Movie Critic Attempt – Prelude

Fun Fact: One of my favorite fun facts is that my husband and I both do our best to see each and every Oscar nominated movie – before the Oscars. i like to be a informed critic when I watch. 

Today is January 26th.  The Oscar’s air on February 22nd.  This gives me less than four weeks to watch four more nominated films.  So far we have watched:  Grand Budapest Hotel, Boyhood, American Sniper and Birdman.  Last night upon leaving the theater, my husband and I collectively decided that next up on our Oscar journey is The Imitation Game.

So prepare yourself. I am going to start providing my own personal movie watching experience, offering you, my faithful readers some fat to chew on as you head to the movies.  Provide your own comments, thoughts, experiences. Rebuff my cynical outlook. Argue my (attempted) artist outlook.

Laugh More, Stress Less

Fun Fact:  When I was a kid many nights before bed I would play the Aladdin soundtrack in my boombox and sing along/act along to all of the Genie parts.

With the passing of Robin Williams yesterday, my husband and I have been, along with the rest of the world, discussing our favorite Robin William’s characters and remembering him for the jolly, hysterical, witty comedian that he was and will be remembered as.  As you can see above, my #1 answer was obvious.

In the past I have mentioned my weekly goals, something I have done for over three years.  At the beginning of each week I craft four different types of goals: social, physical, mental and spiritual.  Often I struggle to think of a spiritual goal beyond – “go to church”, but this week for some reason I opted my spiritual goal be “Laugh more, stress less”.

Robin Williams always brought much laughter and for that he will always be remembered. I will look back at his legacy and remind myself to always find time for laughter.  I want the memories where I was laughing to live greater and longer.

Polar Pub Crawl , version 8

 

Fun Fact: 8 years ago I bought a house in the same town I went to high school.  Yep, I’m a towny.

Over eight years ago I was a proud, single lady who was signing the paperwork to her first house.  It was a cute, four-bedroom, 2-bathroom rambler, made for a small family or me and a potential tenant. It had been recently renovated, close to work and family.  I personally only had one issue with the house, it’s location.  I wasn’t excited about living back in the same city I went to high school.  Instead of getting down on this fact, I decided to make lemonade with lemons, and decided to own my towny-ness and create an annual pub crawl that embraced the history of my little town, that just so happened to have 6 little bars within walking distance of my house – starting with a VFW, ending with an American Legion.

To commemorate the event, I worked with my friend to craft a brand image that embraces the city’s trademark – the snowman.  Every year I have made giveaways for attendees from tshirts to can coozies to this year’s sweatbands.

Throughout the past eight years I have transitioned from a cool, single chick to a much older, married mom of two.  The pub crawl has been a constant.  Scheduled on the first Saturday of August, conveniently the same weekend of my birthday, my friends and family have come to expect that this event will happen, rain or shine, pregnant or not.

The city may be small and I may be just a little too local, but the event is one of my favorite days of the year.  A day for cheap drinking, laughter, friendship and camaraderie.

 

All Eight Year Attendees

Bryce sporting year 1 and year 4 giveaways.

 

Patience: A virtue I do NOT possess

Fun fact:  Logan was born 17 days early. 

Fun fact part 2:  I’m due in 9 days.

I have never been known for my patience.  Additionally,  I tend to make a big deal out of…well just about everything. This together is a deathly combination.   As you can imagine going early with my first did not set me up for the patience necessary to go to my due date for my second.  I am learning all too quickly why that was not the appropriate way to approach this child birth.

For one – there is work.   Being I still have 9 days left, I am now running out of things to do to keep me busy and because my work is trying to be both flexible and realistic.  They are trying not to give me anything that will take too long or that would stress me out too much.  If this keeps up, you are going to get a lot more mid-day blogs!

Another issue is the house.  As many pregnant women, I did my due diligence and nested.  I cleaned my house, finished all my laundry, made the baby’s room as cute as I could (without knowing the gender), but that’s all done now.  Am I to be expected to keep this up???  Now I look at my nearly full laundry basket and curse.  I know that my bathrooms could use another good cleaning, but ugh… that doesn’t sound fun and I know it won’t be comfortable.

Probably the biggest issue with my lack of patience is the fact that I am now admittedly annoying.  Of course my husband would agree, but I think that the degree of annoying that I am at now almost everyone within a 10 foot radius of me would have to also concur.  I huff and puff when doing just about anything.  I rarely look comfortable, let alone cute.  I want everyone to give me sympathy, but then I get annoyed when I get too much attention. I no longer have ankles, but cankles instead.  I find that I am constantly having to adjust my pants,  because my belly has gotten so big that its weight pulls at them with every step.  By the end of a full day of work, I want to literally take my feet from my body and throw them away.  No massage, compression sock, or elevation seems to help.   Yes – I am a huge whiner! 

And the worst part of it all, is I know I am lucky and I should just shut up.  I am lucky that this pregnancy has been relatively easy.  I didn’t have too much morning sickness.  Every doctor appointment I only get good news – no diabetes, no high blood pressure, and a  high, happy fetal heartbeat.  I didn’t gain a ton of weight.  I am able to still do everything – no bed rest.  All of these signs would allow me to also believe that I have a healthy baby who is comfortable, growing and ultimately is coming very soon.

So if anyone has some tips on patience – send them my way!

My quote of the week: “Waiting and hoping is a hard thing to do when you’ve already been waiting and hoping for as long as you can bear it.”  – Jenny Nimmo

I’m pregnant and I show it

Fun fact:  33 weeks along, nearly 20 lbs gained and 100% sanity lost.

Here is my top 10 list of things I am excited about when it comes to NOT being pregnant anymore….

10) Pants that don’t start at my bra line, or as we call them at my house my “sexy” pants

9) Less visits to my doctor – because who really likes getting on that scale – pregnant or not.

8) Leaving the bathroom without a wet line on my shirt from where my belly rested on the sink.

7) Not needing TUMS within arms reach at all times

6) Being able to physically keep up with my 3 year old

5) Rolling over in bed without eeking in pain or being suffocated by pillows

4) Being able to wear cute shoes – and actually be able to physically reach the buckle.  Wedges – I’m coming!

3) Spending significantly less time in the bathroom

2) Wine, mojitos, Woodchuck Cider,  Bud Light Lime, margaritas, etc. etc. etc.

1) Getting to finally meet this wonderful, crazy, gymnast that is currently taking up my insides!

Needing new wheels

Fun fact: We have officially started our search for a new car. (not so fun fact: we can’t agree on anything).

Bryce and I have been married now for a little over 5 months, and outside of the decision to make and bring a new life into this world, the decision of buying a new car will be our first true test of our marriage.

We have known for awhile now that Bryce’s current Chrysler 300 was not going to suffice as our 2nd family vehicle. Not only does it probably require over $1000 worth of major fixing, it makes funny noises, never starts on the first attempt and well, I don’t feel it is baby-worthy. Lucky enough for us the government was nice and granted a tax return this tear, making the concept of a down payment a reality. So outside of our 10pm cars.com searches, today was our first attempt to shop and potentially find a new car.

The original requirements for this said vehicle seemed relatively attainable:
– A mid-size SUV with tow capability
– Less than 100,000 miles
– Less than 10 years old
– A simple color (black, silver,grey,white), nothing too crazy

Well those were the requirements until we started looking. Now I learn that my husband has strong opinions about cars that are “too bubbly”, or ones that “look a little worn”. Ahhhhh….now we are home and feeling defeated about our first attempt, feeling like we are further from our goal.

Excusably Exhausted

Fun Fact:  I currently have something the size of a kumquat growing  in my body.

In other words, yes, I am pregnant.  Our new addition is due mid-June 2012, and to be honest, I am both extactic as well as freaked out!  In addition to this mix of emotions, I have been hit heavy with the first-trimester stick, meaning I am constantly exhausted – like falling asleep on the couch at 8PM sort of exhausted.  The kind of exhausted where work days seem like dreams and dreams seems creepily like reality.

In addition to this exhaustion, my previous morning motivation for working out at 5AM has been sucked dry, leaving my workout buddy stranded at the gym.  My goal of making a homecooked meal on weeknights have turned into nights of thawing frozen meals and begging my hubby to pick up tacos on his way home from work.  My pride in being a FUN mom has been shrugged off to instead being an aware and attentive parent, one that doesn’t have nearly enough ambition to build a lego zoo as I did just a few weeks prior, but still makes time to be sure his favorite pjs are clean and his zebra hasn’t been left behind at grandma’s house.

On top of all this exhaustion, I was also plagued with some sort of flu-bug this past weekend.  I swear to you I slept on Saturday for a  good portion of the day, between trips to the bathroom.  (It wasn’t pretty!)

I am VERY fortunate to have had an amazing support network – specifically –  my boys!  Bryce has been amazing – and thoughtful, which is not his strong suit.  He has the house covered in Christmas lights and has been more than willing to step-up to the parent-plate when mommy is not feeling up to par.  And Logan,my amazing-sweet-can’t believe-he-is-almost-3-year-old-Logan, has been the best blessing.  Not only is he thrilled with the idea that mommy, like a kangaroo, has a baby in her tummy, but you wouldn’t believe his level of patience.  Logan is sweet, cautious, and the most nurturing little kid you have ever seen.  He is going to be the BEST big brother ever.  This thought, above anything else, is what is getting me through this first trimester, is getting me through the exhaustion.

Lesson learned

Fun fact: Our first family vacation was last September, when we went to San Diego.

Logan’s first trip to the zoo was before he was even 2 years of old. I didn’t think that at that young if an age that he would remember it, let alone start an obsession that has continued to live on for the past year (plus). I am blaming San Diego. That amazing zoo,which originally wasn’t even on our itinerary is the the one thing that has officially changed the last year if Logan’s life.

It started innocently. Last year for Halloween he went as an elephant (by request). We worked on animal noises and talked about the world famous zoo trip at times. Now my son rarely leaves the house without an animal in tow, every night we find our living room turns into a Lego zoo where we discuss in detail the animals and the favorite foods. For Halloween this year,my son will be a zebra….again by request.

I recognize that I’m slightly to blame. I mean, he doesn’t have his own money, so I have definitely bought my fair share of zoo animal figurines. I ask him questions about his favorite animal of the day. I pull up YouTube videos of zebras running or giraffes fighting with their necks (look it up,it’s freaky!). I feel justified because an obsession can’t last forever. I guess next time before I pick a vacation spot, I’ll make it a little less memorable!

Prep Work

Fun fact: I like any sort of sport analogy; for some reason that they help make things make more sense to me.

Before any big game a team practices for hours, runs drills, watches video, strategizes a game plan.  This is all necessary for each and every game – no matter how big or how small.  For REALLY big games (think Superbowl here) teams are given extra time to do all the necessary prep work, leaving no stone un-turned, no option not considered.  As the game get closer and closer, the team, the coaches, the fans start to get that anxious feeling like they might have missed something that should have been considered for their game plan. 

That is where I am now – in anxiety mode.

For the past nine months, similiarly I have been strategizing, planning, drawing out plays (okay not like a coach), doing everything that I can possibly imagine to make sure that this wedding goes off without a hitch.  Now that we are in crunch time, less than 3 weeks, I am starting to officially freak out.  Like those coaches that worry that they missed something, I keep worrying that there is some major, flagrant to-do item that I am completely overlooking.   I keep leaning on my “team”, aka my fiance, my mom, my sister, my friends and keep running through the game plan.  So far, we are all feeling confident that we have considered every possible challenge that could come up. 

Well… all of the ones that we have control over.

Weather is, as always, an opponent, perhaps a secret weapon, that is out of our control.  So if you have an extra second – cross a couple fingers in our direction.  Ideally a nice 75 degree evening, slight breeze and a LOT of fun. 

(Are you guys sick of my wedding talk yet? I am excited for me to be able to talk about something else too!)

A night in the park

Fun fact: I have taken my Myers-Briggs assessment a couple of times, and each time without fail, it tells me that I am an extrovert.  duh?  I am probably raising an extrovert too.

Much like any child, my son loves to go to the park.  On a pretty regular basis, Logan and I will go out with the idea of finding a NEW park to play at even though we are fortunate to have a nice sized park just right up the street.  Yes, Logan enjoys going on the swings and wanting me to push him as high as physically possible, and yes, on occasion I find myself reminding him of the things we don’t do with sand (you know, throw it or eat it), but I am pretty sure that the thing that Logan likes most about the park is playing with new kids there.  Usually when we get about 50 yards away or maybe even further, I’m no good with estimating yardage, Logan will ask me, “Any kids ‘der?” (Apparently my son has been watching a little too much Car Movie, he is starting to sound like Larry the Cable Guy). 

If the answer to my question is, “Not today, Logi.”  His inquisitive mind will then say, “Where’d they go?”

Luckily for me, when we went to the park the last time, there were not only kids there but kids his age!  Logan soon made three new friends: Nevin, Noah and a sweet little girl named Benna.  Logan is sort of that creepy kid at the park who, in my opinion he has just advanced beyond individual play earlier than others, and will follow his new friends around the park wanting to do whatever they are doing for the remainder of the time there.  If Benna was building a sand castle, than Logan wanted to be butt-in-the-sand building one too.  If Nevin was on the swings, then Logan was going to be swinging too. 

Then it came time to leave, Logan was physically looking exhausted and he was in dire need of  a bath, especially because during the sand castle time mommy found him playing with sticky sort of sand that I am pretty sure was not sand at all.  As a parent, this is the worst part, you want to form an immediate alliance with the other parent to leave at the same time to make this goodbye process simpler and cry-free.  If both parties could silently agree to leave the park at the same time, then neither kid will feel like they are missing out on the fun.  This night I wasn’t so lucky.  I found myself bribing Logan with a popcorn party when we got home and promising him that he could pick out whatever jammies he wanted.  Logan was not so impressed but thankfully he obliged begrudgingly.  Amazing what the power of popcorn persuasion will do!