Christmas Lists

These days too many sentences around our house start with, "I want..."

Now I'm know I'm incredibly guilty of it, and I'm trying to be better. But PB is out of control. Perhaps giving him all of those toy magazines isn't such a good idea. At least 'tis the season.

Saturday is the Christmas festival at his school, and Santa Claus will be there. In all of his four years, PB has never sat on Santa's lap without screaming, shrieking and making a huge scene. I have great pictures :)

This year he may actually do it because of all the wants. We'll see. This morning he told me what was on his list, including a hang glider. "Not a toy hang glider." Why? "Because I need to fly over swamps and lakes and rivers and things." Also top of his list is a pogo stick. I don't think they make those in his size.

In other news, I've decided to start taking bets on if you think he'll actually make it down the aisle as ring bearer at my brother's wedding in two weeks. We've been talking about it for a long time; how it's a very important job; and how he'll even how he'll get cake afterward. We've also told him how a little boy his age (my brother's friend's son)Will will be there.

PB was fine with all of that...until he had to try on the tux. Now, not so much. The other day out of the blue he said, "I think Will should do it."

At first I had know idea who or what he was talking about. Then I got it. And it's come up repeatedly since. Tonight at dinner, "I think Will should wear the special outfit."

So we're pre-bribing. Currently we're up to two pieces of cake and a toy. I wonder what bribes we'll end up having to cough up to actually make it happen. Hmmm...makes you wonder why with such great parenting skills, he starts so many sentences with "I want".

Running Songs

Thanks to my wonderful friend J, who sent me an itunes card!, I now have some songs on my ipod. Our desktop has been fixed--hooray!--and my husband set my account all up and told me to go for it.

So I downloaded my first choice song, which I thought was called, "I would walk 10,000 miles." Actually it's called "I would be (500 miles)." so I was a few miles off, but I still think it's a great song to run to.

Then I sat and stared at the screen... and stared some more. My husband always teases me about having 1 million favorite songs. As in every time I hear a song, I say, "turn it up, that's my favorite song." But for the life of me I couldn't think of any songs I wanted. I finally came up with a few:

I had to do my John Lennon fav--"Beautiful Boy". Then I thought the tempo of "Fat Bottomed Girls" by the Who would be good. I searched for popular running songs and added and "Hollaback girl" by Gwen Stefani, which is good. I rounded it out with "Add it Up" by the Violent Femmes.

It just feels like so much pressure--picking the right songs. What those songs may say about me if someone should look through my playlists. What is really worth my 99 cents? 50 cent maybe? ha ha!

So I stopped at five. I'm sure they'll start coming to me and I'll soon be a downloading junkie. But for now, at least I have five. And I can't wait to go for a run!

computers

So now, not only is our desktop not working, our laptop is dead too. UGH! It's driving me crazy having no computer all day. I have to wait until my husband brings his home from work. We're going to have to fix this situation soon.

But really, I've been so busy unpacking, running errands and getting ready for Christmas, that I haven't had too much time to miss it.

Today I went to the mall to get some Christmas shopping done. Last year I received a gift certificate from Crate and Barrel that for some strange reason I STILL haven't spent. That's soo very unlike me--usually I spend money before I even have it. So today I browsed around and bought a new skillet, which was very practical as I need one. And then I bought a new fondue pot. Now I have a big fondue pot, but I rarely use it because it's big and needs sterno. This is just a cute little one that heats with a single tea light. It came with metal skewers and all for like $17. So guess what we had for dinner? Apples and cheese; whole grain bread and cheese; anything we could find to dip in cheese. And a big old salad. That's my idea of a perfect dinner. Okay, perfect would have been if we followed up with chocolate fondue, but we didn't go there...yet.

On the unpacking front, we're doing well. I would like to say (and would have predicted I could do so) that we're all finished. But we're not. The playroom just completely overwhelms me. I'm trying to sort out "baby" toys and organize; and all PB wants to do is get everything out of the boxes and bags I'm trying to move. I totally understand as he hasn't seen his stuff in forever, but it's not very productive. And the older the get, the smaller the toy parts get. And there are oh so, so many of them--EVERYWHERE.

Oh well, it will get done at some point. I'm really not stressing myself out about it. I'm just so happy to finally be home!

Gift

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to my brother. I was telling him how among the many other things I've put on hold until our house sells is the purchase of an ipod. Since I've started running again, I so want one. Back when we had just one mortgage, I would have just gone out and bought one. Now, as I watch our life savings flying out the window each month, I've become much, much more frugal. And so I have remained ipod-less, coveting all the white cords sprouting from the ears of the others I pass.

Then Friday I saw the mailman walking up to our door with a package. It was from my brother--a housewarming gift he had told me was on the way. I opened it up expecting a candle or gift certificate or something. But instead, there it was--my very own ipod Nano!

It was such a nice and completely unexpected surprise. There are too few of those in life I find, and I absolutely love them--both creating them for others and receiving them. He said he just thought I needed one.

So now I too will sport the white ear buds, and I'm so excited to go out and run with it. Except that in the move, our computer (desktop) is now not working. (Small vent--my husband spent a small fortune "building" a computer so it would have these special graphics features, etc., etc. He ordered all the parts separately, then had some super tech guy help him "build it." This was about six months ago, and since it's all special, it's not like it's under warranty and we can just send it back. So now, the super tech guy is back in Washington and my husband has no idea how to fix it--can you sense my irritation??? I knew it was a bad idea when he set off to do it in the first place. We should have just got a freakin' Dell or something. But I digress).

So I can't wait to start downloading some music and getting my running list down. I need input on good songs you love to run to (or think you would like to run to if you did indeed run)??? For whatever reason, the first song I want to download is "I would walk 10,000 miles". No idea why that's my first choice. It's not my favorite song or anything, it just pops into my head sometimes when I'm running. Let me hear yours.

P.S. Of course the whole experience also left me a little depressed as I think about my wonderful brother and other siblings, and how PB (probably) won't have any. Who will buy him an ipod someday? Who will he get to surprise like that?

From Amidst the Boxes

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm currently thankful that we're back online!

The move went great--most of our stuff arrived in one piece, and I've been happily finding spaces for all of our things, purging tons and just getting us all set up. It's been fun, but absolutely exhausting. Fortunately, I've been able to fall into my long-lost, huge, ultra comfy, king-sized bed each night.

PB is so happy with a new playroom and rediscovering all of his toys. Unfortunately, he's been most excited by his drum set, which we've heard A LOT of.

I'm in LOVE with my new shower that is so big I can dance in--and have. It's like a whole room. Do you think showering can become an addiction? :)

We took a break from the boxes and went to my husband's parents today, where we had a lovely turkey dinner. I think I ate 52 pounds of potatoes. I love potatoes. Well, really, I love potaotes when they're in the form of a potatoe casserole with butter, cheese, sour cream, buttered corn flakes on top--you know the one? I rarely eat it, but when I do, I can't get enough.

I just heated up some leftovers his mom sent home with us. And I could very easily finish off the rest tonight. I love the turkey, but besides that all I really need is this fattening, artery-cloggin dish. Keep your pumpkin pie, stuffing, cranberry sauce, salads, etc., just give me my midwestern staple! Yummm.

So much more to blog about. So much more to be thankful for. But right now, I think I need to go eat more potatoes.

On the Move

So for the past several days we've been loading up the cars and taking bags, boxes and suitcases of stuff to the new house. You would not believe the crazy enormous amounts we've accumulated since moving here. Of course, since none of our furniture is there yet, there's really nowhere to put said stuff, but it's still nice to have it there spread all over the floors, counters, etc.

Tomorrow is the big day when "the men in the big trucks come". We've been talking about them for so, so long, and now they will be here.

My husband asked his mother to come up and clean our current apartment, which has me a bit frazzled. I've hardly cleaned since we moved in as I didn't really want to acknowledge we were going to be here long. So I've spent a good part of today cleaning so that she can in turn clean tomorrow and not see the grossness this place has become.

In other news--got PB fitted for a TUX today! My brother is getting married in December and PB's the ring bearer. So cute. I'm thinking I'm going to wait to do Christmas cards until after that and just send them out late, as I know it will be a great photo op and I have not done anything else in that department yet.

Also, we have belatedly decided to go to Telluride the day after Christmas. It was not what I was planning, but it will be a lot of fun. My husband's (I've got to think of a good acronym for him) brother has a gorgeous place there and is footing the bill for our tickets in the spirit of the season. They have four incredible kids who PB adores, and we will do all sorts of fun, winter, snowy things. So while it will be fun, there's going to be a lot going on the next month in addition to my unpacking and organizing. Oh well, that's the way I like it.

Not sure when I'll be up and running online again, hopefully soon. But if you don't hear from me for a couple days, just assume that I'm lost blissfully among the boxes of my things... at last!

Conversation at the Park

PB: Mommy, I'm spider man and you're bat girl.

Me: No, I don't want to be bat girl, I want to be super girl.

PB: Mommy, you don't always get to be who you want to be.

TOUCHE!!!

We Have Keys

We got the keys to our new house today--hooray! PB and I played there for quite some time and had a great time. "This is my guest bedroom." "This is where my guests will go to the bathroom." an on and on as he showed me his house. It will be so good for him to get settled. I can not even wait to see how excited he is when he sees all of his toys that he hasn't seen in five months!

On the way out of the development we stopped at a lemonade stand some children were hosting. They were some of the nicest, most polite children ever. They talked and talked to me, asked questions and were very impressed that we moved all the way from Seattle. "You mean the Washington one?" a boy asked.

Another red-headed girl who was 10 (they all had to tell me their ages) asked me, "Are you Jewish or Christian?" I'm not sure I've ever been outright asked that question, but she was so incredibly sweet and very okay with my Christian status. She just wanted to make sure I knew what a Bar Mitzvah was.

So we're excited. But it was also a little anticlimactic because all of the things that I want to do and buy for the house are going to have to wait...until that little matter of Seattle house selling happens. I'm going to have to wait to paint, wait to get new patio furniture, wait to get new rugs, etc. And that sucks. But I'm into counting my blessings (or trying to be), so strike that negativity I just typed. I'm just excited.

Ouch

I took a boxing class yesterday. Not a kickboxing class, but a real-life don-your-gloves, hit-a-big-huge-bag, boxing class. It was kind of intense, especially as I was paired to spar (I think that's what I did) with the toughest looking chick in the place. I definitely got out some aggression and learned a few things, but I wasn't feeling particularly exhausted afterward.

Today, however, every muscle in my upper body and quite a few in my lower body are throbbing. My hands, fingers, wrists, forearm, and just go on from there. Wow! Not something I plan to do regularly, as I prefer more dance-y kinds of things when it comes to classes. But it was a good brush up on my upper cut, etc. You never know when it could come in handy.

In other news, guess what I wore today? A tank dress and sandals. And it's November 14. It's so freaky. Not in a bad way, just in a wow way. People here complain about missing the seasons, I'm not so sure I will. We'll see.

Couldn't contain my cooking bug any longer, and made a big dinner tonight though still apartment bound. Wes linked to a recipe for Chicken Marsala he had made, and as it's among my favorite dishes, I had to try it. It was excellent. I made that along with some garlic mushrooms, roasted asparagus and whole wheat pasta. Yumm.

And soon, I'll be able to cook to my heart's content, or at least as long as my jeans still fit. We get the keys to our new house on Friday! Woo hoo--we're very excited, but I won't use an exclamation point as we still haven't sold our damn house. Lowered price by another 20K today, we'll see what that does...

Names

"Stinky", "Poopy Head", "Stupid" and "Buster. Those are some of the names PB said a boy in his class called him. I burst out laughing on "Buster" and then quickly tried to regain a serious, concerned expression.

Then when I walked up to get him from preschool yesterday, I saw a kid sitting next to him proceed to hit PB on top of his head with his FIST. The teacher (who is great) was just saying goodbye to another child, and PB returned the hits, as I'm yelling for both of the to stop. I don't know what happened to prompt this, but fists? not okay.

His teacher handled it well, and we talked briefly that there's a lot of this going on at recess time lately, etc. She said PB is not the only one being called names, or getting hit, and they're all doing more of this lately. But PB is very sensitive, and it all seems to be bothering him.

I know it's unavoidable, but I hate this. He's never called people names before; and now he is. And I'm sure that there was a kid who taught each and every kid that does it to do it, but still, it makes me want to cry for the loss of his innocence, which seems diminished little by little.

They're good kids in his class from "good" families, and it's a great, loving preschool environment. I don't know if there's more they (or we) could or should be doing, or if this is just the inevitable start of years and years to come of this sort of thing. Probably the latter.

Let me state very clearly that I don't think PB is innocent in all of these situations. In fact, I'm sure he's the instigator in many. I'm so truly not one of those parents who think their child can do no wrong. In fact, I probably error on the other side, and first question what he did.

I tried to bring this subject up to a couple of other moms in his class this morning. Wrong move! Talk about defensive and pointing fingers. I wasn't even going there, I just really was looking for some comments like, "yep this is the age," or "it's so hard to see it start happening." Or maybe we'd talk to the teacher and see what she had to say. But I got something totally different, that really isn't even worth going into. Navigating parental politics is a whole other topic for another day.

(Sigh!) I just want to make sure I do the right things and give PB the tools he needs to navigate his youth successfully and without too much heartache. His new thing is "I always stick up for myself." I have no idea where he got this. And I'm glad he does. But should he really have to when he's 4-years-old? I know the answer is yes, but my heart says no. And I don't want him to turn around and emulate the inappropriate behavior he's seeing in others, but I know he will... I guess that's what parents are for and why parenting is a tough job.

Back

I'm back. It was a great trip. The leaves were gorgeous, and it was so good to see the mountains and the hills and the incredibly beautiful scenary.

I got to spend time, though not enough, with some of my wonderful friends. It was so good to catch up in person. I miss them so much, but know that it really doesn't matter where we live, we will always be friends.

The move went as well as I could have possibly hoped. The team of packers and movers were awesome, efficient and friendly. Our stuff is finally on the way!!! They think it will be here on 11/20, which is only EIGHT MORE DAYS!!! We can't wait.

The redeye flight home left me completely exhausted. I slept a couple hours yesterday when I got home, but it wasn't enough. Neither was going to bed at 8:30 p.m. last night. I'm still feeling out of it, and hope I didn't pick up a bug along the way, as my throat is feeling scratchy...

All in all, it was a good trip. It was such a mix of emotion--sadness at leaving my empty house--a house that I loved--sadness of leaving my friends. But also a realization about how much I'm looking forward to our new life here in Florida. And how much I really like the sunshine!

Just in Case

I don't like to fly. I don't hate it in a totally terrified way like some people, but I never like to be out of control. And bumps and the like scare me... a lot. But usually a glass of wine before I board, and I'm fine. Unfortunately, tomorrow my flight is at 7:15 a.m. so I don't think I can do wine that early. I'll just have to be brave. Plus, the cab is picking me up at 4:30 a.m. so I may just be too tired to be scared.

When I have PB and my husband flying with me, I'm much better. Because really my fear of flying/dying is just a fear of leaving them. I think of all the things I wouldn't be able to tell, show and teach PB as he grows. I think of my husband marrying another woman and how she would wouldn't do things the way I want them done. And I cry.

So just to make myself feel better, I'm going to make a list of some of the things I would want him to know if, God forbid, something happens to me. It's a small and very incomplete list, but at least it would be something to let him know the lessons I intend to teach him. So here goes:

Care about people and what makes them unique.
Ask questions.
Be kind.
Love to learn for the sake of learning.
Read voraciously.
Travel as much as possible.
Without good health, nothing else matters. Take care of yourself.
Buy the best quality your budget allows.
Be passionate about life and your interests.
Don't be afraid to fail.
Appreciate the arts and respect nature.
Count your blessings every single day.
Love passionately and wholly even if you get your heart might get broken.
Don't be afraid of change. Embrace it.
Don't waste too much time planning because life usually doesn't care about your plans.
Don't ever use religion to justify hatred or bigotry.
Be confident in yourself, yet humble.
Realize how small your world is, and see beyond it.
Pray.
Always look your best; appearance does matter.
Learn to love exercise--it's the secret to much health (mental and physical) and happiness.
Listen well.
Always strive to be the best at whatever you do, but don't quit when you're not.
Good manners and good grammar are golden keys and will open many doors for you.
Family is precious.
Friends should be treasured.
People change.
Sometimes friendships end or need to be ended, and that's okay.
Have courage to stand up and do the right thing. always.
Whatever you chose to do, do it passionately, or it's not worth doing.

There's so much, much more. And actually I hope that over the years I can continually add to this list and go back to it and see how we're all doing...

So with that, I'm off to finish packing and try to get a few hours of sleep. I doubt I'll have much time to post while I'm gone, but I bought a brand new notebook, so I'll write when I'm gone and upload when I return.

I'd love to hear from anyone of you--what are the most important messages/qualities you want to install in your children--whether they're already born or not.

Fall

The weather has been glorious for the past several days. It actually feels a little bit like Fall--mid 70s, cool crisp air. We slept with the windows open all weekend, and it's such a relief to be void of the recycled air. It's so nice to put on a pair of jeans, to make chili. Not that I need snow and real cold--really, I don't--but this is a nice change. If I could wear a sweater or sweatshirt on top, and flip flops on the bottom all winter, I would be thrilled.

I went for a run this morning--6 miles--and it felt great.I could feel the colder air in my lungs, but in a good way.

Packing tomorrow for my return to Seattle. Because I only have summer clothes here, I probably won't pack much. I will, however, take our two biggest suitcases so that I can bring some things back after I hit Trader Joe's and the Hannah Anderson outlet! Of course, all of the many, many items I will buy at Trader Joe's won't fit in my suitcase. So I intend to fully stock my pantry with TJ's items so that the packers can them come in and box it all up and move it out here to the TJ-less desert of Florida.

I'm getting more and more sad about leaving PB. But also getting really excited to just sit on the plane (in first class--thank you miles!) and read and be someone other than the mom with the toddler the entire plane fears.

Nothing

No word on the house. Frustrated to say the least. But trying not to let it consume me. Moving on...

Friday night was lots of fun. Great to catch up with a good friend, drank a bunch of wine and stayed up too late. A pizza at 2 a.m. did wonders absorbing the alcohol, and I actually felt pretty good the next day though.

The weather here has been gorgeous--high 70s, so we went to the park, to Sea World and generally tried to get out of the apartment as much as possible. I did a dance class on Friday at my gym, but wasn't able to fit in a run yesterday or today, which was a bummer. But the weather is supposed to stay so I'm hoping to get two good runs in tomorrow and Tuesday before I fly off to Seattle on Wednesday morning.

That's about it, sorry so boring.

Getting Ready to Party

One of my good friends from college is town for the weekend for a conference. So I'm picking her up tonight, and we're hitting the town. She's staying down by all the theme parks, andI'm staying at her hotel with her. That means the wine can flow, and I don't have to worry about driving.

It will quickly turn to champagne flowing if we get the offer on our house--they're there right now!

Have a good weekend!

I Lied

Okay, I know I said that I wasn't going to post anymore about my house until it sold, but I just can't help it. I'm sitting here on 8 billion pins and 12 gazillion needles waiting for word on what could be it!

It's one of the couples who loved our house and was supposed to make a decision last weekend. And the did. But they decided on another house. The other house itself is NOT nicer than ours. Ours is bigger, nicer, more updated, etc. I will give it to them for neighborhood--it's a nice one, but the real tipping point I think came down to the fact that the other house has a swimming pool. Now, in Florida a pool was a requirement for me. In rainy Seattle, however, I would personally avoid a house if it had a pool. All the care, risk, etc. would not be worth it to me for the 2 days a year you could swim. But to each his/her own.

So we thought we lost them, but they said if the inspection didn't work, we were their backup.

Guess what????? the inspection didn't work out and they walked!!!!

So last night their agent said an offer would likely be coming our way soon. They wanted to go back one more time (I totally get that and we do the same thing) and then if they decide to go with ours they want to close in two weeks--we can do that!!!

So it's far from a done deal, because really an offer does not necessarily mean it will be an offer we like (although we're so flexible now). But it's hope! It's the closest we have been to some financial relief, and I can't even stand how perfect it would be if it happened in these two weeks right before we move into our new home.

Please, please pray, send positive vibes and anything else in your arsenal our way!

It's only 7:30 p.m. there now, so perhaps the offer is being written as we "speak". Ugh, it's going to be hard to sleep tonight!