Assorted and Sundry

Random thoughts with random pictures over the last week.

getting into character

JP and I are finally better. It took him a 6 days, a z-pack, and way too many night sweats, and it took me 9 days, a z-pack, a steroid shot, many Vicodin, and now allegra, but we are fever, headache, sinus infection, and upper respiratory infection free! And we are never, ever allowed to get sick at the same time again. (Ever.)

strong man

Claire is completely potty trained and it is blowing my mind. We halfheartedly assisted her during last weekend's weekend of sickness (it was JP's idea and I chose not to protest, though I thought it was too soon, because he's home with them more than I am and it's not like we were leaving the house all weekend anyway), and by Tuesday she was accident free- including at night! We weren't even trying to do that yet. We've been keeping her in diapers at bedtime (mostly because we have some leftover; we never bought pull-ups with Landon and I'm still not quite sure how they're supposed to fit into the potty training spectrum), but every morning I hear a "Mommy, I need to go potty!" coming from her room at 7 a.m. Her diaper has been completely dry and she has a standing coffee date with the froggy potty and a piece of candy corn. It's been the same through trick-or-treating (again, we just stuck a diaper on her because we didn't want to mess with potty breaks, but she surprised us by staying dry and going potty unprompted as soon as we got home), erranding, and Landon's soccer game this morning. I've stopped being shocked and moved on to planning the reorg of their room now that I can remove the changing table. We have a diaper free house people!

find the children

I seized on a Shutterfly coupon expiration date (and a weekend spent on the couch throwing candy corns) to push through the completion of Claire's photobook, our Christmas cards, and my 2013 calendar. Landon's photobook is nearly done. I literally can't afford to let a 50% off coupon pass me by, even if I'm having dreams about page layouts and coordinating backgrounds (why aren't there more Fall themed ones? and why are there so many embellishment options? it was easier when I couldn't make them nearly as customized as I wanted them to be). We pulled their old books out last week and it was so much fun to read through them all snuggled on the couch together. Those books may take me 100 hours to complete, but there's nothing in my house that I love more.

we love us some jumping pictures

I made my first trip to a mall in 2-3 months last Saturday to drop something off at a tailor. It hurt a little. So many beautiful fall clothing displays (and the boot displays, oh the boot displays; I haven't bought a single pair of shoes in the calendar year 2012, good thing I had deep reserves) to march past. We've successfully reduced our already reduced monthly credit card bills by another 33%. It's hard and it sucks but I'm proud of us. It's easier if you never go inside stores (and if you unsubscribe from all store emails). I know I already own plenty of things, it's just hard to remember that when you're looking at all the new ones you could own if only you'd pull out your credit card.

leaping bear!

No news on the JP job front. He has heard conclusively from a few of the potential employers that they won't be hiring until the new year. So, that's where that is.

because we forgot to get one in Colorado, this is 1 mile from home

I'm carefully planning for Christmas and have my lists ready so I can take advantage of a sale of a particular item when it presents itself (and so I don't get distracted when a store toy ad slips through my email filters). I have the kids' stockings done and each kids' Santa gift and "from Mommy and Daddy" gift is determined but not yet purchased. JP and I are just doing stockings for each other, which is a little sad since this is the first year I had a running mental list of things I really wanted to get (rather than just buying them for myself throughout the year like I used to; I seriously could have billed at least 100 hours to zappos.com while at the firm). I know it's superficial and terrible, but I find Christmas is one of the only times I miss JP's parents being involved in our lives. They were such voluminous gift givers, we barely had to step up as Santa at all. No longer, and it turns out, Santa's elves don't work for free. On the upside, I'm super excited about the items I've picked out for the kids and I love that this year Claire is going to be just as excited as Landon about all the holiday fun and traditions.

bring the pain, claire! bring the pain!

JP taught Claire to hit her palm on her elbow like a pro wrestler whenever you say, "Bring the pain!" So now, he will randomly yell that out, and Bear starts hitting her elbow and looking around like, "why am I doing this? who do I need to jump on?" Just one way he's preparing her for life outside of daycare.

wrestling, it's like hugging but fiercer

I noticed as I was making the kids' photo books that I have approximately 600 pictures of them wrestling on JP. On our bed, their bed, the carpeted floor of our Austin house, and the wood floor of our home in Fort Worth- I have pile up after pile up captured on film. And I love them. We used to do the same on my dad after dinner when I was little.

happiness

Every time I sit down to write a blog post these days I'll remember the difficult or stressful moments in the days before (because oh, they're there) and I worry that I'm going to write something depressing or whiny that I'll have to delete. But then I start writing and even when we were both sick and our heater broke and Landon puked all over the car and omg JP still doesn't have a job, I always end up smiling while I type. Because while there are some things that are difficult right now, mostly there's just a lot of laughing and cuddling and two kids playing together and two parents cracking up as they watch. It's so good, even as it's a little bit (or a lot bit) hard.

Now back to Landon's photobook...