Maybe the Dingo Ate Your Baby

Only one baby doll was harmed in the making of this picture.

Please excuse the vacuum dirt from the picture.  I threw away the baby doll and then realized it was something I would like to remember.  Call me crazy.  Trucker still hasn't thrown the missing limb up, but I expect it any day now.

10 Years Ago, Today

I have been married for ten whole years!  Wow, that is kind of crazy.  This morning when I woke up to realized that today was the day that ten years ago I was freaking out and sweating bullets standing in front of a Priest in front of a whole crowd of people saying words that sounded foreign, it felt a little strange.  See, I actually wasn't sleeping with my husband, I was sleeping with two different people.  You guessed it, Jac and Mia had wriggled themselves into bed with us and at some point Jeff had had enough and went to sleep on the couch (which is weird, because we have three other beds in the house).   I assume he got insomnia and was unable to go to sleep after being kicked in the head a few times. 

I was just a little shy of well rested, but coffee and a lovely breakfast helped out that situation.  I made my hubby of TEN YEARS a splenid egg skillet and toast breakfast with a lovely card chosen by yours truly.  It was nice.  Alas, I was trumped. 

I noticed that Jeff was sort of in and out a lot this morning and when he left he said, "your keys are in the car".  Which meant that he had been in my car for some reason this morning, I was instantly alert to a "surprise" potentially waiting in the car.  (I was thinking chocolate or flowers, but he gave me lovely roses for Valentines Day, so probably chocolate.  As a rule we don't do gifts on our anniversary.)  I was pretty involved with Thing 1 and Thing 2, trying to get out the door to preschool that I sort of shoved it into the back of my mind.  Right as I was walking out the door and doing the last sweep of the house, lest we forget something direly important for our 2.5 hours at preschool I saw a card on the counter with my name on it.  I kind of felt disappointed, because I had thought that I was getting something cool in the car and that would have been where the card would be - right next to the chocolate.

Nevermind.  Out we go.  We load up, get buckled, cry a few tears because someone's pullover is "mean", make a run back into the house because someone else forgot their bag and we are off.  I turn on the car and drumroll please..........magically our song is playing on the CD player. Awwwwww.  This is where you say, awwww.  How sweet.  He downloaded, not one; but two versions of our song, These Are The Moments by Edwin McCain and rigged it all up so that as soon as I turned the car on it would start playing. 

Needless to say, it made my day.  I had woken up in a pretty good mood, but a little sleep deprived. I got a tad (maybe more than a tad) stressed and irritated when NO ONE wanted to get ready to leave and just when I had absolutely had it because of a pullover and a left behind bag, all was okay and wonderful because my hubby is, well because he is my hubby.

I had planned on writing a post involving the list below for today.  Which I will wrap up with in an abbreviated version.  But I did need to brag about how wonderful he is, my darling husband of TEN YEARS!

Things I have learned over the last TEN YEARS

1.  Marriage comes first.  No matter what, marriage comes first.  Remember the ditty, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby in a baby carriage.  Well, that baby doesn't have a chance if hubby and wifey don't make each other a priority.  My marriage comes first and anytime that falls out of whack I suffer, he suffers and so does everything else that is important to us.

2.  Jeff really loves sports.  I kind of knew that he liked Cardinal baseball and Mizzou Football when we met.  I indulged.  It was right during all of the McGuire / Sosa homerun madness so it was really interesting.  I think I may have led him to believe I was a big sports fan.  After all this time I really thought that he had other hobbies, maybe wood working or toilet fixing or maybe taking up massage therapy.  Nope.  He is a diehard.  There is no off season, something is always in season.  Trying to change this is like trying to change the direction of the wind.

3.  He loves me almost unconditionally.  I am sure there is something I could do to lose his love.  But of all the times I have messed up or disappointed him, he still loves me.  He loves my stupid questions, he loves my terrible memory ("What was the name of that town we stayed the first night in Ireland, oh right, Dublin."), he loves my quirky insights ("Why do the planets exist?  I mean surely there is a reason.  If God made everything on this Earth have a purpose, why wouldn't Jupiter have a purpose too?"), he loves my knacky toes that rarely get pedicured, he loves my body after two babies (Gravity is a cruel, cruel, never stopping to rest, kind of enemy.), he loves the overeductated mom I have become, I think he even loves all of the good stuff .  This man loves me so much that he has, on occasion bought me feminine hygiene products.  If that doesn't say it all, I don't know what does.  I am lucky.

4.  Men really can't find the mayo in the fridge.  I thought that maybe this was just my dad.  Nope, it's not.  My husband has the hardest time finding detailed items. Anything small, I mean he can find the state of South Carolina easy, like he has a weird internal compass.  But to ask him to find something that would require the tiniest bit of looking is a ridiculous request.  And if it is something of mine that I am asking him to look for in one of my drawers, I might as well be asking him to defuse a bomb that I strapped inside of my makeup cabinet. 

5.  It always helps to laugh.  It is when we get too serious about ourselves, our children or a situation that things go awry.  Sometimes he is the one cracking the jokes while I am taking myself too seriously.  And sometimes it is me, but normally we both aren't cranky at the same time and we can help each other see the humor in the situation.

At Least Rocky and Bullwinkle are Still Fighting Natasha and Boris

I get that we are warring with some individuals in the Middle East.  I remember 9/11.  I know that American families, sons, husbands, brothers, uncles not to mention the moms, daughters, wives and aunts are being affected by war, right now and that right now it is happening in Iraq and Afganistan prominently.  In no way am I trying to diminish our troop's efforts.

Howevah, can Hollywood find any other stories to tell?  Is this the way our parents felt during the '80s when every other movie was about the Cold War and Russia?  Is this the way they felt in the '70s when every movie was about Vietnam or Korea?  I am tired.  I want a new enemy.  At least they aren't making a cartoon out of the situation.  Was it weird that Rocky and Bullwinkle actually had Russian enemies?  I am kind of thinking that wouldn't go over so well today.

Here are the Middle East war movies that I have seen.  Some of them are exceptionally done, some just meh; but I still want a new enemy. 

Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
Syriana (2005)
Jarhead (2005)
In the Valley of Elah (2006) Exceptional
World Trade Center (2006) Exceptional
Babel (2006) Very good
The Kingdom (2007)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)  Interesting
A Mighty Heart (2007)
Traitor (2008)
Body of Lies (2008)
The Hurt Locker (2009) Pretty good I must admit.

Towelhead (2007) Exceptional

Now Towelhead is a movie everyone should see.  It is about tolerance, set on American soil, I think we all can learn from it.  I know I did.

I know this is a selfish even juvenile response to an entertainment choice, which makes it insignificant and did I mention juvenile?  I could really use a little Cold War right now, I am excited to see Inglorious Bastards and am really hoping that it kicks Hurt Locker's Middle Eastern booty.  (Hurt Locker was good, but I don't think it deserves an Oscar.)

Woe is Me or Should I Say Zombie is Me

Seriously, I thought you were supposed to need less sleep the older you got. Sunday night poor Jac was up all night coughing. He was waking himself up in the middle of dreams and crying and did I mention that he was coughing? After the fourth or fifth time of going into his room and soothing him, all before midnight he finally took matters into his own hands and crawled into bed with us.




I let Jeff off the hook and told him to go into the guest room. Only problem was about an hour later I had two little bodies in bed with me and one kept coughing. Long story short, it was a painful night. One of those night's that I literally have to give myself a pep talk at 3:30 AM and say you are the mommy, grow up and take care of this child. He got a fever around 3:30 and I kissed his forehead and it didn't seem that bad, but I knew that I needed to take his temp to make sure. I could barely open my eyes, but I did it. It ended up being low-grade and I just stripped him down and took the living hot water bottle named Mia into the guest room with Daddy. Lucky.



Normally, during a fitful night at some point the body will be so exhausted that regardless it will sleep undisturbed for a few hours in the morning. Not so much Sunday night. Jac literally never fell into a deep sleep. My body doesn't rest until everyone in the near vicinity is resting.



We got up late, which was good. Around 8:00 AM. Jac didn't want to walk or function on his own, I hear you kid. So I carried him downstairs propped him on the couch and turned on some Mickey Mouse. (He told me Mickey Mouse is real yesterday as well as Pooh Bear.) I made him some breakfast and let him eat in front of the TV, which is very rare and of course sister wanted the same privileges. He dragged around until about noon, then seemingly out of nowhere (I guess food will do this) he had energy again.



Me on the other hand, I dragged ALL day. I felt like I was looking through a fish eye lens the whole day. The tornado sirens were tested for a WHOLE HOUR yesterday and I literally thought I was going to go nuts. I had to sing "If your happy and you know it" for a considerable length of time. I was completely unproductive other than feeding the family. By dinner, when Jeff had to work late, I officially became mean mommy. Apologies are in order this morning to say the least. I was frayed, frazzled and beyond tired when he got home.



All is good now though. I slept from 8:00 PM to 6:30 AM, fairly straight through (Mia dropped her blanket on the floor in the middle of the night and I had to retrieve it) and feel refreshed. Jac didn't cough last night amazingly. I am glad we stayed home and did nothing yesterday; I think it really helped him.