Midwife or Ex - Wife??!!

Sorry for the delay - I had to conjure up some exciting events from my life to post to the blog! Our latest addition to the household is a picnic table. (I know what you are thinking . . . this lady leads a pathetically dull life. However, I had been searching for a used one, and 'poof', it appeared). A friend of mine generously gave us this picnic table; her boys were too big for it. It has been so wonderful to have these past few days; Ella and Colin have enjoyed many lunches and snacks on it! Thank you, Suzanne!

This warm weather has been wonderful for the soul, for the kids, and for the yard! Ella and Colin have been outside every day and even after we eat dinner. Colin has figured out how to climb the slide and go down himself, and Ella is focused on pushing him down so that she can have a turn all that faster. Yes, Ella can be impatient - not sure where she gets that from. . . She is also working on her look of evil, as you can see below.

The latest adventure that Ella and I are going to take on this summer is planting a garden. I think we will mostly plant vegetables, but Ella told me tonight that she also wanted to plant some watermelon plants. We all started digging a section of the yard this weekend, and as you can see, Colin was fully invested in the process.


On another note, tomorrow evening marks three more weeks until the completion of my year long quest to finish Anatomy and Physiology. I had much trepidation about taking a college course again; it had been over ten years since I last took a course in school, I have a family, and I was afraid of failing. However, I have proven to myself that returning to school can be done. Although I am at the very beginning of this long, arduous adventure, I keep telling myself and Matt that I will be a midwife someday, somehow! His reply the other day was, "You will either be a midwife or an ex-wife someday with the number of classes you have left to complete." All kidding aside, my return to school has been an adventure, and I am thankful for a supportive husband and family. I didn't mean to paint a bad picture of Matt in my return to school. He has been overly supportive - bathing kids, putting them to bed, providing me with time to study . . . Although I do have many, many classes left to complete before I reach my ultimate goal of becoming a nurse midwife, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the last year of classes.

What have I really learned from taking Anatomy and Physiology??

1. The human body is incredibly amazing, and those words don't do it justice. Have you ever wondered how or why somebody knew to design our nose the way it is? Imagine if our nose was all bone? It would break each time we put on our shirts. Amazingly so, the tip of the nose is made out of cartilage to prevent this mishap!
2. Don't bring hamburger soup to class for dinner before dissecting a mink. Hamburger and mink look surprisingly similar.
3. Ella enjoys completing homework with me. She draws houses (with no doors or toilets) while I study.
4. Always keep your mouth closed when dissecting in case any debris from the mink flings toward your face.
5. Goldfish crackers are a safe food to eat after lab, even on the nights that we dissect the mink.
6. Cleaning the cat box can be real exciting compared to studying the innate and acquired immune system.
7. It is easier to get up early to study when you have a coffee maker that you can program so the coffee is ready for immediate consumption.
8. The human body has too many damn bones, blood vessels, and nerves to memorize.
9. Our mothers were really right when they said, "Be sure to drink fluids with a fever and Don't go swimming for 20 minutes after you have eaten a large meal."
10. The ventilation system in our lab doesn't work well enough to rid the room of the stink from the minks. I have learned to hold my breath and take tiny breaths away from the mink while dissecting.

Official Mutti

Lately it has come to my attention that I really am a mom. I am now the person in stores who younger people look at and say, "When I have children, they will never behave like that. I certainly won't bribe them with food like that mother is doing." Well, well, well my friends - I do recall a person near and dear to my heart thinking the same things before children. While I was pregnant with Ella, I remember saying to myself, "I am only going to feed my children organic food; I will never need to bribe them with food; I certainly won't buy them anything that has a Disney character on it; I will play classical music for brain development - blah, blah, blah!!" Guilty as charged. I have fed our children non- organic food; I have a stash of treats in my bag solely for the purpose of bribery when we are in stores; Ella has some Dora underwear, and we listen to Led Zeppelin instead of Mozart. I have come to grips with the fact that mothering is so different now that I am a mother and realize that there are so many different ways of mothering. Although there is a lot to think about these days with having children, I do know that I am deeply in love with the fact that I am a mom, even if being a mom has forced me to buy certain types of bathing suits!!

I know I am a mom because:

1. I did buy one of those skirt bathing suit bottoms to hide the bum chub.
2. I lick my finger to clean dried goo off Colin and Ella's face.
3. I finish my cold coffee with my lunch that consists of leftovers.
4. I look forward to shaving my legs in the shower on the weekend when I can afford to take a longer shower.
5. I get excited when all the laundry baskets are empty, even if this lasts for only a moment.
6. I eat the leftover peanut butter sandwich covered in yogurt, because, hey, that saves me time from having to make my own lunch.
7. I get excited when I find a recipe that has less than four ingredients.
8. I have found a haircut that allows me to wash and go OR have I just adopted the "at least it is clean, it doesn't have to be styled" approach?
9. I actually enjoy listening to the theme song to "The Backyardigans." If you haven't heard it, you need to watch the show. You can really groove to the music.
10. I can watch my children do absolutely nothing, drool over them, and love them more every minute of my life!

Onto the Next One . . .

Well, at 1:30 AM this morning, we finished putting down the new floor in the kitchen. Needless to say, it wasn't too bad. I am very thankful that Matt is handy with tools and measurements, as he was a whiz at fitting all the pieces together. Kids also slept through all the banging and clanging, so we were lucky once again. I sort of felt we were back in the days without kids as we were working together; we were pretty relaxed about making noise while working. We toasted with a cocktail at the end of our project and were grateful that we were still happily talking to one another! This is certainly encouraging, so I am ready to tackle more projects! Our mission today is to get some trim down under the cabinets and other seams. Then, hmmm, what shall we start next??

Demolition Day

I don't know what got into me, but I am all fired up about doing home improvement projects. I (and after convincing) we decided to rip up the kitchen floor and put down some new flooring. We started this project this evening around 8:30 PM. Matt took his crow bar and began tearing up the old floor; we then had to hammer the existing nails down. Throughout this whole ordeal, kids were sound asleep - much to our surprise and excitement. The animals seem to like the new look in the kitchen - Moose started eating remnants of wood and the cats are playing with the leftover particles we missed. Our plan is to rip up the rest of the floor tomorrow evening and then try to install the new one over the next few days. Mind you, I should be studying for my next exam, but home improvement projects are so much more exciting. This is our first really big home improvement project, so we started with some trepidation but are now fully committed!

We have also decided to paint the kitchen/dining room area and ceiling ourselves to save some money. Instead, we may hire someone to paint/stain our deck. It looks terrible, and I really am anxious to fire up the BBQ grill now that the weather is shaping up. Should I say more?? My hope after the floor and painting are done is to plant a garden and build the little monkeys a swing set. Ahh - can I step into a time warp to get maybe five more hours to my day?

A New Man in My Life - April Fool's!

Every spring (and every winter) I have the privilege of having a new man in my life. In the winter I am introduced to the bearded Matt and in the spring I am introduced to the "bare" Matt. Well, it was last night that I was re-introduced to the "bare" Matt, as he decided to shave off his winter beard. (I guess that last sentence doesn't sound too great.) This year he elected to begin the process around 11 PM last night. He also decided to go for a bit of a different look - shall I say the "biker" look for a few days until he finally shaves all the hair off. I managed to snap a shot of him this morning before he left for work - I thought his look would be a nice addition to the blog.

Speaking of additions - I have felt a bit guilty not including pictures of the other family members of our house - the furry friends! So I wanted to also dedicate this entry to them. Yes, the animals create messes and piles of fur balls throughout the house, but they have been really nice to have with Ella and Colin. It has been so funny to watch Ella give kisses to the animals and for Colin to sit on Moose. The kids have really started to respect and appreciate the animals, and it is apparent that Ella and Colin really love Moose, Atticus and Madison.

Otherwise, life here on the funny farm is pretty much the same. I am in a total home project mode, so I have convinced Matt to rip up our kitchen floor and put new flooring down. We are also going to paint the dining room/kitchen area since this is the only area we didn't elect to do before moving in. Did I mention that once we are finished with these projects, I have more to do outside? Sorry Matt . . .