Ahhh.. Spring!

Well, of course, now that I'm pretty limited, Spring is in full force here below the belt. In fact, today was sunny and beautiful and we got temperatures up in the 80's. I have been so looking forward to getting out in the sun, playing outside with the kids, using the clothes line, and of course, SWIMMING.


So far, I've only been able to enjoy the beautiful weather through the windows. I keep them open all day so I can still feel the warmth and see outside. I'm not entirely sure how things will work out with the bed rest, or for how long I will be on it. I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to get back to a semi-normal routine and possibly still be able to enjoy some swimming in a few months. Not like marathon swimming, more like floating around, possibly treading water... that kind of thing.


In the meantime, I am at least getting to enjoy the early spring and summer fruits and veggies. All of the wonderful people who have brought meals have brought huge bowls of strawberries!!!! I am in strawberry heaven. Not to mention all of the steamed veggies: squash, zucchini, broccoli, carrots...... just YUM! Did I mention that I got strawberries?! This is the time of year when I really enjoy living in the south. The yummy stuff comes a little early.


I am still waiting on a camera full of pictures from B's party, but until then, here are a couple of teasers.

Nadi-B Princess

Elizabeth Princess

All of the kids wearing their crowns that they painted as they came in.

Bed Rest Update

This morning my doctor's office called to schedule my next sonogram. It was originally going to be in about a week, but Dr. Bowen thinks that is too soon to expect to see any change, so has decided to put it off until the 15th of April. So... in about 2 more weeks.

In the meantime I am to limit my activity as much as possible. I can still get up to go to the bathroom and to shower. I am also now allowed to get up and walk around the house a bit if I need to, BUT: No strenuous activity, no chores, no cleaning, no bending, no lifting, no picking up either of the babies, etc. Basically, he said that the less activity the better off I'll be. At least now I can get up to fix my own drink without sneaking around, though, so that is a plus.

I used my uh... "leisure" time this morning to make all the appointments that I have been meaning to make. I have the appointment for my sonogram, my appointment for my doctor's visit, an appointment for Nadi-B to get her 5 year old/before school shots, a dentist appointment for me, and a dentist appointment for Nadia. Whoo-hoo. I HATE the dentist. LOATHE the dentist. UGH. Especially when I'm pregnant. Hooray for swollen gums and cranky cleaning ladies.

Seriously... what is up with those teeth cleaning ladies?! Is it just my area, or are they judgemental and cranky everywhere? Anyway, it will be B's first check-up with the dentist and she is actually kind of excited about them "scraping the barnacles off her teeth." WHERE she gets this stuff, I have no idea.

In other news, B's birthday party went off very well on Sunday and as soon as I get the rest of the pictures that were taken by various family members, I will post a blog on it.

Meanwhile, I am crocheting. I don't know what it is yet. I guess it depends on how much of it actually gets finished. Nothing fancy though, just row after row of mindless single stitches. Could be a scarf.... or if I'm really ambitious, a blanket.... or if I never do much more with it... a really long bookmark.

Laying Around: Harder than it Looks

If you've never been on bed rest... let me just tell you: It. Is. HARD. You would think that laying around all day and doing as little as possible would be the easiest thing ever. You would be WRONG.

I am so frustrated. I hate hearing the baby fussing from the other room and knowing that I can't get up and respond. I hate that I have to call someone in from the other room to bend over and take a piece of paper out of his mouth, or fix Nadi-B a snack... or all the other zillion little things I'm used to doing without thinking.

Don't get me wrong... having other people offer to do my laundry and my dishes is pretty damn awesome, but having to ask someone else to get me a drink of water or a glass of tea is nearly impossible.

Confession: I sent my baby sitter sister to the store for a can of tomatoes today just so I could sneak into the kitchen and fix my own drink. I can't seem to get over having to ask for help for something so trivial.

If you've ever been through it, I'm sure you can relate. Maybe it's easier if you don't already have other children. Anyone? But having other babies and not being able to be Momma really bites. I hate sitting in the bedroom and not being able to see what they are doing in the other room with whatever wonderful, beautiful person has volunteered to help for the day.

Is it still bed rest if I relocate to the couch? I mean.. as long as I'm still in a lying down position?

View from Bedrest: Picture Blog

Yesterday, my friend Heather brought me some goodies, including these flowers to put by my bed to sort of cheer things up a bit.

The baby came to visit for snack time. He is having the delicacy we call "Cheese Puff."

Nom Nom Nom


It was, apparently, delicious



Nadi-B came in this evening after supper.



We colored and watched Hoodwinked.

Scary Day

Yesterday did not go according to plan. Everything started out great: Got the Nadi-B off to preschool on time, cupcakes and all, spent the morning playing with the baby, and started a big pot of pintos for dinner that I was planning on pairing with some homemade flour tortillas. Then it started raining and I had to cancel plans for the kiddos to spend the afternoon with B's godparents.

I was supposed to go to the doctor yesterday afternoon for a check up and then on to the hospital for the triple screen blood test. Once it started raining, I decided I really didn't feel like spending the afternoon at the hospital and that I really wasn't feeling very much like having 5 tubes of blood drawn. I decided to reschedule the triple screen for next week and just do my check up since normally, I'm the only one in there and it takes like 10 minutes.

I went in. Weight was normal. Blood pressure was normal. Baby's heartbeat was normal. Then it was just the normal chit chat, Dr. told me everything looked great, and sent me to the front desk to make an appointment for my next ultrasound and my next month's appointment. As I'm standing at the counter waiting on the nurse to call the ultrasound people and set the appointment I feel ... a gush. Oh great, I think. I figured, considering that the waiting room was for once full of people, and considering my normal luck that I was having one of those embarrassing pregger's moments where you accidentally pee on yourself in public. As I'm thinking this, I feel another gush. Okay, I think. I'll just jot to the bathroom really quick while she's doing her thing.

As I'm walking to the bathroom, the gushes continue and get bigger. By the time I reach the toilet, I'm panicking. It was like my worst nightmare come true. I was bleeding. In gushes. So I FREAK. I start yelling for Melissa the nurse, and by the time she answers me I'm hysterical and sobbing and can barely unlock the door for her and Dr. Bowen to get in and see what's up. The nurse freaks. Dr. Bowen freaks. This has all transpired literally 2 minutes after I walked out of the examination room.

Dr. Bowen ushers me out the door and past the waiting room full of people. Let me just take a minute to say that I feel really sorry for those pregnant women. I'm sure when your sitting there thinking everything is normal and then someone who just had a normal happy checkup starts screaming about blood from the bathroom, that it has to be pretty darn disconcerting. He followed me the 1/4 of a mile to the hospital and escorted me into the emergency room.

By the time they get a nurse into the room to start an IV, the bleeding had slowed down considerably. So much for not spending the afternoon at the hospital. The rushed me to the ultrasound room where I had the pleasure of being probed by the SAME ultrasound tech who did my first rather unpleasant ultrasound. I just lay there, holding my breath while she probed and clicked away, peering at the sonar screen... just waiting for the one thing that was important to ME. After a few minutes, I finally breathed a sigh of relief when the baby's heartbeat started, loud and strong, and normal.

10 minutes later, she, Dr. Bowen, and some other doctor were huddled around the ultrasound screen taking turns wielding the sonar wand and babbling incoherently in medical terms I couldn't possibly follow. It didn't help that they all sounded flustered and not 100% sure of what had caused the bleeding, which by that point had just about stopped. There was some talk about how my placenta looked high, or that it had been pulled up, which I gathered was slightly better than it being low. (????)Dr. Bowen then explained that what appeared to have happened is that a part of the placenta had pulled away from the wall, causing the bleed and that it was already starting to clot. He admitted me for overnight observation and put me on strict bed rest. I was not allowed to eat or drink anything except for ice chips in case of any other emergencies.

The bleeding, thankfully didn't start up again, though I did have a small amount this morning while still at the hospital. The hope is that the blood will continue to clot and form scar tissue, and that as the placenta grows with the baby that it will reattach itself. Apparently, this is a more common issue later in pregnancies, but more rare in someone as early on as what I am.

I am now home, but on strict bed rest for the next 10 days. I am only allowed to get up to go to the bathroom. I may take showers no longer than 5 minutes. I am to move as little as possible. After which I will go back for another ultrasound. I will then be on moderate bed rest for the next 2 months. My activity will be limited to bathroom, showers, and occasionally walking around the house or sitting on the couch... but no lifting, no activity such as cleaning or bending... etc. I will be monitored closely with frequent dr.'s visits and will pretty much have to take it easy even after the 2 months bed rest. This is all of course, barring any other incidents which may result in more bed rest or trips to the hospital. (which we are of course, praying is not the case). The idea is to get me past the 22-25 week marker, before which the baby can't feasibly make it outside of the womb.

It has been a scary couple of days. I take back all the whining and such I did about the throwing up. I will take throwing up any day instead of bleeding. Yep. Bring on the vomit! *sighs* So for now, I am stranded in my bed with a busted laptop and not much else to do but wait. Times like these, I am so grateful that we have formed ourselves a community of friends and loved ones as offers to help with the kids, the house, dinners, etc. have come pouring in from all sides. I must say though, that that sister wife Heather was advertising for the other day would be awesome right now. I will keep you all posted at least as far as bed rest is interesting. In the meantime, I hope you all do a lot of posting because I'm going to be in desperate need of entertainment.

Random Update Post

* This pregnancy SUCKS. I am not, nor have I really ever been a puker. Up until this pregnancy, I could count on one hand how many times I had ever thrown up in my entire life. And that includes one account of motion sickness. I threw up ONCE during my pregnancy with Ya-Ya, and that was when they pushed the medicine through the epidural. I didn't get sick at all with Cal-man's pregnancy. Sure, I had a lot of nausea and heartburn... but no up-chucking. I am 15 weeks pregnant as of today, and I have lost track of how many times I've puked. I am MISERABLE. With my other two pregnancies, I could look at certain foods and KNOW there was no way I could eat them without getting sick... this pregnancy... my intuition has flown the coop. I'll eat, and be fine all day and then all of a sudden it will hit me like a ton of bricks and I have to rush to the nearest sink/toilet/trash can. It comes OUT OF NOWHERE. The other morning I was chatting with a friend on the phone and all I'd had so far that morning was a big glass of water (which I CRAVE, literally all the time) and I had to hang up on her to run to the bathroom. What gives?! WATER?! SERIOUSLY?! I'm also eternally exhausted. I get horrible heartburn and have had to sleep sitting propped up on 5 pillows for two weeks now. I get short of breath just trying to dishes, or pick up toys, or fold a load of laundry, or shop for groceries. My legs are still cramping and I get a lot of lower pelvic and back pain throughout the day. On a slightly happier note, my ultrasound is coming up in a few more weeks, so soon I'll have blobby pictures to show you guys and hopefully some clue as to what gender the baby is.

* Ya-Ya is getting restless about this whole birthday thing. She seems to think that if she marks off all the days on the calender between now and her birthday, then tomorrow will be her birthday. HA! I wish! If that were the case, I'd be having this baby TOMORROW!

* I finally got the kiddos separated into their own bedrooms. Ever since we've moved into this house, parts of it have been kind of let out to other people. We've had people stay with us in the spare room/s, we've had people use the spare room/s as storage, etc. I didn't really think about it while we were moving around the furniture and setting up the extra crib. My focus was on getting things organized and spread out so I wouldn't be running the gauntlet 8 times a day to change the baby's diaper or pop in a movie for Ya-Ya. When all was said and done, and the rooms were finished, I just kept walking back and forth between the two and looking in. Just to look at them. I can't believe that there is so much space, that even if Ya-Ya and the baby have toys out on the floor, the rooms still look relatively clean. When they were both jammed into the small front room, even a candy wrapper made the space look junky. As I was wandering up and down the hall, it suddenly dawned on me that for the first time, since we moved here, every space in the house has a function. Every room of the house belongs to our family. We have come a long, long way from our big empty rectangle and the milk-crate entertainment center. I could just cry, that makes me so happy.

* I just got done baking and decorating 48 mini cupcakes for Ya-Ya's preschool snack tomorrow in honor of her birthday. I'm freaking out about how I'm going to get everything clean and done by her party on Sunday. I'm freaking out about the possibility of not just rain, but thunderstorms on Sunday. I mean, if we HAVE to do this shin-dig inside, we'll make do, but we are gonna be crammed in here like sardines.

* I made it about 2/3 of the way through Wolfman (the book), and while it is good, I think I just a break from the whole fantasy/vampire/werewolf/mythical creatures thing. I have been kinda disappointed in books lately. While I find the stories hold my interest for awhile, and that some of them are even good... I haven't found one of those "I can't put it down" books in awhile. That's kind of a bummer. I'm unsure if it's because I, myself am restless, or if I just haven't found any goodies yet. I picked up a Jodi Picoult yesterday, though, and so far, it's pretty promising. It's got a kind of paranormal/ghost hunter theme going and I am enjoying it. So here's hoping.

* I think that's it. I think I'm going to sneak a chocolate cupcake and then go to bed.

Is it bad....

Is it bad that the most exciting part of my day is that I finally got the hubs to put up a clothesline? I have been meaning to get that done since we moved in, and today it finally happened. I hung out all the comforters today to dry and air and I just got a lot of happy goodness from watching them flutter in the warm sun and breeze. I'm actually kind of excited about the prospect of washing laundry just so I can hang it on the clothesline.


I'm not really sure what that says about me as a person... but there you have it!

Upcycling 101

Today was my very first try at upcycling some of our old clothes into new clothes. I must admit... I think I got a little too ambitious for my first try. I started by trying to turn two of my old knit t-shirts into a shirt and set of pants for the baby using tutorials from MADE. Those projects are still unfinished because guess what I discovered? I HATE working with knit! It turned into a really tedious and frustrating project... so for now it's on hold. I haven't given up completely... I'm just stepping away for a little bit.


Then I tried to get some laundry and house cleaning done since my awesome sister took the little ones to her house to play for a couple of hours. THAT turned out to be yet another frustrating and fruitless project. Gah... laundry! I swear there is a laundry gnome in my house that expands the pile even as I wash, dry, fold and put it all away.



SO, after a fairly frustrating day, I decided I had to do SOMETHING that I could feel good about. Since it's been consistently warmer here, and I've been seeing the bees come out, I thought it would be a good idea to clean out the Ya-Ya's drawers and closet and sort out things she has grown out of. I got a pretty big bag full of things to donate. However, as I was going through her closet I came across two really adorable dresses that are practically brand new. We had just bought one of them last spring, and the other had been a gift from a friend who had bought it in Mexico. I really hated to give either of them away, but Ya-Ya is so tall and lanky that as dresses they have become ridiculously short on her. However, they are big enough sizes that it would be kinda silly to hold onto them in their current state waiting for a child that might grow into them.


Which is when I thought I'd give the upcycling thing another go. I chopped off the top to both dresses, folded down the top to make casing, put in some elastic and voila! Two new awesome skirts just in time for Spring! Ya-Ya loves skirts and dresses and these are both the perfect length on her!

This is the dress from Mexico.

This is the new skirt! I love that I was able to keep the pockets

Here is Ya-Ya modeling her new "purple flowers" skirt.

This little project was so satisfying. It took maybe 25 minutes to make both skirts and they turned out so cute! Whew! I was beginning to worry that I was going to go bed frustrated!

Lost and Found Art:

Yesterday, while cleaning out the craft room, I found a huge plastic bag full of drawings and paintings done while Tim and I were in highschool art class. Most of you probably don't know, but we met in that art class. I was a sophomore and he was a senior and our friendship really bloomed in that class. We were also pretty competitive, and it's still somewhat of a joke between us to argue about who is better at what.

I also found a drawer full of sketch pads, art paper, watercolor paper, and a few of mine and Tim's more adolescent drawings.

Here is one that I *think* I did in middle school with oil pastels

Tim did this one. See the attention to detail? Kinda morbid.....

This ink sketch is one that Tim did in highschool art class. He still pays attention to the details.

The tree is one I did as a kid with oil pastels. I seemed to really like those

This pencil sketch is one I did in highschool. I used a photograph of Tim and his sister when they were kiddos as a reference. I forgot to warn you about my elf/fairy obsession. Every portrait I ever drew of anyone included at least one set of pointy ears.

Spring Cleaning the Craft Room:

Hey, remember that room I kept throwing all the junk in and closing the door on? You know... the one that is supposed to be my "craft" room. The room that NEVER gets cleaned when I'm scouring my house for company and to ease my OCD. Well...... I am kind of ashamed to show this to you guys.... but....

Oh... my.... um... I have no excuse...

Why is there a GUITAR... in my craft room???

It has gotten to the level of scary beyond all reason. For WEEKS (okay, okay.. months) I've been avoiding this mess, but I finally got a touch of spring cleaning fever today and decided to tackle the big messy craft (junk) room.

After an hour, I recruited the hubby for back up due to becoming quickly overwhelmed and on the verge of possible meltdown mode. We spent the ENTIRE day in there sorting, tossing, organizing, moving, rearranging, folding, ignoring the pleas from our hungry kids (not really, sheesh... some people have no sense of humor). It was just, in a word, EXHAUSTING.

BUT, we got it DONE. It is clean! You can see the floor! Things have PLACES and they are in them!

There is even room for more! Although... Tim has told me that if I so much as venture in the direction of the craft or school supply section he will remove my arms.... so... not much hope of that happening in the future.

Anyway, while we were sorting (digging) through the mess, I found a lot of really interesting stuff, like high school artwork from both me and Tim. I might post a blog about a few of the things we found with pictures tomorrow, but for now I'm going to go devour my dinner and then veg out on the couch for the rest of the night.... or maybe just go sit in my craft room and just look at it. *sigh*

Last Night's Project: Photo Prop 2

I JUST finished up painting the second photo prop for Ya-Ya's birthday bash. Here he is, the frog prince in all his froggy glory! I think he turned out pretty stinkin' cute if I do say so myself!

I think actually, I might be more excited about this birthday party than Ya-Ya is. I have never had the opportunity to pull out all the stops for a birthday party. Most of ours growing up were more or less just family affairs... and up until now that's pretty much how my kids' birthdays have been. Just us boring parents and a few more adults: aunts, uncles, grandparents. Not that all of those aren't really special people... don't get me wrong.

I am just so stoked to be able to put together something that she and her friends will enjoy and that hopefully she will remember for years to come.

Last Night's Project

So, as you might have read on here, Ya-Ya's 5th birthday is coming up pretty fast (only 2 weeks until party time!!!), and I've been wracking my brain trying to come up with some neat things to do for the party.

I saw this really awesome idea over on Pink and Green Mama, and thought I'd give it a whirl princess style, since that is the theme of Ya-Ya's birthday party. I went to Hellmart this afternoon to buy the foam poster boards and got to work right after dinner.

Here is the princess photo prop. As I was sketching it out I started to get a little worried that it wasn't going to turn out as cute as I wanted it to be. However, once I started to get the paint and color on the board, it really started to shape up. I covered the crown in glitter and glitter paint so it would sparkle when we do the kids' photos (hopefully) outside. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the princess.

I looked everywhere for a good Prince Charming to use as a reference but came up with nada. Then my awesome husband came up with the idea of doing a frog prince for the boys to take pics with. GENIOUS! The frog prince is slotted for tomorrow's after dinner project so stay tuned!

It was a Possum.. Bear... car engine... thing......

One of the things me and the hubby really enjoy doing together is watching Monster Quest on the history channel. For the unaware, this is a show that investigates things like Big Foot sightings and the chupacabra, lochness, and other various "monsters" that are reported across the US and other countries.



Now, when it comes to this sort of thing, I have a kind of open policy. I've never seen one, but I don't think every person who ever has is some loony tuney psychopath either. They may or may not have found any physical proof, but circumstantial evidence is enough for me to admit that it is entirely plausible that some of these things could exist(hello, I'm from the department of redundancy department)... and I'm not going to just stick my fingers in my ears and scream LaLaLa's and insist it isn't true.



My favorite part about Monster Quest are the hardcore "expert" skeptics that they interview. These people crack me up... mostly because they end up sounding like more of a loony tune than the people who experienced the sightings. Take for example, a man I like to call, Hunter Bill. Hunter Bill has lived in this area his ENTIRE life. His grandfather lived in this area HIS entire life. Hunter Bill grew up roaming in the local woods, hunting the local wildlife. But shoot if he don't know a deer from a giant ape! It's okay, Hunter Bill. It was probably just a bear. Goodness knows in all your years of living on this land that you've probably NEVER seen one of those before... and could you move a little to the left...we don't want the viewers to see that bear rug in the corner there.. and can we remove the deer heads from the wall for this shot? We want to make you look like a moron.



Tonight's episode was on the sightings of a green lizard type monster in West Virginia. Now okay, don't get me wrong... the descriptions of this monster are WAY out there. Supposedly, it looks a little something like the guy on the left here (In fact, this picture was featured on the show), and he/it supposedly emits a foul and toxic gas. Some reports indicate (according to monsterquest) that a vast majority of the people who saw it have developed lung and throat cancers.

Okay, now LOOK at it. I know, it's really far fetched UFO looking, right? And I will admit.. I find it hard to believe such a thing exists. HOWEVER, the skeptic they interviewed, who apparently writes for "LaLALA LA WE WON'T BELIEVE Magazine" actually said ON TV, that probably the people who have seen it were actually seeing a deer or an opossum. That's right. An opossum. Like this:

Now whether or not you believe in the actual existence of the monster... isn't it safe to say that whatever they saw was probably NOT an opossum?! I mean... REALLY?! Cause I've seen one (two actually, they occasionally get into our house, and yeah guess what?, we live in town) and I did not immediately think, "ARG! It's a Half alien, lizard, man, tank engine!!!!!"

His (the skeptic's) other theory is that people see what they EXPECT to see. So if they've hyped themselves all up for say, a bear, then they will see a bear. Right......because when I'm scared I immediately expect to see a part alien/lizard/man wearing a trash can and floating around emitting toxic gasses ALL THE TIME! Don't you?! I mean surely that theory would mean that opossums were being mistaken for like serial killers and Jason and that kind of thing right? Right?

The Big 5

In just a few short weeks, Ya-Ya will be turning the big 5. I have, at this point, pretty much gotten over the denial and just come to accept that she is a very big girl now and not much of a baby at all. Though there are days when I swear she acts like a two year old...... then again, I have a few of those days myself here and there, so who am I to judge?

She has been pretty consistent about wanting a princess themed birthday party. Not just any old princesses, either, the Disney ones. We went shopping today to let her pick out decorations. This will be the first year when *hopefully* there will be other kids attending her birthday and not just the usual boring round of adult relatives. I'm really hoping that all of the friends we have with kids her age will pull through and come out to help us celebrate.

About a week ago, right after I had power cleaned the whole front end of the house, Ya-Ya asked if she could play with her barbies and ponies. I said sure, and then watched in mute horror as she pulled out the 20 some odd barbies and 5 HUGE plastic, barbie-haired ponies that we somehow came to own. Apparently, every time she leaves the house with my sister-in-law, she is losing shoes and gaining barbies and ponies. That doesn't even touch the BUCKETS of "my little ponies" in various sizes that are around the house, the plastic animals, the farm ponies and horses, the play food, the huge box of dress up clothes, hats, and accessories.... it is.. in a word, RIDICULOUS. And all I could think was... she is getting ready to have a birthday and undoubtedly people are going to get her MORE of this junk!

When the hubby got home we had a big discussion about the birthday thing because people are already beginning to ask what they should get her. One thing that she has been asking for, which would be practical and OUTSIDE is a swing set. We decided that rather than purchasing more of the same things we already have that outside play things would be the way to go this year. A few of our friends have those glorified, mini-park, wooden sets with all the bells and whistles which, while VERY NICE, are WAY outside of our price range. We had considered asking all of our questioning relatives to contribute to the swing set fund, but then decided that would be tacky, so we decided to settle for something not as pricey, but just as effective.

I'm kind of cheating, because even though she really wants this, I'm getting ready to have three kids, and having something outdoors for them to play on will be AWESOME. We let her pick out the set today while at the store. We settled on just a simple set that has room for three swings and comes with a nice sized slide. We are headed out to Marvin's this evening to get the makings of a larger and nicer sand box to go with it, as well as mulch to fill in around the play area and cement to secure the posts of the swing set. We got her one of those plastic turtle sand boxes last year and in my opinion it was a waste. We get a good bit of rain here, and the cover was not very efficient at keeping the water out. Because it's a plastic tub, the water DOES NOT DRAIN, and so we really just had this standing water, mosquito pit in the back yard that she rarely got to play with. So, we're just going to build one over the ground, so the water can drain out, and make sure that our pest control guy sprays around the outside when he comes to do the house, to help keep out the ants and things. Has anyone ever done this sort of project before?

In any case, we are all excited about the upcoming birthday party. The weather here has been in the lower 70's ALL WEEK, and I for one am THANKFUL. It's been nice to spend more time outdoors and this whole swing set thing is going to be wonderful for when the kids are going nuts indoors.

Book Review: The 5 Love Languages

I have heard a lot of talk about this book around blogland and otherwise and have been talking about wanting it to read it for awhile now. The hubby picked up on it, and when I got home from my trip to Michigan, my brand new copy was waiting for me.

This book is outside of my usual genres being more of the "self-help" variety, but I really enjoyed it. The idea presented in the book is that each person speaks one of 5 love languages. Each language has many dialects, but more or less people can be put into one of the 5 languages.

It's no secret that each of us has different ways of saying and hearing "I love You." For example, my father is not a very verbally expressive person. His way of saying "I love you," is to ask, "How's the car? Did you fix the washing machine? Have you had any more problems with the air conditioner?" My mom is much more verbal and touchy feely.

Growing up around Momma meant you often got hugs and kisses whether you were in the mood for them or not.

Chapman's book goes into detail about each love language and it's dialects and gives examples from real life couples he has counseled throughout his career. The book also includes ideas of how to learn to speak your spouse's love language as well as a quiz to determine what your own love language is; if you can't figure it out as you read the book. Mine, after reading the book through, is definitely "Acts of Service." Some of the times that I feel the most loved are when, at the end of a long day with the kids and the house, and even after Tim has spent the whole day at work, he comes home and does the dishes before going to bed. THAT simple act of service says "I love you," to me far more loudly than roses or candy or jewelry ever could.

I really enjoyed reading this book and have pretty much decided that everyone I know is getting a copy of this book for Christmas this year. Not because I think everyone I know has marriage problems, far from it. Just because I feel everyone, even those not currently in relationships could benefit from reading it. He has one out now for children and another specifically geared towards teenagers, both of which I'm going to have to get a copy of.

BAD DAY RANT

Have you ever seen the episode of Spongebob, where Mr. Krabs falls in love with Ms. Puff and has Spongebob buying her things, after which he yells at him for spending his money? You know the part towards the end where Spongebob loses it and just goes off? THAT is exactly what I feel like doing RIGHT NOW!!! But I'm trying very hard these days to not swear as much so ...

I HATE opportunistic, good for nothing, lazy "people!!!" And I use the quotations for people, because I'm not really sure I'd classify them as that. Because... they just make me SICK. UGH!!!!!!!!!


/End Rant