Random Stuff

Well the Gauge show was great. The evening would've been fine if I didn't do 2 stupid things:

1. Ate too many dried mangoes that day, so ended up with an upset stomach at the show. I was walking around like I had a potato chip stuck in my rear for fear of farting or what-not. REAL comfy!!

2. I drink wine now, and spent the last few years trying to get pregnant, have been pregnant, or nursing so I haven't been drinking much at all the last few years. I didn't want to drink beer so I asked Mark to get me a rum and coke. Halfway through, I realized I was having stomach cramps and remembered that rum and cokes give me stomachaches. DUH

I ran into a few old friends from college and I discovered that after the whole what-are-you-up-to-now questions have been answered, there really is nothing more to say. The person's not in your daily life and has no clue of anything else about you, so any more conversation is tough. Unless of course, you end up talking about mutual people you know and what happened to them. This also, comes to an eventual end. Sort of a let-down, but what can you do.

The really, really dumb part is that I only had one rum and coke and we got home at 3:45a.m. and I slept until 9:30 and I felt totally hung-over. It was nice to sleep straight without having to wake up and take care of little kids. Poor Mark was totally hungover and had to watch the boys when I went to work at 1 that day. I was totally dragging at work.

On another topic, Teddy has been walking all over the place - up to 10 steps in a row! He also is great at raising his leg up so he can climb onto the couch and proceed to jump on it and scare me to death. He and Ricky have been playing together more and more and it's nice to see. I think Ricky is finally used to his baby brother. He loves him so much.

I went to my annual ob-gyn appointment yesterday and my doctor gave me a script for my first mammogram that she wants me to have in April. UGH. My mom makes this test sound like complete torture. It doesn't sound like much fun. I guess with my aunt's history, it couldn't hurt.

The doctor also told me that my AF delay was because I just didn't ovulate - it wasn't a chemical pregnancy like what happened a few years ago. I still have the darn thing - I'm on day 17 and I am mighty sick of this pest!! She said that if my cycle is long again, she'll check my thyroid.

Well I wanted to post some pictures but never got around to it. Maybe next time. For now, I have to clean my house. It looks like a tornado hit in here and I'm hosting a play date tomorrow!

Date Night!! Date Night!! Gauge at the Bottom Lounge

Ricky and Teddy are having a sleepover at my mom's and Mark and I will be going to see Gauge's reunion show tonight at the Bottom Lounge. There will be a few people I used to party with there from college who I haven't seen since I left college - in 1995. Can't believe that was 15 years ago - where the hell did the time go anyway?

In college, there was a group of us who used to hang out together. Gauge band man Kevin was in our group - and he was roommates with my ex-boyfriend Stephen. A few years later, when I met my now husband Mark, it was discovered that he knew Kevin too - grew up with him in the Chicago suburbs. Neil was at my college too - he threw lots of good parties. Mark also knows him from high school.

We started hanging out with a work associate of Mark's named Jeremy and his wife. Their best friend Tina was dating this guy Gub and they are now married. He is also in Gauge.

I'm excited to have an evening out with a bunch of friends - and to see some friends I haven't seen in ages. Unfortunately, I am no longer the 105 pound girl they used to know. I hope their jaws don't drop too far when they see the meaty mother-of-two before them.

Mark worked tons of hours this week and has already alerted me that he plans on drinking heavily. I have been at home all week with the kids and I would like to drink heavily as well. I think we might splurge a little and cab it home. We don't have to pick up the boys til 11 a.m. tomorrow. I have to work at the library tomorrow at 1 so hopefully I won't get too shit-faced. I'm all about wine now not beer so I don't know what I'm going to drink there.....maybe I won't care.

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

In all the craziness, I was able to read Bloodroot by Amy Greene. Our copy of Entertainment Weekly gave it an "A" in its book review section and one of my favorite authors, Wally Lamb, wrote a plug for the book right on its front cover. Those were two compelling reasons for me to read this book.

I admit that I wasn't hooked until page 100. I usually give books til page 40 before I decide I will read it - and because the book received so many good reviews, I pushed through.

The book is pretty dark and depressing, but if you are like me and like that sort of thing once in a while - then this book is definitely for you. The book takes the perspective of different people within a family and it's pretty interesting. It addresses poverty, abuse, and loss. I did enjoy this book but wouldn't say it was a I-can't-put-this-down kind of read.

Knopf Publishing, 2010.

The Dreaded Guest List

Ricky turned 5 over the weekend and I still can't believe that MY BABY IS FIVE!! Anyways, we had 4 days of celebration - Thursday we had a party for him with all 15 boys from preschool at one of those jumpy places, he had a party at school Friday, a small celebration here at home Saturday with just us, and a big family party for him Sunday. We're all wiped out!! I think there's a Berenstain Bears book that should be called, "Too Much Birthday."

The weird part about his birthday was that he wanted to invite all the boys from preschool. We couldn't invite all the boys and girls - because that was too many kids for the jumpy place. So we didn't invite our other friends who have girls or boys, or boys who don't go to preschool with Ricky. We didn't invite a lot our friends and that felt wrong and very strange.

While adults were free at the jumpy place, our party was for 15 kids - and that's exactly how many we had. Each additional kid was $10. It was a drop off or stay party for the parents. There are a few friends we would have loved to invite but they live in the suburbs and would have had to bring the younger siblings along - which would have meant 12 additional kids to pay for that were just siblings. So we didn't even bother inviting them. It was hard to draw the line and I hope there are no hard feelings. If Ricky had a summer birthday, it would be great to just have a huge barbeque bash at a forest preserve and invite everyone.

I talked to some of my mommy friends about it and apologized for not inviting them and they all assured me that no offense was taken. My friends who have girls said that they plan on having all-girls parties - or all girls parties with only 4 girls invited. I have a friend whose kids are older - in 3rd and 4th grade - and she assured me that it's normal practice among all the kids and everyone usually understands. But even still, there's a part of me that can't help feeling bad.

There are so many parts of Ricky's birthday I want to blog about - I'll have to do it in bits and pieces.

Taun Taun Sleeping Bag Rocks Ricky's 5th Birthday

My sister and brother in law ordered this from thinkgeek.com. I've seen it before as a link sent on facebook as a hahaha thing, but this is totally cool. The zipper is a lightsaber, the head of the taun taun is the perfect pillow, and it's just downright cool. Ricky sleeps inside it on top of his bed and during the day he snuggles in it while he watches cartoons or plays video games. He's been saying it's his favorite present *every single day* since he got it. It's the perfect present for the young padawan - too cute.