Thursday, August 30, 2012

Yessssss!!!!!

In the last week my kid has totally figured out this "potty" thing.  I'm very excited.  Today he went the entire day in underpants without a single accident.  Sure we may have had to sit on the potty every ten minutes with "false" alarms, but we have made some pretty serious progress from pooping on the floor last weekend.

Yeah, that's right.  Poop.  On the floor.  Gross.

This morning he woke me up, with a dry diaper might I add, so he could pee on the potty.  He then proceeded to make it to the potty every time he had to go.  He even woke up from his nap with a dry diaper.  Yeeeesssssss!!!!!

I am so ready to be done with diapers!  And I know, one day doesn't mean he's potty trained, but it is definitely a good sign!  So good, that I ordered him a new train for his train set if he can keep this up through the weekend.  (Talking Spencer!  "Bust my buffers"!!!)  I'm so proud of him!

So how did I do it?  Bribery.  M&Ms every time he goes on the potty.  He's having so much fun deciding which color he gets each time.  The only problem is that I'm pretty sure he doesn't pee this often when he's wearing a diaper...he might have already discovered how to manipulate me for candy...

Oh well.  I didn't have to change any diapers today, so I'm kind of ok with that.

Friday, August 24, 2012

What Was I Thinking??

I think I have bitten off more than I can chew.  Now that summer is nearly over and school is about to start, I'm having panic attacks that I have signed up for more than I can handle for the next few months.

As it stands right now, I'm working nearly 40 hours a week.  I'm actually really enjoying this schedule, since I can still be home all day with my son four days a week.  We get to spend time together and we can focus on learning things, like how to pee on the potty, that take some time.  I love my new job in Portland, despite the fact that my gas bill in the new Subaru is a bit high (oops!).  I love my waitressing job at night too.  I love the people there and the excitement.  (The money doesn't hurt either!)

Things are just about perfect right now.  But, in less than two weeks I start school.  Full time.  What was I thinking???  Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited to be going and I think this degree is going to be a great thing to add to my resume, but I'm terrified that I won't be able to keep up with my classes and my two jobs.  The last time I was in college was I was working nearly 60 hours a week at the cookie shop with my mom.  I still managed to make it through with more than respectable grades.  I know it WAS possible for me once.  But I didn't have a kid then.  And I'm not sure how I'm going to handle having study time cut into my Ben time.

The closer it gets to labor day, the more nervous I become.  Can I really do this?  Am I going to be ok not spending as much time with Ben?  Is Ben going to be ok not spending as much time with me?  Am I going to find enough hours in the day to get everything done?

I just don't know.

But I do know this....even if it's miserable, it'll be over by December.  And I can make changes to my school and work schedules then to make things more bearable.  I also know that I still have this weekend and all of next week to spend as much time as I can stand with my kid.  So, with that said, I'm off to the lake!

Friday, August 17, 2012

Little Sis is home!

It has been a very busy couple of days.  Well, busy week, really.  I could probably write a bazillion things about everyone I have seen and the fun I've had, but I'm tired.  Like I said, it's been really busy!

So instead, I'll just say this:

My sister is home.  I haven't seen her in a year and a half.  When she called to tell me she was engaged I was so excited for her.  When someone asked me if that meant I would be picking out a bridesmaid's dress, I was stumped.  I love my sister, and I know she loves me, but we're not close in a cuddly, talk on the phone for hours, share every detail of our day, kind of way.  We're just not.  So I wasn't sure she'd want me in the wedding.  She has friends, lots of close friends, and while she was in my wedding, I didn't want to just assume that I would be included in hers.

Instead of asking me to be in her wedding, she told me point blank that I'd better start working on my speech, because Mark's brother is making one and I have to make one too, and since I'm in the wedding, I'd better be prepared.

Which made me very, very happy.  And just a little bit pissed with Mark for wanting to have a wedding with speeches.  (Public speaking?  Yuck.  Mark you suck.)

So it's been really great seeing my sister, and while we still aren't huggy-cuddly-talk on the phone all day-sisters, I'm still having a great time talking with her, watching her play with my son and just having her around.

So while I might be flying to Utah to make a speech at her wedding against my will, I will be doing it in a bridesmaid's dress, and I'm pretty excited about that!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Yakity Yak

I think my kid talks too much.

We took the cat to the vets today to get a check up and some shots after her foray in the wild.  We walked in the door and Ben became motor mouth. 

"Mom, I sit here.  Mom, now I sit here.  Mom, I read this book.  Mom, that toy scares me.  Mom, that cat napping.  Mom, that a chicken."  Yak, yak, yak.  One of the ladies behind the desk commented on how well he speaks for his age.  She's right, he speaks really well; and an awful lot.

When we went in to the exam room it didn't stop.

"Mom, what Scoutie doing?  Why Scoutie scared?  I count the cats?  Mom, I count the cats again? "

Even when trying to talk to the vet about what happened to Scout and which vaccines to get her now.

"Mom, that a hole in the wall?  What that hole doing?  Mom, I sit up here now?  Mom, I open that door?"

He.did.not.stop.

And in the middle of the administering of Scout's shots, Ben (loudly) announced that he could see "Scoutie's Bum."

And now I know my mother got what she wished for.  I have a kid that's just like me....

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Mumford & Me

Yesterday was the first concert I have ever attended that was sponsored by mustaches.  (And might I say, well done mustachios, well done.)

Tickets and Mustaches we scored at the Gates

Don and I went to see the first Gentlemen of the Road Stopover, in Portland.  Since we knew there were going to be 12,000+ people at this event, and had little desire to be smooshed into a crowd of 12,000 sweating bodies in August, we elected to arrive a little late.  So at 2:30 we arrived by train (that's right, train) at the festival on the Eastern Prom.  (There was NO parking in Portland's east end, so we parked by the Civic Center and walked to the Narrow Gauge Railway where they were offering free train rides up the hill to the concert.  Score!)  Since we were late there wasn't much of a line to get in.  Having read all the info released prior to the show about what to bring, and what not to bring we thought we were all set.  Wrong.  Apparently even UNOPENED brand new bottles of water were not allowed.  So we had to dump our water at the gate and were told to refill when we got inside.  Stupid.  Seriously stupid.  Especially since there was ONE water refill station for the said 12,000+ people at the show.  Uggggh.  Fortunately we settled ourselves near the Beer tent where they were selling expensive, yet delicious, beer and water.  We stayed hydrated.

Portland Stopover



The Gentlemen

There were two stages at the bottom of the hill and since we sat at the very top of the hill we had an AMAZING view of the harbor and both stages.  The people singing on the stages looked like ants, but you could hear them just fine, and that was really all that mattered.  While our spots at the back may not have given us great views of the performers, we still were able to see and we were in the shade and there were less people, and we were near the beer, so really, it all worked out.

View from our spot-yup, we were FAR away!

There were so many people, you can't even see half of them in these pictures, it was crazy!


The music was really good.  I hadn't heard any of the bands before, aside from the headlining Mumford & Sons and the last minute addition Dropkick Murphys.  I was pretty confident that the bands would all be of a similar style and they were, which made it really enjoyable.  Despite being quite far from the stages, it was really nice to listen to and watch.  It was a long afternoon, but with the help of some beer and people watching, even Don agreed that it passed pretty quickly.

The Dropkick Murphys went on stage for a couple of songs right before Mumford & Sons and they were REALLY good.  Unfortunately their sound was a little on the quiet side, so it was kind of hard to hear.  Fortunately we were planning on seeing them after Mumford & Sons at the State Theater, so we weren't too upset.

Dropkick Murphys (my camera was on SUPER zoom here!)


Then Mumford & Sons took the stage and they were really, really good.  Really good.  They played a lot from their current cd and several from the new one that comes out next month.  (Can't wait for that one, judging by the songs they played for us at the show it's going to be amazing!)  Great sound, great performers, great crowd, just great!  They were really happy to be playing in Portland and were planning on spending several days in the city, which I think is pretty cool for a pretty big time band like that.  They really wanted everyone there to support the city and go out and enjoy it after the show.  (Good news for Portland since there were 12,000 people hanging onto their every word!)

MUMFORD!!!

They were so good!

A Blurry picture of us while Mumford & Sons were performing.  Not very flattering...

After Mumford's encore, they invited all the other bands that had performed to come up and sing with them for one last song.  (Spoiler:  It was The Band's The Weight)  Pretty damn cool!  Then there were fireworks over the water, again, damn cool.  We had actually just walked out of the venue when they started the fireworks, so we saw them from the street, and there were a whole bunch of kids running around the neighborhood loving the fireworks and loving that there wasn't any traffic, that was pretty sweet to watch too.  :)

We beelined it down Congress Street in search of food.  (Like water, food involved outrageously long lines and we weren't allowed to bring ANYTHING in to snack on.  So we went without.  Stupid Rule.)  We snagged a couple of sandwiches at Bingas quickly and were able to get out of there just as they were filling up with starving concert goers.

By this point, we were exhausted.  We are not partiers by nature and the long day of events left us pretty much exhausted by 10:30.  BUT, we had tickets to the Dropkick Murphys show that started at 10:30.  So off we went!  The Murphys didn't actually go onstage until nearly 11:30.  And I'll admit it, Don and I were practically asleep in our seats.  Yup, we're old fuddy-duddys.  Once they started playing we both perked up and enjoyed the first half of their set.  They are so good, and so energetic.  And it's not often you can say you saw someone totally rock out on the banjo...but last night, I did!

Unfortunately, we couldn't make it through the whole show.  We were both exhausted, I had a POUNDING headache, and we had an hour long drive home to look forward to.  Reluctantly we left the show and dragged our exhausted butts home.  I think we were both asleep within 3 minutes of our heads hitting the pillows....zzzzzzz.

What an amazing day though!  The bands were great and I just couldn't get over how perfect the Eastern Prom worked for the concert!  I REALLY hope Portland takes a hint and plans more shows like that!  And despite learning that we are perhaps not the type to live up the night life to its fullest, I had a really great day with my husband celebrating our anniversary a few days early.  Seven years of marriage, seven hours of music...nice.

And I got a fake mustache.  Sweet....


Anniversary Celebration!!

(and yes we were near the port-a-potties, fortunately there was plenty of cigarette and weed smoke to cover the smell...and give us a slight buzz....)