Dog Barf

At approximately 2 am I woke up to my dog Blue (the big, speckled mut) making barf noises. He sleeps in the kitchen so I lept out of bed and ran in there to find, oh, about a gallon of barf all over the floor. I let him outside and cursed bitterly in my head. I was livid. I'm the one who's supposed to be throwing up in this house. I walked back into the bedroom and made sure Jason new just what had happened. He said that he had just had a dream about Blue doing that. Yeah, it wasn't a dream. I laid there in bed and wanted to cry. I think I said that the last thing I felt like doing was cleaning up dog barf. I would rather mow the lawn, or wash the windows.Jason said he would help me later. I laid there some more and contemplated how I would go about with the cleanup. I was baffled. If I could hose it out I would have. I seriously thought about it. After laying there for half an hour unable to go back to sleep thinking about that puke atop the linoleum getting more and more putrid, I couldn't wait for Jason to wake up to clean it. Getting him out of bed in the middle of the night is like trying to teach a brick how to float in the water. So I put on some old shoes, got the paper towels, plastic baggies for gloves, extra garbage bags, and with Jason's annoyed advice (he begged me to do it later) he said I should use all his old tshirts that were in a pile to get rid of. Brilliant. I went to work and the tshirts worked just swell. I went out to investigate if Blue ate a plant or something in the back but found nothing. When I looked at him though, he had the most sad expression and his face was completely swollen. I wasn't mad at him anymore. I still don't know what happened, but I know he was sorry. What a night.

I think the kid has a bit of a fever too. She's acting her normal self though, hopefully she's fine. As for me, the nausea still hasn't come in full force. There are few things that make me go eeeww a little worse. One is dog barf. The other would be Doritos. I wake up with Jason every morning before he goes to work to pack his lunch and we crack up hysterically when we put the Doritos in the little baggie. I think I turn green, which makes Jason laugh, and I just laugh because he's laughing and he loves his stupid stinky crap cheese Doritos so much.

Shower Power

I'm not the best housekeeper. No actually, I should say I'm a pretty lousy housekeeper. I've been working on my skills though. Since I've been pregnant, I feel that I need to get the house in better order. This house is already tiny, and if there is going to be another little person in it, I should try to streamline some things. It's been on my mind a lot, but it's hard for me to take action - yes I procrastinate. I've been an A+ procrastinator since elementary school. So anyway, last week I was not feeling very well, I think I caught a bug at the county fair. Well one morning, I was wallowing in my I-don't-feel-good-so-I'm-not-doing-anythingness, when the phone rang. It was my mother. She asked me what kind of muffin I wanted. I really didn't want any muffin at all and I asked her what she meaned because she works a full time job and doesn't normally drop by any old day. She said she was coming to help me.

I could take this information in two ways:

1. Be defensive. Why whould I need any help? I don't need any help. She's not the boss of me. I have big plans today. (This is how I would normally react, little pride issue here.)

2. Shut up and take the help with glee.

I did the second. We did laundry, we got the second bedroom a cute cubby shelf thing and filled it up with Hannah's toys, went through her drawers and got rid of stuff, refolded everything in her wardrobe, and even did a Costco run. It was great. It was the equivalent of losing 10 lbs. Thank you mom.

One thing we didn't get to, however, was the shower in the one bathroom of the house. It's been a disaster since we moved in over a year ago. The previous owners had reglazed the tub, and instructed us to only use a product like Fantastik which they left for us. Well, let me tell, you that stuff does not work. Maybe it works for a small job, but I had soap scum rallying against me. I could scrub, scrub, scrub and that shower refused to become shiny. It was depressing. So I tried some different products. I can tend to be a bit granola when it comes to cleaning products. I read this book about how all these cleaning supplies are making us sick, so I'm kind of simple green kind of girl. Or vinegar, and the likes. But nothing worked. Well, my mom had left me some Shower Power and Kaboom! when we had moved in. I never used it because of the harshness of these products and I was not allowed to anyway, since the tub was reglazed. But I was desperate. It felt disobedient, but I didn't care if I scratched up that tub. I couldn't take it any more. First I tried the Kaboom!. It was OK. I started to see what was beneath the layers of scum. So I rinsed it off and got the big guns. I sprayed that Shower Power like it was the last thing I was meant to do on earth. All the grime wiped up effortlessly. It was beautiful. My shower is now a shining beacon of hope.

Goodbye summer!

Family 091606 055
Originally uploaded by laurenlannette.

On flickr you can see some of my favorite summer photos. I really didn't take that many though. I love this one. The crayons are saying: We're melting! That was a fun one to clean up.

We are growing!

I just got back from my doctor. Hannah was totally freaking out. She freaks out every time we go anywhere that there are any people who look remotely like a doctor or a nurse. I tried to tell her that it wasn't her doctor, but it was my appointment, but it didn't matter. She was still a wreck. She doesn't even like it when I go get a pedicure. She gets really squeemish and keeps saying "boo boo? Mommy boo boo?" Then she waves her hand and shakes her head and says "Go bye bye." When we took a family portrait she thought she was getting a shot. I think she's traumatized because she had to get all this dental work done when she was one. She had to go completely under general anesthesia and I have never been so worried. So now, joyfully, I am going to have someone else to lose sleep over. We are thrilled and I was starting to get a little worried and wondering if I was ever going to get pregnant again. Thank You Lord!

Now I have to do all the fun blood work and I'm just waiting for the morning sickness to take hold of me. But I love being pregnant. I've always been a little self conscious of my tummy. I blame it on my short torso. If only I was a couple more inches longer....Even when I was as tiny as I could be, before the college weight, the marriage happy weight, and then the after baby weight, I was bummed out about my stomach. Stupid now that I look at it. I think it was at time when the bare midrift hoochie clothes were in too. But anyhow, when I get my pregnant belly I feel fabulous. There are no rolls to worry about. Just a glorious, round bump. And then at the end you get a wonderful baby who completely changes your life and you end up not being the selfish narcissist you once were and don't think about your rolls. Every roll, stretch mark, and scar is a treasured badge of the little person you brought into the world and love endlessly. We are growing!

Cut the crap, Lauren

Well, I guess it's about time I write about what has been really going on. I've been avoiding it because it's just too much and it makes my head spin thinking about everything. Jason and I have been investigating Orthodox Christianity lately and have become intrigued, surprised, overwhelmed, and then even more intrigued with it. We have left the evangelical church of our youth and now I feel strangely free and unattached, yet a little nervous and sad as well. We told our friends and family and for the most part everyone has been super supportive but I think they are scratching their heads about it.

I could go on and on about all the things that bothered us about our church but I think that is unproductive and well, just not very nice. And I am so thankful that I had the experiences and love that I had there. In an optimistic way, the good very much out weighs the bad.

So here I am, reading and reading and reading. I'm reading books, blogs, websites all in an effort to gain more understanding and while I'm getting closer, there are so many things that I don't get about Orthodoxy. I'm sure a lot of it is cultural, and the years of Protestantism and Evangelical teachings and the whole sola scriptura thing. Like the veneration of the saints - how are they hearing all these payers to pray for us if they aren't God and don't have His omnipresence? And the ikons? I'm still not there yet at all.

Oh I have millions of questions. But for the most part, the answers that Orthodoxy has given me are more than sufficient and have truly opened my eyes and explain all the confusion and divisions among the churches. One book that made a world of difference was Gallatin's Thirsting for God in a Land of Shallow Wells.

When we were first thinking of leaving our church, I did a lot of research on the emergent church and considered doing the house church thing. But I always got a feeling of a wavering of doctrine, or almost like the personal soul searching was encouraged more than worshiping and praising God. It seems so me-centered. And when I read that God wants us to die to ourselves, a theme going on in my life lately, I realized that we need to step away from this kind of self-centered path to God. Nothing about Orthodoxy has been convenient to me. At all. Good Lord above, you mean I have to bring my almost two year old with me in there for OVER and hour? You've gotta be kidding. And then there's all that standing? I miss my comfy chairs. I miss my comfy life.

And there I find, I am right where the Lord wants me to be. He deserves to "inconvenience" us. He deserves for me to feel weird for him. And in theme with my blog, this is why we can't just be normal.

So we are on a true journey, one I hope we feel a little bit more comfortable in, but not too comfortable. Pray for us.

Baby got book MomaHost.com

Oh my gosh,I wasn't sure at first, but this is pure brilliance.

JWs stopped by today

I started a discussion on the ooze about their visit, but I don't know how on earth to post a link and I thought I had it but then realized my whole blog was all out of whack and the link still didn't work. Aaargh.

So anyway, yeah, I had some nicely dressed visitors. You can still find the discussion at www.theooze.com under forum "faith discussion." People had lots of interesting experiences with their door to door religion sales people to share.

They ate the sardines

This is an update from my lat post.

When I got off the computer, I went and sat on the couch with the family to watch Cops Las Vegas - so very entertaining, yet so very inappropriate for my daughter. So there you have it, I'm not a perfect mom. (Here's my excuse.) But she wasn't really paying much attention, she mostly plays with her toys when we watch tv and goes back and forth from her room and the living room showing us books she's found and pretending to put her baby doll night night. While I was trying to watch someone getting busted, she snuggled me and was giving me eskimo kisses. I thought I caught the slightest wiff of something fishy. Yes, I definitely detected a fishy odor coming from her mouth. Then I remembered what I had just blogged about 10 minutes ago.

"You really ate the sardines?"

"Yes, I told you I was going to eat them," he replied and then added,"Hannah really likes them."

I had thought he was kidding.

No top ramen?

My husband (who is not feeling well today) just informed me that there is no top ramen left. He has great affection for those nutrient empty plastic noodles and their accompanying salt packs. I feel for him. It's all he really wanted tonight. Earlier this evening I asked him if he wanted me to make him some fettuchini with sun dried tomato alfredo sauce to wich he replied, "No, I think I'll just have some top ramen tonight."

Then, when I was making Hannah and myself some quesadillas, I offered to make him one as well. He said, "Nah, I'm just gonna have some ramen."

So just now, he walked in and informed me, to my chagrin, since in the last two days I have been to Albertsons, Trader Joes, and Costco, that there is no top ramen. Then he said, "I guess I'll just eat the sardines." What?

But we actually do have some sardines in the pantry. Apparently they were a Christmas gift from his grandma a few years back. I'll let you know how it goes.

Bush has an ek-a-lek-tik Reading List

This made me chuckle this morning. Dumb, silly president.