Summer of Jude

Baby Jude.

Hey guys! Long time no see. Looks like I unexpectedly took the summer off. I have a great excuse though. I had a baby! Jude was due July 15^th but surprised everyone by coming on June 6^th – two days after the last day of school.

That was not his first surprise. His first was being here at all! I’m forty-five years old. My other kids are fifteen, thirteen and nine. My first child was conceived with the help of fertility treatments. After my second child was born, my husband and I tried for a few years for a third child. Nothing happened and we ended up adopting our daughter. I never went on birth control because what would be the point, right? Well, after twelve years – surprise! When we told the kids, Cash, the oldest, said, “How’d that happen??” I said, “Cash, you know how it happens.” To which he replied, “Yeah, but I didn’t think you guys were still doing it!” Geez, we’re not THAT old!

Proud siblings!

I had a C-section to deliver Jude and when the doctor cut me open (sorry, graphic) she said, “Did you know you have really bad endometriosis? I’m surprised you could get pregnant at all!” Our little Jude was definitely meant to be here. Even though he was six weeks early, he only spent two weeks in the NICU before he came home. He is the light of everyone’s eye. His older brothers and sister love him so much and truly are a big help to me. I don’t know if I could do the newborn thing at my age without them!

Now that Jude is a little better at taking naps in his bed instead of in my arms, I should be able to start blogging again, although posts will still be sporadic for a while. I have been doing quite a bit of reading – that and watching TV are what I do when I’m nursing the baby and he eats pretty often. Hopefully, I can remember what all the books I’ve read are actually about and start cranking out the reviews.

How was your summer?

Week-End Ramblings – March 18-24, 2017

This week was my kids’ spring break. Wrangling them kept me from posting here – except for my review of Fate and Furies I posted Friday. (I hope my mom doesn’t disown me for liking it.)

Sunday, the boys were farmed out to relatives so Neve got some one-on-one time with her Daddy and me. We took her to Wonderscope – a children’s play museum that the boys are too old and rowdy for. It’s hard being the very little sister to two big, unruly boys. She doesn’t get to go on little kid outings very often. She had a blast at Wonderscope. We closed the place down!

Week-End Ramblings – March 11-17, 2017

This was a low-key week with routine activities like Scouts and soccer practices. We watched the latest Ghostbusters movie for family movie night and Neve is obsessed to say the least. She has watched it at least four times this week and has been following me around quoting lines from it non-stop. One of the quotes has the word dammit in it. I told her that is a bad word and she can’t say it. She informed me that she says it at school all the time. I told her to knock it off! I’m surprised I haven’t gotten a call from the teacher because Neve is not exactly soft-spoken.

I’ve listening to Amy Schumer’s book The Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo and reading Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. I chose it because President Obama listed it as one of his favorite books of 2015. My mom disagreed with him just a bit. Here’s her review from Goodreads:

I couldn’t finish this book and hated the parts that I did manage to read. This was one of President Obama’s favorite books in 2015? Now I keep looking at photographs of Obama and wondering in what carefully concealed, renegade segment of his brain this book found a home. The fragmented, tortured prose, hollow, unlikable characters, plot tediously unrolling into nowhere, all made for a miserable reading experience.

Don’t you wish my mom had a blog? She does not mince words. Love you mom! I think my opinion is going to end up being somewhere in between Mom and Obama’s.

How was your week?

Week-End Ramblings

This was the week of strep throat. Poor Cash tested positive for it on Wednesday. I had been running a low-grade fever for a few days so after I took him to the doctor, I went to urgent care and asked them to swab me for it. I figured why not? I didn’t have a sore throat but I have no immune system so better safe than sorry. And I did indeed test positive. The bright spot is that oral antibiotics actually worked and the fever is gone now without a trip to the hospital! Cash is all better too. It was his first time being sick this school year. And West and Neve managed not to catch it. *knock on wood*.

The highlight of the week was my mother/son date with West. We went to see Shen Yun, a classical Chinese music and dance company. He’s been wanted to go since he heard about it last year. I was dubious that he would actually find it entertaining but I was wrong. He loved it! I liked it too but I think I liked watching him watch it more.

Lastly, I want to give a shout out to my talented friend Sarah, who made this awesome hat for me! Isn’t it cute?

Week-End Ramblings

I’ve decided to start a new feature whereupon every Friday, Saturday or Sunday, I post something about what I’ve done during the week, whether or not it’s bookish. And I’d like to hear from you about what’s going on in your life! You can tell me in the comments or link up a post you want to share. I’m trying to think of a catchy name (let me know if you have suggestions!) so for right now it’s just Week-End Ramblings.

The absolute highlight of the week was my daughter’s fifth anniversary of joining our family. She got to choose what we did to celebrate. She prefers store bought cake over my homemade cake (the nerve!) so she picked a Secret Life of Pets cake. The bakery lady thought that was a “very out-of the ordinary” choice for an anniversary cake. I’m sure she assumed it was for a wedding anniversary. Neve chose getting take-out and watching the Johnny Depp version of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory at home. She and West got McDonald’s and since Travis, Cash and I have good taste, we got 54th Street. It was fun. Neve has brought so much love and joy to our family, it’s nice to take the time to honor that.

The next highlight was my Mommy/Son date with Cash. We went out to a fancy dinner at McCormick and Schmick’s and then to see the show Stomp. Cash got a lot of attention at the restaurant for his dapper outfit.

Cash ordered a fish called Bronzini, which came whole. The entire time he was eating it, I had the song Fish Heads in my head. I’m really glad he’s grown out of being a picky eater – even if it does mean that his meal is giving me the stink-eye from across the table.

Stomp was great. Cash loved it. He plays the drums and is always pounding on things around the house. It drives me nuts! I’ll probably regret taking him if it makes him pound even more, but we had so much fun that it’s worth it.

Finally, I got to have lunch with my BFF Nerdy Apple. She brought me these fabulous Christmas gifts and I brought her nothing! Except for some books I had borrowed from her and an ARC of Laura Lippman’s new book that I ended up with two copies of. To make it up to her, I bought her lunch. I’m not THAT bad of a friend.

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What’s going on with you?

Monopoly Marathon

West, Neve and I started a Monopoly game this morning. Then when Cash and Travis returned home from a scouting event, we started over so they could play too. We played straight up until bedtime with only a couple of near meltdowns. I’ve loved Monopoly since I was a child and it’s so fun to see the kids getting into it. And they are even learning – making change, budgeting, patience, delayed gratification, negotiation skills, strategy, sportsmanship –  the list goes on. Don’t tell them though! Let them think they’re just having fun.

Sweet-Ass Sunday

My church had a clothing swap this weekend. Give what you want, take what you need. I got a ton of cute clothes for Neve. West picked out this sweet-ass shirt for himself. It looks familiar to  you because your grandpa wore it in 1976.

Kids Say (And Do) the Dardest Things

Neve: Mommy, will you play with me?
Me: After I have my coffee.
Neve: But you had coffee yesterday.
Me: That’s not how coffee works, Neve.

*****

Neve: How did I get in the other Mommy’s tummy? Did she swallow me?

*****

Neve: Can you play the song they sing in the jungle?
Me: What song is that?
Neve: You know, it’s the “La Surfer Face” song.
Translation: The Monkees (jungle animals) I’m a Believer “then I saw her face…”

*****

West: There’s a boy on my bus who’s really mean but his name is Christian so I thought he would be nicer.

*****

Neve told me that she went to the store with Daddy and saw piggy rabbits. Translation: Guinea pigs.

Kids Say (And Do) the Darndest Things

Cash: Mommy, next year I want you to be an active member of the PTA instead of checking your email and chatting on Facebook.

*****

West: When I’m 18, I’m going to live with you and say cuss words.

*****

Neve: I know that dog’s a boy because it doesn’t have a shirt on.

*****

Cash: In the olden days, did you have to type in the https when you were typing in a web address?

*****

West: Daddy is not the boss
Me: Daddy and I are co-bosses
West: I know who the real boss is – SANTA!…and God
Cash: No, the president is

A Little Break

Hi all! Just wanted to let you know that the blog may be quiet for a bit. I’m having surgery today and I’m not sure when I’ll be off of the post-surgery painkillers enough to be able to read and write coherently again. Hopefully, everything turns out way better than last time! This time it’s GI surgery for complications from Crohn’s disease so respiratory failure seems unlikely. Fingers crossed that I’ll be back to reading and posting in no time!