7 going on 25

Things have been kind of hectic here, so no time to post!

The kids have been busy, and with Little P going back to school in a week, so have we. They are enjoying their time together, I think they realize that they will not have this in about a week. Little P will be gone all day again and Boots and I will be here filling the time in between bus stops, with as much creativity, fun, and learning as one little boy can stand.
Little P and Boots were in the kitchen playing with the magnetic letters and the chalk when Little P starts drawing sunsets. I was half listening as I chopped up veggies for the salad when I hear, "See, if you place the chalk this way and drag it along the length of the bottom, then it looks like real particles of sand, ..." I had to stop myself from staring, she said this sentence like it was something that she talked about every day. Length of the bottom..... particles.... what? She never ceases to amaze me.

Life Lessons

Yesterday I rented some movies, the kids have Charlottes Web 2, and for some reason that escapes me, they have never seen the first one. So I rented this and a few others.
This morning they asked to watch it while eating their bagels. I had no problem with this, so in it went and I continued on with dishes. About 20 minutes goes by and I hear, " Mom, how EXACTLY do you get bacon from a pig?"

I took a deep breath and what I really wanted to say was "Well, you ask nicely and if he likes you he might have a large supply of bacon and he will dole you out some, and you see the grocery stores, they have a great relationship with pigs, and........."

But then I thought better about it. She has a right to be educated about what she is consuming. So another deep breath later I started to explain where it comes from and how you get, bacon and ham and pork chops. The poor thing was mortified. She looked at me with tears in her little eyes and declared that she was not going to be a part of that, she "would never eat pig again."

Apparently, when you are seven never is a relative term, because we had BLT's for dinner, at her request....

Coffee and Eggs

Wanna have breakfast with me? This morning I made these...
I have no idea what the real name for them is, my grandmother, the one I liked, made them for us when we were little. My kids, and Mr. Fantastic whom is home today loved them.

I need coffee, long before I even think of consuming food. As wonderfully toasty as these smelled, I needed at least one cup of coffee first. I will freely admit that I have a major coffee problem.
I didn't used to, I was never as caffeine dependent as I am now. Enter Boots, this boy single handedly made me the caffeine freak that I now am. You know I love this little boy more than life it's self, but THANK GOD for programable coffee makers! When he Van Dammes his way out of his room each morning and into ours, I can count on being able to shuffle out to the kitchen, hit that little button, and the elixer of life starts brewing instantly. I have just enough time to get him a cup of milk and tuck him snuggly into our bed to watch cartoons, shuffle my way, sleepy eyed back out to the kitchen, pour myself a mug, throw in some milk and sugar and crawl back in bed beside his warm little body.( His sister, because she is mostly human and values sleep, is still sound asleep in her room through out all of this).

And no matter where I lay in the bed, the boy is super glued to my side. I can actually feel every breath he takes. It's a nice way to start a morning.

So on to the many surprises of my house....

What lives in our aquarium? Fish you would think, guess again...

Meet Nibbles and Nibbles Number Two.
Here is the poor tortured Sundae,
And why is he tortured you might ask, here is Hope resting, allowing Sundae to feel safe, it's all part of her plan...
But wait, this is where she normally is, looming over his tiny little body, clenching fear into his itty bitty heart.
What do you think you would find in here?
Normally all of this!
Well off we go, time's awastin' and it's a beautiful day to go play out side!

Picture Crazy

Have you seen this game?
I will tell you that I don't know if I have ever heard my children laugh as hard as they did playing this game today.... It's kind of a more difficult combination of Hungry, Hungry Hippo and Ant In the Pants. You have to put bugs on these little arm things and catapult them into the head of this frog that is whirling around. Not as easy as it sounds, I assure you....... Yeah, so what if my three year old beat the pants off me, Oh you mind your own business!

We were hoping to see Craig again while he was in town. The timing didn't work out until this afternoon, he stopped by bearing amazing gifts. Completely unnecessary, totally thoughtful, and golden to me, what's more was he was so stoked to come over when the kids were awake and running around and got to spend some real time with them.

He genuinely thought about what we had said about our kids and their interests. You want me to like you? You want me to trust you and feel safe with you, start with adoring my children, taking an interest in the two things that are so far above all else for me. Get to know where my heart is at, wrapped up in these two little bodies.
He spend several hours listening to Boots talk about every dinosaur fact there is, and watching attentively over Little P's shoulder as she began to fall head over heels in love with this.
She went crazy making book marks and post cards and god only knows what else she air brushed!
She also received this insane art kit, it's HUGE and I swear the minute she saw it, it took her breath away. Way to go Craig!
Have I mentioned that this is a 7 year old little girl who is well aware of what Craypas are and how they are used. She has a preference for oil paints over acrylics any day. A girl after my own heart. So art, she knows a thing or two about.

Boots, who is dinosaur nut got this.
To go along with his new Leap Pad! Holy freakin' gift. Little P has one that she lets him use, sometimes, and he LOVES it. So now he has one of his own. Thanks Craig!!!!!!!
So after Craig started his crazy long drive back home, we needed some dinner, and along with dinner we had a big fresh, salad. What goes best with salad? You guessed it....Fresh, homemade croutons. I am ashamed to admit that I bought croutons for years, not really understanding how easy and much more tasty they are to make. So let me tell you.

All you need to start with is a couple of spare pieces of italian bread. Any kind of bread will do, but the denser the better.

Dice them.

Put them into a small frying pan on med heat with a little butter. Toss to coat.
Season, toss to coat some more. (Season with what ever you like, you're the one that has to eat them!)
Remove when toasted and yummy looking. (About 8 to 10 minutes at the most for the whole process.)
And since Mr. Fantastic was feeling a little under the weather today, I made him sugar cookies and bought lots of OJ, and a few movies to pass the time. Besides he loves him some more movies.
I have also decided to show you some of my secrets..... No, not those kind of secrets.... Sicko.

The secrets in my house, like did you know that my beautiful armoire,
Is really a rather large, expensive toy box?

Absurd, you bet. Necessary, absolutely.

Or perhaps the fact that I have a large magnetic chalk boad in my.....
Kitchen, so when I am cooking or baking the kids can play and work on their alphabet or draw with chalk. Those are dinosaur magnets, he has learned the name of every last one of them. Simply because he wanted to.
I have rambled on enough for today, we had a great day, here's hoping you did too!

Screening Party

Mr. Fantastic had his screening party last night, for their newest completed film. You can read about it here.
This amazing art work was done by our freind, Dan. Who has also completed the drawing for my last big tattoo, it is my 30th birthday present to myself... what? Isn't that what you've always wanted for your birthday?

Back to the movie... It was filmed last summer, so it has been a while since everyone got together. Last summer as we all know was insanely hot. Like all heat, all the time kind of hot. For almost a week solid here it has been in the 70's, cooling well into the low 60's at night. Could it be that way as we packed our house with actors and crew? Oh, no, it needed to be 90 at nine o'clock and so humid I could have cut the air with a knife. Coincidence? I think not!

This one of the leads, Marc Raco, having his make-up done.
But everyone seemed to have a good time, catching up, munching happily with each new dish that came out. They all really loved the film, which was a huge stress for Mr. Fantastic and his production partner. This is his fifth film, he has a dream and he is proactive about it. That is something that I LOVE about him in a big, big way. He doesn't sit back and wait for it to come to him, he goes out there after it. He's passionate about it, and it shows. This is in his blood, and I knew it from the moment that I met him.

Little P and Boots loved being up past their bed times, getting different treats and generally being adored by the cast and crew. And as a very special gift to us, they slept in this morning, not like waste the day away kind of sleeping in, but it was after 7:30 before we saw them. For those of you who don't know me, I don't sleep very much, when I do, it's usually at the tail end of the morning. Someone up there liked me this morning!

Searching

We recently connected with a very dear long lost friend. I am not talking someone I knew for a while back in ninth grade, I mean this man was in our wedding. We considered him part of our families, and wanted to share that time with him. Unfortunately, as it does, time went by and we lost touch.

The internet is an amazing thing, and we were able to get in touch and very shortly there after get together. He hasn't changed at all, he is exactly the same sweet, amazing, caring, intelligent person that I knew him to be so many years ago.

This reunion of sorts prompted me to think about all of the people that meant something to you in your life, and why they are not currently a part of it. I grew up in a very small town, I knew everyone I graduated with. Aside from one or maybe two people in that tiny graduating class, I couldn't tell you where they are now. After my mom, I just stopped going back there. It was filled with far to many memories, people that knew her, the house that I helped her and her husband build. It was more than I could take, I was 23 years old and could never go home again.

For so many people, it is the goal from the time that you are little to get out and make something of yourself. I think it is even more prominent for those from small towns. For some reason it always felt so stifling to me. So when the time came for me to leave for college, I jumped ship and didn't look back.

Now, ten years after graduating I do wonder on occasion what some people are up to. I think back to the thirteen years, day in and day out you spend with these people. Is there anyone that you should know better? Even people who have been co-workers for that amount of time have some type of bond.

I do wonder some times what became of the Andy Zombecks of the world. I would hope, great things. Or the Brian Ficks, the Jennifer Starrings, even the Heather Stanbros (insane curiosity!). I would love to find out these things, but the reality of the situation is I don't know, and probably never will because I don't even begin to know where to find them. However Mr. Fantastic proved the impossible, I thought for sure we would never see that man again, so perhaps there is hope. So if you are wondering what happened to some of your classmates or college buddies or just old friends that you lost touch with, maybe you lucked out and you can find them easily on Myspace.com or classmates.com. Get out there and look a little, you never know who you are going to find.

Not Exactly

Okay, so I think I got in waaaaaayyyy over my head. I was so excited to try to make a dress for myself, and it couldn't have gone more wrong. Let's just say I had no realistic idea of how big my breast were. The measurements are all about how wide to make the dress, not how much has to fit in that area comfortably and realistically. It was to say the least disappointing. And now that leaves me with another problem. I wasn't sewing for my health, although I do feel it has some relaxing redeeming qualities to it. We have a wedding on Sat. And now nothing to wear to it! I do have a plan B, I will post pics when that is done, cross your fingers for me!

And on the sewing note, it is sad but true that I have become slightly addicted to this.
Which is strange, because I am also addicted to these:
Could they all be any more different? While I wouldn't be caught dead watching anything with the word Idol in the title, I will get out of my cozy bed in the twilight to ensure that I have indeed set the DVR to record all of these programs. Obsess much?????

Catch Up

Just over three weeks until Little P goes back to school and apparently there is nothing fun left to do. Anywhere.

So out came the great big book of idea's, and they made mice, the only kind I think are acceptable, the stuffed kind.... Little P made hers all by her self. I admit it, I am one of THOSE mothers. Who has been sewing, with a machine and by hand since I was four or so. I am terrified to let Little P near the sewing machine, unreasonable? Perhaps. Oh well. I am still not going to be responsible for pierced finger.
They went to the park today after visiting some friends.
This picture cracks me up, he just looks so menacing, and HUGE. When he's really just Boots, who by the way is shooooort!
We were driving home from the park and Boots dropped his book, Little P looked at him and as she bent down to get it, said "Tarter sauce." Thank you Sponge Bob, for the faux swearword. So Boots immediately snaps his fingers in a awe shucks kind of way and said, Darn Pickles!!!.... I am soooo going to start using that one.

Little P is constantly being reminded to keep her fingers out of her mouth. Today was no acceptation, however in the incredible push for the Parent of the Year award, Mr. Fantastic comes up with "If you don't get your fingers out of your mouth, I am going to paint them with that stuff that tastes like poop."
Way to go Mr. Fantastic, while we were at the dinner table no less. Nice touch!

And last but not least, I am attempting to sew myself a dress for a wedding that we are attending on next sat. Here is the fabric, which I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.... I am putting the two pics up because I can't decide what 0ne it the most true to the real colors.

And the pattern, I made the straps slightly wider, the neck a little higher, it's the first pattern, the second dress on the right, I thought it looked the most like me.

Now I just have to find the shoes, I was thinking about these, because I just adore them. What do you think?

Not in the Cards

I didn't always know I was going to have children. I wasn't one of those girls that grew up dreaming of a perfect family. I was just one of those girls that was concentrating on the actual act of growing up, not really what I was going to do when I got there. In fact, I was fairly certain for a very long period of time that I was never going to be a mother.

I have a sister who is 10 years younger than me, so perhaps I had my fill of babies, knowing how much work they really are I wasn't in any hurry to have one of my very own. I did a lot of baby sitting and some nannying, and I loved all of it, because the kids were great, it was fun, I got paid and at the end of the day I got to go home. And even when I met the man that I was going to marry, and we started to date and talk about the future, I was clear that perhaps I was not the chick for him. Since Mr. Fantastic is from a large Italian family where there are lots of children and everyone's favorite question is "When are you going to have one?", I didn't want him to miss out on that, but kids where just not in the cards for me.
Now for my secret... exactly one month and 20 days before we were going to say I do, while in the utter chaos of executing the final details for a wedding that had a guest list of a whopping 350 people after two years of planning, I found out that I was well into my second month, perhaps early third.

Now before I get blasted with the how could you not knows, and the wasn't it obvious's. Let me just say, no it was not. I'd never been pregnant before, I was an avid runner with a very low body fat percentage, my mom had just been diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor that they had given her a less than 5% chance of beating, I was working and living about 5 hours from my home town, the residence of my mother and the chosen destination for this blessed event to take place in. I was, to say the least, a tad bit stressed.
So all of the signs that you normally associate with being with child escaped me for obvious reasons. I was working like mad, as soon as I got out of work I would drive to our apartment, grab clothes and stuff for three days and head to my mothers house and spend time with her, and some times her team of doctors and a variety of other specialist by way of visiting the hospital for long periods of time. Spending a lot of nights sleeping in a chair beside her bed. So I was really hopped up on caffeine, not eating right, or enough for that matter, and at the time I was a strict vegetarian, so that was somewhat limiting. But, with all of these conditions somehow, this little baby found a happy place and settled in and waited for me to notice her.

And notice her I did. The poor thing was originally mistaken for the flu. After a trip to the doctors set me firmly in the middle of reality, I found out that was not the case. I waited a bit to tell Mr. Fantastic. For no other reason than I needed to adjust to the idea. This was not exactly perfect timing, and if you remember I was fairly certain that this was not really the path for me. So we had the "talk" and he was overjoyed, and wanted to tell his folks right away. I held him off for a little bit, but if you know him, you know this was unbelievably difficult. So we went out to diner with the folks, and eventually told them the news. And so it went from there.
Months later I was still adjusting and becoming very at ease with what was happening. I went to bed one night shortly after hitting the half way point at 20 weeks and was promptly woken at 2:30 with contractions. I sat up and gritted my teeth timing them, they were 6 minutes apart. After three of those they quickly switched to 5 minutes and then to 4. Shaking Mr. Fantastic awake with a hurried, "Somethings wrong, I need to go to the hospital." We were up and dressed and on our way to emergency.

After monitoring me and giving me medication for pre-term labor a few days later they sent me home confident that I could stay pregnant a little while longer. There was no real reason for the contractions. And so it went on and off, being fine, going into labor, spending more time at the hospital, more medication, bed rest, more waiting, more hoping that it could be held off until she (yes, we knew Little P was a she) would have a better chance of survival.
I was becoming more and more defensive of this little peanut that had made a somewhat cozy home and was only asking that I protect her. The poor little thing didn't realize that she was in for earthquakes every so often, but she persevered. Then the day came when they could not stop the contractions and she arrived. Perfect as could be at 5 lbs, a full head of dark hair and no major health problems to be found, despite the fact that she was 5 weeks early.

At that moment, when I held that amazing little person, I have never been so in love in all my life. She was reason I was born. I will never, ever forget those thoughts as long as I live, and I have told her the story enough times that neither will she. She was born 2 days before my mothers birthday, she carries her name and it was exactly four days before Little P turned 5 months old that she lost that amazing woman. Little P was the reason I got up every day for about a year after that. She was my heart and soul in one little package.
I've seen it happen too many times to think it's a coincidence, if you loose someone, some times you are given someone else to pour your soul into, they help you heal, realize what you are really made of, understand that you are never totally alone, and allow you to figure out what is really important. I will forever be amazingly grateful for that little 5 lb. miracle. And even though I lead at least a third of my life convinced that wasn't in the cards, it was the best hand I was ever dealt.