Jill's Shower Pictures

I finally got the battery recharged in my camera, and here are my favorite photos from Jill's shower on Saturday.



Doesn't she have that serene maternal glow?

I may get in trouble for this one, but it's the best shot of Jill's belly from the side. She's due on October 17. Alexander is going to be a big, healthy boy! Poor Jill has to really watch what she eats due to gestational diabetes. I know some of you readers have had GD, too, so leave your best tips and sympathy in the comments.

Mimi and Susan.

The giant gift that Megan and I brought. It's as wide as it is tall. I had to carry that enormous box up the stairs to Mary Beth's apartment. That's exactly what I get for being overly competitive. We also got her one of those high chairs that hangs off of the table, a couple books for the baby, and "Taking Care of Your Child from Birth to Age 5." Since Jill lives in Missouri, that's as close as we can get to babysitting, most of the time. Although, she could totally drop him off here on the way to Grammaland when he's a bit older!

Notes from the Compound

I am in Grammaland, completely without children! I came up for my Bonus Sister Jill's baby shower. She's due in October with a little boy - Alexander Eyi - who will be the first Korean baby in the family. Ha ha.

The shower was delightful. I got to tell Allison's mom, "Thanks for the car!" in person. Seriously, Allison having wheels has shaved a good 40 minutes off of my day, and never before has someone been so grateful that someone gave someone else a car. I can't even tell you.

We laughed, we cried, we ate chicken salad. I think there's a law that chicken salad must be served at all shower related events. Is it just me, or is chicken salad a staple where you live, too?

The best part of the food was the walking taco - you get a fun sized bag of Fritos, open it up and smash the chips, then you add taco meat, cheese, sour cream, salsa, lettuce, and onions (if you're feeling tootsy - I wasn't) and then you eat it with a fork. HILARIOUS! And it isn't messy so long as you remember to crunch up your chips. Mimi didn't, and she's still wearing walking taco.

Showers always make me feel competitive. I have to show up with the biggest present! (Julie in Detroit - I'm looking at you). So Mimi and I went in on the Super Jumbo Baby Entertainment Machine thing that Jill registered for. It was ENORMOUS. Little did we know that Mary Beth lives in the upstairs condo. The joke was on me. Should've gone with the gift card.

I'm also competitive when it comes to shower games. Mimi kicked my butt at the one where you can't say "baby" or you have to give up your clothespin. I came back, though, by dominating the unscramble-the-baby-related-word game. All those hours of playing online games finally pay off! I won a cute basket with hand soap and a couple of hand towels. Mimi and I tied the nursery rhyme completion competition, but we did not come in first. That glory went to three other gals (they totally cheated - hee!).

Now Mimi and I are sitting on her porch, blogging and enjoying the quiet and wondering what debauchery wholesome activities we should get ourselves into tonight. Trey has gone to an Indy car race in Illinois, and BJ is at home with the pretty babies. What to do, what to do? Sit here and blog, or go out and find some trouble to get into?

E-mail me if you know of any Grammaland events taking place this evening! I've also got my phone, Facebook friends. Hook a girl up!

...And Now FedEx Hates Me

Remember at BlogHer when I won a full set of Michelin tires? It was fortuitous, because I needed new tires. I didn't really know how badly I needed new tires until the following weekend, when I drove up to Grammaland. Any time I went over 70 mph my car shook like it was trying to rattle itself in half. It was so worrisome that I called a tire company in Valpo from the road and said, "HALP! I CAN HAZ ALIGNMENT?" and they said, "Well, crazy LOLCats lady, our aligner is gone for the day, but come in anyway and we'll see what we can do for you..."

It turned out that my tires looked like shredded wheat. Steel belted radials are great, but you don't want to be able to see them - trust me. They said, "We can't let you drive out of here on these tires - they're not safe." This is not something you want to hear when you've just spent two hours on the freeway with your two kids in the car with the unsafe tires. I said, "Well, I'm not going to buy a new set of tires, I just won a new set of tires! Let's call Michelin and see if they can help..."

So the manager spent 20 minutes on the phone with Michelin, but they'd never heard of me or BlogHer or any promotion. In retrospect, it was probably a PR company that handled the giveaway, not Michelin itself.

I tried to talk them into giving me the new Michelin tires on credit. "I know I don't live here, but I know everyone in town..." and I proceeded to name drop like a Hollywood gossip columnist, telling them who I was related to, and how, and how surely they knew my father-in-law, I'm sure he gets all his tires here... and my uncle is ... and my mom is ... and they're all prominent community members. I swear I'm not trying to scam you out of tires! They didn't buy it (and thank goodness...).

The Grammaland Tire Company sold me a couple of temporary tires for the front ones (which were the worst) and admonished me to get myself some real tires ASAP. They said if I brought the temporary tires back, they'd give me some of my $60 back, which was super nice of them. Ever since I've been eagerly checking the mail waiting for a gift certificate for new tires to arrive.

This morning Max started barking like a crazy person. I went to the door (in my jammies) and saw a Fed Ex truck and a delivery person with something large and round in his grip. "What weirdness did BJ order from Amazon, now?" I thought. I opened the door and saw a stack of new Michelin tires on my front porch.

I started cracking up, and told the delivery driver that I was expecting a gift certificate, not a full set of tires! He very kindly offered to put them in the car for me, so that I could take them somewhere to have them put on. I ran back in to get shoes and keys, and went back into the front yard in my jammies to open up the van. "I'll bet you see all kinds of interesting stuff in your job," I laughed, while thanking goodness that I had worn shorts and a t-shirt to bed instead of some naughty nightie.

And that's why FedEx hates me. Because not only do I get ridiculous heavy things sent to me, but I don't even have the decency to get dressed before I open the door!

My neighbors probably aren't thrilled, either.

It worked out really well that they arrived today, though, because I'm headed to Grammaland on Saturday for my bonus sister's baby shower, and I can drop the car off at the tire company before the shower, have them install the new tires and credit me for the temporary tires, and then just pick the car up after the shower. Hooray!

Thanks Michelin! Thanks Grammaland Tire Company! Thanks FedEx, for having drivers who are good sports about stay-at-home-moms who aren't yet dressed at 10 am!

She's Back!

Here's another video featuring the shiniest-headed mom in the blogosphere, thanks to 5 Minutes for Mom.



I am totally carrying powder in my purse next year.

In other less-shiny news, Mary Grace has a fever and a terrible cough. Her fever was 103.5 yesterday, an hour AFTER a dose of Tylenol that I gave her because at that time it was 102.2, so I spazzed, thinking, "Pneumonia!" and rushed her to the doctor's office where it was pronounced "Just a virus," and we were sent on our way with instructions to keep up with Tylenol and Ibuprofen and Robitussin and to please not spaz anymore.

But wait - isn't pneumonia also a virus?

I don't understand how a kid can be so sick at home, and be so much better at the doctor's office. Seriously, walking through the door is like a magical cure. That's the main reason, aside from Swine Flu, that I think we need to bring back house calls - I don't think doctors see how kids are actually behaving when we take the kids to them. She was lethargic at home, she was at about 85% function at the doctor's office. So, they see her playing and talking and they're like, "This is not a sick kid," and I'm all, "But if you'd seen her half an hour ago..."

I'm going to start making my doctor watch videos of how my kids are actually behaving at home.

I also think I need to get a stethoscope and an otoscope. Surely there are pictures online of what infected ears look like, and maybe even .wav files of what infected lungs sound like. I could save myself a LOT of money.

I really should've gone to medical school.

Love,
Dr. Shiny

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Living in a college town is amazing. There is always something interesting going on. We've gone to plays, concerts, comedy shows, lectures, outdoor festivals, sporting events... The students bring such great energy to the community. Our hometown is vibrant and alive with youth and optimism.

Of course, like everything, it's a mixed blessing. Thousands of freshmen and dozens of one-way streets lead to a lot of car accidents. Walmart is a complete zoo and will be for a couple of weeks (so we do our best every year to stock up before the kids come back!).

Heather, over at Little Fiddly Bits, said:

Not only have several thousand freshmen arrived who've never driven in this city before, there are a few hundred students from abroad who have likely never driven in this country before. Campus will be an interesting place to GO NOWHERE NEAR for a few weeks, until things settle down a bit.

The population of our town doubles every year in August, and then halves every year in May. Summer is just long enough to get used to the quiet, the lack of traffic, the not having to worry about when the football game is starting... and then fall arrives and we're surprised all over again with the business of it all.

You'd think we'd be used to it - BJ's been here for 15 years, and I'm going on 11!

But the very best part - better than Homecoming, better than football season, better than a new schedule at the auditorium, better than the bustle, MUCH better than all the wrecks that will inevitably happen on our once sleepy streets....

ALLISON IS BACK!

Allison has been watching our kids since her freshman year. She started college when Mary Grace turned one, and started watching her a few hours a week while I worked. Then Claire came along, and once she got too big to go to the office with me, Allison kept her too.

It has been a long summer without her. A long summer of juggling and constantly feeling like I'm behind at work and imposing on my friends and relatives for babysitting.

I have to tell you about Allison, because in all the time I've been blogging, I don't think I've ever embarrassed her by writing about her sung her praises. Allison grew up next door to my aunt (my mom's sister) and watched my cousins when they were little. Her mom is great friends with my bonus mom - they owned a business together for a long time. So, even though I didn't know her when she arrived as a freshman, I knew enough people who trusted her that I felt like I could trust her, too.

I was right. In the three years that Allison has been watching the kids, she has not ONCE said one negative word about them or their behavior. Not once. She hasn't ever said, "They were rotten today!" or "They fought like cats and dogs!" or "They drove me nuts!" even though I know my kids are perfectly capable of all three. She has the kindest heart and the gentlest spirit. We have been SO blessed to have someone we trust to take care of our kids. She has arranged her schedule, semester after semester, so that she could be here. She has watched the kids grow. The kids absolutely love her - almost as much as I do!

I almost cried with relief when she arrived yesterday. And as I drove away, I didn't have one single twinge of guilt, because I knew she would take excellent care of them, as she always has. I knew they'd have a great day, like they always do.

I can't tell you how lucky we are to have a caregiver we trust.

Now it's her senior year, and I'm not sure what we're going to do if she graduates and leaves. Is it selfish of me to hope that she attends grad school here? Just get my kids into Kindergarten, Allison, before you leave. None of this would work without you.