Possible serendipitousness

We stopped by Savers yesterday, as one does, to peruse the riff-raff and see if there was anything we needed to take home. Upon entering I forced myself past the book section, knowing that the time it would take to properly assess the shelves would be too much for baby patience. So we went straight to accessories, because I knew without doubt I would be able to find a braided belt like I'd been wanting. And of course we stopped by housewares to quickly browse the sheets, because one almost always finds a pretty sheet there (and one definitely always has use for more of those at home. You know, fort-building and such.) And then we had to pass by the books again, but by then James had a belt to chew on so I thought heck, might as well.I decided to rope myself down tothe shelves labeled Literature (isn't it all?) because there are some classic-lit-type books I've been wanting but haven't been able to find at the libraries. As I started scanning the spines I had the distinct feeling that the book I was looking for was there. A premonitiony feeling, if you will. A twinge of excitement purred across my brain as I continued to scan. Still, I am doubtful about such feelings and didn't really expect to find it, that one book in all the universe, nestled in there with all the rest.

Yet lo, and behold, there on the third shelf down way on the right hand side, she lay. Granted, it's not the exact one I wanted - I'd have preferred to find the version translated by Tolkien - but who really complains when the universe bends realistic expectations for you in the first place? And now I get to chase myMerlinbinge with some anonymous Arthurian prose about chivalry and such, deliciously punctuated by the mental images ofBradley JamesandEoin Macken. No complaints here.

Is that serendipity? I can never keep the definition of that word in my head.

Important! Something cute.

ATTENTION EVERYONE.

We went the mall yesterday, my little dude and I, to buy some warmer shoes for his feet.  Instead, the shoe place wasn't there anymore and we spent 3 hours walking around not really finding anything to buy.  Okay, we found lots of things to buy but actually bought very few of them.  And normally my mall trips don't last 3 hours but in my defense James fell asleep halfway through and it would have just been downright mean of me to wake him up to put him in the car, right?  Anyway, we were dog tired after all that.  But before we got tired, James got a new hat.

And now you know what I wanted to tell you.

An open letter to people with short-term memories

Dear residents of Utah,

It's that time of year again.  You know - the scary time.  The time when up is down and left and right and nothing makes sense anymore.

You know what I'm talking about.  The time when it starts to snow again.

As a resident of Utah myself, I want you to know that I understand you.  Your fears are valid, and I want you to know that I'm there for you.  I know how frightening it can be to deal with something you've dealt with before; even many, many times before.   Even every single year that you've lived in Utah.  I know how the blissful heat of summer can seem to stretch on forever and ever into Eternity, and make it seem like it never snows here, like snow is just a long-forgotten horror that exists only in our grandparents' nightmares. Even though Salt Lake City, where you probably live, is at an elevation of over 4000 feet and is the gateway to numerous renowned ski resorts and has earned the reputation "Greatest Snow on Earth."  I'm here to remind you today that despite all that, it does, in fact, snow here.  Please, remember to breathe.  It's going to be okay.

To help you manage this confusing time, here are a few reminders about how to handle the Evil snow:

1. Wear More Clothes

Snow is cold.  Winter is cold.  You may have heard the phrase "bundle up"; I implore you to do so, for your own protection.  Because if you complain about being cold in a t-shirt and jeans, someone is going to beat you up.

2. Drive Slower (and turn your galdurned lights on)

Don't you just love car accidents?  The smell of broken glass in your eyeballs; the big fat stacks of money waving you goodbye; recklessly endangering the lives of innocent people...  Wait, you don't love that?  Then why in the HOLY NAME OF HAN SOLO would you not think to slow down and drive more carefully?  Also, if it is currently overcast and snowing/raining, turn your headlights on.  Yes, even if it's 2:00 in the afternoon, because contrary to popular stupid opinion, the use of headlights is not time-restricted; it is condition-based.  Nothing bad will come of making yourself more visible to other people in inclement weather, unless you consider "being safe" bad.  In which case, go to jail, right now.

3. Drink Hot Chocolate

Hot chocolate is extremely comforting and warms you from the inside, so it should be your best friend in times like these.

4. Have Fun!

One way to get rid of fears is to face them - so get out there in that snow!  Run around in it; it probably won't hurt you, and you might even have some fun.  Are you a scientist?  Then observe the snow; experiment with it.  Try moving through it in different ways, and observe how the physics of objects in snow differ from that of objects on dry ground.  You may learn something!  Believe it or not, but entire industries are made from people having fun in the snow.  And very large groups of people are never wrong.  So be brave.  Embrace your terror and turn that frown upside down.

I hope this mini-guide has been helpful.  I have only your best interests at heart.  And on that note, maybe you could print this out and keep it around for next year when Winter inevitably rolls around once more, and then maybe we won't have to go through all this again.

Have a super snow-filled day!

My husband, my love

In case you were wondering about the level of wonderfulness my husband is, let me just tell you this: it's at least level 50.

He made me a grilled cheese sandwhich (yes, spellchecker, I know it's sandwich, I've made that mistake too many times to not know that), complete with tomato soup, and it's 8 p.m. and he even cut it into triangles when I asked him to.

And tonight I said "let's watch Arrested Development" and he said okay, only it was actually more like this:

"A or B?"

what, just choose between a or b?

"Yes"

b

"Okay"

what's b?

"Arrested Development"

what was a?

"The Office"


So that's one more reason I love him.

On an unrelated note, I am so uninspired by the design (lack thereof) of this blog, that I'm considering seeking out someone else to redesign it for me.  If you are a person who feels as though that sentence would apply to them, I beg you to offer me your services, only not in a creepy way like I just made it sound.

eat your food!

"Alright!" 

This one feels like a lazy one

James and I are hanging out on my bed, folding towels.  He was helping.

And have I taken those 4 month pictures yet?  NO of course not.  In five days he'll officially be 5 months old, so...I guess that's that.

I've had this whole week off of work, even.  And what I've discovered is that my productive days vs my lazy days are a ratio of about 1:1.  What I've also learned is that I would so love to be a stay at home mom.  I mean, yesterday we found ourselves killing time waiting for the fabric store to open by walking to a little mexican restaurant we'd seen but never stopped at, where the owner lady let us in before they opened and made me horchata and chips & salsa and offered me no less than 3 employment opportunities, where James learned that he liked sucking on tortilla chips and DOES NOT like it when mom takes them away.  And before that we tried patroning the international market along the way, but the single and only store clerk was full-on napping.  Not just nodding off: he was stretched prone on a bench with his feet on a chair he had to pull over specifically so he could nap.  I mean, he's either got nothing figured out, or he's got it all figured out.

And how can we have adventures like that when we're at work, I ask you?

And now for something completely different.  I've been wondering what you all think about disclosing your children's names on the internet, in your blogs.  I've never seen what the big deal is - I can show you their pictures but not tell you their names? - but a lot of people seem to do the nickname thing and so maybe there's a good reason.  Or maybe it's just a fad.  I don't know.  What do you think?

Dear Shirt

Dear shirt,

The time has come,
My Friend.

Though you still contain all the basic properties
of a shirt,
I am not allowed to wear you
outside the house.
Holes where there shouldns't be,
paint, and
expanding foam -
(how does that even happen?)

We've been through it all,
me and you.
You and I,
we fought the college battles
together,
lucky shirt.
How could I have been expected to walk
all the way from my truck
to class
without you?

On those brutal days when
every other piece of clothing I owned
made me feel itchy and dead,
you were there.
You, who I could hide behind
proudly,
so everyone knew that I liked
The Doors.

I bought you at Wal-Mart.
And yet you are
irreplaceable, apparently.
How can it be I can't
find an exact replica of you?
How??

Anyway.
In your box you'll sit,
in our basement
for a while,
until maybe one day I decide to
make that quilt using old t-shirts
like I see on Pinterest
now and again.

Til then,
farewell,

Farewell.

If you can find a point, you win a prize.

My name is Kayla, and I'm having a moment where I feel I should be recording my thoughts and what-not via blog post, but I'm almost 100% positive that whatever it is I'll try to say will end up not being said, on account of my brain and things.  Sometimes there are just too many words and too many possible sentence variations, which makes me want to give up before I start.

Things I would like to do:
- actually redesign the blog so that it looks good
- post lots and lots of pictures all the time
- write cute little stories about my day
- try yet again to put into words how much I love my son
- maybe a post about my freshly painted living room?

Things that I feel my life has no time for:
- all of the above.

I've been getting the feeling lately, in little sneaky snippets, like fairies peeking through bushes, that I'm living a fantastic life.  Fantastically bad, and fantastically wonderful, and all of that all at different times and the same time.  Motherhood has magnified it.  Did you know that my baby giggled when I made a funny sound at him today?  Two and a half months ago he was lying on my stomach taking his first crying breaths, and today he's looking me in the eyes and laughing as we copy each others' sounds.  A year ago he was microscopic.  If that isn't magical then I don't know what.  And my body grew him.  God sent me that little spirit, and my body used materials it had on hand (and borrowed from his daddy) and created a tiny little body and grew it big enough until it could handle itself, and now I can hold it in my arms and it smiles at me.  IT'S MAGICAL, IS WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY.

People, for real.  Just feel the love with me.

Also, the sweet little lady from Yugoslavia who lives in the house behind us, who sings and yells at her dog every day while she gardens, sent over the fence a cute little outfit for James.  How she even knew we had a baby, I don't know.  Not only does she know, but she went shopping for him!  Who does that?

Life is cool.


(P.S. Anyone know where a girl can get one of those cute Panama-y straw fedoras I'm seeing all the cute people wear these days?)

Spiders & baby talk

I'm having a semi-unexpected day off today, so naturally I've gotten about 5% of the things that I wanted to get done, done.  Currently, Jamesy James and I are sitting on the couch waiting for the pest control guy to show up to spray for bugs again.  We have ants, people.  Ants and spiders.  The other day I saw a big ol' fatty mama spider who's spider belly was full of spider babies outside my backdoor, and I almost smashed her.  Because that's what you do with spiders, right?  Who's with me.  But then I remembered how much I appreciated not being squished by people who thought I was gross and annoying when I was pregnant, and well I just couldn't bring myself to murder a whole family, no matter how creepy.  But then several nights later I was up feeding James and wouldn't you know if I ran into that same mama spider again, only now she was outside my bedroom door.    This time I promptly flushed her and all her spider babies down the toilet because she was obviously infringing on my hospitality and I thought it terribly rude.  There is a code, ladies, and spiders in the bedroom clearly violates it.

So anyway, as far as babies go there's this cute human one that's been hanging around lately, and we've been having all kinds of conversations.  They've gone something like this (beware: adorableness ahead):

(I know it's sideways, but heck if I know how to fix it.)

He was jabbering up a storm before I pulled the camera out.  And tell you what, I never expected to pop out a kid who liked to make noise just for the fun of it.  That is so not like me, nor his daddy.  But I'm loving it to pieces.  Oh the fun we are having with 1 month old.  We just sit and stare at his big sweet mouthed toothless grins and squeaky squeaks and baby coos, and at least for my part I'm completely content. Better than primetime, he is.

In other news, the three of us packed up our stroller and went to the zoo on saturday.

Oh how I love the zoo.  Seeing the animals and exhibits makes me instantly feel like a kid again.  When I worked at the daycare fieldtrips to the zoo were my favorite, because toddlers make everything more fun.  I can't wait until James is old enough to really get into stuff like that.  We will have even more adventures then.

Love Letter To My Wedding Ring

Dear Ring,

From the moment my eyes met your sparkly, sparkly diamonds, it was love.  Before you, there were only half-imagined dreams of half-imagined rings; after you, there was only blissful ignorance that any other rings existed.  You filled the baguette-shaped hole in my heart I never knew I had.

These days without you have been lonely.  Lonely like leaving my favorite sweatshirt at a friend's house; lonely like going to eat the last brownie only to remember I already ate it earlier.  My finger feels lost and naked, exposed to the cruel world without your 14 karat embrace.  Curse these prenatal knuckles!  A pox on these slightly fatter fingers!  For they force me to part with my sweet ice, my hard candy, my pavé-set ice rink.

But soon, soon we shall be together again.  You, with your gold re-whitened and your rocks polished.  Me, with my extremities cured of their water retention.  I promise to intend and then forget to take you off before I use lotion, and then I promise take you to the jeweler's to get cleaned bi-annually.  Or at least annually.  You know how it is.

'Til then, my beloved, know that I am feeling uncomfortable without you, and like I'm always forgetting something when leaving rooms.

With undying love and affection,

Me

Friday Brain 2

This is what my day is like so far.

Soooo tired.

It's really hard to move your eyebrows independent of each other.

Friday Brain

Honk if the word "cyan" does not make you think of this:

...and instead makes you think of this:

Right?  Right?  Anyone?

Pictures of my head

I was sitting here at work being grumpy and browsing the internet to avoid dealing with myself.  And I didn't realize how grumpy I was until I decided to open up photobooth just for funsies and was met with this face:

I mean really.  Who wants to be around this girl right now.  Not me.

Not that I'm sure I want to be around this girl either, but she's got to be better than a grump.

And now my grumpies are mostly gone!  Some ho cho and pancakes might clear up the remainder.

And yes, I absolutely did match my earrings to my fingernails today.


P.S. For those of you who don't know, I work as a nanny.  And before you go thinking I'm the worst nanny in the world and just sit on my computer all day while ignoring the Little, she was taking a nap at the time of this post.  (When she's awake is when I spend all my time watching tv.)

Freaking saturdays, man...

It took me 8 hours to get dressed and ready today, so I took a picture.  It's not even anything amazing, I'm just proud of myself.

So yes, AN ENTIRE BLOG POST.