a day in the life

It’s hard enough to get my two kids packaged up, in the car and through the grocery store without blood or tears shed on a good day. Today however, I decided to add an extra degree of difficulty. After shopping for a half hour and buying all the groceries I needed for the week, I got in line and attempted to checkout. Kai wanted to push all the buttons and Bella was doing the quiet fuss that means she’s about to blow. I opened up my wallet to grab my debit card….and it wasn’t there. I only keep it in one place and it wasn’t there. I frantically searched through my bag and then asked the checkout woman if i could look in my car. I couldn’t find it in either, so I had to ask them to hold my groceries so I could go find the card. I put the kids back into their seats, wracking my brain for when I last used the card. Of course, last night at the ATM when I was depositing a check. And it’s probably the last ATM on the planet that makes you leave your card in while you do your transaction, not just slide it through. I picked up my cell phone to call the bank….and realized I didn’t have my phone either. It was still on the charger at home because it had died the night before. So we headed home, got the phone and called the bank. Yes, they had my card and I could come fill out a form to get it back. So i headed up to the bank, got the card back and then headed back to the grocery store. They had put my groceries away (oh no! i thought) but only in the cooler. Thankfully they still had them, so I paid and loaded them into the car and headed home. And then called Mark back to apologize for the angry “I bet you took my card, check your wallet dammit!!” voicemail that may or may not have been left on his answering machine.

New Moon

This weekend I, along with a hundred million other females, went to see New Moon. Having read all the books and throughly enjoyed them, I was very excited to see the movie. I went with a big group of co-workers and dragged my sister along for the fun. I enjoyed the movie and the time out with my friends, but it reminded me of one major thing: I am so glad to not be 16 anymore. The whole movie is about Bella being upset because Edward leaves her, and how she tries to get on with life, and then he comes back and she can’t be friends with both Edward and Jacob, and there’s a whole love triangle thing going on and anyways……it was emotionally draining just to watch and I can’t imagine living every day like that. When it ended my friend Jeni stood up and said, “Wow, I have a stress headache.” And I said that I had Takasobu syndrome (sadly, a joke that only works with nurses. Takasobu is when you have all the clinical symptoms of an MI (heart attack) but no actual structural damage. It literally means ‘broken heart’ syndrome.) So while it was a good movie, it was also tiring. Getting old sucks.

I am standing in the dining room, getting Bella ready for church, when I hear it. A short gasp of horror, followed by the shattering of glass. It sounded just like a movie special effect, when Batman throws a bad guy through a window. I check both kids, attempting to figure out the culprit. I glance back at Mark and realize I have overlooked my biggest kid. Mark had the football and was attempting to throw it at the windowsill, but instead missed high and caught the corner of the window. I know what we’re getting for christmas – nerf footballs.

I know it’s been almost a week and I haven’t posted. I have been devoting every free minute (like naptime and after the kids go to bed) to writing. I have always wanted to write a book, and I decided that I should write down the story of the month and I half I spent in Ghana for Xtreme Team. I always like to read books that are true stories, so I figured why not? Right now I’m actually reading Julia Child’s “My Life in France,” which is fantastic. One of her great grandsons sat down with her and wrote down all her stories and used some of the letters she and Paul wrote to other relatives over the years and he put it into a book. I like it because I think it gives a lot of insight into her life, it’s almost as if you opened up one of her journals and just started reading.

Anyway, I haven’t said anything previously because I thought I would fail, or give up and not actually write. But I have written over 40 pages (no double spacing for me!) and I’m up to Day 17. I thought it might keep me honest to write about it here, because if people know I’m doing it then hopefully they’ll kick my butt if I get lazy. It’s been a lot of fun so far to relive the memories of when I met Mark and what Ghana was like and what I learned. Even if nothing ever comes of it, it will at least be a fantastic memoir to have.

adventures in cooking

Cooking lately has been great, and we’ve been cooking so much that I have gotten behind in writing about it. But I have learned a few things lately. First of all, I like shrimp. I have never had it before, but I tried it the other night when we made herb poached shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce. One of the cool things about the appetizer chapter is that there are a lot of sauces that go with each dish. They will have the most disgusting combination of ingredients, but all together they taste amazing. Thursday night we roasted a chicken, which was very good. I had to put it in a brine first for an hour before we cooked it. It’s very easy. Take a chicken, stick it in a pot and cover it with water, then add salt. Voila! Jenni and I also made deviled eggs, which are disgusting. I don’t think anyone even tried them because they looked so nasty. We had a mexican night where we made steak fajitas, roasted red pepper quesadillas and homemade salsa and guacamole. I really liked the guacamole. In fact, Mark walked into the kitchen and saw me eating some. His jaw dropped and he said, “I have NEVER seen you eat that.” I said, “Well, I just found out it tastes good.” I wanted to try a mojito too, so we attempted them, but didn’t have fresh mint. What Jenni thought was mint in her fridge was actually basil. Not exactly what you want in your drink. So we tried using some dried mint and it was just disgusting. We had to strain our drinks. I’m looking forward to having one with real mint.

love/hate

i like those new balance commercials about having a love/hate relationship with running. I completely agree. I hate to run, but love to be done with it. I hate running on treadmills, love running outside. I hate the first mile, love the middle. I hate the cramps, love the runner’s high.

I feel like the discipline of running is when I run my best. I will never be fast, nor do I aspire to be. I just like to know that I can do it. When I run, I’m not trying to be a runner, I’m trying not to die. Today was the first day since Bella was born that three miles didn’t feel like murder afterwards. I know, three miles isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of running, but it’s enough for me.

oh, the times they are a changin’

it’s amazing how different your life can be from one moment to the next. things that seem important one year are completely forgotten the next, while something that may seem insignificant actually changes your whole life. my kids reinforce this every day, because i see them take steps that help them continue to grow and change, whether it’s bella learning how to roll and starting to eat solid foods or kai putting together a sentence.

today kai took a major step, he pooped all by himself on his new potty. we bought it a few days ago, and every day we had him sit on it for a few minutes to help him learn what it’s for. today he finally used it, and there was much celebration and twizzlers. i know that it’s only once and it’s still a long, stinky road ahead, but it’s still exciting. i have never been so excited for another human to poop in my life.

Man’s league

Last night was the man’s league draft and it was great. It was an auction, which means each team gets a set amount of money and you bid on the players you want. It’s good because every player is available to you if you want to pay for them. There are two common strategies. One is to spend a lot on a few really good players and fill the rest of your team with scrubs. The other is to go for a lot of midlevel players and have a solid roster with no real superstars. My approach was the second one. It’s also important to note that this league has 16 teams, so there are less good players than in a standard 10 team league.
Ok, so my team has Matt Ryan, Brian Westbrook, Donald Brown, Steve Smith, Eddie Royal, Lee Evans and Shaun Hill. I also got a pretty decent bench because I had some money left when we got near the end. That’s how you win leagues, not with stars but with sneaky good players who emmerge later in the season.

the best part was being able to chat online with the other players during the draft. there was a lot of joking around, and mocking people who paid $45 for ronnie brown (by accident). but still, it seems like a good group of people and i’m excited for the season to start. and to be the first female champion in man’s league history.

cooking day 3

Sunday we went crazy with our cooking project. We made a slow roasted beef brisket. First we put it on the grill over coals and wood chips. It smelled delicious through my open window. Then, it cooked in the oven for a while to finish it off. While it was cooking, we made spinach dip and bruchetta. The spinach dip was very easy and quite tasty. We used sour cream instead of mayonnaise, because mayonnaise is disgusting. The bruchetta was really easy, just toast up the bread and then dice up tomatos. You mix the tomatoes with pepper and fresh basil and then spoon it onto toasted bread that’s been brushed with olive oil and garlic.

Once the meat was done we made our own barbeque sauce. It was delicious. I love barbeque sauce, I could probably eat anything as long as it was covered in it. Someday soon we need to get into desserts. And soon we have a mexican night.

Twisters

We sure are having some crazy weather here in the Shire. First of all, we had rain for 90% of June and July. Just straight rain, every day. It was like living in Seattle, without the original Starbucks. Then we went into this oppressive heat and humidity of August, and then today we get a tornado warning. you know when someone takes a really hot shower, and you open the bathroom door after they get out and get hit by a wall of humidity? that’s how it feels outside.
It’s funny because this afternoon I was in a patient’s room and we were talking about the tornado that went through New Hampshire last year. And on my way into work I noticed that the clouds were getting ominous and the sky had that weird green tinge. I told her, “if we didn’t live in New Hampshire I would swear we were going to get hit by a tornado.” And then an hour later someone comes in and tells us all that WMUR is showing a tornado warning for Merrimack County.
It’s just been really weird all summer long. It makes me wonder if we’ll get killed this winter by snow, or if it will be 80 degrees in January. Who knows?