Life with one sweet little bun in the oven

I don't have long.  I need to go eat . . . again.  I just felt I'd neglected our blog for far too long now.  Life has been bearable.  We're surviving.  Having mommy out of commission with morning sickness is an interesting three-month challenge.  We've been relying heavily on friends and family.  And The Chief, of course.  He's been doing everything.  I do not exaggerate.  I can't handle the smell of poopy diapers and bottoms, so when he's around he has sole responsibility for changing and wiping.  I have a need-hate relationship with food right now.  I need it, but I hate it.  I don't like smells.  I don't like my kitchen.  The Chief has been busy working during the day and being Mr. Mom at night.  Pretty much, people, I spend my days lying down and reading . . . . and eating when I absolutely have too, of course (which is every two hours, unfortunately).  I've devoured more books in the last couple of months than in the last year combined.  Thank heaven for cartoons and children's movies!

The sad thing is that this pregnancy has probably been easier so far than the other two.  I just really, really hate being nauseated (which, in my life, brings to mind images of swooning, falling, screaming, cuts, bruises, blood, choking, etc.) and my coping mechanism is to pretend that real life doesn't exist.  I escape into the blessed world of fiction and emerge only when someone is positively dying.  (Is that possible?  Can you die positively?).

Anyway, life has been as scatter-brained as this post.  We've had our ceilings scraped and retextured.  We've had all the corners of our walls bull-nosed.  The day after we get back from AZ, the electrician will be coming to install recessed lighting in the kitchen and do a number of other things.  After that our man, Gerald, will be back again to retexture the kitchen ceiling and bull-nose the sky lights.  After that the painter will come to paint the ceilings.  And after that, we'll paint our walls.  And then I'll [positively] die of exhaustion.  Everything already done took place between our vacation to Utah for Thanksgiving and this Christmas break in Arizona.

Besides the usual aversion to smells and select foods, this pregnancy has brought a few new and random enigmas.  I've discovered this strange affinity for opposites.  Meaning, I normally don't like meat, but now I have to eat something substantially protein-y with every meal and snack.  Normally, I LOVE chocolate and sweets, but I can't really stomach sugar right now.  It leaves a bad aftertaste in my mouth.  Besides food, though, other things are oddly opposed in my life.  Normally I love to take pictures of everything.  Literally.  I didn't need an excuse to whip out the camera.  But in the last few months I haven't taken my "big" camera out of its home once.  I rely more and more on our little point-and-shoot to half-heartedly snap a few obligatory holiday pictures here and there.  Also lacking is my desire to blog.  I can't seem to compose my thoughts well enough to want to sit down and write about them all.  And . . . computer time means time away from my books and my bed.  :D

I'll finally be going to the doctor sometime in January to confirm that I truly am pregnant (ha!) and to peg down a due date.  For some reason "sometime in June" doesn't really cut it for some people.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of them.  I'd just as soon not know my due date so that towards the end I don't start wondering if this baby will EVER arrive.  :D

So here we are in Arizona, enjoying the chill desert air (not really . . . it's SO DRY here!).  My mother-in-law has her house decorated as cute as she does every year, with lighted Christmas trees everywhere and one real one that will be hauled in on Christmas Eve for the kids to decorate and for Santa and his elves to put gifts under.  The Chief and I, of course, procrastinated our shopping until the last possible day we could still get timely shipping from Amazon.  Hopefully the gifts will arrive, as promised, before Christmas.  I'm praying for all UPS drivers to be accident free this season.  The Chief has been working like mad this holiday.  He hasn't got a break.  Not one bit.  I feel for him because besides playing Mr. Mom during the day here, he's staying up 'til 4:30 every morning to work on one specific case that they couldn't get an extension for.  All I have to say to that judge that denied their extension is BAH HUMBUG, YOU SCROOGE!  I'll just have to pray that this doesn't become a Christmas tradition as last year The Chief had to work like mad right before the holiday, too.  Grrr.  He's an amazing asset to his firm, I just wish they knew what his dedication was costing his family.  BUT, he has a job.  And for that we are infinitely grateful this Christmas season.  I'm just a big whiner, a habit which is irritatingly exacerbated by my present "condition."  :D

Anyway, I wasn't kidding when I said I needed to eat.  Gotta go.  Some day soon I'll break out of this miserable stage of pregnancy, I hope, and come back to the world of the living.  Until then, here's your morsel.

Oh, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This doesn't belong to me.

Well, it does, and it doesn't. And then it really doesn't. :D But maybe it'll all make more sense if you just listen to it.

Post-a-palooza

I just posted something like 15 new posts or so.  DO NOT feel obligated to comment on each one (unless you're family, of course.)!  :D  (I'm really just kidding about family.  Be at peace my short-attention-span siblings.).  So, the most recent experience (Halloween) is at the top with the earliest October happenings falling at the bottom of this monumental spread.  Go to it, dear ones.  And try to forgive me for kitchen sinking.

P.S. I kept the written word to a minimum, but photos abound.

Halloween

{10/31/09}

The Chief took the boys trick or treating.  They loved it.  I loved that they loved it.  End of story.




{I left Bugga's red eye because I thought it was funny that both of their eyes were glowing.  :D}



{Must be organized with our spoils.  This is one of those personal traditions that we all tend to pass along to (translate: force upon) our kids.}

Pumpkin Carving!

{10/28/09}

These are the pumpkins that the boys and I picked out at the Bates Nut Farm.  We kept putting off the carving and finally decided it couldn't wait anymore.  So we brought out our carving kits and went to town.  Buddha drew the face he wanted to carve directly onto his pumpkin, then The Chief and I helped the boys hold the carving knives and saw away at their jack o' lanterns.  Neither child wanted to so much as touch the guts.  Come to think of it, maybe that's because we call them guts.  :D  Fun times!











Turned out pretty good, didn't they? We never use stencils.  And mine are always pretty elementary.  But I'm quite impressed with The Chief's. Can you figure out which is his?

Nature Walk

{10/28/09}

We joined a homeschool Meetup group in the area and made the trek to the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve with some small number of members on this fine October day.  Buddha and Bugga had a great time hiking, exploring, chatting with their little friend Natalie, and making new friends.  We stopped to check out bugs and to color in nature binders.  It was a very serene and lovely hike with great company.





{Bugga said he was drawing a snake.  Buddha decided to master a rainbow.}




{Charred trees from the 2007 Witch Creek fire.}




{This gentleman is a Ukrainian Catholic Pastor down in La Mesa.  He was very friendly, but, sadly, in the midst of dealing with a break-in at his church building.  Below, he's describing Cattails to Bugga.  After his brief instruction, Bugga simply turned and slowly walked away, matter-of-factly stating "Yeah, I know."  The pastor and I looked at each other and busted up laughing.  Oh Bugga.  Bugga, Bugga, Bugga.  He cracks me UP!  :D}




{Evidence of the day's activities on the front of Buddha's shirt. He had toted a humongous, charred stick with him for half of the hike; it obviously left its mark on him. :D}

Trunk or Treat

{10/24/09}



This is literally the only picture I took the entire night. With three wards and their community friends all meeting in one building, it was absolute chaos and mayhem the entire night. I think we'll skip the trunk or treat next year. I couldn't even find any of my friends or my boys friends in the cultural hall. After a while (and a few cell phone calls) we finally managed to hook up, but then we'd just get separated again by the masses. All in all, more trouble than fun. For me anyway. :D The boys look like they're having a good time, right?!

On a related sidenote, Buddha picked out his costume this year.  I went to an online costume site and he insisted on being something scary.  He especially loved this one because it has eyes that glow and a scythe that menaces.  He's called a phantom.  Too bad they weren't allowed to wear masks or hoods at the trunk or treat for safety reasons (and good thing we consoled him with promises of happy haunting on Halloween night).  :D

Bugs, on the other hand, is wearing Buddha's hand-me-down Batman costume.  He was thrilled.  He would charge around holding his arms up at people (like he's doing in the picture) and tell them threateningly that he's killing them with the little pointy things on the sleeves.  I love little boys!

Bates Nut Farm

{10/23/09}

This is THE place to go for Fall fun in SD.  They have a hay bale maze, a tractor ride, pony rides, pumpkin picking, petting zoo, curios market.  It's just great.  Unfortunately, we went there on an unusually HOT Fall day.  I thought I might just die from heat exhaustion.  I'm such a wuss.  But the boys seemed to have a great time and that's all that matters.  The Chief couldn't make it to this excursion as it was during the week, but we went with two of my favorite families and I had plenty of help with my boys (thanks friends!).


{The real wheelbarrow races.}



{Kim and baby Aaron}




{Waiting for their turn on the pony ride.}







{Buddha staked an early claim on a seasoned-looking pony named Cowboy.}





{Bugs was reaching for the stars when he singled out Star for his lift.}


{Are you sure about this, Mom?}




{Oh yeah, I'm cool.}






{Corban and Jared}



{Ben and Aaron}



{Jared and Corban again (I LOVE this kid.  He gives the greatest grins and has so much energy it's infectious.).}



{Hay bale maze.  They had to find all eight stamping stations and stamp their cards.  We were seriously lagging behind the rest of the pack in the heat.  Bagels and heat . . . we don't mix well together.}



{Kim photographing her baby boy, Aaron.}



{Farmer Buddha.}



{Farmer Buddha pulling all the little boy pumpkins.}



{From left to right: Isaac, Bugga, Roman, Aaron, Corban}



{I took a chance and dubiously handed over the camera to Buddha to take a picture of all the adults.  He did pretty good, eh?!  From left to right: Ben, Kim, me, Amanda, Jared.}



{Me and my wild and crazy Bagel boys.}



{Tractor ride.}




{Here's Bugga just lovin' himself some pumpkin.}




{I told Buddha to lift up his pumpkin for a picture and he insisted he couldn't; that it was too heavy.  I convinced him to try and I'd take the picture quick.  This is what I got . . . and I love it!  :D}



{Bugga was a little less cooperative.  I think he was probably envisioning bruised toes.}




{Just look at the glossy, bright red cheeks!  It was so stinkin' hot.}




{This is what you get when you try to take a picture of six little boys together.  It's not perfect, but it's perfectly representative of their attention spans. :D}




{Jared built a pumpkin fortress with a space in the center for little bodies to be confined for pictures.  It was perfect!  Thanks Jared!!}