Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Liebster to Me

I was nominated for the Liebster Blog Award by Hand Me Downs (I couldn't find her first name so that will have to do!)  Other bloggers nominate you for this award and you have to answer the 11 questions they pose to you.  In addition you provide more info on yourself and then nominate other bloggers and ask them a new list of questions. So here we go.

Eleven questions from Chronicles of Mommy
1. What is your favorite thing about being a blogger? I like writing. Period. But I also like it when I write or share something that someone else likes.  Whether they find it funny or it helps them in some way.   I started blogging to keep my family up-to-date on my life but they never read but old friends and strangers started to read and that’s been nice.
2. Name 3 bloggers that inspire you – and their websites.
* Hand Me Downs - She writes about parenting and raising a child with Down Syndrome.  It's a touching blog and I really enjoy reading it.
* Ashley - Ashley has an incredible life, after serving an 18-month mission for church, she turned her blog into a daily miracle blog.  She has a big heart and she's gone to Haiti twice and is going back soon (if not already) to buy Christmas gifts for orphans there.  I love reading her blog and reading the positive experiences in her lives and in the lives of others.
*Uh - so apparently I don't read many inspiring blogs...I mostly keep up with people.  If you know of an inspiring blog I can add here - let me know!
3. If you could open up any business, what would it be and why? I used to want to own a bakery, I love to bake. I even talked about running one out of our college apartment.  I guess if I didn’t have to go by baker’s hours I would still want to.  I guess other than that I would want a photography studio.  I love taking pictures, I'm just not good enough to do it professionally.
4. What makes you smile?  Everything.  I can’t tell you the number of times people have asked me why I’m smiling.  I see the world through a very humorous lens.  I’m not saying I don’t have my bad days, but there isn’t much that doesn’t get me smiling.  I guess mostly it would be my husband – when he dances or when he interacts with the cat.
5. What's under your bed?  Um, DVDs I think. I packed up all my DVDs into these two containers that can slide under the bed.
6. If you could be committed to a cause/charity, which one would it be and why?  I don’t know of a specific one right now, but if there is one devoted to the family I would join that one.  I get really upset when I learn what some schools permit for children (like playing Nicki Minaj for 6-7 year olds – even if you bleep out the swear words it’s not a good message) and I also don’t like when society tries to put its values on children (and all members of society really).  I know I sound crazy when I get going so I try to tone it down for people, but it is something I feel passionately about.
7. If you had a chance to say one thing that would be broadcast to everyone in the world, what would it be?  Oh…I don’t know.  I guess - enjoy life, even the small moments and make it something you’re proud of.
8. Grab the nearest book. Turn to page 12. Write down the 1st line. "Marie-Laure LeBlanc stands along in her bedroom smelling a leaflet she cannot read."
9. What kind of person is your alter ego? I'm confused by this question - are we talking a for reals alter ego or an imaginary one.  My imaginary one is famous, confident, and invited to all the late night talk shows because she’s so fun.  Sadly, I’m not kidding.
10. What’s your drink? Water! Seriously, the first trimester of pregnancy was really hard because water didn’t taste right and it’s all I wanted but I couldn’t drink it.
11. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?  I had really high aspirations including but not limited to: elementary school teacher, receptionist at the eye doctor (dealing with all those color coded folders), and an actress dating Elijah Wood (seriously, he was adorable and I had a huge crush on him.  My sisters would fake interview me as a movie star and Elijah and I met on a moive set and had been inseparable since).  I'm not ashamed. 


11 Random Facts About Me
1. I can’t let children win games…they’ve got to earn it.  I’m too competitive to hold back, even for kids while playing Candyland.

2. I’m an introvert and a homebody.  Chewy was surprised by this on our first date.  For years he had assumed I was a huge extrovert because I was always throwing parties and traveling with friends.  What he didn’t know was that when I threw parties I was around for 10-20 minutes and then I would grab a few close friends, some snacks, and hide in my room (or on a few occasions, left with a friend).  And when I traveled – it was mostly with other introverts.  We’d see some sites, be done and go read or nap in the hotel room until dinner.

3. I LOVE playing sports and I married a man who could care less…wonk wonk.  I did get him to throw a Frisbee with me once.

4. I don’t want people to think I’m a crazy cat lady, so I act like I could care less about my cat.  But I could die he’s so cute and I love to pet him and I talk to him more than would be deemed normal.

5. I take pride in being creepy.  I try to scare my husband any opportunity I get and when I talk to people I sometimes try to make my comments as dark as possible (i.e. I know this isn’t a person, but when talking to my cat this morning I told him goodbye forever,  he’s lived a good life and I would miss him).

6. I’m HORRIBLE at geography! I hope my life is never on the line because I just recently learned that Ireland, Scotland and England were the same island…yup.  I am embarrassed to admit it, but it had to be done.

7. I get addicted to video games…which is probably why I judge people so harshly for playing them.  I lucked out – Chewy doesn’t play them at all.

8. I love to make CDs for people.  The number of people willing to accept those CDs is dwindling, but I like to do it anyway and have playlists ready to go for friends if they should change their minds.

9.  I like to give people nicknames but I can’t operate once someone asks for one.  It just has to come naturally.

10. I’m a narcissist.  I could care less about my looks but when I create/write something I want to hear all about it and if you like it (which is why I love getting blog comments).

11. In the spirit of Christmas – I love being able to get the perfect gift for someone.  I love giving gifts in general (except the part where it cost money), but when I find just the right gift for someone I will buy it without much thought, no matter if there’s a reason to get them a gift.  (I’ve already bought Chewy’s birthday present…his birthday is in February).

11 Questions for Nominees (my apologies I’m not good at coming up with questions)
1.      What’s most important to you?
2.      What’s your favorite movie?
3.      When and why did you start blogging?
4.      It’s Friday night – what are you likely doing?
5.      What are three things on your bucket list?
6.      If you didn’t have to worry about money and current skill level – what would you do for a living?
7.      What is the last picture you took?
8.      Who in your life do you admire most?
9.      What is your greatest accomplishment so far?
10.   What do you hope to accomplish in the next year?
11.   What is the scariest thing that has happened to you?

Nominees
    Ashley
    Marianne


Monday, December 15, 2014

Mistakes Eating and Other Adventures

Saturday morning, Chewy and I woke up at 6 am.  He’d had a pretty stressful week so while depressing, it wasn’t a surprise that we were both sound asleep around 8:30 Friday night.  As we lay in bed trying to decide whether or not to wake up or go back to sleep, we decided to go and get breakfast.  We wanted to go to Golden Corral and Chewy seems to think they are packed by 8 a.m. so we hurried to get there as quickly as possible.  We arrived 10 minutes before opening (btw we tried to look up the hours online, their website shouldn’t even bother with the ‘store locator’ option, it doesn’t work).  



We eyed all the other cars that arrived after us and for a moment I think I got a glimpse of what Black Friday shopping feels like.  Chewy had me put down the visor on my side and use the mirror to watch the front door and the old couple in the minivan nearest to us.  Ten minutes later the minivan had turned off its engine and the front doors were being unlocked.  We got out of the car, half excited to be the first and three quarters embarrassed.  We paid, found a secluded table and went up for round one.  I had thought since I was preggers that this would have been more fun, but the quality of Golden Corral food really hindered me.  I ate a bit of everything on my first plate but finished none of it.  I was less successful with the second plate.  We spent the rest of our day regretting our early hour decision.  We’re pretty sure the same thing happened last time we went but we forgot.  We’ve now recorded videos of ourselves telling our future selves NEVER to return to the G.C.
 We’ll see if it works.
As for the rest of our Saturday.  Chewy was asked to play the part of a Wiseman in the Stake Crèche activity and I was asked to be a “tour guide” .  I took groups from room to room and read from a script while the people looked at the live nativity scenes , then I dropped them off at the cultural hall where they ate, looked at little nativity and crèche scenes and listen to musical performances.  It was neat, exhausting, but a really neat experience.  AND I got to see Chewy dressed up in a costume.  




Of course, the fame has gone to his head.

From there we went to visit my sister and brother-in-law and I saw a box of Captain Crunch and suddenly wanted some.  So we went to the store and bought a box.  I got home, ate a bowl and a little while later – threw up.  Same thing happened Sunday morning.  So I’m thinking the Captain is out for a few months.  Thanks a lot fetus.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Every Couple Has Secrets

I have a confession...

I hide food from my husband.  Lemme esplain. 

I have a great love for the Little Debbie Christmas trees.





I mean, look at them.  I’m salivating at the thought.

I bought a box at the store on Monday and when I got home I hid them.  Part of it was shame, I didn’t want Chewy knowing I’d given in to my sweet tooth but I have to admit a bigger part of me worried he would eat them…

This morning he went into the cupboard where they were hidden - looking for the backup peanut butter.  I watched in horror as he bent down to look at the lower shelf where I keep the backup food.  If I had realized the other pb was low I would have picked a different shelf for my hidden treasure. 

Then he saw the box.  “What’s this!” he said as he pulled them out of the cupboard.  At this moment he realizes it’s open and most of the trees are gone. “And it’s mostly empty!”

I don’t know what I said at this point, I don’t do well when caught so I might have said, “uh, um, hmmmm.” But eventually, “I love them!” or something similar came out of my mouth.

Chewy explained how it hurts his feelings when I hide food from him (yes, this isn’t the first time; I’ve also hidden Archway Iced Oatmeal cookies from him…more than once.  I've even had to hid rice krispies from him, not the treat, just the cereal).  So I picked that moment to confess that there was a can of Pringles hidden by my side of the bed.  You may find this shocking…but he wasn’t happy about that either.

So I tried to explain myself.  I don’t know what order the excuses came out but they included:

It’s an old habit from childhood where I had to hide the good stuff or it’d be gone (there are some roommates who can attest to the fact that this is a long standing habit of mine).

I explained how I offer other things in their stead (said while picking up a container of cookies I openly shared with Chewy to prove my point).  He’ll come home from work and I’ll open the “snack” cupboard and show him all the things I bought for HIM to eat (and then I don’t mention my personal snacks hidden safely around the house).

He told me I don’t have to hide the food, he wouldn’t eat it.  That brought up the list of things that were mine that he’s eaten…and only since I got pregnant.
1) It started with the Ginger Ale.  He’s a big ginger ale fan, I personally feel sick when I drink it because my parents gave it to me AFTER I’d thrown up.  So I was fine with him drinking it.
2) Then it was the sprite he bought me as a backup for the ginger ale. Again, I wasn’t really drinking them so I didn’t care.
3) Then he dug in to my peppermint ice cream.  This I DID care about, but I also bought multiple containers when I went to the store.  So after instinctively being upset I told him I would share with him.
4) And lastly, the Gatorade.  I’d been drinking Gatorade since October 29th (yes, I remember the date) when I had to stay home from work and did nothing but throw up all. Day. Long.  I even bought him red Gatorade so he’d leave my blue stuff alone…but it didn’t stop him.


I think he got the point…but I’ll try to stop hiding my food – as soon as Christmas is over.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Be Grateful

So pregnancy hasn't been my most favorite experience thus far.  As I sat in church on Sunday I realized I have lost the gift of gratitude.  I've done nothing but gripe about how much society has kept hidden from me about pregnancy.  I'm tired of being tired, sick of being sick, and I'm getting fatter (people say it's because I'm growing a baby but all I see is fat at this point).

Thanksgiving Day, people posted pictures and status updates all over social media about what they were grateful for.  I didn't see any of it until Friday, but it didn't even occur to me to try and do something similar.  I figured since Monday would be the first of a new month, I would try harder to be grateful, because honestly, I have a lot to be grateful for.



And then I went to the dentist Monday morning because of persistent tooth pain that started about half a week ago.  He informed me I needed a root canal.  Ooookay.  Rough start to my new beginning.

But here's what I can be grateful for even with that.


  1. I called the Endodontist yesterday and they had a cancellation which opened up an appointment at 8 a.m. today.  Which was made even better by the fact that my tooth hurt worse after the dentist fiddled with it.  
  2. I had a terrible night's sleep because every time I moved I would upset my tooth and wake up.  I know I got some sleep, but not much.  BUT today I was able to lay back in the chair and close my eyes and have a nice little nap.
  3. I had the PTO to be able to take today off and come home and rest.
  4. I didn't throw up (that's a big deal since there were strange smells, things being stuck into my mouth, and strange taste from medications, etc. 
  5. My mouth hurts, but I don't feel nauseous today (which I have felt for at least two months now).

All of that just from my visit to the Endodontist.  There are so many other things to be grateful for as well.  I mean, I am pregnant, I honesty doubted at times in my life that I would have this opportunity.  I'm scared of having a baby, but I've always been scared of change and rarely has change been bad for me.  Everyone seems to think I'll be a good mom (I guess they forgot about the "trolls" I told Samantha about when she was 4, how I pick up a crying kid and say, "don't worry, it will get worse", how I can't let kids win, etc.  But maybe that's good....maybe my kids will be well-rounded? Or something like that.

Anyway - I'm going to go rest, maybe fold some laundry that's been in desperate need of it for a while (I'm not lazy, I'm pregnant...)

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