The Seven Year Itch/Father's Day

Today, I have been married for seven years. And the seven year itch is no where to be seen.

Seven years ago, I was 20 years old. I look at 20 year olds now and think about what babies they are. The first batch of students I ever taught are 21 now.

But, oh, what a grown up I thought I was. And so I told Jake that I wouldn't "shack" with him and that if he didn't marry me I was moving back into the dorms when summer was over. He says he's glad I forced his hand, and I totally believe him. ;-)


Jake was fresh out of basic training and I was in between my sophomore and junior years in college.

We were broke, so broke, and living in this little shanty of an apartment. Every Thursday, we'd load up all our laundry and haul it over to the ghetto to the laundromat. And God knows we looked like we belonged there, because all of our good clothes were dirty. By Thursday we were wearing the dregs.

And now we've survived so much together. A deployment. A very early, very sick baby. The purchase of two houses, three cars, and a motorcycle. The adoptions of 6 pets. A beautiful home birth with another rapidly approaching.

We've come a long way since we were the 20 year olds who got hitched. I wouldn't trade a second. Not one.

And on another sappy note, happy father's day to the best man I could've ever picked to have children with.


We have a lot of laughs around here, can you tell?

Some Days

Some days, the pitter patter of little feet running up and down the hallway makes me want to pull my hair out. It grates.

Some days, the boys seem to do nothing but fight. Spencer lives to torment Jack, it seems. Spencer better hope Jack doesn't remember; I have a feeling the tables will turn as soon as Jack realizes he's almost as big as Spencer.

Some days, I seem to have a million errands to run and both boys seem to do nothing but fuss and whine. They are hungry when they just ate. Thirsty when they just drank. Hot when the car can't be a degree above 73. Tired when they just woke up from naps.

Some days, I'm tempted to look at them and yell "FINE THEN!" and turn on Barney and Calliou for the entire day while I hide in my room. Barney and Calliou can soothe the savage beasts, I tell you.

Some days, I can't move for a kid clinging to my leg. I can't be out of sight for .42 seconds before someone is crying my name in agony because they dropped their bowl of goldfish or bumped their head on the super plush couch.

Some days, I want to put them both in bed at 5:00.

Today, well, today was not one of those days.

Today, my kids rolled with the punches with as little belly aching as I have a right to expect from a 5 year old and 15 month old.

Today, the pitter patter of little feet running up and down my hallway was punctuated with peals of laughter.

Today, Spencer and Jack hardly fought. They played "puppy" instead.

Today, no one clung to my leg while I tried to cook or pressed themselves to the shower door while I was trying to clean my weary body.

Today, I relished in my children. I relished that I was their mother and they were my kids. Imperfect and wonderful, all three.

Playing Around

I'm playing around with the template of the blog, so pardon the work in progress for a bit!

25 Weeks, a Winter Hat, and Other Randomness

Today, I roll over into my 25th week of pregnancy. I am huge, but I hear that frequently happens with pregnancies so close together. And I can tell this has been harder on my body, which makes sense when you think about the fact that my body hasn't had a break since May of 2008. I did 9 months of pregnancy with Jack, then nursed him for a year, and several months of nursing overlapped with this pregnancy. So my body has really been proving what is made of the last few years.

But even though I can tell it has been harder, I still have no complaints. I feel good. Thanks to my memory foam mattress topper, I'm still able to sleep on my stomach part of the night (a big grateful shout out to my mother-in-law for getting us that for Christmas one year). I'd be sleeping all night long if I didn't have a pesky little toddler who likes to wake up from 1-3 times each night. But even that is a vast improvement from the 8+ times he was waking up while he was still nursing at night, so I'll take it and be grateful for it.

I'm quite convinced that our young belly dweller, Fin, is a big baby. Bigger than Jack was at this point, for sure. I would not be surprised at all if he weighed somewhere between 9.5 and 10 pounds at birth.

Big 'ol belly (pardon the crazy hair, we went to the pool today):


I've done practically nothing to prepare for Fin's arrival. I picked up some really cute receiving blankets, a gown, and a couple of outfits on crazy sale from the Carter's outlet, but that's it. You would think that with having a third boy, there wouldn't be much to do. But Spencer and Jack were both spring/summer babies, so most of the itty bitty stuff that I have are short sleeved. Fin is due mid-September-ish and it starts to get chilly here in late September or October, so I'm going to need some long sleeved bitty things this time around.

Part of getting ready for Fin means knitting some longies and soakers for him. I haven't picked up my knitting needles in probably four months, so until yesterday they still held Spencer's incomplete winter hat. I finally buckled down yesterday evening and finished it. Fortunately, I'm terrible and sizing heads (just ask poor Jake; I've knitted him 3 winter hats and they've all been way too big or too small) and it is a bit big on him now. I bet it will fit perfectly (or at least much better) by next winter.


In other news, it seems I am unemployed for the summer. The Mother's Day Out program that I work at simply did not have enough kids in my room to keep me working. One of my kiddos jumped ship and went somewhere with regular child care hours (we are only open until 2:30), and two have aged out of my room. That only left me with Jack, who I don't pay for, and another little boy. That won't even pay for me on a day to day basis.

So I offered to keep a few kids at my house this summer and so far it is working out great. I'm not making as much money, but I'm also only keeping them 2 days a week at this point, which has been really nice. It is less stressful for me b/c Spencer and Jack can sleep as late as they want and hang out in their pajamas when they get up, so I'm not running around every morning like a crazy person getting lunches packed and shoes on feet.

A very awesome side effect of this is that the house is staying pretty clean. It has been really nice!

Random pics from our first few days of summer:



And please don't think I'm shorting Spencer on the picture front. The kid is on an "I don't like" kick and right now one of the things he doesn't like is having his picture made. He either runs away at the sight of the camera or ends up looking mad. That should bode well for the professional pictures I'm having made of them on Friday. Oy.

Adventures in Baking: Boule

I haven't been doing much baking, especially since the shocker of my pregnancy. Before this, the last time I baked was when I blogged about it, and I'm pretty sure that was before we knew about this new guy.

I'm feeling a bit better about things recently (and I do mean just a bit, a bitty bit), so I broke out my big bucket for some fresh bread.

Boule is the very basic recipe in my bread book, but it is by far the most delicious and versatile one I've made.

Butter + garlic salt + boule=heaven, FYI.

Anyway, here's the bread at just mixed:

At 1 hr:

2 hrs:


The spoils of a baked loaf:


If you have the book, make this bread! So simple and so, so good.