Strain Station

I hosted a planning meeting tonight for the local volunteers of the ICAN 2009 International Conference that is being held here in Atlanta next April.  I made these AWESOME apple dumplings for us to eat while we planned.  They were sooooooo good.  The kind of good that makes people stop what they are doing to make a little “uhhhhh” noise while they take a bite.

In other exciting ICAN news, I have been appointed to the ICAN Board of Directors!  I applied for and was accepted for the position of Subscriber Relations Director.  I am very excited to apply my passion for this organization at the top level, and be able to help shape the future of ICAN and the work that is done to improve birthing experiences for women everywhere

My friend Bliss dropped off a birthday gift for Catie today.  Boomwhackers!  A boomwhacker is a tube of plastic that plays a musical note when you whack it against something.  Here’s a clip of a group of kids playing them… we’re not this good, but we whacked them all day anyway!

bored bored bored, i don’t recommend the 4-hour layover.  it’s only been an hour so far.  i should go find something to eat.  they have ad-supported wifi here but when i tried it it was slow so i switched to the vzw card.  i don’t get to palm springs until after 10pm west coast time.  

it’s weird how airports can sometimes bring out the worst in people.  it’s also weird how airports are the only place i can think of where half the people there are just bored out of their minds lounging around and half the people are late for their flights and rushing around.  and air travel also seems to be the only thing that we really do where your plans can go completely out the window without warning–the flight to chicago in the next gate over from my denver flight was canceled because of a mechanical problem.  i’ve been on the canceled flight before too, everybody has, but it’s weird how you can just sit around for hours like that, after all your plans are destroyed for no real reason.  or you sit on the tarmac for an hour and a half waiting to take off, just getting more frustrated with every passing minute.  i guess air travel is just frustrating all around.  even when everything goes smoothly there are still all these little annoyances–like going through security, or how your gate is always the furthest one, or how everything costs as much as it does at the ball park.

OMG HAVE TO GO THE DHS THREAT LEVEL IS NOW ORANGE!

Today was Catie’s 4th Birthday!

Hard to believe, the four years have just flown by in some ways, and required a lot of patience at the same time.

Catie made a lot of progress this year.  On her 3rd birthday she only said a few words, and it was rare for her to use them at all.  Now she says hundreds of words.  Communicating with her over this past year has gotten steadily better.  She still isn’t “talking” in the sense of having conversations, but she is building her language skills and hearing her sweet little voice still warms my heart.

Catie definitely marches to the beat of a different drum, but she is very happy, and she inspires us all to think a little harder, to look at things a different way, and to experience the simple joys of life.

I look forward to the coming year, I know it will be filled with more growth and more laughs (and lots of ice cream).  I love being Catie’s mom.

First Birthday

Second Birthday

Third Birthday

Today - Catie’s 4th Birthday

I saw two rainbows today, side by side.  I love rainbows.  They are just such surprising, magical, beautiful things.

Which leads me to tonight’s Word…  oh.  Wait, that is The Colbert Report.  I’m not Stephen Colbert.

Which leads me to tonight’s blog…

Let us talk about thank you notes.  People who know me may have noticed that I am not a big fan of them.  They may have noticed this when I said something to them like “I am not a big fan of thank you notes.  Don’t ever feel like you have to send me one.  Save a tree and your 42 cents.”

Or they may have noticed this when they failed to receive a card from me for any occasion which Miss Manners deems a thank you card to be optional, such as when a birthday gift is opened in person and the thanks are given verbally at that time.

I didn’t grow up writing thank you cards.  In fact, I never wrote a thank you card in my life until after I was married for the first time.   I will go ahead and blame that on my parents, since not only are they dead, but it is probably really their fault for never having me do that.  After the wedding, I wrote out thank you notes and tried to come up with unique and genuine wording for each card.  And I write them when people mail me gifts, and for baby shower gifts, and some other things, too.

I do send them.  I’m just sayin.  I’m not some kind of mannerless person who was raised in a barn.  My mother lived in fear of people thinking I was raised in a barn. Don’t slam that door, do you want people to think you were raised in a barn?!

I just think, personally, that saying “thank you” to someone in person is ok.  I have a hard time writing a thank you note to sound as sincere as I really feel about it.  Supposedly I’m a good writer (I’m not claiming that for myself.  John’s dad tells me that.  That’s why I said “supposedly”.  I’m not bragging on myself, I wasn’t raised in a barn ) but I can’t seem to come up with words that don’t sound trite and robotic.

I swear, there’s a point to all of this.  Bear with me.

I have told people, plenty of people, that they don’t need to send me thank you notes.  I won’t ever feel slighted by it and stick that little factoid in my cap and comment bitterly to my husband five years later “oh, she’s the one who never sent a thank you card for xyz gift five years ago”.  I don’t expect to get them so I don’t notice if I don’t get them, really.  And if you want to save 1/10000000th of a tree and 42 cents, I am totally ok with that.

So, last month I threw Delilah a baby shower.  One day last week John brought in the mail when he got home from work, and he set an envelope on the counter for me.  I looked at it and said “I hope that’s not a thank you note”.  (She had already given me a hostess gift, which came with a thank you note.  She’s a real southern belle, that Delilah.  Miss Manners would be proud.)

He said, “I bet it is.  It looks like one.”

I said “But she already GAVE me a thank you note.  It’d better not be.”

Of course it was. And it wasn’t a trite robotic “Hallmark made this just for you… and a million other people” card.  Of course it wasn’t.  It was a hand painted water color of a frog and a rainbow. With a heartfelt note inside the likes of which this writer would never be able to get off the end of a pen.  It made me want to write her a thank you note, for the thank you note.  So this is my very public “thank you for the thank you”.  I don’t know the etiquette on sending a thank you for the thanks of a thank you.  Hopefully I haven’t started some endless chain of thank yous in motion.  But it was most definitely not a waste of 42 cents!!

You don’t really have to answer that.  You see, Google Analytics answers that for me.  We put some code in our page, and then we can view a neat little stats page with bar charts and line graphs and fun things of that nature, that tell us how visitors found our site, and where geographically they come from.  (Basically.  It doesn’t tell us your address.  Don’t worry.  We don’t keep a list or anything )

Anyway, one of the things it does is tell us what search strings people used that ended up getting them to our blog.  Some are boring, some were obviously looking for something else, some are keywords that I want to hit our blog, and some are… well… a little more interesting…

“what does amniotic fluid taste like?”

this hits us because of an entry from way back when I was pregnant with catie, about the baby swallowing amniotic fluid.  I just have to say, pregnant women, if you are searching for what amniotic fluid tastes like… please. don’t taste it.  It’s probably pee.  If you’re in doubt about whether or not your water broke, call your doctor.  if you happen to have a microscope, you can swab it on a slide - amniotic fluid will fern, cervical mucus (or pee) won’t.

“attachment parenting” crock of shit

this one makes me giggle.  it’s hitting two separate entries, obviously.  I don’t think attachment parenting is a crock of shit.  but I’m amused it led you to me.

are paper plates ok to use instead of washing dishes

NO! (who googles that, anyway?)

calories in rice krispie treat made with water no butter

Dude.  You can’t make rice krispie treats with water.  Ick.

is it ok to jump on buckle fracture leg

NO!

seeing stars and +++ protein and high blood pressure

gosh honey, i really hope you got to a hospital.  for anyone searching for this later, if this is happening to you and you are pregnant, GET TO A HOSPITAL.

“who sings the kid song- i’m brushing my teeth and having so much fun i never let the water run”

Barney, I think…

wonder pets are bizarre

LOL.  why yes, yes they are.

So those were the strangest since we started tracking this past July.  I also am pleased to see lots of hits for ICAN, vbacs, and Dr. Tate.  I hope you found us and joined us. 

Today is November 11th, and that is my “georgia day”.

On November 11th, 2001, I woke up in a cheap motel somewhere in northern KY.  My watch, the only timepiece in the hotel room, said it was 7:30am.  That wasn’t too early to get on the road…  I didn’t want to get there too early.  I’d said I thought I would get there around 3pm.  His brother had gotten married the night before, and he figured he’d be a little hung over.

When I went to drop my keys off at the desk, the clock on the wall behind the clerk said 6:30.  Huh?  6:30?  That couldn’t be right.  I got in my car, turned the key, and the car clock lit up.  6:30. Well, damn.  I’d never reset my watch the week before for daylight savings time.  I used to wear that watch all the time… I was obsessed with being on time, and knowing what time it was.  I took it off and put it in the center console.

Since I was early, I stopped at a Waffle House for breakfast.  I’d never been in one before.

I drove on through KY, and TN.  The drive was flying by.  I set my cruise control for 60mph.

I stopped a few times at rest stops.  I tried to take my time.

Around 10:30am… I saw it:

I read the sign.  “We’re Glad Georgia’s On Your Mind”.  I yelled out “ME TOO!”  I wanted to stop.  I couldn’t stop, it’s on the side of I-75 (that actual picture is apparently from I-95.  So sue me.)  Besides, there would have been no one willing to pull over and take my picture anyway.  I had never heard the song “Georgia On My Mind”, so I didn’t really get the slogan.  All I knew was that I had made it.  I was in Georgia.

I was still driving 60mph, but somehow making amazing time, barrelling along towards Atlanta.

As I came into the city, the car crested the top of a hill and I could see downtown in the distance.  Later, I would go past that same point every day on the way home from work, it’s still my favorite view of the city.  But that’s later…

I managed the crazy junction between 75 south and 85 north.  I passed the exit I was supposed to get off at, and had to double back.  It didn’t matter.  It was only around 12:30pm.  He probably wasn’t even home yet.  He possibly wasn’t even awake yet.

I pulled into a church parking lot.  I didn’t want to go all the way there, if he wasn’t ready.  I called his number from my cell phone.  No answer.  Of course.  I was so early.  I left a message.  I didn’t drive around, or go get lunch, or take a walk.  I just sat there in my car, under a tree, in a church parking lot on Briarcliff Rd.

He called about an hour later.  I drove the last mile or so to the house.  I wasn’t nervous.  It was so… weird… I knew him so well.  I knew his quiet voice.  I knew what he looked like, I knew the names of his brother and sisters, I knew what books he liked to read and what foods he liked to eat and that he sat in his computer chair indian-style.  I knew that he was intelligent, and funny (very funny!).  And now I was about to meet him for the very first time.

When I got out of the car, the first thing I noticed was the scar below his lip.  You can’t see that in pictures.  I touched it, and I said “you have a scar”.  And then I kissed him, and I have kept on kissing him every day that I could, for the past seven years.

And that is the story of the day I came to Georgia.

p.s.

I haven’t worn a watch since that day

Monday

Wow, this is a reason to blog every day.  Monday was only two days ago and I barely remember it!

I know we went to the playground in the afternoon, with Delilah and Cleo.  I’m trying as hard as I can and I can’t even remember what we ate for dinner… geez.  Must be getting old, the memory is going.  I know I made “microwave popcorn” my new favorite easy way:  brown lunch sack, 1/4 cup kernels, 2 tsp oil, 1/2 tsp salt.  So easy, i can’t believe I bought so many boxes of that over the years.

I watched The Holiday before bed.

Tuesday

Election Day!!  We got up and went to vote.  The line was not very long, I waited about 30 minutes while John sat in the car with the girls, and then he waited about 45 minutes while I took them to the playground around the back of the school we vote at.

Came home, made some cream of mushroom soup, which Delilah and I ate along with the crusty bread she’d brought.  We also baked up crescent roll dough with Nutella inside.  mmm, that’s what I’m talkin’ about…

I went to Jenny’s for an “election night” party, and then came home just in time to see Obama announced President Elect.  YAY, and that’s all I’ll say about that.

Today

Woke up with my slight cold still, and it started to get worse by the hour.  Catie had music therapy and it went VERY very well.  I think having it on Wednesday so John can take part makes a big difference to Catie, she didn’t cry at all and she interacted a lot with Miss Laura.  They played and sang with the alphabet slider book, the fruit/veggie shakers, played with scarves and mist to the “car wash” song, danced on tiptoes… this was her best session since Miss Sayaka left.

I was just feeling sicker and sicker, so John played with the girls while I napped, and then he went and got me chicken noodle soup and a Coke icee, and puffs with lotion so I don’t blow my nose all raw.  Now I’m going to bed and hopefully I will feel loads better in the morning.

I’m still a little shocked she let me do it!

It only took 4 years for her to get enough hair for it, but last night Catie got her very first ponytail.  She didn’t even try to pull it out, although when I put one in today she did pull it out after a few hours (it was starting to fall out anyway, her hair is silky fine).

Silly champagne…

anyway, the month is over.  I blogged every day except one.  I hope everyone enjoyed this thrilling peek into our lives, and I have definitely made blogging a habit, so while it may not be every day going forward, I will keep it up and I promise not to let weeks go by without an update again!

Happy Halloween!