365 days 251-255

 9-20-12
Just sumpin'.

9-21-12
I ran as far away as my remote would let me.  Not shabby!  And can you believe I've gone this far into a 365 challenge without a tripod??  Yep.  We have a small one but it doesn't support the big SLR.  I improvised this one with a music stand.  Lucky for me, all the neighbors were at work and didn't stare at me all weird as I marched across the street with a music stand and camera.  Also luckily for me, the wind didn't topple the music stand over.

9-22-12
Sock season is upon us.  I got a few of mine out, and realized I have very few normal looking socks.

9-23-12
Remember how I was all THE AUTOFOCUS IS BROKEN IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!!!!??  Husband figured out what was wrong and ordered a new lens.  That was all!  I figured it would be a huge gobs-of-money problem, and it ended up being around $75. Whew!  Anywho, in my focus-less time it made me experimenting with capturing silhouettes.  I need to keep working at it obviously, but it was fun to do this one over and over and over!

9-24-12
Oooooo!  After a few failed attempts with a tube of material, this worked out much better with a plain cardboard tube.  And then a little computer-y magic to bling out my baby blues.

Anyone have any ideas for pictures?  I've done over 200 of these puppies and I'm running out of idears.

Ooo, and I got some nifty news today!  Remember when I was all "I'm going crazy, I need something to distract me and look forward to!!"  Well, the hubs called me today and announced he'd just purchased some killer seats to a Bela Fleck show ON MY BIRTHDAY!!  I've loved Bela Fleck since I was in high school - he's this caraaazay banjo player and right now he's touring with a jazz trio.  YUM.  SO YUM.  And here's the nifty part - his mom is coming to visit and we're going to drive down on my birthday, have lunch with husband, then she's leaving me, taking the Dude back up home and I'll have the afternoon in Madison to shop and hang out, then dinner and the show with the husband.  !!!!!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I officially have something to be positively giddy about.

365 days 242-250

 9-11-12
Feeling up.

9-12-12
Though it took about 12 attempts, I successfully skinnied a hideous pair of boot-ish cut maternity pants. I kept sewing it wrong then unpicking the seams - which I actually adore doing.  Maybe I subconsciously did it on purpose...

 9-13-12
View from the top.

 9-14-12
I discovered a pair old snuggly pants in my maternity stash that had me feeling glorious.  Is there any way I can wear wear nothing but velour track suits and not look... well, like this?

 9-15-12
See the otter?  The daughter?  The reflection of the mom-er?  We took the sweetest excursion to Mad-Town to see the zoo and discovered a 7-11 on the way.  Slurpees?!  Heavenly day.  It hurt to head home.  It also smelled, too.

9-16-12
We actually escaped the kids for a few sweet minutes and lay in bed before they found us.  I do so love being his partner.

 9-17-12
A dress in progress.  I'm quickly out-growing my clothes, so I snagged this material for $3 a yard to try and make myself a dress.

9-18-12
I even ironed it too...  I am looking embarrassed because I'm well aware that this looks like a hospital gown. If I take the hem up a few inches, are there any accessories that can save it?

9-19-12

At some point I'll make this material into a skirt for WonderGirl.  For now, ooooo, look who's pretending to be artistic!

oh wait...

We moved to Wisconsin 3 years ago when the husband had a job in a teeny town.  Then we bought a house 2 years ago in a slightly-less teeny town and the husband commuted a few minutes to the teeny town.  But last year, the job situation became toxic and the husband went a-courtin' interviews again.  He interviewed in lots of places, and even in Mad-Town just to be fair to the poor cheese state.

We did not expect to stay here.

But the job he took ended up being in Mad-Town.

He now commutes an extra long way.  To an actual city.  With city stuff and probably less cows.  While we still live in the slightly-less teeny town than the original teeny town.

This fact has slowly dawned on us, especially since he discovered how many hundreds of dollars he spends on gas, commuting to the actual city.  And we ask, WHY are we still here, exactly???

Well, first, moving stinks and is expensive.  This is the THIRD house we've owned in our short almost 8 year marriage, and the moving between different places equals to something like 7 times so we know whereof we speak.  Our bank account agrees that it doth stink.

The neighbors on one side FINALLY sold their house after at least 2 years on the market!!!!  The problem is, then the neighbors on the OTHER side just moved to Chicago and put their house on the market.  Ugh.  So unloading this place is obviously being put off until the neighbor's house sells.  And then there's the undeniable fact that you really can't sell a house here during the snow or ugly season, so you've got a brief  late spring/summer window before you are up a creek until next year.  There's only 2 houses on our block too (the other neighbor is a corner lot).  Double ugh.  And I'd have to live in it while I was trying to sell it... and with 2 kids (and by then, a baby) that's pretty impossible.  It would look seriously unappealing, although it's a lovely home, just in rural Wisconsin, being inhabited by hobos.

The kids are in decent school situations, although I know it wouldn't be too hard to find a situation that would work for them.  They're pretty easy going, especially with the Dude only requiring hugs and WonderGirl only requiring ALL THE ATTENTIONS.

So we're stuck here in this small town where we get to try and handle our church responsibilities - which have their challenges everywhere, I know, but everyday when I think about what I'm doing and how I'm still a failure at it all and annoying the heck out of the locals at every turn, the idea of just taking off sounds soooo delicious.

Maybe next year?  uuugghhhhh.

So I'm forcing myself to make a list of all the things that don't stink about living here.  Because at this moment, I need as much positivity flowing through my system as possible.  Since presently, I am full to the brim of ARRGJSDLRKWJSGAAAAAAAAA.

1.  The closest movie theater as $5 tickets every day except weekend evenings.  It's in the Dells, so it's all touristy and they need bodies the other times.  Not that I ever really have the chance to go to movies, but it's a peaceful feeling know it's an option.

2.  No traffic.  Well, almost none.  I have to drive by 2 nursing homes to get to Main St. so I can get stuck behind some slooow clunkers - although only when I'm late.  I'm counting it up, and I think there's only 8 traffic lights in the whole town?

3.  Fantabulous early services for the Dude.  We did seriously luck out - and our non-verbal Dude will now not hush up.  It has been the one huge miracle of moving to Wisconsin.

4. Everyone knows me at the library.  That's kind of cute.

5. There's an Aldi in town.  For a town this size, that's pretty awesome.

6.  The parks are pretty cool.  There's one across the street, too.

7.  It doesn't always smell like cows.

8.

Okay, I'm losing it here.  Ideas??

hey hey ho ho that varmint there has got to go

I'm going insane here, people.  Not the usual insane.  The other insane.

There's a dead mouse in the basement.  I know this because I saw it.  I saw the sleeve of saltines it desecrated Wednesday, and when I went to a grab a music stand this morning, it was lazing around in the mousetrap.

It's still there.  There are frozen pizzas in the freezer down there that I really want to consume, but I will not.  Until the husband comes and disposes of Stuart Little.

Then this morning, as I went to the kitchen to make my children their traditional Friday Chocolate Chip Waffles, I saw a spider on the counter.  Not a little one, one of the big gross disgusting only-ever-found-in-the-Amazon ones.  I stood there, unsure of what to do because it was close to a bag of produce and you KNOW the second I'd try to smash it it would escape and then I'd have to spend the entire day in the car.

Miraculously, I managed to smack a cup on top of it.  And it is still under that cup.  It will remain under that cup until the husband returns home.  Oh sure, he'll mock me.  That's fine.  I am carrying his child in my uterus and all I ask - nay, DEMAND is that vermin of the non-human variety are to be attended to by HIM.  That's all.  Oh, and home and shelter and all car maintenance.  And snuggles.  And computers.  And cameras.  n'stuff.  I'm seriously one lucky woman.

It's getting colder fast, and I'm well-aware that the mild winter we had last year was directly related to my fragile mental state due to the up-in-the-air-ness of the husband's work situation, and since we are relatively stable-ish now, Mother Nature shan't be pulling any punches.  And we know how much I adore winter (no.no.no).  I used to love fall, until I moved here and realized what came next.

People, my wanderlust is hitting so hard I can barely breathe.  There's a mouse in my basement, I live in the most idyllic but tiny midwest town that shut down its gifted and talented program so she is reading at a 3rd grade level, learning her alphabet AGAIN.  It's fine, like I said, she's in the right place for her emotional level, but I'm jittery.  

Last year I had the most amazing trip to NYC to look forward to and now that the leaves are turning, I can't help but think about it obsessively.  Mostly because I would give my soul for a cream cheese and lox bagel with capers right now.

I snapped this right before I had the best nap I have ever had in my life, right there in Central Park.  HEAVENLY.  It was a once-in-a-blue-moon opportunity and I ate it up with a spoon, and I need something, on a smaller scale to look forward to right now.  Because it's going to snow, I'm going to have a newborn and a massive case of psychosis that is my gift when I birth humans.  YAY.  

And there's a mouse in the basement and a spider in the kitchen.  DUDE.

365 days 237-241

 9-6-12
Just a normal, hide-in-the-house sort of day.  Several people on my 365 forum thingy said this reminded them of Cousin It.

9-7-12
 Bump watch.

9-8-12
 I've had a gift card to Kohls for at least 3 years and could never find anything I wanted that was Gift Card Worthy.  It's been kind of nice, when I needed a break, to go there and look around for an hour or so.  And since I couldn't ever find anything, I'd get another excursion to look forward to!  But my torso is expanding and my closet is shrinking, so I had gave Kohls a shot.  The maternity section was (as usual) too expensive and everything was too short.  I'm not that tall, but they assume allll pregnant women are 5'5.  GRBLUPLENNNN.  The plus section had one top I liked though.  I never thought I'd like wearing such a tent-y top, but desperate times call for desperate wardrobe choices.

9-9-12

Sundays are hard.

9-10-12
Teeth cleaning.  I say I get bonus points for telling the hygienist about my 365 project and then snapping away while she was right there.  I'm really self conscious about self-portraiting, but today I took pictures while a stranger cleaned my teeth!  Breakthrough!

a few guffaws for your monday

The superfluous apostrophes make me slightly violent.  Also I wonder what a P.K. is, but I don't want to google it, just in case.  Although I shouldn't be too worried, Mormons are higher on the list anyway!  Although the mysterious P.K. group is still slightly worse than an emo...  hrm...

I know it's know it's photoshopped.... poorly...  but it's still high-larious.

I actually laughed so hard I cried a little.  so. many. flies.

ramble-y friday

So I just had to add that annoying word verification thingy because of the 396 kajillion spam comments I've been getting lately.  Has anyone ever ordered pharmaceutics based off of a comment someone anonymous left on their blog?  Doesn't seem like it would be a huge market, but le sigh.

I survived this week.  That in itself deserves a big bag of chocolate, but my pregnant state forbids it, without a stiff consequence.  So I'm high-fiving my own face.  Seriously folks, I survived WG's first week of school.  And the Dude's first day of school.  Shifting nap times, shortened children hours, tears from all of us,  it's ridiculously stressful.  Yesterday while the Dude napped and WG was blissfully away being educated at kindergarten, all I could do was sit in a chair and have a panic attack.  Because in 5 hours Daddy was coming home and we'd have to eat dinner and I had no idea what to make.  I know I should plan these things out, but I am horrible at food and have to go with whatever I see at the moment, planning just doesn't work.  Except I never have the ingredients for whatever I want and the thought of going to the store is more stressful than planning meals.  BRDKLJKSRGHQAAAAAAAAA.  I'm even boring myseeeeellllffffff.

Also, wanderlust is hitting me hard.  I just realized we've lived here for all of WG's 4 first days of school.  In a teeny midwestern town.  Which is still a loverly place, I swear, but still the culture shock refuses to give up. Just now, I was resting on my bed and heard mooing.  Because the cows are RIGHT OUTSIDE MY YARD.

And I got this in WG's backpack today:

Sweet, right?  Except I didn't realize these were all the sight words the kindergarteners were expected to learn for the year.  That's it??  Holy snap, what on earth are they going to do with her during class??  Don't worry, there's a specialist working on her case right now figuring out what to do and what to give her, but when will she finally be learning something new??  For a lark, I handed her the sheet and asked her to read me the words.  So she started reading me the instructions.  And this is all they expect out of them for the entire year.  I seem to remember kids reading by the end of kindergarten in our previous school district in the ATL.  Ugh.

Living here has been wonderful in capital letters for the Dude, but I wonder what WG could be doing if there was some place that was actually teaching to her intellectual level AND her emotional level.  Because she is emotionally in the perfect place for her.  In the end, I suppose, that is the most important thing for my still-just-5 year-old sunshine.  Patience...

Also, you bloggity friends are the first ones to know that I just felt the fetus try to kick me for the first time.  It was more of a nudge, but it rolled around in baby-fashion and not it's-just-gas fashion.  I'm an expert in that. Just one more month or so until I get to find out the gender and I can start feeling like this is actually happening.

This morning WG was in a tizzy because she wasn't eating her breakfast and the Dude would sneak over and eat it - to which the solution was to just GO AHEAD AND EAT IT YOURSELF.  But I realized the Dude really needs a younger sibling around to drive him as crazy as he drives WG.  But then what do I do for THAT younger child?  Do I just drive them crazy myself?  Because that's about the extent of my parenting expertise.

Aaaaaaannnnndddd ramble-y e.mail over.  Have a great weekend, folks!

365 days 227-236

 8-27-12
While at a park, I missed a call from my mom in China and then the number was busy, arg!  So I logged onto Skype on my phone just to see if I could IM her on it, and lo and behold, it let me video!!  My old cracked phone let me see my mommy!  But not at the same time she saw me, because I don't have a front facing camera :)

8-28-12
 Skype on an actual computer today, but it wasn't as cooperative.  Mom was stressed out, as you can see.  Can you see me?

8-29-12
 Snuggling with my sugar daddy.

8-30-12

I was trying a leap-y picture, but the camera was acting really off.  Hrm.

8-31-12
 Today the camera wouldn't work at ALL, so I'm researching the problem.  The verdict?  Auto focus is dead.  How can I take self portraits and pictures of a 3 year old without auto focus?!?!

9-1-12
 More researching.  VERY unhappy about the lack of SLR.

 9-2-12
Did a good deed and made some cookies for a family.  The tasted... well... it's the thought that counts, right??

9-3-12
 Labor Day!  The brave husband took us canoeing down a nice wee river in town.  We all loved it, except for the Dude who HATED the life jacket and screamed the entire time.  Poor thing.  Especially because the river was maybe 2 feet deep most of the time.

9-4-12
 First day of school... the teacher read us the Kissing Hand, so I gave her plenty of kisses.  She loved it, I cried like a hopeless crazy person for hours.

9-5-12
A taste of the Asia.  A necklace the husband got me from China and a jacket a friend brought me from Korea.  The south one.

One good thing about pregnancy insomnia hitting ever so barely is that when I wake up early, I can get on Skype and talk with my mom who is just finishing her day.  I miss her so much it hurts.  And this camera broken thing is REALLY a downer.  Thankfully I still have my Canon Powershot and my phone but I really need my fancy schmancy one.  I'm not much of a photog, but it's so nice to try and learn.  And distract me from life.

Yesterday the Dude had his first day of school, which was quite the experience.  He loved it until he saw me leave, then he crumpled and cried the fattest, saddest tears the world has ever seen.  And then apparently after I left he actually got the window open and tried to escape.  It's one of those complicated roll-y ones they have at our church sot he teachers were really impressed he figured it out so quickly.  But after a few hugs and assurances from the teachers that they were "happy" - he was a star kid.  He actually screamed "ARE YOU HAPPY??" at the teachers until they figured out what he was saying and said they were, then he stopped abruptly, took a deep breath and said "Okay, I happy too."  And was calm and fine from then on.  Oh, my Dude.

Now... anyone want to come over and potty train him for me??

PS - While he was at school, I had a doctor's appointment and the fetus seems in good form.  15 weeks along!