Me, as Spinach.

I was thrilled to see so many of you hamming it up for the camera last Friday! Time for round two :) But before we start this week, I did want to clear up two things, just in case there is any confusion: 

1- You do NOT have to be a mom to participate.

2- You do NOT need to include your husband/baby/dog in the picture if you don't want to. 

As long as it has YOU, it's all good.

{Note: A lot of my photos probably will be of Lizzy and I, because I want to increase the number of pictures that exist of the two of us. But sometimes, like this week, it just might be me being silly or serious or whatever}. 

So.....here we go. Here I am, doing my best impression of a leaf of Spinach. I TOLD YOU that they are bigger than my head!

PS- Don't mind the huge shiner on my arm...a line drive took a funny hop at our last softball game. But do not fear, I stopped it AND got the out.

Sears is absolutely unbelievable.

I'm sitting over at my parent's house this morning, and listening to my dad scream at Sears over the phone. After listening to what's going on, I CANNOT BELIEVE this circumstance.

Basically, one of my parent's elderly neighbors recently had a stroke. His refrigerator has also recently stopped working. My dad used to be a technician at Sears, so the neighbor asked if my dad could arrange to have it fixed. Since it's under warranty, that should be a piece of cake, right?

Apparently not. Last Thursday, the technician came out. He wasn't able to fix the problem, and said that he was missing a part to troubleshoot further, and would return today, July 1st to fix the problem.

My dad took the day off work today to be here for the technician. He called to find out what time the technician would be out, and he was told that the call was bumped until July 7th.

So let's review--we have an elderly man who has just had a stroke. He has already been without a refrigerator (which was under warranty) for a week. Now, without any notice, the call was postponed another week. So, two weeks without a refrigerator.

My dad asked for a supervisor, and said that this was unacceptable. No one had called to reschedule, so they needed to be out today. By the time he got to the supervisor, the supervisor said that whoops, the 7th is no longer available. Now, it will be Friday the 16th.

Now, apparently from what I understand, we're up to THREE WEEKS without a refrigerator, which is under warranty. For an elderly man who has just had a stroke.

My dad asked for the supervisor's supervisor. He was given a name, but was told that the supervisor does not have a phone number, or email address. He is apparently accessible by snail mail only (riiiiggghhht).

This is absolutely unbelieveable. And completely unacceptable.

NOTHING makes me more mad that crappy customer service. And this is beyond crappy...it is deplorable.

The Saga Continues

Last night, Justin was giving Lizzy her bath in the kitchen sink, when all of a sudden I heard more than a little bit of swearing coming from his direction. I poked my head around the corner, and saw Justin doing a little dance.

"There was a freaking earwig on her neck!" he exclaimed.

"Ha. Very funny," I replied.

"Why would I joke about that?! There was an earwig on her neck!!!"

"WHAT?! Really? You're not joking? How did it get there?!" I frantically replied.

"I don't know! Remember, there was one crawling on me last night too. I keep seeing them everywhere."

*Dies*

I am all itchy just thinking about them. Blech. As we have already established, I HATE earwigs with a passion. {PS-If you don't know what an earwig is, I would NOT suggest Googling it. I did once, and almost threw up.} I know that they don't ACTUALLY crawl into your ear and burrow into your brain, but it's still possible that they could crawl into other body orifices just for kicks. And even if they don't, those suckers pinch, and it hurts like heck. And the thought of one pinching my baby girl makes me want to cry.

It took every fiber of my being not to run to Wal-Mart right that moment to buy some Home Defense spray or something. I refrained, but you best believe that I'll be heading there first thing in the morning.

Cover.

Did y'all know that there's actually a Broadway show comprised entirely of Green Day songs? I was watching a documentary about it the other day, and Billy Joel (the lead singer of Green Day) was talking about how he liked their version of 21 Guns better than Green Day's version, so Green Day invited the cast to perform at the Grammys with them (last year I think). Then they re-recorded the track with the cast.

He's right. This version gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it.

I know, I know...I don't often watch videos when people post them on blogs. This is worth it.

21 Guns - Green Day and American Idiot Cast from Marie B on Vimeo.

Grow, Baby!

Our garden is doing awesome, and I am so excited.

The orange strings show you one square foot. I put the piece of spinach inside to give you an idea of scale.

We have green little tomatoes!

Does anyone know what this is? It is EVERYWHERE. I am constantly pulling it up!

I also have some peppers growing, but unfortunately, most of them have little spots that are starting to rot: 

This happens to me every year with the peppers, and I don't know what's up. 

 

I am in love with sugar snap peas from the garden. They are SO SWEET!

Snippets

-Justin's birthday was yesterday! Happy birthday babe! We had a party for him here at the house on Friday, where we gave him a pretty awesome present from the entire family--a shiny new BBQ. I was able to pay for my portion with photo shoots that I had done, and I was really excited about that. I'm really thankful that the whole family was on board with doing a group gift--I couldn't have done it without them.

-On Saturday, Justin's band played a concert at a local lake. The organizers gave us waterslide vouchers, and it was a ton of fun. I was really nervous about going, because it meant standing around in line in a bathing suit...but I did it, and even though it was really hard for me to do (and was not at all comfortable for me), I'm glad that I did because it was a lot of fun. Except for the time when the 5 year old girl ahead of me stopped herself and stood up in the slide. I came around a corner, saw her just standing up in the middle of the waterslide and thought "Crap....this could really be bad." I was worried that I'd knock her out of the waterslide! So, as I went by I grabbed her, sat her on my lap, and took her down the rest of the way with me. I didn't know what else to do!

- Lizzy is up on all fours and rocking. I can hardly believe it. Really though, she's far more interested in holding on to our hands and walking around the room. She is so pleased with herself when she's doing it.

-I am still plodding along at the Couch to 5k program. I didn't get any runs in last week, but I'm really wanting to get back on the horse this week, even though my confidence with running is at an all time low right now. This is something that I need to push through and do, even if I'm not good at it.

-I finished a bizarre book over the weekend--The Island of Lost Girls by Jennifer McMahon. It's about a little girl who was kidnapped by someone wearing a giant rabbit costume. There was a witness, but the witness was so shocked by the situation that she didn't do anything to stop the situation. It was bizarre, but not bad. I wouldn't buy it, but it was a decent library check-out.

-This morning, I picked a piece of spinach from our garden that was bigger than my head.

In the Photo Friday

I'm so excited that so many of you are going to participate in the "In the Photo Friday" photo challenge with me! To answer a few questions from the comments in the last post:

1- Yes, please feel free to use the badge, or make your own!

2- There are really no rules, except it must be a current picture. It doesn't HAVE to be of your face, but I would encourage it...the whole purpose is to actually have pictures of YOURSELF for once!

Without further ado...here's the photos for Week 1. My dad was kind enough to snap a couple of pictures before Justin and I headed out for our anniversary date on Wednesday night. And date night was glorious. 

It's awesome to have a family picture, even if my roots drive me nuts in the shot :) Now the next step is that I need to print some off and actually get them up in frames around the house...ya know, 'cause Lizzy does live here too! 

Camera Shy.

The other night, Justin and I were talking about my body image right now. Let's just say that it's not great. I'm pretty darn frustrated with it, and just frustrated with myself in general, because when I look in the mirror, I don't like anything that I see.

Sure, my body just accomplished the incredible feat of giving birth. It has come a long way. But it's still really bizarre to look in the mirror and not recognize the person looking back.

Anyway, we discussed that the really bad part about this {aside from feeling badly about myself}, is that there are very few pictures of Lizzy and I together. I'm already usually the one behind the camera, and if I'm not, now I just tend to automatically delete any pictures that happen to be snapped of me because I hate how I look.

So, I've decided to embark upon a challenge. From now until September 1st, I pinky promise to post one picture of myself each week. Anyone want to play along?

They don't have to be well-composed shots. Or even in focus. It just has to be a current picture of you. We start tomorrow :)

Pizza on the Grill

I think that I've blogged about my absolute love of refrigerated biscuits and pizza dough before. I absolutely LOVE the stuff. I could eat an entire tube of the fridge biscuits, no sweat. So usually, when it comes to making pizza, I use a roll of the fridge stuff. Obviously.

However, before posting about her super secret pregnancy and delivery last week {was I the only one who had no idea?!}, Emily at Imperfect blogged about doing individual pizzas on the grill. She also posted Caroline's pizza dough recipe , and so I thought that I'd give it a shot.

See, Justin and I have different pizza tastes. He likes Pepperoni. Sometimes Meat-Lovers. Sometimes Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza (which is DELICIOUS by the way). On the other hand, I like things like roasted red peppers, spinach, and feta cheese. Personal home-made pizzas sounded like a great compromise.

Here's my pizza--home-grown spinach from our garden, tomato, and feta cheese. The pizza ended up a little bit burnt because Justin forgot about them on the grill, but it was still delicious.

And here's Justin's dinner. I'm not sure if you can tell the scale by the picture, but that is not a dinner plate--it is actually a platter. A platter that I've only broken out once or twice since we've been married {three years today!}, but apparently Justin thought it was the perfect size to house the three pepperoni pizzas that he ate for dinner.

Oh, and we naturally can't forget the Ranch dressing. What would pizza be without Ranch dressing?

Anyway, the moral of the story is to try Caroline's Pizza Dough recipe, and definitely try doing pizza on the grill. Heaven.

Snip-ettes

• Have y'all seen that movie Big Fish? It's one of my favorites. There's a part in it where Ed Bloom Sr. gets into the bathtub with all his clothes on, and says to his wife, "I was drying out." That is EXACTLY how I feel right now. I love water--lakes, rivers, the ocean, and I need to get in some badly. 
• Good news: I took my last Mini Pill on Saturday night. I weighed myself this morning, and I am down 5 pounds. I haven't done anything else differently. I am hopeful that this will make a big difference for me. I haven't seen the scale this low since I gave birth, despite working out like a crazy woman. Bad News: When I picked up my packet of Ortho Tri Cyclen Lo on Saturday, I was shocked to learn that it's $50 for a one-month supply. The pharmacist told me that my insurance seems to think that there's a generic, but that it's no longer being made. Awesome. I guess that I need to call around. 
• Our anniversary is tomorrow, and I am so looking forward to it. Justin is planning it, so I have no idea what we're doing, and I honestly wouldn't care if we went to Taco Bell. We have been in desperate need of a date night for a long time...things have just felt stagnant, and we've both been a little snippy with each other, probably because we really haven't spent any good quality time together recently.
• Justin's birthday is on Friday, and I am SO, SO excited to give him his gift! I've been stashing away money from photo shoots and such for awhile to make it happen. 
• I woke up this morning, and I can't turn my neck. I don't know if I pinched a nerve or what, but it is irritating. 
• I think Lizzy is days/weeks away from crawling. She goes up on all fours, rocks, and then propels herself forward like a little rocket. She doesn't have the arm-leg coordination down yet, but I am sure that she will get there very very soon.
• Also, I discovered over the weekend that she can totally sit up on her own, she just chooses not to. If I sit her up while she's leaning against me, and then slowly back away, she'll stay sitting up until she realizes that she's sitting up by herself. Then she'll cry and fall over. She is silly.

Sorry Jane

So, one of my 101 in 1001 tasks was to actually finish any of Jane Austen's books. For me, Jane Austen is the same as cilantro. They are something that I would love to love, but just can't stand the taste no matter how hard I try to make myself.

I would love to love Jane Austen. I like the ideas behind most of her novels. And I love the movie Jane Austen Book club, but I just have never been able to really get in to any of her books...going all the way back to high school. I think that Pride & Prejudice was the only book I ever used Sparknotes for instead of actually reading the book.

Right now, I've been attempting to read Emma. I haven't ever seen the movie, but I am familiar with the story line...and still, I just CANNOT get into it. I have so many other books that I'd much rather be reading right now!

{PS- We were talking about this at my parent's house yesterday, and my dad looked at me totally straightfaced and said, "Who is Jane Austen?" Teehee!}

So convince me people--what's your favorite Jane Austen book, and why should I read it?

Photos on Friday

Lizzy thanks her aunt Kait for the first giraffe outfit she received...it's a 3-6mo onesie, and is just now starting to fit at almost 5.5 months, lol!

Burning Question of the Day: Vacation

Today's BQOD: If you could go anywhere on vacation for two weeks, where would you go?

I would go to Fiji, and stay in one of those little huts out over the water (like in Couple's Retreat). Man, do I ever miss the ocean. I would be totally content to lay around, swim, and snorkel for two weeks!

Why I'm Going Off the Mini Pill

First of all, I should say that this is NOT about having another baby...this post is strictly about the Mini Pill (i.e. Progestogen only birth control), and my experience taking it....

Basically, for a couple of months now, I've felt "off". Scratch that, I've felt pregnant. All the time. I have heart burn, I am constantly nauseous (especially when cooking meat), I have headaches all the time, and I am exhausted. Hello, Lizzy is basically sleeping through the night, I should not be this tired all the freaking time.  This led to middle-of the night pregnancy testing (which was negative). I've been anxious about nothing in general, and I absolutely cannot lose one single pound, despite working out consistently and eating well.

My gut was that this was related to the birth control pills that I was on, but I've also had people mention that it could be a thyroid issue. Either way, I had an appointment with my OB yesterday, and explained to him what was going on.

He agreed that this could definitely be related to the mini pill--turns out that the progestogen only pills mimic pregnancy, and he's had a number of patients report that while they're on it, they experience symptoms similar to their 1st trimester symptoms. He said that also, his patients have not reported a decrease in supply as far as nursing goes if they switch over after nursing is well established--five to six months in (worry about decreasing breastmilk supply is the reason that most women taking the pill after child birth are prescribed a progestogen only pill).

Also, we started talking about the side-effects for the mini pill. In my personal experience, the reported side effects from friends that have been on the mini pill vary greatly from the "official" side effects. My OB agreed. Here are negatives about the mini pill that we discussed. The starred items are not "official" side effects, but have oft been reported by users as side effects.

• It's only 92% effective--less than a standard combination birth control pill
• Increased anxiety
• Headaches
• Fatigue*
• Nausea *
• Weight Gain *
• Acne *
• Increased risk of ectopic pregnancy
• Increased risk of ovarian cysts

Basically, numbers 2-7 are me in a nutshell right now. On Sunday, I'm switching back to the low-dose combo pill that I had success with for years. I'm hopeful that it will help. The point in writing this post was that I didn't know this was even an option while nursing, and I hope that if other mamas are having similar issues, you'll make an appointment with your OB to discuss further.

Sweet

Over the weekend, Justin presented me with this:

 It's okay, you can snicker a little bit. We did, 'cause it definitely looks like poop. 

But it's not. Instead, was Justin's first attempt at chocolate covered strawberries. 

This is a little known fact about Justin--he secretly loves to make cookies, brownies, and basically anything sweet. His mom says that he has loved it since he was little, and that he was always the MASTER helper when it came to making Christmas cookies. 

Like me, Justin doesn't always follow a recipe. 

However, when it comes to baking, sometimes it's a little more crucial to get your proportions right 

{hey, why do you think the cheftestants on Top Chef who gets stuck making dessert always loses?!}

And unfortunately, this creation fell prey to the no-recipe curse. See, Justin hadn't ever melted chocolate chips before...so he stuck a bag of them and a bit of butter directly on the stovetop. 

And pretty soon, I could smell chocolate burning. But Justin had explicitly ordered me out of the kitchen under all circumstances...so, I stayed put and let him do his thang. 

In the end, my sweet, wonderful husband dipped the strawberries into the burnt chocolate anyway. 

And of course, I ate one. 

Because the gesture was so, so sweet. 

{And let's be honest...he's probably choked down a bad creation of mine or two}

Strawberries with burnt chocolate are not the best dessert I've ever had, 

but it certainly did give us something to giggle about for the rest of the day.

And now that sweet Justin knows how to melt chocolate properly, 

I know he's going to rock the next batch out of the park!

Who's A Pest?

 Beans, I'm not a pest.

{PS- Justin, that was just for you}

But I have pests. One variety in particular, and they are a nasty bunch. Earwigs. Last summer, I blogged about how an earwig broke our air conditioning. I know, I wouldn't have believed it either. But it happened, because earwigs are AWFUL.

We're still battling them this year, and they are seriously on my naughty list for killing all my daisies. The ONE thing that I wanted to grow this year was daisies. Everyone looked at me like I was nuts and said, "Daisies are like a weed. You don't want to grow them!"  But I did. And I do. And I can't.

My parents had given me daisies to plant, and look what the earwigs did to them:

We've set lots of traps, and it seems like we catch hundreds every night, 

but there are more and more all the time!

I keep hearing that earwigs are beneficial because the eat snails, but we have snails too, so I'm not sure I'm buying that. They are disgusting, and I have a serious fear of them crawling into body orifices and laying eggs. Blech. 

I hate earwigs.

Outtakes....

I started the weekend off with a little photo shoot for a friend of a friend. I spent a lot of time making silly faces and jumping up and down in an attempt to get the smiles and laughs. And I'm pretty happy with how things turned out.



But I have to say that my favorite picture of the day was actually an outtake. It totally cracks me up:



Isn't this just the perfect picture of the typical brother/sister relationship? 'Ugh! Stop touching me!'

Surprise ending.

Today, Justin and I decided that we were going to head to the lake. We asked Ryan and Renee if they wanted to come with, and off we went. It was a gorgeous, beautiful day. Beautiful enough to get this girl into a swim suit, and trust me, that's saying something. We got to the lake, and it was perfect weather--warm, but not blazing hot. The lake was full to the brim. All was right with the world.

We splashed around in the lake a bit, letting Lizzy splash the water with her feet. The lake is mountain run-off, so it was a little cold. We elected not to dunk her underwater, even though she's doing AWESOME with that in swim lessons.

After about a half an hour of playing in the water, we were all lounging on blankets. I left Lizzy with Justin, and went to stick my toes in the water. I had just dipped them into the cool sand when a little boy came running over to me yelling, "Liver damage! Out of the water! Liver damage! Come with me!"

I followed him about 45 yards away, to a half sheet of paper attached to a little stick. We had assumed that it was a simple "no camping" or "no littering" sign, like we often see at the lake. But no. It was a sign that read as follows:

TOXIC ALGAE. ABSOLUTELY NO SWIMMING. 
Toxic algae can cause serious injury or death. Children and pets are particularly susceptible.

Crap. I started flipping out almost immediately. I called the number on the sign to make sure that the warning was still valid...because really, who thinks that a little half sheet of paper tacked to a little stick is sufficient signage to warn about death-inducing algae?! If there was really a death-inducing algae bloom, I would expect caution tape, balloons, forest rangers patrolling the shores, or at least full page signs all over the place. Like maybe, I don't know, at the park entrance.

Unfortunately, the warning was current, and the forest ranger kindly told me to watch for vomiting and respiratory distress. Absolutely fantastic. We immediately took wipes to every inch of Lizzy's skin, and packed everyone up to head home and bathe more sufficiently. On the way, I placed a frantic call in to the pediatrician, who told me that because Lizzy was just splashing her legs in the water, she really wasn't concerned--just to give her a good bath. Apparently, the real concern is when you're swimming with your head underwater and potentially ingesting the algae.

Still, I am thanking God for our Angelcare monitor tonight, because I am more than a little rattled about all this.

But more than anything, I'm really, really irritated about the lack of signage at the lake. I know some people look at the little sign and say, 'Eh, whatever.'  But we wouldn't have, had we actually known about the algae ahead of time...I just don't understand how anyone would think that a little half page piece of paper tacked to a stick would be sufficient for making sure that people don't swim in the toxic freaking algae...

Things.

- Lizzy and I start a Mommy & Me swim class today. If we like it, it's only $30/ month for two lessons a week. Not bad at all, AND being in a bathing suit twice a week gives me serious motivation to keep exercising :)

-My photo shoot got rescheduled. Boo. I swear, any time I even mention a photo shoot on the blog, something happens that prevents it from happening!

-I HATE Justin's stupid iPhone right now. Actually, I hate the stupid sudoku puzzles on his stupid iPhone right now. We go out to dinner? Justin is playing Sudoku. Go to my parents or his parents house? Justin is playing sudoku. Go to visit friends? Justin is playing sudoku. When he's holding Lizzy? Justin is playing Sudoku. Try to go on a date? Justin tries to sneak in playing Sudoku when he thinks I'm not looking. I get that he works hard and needs a chance to relax by doing something that he enjoys...the problem is that once he starts playing sudoku, it's like a compulsion, and he CANNOT STOP. He literally plays for hours on end.

-Does anyone with Netflix know if Top Chef is one of the TV shows you can watch on demand? We no longer have Bravo, and with a new season about to start, I really miss Top Chef! I've been considering Netflix for awhile now, and I'm wondering if that would push us over.

- Blair (of Heir to Blair) recently posted about an article written by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (of Shalom in the Home), which basically suggested that women should be cautious about breastfeeding their children around their husbands:

In the end, there are two effects of breast-feeding that we often refuse to acknowledge. One is the de-eroticization of a woman's body, as her husband witnesses one of the most attractive parts of her body serving a utilitarian rather than romantic purpose. This is not to say that breast-feeding isn't sexy. Indeed, the maternal dimension is a central part of womanliness. But public breast-feeding is profoundly de-eroticizing, and I believe that wives should cover up, even when they nurse their babies in their husband's presence.

He also suggests that husbands should not watch the actual birth of their children:


But I strongly agree with the advice of the ancient rabbis that husbands should not be staring at the actual delivery. That is just too erotic a part of a wife's anatomy for it to become a mere birth canal.

And lastly:

The erotic nature of a wife's body is one of the principal elements of attraction in marriage. When a husband ceases to see his wife as a woman, and begins to see her as "the mother of his children," a negative trend has begun in his mind that can only subvert his erotic interest.

Okay, I understand the underlying point of the article, which was that with kids, it's important to nurture your marriage. But other than that, I really think the article is incredibly misguided, and kind of offensive. And am I the only one who thinks that if the success of your marriage is so dependent on the wife's body being considered erotic, you've got deeper issues at hand?


ETA: This is apparently an old article from 2006. New to me though. The Rabbi has written a follow-up (I think his Twitter and email were blown up over the weekend), which you can find here, though it honestly didn't change my opinion much.

Kid Funnies

So, the church (where J's dad is the pastor) has a school that's attached to it. Every so often, the school administrator posts funny things that the kids say or do on Facebook. She posted two this morning that I had to share:

-PreKindergarten kids in chapel today. One didn't have any money for the offering. That's okay, her friend decided to share. She just ripped her dollar in half and handed part of it to her pal. Gotta love it.

-Asked in Kindergarten today: What did you learn about Jesus this year? One child's answer: God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and then he took Dr. Seuss to heaven.