When I Am An Old Woman I Shall Eat At McDonald's

When Josh was an infant I had him participate in a few studies at Purdue's Baby Lab.  (It was a nice diversion and we always got a free book, so why not?)  A week or so ago the lab called again saying they were doing a follow-up study on these same children, and would we be interested in participating?  Once again, I figured why not?  It would help out the university and I was interested to see how Josh would react. 

So after preschool today we headed down to campus.  Josh was as champ!  He was so proud to get to do this and was so cheerful and friendly about the whole thing.  He didn't even mind when Cole and I had to leave the room so he and the tester could play some 'games'.  (If you had asked me a year ago how Josh would have reacted in this situation I would have laughed an evil laugh and then mysteriously said "Badly".)

Anywho, I didn't know it but instead of a book we got nine whole dollars for this study.  When the grad student told me and handed me the money I laughed a little and kidded Josh that lunch was on him today.  He took this to heart and promptly tried to put the money in his pocket.  I decided to let him, since he was doing all the work. 

After the study, I asked Josh where he wanted to go for lunch.  McDonald's, of course, was the reply.  So we trekked down to McDonalds.  Josh was thrilled to discover that Monster Trucks were the toy of the month for Happy Meals.  Then he demanded that both he and Cole get Happy Meals so they could both have trucks.  I protested a little, since Cole's not really big enough yet for his own meal, but Josh insisted because he "Had the money".

Well, you can't argue with that.  Plus, it was pretty darn cute that he wanted to buy lunch for his baby brother.  So he did.

Both boys were in heaven.  They scarfed french fries and ketchup, slurped their drinks, and played with their trucks.  Joshie must have been extra hungry, too, because he ate his cheeseburger and stole a chicken nugget from Cole. 

While eating I noticed that we lowered the median age at that particular McDonald's considerably.  There were probably 5-6 other couples there, all well over 60 years of age.  And of course they were all charmed by my cute little boys.  (Especially Cole, who has discovered the power of waving hello to everyone.)

One lady in particular stood out to me.  She was at least 80 years old, a little stooped and heavy-set, but still looking pretty good.  Silver hair done in a perfect old-lady coif.  Full-on make-up, bright red lipstick.  Faux cheetah coat, black pumps, and (this was my favorite part) Russian fur hat.

She was awesome.  She was stylin'.  She is who I want to be in 50 years.  Totally at home in her own body, comfortable in her clothes, lookin' good, and she knew it.

She reminded me of one of my favorite poems, introduced to me in the 9th grade by one of my favorite English teachers ever, Mrs. Rhondeu. 

Warning

by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

I already wear purple.  (In fact, I'm wearing some today!)  But perhaps tomorrow I should start looking for my own cheetah coat and fur hat.  I wouldn't want to shock anyone 50 years from now...

Self-portrait: Week 30 - Grouch

I've reached that point in my pregnancy where I'm just a bi-polar grouch. Not all the time, but often enough. I can't help it. I think I've mentioned this before on my blog, but I'm too grouchy to go link to it.  Sometimes I can be so happy and chipper or just normal.  And other times I just feel like being mean to everyone in my path.  Growl!

I don't know what it is.  The happiness is fairly normal.  I mean, I think I'm normally a pretty happy and friendly person.  I hope I am.  I aspire to be.

But for the grouchiness, I don't know.  I think maybe my brain just gets so focused on growing this tiny human and trying to keep my other tiny humans alive that I just can't focus on being social and outgoing or even pleasant some times.  I don't want to chat with cashiers I don't know.  (And that can be a big deal here in the Midwest.)  I don't want to make new friends.  I don't want to have people over for dinner or host playdates or plan big social events.  (Not that I'm not willing to participate!  But to having to do any of the associated work?  Not so much.)


I try not to be too grouchy with my family, but sometimes I literally cannot help it.  It's like I can see myself and hear myself being a grouch, but I physically cannot stop myself.  Poor Josh has wanted to play a board game with me all day and I just. Don't. Want. To.  I'm sorry Joshie, ordinarily playing Spongebob Operation would be fine.  But today?  I'd rather clean the bathrooms.  And I hate cleaning the bathrooms.


Then there's Cole, who loves nothing more than to snuggle on my lap and give me big, wet, slobbery kisses.  Sometimes I just love this and eat it up.  But other times I don't want him sitting on my already tender belly and be given a spit-bath.


Spencer wants to be the center of the universe and whine about everything in existence.  Okay, that's never okay and I never like that.  But my current state of mind certainly isn't helping matters.  Because I can be in a totally happy mood and then he'll be, you know, Seven Years Old, and suddenly I'm Mommy the Grouch.


Lance is smart.  This is his fourth time through this crazy pre-natal bi-polar-grouch-fest and he's learned to just keep quiet and ride the storm.  I love him for that.  It also bugs me.  But mostly I love him. 


Grrrrr...

Well Dang It.

On Saturday we finally got around to repainting the upstairs bathroom.  Well, Lance did the painting.  But I helped take down the rubber duckie wallpaper border!  Anywho, here's a reminder of what it looked like before:

Yikes, it was yellow.  I mean yellow.  The pictures doesn't really do it justice.  Because it looked like Big Bird exploded in there, that's how yellow it was.

This time I decided to go with a light aqua blue color, to match this really cute shower curtain I had.  Here's the after:

Okay, so it doesn't look that aqua here.  That's probably a good thing.  Trust me, it is aqua.  In fact, it's very aqua.  It turned out to be a lot darker than I expected.

No, you can't really tell how aqua it is.  It's like "Hey, the 50's called and they want their aqua bathroom back."  All we need are some matching tiles, sink, and tub and we'd be set.

In retrospect, I should have gone 2 or 3 shades lighter since the bathroom is so small.  Dang it. 

But whatever.  It's liveable.  And certainly better than that ghastly yellow. Makes me wonder if the same thing happened to the previous homeowners.  Was their yellow a bit more yellow than expected?  But was it not worth the trouble to change it?  I like to think so.

As a bonus, here's a rare very pregnant picture of me.  When I'm pregnant I carry all of my extra weight in my face, arms, and belly.  Can't you tell?  And that pesky belly button.  Oweee.

The Boy Loves His Shoes

Cole loves his shoes.  As in LOVES his shoes.  As in I couldn't get him to even look at the camera because that would mean taking his eyes off of his beloved shoes.

Why does he not have any clothes on, you ask?

Well, he was on his third change of clothes for the day.  It was a messy day.  And I didn't feel like wrestling him, yet again, into clothes.  So just a diaper it was.  (Judge me all you want, he didn't seem to care.)  But as I was leaving his room he demanded that I put his shoes on.  I indulged him.

Thus the fabulous photo shoot.  Of his fabulous physique.  I love that belly.

I also love this photo.

But mostly I love this little boy.

Gourmet Rice Crispie Treats

When I'm pregnant (and not throwing up) I often give in to my dessert cravings, as long as they're reasonable.

Reasonable: homemade chocolate chip cookies
Unreasonable: homemade chocolate chip creme brulee

Anywho, today I had the strangest craving, mainly because it was for a treat I had never heard of, let alone made before.  But it sounded divine and I had all of the ingredients, so I went for it.

Presenting: Orange-Chocolate Chip Rice Crispie Treats!

First, I zested up a couple of oranges.  I'm sure you could get away with just one orange, but I had two oldish ones that needed to be used.  Plus, I like a lot of orange.

Then I melted 1/4 cup of butter and 10oz of marshmallows over medium heat.  I took the pot off of the heat just before all of the marshmallows were melted and added the zest. 

Then I stirred until all the marshmallows were melted.  It smelled divine.  Perhaps I will have to develop an orange-marshmallow recipe.

Next came the rice crispies

and the chocolate chips.

I had put the chocolate chips into the freezer for 10 minutes so they wouldn't completely melt during the process.

As you can see, some of them still melted, while others stayed whole.  This turned out to be a good thing.

A very, very good thing.

Oh merciful heavens, these rice crispie treats are good.  As in, wayyyy too good for kids, so they didn't get any.  (They wouldn't appreciate them anyway.)

I think I'll follow and indulge in my pregnancy cravings more often...

Ice Storm 2011

February continued to earn its title of "Maren's Least Favorite Month of the Year" by starting with a rather large and annoying ice storm.  School was canceled for both boys yesterday in anticipation of the storm.  It snowed a bit and then it started sleeting.  And it didn't stop.  It sleeted pretty much all night.

Snow + Sleet = Nothing Good

The view outside this morning didn't look too threatening, but that was until you actually went outside.  A good 2" of ice covered everything, and the wind blowing off of that ice made it bitterly cold.  It took poor Lance a good hour to clear the driveway and sidewalks.  (It usually takes about 10 minutes.)  Our neighbor is a Sheriff's Deputy, and his car only made it about 6' down the unplowed street.  Lance wisely decided that if a Sheriff's car couldn't make it then our Camry had little chance, either.

Ice day!  With Daddy home!  Very exciting!

It snowed a few more inches during the day.  Here are a few shots, although it's really kinda hard to get a feeling for the storm without actually going outside.  Which I was not willing to do.  Because it's February in Indiana, and if you've ever been to Indiana in February then you would understand.

 

Here's one of our screened in porches.  We usually get a little snow through the screens, but not this much!  The wind was really strong.  That green cup off to the side is Joshie's experiment.  He wanted to see how long it would take to freeze a cup of water.  Turns out, not too long.  Now he doesn't want to go out to get it, and I'm not willing to bend unnecessarily at this point in my pregnancy , so it'll probably be there until May.

Can you see how high the snow is?  Our porches are a good 12-18" above the ground.  Of course, some of that is just snow drift from the wind.  Oh, and notice the screen coming away from the door?  That's courtesy of Cole the Destructor from this fall.  Pesky boy.

 The view from our front porch before Lance cleared it off.  Again.

Another shot showing the depth of the snow.  Like I said, we didn't get that much; what was killer was all the ice.

It was a decent day, all things considered.  I'm just grateful we had electricity!  I have another cold and am hopped up on Mucinex D, which makes me all loopy and kinda nauseous.  I sure was glad to have Lance home to help out.  By the late afternoon we had some boys with serious cabin fever, so we went to Taco Bell for dinner.  Because we like eating at big, fancy restaurants, you know.

Even though the roads are passable enough for us to go out, Spencer still doesn't have school tomorrow.  (One of the positive and negative things about being in the county school system is all the school days!) I think even Spencer's tired of being at home.  But Josh has school, so it'll (kinda) be back to normal.

Housework Help

Why yes, Cole, that is exactly where I wanted Josh's dirty socks to go.  Thank you!