Last night Erik and I went out see The Pogues play at House of Blues. For an event that completely turned everyone's plans for Thursday upside down it all turned out okay. Instead of going to dinner before the show with the family, Erik and I ate at Freebirds near our house and I’m pretty sure that’s what made the night start off right, we were able to talk a bit about our days and generally not rush ourselves. It’s so nice when we get a few minutes to ourselves, and we take those minutes where we can. I realized while I was at the show what an old lady I’m becoming. I was ill at the thought of all the split beer on the floor and the mashed up aluminum bottles and cans that those dirty kids were throwing everywhere. I was cringing every time someone screamed out in a drunken fit about what song the band should play next and I didn’t laugh at the fact that the lead singer was so unintelligible, so incomprehensible due to his drunken state that he needed the tin flute player to translate for him. Most of his warbling had something to do with Napoleon from what I did understand. And to think four years ago I was trashed and thrashing around the pit at a Dropkick Murphy show, cheering as my sister climbed onstage to dance with the bassist and break a heel, thinking she was the most amazing person ever; while last night I was pulling my sweater tight around me to make sure the germs don’t touch. I was so glad we had seats up in the balcony; I would have had an epileptic fit if any of the dirty punks had come near me. But we did have seats in the balcony. We had lovely seats with a great view of the band from up high and we had waitresses taking orders in the isles and I’ve got to say, THAT is the way to do a concert. The music was a little loud for my ears, but the sound was amazing. There was no feedback, you could hear every instrument and every voice and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I got to sit next to my husband as he watched one of his favorite bands perform and have him squeeze my hand during his favorite songs. If we had floor tickets we wouldn’t have had a night like we did and I’m grateful because last night was just what we needed.
One of my challenges is to not eat fast food for three months. I just finished that one and I got to say, it was way easier than I though it would be. Not eating fast food is like switching from whole milk to 2%, after about a week you can’t tell the difference anymore. In the course of this challenge others are corresponding nicely and so challenges 16, 18 and 45 can all be checked off today. Challenge number 18, to make a new recipe once a week for a month and challenge number 45, to buy a new bottle of wine once a week for a month, fell into place as I tried to find meals for Erik and me to eat every night. At the very beginning of my fast food challenge I continued with our normal fall back meals at home, like hamburger helper and frozen bag meals. But by the end of the first month we were so over that and without Pizza Hut or McDonalds to fall back on I needed to come up with some fast easy recipes that didn’t taste fast and easy. Most of the time I would prowl the internet food sites and mash up a recipe or four to make something all my own, these were typically dishes that needed to be made a couple of times before I ended up with something that Erik liked. Erik, by the way, is an incredibly hard man to satisfy, hardly anything is as good as he thinks it could be; most of my recipes are still in their conception stage because of him. The new recipe thing I’ve been doing way more than once a week but the wine I’ve been slacking on. I don’t take that to be a bad thing though. The first bottle I bought is a red wine from South Africa. I’m not typically a fan of red wines, especially dry ones because I hate the tingles I get in my nose from them. And this one is no exception, it’s an okay wine I guess, nothing to write about really. The label was pretty. Now the second one I tried, Red Truck, was good, I took out a whole bottle in under an hour. I like Red Truck. I've been having bad luck in my choices of wines lately, therehaven't been any worth talking about for the last two weeks but I'll keep trying, this week I'm going to try a wine called Daddy's girl, it makes me wonder whether they have a cute name because their wine is so good they don't need to be serious about it, or if it's so bad that they need a funny label for it. I'll find out soon enough I guess. I’ve been having fun cooking my own food and coming up with my own ideas from other people’s recipes. I started a new recipe book, not completely because I wanted a new one but mostly because I lost my old one. I’m putting photos of all the finished products once we’ve gotten to a point that I won’t change the recipe again. I’m also writing pages of notes that I’m updating every time I re-make the dish. I’m writing my notes like I’m writing a letter to someone or writing a blog, one day Laine or someone else will get the recipe book when I die and it’ll be like I’m talking them through recipes from the grave. Oooh… So now for the proof of it all; here are some photos of the food I’ve made in the last couple of months. First here is a stuffed pizza I made with Italian sausage and mushrooms. Yes that is homemade pizza dough though I don’t think it tastes any better or worse than the “just add water” packets from Betty Crocker. However, cheap trumps puffed chests, so even if there is a pride factor involved I won’t be making my own dough too often. The second meal that I remembered to take pictures of is my spaghetti sauce. It didn’t start out to be a spaghetti sauce but that’s how it ended up, next time we are going to drain a little of the juice from the tomatoes and add a tomato paste or some tomato sauce to make it, you know, more saucy. Colleen and Sydney were over when I was making this one and this was my second go at it. The first time I made sauce out of a beef stock and cooking sherry which I thought was amazing but Erik didn’t like it so I tried again and this is what we’ve got; my first true blue very own recipe that came from my own pretty little head. It looks good, huh? I made Beef Stew on Friday, the 16th, when Stimpy came to visit. It had started off as a soup but things took their own roads and ended up in stew. The next night I made mini shepherds pies out of the leftovers that were way yummy. I made ZuppaToscana two days after my birthday dinner with my parents, my dad got this soup it encouraged me to try my own. It tasted a lot like the stuff they sell at Olive Garden and Erik liked it so there are major points for that dish. I’ve decided to expand my fast food boycott for a little longer, I don’t’ know how much longer but I’m doing well with it so I don’t see why I’d stop. I might allow myself a little something every now and then but I’d like to see if I can make it to thanksgiving at least. That’ll be right at four months. Then we can try for Christmas.
Laine sprouted bone from her mouth. There was no increase in crying, no fevers, no increase in munching on hard objects, but when I got off work last night, there it was, staring at me from underneath the ham and pineapple dinner. A TOOTH!!
Let me start off by saying how much it pains me to move away from my 100 spot, it was comfortable there, I felt content in that space, but we move on don’t we? At work on Friday I had an interesting day. I woke up fairly late, close to 6:45 so I had to rush with my shower and getting dressed. I didn’t have time to make breakfast so I sliced an apple really quick and ate it on the way to work. Once I got here I did a little blogging and sent out my Daily Laine. Later I went to the farmers market at lunch and bought some more of the trail mix that I make the Villages of the Pea People out of, it’s really good stuff. I also got some grapes that are HUGE and seedless and the best ever as well as some squash and zucchini and two pumpkins for carving. A fire marshal stopped by and got all douchy with Jim about the fact that they don’t know how to do their own jobs and look up paperwork so they thought that we built our new building illegally or something, it was laughable. And the marshal was like ten; his badge was bigger than he was. Then around 1:30 my boss had a delivery, everyone was called outside to help haul it in; ten cases of Costa Rican lager. A case of beer got started and it was finished by 3:30 at which point I clocked out, I don’t drink at work so I didn’t see a point in sticking around to watch them do it. Friday night mom and dad had us over for dinner; Levi was in town so we got to celebrate my birthday again this time as a full family. Momma made some gumbo and potato salad and the Whites and the Schmale's came over and ate with us. We tried really hard to get a good picture of Laine and Amy playing together and it just didn't happen. We’ll try again next time. I did get a couple of great photos of Laine by herself in the back yard. I was almost able to get here to try the grass but she's just not too sure about it yet. I also got a great video of momma and daddy messing around; prepare yourself before viewing. I'm not responsible for you peeing yourself with laughter.
Erik and I went to the movies Friday night after dinner. Momma watched Laine for us and Mike gave Colleen permission to come out, I’m so glad she came with us too, everything is a bazillion times more fun when you have your person with you. Just for your information, Law Abiding Citizen is a great movie. Just take my word for it and go watch it. Friday night Laine and I were up at 1:30, 4:00 and 6:30, just hanging out and talking to each other mostly. I had to take her into the blue room at 6:30, she was getting a little rowdy and I didn't want to wake Erik up. But the dogs started barking anyway when they heard they floors creaking and he got up to let them out and then joined us in bed in the blue room. There must be something about Erik’s smell that calms her because she passed out soon after he got there and as soon as she slept I did too. Erik took Laine and put her down in her bed but left me to sleep in a little more. I woke up close to 9:00 and was all by myself in a strange room, and that’s was a weird feeling I haven’t felt in years. Laine was still sleeping so I went back to my bed and found Erik still asleep too so I cuddled up to him and we all slept until Laine got up around 10:00. I got up and cut up an apple for breakfast and Laine seriously wanted one so I gave her a slice, Saturday October 24, 2009, Laine's first apple! As soon as we woke up I got a hold of my person and made plans to meet her and her family at the church that sells pumpkins and we were able to take some amazing photos of each others families. I really hope that becomes an annual tradition for all of us. It’s so much fun to do together. Avery was being super adorable and wanting to pose for all her photos, she’s gotten really good at doing sweet smiles for photographs. And she’s apparently got a mad love for tiny pumpkins; she seemed to want to take all of them home with her. And the Bean has charmed Erik, she can do no wrong in his eyes, Josie is bar none Erik’s favorite toddler. Josie has a love for big pumpkins, she kept running to the largest ones she could find then more or less hug them and say BIG! And then Erik would say “did you see that, she hugged a pumpkin and said BIG!" I got a recap of all her movements. It was really adorable. Josie was all about the big pumpkins last year too and I'm looking forward to seeing if she does it again next year. We didn't get to carve our pumpkins this weekend like I wanted to; we couldn’t seem to find the time. So maybe we can do it tonight. After we left the pumpkin patch we went home for a quick pit stop and some grocery gathering before heading over to his parent’s house. I had all the veggies to make a spaghetti sauce and since his whole family was going to be there Erik and I decided to make lunch for everyone. There wasn’t even a spoonful left over, everyone loved it and my cooking ego inflated monstrously. After lunch all the kids went into the office with Tricia and got the walk through of all the Rosendahl important information, just so everyone knows where everything is. Tricia and Torben are taking a trip together to Egypt next week, so precautions have to be made as far as their estate. After all that was taken care of we all made our way to the theater room to watch family movies that Torben had put together. I was amazed to see how everyone had changed in the last two years. I used to have some amazing legs, I mean, they went for miles. I don't know what happened or how I got these stumpy things now, but something drastic needs to happen, and soon. Tricia had a meeting with the ladies of the neighborhood for dinner and Kate was about to heat up a frozen dinner and I wasn’t having any of that so I took her to the store and we made dinner for everyone. Laine was so tired that she started double fisting the thumbs, it was time to go hime but we didn't make it there until after ten. Erik took midnight duty for me and ended up getting up with Laine twice and staying up with her both time for a while. Poor kid, I don't know why she's not sleeping. Sunday we woke up late, almost 9:30. Church starts at 10:00. We made it there late but we made it there and sometimes that’s what matters. Jacob asked us if we'd like to go to his karate tournament and I was really excited to go but it ended up not being a tournament at all but instead a "you gotta show up and your parents have to by tickets and you'll just stand there and maybe to do a kick or two, but hey, now you can move on to the next belt color" thing. So we opted out of that. Since Momma was having her brother come into town Erik and I were on our own for lunch. So we went to Cracker Barrel and had an amazing lunch. Once we got home Laine and I watched some TV while she calmed down a bit and rested. When I tried to put her down for a nap she flipped out on me so I decided to get her out of the house and she and I went to the mall while Erik did yard work. I had to return a dress I got for my birthday and I ended up getting a really nice black and white dress that will be great for Christmas this year. I’m very excited to have a new dress for Christmas, I’ve worn the same dress two years in a row now, and although that dress is amazing I’d rather not wear it again if I don’t have to. I also bought three shirts from Lane Bryant, they were having an amazing sale and I only spent 12 bucks so, I win. Once I got home I fed Laine and played around with her for a little bit and then made some chili for dinner. After we finished eating my mom called to let us know that they were headed over to Waffle House so my uncle and his wife and my cousin could get some food before heading out. So Erik and I went to meet them for some coffee. It was great to see them all doing so well. Kristi was looking smoking hot and Cody looked really good too, much better than the last time I saw him. And Uncle Edward never seems to change to me; I think I’d be okay if someone said that to me after a couple of years. People who age well bug me though, because I don’t think I’ll age very well and I have severe jealousy issues. After we left the Waffle House Erik and I headed over to Wal-Mart-- that's an amazing sentence right there! At Wal-Mart we bought some safely gates to divide up areas for Laine, she's just getting too curious and put-everything-in-my-mouthy. Erik tinkered with putting them up but I think he needs a full afternoon to figure out the perfect place to put them, because apparently aesthetics are important when it comes to big ol’ wood gates in the middle of the hallway. I’ll be happy with however he puts them up as long as Laine can't pull them down on top of her. Laine only woke up once last night so I got mostly good nights sleep. I woke up early this morning and was able to use one of my gift cards from my birthday and get myself a cheese danish that rocked my world and a pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks that really made this morning a good one. Now its off to getting this day started so I can kick its butt.
So I found that Olive Garden has some of their recipes online and I was really excited to try their Zuppa Toscana soup, but of course that’s one of the few recipes they have not posted, but I have mad Goodling skills and I found a different recipe, posted by an amazing food blogger that I follow religiously. Last night I did it. I made the Zuppa Toscana Soup. I bought some kale and potatoes and sausage and I let ‘er rip. And it was good. Erik ate two bowls and when I got into bed last night, hours after he had turned in, he woke up and told me that he liked it a lot. I’ve got the heart flutters just thinking about it. Erik liked it! Ask my person, that’s a big deal. It’s a huge deal, it would be like my dad eating my mom’s food and saying “not only does this taste like Momma’s but it tastes better.” Yeah. Big deal. I made a spaghetti sauce the other week that he thought was amazing too. He even did the dishes for me afterwards, I take that as a sign that he really liked the food and felt like he had to repay me, which I think is fair; so now I know if I were to be held at gun point and told to make something that would make Erik’s mouth water, I could do it. Twice! On a side note, this is what my hair looks like today.
This is my 100th post. I didn’t even realize that I’d gotten so far until I went to edit the last one, and it was number ninety-nine. 99 is much more intimidating than 100 to me, maybe because 9’s look like clubs and people get beat with clubs but 1’s and 0’s are geeky numbers so they aren’t nearly as menacing. I do feel like I should have something profound to say, but just like yesterday, I’ve got nothing. Today is an average day; the importance of my blogging achievements has not bled over into my everyday reality. I guess that makes sense; that the universe wouldn’t put a national holiday on this day, or a giant rainbow sprouting from my forehead (well that’s there, the rest of you just can’t see it). But that’s the way it goes. I know today is a day different from yesterday and tomorrow but the man at the farmers market will have no idea that when I buy pumpkins from him today that the act of buying those pumpkins will not be the most exciting part of my day, this is the most exciting part. And when I get home and tell Erik that I’ve reached 100 posts he won’t know that it’s a big deal to me, he’ll probably recognize that as an acceptable number considering the amount of talking I do at home. So in celebration of this day I awarded myself by rereading all of my old blogs. It took a long time to do and I got really bored and skipped through some of them, but what really interested me are the comments I got on them. The people who read my blog are people I care about and the people who comment are people I love. I never thought too much about the fact that my blog is just an online journal, but it is. If you go and grab the journals I have kept over the years you won’t find a different writing style or different topics, except for the fact that Laine is new. I’m not a different girl in my head, this is me, all this stuff I write out is actually my thoughts and feelings, and I never would have thought I’d write that out for people to read, strangers maybe, but the people I love and want to love and respect me? I never would have guessed it. But here we are, how does it feel knowing that you have read 100 of my thoughts? I’m thinking about buying myself an extra large pumpkin today in observance the magnitude of this day. And I’m going to carve flowers and polka dots into it. And I’m going to get Erik to start a fire tonight and we are going to drink Tang while we carve the pumpkins. I’ll make a big deal out of today. You couldn’t slap the smile off me today.
I’ve been trying to figure out what to write about today and I’ve got nil. So I’m just going to free write a bit. I haven’t updated anyone on the gifts I received for my birthday and I’m sure you’re all dying to know what I got and you didn’t but I’ll tell you anyway. I got the start of my unique mug/cup collection, which will one day rule the world. I got two books that I’ve been looking forward to reading for a while. I got some make up that seriously makes you feel a million times prettier than you actually are (that’s a good thing). I got a sewing machine, so no more hand stitching, no more blisters and no more crooked seams. I got shoes and scarves and a frame and a griddle and a baster and a dress and a whatever clock and a spatula and TONGS! I mean. I also got a Whinny the Pooh time-out stool to put in Laine’s room. I’ll be taking photos of everything soon I'm sure. Erik says my gift from him will be here in about a week, but I’m happy with the shoes he got me, I mean, SHOES! So this morning I woke up to our street flooded. Not with adoring fans as it should have been but from rain that decided not to drain like in all the other streets. So I ended up being late to work. I didn’t roll in until after ten o’clock. I might as well have stayed home for all the work I got done today. Instead of updating my job logs or programming I’ve been wasting my time by updating my Wishpot gift ideas list for everyone’s Christmas presents. It’s going to be awesome if I can just remember to buy what’s on those lists in the time frame I set out for myself. We want to get Christmas shopping all done before Thanksgiving if we can. Being broke during the Christmas season isn’t an option for us this year. Erik showed up to my work today and brought me a sandwich and iced tea, he’s such a great guy. But then he groped my chest and I had to break his hand. Or try to at least, he got all whiney and went upstairs and now I have no internet. So this won’t be posted until after he’s done being a little girl about it. But if what I hear is right after today we will no longer have satellite internet. He’s setting us up with a T1 line so hopefully the super important conversations I have about stuff with my person won’t be interrupted anymore with random hour long moments of “are you there, it says you’re there but you’re not responding, is the internet down again, why aren’t you responding, did you go to lunch, its giving me errors”, because those are really getting to be irritating. Mostly because I have no one and nothing to blame it on, so I just get aggravated and then have to swallow it, I hate swallowing anger at inanimate objects that I should be able to bash with a hammer. Stupid company owned equipment. Tonight is our weekly meeting of the no-boys-allowed-honey-take-the-kid-upstairs-hey-look-there’s-a-new-girl-here club (the name still needs work). It is the night for Fringe and Grey’s and Private Practice and hopefully a Zuppa Toscana Soup that I am going to try very hard to make. Erik was supposed to be in Dallas tonight but with all the rain and flooding he stayed home which means that he gets to take care of the baby for us while we have our night. I’m so tired right now and I feel like this week’s kicking my butt, but in a good way, that really I just want a night to sleep to make up for all the eating and being happy I’ve been doing the last couple of days but that only means that I need coffee stat because nothing gets in the way of me and my The Name Still Needs Work Club meetings.
I know I’ve been making Wednesdays wordless here lately, but seriously, really, how long did you expect that to last? Yesterday it was my birthday. I turned 28. I don’t feel 28. I feel older. When I think back to high school and I remember the dreams I had, all of them included a husband and a home and children, but none of them included me still being this young when I got there. I’ve hardly started this life and I’ve already done so much. I had a full childhood with friends and drama and art and music and red purses. I finished high school even though I never thought I would, I tried out college and failed but that’s okay, I ended up professionally in a field that would have made my degree irrelevant anyway. I gave a son who in turn gave me a brother and sister. I married an astonishingly wonderful man who just happened to have that other half of me. I own a home with that man and two cars, which are both insured. I have a child with that man, which is insured as well. We have paid off our debt and we are taking it easy now. What’s next for us? Because I have a lot of time left here. I’m only 28. I’ve barely started.
Every year, for as long as I can remember I've gone out to lunch with my dad for my birthday. He’s picked me up from school and all my various jobs and we’ve always had this day as our day for lunch but sometimes it doesn’t work out, it has a lot to do with the fact that we both have jobs and we can’t always take the time off. This year he had a meeting that he wasn’t allowed to miss, but he promises to take me out tomorrow and I will see him tonight for dinner. However I didn’t know that he had the meeting so I didn’t bring a lunch to work today. I assumed; and what’s that saying about it makes an ass out of me? Ha! Well Jimbo, my boss, took pity on me and took me and some of my co-workers out to lunch, and we got appetizers and desert and I ate myself retarded. I can’t even slouch properly in my seat I am so stuffed. On the way back I was lamenting over the fact that I missed seeing my dad today and while everyone was feeling sorry for me and saying “Aww” a lot guess who was having flowers delivered to my office? Dad did! He sent me flowers! Wonderfully beautiful flowers in a gorgeous vase with three amazing balloons, I LOVE BALLOONS!! And there were carnations and daisies and sunflowers, most of my favorite kinds of flowers, in all my favorite colors with a note that made me cry. I love my dad. And you know, for a Tuesday this is a pretty dang good day. Also, Jimbo bought a cake for me. It says Happy F?@!ng Birthday Amanda.
First off let me say happy birthday to my person’s man; Happy birthday person’s man. I know that it took me longer than usually to get this update up but I do have a job and that has to come first. So this is my lunch break, and the only time I’ll have to do this today, I’m hoping the details don’t suffer for it. Let’s start with Friday; around 2:30 my boss, some co-workers and I headed out to the back of the property to feed the hogs. I have photos of that but I think I’ll spare you. On our way back to the office my boss thought it would be a genius idea to drive through a pit of mud in a golf card weighed down with five people. I got mud all over me. And I was wearing a dress. I packed up and went home at 3:45. I’m sorry but I do not work well when I am covered in mud, and these folks aren’t near as fun as they used to be ever since I quit drinking at work. So I got home around 4:30 and I took a quick shower and disinfected myself because I swear that was sewer water we drove through and I smelled like poop it was gross. After I got done cleaning up I picked up Laine and we went and got my mom so that we could all go do some shopping at Target. Mom wanted to get me a new shirt for our family reunion on Saturday and I wasn’t about to argue with her over it. Anyway I needed to do some grocery shopping. Mom gave me some outfits she had bought for Laine and she wore two of them on Saturday, there are still two more shirts we haven’t tried on yet but I’m thinking daycare tomorrow would be the perfect time for that. While we were at Target I bought eight dinners worth of groceries and only spent $74. I was surprised with myself, HEB is the only place I’ve been shopping at lately, I was proud that I was able to move my frugal shopping habits over to another store that I don’t know. Target isn’t a place I’m used to buying a lot of groceries at, but now I know it can be done, a little more expensively than what I’m used to but still within my budget. However HEB is still my number one pick. After shopping I got home around 8:30 to find Erik and Stimpy hanging out waiting for the pizza they ordered because they got too hungry waiting on me to make dinner, but that’s okay because dinner didn’t get done until almost midnight anyway. I got ambitious and made stew. (I took a bunch of pictures of that too, but thats a whole other blog) Really good red wine and a really good friend to talk to makes late night cooking fun. I didn’t eat any of the stew though, it got to be too late for me and I crashed out around 1:30. We got up around 6:30 Saturday morning so that we could make sure we were on the road to Ren Fair by 8:30 and we were, it took me a while to pack up Laine’s bag, but by the time I was done that baby was ready for the end of days. At least she had enough supplies to last at least three days; I didn’t even have to repack that bag this morning for day care. We made it to Fair around 9:45 and eventually met up with Erik’s family. Cassie and Jenn played King of the Log; Cassie won, nobody will forget, she won’t let them.
Then Jenn and James race on the rock wall, I’m pretty sure Jenn could have had James on that wall if she hadn’t been beaten with a pillow moments before.
Walking around Ren Fair and seeing how much Laine was enjoying all the costumes and characters around made me really wish that my person and the bean were there. Next time maybe. We walked around the park for a little while, got a Turkey leg to eat for a late breakfast and had a small glass of honey mead that was amazing and before we knew it noon had come and gone and we had to head out to my family reunion. A nice surprise waited for us in that Jacob and his family as well as Danny and Damone had come to the reunion too. It was super amazing to have everyone in the family in one spot. We ended up getting a great family picture too. As usual the food and company was amazing, and I wish I had taken more pictures but we did get a couple.
Laine and Grandma got down on the floor together and had a really great time making each other laugh. Liz came and joined us for a little bit and that is about all I saw of my kid while we were there. She got passed around a lot, I love family reunions, it’s like having a babysitter at the party, you don’t have to take care of the kids but you don’t have to pick them up after either. Around 4:30 I woke Erik up from the nap he was taking on the couch and we and headed back out to Fair to hang out with Erik’s family a little bit more. We got there right before the joust began and Erik was so excited to see Laine see the horses, but we never got that far because she started crying every time the crowd would cheer, It was a little cute at first but after a few minutes we saw that it was really bothering her so we left that area and decided to just take our time and meander a bit. Time flew by and soon it was 7:00 and time to leave. We’ve already decided to go back in November and try to get a whole day’s worth of Fair in. I’m totally going to be a nagging wife to my person and try to get her to come with me. I really want to see Josie experience a place like that. It’ll give me something to look forward to for next year when Laine will be able to enjoy it more. After we got done at Fair we headed out to the car to find that Jenn couldn’t find hers. It turns out that she had parked on the other side of the fair grounds, but it took a long while before that was figured out. We finally made it back home close to 10:00 where we crashed hard. Sunday morning we were up and at ‘em again at 7:30. Laine came and joined us in bed for about a half an hour before we got up and made breakfast and then took a long family shower. We were ready for church by 9:00, an hour early, so Erik and Laine rested a bit on the couch and watched Doom. Church was great again, Darren started a new series this time on Exchanged Life and we are all looking forward to hear what he talks about next week. Laine did well in the nursery this Sunday but when I got her out and brought her into the sanctuary, she saw her grandma and had to have her. I love how attached she is to my mom already; it reminds me of how I always want to be around my grandma when she’s near. After church my parents took Laine to lunch and home while Erik and I rushed home to change and head out to the Dynamo game. This weeks game they were giving out jersey’s to the first 5000 fans, we would have made it if we hadn’t forgotten the tickets, so instead of getting there two hours early like we planned we were only a half an hour early. The game was incredibly engaging this week so that made up for any freebies we missed out on. We played the L.A. Galaxy and I have to just put this out there; David Beckham is not nearly as pretty in person as he is in the magazines. I guess when you don’t have Armani under panties and professional lighting you just look like a normal guy. But the full beard did make him come across as less of a fruit cake, so at least he had that going for him. After the game we were rushing again, trying to get down to League City to run to the grocery store to get the green beans to make bundles for dinner at the McFee’s. We got to my parent’s house close to 5:00 and I got the bundles in the oven at 5:18. At 5:33 we left mom’s house and headed over to the McFee’s with half cooked beans but they were still working on the shrimp so I was able to bake them a bit more. Colleen seemed to really like them, which made me happy. I thought they went really well with the shrimp. And when I say she made shrimp I mean that she pulled down stars from the heavens and battered them in angels' tears and fried them in babies’ smiles and I seriously ate until I thought I would pop. After dinner Laine and Josie had a laughing fit together upstairs (catch the amazing video here, as well as the super amazing Josie dance here.) Then we all went downstairs again and had supper yummy carrot cake and hung out until 8:00 when we had to pack up again and head back to my parents to see one of their old friends who was flying in. She got to their house around 9:45 and we visited for a while until Laine started fussing and so we finally, finally made it back home. Eleven thirty on Sunday night was my favorite moment of the entire weekend. That’s when it ended. This weekend wonderfully fun and exciting but man, it kicked my butt.
Last night Erik and I went out see The Pogues play at House of Blues. For an event that completely turned everyone's plans for Thursday upside down it all turned out okay. Instead of going to dinner before the show with the family, Erik and I ate at Freebirds near our house and I’m pretty sure that’s what made the night start off right, we were able to talk a bit about our days and generally not rush ourselves. It’s so nice when we get a few minutes to ourselves, and we take those minutes where we can. I realized while I was at the show what an old lady I’m becoming. I was ill at the thought of all the split beer on the floor and the mashed up aluminum bottles and cans that those dirty kids were throwing everywhere. I was cringing every time someone screamed out in a drunken fit about what song the band should play next and I didn’t laugh at the fact that the lead singer was so unintelligible, so incomprehensible due to his drunken state that he needed the tin flute player to translate for him. Most of his warbling had something to do with Napoleon from what I did understand. And to think four years ago I was trashed and thrashing around the pit at a Dropkick Murphy show, cheering as my sister climbed onstage to dance with the bassist and break a heel, thinking she was the most amazing person ever; while last night I was pulling my sweater tight around me to make sure the germs don’t touch. I was so glad we had seats up in the balcony; I would have had an epileptic fit if any of the dirty p
unks had come near me. But we did have seats in the balcony. We had lovely seats with a great view of the band from up high and we had waitresses taking orders in the isles and I’ve got to say, THAT is the way to do a concert. The music was a little loud for my ears, but the sound was amazing. There was no feedback, you could hear every instrument and every voice and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I got to sit next to my husband as he watched one of his favorite bands perform and have him squeeze my hand during his favorite songs. If we had floor tickets we wouldn’t have had a night like we did and I’m grateful because last night was just what we needed.
Mom
