The Hole in My Chin and the Bun in My Oven

So, I'm pregnant, which I wasn't going to put on here necessarily but there it is. I think that knowledge will help explain the rest of my story.


Thanksgiving was quite interesting this year. We had an impromptu trip to Utah. My nausea had died down so I thought, why not go running? That was not a good thing as right after I finished I encountered some problems that led to a call to my doctor which led to me on semi-bed rest. And no heavy lifting (the Munchkin qualifies as heavy lifting, a gallon of chocolate milk does not).
Caught a bit of a cold.
Then, Thanksgiving morning at my sister-in-laws home. I wake up to start getting some pies ready. Suddenly overwhelmed with ickiness I walk upstairs and wake up a few minutes later in the middle of the bedroom floor. There was some confusion, pain and blood. Long story short, I fainted and in the act of it sent my front teeth through the inside of my lip to the outside of my chin. And the right side of my face is covered in lovely carpet burn.

That is not me. That is a man. But that is kinda what my eye looked like. I'll spare you photos of the lip.

Who faints? (Seriously, has anyone ever fainted before? Do you get hurt when you do? I only know my cousin Julia who fainted after we got in the hot tub in 80+ degree weather then decided hot soup was a good choice for lunch. It was Bean with Bacon...whats not to love?) I did not enjoy fainting. Never done it before, never want to do it again. Anyway, I am in the process of healing now and besides the fact that I can't talk much (which has lead me to my blog) I'm okay. I tell this story not for sympathy or the such because I got plenty of that when it happened, but with all the usual things I am grateful for I had some very specific things that I was thankful for this Thanksgiving that I never thought I'd be thankful for in all my wee life. Why do I feel the need to post them on my blog? That is a question I can't answer. I often wonder why I feel the need to post anything to my blog. But here are the specifics of my thankfulness this year.

I'm so grateful that my two front teeth are still in place and not still in my chin, or on my niece Brenleys floor. If that wasn't clear before, my teeth are where they should be. I'm also grateful that I fell in the middle of the floor and narrowly avoided hitting a bed and chest which would probably have made me lose my two front teeth for sure.

Secondly, the human body is amazing. The first few days this happened I looked like I had been in a boxing ring. Now, I just look like I've been roughed up a little. Crazy how quickly our bodies heal themselves.

Third, grateful for modern medicine. So grateful.

Fourth, I've never been aware before that most of Thanksgiving food is soft and was still somewhat edible to me after "the fall."

And most importantly, little nugget numero 2 seems to be okay. Which is the best thing of all.

New York

The first time Austin and I went to New York was a bit awkward. We had known each other/been dating for a whopping 3 weeks when it happened. I told him my friend and I wanted to go to New York to see my sister. He said use Priceline. I said that scared me and I didn't know how. He said he'd show me. We sat at his work and he began taking me through it step by step. The plan was to go through the entire process, re-bids and all, with a ridiculously low starting price, just so I got the feel and could do it on my own. Imagine our surprise/shock/embarrassment when our $140 bid (that is including taxes people!) went through for two round-trip tickets to New York. One with my name, one with his. We both sat there just staring at the screen. Oh, hey, I'm so glad we are going to New York together, what was your last name again? Fun phone calls were placed after that to my parents and my sister. (That picture is of us in front of the World Trade Center about a month before 9/11)
Now, not so awkward. My sister was expecting me to arrive with Austin, as well as the Munchkin. She kept the Munchkin so Austin and I could enjoy the city for a couple days sans kiddo. I had to drag my straight, non-divaish husband to a musical of divas - Wicked. He hadn't seen it. He actually really liked it, do I say love it? Would that make him feel strange? Then, per tradition, dragged our sleepy selves to Serendipity's.


We had tickets to Conan O'Brien. As I was walking into NBC studios someone rushes past me brushing my shoulder. It's Brian Williams. He was whistling and he had glasses on. He was shorter than I expected him to be and he gave me a look like, I'm a nice guy, but I've got important things to work on so don't talk to me. What would I have said anyway? Hey Brian, hang out with me for three weeks and then we'll Priceline a trip to Hawaii together.
Conan was fun. I 'wooed' a lot during the taping so I could hear myself later on the show. Conan was shorter than I expected too. But no worries, his guests, Greg Kinnear and JJ Abrams looked pretty much as I expected them to. The band didn't look anything like I planned. I'd never seen them so I had a certain image in my head. But the keyboardist looked like Neil Diamond. I kept waiting for him to jump up and sing 'their coming to America....today!!!'

Nick Cave and his bad, bad seeds. Which one looks like Neil Diamond?

New York is re-energizing and exhausting. An amazing city.

Utah

We spent most of July in Utah, but I had a hard time getting some of the photos uploaded. A month late, but here are some pictures.

We celebrated Austin's 30th birthday with a grand fiesta. Que divertido!


What would a pinata be without candy, squirt guns and protractors? For all the little kids out there that dream of becoming engineers.


Went went to Lagoon twice. The Munchkin and cousin G had to be in matching outfits at all times, all days.


At Cherry Hill

My parents bought all the adults tickets to 'The Police' concert. We acted like 16-year old girls (even the guys) and enjoyed the giant gong onstage.

Baby Posh

Fun at the children's museum.


3 weeks was not long enough.

I'm not no Limburger

The entire lyric is: 'Why don't you dance with me/I'm not no Limburger'
I was about 11 when I first heard this lyric, thanks to the eclectic musical taste of my older sister. I asked my dad, what is Limburger?
It's a stinky cheese Margaret, it's a stinky cheese.



Austin and I saw an article about the worst lyrics ever. Some of the gems on it included:

Elton John:
'If I was a sculptor, but then again, no.'

Van Halen: '
Only time will tell if we stand the test of time.'

Richard Harris/Donna Summer:
' Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think I could take it,
`cause it took so long to bake
And I'll never have that recipe again, oh no!'

It got me thinking about how many catchy songs there are with absurd lyrics. In my opinion, The B-52's probably have some of the most ridiculous yet brilliant lyrics. They are the proud creators of the Limburger line. Reading the aforementioned article, I realized how many "hit" songs are full of silly words and rhymes. Does that turn me off a song? Maybe...I don't love when artists rhyme words with the same word, like dead and dead (cough cough Avril Lavigne). It's like they aren't even trying. But in general I realized that I don't mind.

Some of the bad that popped into my head:

Bell Biv Devoe:
"Never trust a big butt and a smile."

Makes me laugh everytime.


Faith Hill:
"If I could grant you one wish, I wish you could see the way you kiss."

I don't know one person who would want to see a playback of them kissing someone. And if that is a wish someone granted me, I would be ticked.


LFO:
"Think about that summer and I bug cause I miss it
Like the color purple, macaroni and cheese
Ruby red slippers and a bunch of trees
Call you up, but whats the use
I like kevin bacon, but I hate footloose."

This entire song is full of ridiculous lyrics and yes, I know most of them.

Misty's Song. A song from girls camp.


Things keep coming to my head, but I'm done for now, yet curious. I want to hear what other people think are terrible lyrics. Whether or not you like the song. Please share.

Grandma and Grandpa Smith

This all happened about a month ago, but I just uploaded the photos in the last week. Not sure why it took me that long, but oh well. Austin's parents came in from Georgia and stayed with us for a little over a week. We took them to all the sites and the Munchkin got to know them better, which was so nice.


My in-laws are expert gardeners so I was secretly hoping they could help me turn around my disastrous history with living plants. We told them we wanted to grow some edibles and fortunately they were up to the task. Since this was over a month ago we know are enjoying the fruits of our labors, and honestly it has been very little laboring. The rain waters my plants for me on the days I forget. Mixed lettuce, romaine, a fabulous herb garden, also peas, strawberries and tomatoes just about ready. Not to mention some beautiful flowers. Thanks to the crummy weather for helping me keep these plants living.

Gardening 101

We also went to the tulip festival which was lovely. I had some wicked bad allergies and was therefore a bit groggy, but I remember loving it.

My camera was being lame, the Munchkin really wasn't glowing that day....or was she?

We ate lots of good food and Randi appreciated my current love of cupcakes and was able to try out two different shops with me. They were so generous and it was so nice to be with them. We were so glad they could come out and hope they can come again. It's a long flight from Georgia you know.

Hanging out with grandpa

Green, Dirty, Guilty

I'm not sure if I've breathed too deeply the hippie wind blowing in the northwest, but I've got trash and things green on my mind. Like millions of others, Austin and I have been trying to slowly adapt to a "green" lifestyle. We do simple things that I'm sure most people do. We have realized that going green takes time and is a lifestyle adjustment. Some aspects of our lives may never be considered green while we hope others are. But in general I like to think that most people are aware of the need to take care of our earth.


I get a bit discouraged when I go to the mall with my husband and as we are walking in there is a girl throwing the trash out of her car onto the parking lot. Not just like a big gulp cup, although she did throw one of those out. But she had two plastic bags stuffed with trash that she chucked out of her car. She looked at us, started laughing then threw a few more cups and empty containers on the ground. She jumped in the passenger seat and the car started to back out. Austin and I stood there flabbergasted about 10 feet behind her car and considered our options:

1. Pick up her trash for her.
2. Get all authoritative on her, get her license plate and call the cops.
3. Run to the car and ask her to please throw her trash away in a proper place.
4. Leave it be.

Obviously aware of what she had done and aware of Austin and I standing there, she got out. The driver gave her no support cowering in the front seat. First of all I don't like drama and secondly, I really don't like dramatic confrontations. This immediately had the feel of both. Situations like these make me start shaking inside.

She explained to us her reasons and opinions:
- everyone does it
- it is no big deal
- the courteous thing for us to do would have been to ask her to throw it away properly
- there was a guy that got paid to clean up the parking lot every night. It was his job so it didn't matter

We calmly listened to her and tried to validate her feelings while expressing our own concerns:
- it reflects badly on our city
- we need to take care of our environment
- the courteous thing to do is not litter in the first place
- it's against the law
- the guy isn't being paid to pick up trash in the parking lot as if it were a dumping ground



We finally seemed to come to a happy accord that she would pick up her trash.

Yada, yada, yada

Walking back to our car 45 minutes later we found that she had opened up the bags of trash and scattered it everywhere leaving a huge mess for that "guy" that supposedly gets paid for cleaning up after lazy humans. The shaking inside of me resumed.

Having a dramatic confrontation in the parking lot of the local mall over someones trash left me feeling dirty.

As if I didn't have enough trash happenings I randomly got this in the mail:


The address is correct, but the name on it is for Ron Smith. What do you do when you get a gossip magazine? You read it, because even though it's completely ridiculous, it is a guilty pleasure. And before I sent it on its merry way I discovered that:

- Katie and Tom say that they have never been happier, so stop those rumors people!!
- Britney's getting back into shape ya'll
- Jennifer Aniston may or may not have had plastic surgery

Somewhere in the world there is a Ron Smith cursing that he does not know this vital information.

Happy 5th Anniversary

Austin and I have been married for 5 fabulous years.
He always gets me the best anniversary gifts, so a little homage to my man:

In keeping with the number 5, 5 reasons why I love this guy

1. He doesn't care when I eat chocolate chip cookies for breakfast

2. He challenges me to do things that I find difficult (parallel parking in the city being an example.)

3. He loves being with the Munchkin and has taught her to growl like a lion when he comes home.

4. He always makes me laugh (like the time he told me he had a big surprise for me and I got excited and he had bought me a loaf of French bread ...we both thought that was funny)

5. He is so patient and never gets mad no matter what I do, like when I vacuumed up the cords to his speakers.

I'm here

Man, I'm bad at blogging. This is my declaration of being more consistent, and by consistent I mean a minimum of once a month. We'll start there.

Instead of a recap of the last month and a half here are some recent happenings.

1. Two of my favorite people came to visit. Brad and Jana. We took the Munchkin to her first Mariners game, kayaked in Lake Union and sang a lot of Newsies.

Don't let her look of boredom confuse you. She loved it.

2. I've been hunting down the best cupcakes in the Puget Sound area. These guys were on Martha Stewart for their marshmallow graham cupcake. Any locals know of any good cupcake shops let me know, or if you want to join me please do. Cupcakes are always more delicious when eaten with friends. I've only been able to hit about four shops so far.



3. Um, look at that hail. It arrived with great gusto in the form of a lighting snow storm. As you can tell from my hand, I like long showers.


4. This little girl...she just makes me laugh everyday. She is growing like crazy and always learning new things, like how to shimmy to church songs and Abba alike, or how to call China on my cell phone in 10 seconds flat.



We've been busy, but life is good. I'll let you all know about it more often, well at least once a month.

Oodalolly Oodalolly Golly What a Day

The Munchkin is 1

Vagabonds and Sunny Skies

Ah, the Pacific Northwest: rainy, cloudy, chilly and on some days - blah.
But you can't beat a spring-like day in Seattle.


Visited the uber-popular Pike's Market today. Tried 3 new little eateries. A sandwich here, a piroshky there and always some cookies from these guys. Okay so technically we tried 2 new places.

Almost a year ago to the day Austin and I went downtown Seattle for a few days to enjoy a little alone time before the Munchkin made her arrival. While getting some vanilla hot chocolate from (where else?) Starbucks a homeless man on the window seat, obviously noticing my pregnant belly, barked at us, "Have a nice baby!" Austin and I were taken aback for two reasons:

1. Right as he was saying 'have a nice....' I thought he was going to finish with 'day', so my mind sent my mouth the automatic response, 'thanks, you too' but that didn't make much sense so I said something like, "thanks, you too, I mean, yea we hope she'll be nice."

2. His voice sounded like Kermit the Frog.



Austin and I thanked him and left, amused by the whole incident.

Oddly, within the past year, I have seen this homeless man come and go from Pike's a bit (but that whole story is another story). I've even learned his name: Jimmy. Today we walked past the same Starbucks and there was Jimmy, sitting in the same spot, and there I was pushing my now 11 month old daughter by in the stroller.
And I realized, that I really do love Seattle. I'm starting to feel like it is a home to me. I guess nothing screams comfort like knowing the name of a local vagabond.

And the fact that I saw this:

And this:
Makes the quirkiness of the city all the more charming.

Repetez s'il vous plait

Last Wednesday the Munchkin started throwing up. Monday night: still sick and heading back to the doctor tomorrow. We took her to Urgent Care on Sunday and the doctor was great and so kind. But in my anxious mom mode I worried about the fact that everytime I said 'thank you' he said 'thank you' back to me. It made me laugh but then also got me stressed, what kind of doctor says thank you in response to a thank you?

"Thank you."
"Thank you. You are welcome."
"Okay, thanks."
"Thanks. You are welcome."

Maybe, in true Anne Curry fashion, I was repeating myself too much and he was trying to point it out.

Kauai

The Holiday Rundown

Been a slacker with the blog lately.

Here's a quick summary of our holiday:

Family

DDR

Eating

Sledding
Movies

Sledding

The Munchkin loving her cousins
Early warning signs of an addiction to Wii

Keeping a close eye on what the grandparents fed the Munchkin

Hot tub

Graham singing High School Musical 2
More sledding




Etc.

It was wonderful. I hope you all had a great holiday.