Wordless Wednesdays #22- A Morning Visit

You can see other people's entries- or join in yourself- at THIS LINK.

Couples Meme

I stole this from Issa over at Issascrazyworld, who stole it from Mothergoosemouse, who stole it from someone else, who... Yeah, things get stolen a lot around this 'sphere. But it's always with permission! :)

THE COUPLES MEME:

What are your middle names?

Mine is Paige, and his is... Irving. He would hate that I told you that, but I think it's sweet, since it's after his grandfather.

How long have you been together?

Since June 4, 2000. Got married last January, but I don't count that as our anniversary...

How long did you know each other before you started dating?

Erm, not that long. We had met previously, but he wasn't interested. I think it was like a month later that we actually started "going out".

Who asked whom out?

He asked me. Actually, it was brought on by my little brother... Who kept coming upstairs and bugging us when we were hanging out in my room. He finally came up and said "Mom wants to know if you guys are going out yet." I was MORTIFIED! But Will looked at me and said, "Well? Do you want to?" (I know, he's articulate. heh.) And the rest is history.

How old are each of you?

He's 28, I'm 25.

Whose siblings do you see the most?

Depends on the month really... We see his brother a bit, because he only lives about 20 mins away, and we get along well with him and his wife... Plus his son is two days younger than Ilyana. But we also see my brother Mitch a lot :)

Which situation is the hardest on you as a couple?

I would probably say financial stuff is the most consistently hard on us. Doesn't everyone fight about that crap? Especially lately?

Did you go to the same school?

Nope, not even in the same state!

Are you from the same home town?

No. I was born in Dover, NH. He was born in Nashua, NH.

Who is smarter?

I'd say we are equals... We are each smart about different things, and we keep each other balanced. :)

Who is the most sensitive?

hahaha ok... Well I am the most sensitive about things going on in our life, I think... But he gets teary-eyed over a LOT more than I do on TV and stuff... I think it's because he has to be all manly-man in his life, so that sappy emotional TV is how he lets it all out. lol.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?

hahaha, what's THAT? Eating out as a COUPLE? lol. For real though, I don't know if it is the place we go the most, since it's not close by, but Silo's in Merrimack, NH is our FAVORITE place to eat.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?

Disney World in Florida.

Who has the craziest exes?

I don't think either of us has *crazy* exes. We have a couple of exes who have done crazy things... but since we've been together since I was 16, there aren't too many exes.

Who has the worst temper?

He does. I nag more, and yell more probably. But he is the one who gets more pissed when it comes down to it.

Who does the cooking?

Me.

Who is the neat-freak?

I care more about neatness than he does, for sure.

Who is more stubborn?

Hmm... I am, I think. I have the hardest time admitting I'm wrong. In fact, sometimes I'll just sit and stew because I KNOW I'm wrong, but I can't bring myself to say it. What can I say, I can be pigheaded...

Who hogs the bed?

Neither of us hogs the bed, we pretty much stay on our sides... but he TOTALLY hogs the blankets! I always have to wake up and YANK my portion back over to my side.

Who wakes up earlier?

We usually wake up at the same time. We commute together.

Where was your first date?

We went to see "Road Trip" at the Strand in Dover with my brother and best friend Merry. Our first "date" alone was at my house, we watched "10 Things I Hate About You".

Who is more jealous?

Me.

How long did it take to get serious?

It just kind of happened, I don't know when... He claims in the beginning he didn't think it would last, but he had moved in with my family after a couple months of us being together...

Who eats more?

I don't know... I think about the same? He eats more than I do at night, but he never eats his lunch, and I eat mine. :)

Who does the laundry?

Me. If I waited for him to do it, I'd walk around nekkid.-- I second that, Issa. And though he probably would want me to always walk around nekkid, that's not something I'm planning on doing. heh.

Who’s better with the computer?

He is. He knows all kinds of code and programming and more photoshop than I do, and web design. He wants to work with computers... And I just want to play on them.

Who drives when you are together?

I do. All the time. He just sits in the passenger side and tells me what I'm doing wrong. lol.

ETA: Of course, any one of you who would like to grab this meme and play along is welcome to! I would love to read about you and your hubbies- or wives, for those guys out there! Let me know if you do and I'll be sure to pop on over and comment :)

Random Tuesday Thoughts, Second Edition

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I have an eye appointment on Thursday. I want to get my contacts back, but I've pretty much given up on that, since the last THREE kinds they have given me have started irritating the CRAP out of my eyes within a few months of starting to wear them. Feels like I have sand in my eyes constantly, and when I rub them it feels like my corneas are slowly being gouged out with a salad fork. So now I'm wearing my glasses, which not only do I hate to wear because of looks, but they make me break out around my nose (yeah, totally unbecoming) and make my face greasy, AND they are actually from the year BEFORE last, so they're not quite the right prescription. And they're from when we were broke- whoops, I mean even more broke than now- so they are the fugly low-end option ones. I'm going to my eye appointment, but I'm sort of in anxiety over what I will actually DO to correct my vision. I guess get new glasses. But that is seriously a hard pill to swallow. Did I mention I hate wearing glasses? And that they make me break out? And they make my face greasy? Oh, I did? Okay then...

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We are considering switching our babysitter, but I am kind of up in the air.

The woman we use now lives over the border in VT, and it's actually about 15 minutes PAST my work to get to her. She is older (I think 60's?), and was a teacher for many, many years so she is good with the kids, but sometimes the age worries me. She also lives alone and I don't believe she has a cell, so sometimes I think- what if something happened? What would she do with all of the kids there? Plus, most of the kids at Ilyana's daycare are a couple of years older than her and will all be starting full-day kindergarten in the fall, so she will lose a lot of playmates then. There's one girl who is around her age, but she just recently cut back to only going there three days a week, and the only other one who is there all the time is a baby, so Illy can't really play with her. Our current sitter takes four weeks' vacation, two weeks in a row in April (she's on vaca now) and then two again in October, of which we pay for two. Her house is very nice and she is great with the kids, but these things have me wondering if this new woman might be better...

She is younger, around my age, and is licensed by the state and first aid/ CPR certified. We are using her this week because she was willing to watch Ilyana on short notice since our sitter is off now. She seems like she is more interactive with the kids she watches (does more activities- the other woman basically lets them do their thing all day) and she provides snacks and breakfast, which my current sitter doesn't. The new one is in my town- so we'd save on gas- and she only takes one week vacation, which is in July, so it's a better time for me to take a week off with the Bend. The kids are all a lot closer to Ilyana's age. Plus, I have to consider (even though it's not right around the corner, but still) that since she's in our town, when Illy does go to school, it won't be near as big an issue to get her to and from school... I think if she was still going where she does now, we'd most likely be forced to switch sitters at that point anyway because she's so far from our town (about 25-30 mins total).

The problem, the rub, is this- do we switch from a good thing now, when we've only used this new girl for a few days, but it seems like overall it would work better for us? I'm leaning that way, but my hubs is worried about it- he's not saying he doesn't want to, but he's worried about that old adage- "If it 'aint broke, don't fix it." What do you think? What would you do? I'm concerned that if we switch and for some reason it doesn't go right (I don't even really want to go there in thinking what could go wrong... you know all the daycare horror stories) we'll have burned our bridge with our current sitter and will feel guilty and awful about whatever it is that happened. Am I just being an overly worried Mommy? HELP! Sorry for the rant. Obviously this is on my mind, and I can't stop thinking of it, and I don't know what to do... *sigh*

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Illy has been on a DADDY kick the past few days. When I try to help her with something, she tells me, "NO! Want DADA do it!" Not too great for the ego, let me tell ya. Although I am glad that she has a good relationship with him. I guess it's something to be happy about, when so many kids out there miss out on having a good relationship with their Dad. But it still smarts when I go to pick her up and instead she says, "NO! Want DADA get me!" Meh.

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My brother needs to do my back brakes. He promised he would. In fact, he did my front brakes just a couple of months ago, and I TOLD him I thought the back ones needed to be done too, and he insisted that they didn't. They last longer, he said... OH? Then what's that SQUEAKING whenever I slow down? Oy vey, boy! Now I feel bad because I have to make him do it a second time, when if he would have just listened to me...

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I think I'm making burgers for dinner. I don't really want burgers for dinner. But I don't know what I do want for dinner that has ground beef, and since that's what I took out for dinner... Guess I'm having burgers. :P

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Now that we have storage space, we need a freezer so I can stock up at BJ's. I like being stocked up. We also need to set up Deuce a run. I ordered one today. I don't know where I'm going with this. That is all.

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The Bend has been very fascinated with Birthdays lately. All the time she's asking, "Momma? Is it your birthday?" and when I say no, she says, "Dada, is it YOUR birthday?" and when he says no, she says "It's ILYANA'S birthday!!" She's not quite right on that one, either... but it IS coming up, and I need to get cracking on planning that she-bang, now that she's actually going to understand it... And has been building it up in her mind for the past month or so. I wonder what she even thinks a birthday entails? Does she really know, or is she going to be totally weirded out and overwhelmed when the day comes? I doubt that last bit, though... My girl is pretty fearless.

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Speaking of fearless, did I mention she FELL DOWN THE STAIRS last week?!?! Oh my god, I felt so terrible! I knew it was inevitably going to happen, since we've never had stairs in our house since she learned to walk and we just moved to a place where her room is upstairs... Luckily she wasn't hurt- I think she actually only fell down a couple of them- but now she's scared to go down by herself, even on her bum with us sitting right there next to her. So we need to work on stair safety and being calm and slow going down them. But other than that? She's pretty fearless.

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It was gorgeous out here on Sunday. We all went for a walk together, and it was breezy, balmy and around 70. We actually saw some wild flowers! First ones of the year up here, I think... It made me smile a little on the inside. I'm really sick of dreary weather, it was starting to bring me down.

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Did I mention our new house is SO MUCH nicer than our old house? As in, I actually WANT to come home, and I don't mind cleaning up, and I hate to leave in the morning? It's so refreshing to feel this way :)

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You can join up with Random Tuesday Thoughts over at The Un-Mom's Blog.

Easter Fun!

We had a really fun Easter this year! It was Ilyana's first easter egg hunt, and she picked up on it pretty quickly :) It was also our first holiday we have had AT HOME- no traveling, YAY!- and the first BIG holiday meal I have done all on my own. We had my brother, his girlfriend, my two cousins and one of their girlfriends over, plus us, and Will's brother stopped by with his family for a while, too.

I was nervous at first that something HAD to go wrong- when you're trying to plan a meal for that many people, plus an egg hunt, things get a little crazy. To top that off, our babysitter is off this week, so RIGHT after our big meal and visiting, I was sending the girl back with my brother to stay with my Mom for the week... SOB!... So I had to pack for that, too. I was worried that at least one of my dishes wouldn't come out, or I would forget something for the Bend... Or.... Or...

Well, none of it happened! WOOT for me!

I made an 8-lb ham, cheesy mashed potatoes, corn, salad, deviled eggs, filled celery sticks, punch bowl cake and bread. Everyone was stuffed- there was more than enough food- and they claim to have had fun... Of course, I can't really vouch for that, because I was running around most of the day, but I believe them :) I didn't manage to get any pics when everyone was there, because I was busy, but here are some highlights from the hunt, and also a few pictures of my pretty girl all dressed up:

Starting the hunt! I think at first she thought she had to EAT all the jellybeans while hunting, not put them in the basket... But that didn't really work out.

She's getting pretty excited here, realizing that there is candy AND presents all over- just for her!

But here, Momma. I'm a nice girl, I'll share.

One for you, two for me...

Found a Polly Pocket!

I think here she was in the middle of screaming "CHOCOLATE!"

And here she is with her full stash of boot-AY! Including, but not limited to:

• ABC letter teaching book
• Two pretty dresses and one summerish outfit
• Polly Pocket
• Other random dollies
• Giant bubble wand & bubbles
  
• Oodles of candy
• Shovel...
  
• Etc...
  

And here are some photos I took of my girl all dressed up for the day in one of her pretty new dresses:

See that gorgeous flower bow in her hair? I won it from Kia over at Good Enough Mama for guessing the right goog search! I rock... Oh, right, she does too :) Thanks Kia! Ilyana loves it... It's the first clip she'll let me leave in her hair for more than two seconds without screaming and ripping it out! Yay for you for finding a Bendy Clip!

Now, you peeps should go visit her and say Hi. Or say something snide and sarcastic. Cuz that's how Kia rolls, and she'll like you more if you say something like that than something all ushy gushy and nice. :P

Yes, I realize this is blurry. But how could you resist that FACE?

Ilyana: EASTER IS FUNNN!

Come to think of it, most holidays that are associated with candy are pretty good. And even if for some reason the holiday ends up bad, at least you can drown yourself in chocolate eggs and eat good food till you barf. There's always that.

Wordless Wednesdays #21 Me and My Dada...

You can find other Wordless Wednesday participants, or join in yourself, HERE.

What she says...

(1) Will: "Honey, you are going to be TWO soon! *counts* One, two!"
Ilyana: With her brow furrowed down about as low as it goes- "Whad you talkin' bout, DADA?!"

(2) Me: Going about my morning, packing lunches for the fam...
Ilyana: "What you doin, Mama? You makin the foods this morning?"

(3) Ilyana: Carrying Will's pill box, brings it over to him and says- "Dada, kake (take) meds." (Think she listens to me talking to him, or what?!?! lol...)

(4) Me: Sweeping the kitchen floor.. sweep, sweep, sweep.
Ilyana: "Mama I want turn."
Me: Hand her the broom, she sweeps... Then say "Okay, honey, it's my turn now."
Ilyana- staring at me sweeping with a puzzled look: "Mama, is that a great big brush??"

(5) We're driving to work/ daycare in the morning as per usual... Drive by our old house, and I hear from the back seat:
Ilyana: "Look! Yucky yuck yuck house!"
Yes, honey... That's what we thought too :) That would be why we moved!

lmao. Sometimes she just cracks me up. I can't believe how much she's growing, and just how MANY words she has lately! It seems like every day there are more and more...

Wordless Wednesdays #20- Most Uncomfortable...

You can view other participants' entries or join in yourself HERE.

I Heart Faces- Week 13- My Friend & I

The theme at I Heart Faces this week is My Friend and I.... I think this one is going to be SUPER cute! I can't wait to see all the wonderful entries...

So, for my Kids Entry this week, here's what I found, from last month:


It could be interpreted in one of two ways: she is looking at herself in the reflection, thinking there's another baby in there, her "friend"... Or you could count her Daddy, who is clinging on to her so she doesn't fall, as the other friend. I wish I had a better candidate photo, but I can't seem to find one on this computer! Drats. I still like this one, though...


For my Adult Entry this week, I chose one of Will and I in Disney back in the days before Bendy Ruggle. We were SO tired in this picture, but had just finished a fun-filled day. I seriously HEART Disney and cannot WAIT until we can finally take the Bend there!

I love playing along with this challenge... I also love that I am learning more and more about photography each week. So thanks to Amy and Angie, founders of I Heart Faces for a wonderful idea that has blossomed into a community of photogs connecting with a single purpose- to share photography of the wonderful faces in our lives!

AWOL

We interrupt the regularly scheduled blogging for one intense move and a few days of recoup, organizing and unpacking. I apologize for my absence, but I am at least keeping up with my blog reading, and I swear I'll be back soon... Next week most likely :)

In the meantime, if you get bored, feel free to check out some of MY recent favorite blog-reads:

PostSecret

Pacing The Panic Room

Pioneer Woman

The Creative Junkie

The Journey

Pistols and Popcorn

In Through The Back Door

Her Bad Mother's Basement

Good Enough Mama

There. That should keep you busy until I get back! :)