We're Alright

This seems to be an appropriate theme song at the moment. Quite honestly, if you were a fly on the wall in my house, you would hear this blasting, and see me and the kids jumping up and down, spinning, and dancing in strange ways that we find hilarious. Oh and when we sing "keep our teeth nice and clean", we all make various gestures towards our mouths, which inevitably makes us all crack up laughing.
The upbeat, fast pace of the music is the closest equivalent to what my life seems like at the moment. The song is on replay constantly. I am going to hope my kids appreciate my eclectic taste in music someday. In all honesty they would have to thank the wonderful movie Clueless for my introduction to this song. Just one of many things to love from that movie, but that's another post that I probably won't ever write."I know what you must be thinking... is this like a Noxema commercial, or what? But actually, I have like, a way normal life for the average teenage girl..."
Seriously guys, I could sit here and run through the entire movie start through finish. It is THAT embedded in my brain.
I'm scaring you now, aren't I?
Off subject, but Nathan and I were discussing this the other day. What show would you say is this generation's Saved By The Bell? We're guessing iCarly.
Also of possible interest to you is that Nathan believes Zac Effron is "probably like the next Brad Pitt."
To which I responded "Are you trying to tell me you have a man crush on Zac Effron?" (because he has an admitted man love thing going on with Brad Pitt, and I'm not questioning his sexuality here, I'm just stating facts.)
And he responded "He is a really good looking guy, and you know I actually really like him in movies."
Have I told you Nathan loves 17 Again? And Legally Blonde? I once (when we first started dating) went over his house to find him and one of his good friends baking chocolate chip cookies and watching Legally Blonde. I have never in almost eight years let him live that down, and whenever it comes up (usually at his expense, my delight and in the presence of other people) he admittedly protests that there is nothing odd about that situation. I laugh. A lot.
Have I also told you he is known to sometimes sing Madonna, (song of choice being Holiday) at the top of his lungs in the shower?
These are reasons I love him. His man crushes on Brad Pitt and Zac Effron, his love for chick flicks, and his ability to know the words to Madonna.

I have no idea where this post is going but I am sure I have already said entirely too much.
Happy Weekend!!!!

Did You Drop Something?

Okay, okay I am writing it. The post I am assuming most of you wanted to read, or I became popular overnight, because I swear my visitors tripled today!

If you haven't heard the news, here it is....
Last night Nathan got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! Seven and a half years, 5 pregnancies and three children (not fifteen dad, wink wink) later, we are finally taking that big leap into marriage.
I got it stuck in my head that I wanted to go to the Children's Museum in Boston Friday night. I called Nathan to see if he would jump on board, but before I even asked, I found out he was having a terrible work day. I did ask though, and he said yes, much to my surprise and joy. He said that before we went though, he wanted to walk around all of the pretty gardens that have been built in the city, part of the big dig project and to add some green to Boston. They are gorgeous, so if you are in the area, take a stroll. It almost makes those years of horrid, nightmarish traffic and construction detours forgettable.
We were telling the kids about this, when Nathan asked Nate if he wanted to take a picture of us. Brody then threw a temper tantrum because, naturally he wanted to take a picture. We diffused the situation, and I took my place next to Nathan to take a quick photo. But Nathan dropped down next to me, and I thought he dropped his phone or something, but he didn't, because when I looked at him he was on one knee, wait,he was on one knee, and he asked me to marry him. Then there was a pretty little box in front of me, with something sparkling at me from inside that box. and he said some very heart felt things, things I fear if I wrote out for the world to see, he may take the pretty sparkly thing on my finger back. But it was really sweet, and made me cry, and made me speechless, which is so very hard for me to be. And this is probably right around the time Nate took the picture.

And it was perfect. All of it. Oh, and I said yes.

Christmas Morning

You know that feeling, you feel it before you go to bed when you are really excited for what's going to happen the next day? And you are so excited that you wake up often because you hope it's morning?
Maybe it was in part to due to the fact that Nathan and I went out last night at 9:30 to a local restaurant to have a few drinks and an appetizer... ok and dessert too.
We lasted a whole hour and a half. But after two yes I said that two whole years of not being out alone, it was amazing. It felt new and kind of strange riding together alone in his car, which we both pointed out. And when the bartender carded me (yes I got carded and Nathan didn't which I used to my advantage) we felt the need to tell him how long it had been since we had been out alone and that we (okay just how I) never drink and that this was a very impromptu gift for us.
Back to today. That feeling is because today we are headed into Boston to listen to music along the Charles and play catch and have a picnic lunch, and enjoy each other. I grew up going to all of the free concerts at the Hatch Shell. I have vivid, glorious memories of dancing on our little blanket at sunset, mesmerized by the music.
I woke up this morning filled to the brim with happiness and excitement an anxious anticipation.
Pictures to follow.

I've Got Nothing

No quirky or relevant title here. We were attacked by intense winds last night and I am running on less than three hours of sleep. Nathan and I moved the boys out of their beds and brought them to the main floor to sleep because we were that worried about a tree slamming into our roof. Thankfully that did not happen. Although most of our street lost power (we did not), and there were trees covering our street (we were finally lulled to sleep by the flashing of various police/fire trucks), and I guess I could tell you that it looks like the trees threw up all over our yard (but in light of other folks' stories, I feel blessed) our shed ended up the only REAL casualty. A tree was uprooted and fell smack on the roof of the shed, crushing it completely. We are all running a bit on empty at this point. Nathan is trying to make the clan happy, and offered to accompany me to the grocery store, which has only happened oh maybe four times in seven years. He enjoys teaching the boys to cook, and honestly I learned how to cook mostly from him (he'll gladly tell you what a terrible cook I was when we met, but will quickly follow up with what a maestro I am now, ha!) Tonight he has chosen to cook ribs (from scratch) and fries (from scratch) which is actually a surprisingly inexpensive meal. Ribs were 12- and potatoes were 4-. I chose to make a big salad for me (and everyone else, but honestly it's because I could eat the whole thing myself.) On that foodie note, I know a few have asked me about how I'm doing so far. Well, I'd like to say so far so good. In some ways I am eating more, but it's all smaller portions and as far as what I am eating, lots and lots of green things. Seriously. I'm consuming entire crops of veggies and beans. I am also (besides drinking lots of water) keeping the green tea industry in business all by myself. I feel much better. My body actually feels cleaner. No joke.
I have begun reading Shutter Island and am hoping for my eyes to cooperate and let me stay awake enough tonight to actually finish it.

Love Bug

I hope you all had a wonderful, love filled Valentine's Day! Although our normal tradition is to make our own fondue, but since I still am unable to eat much, and I really look forward to once a year cheese and chocolate feast, we opted to hold out for a couple of weeks. Saturday night Nathan made the boys a steak tip dinner with rice and butternut squash. We all cuddled up and watched a movie together. Sunday morning Nathan got the boys donuts and I set their places with their Valentine's Day gifts. The boys and Nathan gave me a gorgeous new jewelery box and two new pairs of earrings. Ty had his last regular season basketball game, which they won! Ty got two baskets and did great. We then headed to Nathan's parents house for his mother's birthday dinner. It was a great day. I even have come close to catching up on all the laundry from when I was sick.
Now I am at the beginning of vacation week and am praying for sanity for the next seven days.

Exorcism

Yesterday Keira was emotionally scarred for life. Since the acquisition of her first two bottom teeth (which have just really started to be visible) she has not bitten me, or anyone else.I thought this was because of her superior intelligence, but alas, yesterday afternoon she decided to give it a try while nursing, and I let out a big "OOOOWWWWWW", which made her bite down harder, which made me scream a bit more. She then stopped, sat up, stared at me and locked eyes with me for one brief second. That one second was where she used her jedi mind powers to tell me "This is the moment you ruined my life." Her eyes got as wide as possible, her bottom lip curled in a largest pout you have ever seen, and then the water works came. The girl let out the "waaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh" of the century. It took me A FULL THIRTY minutes to calm her down and convince her I was no longer possessed by the devil. She spent this thirty minutes with her head buried in my neck, refusing to look at me. Good God in Heaven, I am in for it.
Fast forward to seven-ish last night. Ty and Nate are occupied playing against each other in their life sucking Nintendo DS in their 37th "just one more game", and Nathan and I are enjoying playing with Keira and Brody on the couch. I should premise this by saying Keira is obsessed with pointing. This is a newer trick of hers, so she enjoys doing it 24/7. Brody, being the good, funny big brother he is, was pointing too, only in his game, he'd slowly raise his pointed finger and poke Nathan in the nose and say "beep!" (because in our house noses always are for honking, beep beep. Well that and eating," Keira thought this was funny, so she decided to beep her daddy's nose. She was thrilled with this new game. Then her father decided to switch up the rules, and when it was Brody's turn Nathan pretended to swat his finger away and get Brody's nose instead. Brody thought this was even better than the first game, and his belly laughs made Keira release her own belly laughs. Naturally Keira wanted to play, but the minute Nathan pretended to swat her finger away and playfully said "What are you doing", well readers, those eyes got wide, the bottom lip came out, she stared at him, locked eyes with him long enough to confirm the devil had now entered his body and tell him she would never be the same again, and then the waterworks came. Her head once again found it's spot buried into me, only before looking at me to make sure I wasn't evil. Despite Lucifer's attempts to apologize, Keira held strong to her convictions and dug her tiny hands into me, because of course her life was at great risk. How long? Almost an hour this time. Boy oh boy did her devil dad feel every second of that time.

A Sign of the Times

Hello readers
As most of you know Nathan has worked as an electrician for over ten years, but almost two years ago, he was laid off from his job (two weeks before Christmas to be exact.) He worked on side jobs here and there, but because no one is remodeling, or looking to build new construction, etc., no one is hiring, and there are just little to zero jobs out there for an electrician. Nathan is very fortunate that he was able to be hired by his father to work at his father's company, AOTCO, in the quality control dept. and he really loves his job. He is very good at what he does, and like I said in this economy, we are so lucky that he has this to do.
Unfortunately, there is just not as much money coming in as there was, and for me to work, it would cost more than one week's paycheck to get the kids in day care, and there just needs to be two parents here in the evening, when there are sports and soon homework and when the children tend to be crankier. We have, as a result had to take a long hard look at our spending and budget, and had to break things down from necessity to luxury. It was in doing this that we decided that we are going to do away with cable/internet for a while. We have Nate's birthday and Brody's birthday, and quite a few family birthdays, as well as the holidays to prepare for, and we just can't see how we will be able to do it all without making some sacrifices. I will tell you, I had a very difficult time with this at first. It sounds so petty to whine about having tv or the internet when I should be grateful we will have money for diapers and gifts for the kids, but there is a little, ok great sting of selfishness that comes along with it. We told the kids last night, and I felt incredibly guilty when their reactions were much more understanding. Ty was of course immediately concerned with the Red Sox games, but then said "It will be hard at first but that's okay, I'll get over it." and Nate, (because we explained this means we'll be playing lots of games together at night) jumped for joy and just said "We can play Uno Attack and Go Fish EVERY night!) Yes, my children showed me up. Just goes to show, there is a lot you can learn from your kids.
I will stay connected as much as possible, but here's the kicker... you may actually need to pick up a phone to get a hold of me if you want a response quickly. Shocking in these times, where emails and texting replace actual person to person conversations. I will try to do weekly updates if possible. (We do have internet access on Nathan's cell phone, which we may make my cell phone, and I know, that seems like a luxury to cut out, but that phone won't work without the internet on it, so it has to stay.)
We have not decided a time table as to when we will turn everything back on. We will no longer have it as of this weekend. We do know this will be long enough for us to feel like we have breathing room. Whenever that may be...

Nathan's Surprise 30th

Well I somehow pulled it off!!! Thank you to Matt for getting Nathan out of the house, and to Meryl for picking up balloons and helping me get the finishing touches set up. Nathan finally got the bracket to hang our new tv, and he enlisted his brother's help to move our old tv into our bedroom. I was upstairs folding laundry with Brody when I heard a huge crash and Nate crying. I thought for sure the new tv had fallen or something, but it turns out, as Nate was running into the kitchen and the door to our fridge fell off. Scary. This was at 530... you could say I was a bit panicky to say the least. Nathan said he'd go to Home Depot with Matt, who was supposed to be at the house around 6pm, and when he came back from "helping Matt" he'd fix the fridge. If it isn't one thing it's another, huh?
Nathan didn't leave until around 720 and I had to send a text message to everyone to not arrive until 8pm, and told Matt to have Nathan back by 9.
As soon as Nathan left I rushed around like a mad woman getting all the decorations set up and food out, and thankfully everything went really well.
Nathan was so surprised, which made me really happy. I made enough food to feed an army, but had so much left over that I froze two big casserole sized containers, which will come in handy the next few weeks when the baby comes.

Surprise!!!Opening presentsCake time
Watching him blow out the candles

3/20

I thought for sure I was going to go into labor last night. Around 930pm I started having really intense contractions every 10-12 minutes. They lasted ALL night. I didn't sleep much. But alas, this morning they slowed down just in time for me to start a busy day.
They may have been caused by me rearranging my bedroom yesterday. Yes, I moved the bed, hope chests, everything. No Nathan was not home and had no idea I was doing it. What can I say, nesting instincts kicking in yet again.
We woke up early and I took Ty to get his filling... he did great although was very upset with having half of his face numb. I then swung by my mom's house so Nate could use the bathroom and I could change Brody's diaper. I headed to IParty to get the last of Nathan's surprise 30th party decorations and went to the grocery store to buy the stuff to make all of the food for the party. It was such a fun visit to the grocery store... Ty complaining of his face being numb, Nate off the wall and covering his face in stickers, yes his eyes too, Brody was very cranky and kept trying to get all of the food. I bought a ginger ale and was so excited to have it when I got in the car and it exploded all over me. It was really fun.
I am now waiting for the cake to cool and have sent the older boys out to play. I just got Brody in for a nap and now am procrastinating before I start making mounds of food.
If I survive this night, I think I am in good shape. Will post pics soon.

Two Bad Backs

"The trouble with being a parent is that by the time you are experienced, you are unemployed."
Unknown

I am ready for bed. Now I just have to convince the kids that they are ready for bed as well. A few weeks ago Nathan threw out his back. He has been alternating icing it and applying heat, but it has finally reached it's peak and he had me call the doctor today to get him seen. He can barely move at the end of the day. Yesterday I was in the kitchen, leaning up against my counter, holding Brody and I (although not moving) slipped somehow, and my feet went out from underneath me. I managed to not smack the back of my head off the cabinets or counter, or fall on my butt, but I basically slid very harshly down a bit, scraping my back along the counter, and since I was holding Brody, I was much more concerned about dropping him or falling with him, so I must have twisted very quickly, because today, my back is throbbing. Brody woke up in his crib at 4:40am and I brought him into our bed, but he didn't get back to sleep until 6:45am, a very short 35 minutes before I get up in the morning to get Ty ready for school. I had to leave the house by 930 this morning to go birthday present shopping for three different parties, then rush to Nate's storytime at 11. After storytime we dashed back to the house so I could feed Nate and Brody lunch and get them in the car to wait for Ty to get off the bus (half day Wednesdays) so we could head out to Ty's friend's birthday party at Monster Mini Golf in Danvers. It is an indoor mini golf place that is all black lights and actually pretty cool. I figured since it was only a little less than two hours, I would hang around. Monkey Joe's, an indoor bouncy, jumpy place, was right next door, so I thought as a special treat for Nate, we'd go there during the party. Fifteen minutes later I regretted my decision. Brody would not stay in the big toddler jumpy thing and I was bending down, picking him up non stop for the next hour and a half. Brody loved it, but it was not something that exactly helped my back pain. Nate on the other hand was sweaty and made a friend very quickly, so I am very glad that he got the chance to have fun too. A side note, because Brody had eaten not too long before that, in his excitement, he leaned in to give me a kiss and threw up on my mouth. Yummy. At 3pm we headed back into Monster Mini Golf, only to find out they weren't even done golfing. I then held Brody for the next 45 minutes and tried to keep Nate entertained while we waited. As soon as I got in the car, I wanted to cry. I put Nathan's heating pad on my back and reluctantly got dinner ready and have gotten the kids ready for bed, and am now counting down the minutes (ten as of now) before I send them to bed and go to bed myself. I am going to try my hardest to stay awake for Lost, but something tells me I won't. Tomorrow is another day, right?

Lazy Saturday

"We never know the love of our parents for us until we have become parents."
Henry Ward Beecher

I fully plan on doing as little as possible today. I'm refusing to do much cleaning until the kids are asleep. I swept and mopped not once, not twice, but three times yesterday. I also did four loads of laundry, and when I brought my last basket up, excited to be finished, I found, much to my horror, that my dog had somehow in the 15 minutes the basket was outside the door, climbed in it and peed on all the clean clothes. This is so out of character for her, and at 9pm, it was the last thing I wanted to deal with. It was quite discouraging. Brody was up early this morning, and I didn't sleep well last night. My best friend, heartburn, was really wanting to spend time with me. Nathan left for work at 630 this morning, so I have the kids all to myself. I plan on putting a movie on for the older boys and napping with Brody in a few hours and then taking a Target trip... only to return a curtain rod Nathan deemed "way too girly" (it's not) and to get a "less girly" one.
Tomorrow we are getting our third kitchen table in a year. Nathan's parents bought a new table, and we are taking the one they have now. It is a beautiful, big, round table, that we will all fit comfortably at for years and years to come. We are also getting the baby's dresser, and I may even convince Nathan to set up the crib. At the very least the crib box will no longer be on my porch, and will be up in the nursery. Yes, I promise I will post pics of the nursery once it is set up.
That is it for now... I'm going to go enjoy (if the kids let me) this day.