It must be in the water again...

Just found out my brother's wife is pregnant. Probably due in October. Then I just found out a friend is pregnant with her 3rd and due in August.

Part of me is jealous (because I really would love to have 4 kids), but the other part of me is done with that stage of my life and wants to move on. My heart wants 4, my practical side keeps screaming at me that I am done.

I really wish my husband would take the lead on this and have himself fixed, just so I have closure. I don't want my mind to wander and wonder on this topic until menopause hits.

I am really excited for my brother. I just wish his baby was here already so that the baby would be the same age as M.

A Free Egypt

Egypt has made me proud. I spent Jan 25th to Feb 11th glued to the computer. I watched Al Jazeera Live, followed friends, family, and people I don't know in Egypt. I slept 4-5 hours a night. My life was put on hold. I went to a rally or two and made some new friends. I look forward to visiting a free Egypt.

Kale Chips

I have no idea where I have been hiding but I just found out about Kale chips and made a bunch on the fly. Just remove the leaves from the stems in bite size pieces. Rinse and spin in a salad spinner. Put kale pieces on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Sprinkle Kale with olive oil and then sprinkle with salt. Cook at 350F for 12-15 minutes. Then you have crunchy chips.

You could even squeeze a little lemon or lime on them before cooking.

Great Weekend

I spent all weekend cleaning and my husband spent all weekend baking. :)

The result was a clean house, homemade bread, pizza, and baklava.

We had company come over last night. We are so lucky because this company is also a distant cousin through marriage. They speak Arabic which is fantastic so that my children can get more exposure and they have children close to my own children's' ages. Best of all they are fantastic company. I am excited to have a potential friend/family member in the area that can come to me if they need anything, or we can go to them if we need something.

I must say, I wish I was as great of company as they are. I was not raised to be an entertainer. I was raised to be a worker. My cousins wedding. I missed the ceremony because I was busy setting up for the reception. Growing up as a child, you needed something done, you knew you could depend on my parents (and my bothers & I) to do the job and do it well, if only you asked.

I guess this is why my husband and I make a great team. I work, he entertains. I know how to do a lot of things, he is willing to learn or knows the science behind them.

Trash can tales

Here we have 3 garbage bins. One for recycling, one for yard waste, and one for trash/other. 3 weeks ago our yard waste bin went missing. Last week on trash day our trash bin was out at noon and around 3pm I see our neighbor go by with what looks like our trash bin.

Husband goes to bring our bins in and sure enough ours is gone and we look and there is ours in front of their house. My husband being the nice person he is doesn't take it back.

He later knocks on their door. The conversation went something like this:

"Hi I don't mean to bother you but I believe you may have taken our trash can by mistake"

"Oh yeah, well someone took one of our bins a few weeks ago."

"Yeah, someone took our yard bin a few weeks ago too, but my wife believes she say you accidentally take our trash can yesterday."

" Well I think your other neighbor took it, they have a lot of trash cans in their yard. Oh... How is your basement repairs going?"

Then the conversation turns into her husband and how we should call him if we need X,Y,Z fixed.

Let me point out. We are the only ones that have a trash can like ours, and yes I have the receipt for it. She had her 12 year old son do take the can while she drove. They live in a $750K house. We did NOT have our address on it....our own fault. "Oh...." is where she realized she was talking about our yard. We are allowed up to 7 yard waste bins. We have 3 that the previous owner left us. Plus 2 recycling ones (one again from the previous owners), plus 3 compost bins in the yard that someone might mistake for upside down trash cans. Our other neighbor does not any visible trash cans from their vantage point.

So I don't know if I will get the trash can back or not but I find them to be very white trash. I feel bad for the 12 year old boy and their other 3 children who are now adults. I hope they sale their house and move soon...but maybe I shouldn't hope for this....never know...we could get someone worse... :/

Only took a year

Last year I bought a mahogany table (2nd hand). Since then I have been looking for chairs and a cabinet to complete it as a set for my formal dining room. My goal was to find something that my husband also liked that wouldn't break the bank. It is finally done all my searches are over. Table $200
Cabinet $200
Chairs $120
Total $520

The chairs could use a little bit of glue and some new fabric, but they are okay for now if I just do a little spot cleaning. If you are wondering where all the beautiful crystal came from...grandmothers. The real question is, Will I ever use it? Who knows...

In other home improvement news, the basement is finally done. I can slowly start to put everything back together again and give the kids their play are back. I also have another area I am working on. A middle east sitting room.

Today we worked on pattern blocks. It honestly took my 4.5 year old a few minutes to fully catch on. I think we will be working with them on and off for the next couple of weeks just to make sure we solidify a few basic concepts.

Cleaning

Finally I am out of most of my maternity clothes and M is out of her 0-3 month clothes. It is so nice to finally get rid of my maternity clothes. I think I have spent 4 out of the last 5 years in them. With them gone I am currently down to, 2 pairs of pants, a skirt and 5 shirts. Not much but it will do until I loose another 20 lbs so I can get down near a semi-normal weight.
I unpacked a box last week. I found some really cute Clarks I had bought in 2006. The week before I was starting to feel bummed because I donated my boots when we moved here almost 3 years ago, but the clarks I found are so much nicer. I must have picked them over the boots at the time. My mom bought the kids new clothes recently....now I need to cut down on things there too. I think I am going to have a trunk full of clothes to donate after the holidays.

Reading & Potty Training

So this week I figured out Z (who is almost 4.5 years old) is at a 2nd grade guided reading level. In other words she reads like your average 1st grader is probably reading right now. She reads everything. We were sitting at a stop light and she got quiet then about 15 seconds later, "Mama, does that say Round Table? Mama was is Round Table?"

I switched to underware for G this week...he does fine if I force him to use the potty every 2 hours, but he just assume pee himself and walk around wet. He doesn't stay dry at night either, so I think I may take a break & then try again later. Boys....they just don't care.....

Save the drama for your mama

My husbands family is going through some drama. SIL is not stepping it up and taking care of her own business as much as she can. My husband was then working on a task that she could have easily done herself in 5 minutes a month or two ago. Husband knew he would be the one to do the task 2-3 weeks ago. Now he calls me today acting like it is an emergency and I need to take care of the task today.
Give me a break. Your drama, you deal with it. My husband has never wanted to hear my opinion on his family drama unless it completely agrees with his own opinion. Or he will fight my opinion to the death with me, and then think about it a few days and then present them to his family as if he had a flash of insight.
So as for this little task...he wants to help...I am not going to stop him. He wants to drag me into, no matter how simple, I am stepping down. I would never drag him into my family drama and ask for favors. When I do vent to him about my family drama, I at least listen to and respect his opinion.

So save the drama fro your mama and don't put off on others what you can easily do yourself.

TSA

I was so upset when I heard about the new body scanners. What was worse is that they are mandatory (unless you "opt. out) at my local airport. It is my understanding that not all airports have them or require everyone to pass through them (or opt. out.)
I do not feel like subjecting myself to anymore radiation than necessary or someone telling me that I have to submit myself and my children to radiation. These are my babies. I don't spend money to feed them mostly organic so that they can go subject themselves to radiation. Sure they can argue it is safe, the levels are so low, it is FDA approved, all they want. I don't trust them. I know it is just so our former Sec. of Homeland Security can hook up his buddies with some nice spending money. People will lie to make a $1, so what will they do to make $30M?? They say they don't store the images, it has been proven different. They say you can't see any private details, but this has also been proven a lie. Sounds like a lot of lies.
So let's say you opt. out. That doesn't sound too bad. Oh wait! TSA has no problem feeling around genitalia, your crack, looking down your pants from the waist, feeling under your shirt. You want me to let a stranger do that to me???? To my children?!?? Make no mistake you touch my children like that...TSA or not I will hunt you down and kill you. The quickest way to bring terrorists home is to create them by treating them with disrespect. I give it a few more months before someone brings a serious gun to security and wipes out ever TSA agent in the area. Probably someone's mother or father...or maybe just someone who didn't like their junk being checked out.
Let's be real. If I want to get something in I still can. You can swallow it or shove it up your ass. There are also a few other ways I can think of that would involve a little more planning...but you get the point. Even if they went to strip searches there will always be someone that will be able to get something past security and where they want it. Just the way it is... but you know, lets spend billions of dollars on security at a time when we are already in the negative and since we are spending the money let's make sure we spend it on big useless corporations.

I refuse to fly until TSA changes their ways. This means Alaska Air just lost $1k this year and KLM lost $3k from my family alone. When the airlines need a bailout they should send them to our former Sec. of Homeland Security's door and make him pay. If it means he has to file bankruptcy than so be it....he can rejoin the middle class.

There are a lot of great stories out there. If you have to fly Opt. Out. When you do Opt out and they touch you in inappropriate ways or do so without your permission... call 911. They legally have no right to search you unless you give them cause. Choosing not to subject your body to radiation or having your nudy picture taken is not just cause. If the police have to come to airport security every 5 minutes to file a report against TSA things will change. Write your local representatives and express your concerns. If you don't care about your personal freedom being taken away then you should just dig your own grave and at least save the rest of us the $2k it would cost to bury your sorry ass.

If you want to spend some more time looking into things here is a good place to start.
http://www.optoutday.com/

3 months

It has been 3 months since my youngest has been born. Since she will be my last I savior every moment. I try not to do it in a noticeable way though, don't want to spoil her. :)
I wish I had more time to spend with G. He is my boy, and my only boy.
I figured out last night each child had a special baby skill. For Z it was projectile poop, for G projectile pee (he is a boy after all), for M projectile puke. I am such a proud mother :)

It has also been about 3 months since A left. He went back to his mother. He needed/needs/wants drug abuse counseling. He is an addict. My husband & I spent a day finding him a place he could go to before sending him to his mother. My husband even set up the appointment so he could start. His mom canceled it, "too busy." We offered to set up another one for A if she could tell us when a good time was....she didn't know when. Now 2.5 months later A is skipping school to use and back to all his old ways. All the work that took us a year was undone in less than 3 months. His mom still doesn't care because she is still "too busy." She is a single mom so I do cut her some slack, but she has unlimited reasonable income from her parents. She ask they give.
So what is she so busy with...working as a TA (6 hours a day) in a Special Ed class and taking classes 2 nights a week. Her children all take care of themselves and raise themselves while she sits in her room studying so that she gets straight A's. I think if she cared she would figure out when she could make time to help her son, but maybe sometimes it is easier to ignore it and just hope things work themselves out.

Realization

I don't know what it is...probably a combination of different factors and struggles but I am finally getting to a place where I realize what is important and I really don't get upset at things or people because I can't change anything I can only enjoy what I am surrounded with.

I may sound like I am 80 years old but...
As long as we have our health and don't lack food and warmth everything will be okay. Machines and technology can be awesome. I don't have to walk to go get water, I don't have to start a fire to be warm, I don't have to spend all day, everyday, tending the land only to have it ruined by pests or early rain and worry about where my next meal will come from and how I will feed my family. It would appear to me that we have everything handed to us on a silver platter.

It doesn't matter if you voted Red & your neighbor voted Blue. The same sh!t will still be there. We have start focusing on what is really important, and stop being distracted by everything else.

What is important to you?

My day

hour 0 kids wake up, play, make messes
hour 1 eat breakfast
hour 2 pick up mess from hour 0
hour 3 get everyone dressed
hour 4 Costco.
hour 5 Septic "fun"
hour 6 lunch.
hour 7 Z's dance.
hour 8 cook dinner
hour 9 homeschool kids
hour 10 eat dinner
hour 11 get kids in bed
hour 12-13 relax
hour 14 try to sleep while husband on computer
hour 15 feed baby
hour 16 sleep finally

Now mind you there is nursing in there about every 2 hours for 15 minutes and I do all of this while holding the 2 month old.

Never a dull moment.

Kids

Today NPR did a story on ADHD and neurofeedback. It was sad because at the end of the story the mother of the story admits that she has seen an improvement in her son's interaction with her and it is probably because now they spend more time together because they go out to pizza after his sessions.

I am so tired of parents being so selfish and not taking the time to address the problems their children have. Children need your time. They need to be cuddled and loved. They need to have interaction with other children AND their parents. They need to get out of the house and learn by watching their parents. They need healthy food to eat. (If you wouldn't put low octane cheap gas in your car why the hell would you put fast "food" in your children unless there is nothing else available.) You take your dog for a walk everyday so it doesn't tear up your house or sh1t on everything, why not take your children out to play too. If only we use a little bit of common sense and spend time interacting with our children a little each day, I am sure many problems would be minimized or disappear completely.

We had a nice weekend. My husband was more open to celebrating Halloween this year. The kids got costumes and decorated pumpkins. My husband even carved one too. To build up to the holiday we made paper pumpkins & strung them up in the window and made hanging paper spiders with accordion folded legs. We are in a very low traffic area so I was happy that we had 3 sets of tricker treaters for the kids to greet.

Today I started Z on Oak Meadow 1st grade curriculum. We meet 4 gnomes; Plus, Minus, Times, & Divide. I want to get my daughter reading small chapter books, writing short sentences, and doing basic addition and subtraction before she starts school. I think G will pick up a lot by watching his sister so I am hoping to start him on Kindergarten curriculum in another year. I am interested to start Z on an instrument soon too and to re-enroll the younger children in Music Together when Z starts school.

This weekend my baby, M, started cooing "ma-ma." She also will copy clicking noises and tries so hard to speak to us and to sit up.

Basement

We have a MIL unit in our basement. Friday Z & G went down stairs and found water on the ground in their play area. Z immediately comes up and tells me. I open the door to the MIL unit and immediately find soggy carpet. I few more steps and I find the source. A pipe in the ceiling is leaking down creating a bubble on the wall and of coarse it has to be dripping on my husband's grandmother's furniture. I shut off the water ASAP and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening on the phone.

So here we are a few days later. The pipe is repaired and parts of the basement/MIL unit is gutted down to the studs. Now I get to spend time with insurance and hope we can get it back the way it was in the next month.

I think my husband is taking this harder than I am. I understand, these things happen. (Apparently even to cooper pipes that are only 22 years old.) He has never had to repair a home.

It has come to this

I don't know if I should be sad or relieved.

My father has basically disowned me. I was raised Christian and let's just say I took the Bible to heart and read it several times as a teen. I did not agree with the church because not a single one of them follows the bible. They all take & choose what they need and leave the rest. When you start to see the real truth, people don't like you because you are challenging the familiar.

If you truly believe the bible you learn to "Trust in the Lord God with all your heart, lean not on your own understandings. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths."
Ever really try to live like that? Don't worry, trust in God when things happen that you don't understand?

It is no secret that I married a Muslim man. However, he is not just any man. He is the best man I have ever known. He treats me better than I deserve. My father has never tried to see past "muslim." He has always been racist, so it is no shocker. However now he feels it is his duty to post the latest anti-Islamic thing he can find on facebook daily. All of it has to do with Islam and all Muslims being from the devil or how it is trying to take over the world.
I told him, we know he has a strong opinion, but he only does harm when posting these lies.

Now he has removed me from being his "friend" and continues to post directing them toward me and my lack of "knowledge" about Islam for all to see. Why because he is not smart enough to use the privacy settings.

I am sad that my mother will be the only grandparent my children truly know and spend time with. I pray God keeps her with us for at least another 20 years.

Glamourmom Nursing Bra tummy control

I love Glamourmom "nursing tops" tanks and my belly just hasn't gone back down as quickly as the last 2 times. Today I got their Nursing Bra with Tummy control in the mail.

Cons:
Only make 1 color, black.
Nursing openings are bigger, so when you nurse you are going to show some boobage.
They didn't try these on real moms, so if you have a belly you are actually try to squeeze in there, the tummy control doesn't come down far enough. They would benefit from adding 2 inches.
Price $49 (which isn't that bad when you consider the regular ones sale for $35-39)

Pros:
It seems constructed really well. They used nice clasps.
It is really long. It covers the hips a bit. This could also be seen as a con depending on your personal wants/use.

I think with a few tweaks it could be a really good. If I remember, I'll update this in a week or two.

Update 10/19/2010
I wore it a few days. I don't think it really makes a long term difference on my tummy. But it does make me look better when I wear it. (Makes my tummy look a little flatter and my waist slimmer.)

Not so quick trip

Call me crazy....
10 days after having M I loaded up the car and drove the family to Cali. M had been in 3 states before she was even 2 weeks old. I had help both ways and it was uneventful.

I only spent 12 hours at my SIL's and by hour 7 I was ready to take my kids and run out the door. She went from sitting on her bum studying her room to yelling at her kids in 3 seconds. One was cooking dinner, "How come you aren't cooking dinner faster!!!!" What's wrong with you!" (Uh because dinner is still 2 hours away.) "Why did you run the dishwasher when it wasn't full!! Are you dumb?" (Uh, because every plate, cup, and silverware we own is dirty and we need them for dinner.) Her children were running the house and doing a good job at it and all she did was bitch. Seriously maybe I am missing something but I have no idea what she would have done differently that her kids didn't do.

I love my SIL, but she needs to find balance in her life because it is seriously missing and she isn't helping herself or her kids right now. I guess she was just raised in a way that she only had to focus on one thing at a time and feels over whelmed dealing with more than one thing on her plate?

ROFLMAO re: Comments

I moderate comments for good reason. I get my fair share of "I like your blog so follow mine at ......." Yeah sorry I don't even give those comments a 2nd look.

I got a good one last week. It was someone telling me about how I was a bad step mother and this poor teenager that lived with me. She also assumed that my husband was his father. She went on and on and on. I am sure she had good intentions, but um...
This is a good reminder of how we shouldn't judge and jump to conclusions on anything we read on the internet because we only read one side of the story and often we are missing important details.

In case you are just joining us, the teen is not my husbands son, or my step son. Bad as it sounds, if it were my own son or step son, I would have slapped him upside the head a lot more than twice in the one year he was here and would have been a lot harder dishing out other punishments. I assure his own mother will probably slap him upside the head more than twice in the next two months.

Baby

The only day I did not want to have this baby was Saturday Aug. 21st, my dad's b-day. So it only figures that.....

Friday night August 20th I had contractions on and off. They ranged from 10 minutes apart to 30 minutes apart. Around 3am they started being intense(r) and lasting a minute or more and regularly 10 minutes apart. Around 4 am I told my husband, "let's get going."

We arrived at the hospital at 5am. They found I was 6-7cm dilated with a bulging water. Was told the on call OB was a female (as DH strongly prefers) only till 7 am. I got in a room. The contractions got intense, like with Z. I asked to get in the tub. Took the nurse 3 more contractions to get it ready. Got in the tub, no relief. I said, "I need to push." That was at 6am. Nurse checked me, sure enough I was 9+ cm. I said "Get the OB now!" There was a scramble to get the OB as they knew I was not waiting. Turned out the OB was in the hospital and she was there. One contraction, she broke my water. 2 contractions baby's head was there and she did a quick stretch, 3rd contraction her head came out. Cord was around baby's neck twice, OB yelled, wait!! wait!! Got to get the cord off her neck. I was in mid-contraction (they were lasting 2 minutes by now), I paused for about 5 seconds, then I couldn't stand it and I pushed her all the way out.

Malak(mel-ick / "angel") was born 6:12 am weighing 7lbs 4 oz and 19 3/4".