby.com.  I’m looking forward to trying it out with L as a hands-free hip hold (perhaps a solution to “Mama, up?”), and I’m sure it will work great for AxLita as well.

I even walked on the treadmill.

(Yes, that deserves its own paragraph.)  After that, I moved TVs around so that I have one in the workout room that will play DVDs.  I am hoping that I can walk on the ‘mill while L watches a video or Sesame Street.  It would give me a little more choice in when I do it, rather than having to do it while he’s sleeping - the time of day which Aaron has christened, “The Golden Silence.”

Since I did all of these things, including the removal of the gates, L of course had to fall down the stairs on top of his big Tonka digger.  This was after he impaled his mouth on the big Tonka dump truck.  (They came as a set, so I guess I should have expected it.)  He’s fine…just has a few minor wounds in his mouth.  Must not be too bad because it didn’t stop him from eating the Chinese that AJ picked up on his way home from work.

Speaking of, Aaron has been working long hours the last few days, I was expecting it tonight as well, but he called and wanted to know if we could have dinner.  It was a nice surprise.  And, I got to have a few hours to myself this evening since it’s Tuesday.

Now L is in bed and I’m going to wrap this up so that I can get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow.  L is going to Grandma’s in the morning so that I can run eight bazillion errands in less than two hours.  I have the route planned and just need to get the car loaded - efficiency is key.

Hopefully I’ll be able to make some time for some real posts later this week once I get the house in some semblance of order.

Wish me luck.

 

It’s unintentional swearing…I SWEAR.

Filed under: Liam — Heidi at 7:15 am on Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Liam has become very interested in his silverware. He needs either a spoon or a fork at every meal - sometimes both - and if I do not give him what he wants, he says vehemently, “Fork! Fork! Fork!”

I don’t think I have to explain to anyone why this is funny.

Our new double-wide.

Filed under: Aaron — Heidi at 11:20 am on Monday, March 27, 2006

Since I rarely see my husband anymore and he has been increasingly disgruntled with our separate-room sleeping arrangement, I determined it was time for a solution.

IMG_0193.JPG

It won’t win any awards for beauty, but at least we can sleep in the same room.

Note the lumpy consistency of the bed on the left. That would be mine - complete with six pillows for my sleeping pleasure. That king bed can’t come soon enough.

The Par-tay: a lovely evening full of lots of food, family and friends, and children running around in their underwear.

Filed under: BackBlogging, Family, Liam — Heidi at 7:16 am on Sunday, March 26, 2006

This really sums it up the evening quite nicely. (Flickr by clicking the image.)

Em had an accident and got her jeans wet, so she was going without. Not that it really mattered, because the majority of the people in attendance had seen her in potty training action when she went commando whenever it was permissible - aka whenever she was in the house.  As is the custom, Brian’s family and our family got together to celebrate with a few close friends. This year it was our family’s turn to host, so everyone came to my mom and dad’s for Stouffer’s lasagna, three bean salad, cranberry applesauce cherry jello, mock potato salad, and pasta salad. Pat had a very busy week at the gift shop, so it was a very relaxed gathering. Even the desserts were made ahead and frozen. There was some lemony thing with a graham cracker crust full of creamy goodness and one of my sister’s favorites, Strawberry Yummy. Quite descriptive, no? Heath has to avoid dairy at the moment because her nursing child seems to struggle with the lactose so there was no cake allowed. And, for the curious, Strawberry Yummy consists of egg whites, strawberries, sugar, and a pecan/butter crust. It is very light and fluffy and would probably work well as a body scrub - especially if you could get someone to lick it off of you.

Anyway, we ate dinner and then H and B opened their gifts. It was a cash kind of birthday. I didn’t even get out to buy them cards since the Hallmark shop is no longer in business here. I simply wrote them checks and noted that I’d send a nice card later. Who wants to get a crappy card? Brian got a check for iTunes and Heath got a check for Starbucks/Tootsie Rolls/Jelly Bellies/or whatever else she wanted. It thought it was a really nice touch to put in the memo what gift certificate I would have gotten them if I had been on the ball.

I made an early evening of it, but I shouldn’t have, because evidently one of our friends, Tim, was in rare form. I could not sleep for all of the outbursts of laughter looming from the main level of the house. That is one thing I really like about my immediate family - we laugh a lot when we get together. (Years and years of therapy allow us to enjoy ourselves, I guess.)

The kids had a good time too. For more images of the weekend, Flickr below.

Picking through the someone else’s life.

Filed under: Family, Liam — Heidi at 6:37 pm on Saturday, March 25, 2006

Heath, Dad and I went out to Grandma’s this morning to dig through her and Grandpa’s stuff to see if there was anything we wanted. We left the kids with Grammy and Brian, which eventually pushed Grammy near the edge. She needed a break by the time I got back.

Unfortunately, it took a little longer than I expected. I was out in a cold garage for nearly two and a half hours digging through a huge chest of drawers.My Gram has always been a quilter/embroiderer and that’s something that I enjoy doing that none of my other cousins does. So, I already knew that I wanted her material. She had already put back the polyester pieces from which she made nearly all of her 16 grandkids blankets. (”You know why they stopped making that, right?” she asked me. “The stuff never wears out. They sold out their market.”) And when I went looking through the scrap drawers in the garage, I had no idea what I was getting into. I was already aware that she saved everything. She was a child of the Depression - and a very, very poor one at that. I’ll have to post pictures of all the stuff, but I ended up with a huge dress bag and a big box full myriad scraps. Some of the material was completely intact and still in the original bag of purchase. She told me that a lot of it was passed down to her by different people. I was so glad to get my greedy little hands on it. I have material for crazy quilts for years. And I just couldn’t stand if it had been thrown or given away. It’s like my Grandma’s legacy to me.

Part of the joy of going through these drawers was that no one else had gone through them yet. My aunt had cleaned out everything else and moved it into the family room and the kitchen so that my cousins and uncles could see what was there. This chest of drawers relegated to the garage since I-don’t-know-when was in its primitive state - stuffed full of random pictures, my grandma’s graduation certificate, candles, my aunt and uncles’ baby bracelets, and cards received over many scattered years, shoved in amongst the fabric scraps, table cloths and tea towel transfers.

In those nine drawers, I traveled through decades.

In one drawer, tucked in among more correspondence and Readers Digest Condensed Books, I found a goldmine of journals that my grandma kept. She only wrote a bit about each day - what she did, who called, who visited, etc. - but her calendars are full of her and my Grandpa’s life together. When my aunt told me that she had saved more of them for me, I wept. I can’t imagine anything more fitting for me to have.

What I didn’t expect fo find in digging through those drawers of scraps was the realization of just how much she and I are cut from the same cloth. I save the things she saves. I have a hard time throwing what other people would call “trash” away because these articles remind me of people, places, or events. I have boxes, labeled by year, in our basement waiting to be chronicled. My Gram may not have everything labeled, but she realizes that everything tells a story - yes, even the ugly turtle wall hangings have something to say.

It was also interesting to have free run of a house where certain areas were always prohibited. My sis and I went into the basement and poked around a bit. I had only been down there on a dare once before, probably 20 years ago. There was an old stove down there that got to me for some reason. My Gramps had to have carried it down there (with help) years ago, before he was blind, off balance, and frail. It makes me sad to think about it.

I can not imagine how my Gram must feel about having her house - her life with my Gramps - broken into bits and hauled off to any number of her six children’s or 16 grandchildren’s houses. If it were me, I suppose I would be happy that my things were going to live on bringing other people joy, but it would still be difficult to see them go - especially if the recipient didn’t know the item’s story. However, all things considered, Gram seemed to handle it all pretty well. She’s moved to a smaller place and she knows that she can’t take everything - she just doesn’t anything to get thrown away.

The saddest thing I saw while I was there was when my Dad picked out two watches for Ethan and Liam to have when they are older. They aren’t the most handsome or the most valuable watches, but they were my Grandpa’s. When my aunt suggested it, my Dad got choked up a little bit. As he stood there holding the big stack of pictures that he had salvaged, along with the watches, I realized that he’s cut from that same cloth too.

I am so glad I went and spent the time I did. Two hours is not much to ask when, in that relatively miniscule amount of time, you really get to know two people you thought you already knew.

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