Psst, Wanna Know Something?

I started another blog. See that link over there? Yep, that one in the sidebar under the title "My Bloggy 2nd Home." You can check out Fourgiven Momma Loves to Read with that link and of course from here on out it'll let you know when I post something new over there. I'm thinking of it as my little vacation home in Blogland. Come on over, I'd love to see you there!

Classic (borrowing Windy's fitting title)

Quick embarrassing story to share.

I was inspired by Windy's post and didn't want to leave her feeling like the only person to which "those" things happen.

When Cade was a smaller baby, before we put him in the nursery at church, we chose which service to attend based on his sleeping pattern that day. Our goal was to go at the time he would normally be napping so he would sleep through the service. It actually even worked out the way we planned a couple of times.

So this one time we got to church and Cade and I stayed behind in the van so I could nurse him and get him sleepy, while Mike took Kyle in to Sunday school. Mike had to take the keys because the key chain had the tag to check-in Kyle.

Sitting in the church parking lot, I locked Cade and myself in because I'm a cautious kind of girl. I finished up nursing him and hit the unlock button. Nothing happened.

That's when a vision came to my mind of a few days before when I had reached in through the van's open window to unlock it and I guess because the keys weren't in the ignition the auto locks didn't work, so I pulled up on the lock and it triggered the alarm.

Any type of confinement, whether real or imagined, makes me panicky and light-headed. When my ring is too tight to slide easily off of my finger I get claustrophobic; so feeling like I was trapped in the van with Cade really got my heart racing. The air in the van seemed to be getting thinner. I was sweating. My head was swirling with scenarios.

I knew I had to get a grip and be the grown-up.

I got the van manual out of the glove compartment and looked for a way to get the van unlocked without setting the alarm off. No luck.

I knew Mike would not come looking for us. I would have to be gone for approximately 3 days before he would be concerned. It's not an indicator of his love for me, it's just that he does not get panicked which actually balances me out quite nicely. If he is 30 minutes late I start envisioning ambulances and hospitals. Mike's response to my being late is something like, "I wasn't worried I just figured you ran into someone you knew or remembered something else you needed to do."

I thought for a second about that email that went around claiming you can use your remote key chain thingy to unlock your car through the phone, but a) Mike was the one with the keys and I was looking at his cell phone beside me, b) I didn't think I should ask our neighbors to break into our house to get our spare keys, c) I was pretty sure the email wasn't true.

I realized I could either wait in the van for over an hour or pull the lock up manually and trigger the alarm. So I put on my baby-toting wrap (this wrap comes with an instructional DVD and believe you me it was no small feat getting into it in the passenger seat of a van), got Cade into the wrap, climbed over to the driver's seat thinking there was an ever so slight possibility the alarm would not be triggered from that side, took a deep breath, counted to three, pulled the lock up, and the chorus of beeping, honking, light-flashing commotion began.

I walked as quickly away from the van as I could, trying to look as non-criminal-like as possible. I didn't make eye contact with anyone in the parking lot or look back. It was a long walk to church and by the time I got to Mike and he got back out to the van with the keys the alarm had stopped.

Okay, in my head that was a quick story. Obviously I'm a wordy-girl.

It's Winter at Fourgiven Much!

Okay, here is the wintry blog design! I did stay true to the deal I made with myself; here are the pictures to prove it:


I'm broken out in a semi-cold sweat. I used the same dimensions as before for the background, but for some reason (at least on my screen) the sidebars are encroaching into the middle text area. I know that makes it hard to read, sorry! I'll be working on fixing it, but Cade is bound to wake up any minute and we'll be gone for Bible study tonight so not sure when I'll actually get it fixed. Not knowing what the problem is also complicates things a wee bit. (Update: Still don't know what the problem was/is, but I adjusted it so that it is readable, at least it is on my screen.)

If Walmart Doesn't Wait, Why Should I?

I have a new wintry blog design I’ll be revealing soon. I know, I know, you can hardly stand the suspense; but try, you can do it!

I planned to work on the design a little here, a little there, between now and Thanksgiving.

But, wait a minute, am I new here? I don’t do 'little by little' I do 'begin immediately and obsessively until it’s done'. So I Photoshopped (spell check wants me to say ‘photos hopped’ which sounds entertaining, but I’m sticking with my original spelling) every spare minute yesterday and until I was blinking furiously to keep my eyes focused last night.

I am teaching myself Photoshop and I discovered all of these nifty little features last night that previously I had no idea even existed! I was absolutely giddy. I was trying to convey to Mike how much easier and more exciting this discovery was going to make my life – well, my Photoshop life anyway – and though he didn’t show it on the outside, I’m sure on the inside he was thrilled down to his toenails.

I finished the design, but have made a deal with myself that I won’t reveal it (Okay, reveal sounds a tad more dramatic than the situation calls for, but obviously I can't think of an alternative since I wrote it earlier too. So humor me and pretend for a moment that it actually matters what the background on my blog looks like. And as you're pretending it actually matters, don't set your expectations too high because as I already said I am just learning. And when you come back and see it, say to yourself, "Gee, they say less is more, but in this case I do believe more is more! Indeed!" Because what's the point in learning fun new techniques if you don't use them all at the same time? Exactly. Okay, now what was I saying? Oh yeah, what I'm waiting for to reveal the new design) until after the Christmas decorations are up in the house. Normally that coincides with Thanksgiving weekend, but our next door neighbors decorated last weekend and some other friends put up their outside lights a few days ago so I think decorum obliges us to follow suit. We'll see if I can sell Mike on that one.

Practically speaking early decorating may not be the smartest thing with a newly self-propelled baby. “Cade, the Wiseman is not for eating.” “Cade, we don’t put Christmas lights in our mouth.” “Cade! Baby, hang on! Momma will pull the Christmas tree off of you!” Hmmm.

In addition to his new mobility, Cade is also getting into the spirit of “all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth…” That boy goes all out, I tell ya!

Soon, or not, I'll have a Christmas-y home and a wintry blog-home. Check back!

Okay, Where Do You Hide the Bottle?

Mike thinks it is funny to ask me where the bottle is. The bottle of liquor, that is. Seriously, I can laugh about my absentmindedness, but then sometimes I think I may have actually lost my mind. What do you think?

The other day I called my answering machine to remind myself about something; after I hung up I realized I had just told my answering machine, “Okay, love you, bye.”

I misplaced my birthday money. I scoured the house looking for it. I found it. Minutes later, Mike asked me where I had found it. I thought for a minute, then answered honestly, “I can’t remember.”

I have conversations almost daily that include the phrase, “I lost my words.” Mid-thought, the word I was going to use just disappears, poof.

Sometimes I actually do remember something, but I forget I remembered it. As in, “Oh, I need to go get my book from the car.” I then go out to the car and my book is nowhere to be found. I go back inside and discover, "Oh, there's my book; I forgot I remembered it earlier."

It started when I was pregnant. I often found myself doing things like putting the milk in the pantry instead of the fridge. I am pretty sure that a significant portion of my brains transferred to Kyle via the umbilical cord. I find him to be exceptionally intelligent; as well he should be, since he has his brains plus about half of mine.

When I was pregnant with Cade I didn't notice a pronounced drop in my mental functions. Bless his heart, I don’t know if that means he sucked out less of my brains or if I just didn't notice because I was well-accustomed to my dimished brain power. He seems pretty smart, so I bet it's the latter.

Something reminded me of another crazy absentminded thing I did; it was really funny and I was going to write about it, but I can’t remember what it was. Maybe I'll remember it again later. Okay, love you, bye.

Crunchy Bob

I used cloth diapers on Kyle and use them on Cade as well. The savings were great with Kyle and exponential with Cade since all of his diapers are paid for hand-me-downs!

I mentioned to Kyle a while back that the diapers have cute names like Fuzzi Bunz and Happy Heinys. He didn't say much at the time, but filed it away in his mind.

Yesterday he asked what the diaper was called that Cade was wearing. It didn't register what he meant so I said, "A cloth diaper."

He said, "No, I mean, what's it's name, like, 'Crunchy Bob' or something?" Anyone reading this who has been thinking of marketing their own cloth diapers, but just couldn't come up with the perfect name, you are welcome to use Crunchy Bob courtesy of Kyle.