Pondering

I find myself at an odd stage in the pregnancy. The baby is due in three weeks and I alternate between wanting the baby to come right now and wanting it to wait until I can finish up one more thing. I try to will the baby here on "convenient" days and will it to cook a little longer on "inconvenient days." My will power isn't all that powerful, I've discovered.

I read the chapter on labor and delivery in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" which should not be allowed. There are things better left forgotten when it comes to labor and delivery. Although, they had tips for the coach my personal favorite being "If she tells you not to touch her, don't be offended, just take a few steps back." Thank you. It's a little hard to speak kindly to people when you can't even remember how to breathe correctly.

Also, something that should not be allowed- watching baby shows on TLC. The one I just saw the other day followed a family home from the hospital and showed how they adjusted during the first 36 hours at home. Don't show people the HARDEST part of having a baby. That first sleepless night, the...*ahem* discomfort after giving birth, not to mention the oh so fun discomfort of the feeding process. And for my male readers I will leave that topic alone.

The weirdest part of all of this is I find myself thinking once the baby comes it will immediately start to grow up. And then not be a baby anymore. Which makes me want another one. Which I realize is INSANE but I'm just telling you my thought process. Chad's take is "Well, if you want 4 you might as well go for five. Or stop at 3." Which I think means he wants to stop at three because 5 makes me hyperventilate a little (a lot).

And it's fixed!

Sorry about that...didn't mean to leave you wondering for so long!

The instructions from the computer fix it guy were to take the laptop apart piece by piece. Certain pieces were then submerged (yes- SUBMERGED) in distilled water overnight. I was hyperventilating at that point because in my mind submerging computer parts in water was a bad idea. The pieces then needed to completely dry out over a couple of days and then put back together. Not only did it work but the laptop works better than it has in awhile. I think it needed a good cleaning.

Now, here's the lesson learned (and, no, it's not to keep hot drinks away from the laptop- I'm drinking hot cocoa as we speak)- what if I decided the computer guy was crazy and refused to do what he said? Logically, it didn't make sense. If I would have ignored him the laptop would be forever broken and I would be out quite a sum of money. But instead, I trusted the professional and all is well.

Isn't that just like life? How often does God want us to do things that don't logically make sense? It's something I've been pondering for a good two weeks. Something to think about.

An Awful, Horrible Thing

I may have quite possibly done the worst possible thing ever. I mean, really, the worst thing ever.

Last night after dinner, Chad was cleaning up and I was sitting at the island with his laptop looking up various things he tossed my way...random information I can't seem to remember because of the horrible thing I did. Because he is so wonderful he made us both some green tea with honey (our new obsession since he's had to medically give up coffee). It was delicious and sweet and scalding hot just the way I like it...with extra honey.

Chad took out the garbage and Charlie stood next to me to see what I was typing and reading. I have tried and tried to remember what happened next but I can't figure out what I did. All I can remember is the burning feeling in my lap and the shock of seeing my tea cup UPSIDE DOWN on Chad's laptop. His work laptop. His work laptop full of sermon notes and various other VERY IMPORTANT things.

I sat frozen, with my mouth open, staring at the laptop. Next to me, Charlie made this horrible "ooooohhhhh...." sound. Sort of half-moan, half-whisper. Then he freaked out and started saying "Where's Dad? Oh, man! Where's Dad? This is BAD, Mom. This IS BAD!"

At that moment Chad came back into the kitchen while I still hadn't moved (the laptop had gone black the instant the tea hit the keyboard) and tears where rolling down my face. Charlie yelled out "Mom spilled the hot tea!" and Chad immediately ran over and grabbed my arms.

"Did you burn yourself?"

I couldn't answer. Yes, I had burned my legs and they HURT but all I could do was lift up the laptop and watch the hot tea ran off the sides. The look of horror on Chad's face made me so nauseated I almost lost it. He turned back to me.

"Did you burn yourself?"

I nodded but still didn't speak.

"Let's clean you up." He took a dishtowel to soak up the excess then sent me to the bedroom to change. I took my time. I took a shower, found my softest pj's, and basically moved as slowly as possible, dreading what was waiting for me when I returned to the kitchen.

When I opened the bedroom door Chad and the boys were snuggling on the couch. They'd saved me a spot. I cried a lot more and couldn't do the words justice that Chad said to me. He wasn't mad. He wasn't stressed out. The laptop was broken- we'd try to fix it and if we couldn't we'd figure out what to do after that. He called "the computer guy" and followed some very specific instructions.

And then he went to the store and got us ice cream. Because he's just that great.

I've spent the evening downloading his library programs ( www.e-sword.net ), Bibles, commentaries, etc. So he can redo some of his work this week. He's a smart guy and backs up his computer regularly so most of his files were reachable.

And for the next few days we wait while the computer dries out. And I pace for whatever reason while he peaceably goes about his day. I wish I could be like that.

Injustice

For the first time ever I saw one of my children suffer an injustice at the hands of an adult. I see it kid-to-kid almost daily and though it is hard I can handle it and most of the time so can Charlie. But an adult being harsh, unkind, and unfair? That's a different story.

It started last week when Charlie told me about his school day over lunch. He got his "clip moved" which means he got in trouble (not by his teacher who is FANTASTIC but by a note to his teacher). He told me the story and it sounded unfair but I thought maybe since he's only five I wasn't getting the whole picture or I wasn't understanding it right. I shared the story with Chad and we decided if it didn't come up again we'd let it go.

This week, not only did it happen again, it happened to the extreme. It led to serious embarrassment to Charlie, a visit to the secretary, and a tearful phone call home. Needless to say I was upset. However, in my emotional pregnant state I knew better than to march into the school and unload on someone. I walked in calmly, greeted the secretary politely,m and thanked her for her discretion. I then proceeded to quietly sneak Charlie out to the van without his classmates seeing. And then I called Chad- and HE marched into the school.

First off, Charlie's school is wonderful. I love, love, love his teacher and her aide. Love the principal, love the secretary, love the librarian...but every now and then a school will have a staff member who doesn't like kids. Especially little ones. Secondly, my husband rocks. He followed the chain of command, spoke with confidence and *AHEM* made sure the offending staff member would be doing no more offending.

A couple of days later we had parent teacher conferences and can I say again how much I love Charlie's teacher? She brought up the incident (there had been a substitute teacher that day) and let us know she was behind us. It was awesome. It's so comforting when a non-relative truly knows and loves the heart of your child.

The big struggle here was deciding when to let Charlie deal with the hard stuff of life and when to stand up and defend. This isn't to say he doesn't misbehave- he does and we deal with it. There was no misbehaving involved here- only pure meanness from an adult. I had high hopes of staying under the radar during the school years. I didn't want to be the parent that made teachers groan when they saw me coming. But when an adult acts like a child and intentionally hurts the pride of one of my kids? My reputation doesn't matter much after that. Letting Charlie know we will protect him matters more.

The Party

I'm not exactly sure who's party it was last night. Charlie kind of took control as apparently I wasn't doing a good job. He decided Henry needed a VeggieTales party but we live in a small town and finding veggie decorations is pretty difficult. So Charlie made some.

He decorated the cake:

He made "Pin the Plunger on Larry Boy" (I can't figure out how to turn the picture):

He made Veggie Balloons (Bob, Jr., Larry, and Laura):

He made a centerpiece and drew Bob the Tomato on all the red cake plates.

When Henry woke up from his name he kept saying "Veggie for me? Veggie for me?" He was thrilled! So, it's official- Charlie is in charge of all party planning from now on.

A Busy Day

Today is Henry's second birthday! So it's 9:30 and he's still in his pj's. Actually, I'm letting him watch whatever Veggie video he wants to since Charlie isn't here to commandeer the television. Henry is in heaven.

I made a list of things to do but I've lost it. This is what happens when we go away to a conference for a couple of days. I always clean before I go so I can return to a nice house but then our things sort of explode everywhere and stay that way for an indefinite amount of time. The red longish looking thing is Henry's present that hasn't been wrapped yet. It's a tent. There's also a veggie book under the laundry basket. See, I know where things are.

Monica has announced her Spring Cleaning Contest again, thank the Lord, because I'm highly motivated to clean when there are prizes involved. Plus, my mom reads my blog and she'll die when she sees my before pictures so it will be nice for her to see the after pictures as well.

And now I'm off to clean my kitchen, bake a cake, cook some "cheeken" (Henry's favorite), and run around town getting things I forgot.

For some reason I had it in my head that I was doing a great job blogging. And then I realized I only blogged three times this month. I think I write lots of posts in my head and THINK I blogged them but I really didn't. Those were some great posts, too. I wondered why no one commented...

I finally got myself a planner for 2008. We're two months in and I'm finally ready for the new year (yeah, it's gonna be rough). I've filled it in with my work schedule, appointments, school calendar events, church calendar events...and I've still managed to double-book myself- TWICE. And I say that like I have this super active social life. I don't. I just remember in my head that Friday we are going out with so-and-so and February 29 we have a church thing- not realizing FRIDAY and FEB. 29 are the SAME DAY. If I have anymore pregnancies I will have no more brain cells left. I had a teacher in high school once say that babies suck all the vitamins out of you leaving you with mousy hair and pasty skin and this empty look in your eyes- I think she was trying to scare me into staying away from boys but I do agree I lose brain cells. But my planner is very pretty and compact and works for me! When I remember to write in it. Actually, I get really attached to my planner and can't go anywhere without it. I'm one of those people who will lose their minds if I lose my planner.

But on a much happier note I've purchased two adorable little girl dresses and I've been given the cutest little pink polka dot swimsuit. It's tiny! Having a "baby" in size 5 diapers and then pulling out the newborn stuff makes Henry look huge. Huge. I can't wait until I get the newborn diapers. I love how they look like toy diapers for a baby doll. And I can't wait to hold that wrinkly, snuggly little baby! I've got a long wait...being buried in all this snow makes July 4 seem a long ways away.