Okay, I'm Done Now

So, my blog redesign is officially complete.  C'mon over and check it out if you want.

If you've been here in the last few days and seen the constantly changing chaos, I'm very sorry.

I had been thinking about and planning my redesign when I made a rookie mistake and accidentally lost my old header.  Because I am an idiot.

So then I had no choice but to take the plunge and do the redesign.  It was nothing a little lack of sleep couldn't fix.  But I still had some things to finish and kinks to work out and I've been doing that the last few days.  It turns out it can be kind of hard to program in a language you don't actually know.  And it's hard to get Google to give you free answers when you don't even know what language you're working in.  But now it seems like nothing is broken.  At least not anymore.  It might have taken a dozen twenty fifty a few tries, but what's a few invalid variables between friends?

Now I declare it finished.  Please let me know if anything isn't working correctly and I'll promptly lose some more sleep over that too!

Like a Real Blogger...Or Something

I got to do a guest post on my friend Kristi's hilarious blog. If you're a regular here, it won't be new to you. It was just one of her favorites from my archives. But I feel flattered nonetheless. Who wouldn't be with an intro like this? (Although I can't decide. Is it a good thing or not that this is actually the way I talk???)

New Addition

There's a new addition. No, no, not the baby yet. Seriously, come on. Remember what I said? Claire and Scott were induced well past my due date with my body showing no signs of being close to labor on my own. It would be absurd to expect an uninduced early arrival with Kate.

Check out the sidebar. (No really, click on over from Google Reader and scroll down there toward the bottom.)

Everyone's favorite feature is back! You know you've missed the slideshow of the rock pile, haven't you? Well, rest assured, rock harvesting season has returned and our bounteous harvest will be highlighted once again in the sidebar. We might even put some new trees into the holes left behind.

Check back soon for more, including mandarin orange tree flavored rocks!

A New Fixture

This is my 200th post!*

*Standard exclusions apply. (Some partial creations still have not seen the light of day.)

I had an idea of something I wanted to post for this, but between a pulled muscle in my back and Scott's stomach flu, it just hasn't gotten finished. Go figure... But if I wait to post until I finish that post, I'm afraid I won't post until after Fetus is born. So instead my 200th post is about peanut butter.

Yes, that's right, peanut butter. Do you know how many times a day I put the peanut butter jar back in the pantry? It seems to range between 1 and 6! Scott's first pick for a meal is ALWAYS a PB&J, so he eats that almost once a day. And Claire's favorite snack is peanut butter sandwiched between graham crackers (which she can make by herself now, yay!) And let's be honest, those graham cracker and peanut butter sandwiches dipped in a glass of milk taste pretty good, so I've been known to indulge too. And when it's not that snack, I'm also fond of peanut butter and banana on toast. And a lot of very tasty baking involves peanut butter, especially things M likes. And because M is a real sucker for peanut butter, his 11pm snack is often those same graham cracker and peanut butter sandwiches. And as the mom, I usually get to put the jar away after all of these applications.

So why do I even put it away? I mean, I have lots of things in my kitchen that I keep out on my counter. My toaster. My new stand mixer. (!!! BTW, white won with 11 votes out of 21. Pictures to follow as soon as my kitchen is clean enough and I remember.) My flour, rice, and sugar canisters. And let's be honest, those all rarely get used more than once a day. Maybe I can call it the peanut butter canister and line it up with the rest.

Do you think it clashes?

Links

People I Know...


In the flesh:

M - The Last Sane Man

Jessica - Nathan & Jessica

Leann - Geekily Ever After

Ralphie - Here's Looking at You, Kid

Kristi - The Little Things

Janssen - Everyday Reading

Meleah - My Little Corner of the World

Sheyenne - Nuggets of Wisdom...No Seriously

Bart - A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi

Zufelt Family

Alison - What's for Dinner?

Kristen Duke Photography

Meleah Photography



In the refresh:

Pickles & Dimes

Voice of Reason

Sarah:
Whoorl
Hair Thursday

Cicada Song

Definitely RA

Amalah

Finslippy

Fussy

Normal Mormon Husbands

Adventures in Chaos

Crummy Church Signs

Tales from Labor & Delivery

The Patio Chair: Between a Rock and a Bigger Rock

For those of you blissfully unaware off in Google Reader land, I thought I'd draw your attention to two things.

First of all, our rock pile is growing. I have kindly refrained from posting about every added picture (because I'm nice like that), but I've been adding new photos to the slideshow nonetheless. So feel free to take the extra few seconds to click on over to the actual site and check it out. Heck, since you've already invested ALL THAT TIME coming, go ahead and leave a comment. I don't care if you don't have anything to say. It wouldn't kill you to say hi. Speechlessness at my amazing posts is no excuse.

The other item of rock pile business is that I've decided it was time to add something in the images for scale. It was starting to get hard to tell how big the rocks were. The latest rock photo is of a real doozy so I wanted you to appreciate it. Old patio chair to the rescue. So, yes, the ugly white chair is in the picture on purpose.

The chair will really come in handy when we unveil the next rock in all it's resplendent glory. We were planting another tree and dug one loose a couple days ago. I'll totally get a photo -- if we can ever figure out how to lift the thing out of the hole it's in.

Re-Orient-ing

I am going out of town. Very out of town. This is my excuse for not posting for the next week and a half. But don't get excited, all you burglars out there who read my blog and who have somehow deduced where I live. I'm the only one leaving. (That's right, I'm going sans offspring.) M will still be here working his butt off and my mom has kindly agreed to come and watch my kids.

So long, suckers!
(Can I say that about my mom? Oh well, I just did...)

C'mon Down!

Officially unveiling the new look for my blog. This was WAY overdue in my book. I mean, you can only use a preset Blogger template for so long before you're laughed out of the blogsphere, right? I'd stuck with it so long I was definitely becoming that one lame kid in junior high who wore sweat pants that were WAY too short. With a wolf shirt. You know the kid I'm talking about...

Anyway, hope you like it. And even if you don't, oh well. It took so much kid-neglect as it is that it will have to do for quite some time.

I'm Working on a Real Doozy

No real post today, I'm too busy penning an epic post for tomorrow. It's gonna be good, if I do say so myself. So rest your eyes so you're ready to go tomorrow!

What Could Make This Blog Geekier?

All right, all right. Enough with my doting mom posts already. I'm sure you've had enough of my kids' costumes. Moving forward...

How would y'all feel about M doing some cameo appearances on my blog? He's expressed interest in being a guest writer. I think he'd be fabulous - much more amusing than me - but I fear I might be biased.

This is Worse Than a Giant Zit in the Middle of My Forehead

Alright, you've all successfully made me look like an idiot. How humiliating! I've got a measly four comments so far on my last post. I know there are more than four people reading my blog. No really, I do know. I am using Site Meter on my blog. That little icon at the bottom right corner? It means I know people are reading, I'm just not sure who they are. But fine, sit there at your keyboard laughing at me.

This is bringing back unpleasant associations with middle school and high school. I thought I was over the days of wallowing in self-pity due to my social outcast status. Well, I guess I might as well go put back on my old army surplus pants and combat boots, re-dye my hair a fabulous shade of fuchsia, and embrace the fact that I'm horribly unpopular. (Wow! So melodramatic! It's really is like being a teenager again! Are you all laughing at me even more as you picture my past fashion blunders?)

Keep Up the Habit

As many of you are probably aware, yesterday there was a big push in the blogsphere to delurk. I really wanted in on that action, but I suspected that, much like myself, many of you might have been feeling a little commented-out yesterday. So I decided that I would insist that you (yes, YOU!) delurk on my blog today instead. This will help keep you in the commenting habit!

So, here is your food-for-comment:

What is your least favorite holiday?

Cuz, honestly, for me it's Halloween. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to deprive my children and scar them for life or anything by being an anti-Halloween fanatic or anything. Dressing up can be fun. But seriously, can I just have the candy without all the dark creepy stuff? And the girls who use it as an excuse to dress like hookers...

But even if you love/hate all holidays so much you can't pick a winner (loser?), please, let me know you're out there ambiving and leave a comment anyway.

Posting for the Sake of Posting

I'm dying to post, but everything I want to write about right now will take more time to compose than I have right now. Why, why can't I be more concise? Well, at least this post will be short.

Hopping on the Blogwagon

I was chatting with a dear friend from college yesterday and she asked me about blogging. Apologies to her ahead of time if she reads this since I'm shamelessly reusing material from that conversation. Her other mommy friend told her about her blog within 2 days of me telling her about mine. "Is it the new craze?" she asks. I dunno. It does kinda seem like a fad. Everyone and their dog is doing it. (Really. Someone out their keeps a blog on behalf of their dog who is also the narrator of a book. For all I know, there could actually be a dog out there who bangs out some stuff on the keyboard and gets it posted. And though some blogs claim to be generated by humans, you'd never know given the quality of content. I think a dog might do a BETTER job. Of course, rest assured I'm not talking about your blog.) So how do I feel about joining the faceless throng of bloggers? And why are there so many mommy blogs in particular?

I don't know the answer to the first question. But I have some theories about the second. Cheap shots - there's much easier jokes to be had in life as a parent. Kids make such excellent blog fodder. You don't need wit, skill, or anything like that. Just fertility and the ability to type intelligibly (which does put you ahead of most dogs...) The kids generate the material for you whether you want them to or not. I just hope my blog never turns into a place to post the "up to the minute" record of the latest crappy snapshot I took of my kid. (Again, I'm not talking about your blog... Besides, I have to sheepishly admit that's what I use my Shutterfly Collection for!) I hope that the occasional photo I post is either decent to look at or illustrates a point I am making in my writing.

But how do I feel about the Y.A.B. status ("Yet Another Blogger")? Like I said, I'm not sure. My gut reaction is that I shouldn't be blogging then. But M is always pointing out my tendency to think that if "everyone" is doing something, that automatically makes it bad. You should hear my sister and me when we get to talking, dissing things left and right just because it's "typical." It can really get out of hand. I wish I was more like M. He always says, "Maybe everyone is doing it because it's the right answer. Maybe they figured something out that you haven't." This is why we own a minivan. He gave me the preceding lecture and then dragged me off to test drive minivans. He was right. The minivan was better for hauling my "brood." There's just so much ROOM inside and I'm kidding myself if I think I actually would use the extra ground clearance of an SUV. But I'd like to think the minivan superiority was an isolated incident. I mean, if I give in on this philosophy then I worry that next week I'll have Thomas Kinkade paintings on my walls and my kids will be living off fruit snacks (READ: candy). (I'm not sure a "I'm not talking about you" comment will work on this one. Sorry if either of those describe you. I still like you, they're just not for me.) But I guess for now I will plow ahead with blogging because I'm having so much fun with it and try to ignore the little voice in my head saying, "You're turning into a cookie cutter replica of everyone else!" The little voice is probably still cramming its family and all their stuff into a little Honda Pilot anyway, so what does it know?

Here We Go!

As I sat today letting Scott poke and jab at my teeth with his toothbrush in order to appease his desire to make brushing his teeth before bed a shared event, I realized I need to actually start posting to this blog.
I've had so many "Where is the laugh track?" moments in the last few months, but they passed un-recorded because I haven't gotten my act together until now and tied up all the loose ends for getting this blog started. I had the blog address, I had the concept, but I hadn't made up my mind about how public or anonymous I wanted this blog to be. I finally set up a more anonymous account for myself. I think I've struck a good balance. For those who know who I am, so be it. For those who might stumble upon this blog without my explicit invitation, so be it. I suspect that most people who ever see this will see it because I told them about it anyway, so I don't know why I care, but anyway... (Delusions of grandeur!)
So here we go! I will start posting to this blog, even if only for my own personal gratification. (Hey, it's cheaper than therapy, right?)

PS - I suspect this will be mostly a text-based blog. If you wanted pretty pictures of my kids, then there's 2 options: (1) If you actually know me, ask me and I'll happily give you a link to our Shutterfly collection (2) If you don't actually know me, then deal with it. It's really not appropriate for strangers to be staring at my kids. (It's bad enough that you can read about all the silly things they do...)

Why the Name?

Do you ever have one of those moments that makes you say to yourself, "This must be a joke!"?

I know that many times when I am in the throes of a parenting crisis, I feel like the events I am experiencing are too ridiculous to be true. I feel like my life ought to be the exaggerated script for a comedy sitcom about family life. And if I'm living in a comedy sitcom, the only question left in my mind is "Where is the canned laughter sounds?" or in other words:
"Where is the laugh track?"