Mary Age 9

Since when has she decided to go by Mary? Oh age nine, that's when. I know we named her this but never in the history of momming her have I called her "Mary." I cannot do it, I will not do it, why is she acting so grown? Mary... Schmary!

 

As has become tradition I try to mark each birthday with a post that encompasses the last year of their lives with a barrage of photos so as to remember exactly what they looked like at this new age. Well, Mary Alice turned nine April 1st... yeah APRIL 1st. Yes, I am just now getting around to writing her year nine post. What can I say, I was busy being angry that I was still pregnant and then busy spawning said living being. #countsasapass

 

This year has brought with it the unavoidable changes that we the parents think back on and then immediately cannot deal with. She is working so hard at being a little lady while simultaneously forgetting and letting the little girl shine through. This tug-of-war is apparently exhausting for her, seeing as she thus is too tired to control the attitude that seeps through and spews itself all over all the things and people... schmattitude!

Never fear though she is still the best person to tell jokes with-she always laughs, she is still a ferocious reader, she still loves every person she has ever met or will meet! She remains a lover, a lover of fun, of funny, of people and particularly babies these days.

Mary Alice remains the 100% bestest ever... even if she did insist on turning 9!

Pregnancy Round Three

I have to admit that the idea of being pregnant for a third time has officially sunk in! Not sure I had much choice in the matter for some things just do not change, even seven years later, particularly in the department of nausea and exhaustion... those two tricks feel like old hat. Though GLORY! I can see the light at the end of the first trimester and if this pregnancy is anything like the first two there is redemption at the 13th week! Week 13, I await you with my ginger ale, bucket, Lysterine, and toothbrush...we all need a break!

Some new adventures this go-around: I have a make-shift cot set up in the back of the van for my afternoon naps during school, I like to wake up at about 2:30 am and sometimes not go back to sleep for hours, even with this midnight hiatus I still manage about 10-11 hours of sleep at night, my two children had learned to put themselves to bed (at least this is my assumption), and I had to find a new OB/GYN. I related news my new OB/GYN has a naturally unwelcoming face to be rivaled by not a single other human person and gives off the energy of distain for meeting new people... She is my spirit animal and we already BFFs!

A welcome comeback is that with every pregnancy I get whatever I want, whenever I want it, no questions asked. My husband waits on me hand-and-foot and has taught our children to do the same! For instance:
Ben: Love, you look really tired after just sitting and watching 7-year-olds play soccer. Would like to lie down for a bit?
Me: YES, yes I do! (commence 2 hour mid-day nap)

or

Me: (7:00 am Saturday morning) We have no milk in the house!! I know that I have not been grocery shopping in... I just don't know anymore (#irrelevant), but YOU need to go out and get me milk!
Ben: I am on my way.
(he picked up doughnuts and sweet corn for good measure because he knows me and loves me!)

Cravings round three: milk, bread, pasta, blue corn chips. All of these things are normal cravings that I choose not to indulge, but pregnancy gives me the excuse and so Benny made me fettuccini alfredo and venison chops (truth-be-told, I made the chops because no one touches my grill, not even the father of my children. EVER.) for dinner the other night!

Let me leave you with a PSA for at some point during the last seven years TUMS has come out with TUMS Smoothies! They are the antacids
of the gods! I L.O.V.E. love them! I pre-game every meal with them and post conference with them after each meal, I snack on them throughout the day and my students believe they must be candy... close enough!

We are looking forward to the second trimester, manicotti, lasagna, Kraft, alfredo and all the breads!
#lordbeermetums

Who Would Have Thunk It?

Last week marked the end of the first the week of the 2017-2018 school year. I am glad to say that the kids and I are still at the same school. However, surprise! Not only are we at the same school, we are now all three in the SAME CLASSROOM! It is is alright to be confused, terrified, excited, astounded, to slap-your-knee-and-call-me-silly... for I continue to rotate and shuffle through all of these adjectives (aka: describing words... because I teach little ones). If you had told me 12 years ago, when my teaching career began, that I would EVER leave teaching high school science to end up teaching 6-9 year-olds... yeah, that's right, 1st - 3rd graders... I would have announced that you're officially CRACKED! You. Have. Cracked. Nevertheless, here we are, with five days of teaching "little ones" under my belt, and my feelings remain clouded in a sea of exhaustion. I can, however, give you a short list of the things I have learned about myself or at least confirmed about myself in the first week of teaching 1st-3rd grade:

(dramatic drum roll)

- I am not built to repeat myself that many times! I am most definitely not built to repeat myself that many times WITHOUT tone in my voice.
- My son and I need to both take a chill pill. We love each other, but WOW neither one of us is crazy about being trapped inside on beautiful days. #together

- My son is a caged animal and we should have started the Adventure Detox earlier... or at least started it... at all.
- I love to watch my daughter at school! My daughter loves school, loves me as one of her teachers, and is an amazing classmate... just so long as you follow her instructions. She was built to do school!

- Apparently I CAN clean up bodily fluids... or teach small children how to clean up their own bodily fluids.
- Every child is creative and enjoys expressing their creativity... and I get a kick out of it EVERY TIME!
- I can enjoy small children that are not my own! This is new for me. I did not know this before this week.
- I want more sleeping in my life. I need more sleeping in my life. Everyone has better days when I have more sleeping in my life.
- I love watching my children interact with their surroundings.

- Did I mention I learned my son is a caged animal... everyone learns differently!
- I need Jesus!
- I learned that after four days of teaching little ones and sitting at home in one spot for more than 20 minutes, seems like a grand idea, until you have to get up and realize your legs are 97 years old and refuse to move in the fashion or with the speed your will requires.
- In related news, I learned that after one week of teaching 6 - 9 year-olds you will put your pajamas on backwards and you will not have the energy or cares to do anything about it. #whateverman

If I were to sum it all up, the first week of year 12 of teaching will go down as the best first week... and also the most exhausting first week! Keep being awesome year 12! Jesus hold me close!

She LOVES school!

Wild!

This has been going on too long!

This also has been going on too long! Time to take that test!

He. Is. SEVEN

He is constant. This boy continues to be all things constant. He is constantly going, constantly thinking, constantly climbing, and constantly doing. For those of you who have spent time with this child, we feel your constant prayers! 

He is organically wild and fiercely kind-hearted! He asks for Scotch tape for Christmas and a stick of butter for his birthday. 

He craves adventure and the great outdoors. He loves to snuggle and listen to a good story. 

He smells of outside, lunch, and feet. He is covered in freckles and topped with floppy hair. 

He is the best. The absolute BEST!

For fun-zies and to really round out this boy-child, here is a montage I like to call "Sy in High Places."

PS: I have no idea where he gets this from...

Throw a Little Love Their Way

An open letter to my dearest love, on this, our 11th anniversary:

Most say that the first year of marriage can be the hardest, that it is difficult melding two separate lives into one. We have always talked about what a joke those statements were to us, because our first year was a breeze, or at least that is how we remember it. Year three came with its own unexpected challenges with the birth of our first child and the ensuing extended hospital stay and its frights, though even that we look back upon and think having kids is the absolute BEST! Nope, the first years of marriage and the first years of kids seem to have come and gone for us with relative nonchalance, or at least that is how I now remember them. But... then there is the ultimate reality that we enjoy a smattering of nonconformity or whimsy to our life and marriage. Call it over-achieving, call it my recently learned INFP issues of "acting like [my] dark, brooding thoughts make [me] superior to other people because [I'm] deeper and more complex than they are," or call it your ENTP of "needing other people to constantly praise and adore you for doing things so unconventionally and differently," but more than likely it is just tardiness... any way you shake it, it seems we've waited for that difficult year until we were a solid decade into things. 

Now I am not alluding to a struggling marriage, not. a. chance. However, I am pointing out that there seemed to be an abundance of struggles during this year of marriage. The only cause I can attempt to put my finger on is LIFE. Life seemed to catch up to us this year. Life, work, and simply not having time to be us. For we are at our best when we are together. You are my person, my best, my most favorite person to be with, ALWAYS! 

Basically this last stint that continues here on day 4,016 of marriage has reminded me that we are both still works-in-progress and that as those wise trolls from Frozen sang "We're not sayin' you can change him, 'cause people don't really change. We're only saying that love's a force that's powerful and strange. People make bad choices when they're mad, or scared, or stressed. Throw a little love their way. And you'll bring out their best!" 

Or perhaps you prefer the philosopher/songwriter Jason Mraz who said it like this:

"I'm here to stay and make the difference that I can make.
Our differences, they do a lot to teach us how to use
the tools and gifts we got, yeah, we got a lot at stake
And in the end, you're still my friend, at least we did intend
for us to work, we didn't break, we didn't burn
We had to learn how to bend without the world caving in
I had to learn what I've got, and what I'm not, and who I am."

As I spend time each year around our anniversary, taking stock of the year, and our relationship, and how #blessed we are, I never shy away from the difficult stuff, the stuff that makes us "learn how to bend without the world caving in", the stuff that reminds me "what [we've] got, and what [we're] not, and who [we are]." No matter what, those are the things that make us MAGIC!

My parting words to you, my dear husband of 11 years:  take that blank-ah-T-blank test so that we can stop making bad, mad, scared, stressed choices/word-tones to each other! That, and "lucky was the day you married me!" Like I said the other day, "imagine how long we could have been married if you would have just listened to me the first time!" 

Here's to year 11, true love brings out our best! #thosetrolls

PS: Plus I fixed the dryer! #youmarriedup #matchingbandaids