Chasing My Blessings

I left the cloth diapers hanging on the clothesline outside overnight AGAIN last night. Ugh. Luckily we live in Colorado and there usually isn't much moisture in the early morning this time of year. Let me preface all this by saying that I am pregnant and nearing the end of my first trimester. You all may or may not be aware of a little phenomenon called "pregnancy brain." Did you know a woman's brain actually shrinks during pregnancy? It's true. Thanks, mother nature. Like I needed that. Although I am a nurse, I cannot remember the exact physiology around this because, well I HAVE PREGNANCY BRAIN. So, along with the nausea, exhaustion, bloating, and general feeling of disgust most women feel during the beginnings of pregnancy, we also get to feel like we are in the early stages of alzheimer's. Oh the joys. When I woke up for the hundredth time to pee, around 4am, I happened to look out the window and notice the diapers still hanging there on the line. Which...

Actual conversation with my husband the other night: Me: "The faucet in the bathroom has been dripping. Maybe we need to call Scott (the landlord)." Bill: "Yeah, I noticed that too. The other day it was dripping at a rate of 1 drop every 13 seconds, which is about 14 gallons per month." ** Seriously? ...Well, the fact is, I am not at all surprised by the fact that he actually took the time to calculate this, so why even kid myself.** Me: (chuckling, partly at the fact that sadly, this is how many of our conversations go and partly at the fact that this math whiz chose to marry the girl who is mathematically challenged)  "Well, 14 gallons seems like a lot." Bill: "It seems like it, but it's really about the equivalent of a bath. I will keep an eye on it and we can give Scott a call if it seems like it's getting worse." Can anyone else out there relate?

We have yet again, managed to make it through another week. Well, almost. There is still Saturday to get through, but there will be 2 parents home tomorrow which makes managing the chaos much easier. This week, like most, was filled with smiles, giggles, hugs, kisses, playing, lots of noise, tickles, tantrums, time-outs, and tears, but mostly love and laughter. Blake spilled his milk at the dinner table, AGAIN, which is pretty much par for the course since he is usually too busy talking and pushing his plate around to actually eat anything. Why the hell do I burden myself with placemats that have to be washed, instead of just wiped down? Why have placemats at all? I guess I still have this idea (which is quickly fading while raising two boys) that I can create a lovely and put-together home. Landon inhales his dinner in about 8 minutes and proudly displays the "all done" sign (which is also the same hand signal they use for touchdown if you happen to live with football love...

Recently my vet said that our dogs, now that they are 7, are considered "seniors." I have to admit, my heart sank a little when she said that. I can still remember the day I hand-picked each of them from their litters. While they are not litter-mates, they are from the same set of parents, so siblings none the less. They were both very different as puppies, but equally lovable. We got Ellie a few months after we got married. At around 5 pounds, she was the runt of her litter of 11 and just as sweet as could be. She has always been our more anxiety-prone dog, and certainly not the dominant one of the two. We didn't know it, but she had parvovirus when we got her, and for the first 2 weeks we had her I rarely left her side, shuttling her to and from the vet office nearly every day for more fluid. Till this day, she and I have an unspeakable bond. Her loyalty is most apparent when there is an unfamiliar face at the door, or when Bill gives me any type of affection. She lo...

I'm not sure if this is how it works in other people's households, but this is how it works in ours. Husband makes a sandwich and takes it to the table, or couch where he can watch whatever sporting event he is currently following, and eats it. Wife makes a sandwich, puts all of the "sandwich fixings" back in the fridge. She notices the countertops are dirty and so she proceeds to clean them. She then throws in the load of laundry she was reminded of while she was cleaning the countertops. She lets the dogs inside. One of the kids tells her he is hungry and/or thirsty so she fixes him a snack. She shoos the dog away, who is sniffing and aggressively and searching for the sandwich, which is still sitting on the counter, untouched. She then proceeds to clean up after her child, who is done with his snack. The other child is now fussing and she puts some new toys out for him to play with. She lets the dogs outside. The phone rings, and it's her mother. She has to...

Ok so maybe I'm being a bit facetious. The truth is, we have worked really hard these last seven years to build a solid marriage. We have both grown a lot as individuals and as a couple and while I am a firm believer in that old phrase, "there's always room for improvement," I can honestly say I think we are in a really good place right now. Yes, our lives are busier now than ever before and that obviously creates a certain amount of stress, but we are able to take it on and work through it together. As we have each learned the other's strengths and weaknesses, we have also learned to swallow our pride in certain situations, and let the other take the reigns.                     Like most of our anniversaries, we didn't actually do much out of the ordinary today. I ran in a 10K and Blake ran his first kid's fun run, while Bill and Landon cheered us on and snapped photos to commemorate the event. Afterwards, we came home and Landon nap...

I encountered some headwind on my run this morning, which made for a good workout since I was pushing a double baby jogger that weighs in excess of 75lbs. I was reminded of a recent conversation I had with my husband, an avid cyclist, who said that "headwind doesn't really matter much when you are running with a jogger like it does on the bike." Right, because a double jogger is so much more aerodynamic than an exceedingly fit man riding a bicycle with a sleek frame made out of carbon fiber. My rebuttal was met with my husband's firm conviction that he was right, and I could see that I was not going to win this one. Although I couldn't help but feel a little defensive, I decided to drop it. Chose your battles and chose them well. Lesson learned: A man on his bike will not be outdone by a woman pushing a baby jogger.