Trailer trash

We all know I'm dumpster diver (no new treasures lately, but just wait until college gets out!) but lately I've really been getting into our trailer - bike trailer, that is. Patrick LOVES it and wants to ride in it every day, rain or shine (or SNOW, which will definitely not fly), which has turned out to be great exercise for me*. Right now we only have one hook-up for it, so it stays permanently hooked up to my bike since Joe only comes along on weekends or night he gets off work early (sooooo... back to weekends), but this seems pretty darn unfair when Joe, the big strong male, is pedaling along on his merry way while his pregnant wife tows their other child in a trailer behind her. We're gonna need another hook-up, I say. I purposely did not include pictures of myself, since I'm wearing a bike helmet, which does not mesh well with bangs.

Enjoying the shade, holding the snack dispenser, which he REFUSES to let go of, and it's not even ours! I'd better buy one quick before I see the girl and have to give it back...

Hooray! At the park! ...Again! Third bike ride today!

*This is all part of Kirsta's Accidental Weight-Loss Plan. Apparently, all you have to do is get pregnant (seems counter-productive, but stay with me) and then nurse when you have the baby! It's like all those celebrities claim! It's really helpful if your baby inflicts gross dietary restrictions upon you, forcing you to eat brown rice and chicken breasts with green beans instead of the chocolate ice cream and cheese you so desperately crave; then your baby should be extra-clingy, causing you to get away the cheapest way you know how - $2 babysitting at the gym for 2 hours (you'll burn calories no matter how slow you go if you walk for 2 whole hours); then, clingy baby should chunk up and demand to be carried around, giving you not only buff arms but also some weird lower-arm stretch marks (why am I the only person in the world who has these?). When that baby gets older, you can then cart him around on your own horsepower and keep those maternity jeans at bay. You'll lose weight like MAD, and when your next pregnancy causes you to crave fresh fruit and vegetables, be prepared to walk into the doctor's office a few pounds even lighter. So do like me: get pregnant to lose weight!** ...or something like that.

**I'm not bragging, I swear! Did you notice the diet plan name? ACCIDENT? You can't brag about an accident.

Just keeping you over-updated

So it's just me who can't cut-n-paste here? While creating a post, I highlight what I want to cut or copy, then right click (normal, right?). FIRST it un-highlights everything, and then cut or copy aren't even options! Even if things would have stayed highlighted (which the DO NOT)! I swear I'm not retarded, but if someone could come over here and SHOW ME WHY I SEEM TO BE, that would be greatly appreciated. I can, however, cut/copy and paste on already posted blogs, so if THAT'S what you were thinking... well, that's a different ball of wax.

Also, I've been wondering - when do I have to morph into "Mom Mode" where I set an alarm to getup before the kids? Right now I just get up when Patrick gets up, but I know that sooner or later I'll have to get up earlier. Does this happen when baby #2 comes around? 6 weeks after baby #2 when I become a more normal, functioning human? Do I wait until baby #3? Does this happen by necessity when Patrick starts going to school in the mornings, or will I already be up early from attending baby #3? Are there over-achieving moms out there who already do this with only one child? I love me my sleep, so if the kids aren't up, I don't want to be, either! So I was just curious.

I wanted to spread the word that I am officially a GARDNER! I GARDEN! I bought a couple seed packets a while ago, then procrastinated planting them for about 2 months, and when I finally DID plant them I pretty much doomed them to failure by putting them under my care. I can't seem to grow anything, except for my one houseplant that is 7 years old that I can't seem to manage to KILL (talk about hearty!) Anyway, I had resigned myself to gardening failure, though I kept on watering my dirt pots, until two morning ago - a sprout! Then two sprouts! And this morning I woke up to 4 tomato sprouts and 3 zucchini sprouts, and I am OUTRAGEOUSLY proud. They're tiny, so I still have lots of time and opportunity to kill them, but I am crossing my fingers that before the summer is through I'll have fresh BLTs and yummy zucchini bread.

Ameteur

I've always liked scrapbooking, but I hated taking photos, so I had to beg, borrow, and steal to have anything to work with. Over time I realised this was due in large part to hating the pictures my cameras took - they were fuzzy, overexposed, underexposed, or just plain bad (because of the camera, not me! I swear!). I began relying heavily on people with GOOD cameras to allow me to beg or borrow (they obviously don't give me permission to steal, otherwise it would be called giving) so I could get these great photos that my camera could never take. When I noticed my sister's iPhone took better shots than my digital camera, the light bulb went off - maybe IIIIIIIIIII should just go get one of those awesome cameras! Joe agreed, and since he's more easily talked into large purchases than should be allowed, we quickly acquired a mid-grade bit of awesomeness. I've since checked out a few basic "Taking Good Family Photos" books from the library and this morning, while Joe slept in (I get Saturdays, he gets Sundays), Patrick and I took our new camera and new knowledge out for a spin. I think the results are... amateur... but decent. And also a little photo-shopped. The important thing was, we had fun! If anyone knows why photos posted on blogs do or do not produce an enlarged version when you double-click on them, speak now!

Life's little pet peeves

As a list maker, I (of course) keep a little running list of things that drive me insane. I'm not even writing because I'm currently in a bad mood, I just think of things during the day and think it's kinda funny to put them down. You're welcome :)

- When I miss a call, and that caller leaves a voicemail, it will tell me I have a voicemail but I have to bypass the voicemail screen to see who called so I know if I even want to LISTEN to the message, THEN I have to rummage around through various menus to re-find my voicemail and listen to it or delete it. If I'm lazy and figure "eh, I'll just hear what it is," my phone still says I have a missed call, even though I just listened to that caller's voicemail! DUH. How bout putting the cart before the horse, verizon? You lose, in my book.

- Some websites (like blogger.com) require you to enter their squiggly-lettered word so they know you're a person, not a machine (or something like that). Fine, whatever. What gets me is when the word is SO squiggly and fuzzy and cAPItoLiZEd and bold and m-a-r-k-e-d-t-h-r-o-u-g-h that even I, an intelligent human being, cannot decipher it. SERIOUSLY, your security system stinks!

- Over-zealous appliances that feel the need the alert you at top volume. Really, I HEAR YOU. There should really be volume controls you can program in - soft, for when your baby's sleeping and you just want to microwave a freaking hot pocket without the timer blasting them awake, regular for those regular days, and top volume for those 65 and older, who forgot they put a hot pocket in there in the first place.

- Overdone exclamation points!!!!!!!!!! I hate these!!!! Especially when the sentence isn't even exciting!!!!!! Did some amiss English teacher tell kids that extreme exclamation points is OK? Multiple periods doesn't make the sentence any more over, multiple commas does't create a larger pause... so why should we accept multiple exclamation points? I will accept the double-point, simply out of common usage (like how slang gets into the dictionary, I suppose) but NO MORE. Period period period period period.

- When girls flush the toilet while doing their business in a public bathroom. First, you're in a bathroom, in a stall - I'm guessing you're not just checking your hair. Don't think a flush makes you any more innocent; whether or not people can hear it, we still know what you're doing. Second, you're only making thing worse for yourself since flushing inevitably produces a cold spray of public-toilet water on your bare bum - yuck!! So now we know what you're doing AAAAAAND you have a cold, soggy bottom! And now you're all that AND you're annoying - at least in my book.

-Blogger not letting you cut-n-paste in your posts. How could you possibly NOT HAVE THIS? It doesn't make sense. Cut-n-paste is BASIC, they teach it in Kindergarten with safety scissors, surely we should be able to use it here.

I'll be sure to add again when life presents more of these little irratations, I KNOW you're on the edge of your seats just waiting to hear things that irk me :) So, what bugs YOU?

Meow... I mean, RAAAAAAAAR!

Patrick is quite the imitator so Joe thought it would be funny to teach him that his little housecat figurine is a mountain lion, and that it attacks poor horses by taking them down by the neck. Violent? Yes. But also? FUNNY! Also funny: the no-shirt-with-a-bib-on look. He'd been eating easter candy, so to avoid a sticky tummy and one less outfit in the laundry we opted for this fine ensemble. Later on we went to some sports stores and every stuffed animal we saw (mountain lions, yes, but also deer, elk, fish... you get the picture) apparantly also makes the same "raaaaaaaar!" So much entertinment from such a little person :)

Driver's Ed

Joe didn't teach Patrick how to rock out, and neither did I - crazy man just likes to turn it up and sway to the tunes!

Be kind, rewind

After three horribly sleep-deprived nights and nap-deprived days we're rewinding and putting Patrick's bed back to a cage.. I mean, crib. For reasons A, B, C, or all of the above, he's decided he simply can't sleep unless we are sleeping with him. We know that though it will get us through the night, we will most certainly regret the decision 6 months down the road when yet another baby requires our midnight attentions. Since he not-so-cutely discovered he can (and should!) climb out if we aren't with him, we fixed that problem - now he simply can't get out. His solution? Simply sleep standing up as close as he can get to us.