Run With The Fishes

Warning – garden post so may be slightly boring.

It is pretty cool when this situation comes up.

“Oh, I need a bell pepper for that meatloaf”. There are none in the house. Instead of having to go to the grocery store, I just step outside and grab one from the garden. Or, when I just wanting to mix up a quick salad. Just step outside to grab tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers from the garden. That I grew! I’m going to sound like a dork, but it is pretty awesome to watch something that started from seeds that I put into the ground grow successfully into food we can eat.

Deer and rabbit seem to love it also. Since they haven’t really eaten much, we don’t mind sharing with them. As long as they don’t mess with the tomatoes and the corn, they can have at it. So far, they prefer the habenero pepper plant, the spaghetti squash, peas, broccoli and brussel spouts. Apparently, the deer also love our fruit trees.

This girl was just hanging out in our backyard, nibbling at whatever kind of fruit tree we have. I watched her for at least 15 minutes. It’s too bad the kids aren’t here. They would have loved it. Especially when about an hour later she brought her sister along to hang out.

Yesterday morning Allison found the extra boxes of soap from the economy pack. Her face lit up so much, it was like a light shone down from the heavens and there was a choir of angels singing. “It’s SOAP Mom! It smells sooooo gooooood. I need to wash up!” She then had a bar to wash up with and a bar to walk around with so she could keep smelling the goodness.

Last night, Allison walked into my bedroom and calmly told me she needed to wash up. I just thought she was wanting to get more use out of her new found love. Then I looked up and saw this.

“Allison, have you been in the brownies?”.
“No.”

“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I didn’t get into the pan. I ate ‘Nathan’s friend’s’ brownie.”

When I had her look in the mirror at herself she cracked up laughing and said in a deep scary voice, “I’m a Monster”.

Did you watch the first episode of Stan Lee’s “Who Wants To Be A Superhero?“? Allison says it’s “That Stupidhero Show”.

Anyway, this show is everything I hoped it would be. It’s fantastic. There are several parts that we replayed and watched a few times. Greg had tears from laughing so hard. I don’t want to give anything away, but if you have the SciFi channel you should definelty check it out. Now, hop into my arms, I will save you!

When I first read this book in 3rd grade it must have made a huge impression on me. So much that even though I haven’t read it since, I bought it and forced Nathan to read it last year and will more than likely force Zoey to read it this year. We read this book as a class and started at the very beginning of the year.

I had missed the first day of the school year because we moved from one city to another and the class had already started reading the book. The book deals with someone losing his best friend. I think it struck a chord with me because our move was sudden and I didn’t really get to say goodbye to the old friends.

Reading books you liked as child when you are much older is always interesting. Sometimes I’m afraid because most of the time the book won’t live up to the memory. It wasn’t the case with this book. It is so well written. Even though I knew what was going to happen, I still cried during some parts of the book.

It’s a fairly quick read especially if you are a 30 year old reading a book written for ages 8-12. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

Greg and I are planning a trip to Memphis, TN. We have never been. Have you? If so, is there anything you think we really must see? Any recommendations with really great and affordable food? Are there places to avoid?

We watched Hoodwinked over the weekend (and over and over and over). All in all it was a pretty cute movie. In it Red Riding Hood is a karate expert. About half-way through the first viewing, Allison sat on Greg’s foot and started wiggling around. The wiggles were accompanied by small “yah, eyah” noises. When Greg asked what she was doing she exclaimed, “I’m doing Butt Karate!”

I have been having some body image issues lately. I hate my love handles and don’t think I will ever have washboard abs again. There are days when I feel like I still look 5 months pregnant and my butt feels big enough to display a billboard. It seems like my thighs are just on the verge of creating thunder. Let’s not even talk about my hair, except you know the girl in Dances with Wolves? The one that, even though the indian squaws all had nicely combed and braided hair, looked like a rat’s nest was on her head? There are days when I’m sure that’s my hair.

It’s not that I eat unhealthy. I cook almost every meal so I know that’s not the issue. I know, parts could be remedied by actually working out. For the most part though, I am stuck with this body.

I’m not a supermodel mom. Those women have real incentive to get back into shape. Either they look great minutes after birth, or they lose their careers. It doesn’t hurt that most of them have personal chefs and trainers throughout pregnancy and post-pardom. However, when you are bombarded with images of these perfect women, it doesn’t make it any easier to feel good about your body.

Earlier this week, I read a great post over at So The Fish Said. Sure, deep down I knew that I would never look exactly the way I did before having children. But this helped put things even more into perspective.

I still have a goal to get into better shape, but not necessarily a different shape.

2 weeks before Nathan was born (April 1997)

Mysteriously, I could not find any pictures of myself pregant with Zoey.

2 weeks before Allison was born (Halloween 2003)*

I have taken a few pictures all week long for this post, but wasn’t happy with how any of them looked. I quickly deleted any evidence of their existence. Then I realized, I am always going too be to critical of myself and just needed to get over it already. Here is a picture of me, taken by Zoey, followed by some serious looking girls.

*I think every mom should be proud of her pregnant belly. Take pictures, paint all over it, have it cast in plaster, whatever. Keep a memory of the big beautiful belly that you can go back and look at. Even if you felt horrible at the time, it will be worth it later.

This book was a light read. I started it Saturday night and finished it Sunday afternoon. From the first few paragraphs I really thought the book was going to be great, but it didn’t live up to expectations.

It seemed to be full of how dreary and stifling it is right now to be in your early 30’s and married with young children. There were way too many cliches and random characters that were just thrown in for the heck of it. While I was reading I kept hoping that there would be some point to the story, that it would get better, then it was over. While there were a couple of things I could relate to, I felt like I just didn’t get it.

I didn’t hate this book so am going to give it 2 out of 5 stars.

It’s the best medicine. Most parents know there is no better sound in the world than the roll around, tickled pink, deep down belly laughs. The older your children get, the harder it seems to be to get these laughs from them. Generally with Nathan and Zoey, when I try to be funny I get eyerolls and the “I can’t believe you think that’s funny” looks.

I remember once when Nathan and Zoey were still very small and a fly was in the house. The first time I swung the flyswatter towards the ceiling, they both chuckled. The second time, they each laughed out loud. After I realized the cause, I danced around swatting the ceiling for about 15 minutes.

When Zoey was between 2 and 3, anytime she got hurt, Nathan would do a crazy dance where he bonked himself on the head. It cracked her up every time.

The other day Greg was throwing a stuffed animal into the air where it would fall landing on or close to Allison. Each time it came down Allison would erupt in laughter. Have you ever done anything off the wall to get someone to laugh at you?

Take 2 of these and call me in the morning.

When I just watched you do it. You saw me watching you, why would you insist over and over, to the point of breaking down into tears (which makes me feel like a monster) that you didn’t do it?

So, my first book review and I am already going to veer away from the recommended format. Mostly because I’m not a professional. I don’t really want to sway other people’s opinions of the books I’m going to be talking about. I am also afraid that I will give away key plot points to the story. If you’re interested, you should check it out for yourself. If it’s a book I own, I’ll even loan it to you.

Yan Martel’s ‘Life of Pi’ is a glimpse into the amazing lengths a being will go to in the act of survival. All in all it was a decent read. I mean, the book wasn’t one that I had to force myself to put down but I didn’t feel like it was a burden that had to be picked back up again and finished.

On a scale from 1 to 5, I give it a 2.5.