Mixing things up... with a guest post!

I've been in sort of a post funk lately, so I decided to pull in some reinforcements. My friend, known as "Lish" in her comments, is an amazing writer and should totally have her own blog. I think she even had a secret blog at one point, until she realized that the person she most frequently blogged about could easily discover her blog through a few quick google searches on key - and apparently frequently searched - words. She is going to be a writer in New York someday. I can't wait. I am going to brag about my friend, the writer in New York, when that happens.

One more note before we begin, Lish uses my real name - which I haven't yet revealed on my blog, so I will replace it with HAP - heart at preschool. For now. I'd like to do something more dramatic for the "big reveal"!

Oh, and THANKS for the post Lish! YOU ROCK!

HAP has asked me to guest post on her blog. I wish I had more time to come up with something titillating, but I know HAP, and she will want it done immediately. Like right now. This reminds me of a funny HAP story that I want to tell before I get into the meat of this blog. Those of you who know her can relate.

Back in the early, early 90s (stretch your imagination back to leggings and sweatshirts tied around your waist to hide your butt) HAP and I were both in colleges that were a twenty minute drive from each other, and we would often visit each other in our respective college towns. One day she drove down to my neck of the woods, and we decided to rent a movie at Blockbuster (damn! I didn’t realize how old Blockbuster is getting). I didn’t have a membership at that particular store so I attempted to open one at the desk. I don’t remember what the issue was – I probably didn’t have an ID or something or maybe the ID didn’t match my address, but the clerk was telling us I couldn’t open the account. The entire time this was going on, HAP was her normal, friendly, charming, easy-going self. So the clerk didn’t know what hit her when HAP lost her patience, pointed her nail at the application and said ferociously to the girl – JUST DO IT!! (I should add that I think the Just Do It Nike commercials may have been big at that time).

The clerk and I were both stunned into complete silence. The clerk recovered quicker, quietly and efficiently processed the application and we and our VHS tape were on our way. Of course HAP gave the clerk her most beatific blonde, blue-eyed girl smile and a sincere thank you on the way out. The clerk is probably still wondering if she had only imagined seeing the Aries Ram that lurked below the surface.

Whenever HAP and I get frustrated with anyone or anything these days and we happen to be together, we like to tell them – JUST DO IT!

Oh shoot! I was going to write a whole blog about my experience trying to apply for holiday work at Barnes and Noble the other day, but now my lunchtime is running out. You’ll have to just trust me that if I was a pretty gay boi, I would probably have been hired on the spot.

Thanks for having me!! Good times.

Pony Party

We had a "pony party" for Seesa's birthday this year. She is so into animals (or maybe that's me), that I thought it would be fun to create a whole animal-loving theme for her party this year. Or maybe I thought it would be fun for me. Hey, I'm the one throwing it. She can choose her own theme when she's old enough to kick down some cash for the party.

The party was the weekend before Halloween (yes, I am totally behind on my posts...). It was a super warm weekend and the party was all outside, in a little apple orchard at a horse boarding farm. There was a jump house and a little petting zoo. I had a Halloween mask making craft, a unicorn pinata and I made pony cupcakes. Thank you anymommy for the cupcake idea from your post about your son's birthday. I just looked at your pictures, and tried to copy the cupcakes. Not bad, eh?

And then there were the pony rides. SO fun for all the kids. I had told Seesa that she could ride as many times as she wanted, since she was the birthday girl. I could barely get her off the ponies. Little sister Milly rode too.

After Seesa blew out her birthday candles, she told me what she wished for... her own pony.


Hmmm...wonder how long I'll be able to appease her with bunnies.



Happy Birthday my Halloween baby!!!

Interesting times

I'll never forget this fortune cookie I opened once that read "May you live in interesting times".

It's been over a week since my husband and I had a big argument. We had a long discussion about it this weekend, and I'm at a loss for words. I'm not even sure why I'm writing this post, except that maybe I just wanted to get down in writing how I'm feeling right now.

Sometimes the simplest thing can be more complicated than I can even wrap my mind around, all at the same time.

And as Forrest Gump (it was on HBO this weekend) would say, that's all I have to say about that.

Happy Birthday Seesa!

My oldest daughter turned 5 years old on October 31st. I love that my first was born on Halloween, my favorite "holiday". Here is our birth story...

My due date was October 29th, and we did not find out what I was having while I was pregnant - although I was pretty confident that it wasn't puppies. Sorry, had to say it. I had visions of myself pushing through labor being so excited to find out the sex of our baby. I looked forward to hearing the words, "It's a ___!"

For a couple weeks before my due date, I was supposed to be taking it easy and monitoring my blood pressure, which had been high. I also had to go to the hospital every few days for a "stress test". As part of these tests, they would do an ultrasound. During one of the ultrasounds, the nurse commented that my baby had big feet. This didn't surprise me, because my husband is tall.

October 29th came and went, and I had to go in for a stress test on October 30th. I hadn't slept all night, and really hadn't slept well for the few nights leading up to that because I had such horrible heart burn that I couldn't even lay down comfortably. I tried to sleep sitting up, and even that was tough. I was too tired to take a shower before I left for my appointment that morning. I had planned on coming home, and take a nice warm shower and trying to rest. Well, I didn't make it home, because at the stress test they told me that I had to check in because my blood pressure wasn't good. I called my husband, and told him to meet me at the hospital.

They proceeded to induce me, and labor started quickly. I didn't have a lot of break between contractions. Bring on the pain meds. I started with Fentanyl. It didn't really take away the pain, it just made it oh so much more bearable. Fentanyl got me through an episode of my favorite show, Survivor. My contractions continued, but I had only dilated to 2 centimeters. That's when the tall, bald, Russian anesthesiologist (the best in the hospital) came in to talk to me about an epidural. I asked if he thought it was too early for an epidural. He simply said "You have pain. You have epidural." I realized then why he was the best in the hospital.

My blood pressure continued to be a problem and they had to put me on magnesium sulfate. At one point, I was hooked up to what we lovingly called "the Christmas tree" of drip lines. My OB - whom I loved - came in and asked if there was any orifice they hadn't stuck something in yet. Nice.

Finally, around 11pm, my OB told me that I had to have a c-section. It actually turns out that I had HELLP syndrome - hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes and low platelet count. Basically, I could die. Nice. It turned out that the "heart burn" I thought I was feeling, was actually my liver. Distending. I was perfectly fine having a c-section, because I really wasn't set on a specific birth plan. I knew enough to know that anything can happen, and every birth is different and most likely not what anyone expects. All I wanted was my baby to be born healthy. Oh, and also to live to be my baby's Mother!

Thing was, we were so close to midnight at that point, that we really wanted to hold out so that our baby would be born on Halloween. As luck would have it, my OB had another patient right next door who also needed to have a c-section, but she was desperate to not have her baby born on Halloween. I heard my OB telling the nurses - ok, we need to get this one born before midnight, and this one out after midnight.

At 1:46am on October 31st, we welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world. I sort of remember the doctors saying "It's a girl!", but apparently I was so hopped up on the mag, and whatever other medications they had me on, all I said was "Does she have big feet?". I do distinctly remember my husband bringing her over to me and just touching her cheek in disbelief. She was amazing.

She still is.

Happy Birthday my little pumpkin! You are my heart, my joy, my muse, my hope. I love you with all my heart!!!

Hope Won

Yes it did.

After hearing Obama's victory speech - I'm not sure I've ever been so moved, or filled with so much hope for the future.

Hope did indeed win tonight.

God Bless America.

The only thing that tainted my feelings about the progress America has made, was the choice California made on Prop 8. Thanks to my sister for leading me to this great post on the subject, that expresses better than I could - or maybe am willing to at this point - how I feel.

Election Day

This was a weighty election day for me. I found myself in tears as I left the voting booth. I guess it just hit me how historical this is. Also, though I have not written about it, I have some very strong feelings about a couple of the propositions on the ballot. (NO on 8, by the way!)

I was wishing that I'd brought my oldest daughter to the voting booths with me. I had visions of imparting the importance of this day, and of having the right to vote, and speaking your mind in general. Then I realized that, at 5 years old, the most she'd probably get out of it would be the "I voted!" sticker.

I'll just tell both of my daughters about the experience someday when they are older, in some "I remember when..." speech. They'll both yawn and say, "Yah, yah - you already told us that Mom. Shut your pie hole."

HAPPY ELECTION DAY! ROCK THE VOTE EVERYBODY!

SYPH

My friend SJ and I have a little saying that we like to use. Clearly, we didn't invent the saying, but it just makes me giggle every time we say it. Today, SJ even made up an acronym for it - SYPH = Shut Your Pie Hole.

SJ and I work together, and we find that we have the opportunity to use this line frequently, especially lately. Whenever we are in a meeting and someone is droning on and on about something irrelevant, or just plain boring. Shut Your Pie Hole. Whenever someone writes an email to someone else congratulating them for basically doing their job. Shut Your Pie Hole. Whenever someone says something that we don't agree with, or is just annoying. SYPH!

Now, we can increase our email response speed or even write a little note to each other in a meeting using our new acronym. Of course, we don't actually say Shut Your Pie Hole to people's faces. At least not unless we know them well enough to have a good idea of how they'll take it.

SYPH makes me happy. For some reason, it just seems to make the hardest times more bearable.