Momma Geek

2010-02-26T10:52:00.010-05:00

This month, In lieu of it being the month of love and James' birthday I'm going to get completely sappy,,so if you have a weak stomach, please save yourself now.

James,

You make me smile when I'm sad. You tell me to stop being grumpy when I am and then make me smile again. You put up with my moods and I know there are so many of them it makes your head spin sometimes (mine too!). You support me in anything I do and encourage me to better myself. You helped me get help when I needed it and love me despite my (many) flaws.

I'm not easy to live with. I'm moody and blue sometimes. I shout and cry and alongside that I'm not the best mother out there, but you see past all of that and more. You see what I want and strive to be. You help me stay grounded enough to try to be that person that seems ever elusive to me. You are an incredible dad to Jack and he thinks the world of you. Your such a genuinely nice person to everyone. Your peers respect and admire you.

All of this is me trying to say that you're an incredible husband, father and person. I love watching our relationship evolve as we go and I'm proud of us for working things out when they get tough, instead of (me) running away and not communicating. I'm proud of us in the way we parent and help and respect each others views and wishes when it comes to raising Jack. I am in awe of the fact that you are such a hands on dad, that we carry this responsibility 50/50, because a lot of women don't have it that way. When Jack was a baby you got up with him at night (and still do if needed!), despite having to go to work the next day and you changed diapers like a champ and you helped with feedings. You took over when it got too much and you were (are) always there, no matter what, whenever. Thank you. I know you see it as he's your child too and it's just as much your responsibility as it is mine, but not all people do, so I'm one lucky lady. I know I probably don't say it enough, but I love you James and, I love loving you. You make me so very happy.

Happy Birthday and Valentines day.

Love,

Your very happy Lobster.

(Don't ask)

P.S. I know I'm a blubbering fool sometimes.

P.P.S. I counted the word Love seven times in this post. That must set some sort of record!

How many things can one fit into a post?

2010-01-27T09:53:00.006-05:00

Yeah, so long time no see! Apparently keeping up a blog is a little harder than I anticipated. So my goal now is to publish at least one post a month. Stop laughing. Given the last time I posted was around six months ago alot has happened. Jack started preschool and absolutely adores it. He even gets to ride the big kid bus! His enthusiasm for that lasted all of five minutes. James' parents came for a visit at the end of September, which is always so much fun. And always such a drag when they leave. It's especially hard on Jack, and getting noticeably harder every year (When they leave, obviously, not when they visit). Umm, then we had Christmas, which if you've never spent Christmas with a four year old, let me tell you, it's the closest thing to being a kid again you'll ever get to. All the build up and excitement to the big day is huge, and to watch his face when he comes downstairs is the best. At the sake of sounding sappy, it's the reason to have kids.

James' birthday is coming up soon, which gets me thinking that he was a year younger than me when we met. That was 8! years ago. That old adage time flies by when your having fun couldn't be more true (again, sorry for the sap). I'll have to do a post on how we met another time, but safe to say it's a good story. Or maybe I'm biased and it's just another boring ol' story, oh well, I have control of the publish button. Mwahaha. A lot happened while we were dating and it took alot of hard work and bribing of the government to get him over here. Speaking of the government, we got a letter the other day saying James had finally been granted a green card, which he'd actually received a few years ago, so we freaked out a little about that. It's always unnerving to get a letter from immigration when your not expecting one. Anyways back to his birthday, any gift ideas would be very very appreciated. There are only so many monitors one person can have on their desk. Also; only so many cables one can have around their desk. So I will not be buying any more of those (sorry hon), but all other ideas will be welcome.

On to other things. I haven't been taking very many pictures lately, well not artsy fartsy ones anyway. James got me a digital photo frame for xmas (yes I know this is not the correct way to spell it, but I don't go in for the whole "God" thing so it's perfectly acceptable) so I've been editing to try and fill that up. I've been having tons of trouble with my monitor color matching print color, so we've gotten a calibrator called Huey. This works wonders, I was amazed just how out of whack my monitor really was! But it's still not perfect, and I'm not sure how other photographers do it, so if anyone reads this (snort!) and know how to fix this pain in the ass problem completely, please be a dear and let me know. *silence...crickets* Yeah, so I haven't been photographing much lately and I really do miss it. I try to use Jack as my go to guy, but he just sticks his tongue out and rolls his eyes. Since when do four year old's have attitude problems? Well, this post appears to be going nowhere in particular so I shall just leave you with some pretty pics that I did not take recently. Please to enjoy.

Idle moments

2009-07-27T12:00:00.007-04:00

Some days I look at my life and marvel at how I got to where I am. Some days I look at my son and am completely blown away and awe struck at what an incredible person I helped to create.

There are days he drives me so nuts I wonder what possessed me to consider having a child. Then there are the days that live forever in my heart. The days that are so full of cuddles and love that they just couldn't get any better.

Raising a little boy is chock full of surprises, irritation, energy, dirt, and wonder. I highly recommend it.

Repetition is overrated

2009-07-08T12:45:00.004-04:00

Whew. The past few days I think I've repeated myself millions of times. No, I'm not talking to myself. Well I suppose that depends on if he's actually listening in which case I could be talking to myself. This post doesn't really need to make sense does it?

My child, aka He Who Does Not Listen, has been substantially worse the past few days. When he's told to do something he ignores the directive whilst doing other things he's not supposed to be doing, until the point your forced to SHOUT! Well of course he doesn't like shouting, he's all Why are you shouting mommy?! He has this annoying little thing he does where he whines because he wants us to be happy, meaning don't be mad at me. When will he understand? How old will he be when I get to stop blabbering like a drunk wino who's taken too many hits of acid?

So the past few days in our house have been a little noisy. Add on top of that the cat pooping on He Who Does Not Listen's bed. Oh yeah, did I forget to tell ya about that? Our lovely little kitty, who without permission had other lovely little kitties has decided to use Jack's bed as a real life, shit smelling litter box. And the worst part? We thought it was Jack. James and I were more than a little worried that our tummy troubled offspring was pooing in his bed, and for good reason given we've just spent thousands in the emergency room for a bad case of gas! So eventually our scrambled brains worked out that when Jack's not in the house he CAN'T. Poo. In. The. Bed! Yeah. We're just full of win around here.

That leaves Jack in our bed. For two weeks now. Sleep deprivation prevails! The smell, oh holy christ the stench that has inhabited his bedroom is like nothing I've ever smelled before, and I've changed some pretty rank diapers. So my question is this, how do we 1. get rid of the almighty stench and 2. keep the damn cat from shitting all over the bed. So far we've been shutting all the doors to the stairs, but with summer riding our asses we need to be able to put the extractor fan on, and guess where that is, just guess. Go on. YUP upstairs. Absofreaking lootly. (HA HA spell check just had a seizure.)

I wouldn't be surprised if all my posts contain, center around/or are related to shit. Literally. Just so you know. That gives you ample time to run. Fast. Can I come with you? So if anyone has good advice, or just wants to shoot the breeze and talk about un shit related things, preferably un child related too, as I'm pretending I dont have one right now, then just shoot me a message. I'll be the one blubbering in the corner.

Laziness in all it's lazy glory

2009-06-24T13:01:00.004-04:00

On Saturday The Parents of the Year (thank you, thank you) took Jack to the DINOSAUR! MUSEUM! Oh yeah, he was excited.

The Children's Museum in Cincinnati are hosting a traveling dinosaur exhibit which, to a four year old boy is mud puddles, candy and cars all rolled into one big scary adventure. And because I'm being so heat induced lazy this week, I've decided to rely on my insanely cute son and post some pictures of him enjoying those prehistoric creatures. Honest, I will actually write something eventually. Probably. Something useful to know about me is that procrastination is my middle name. But not really. Anyways, here ya go.

Here's T-Rex himself.

They all moved around and made noise, so Jack
walked around the whole time like this.

Or this.

Hee Hee.

Finally! Some peace and quiet.

So all in all it was a great trip south. Of course since we were all the way down there we HAD to stop at Jungle Jim's (International Grocery Store) and spend lotsa money. Of course we did.
The liquor section alone could bankrupt us. And the cheese section. Anyways, here are the links for the dinosaur exhibit and Jungle Jim's. See ya later.

http://www.junglejims.com/

http://www.cincymuseum.org/

Toots

2009-06-19T11:43:00.002-04:00

Usually every Thursday James and I take Jack to our local Y to go swimming. Jack is like a true fish out of water and especially loves getting out and jumping back in. He can in fact do this several hundred times in one evening. Not ten minutes after getting into the water Jack complains of a tummy ache, okay. Then it gets really bad, so much so that he starts crying. Hard. We take him back to to the locker room to see if we can "relieve" the tummy ache. After a few minutes it seems to get better, and Jack wants to get back in the pool. Right. FIVE minutes after being back in the pool his tummy starts to hurt again. Really bad. Screaming and crying bad. Freaking mommy and daddy the freak out bad.

James and I decide that this is not a normal tummy ache and we need to get to a doctor quick. So we throw our clothes on in the midst of trying to calm Jack down, run out the front door and speed to Childrens Hospital. The whole drive takes about 15 minutes and all the while Jack is screaming and crying in serious pain. We get to the E.R., walk inside, register and sit down to fill out paperwork. Jack has calmed down a little and wants to play with the germ covered toys in the waiting room. Yeah right kid. We're sitting in the waiting room waiting for James to get back from parking the car and suddenly something crawled out of my son's ass and died. Right there.
Right on my lap.

Holy shit! (no pun intended) The stench was like nothing I've ever smelled before, and all of you parents out there know that stenches come with this job. A few seconds later another dead thing falls out. All the warning we got was Pffftt.... James and I looked at each other thinking to ourselves we did NOT just bring our son to the E.R. for a bad case of GAS! That my friends, is a parenting Fail. Of the highest regard. We decide to stay and have him checked out just to be on the safe side. By now Jack is perfectly happy and giggling. Mommy is cursing in her head and daddy is sighing. Four hours and 2 abdominal X-Rays later everything is just dandy (except for the recurring stench). Let this be a lesson to ye parents. I don't know what kind of lesson really, because I would totally run to the E.R. again in the same situation. Anyways, that was our thursday night, was yours any better?

Cherry Land

2009-06-16T10:56:00.004-04:00

Luckily enough we had fantastic weather on our camping trip. The forecast had called for rain all weekend, but we ended up with beautiful blue skies. The city is just as wonderful as we remembered it. It has to be said though, Michigan roads leave alot to be desired.

We also hit the beach for some fun in the sand.

*James took this one.

We ate at some of our favorite restaurants. Red Mesa has the best Habanero Fried Ice Cream and Jenny's is known for their Cornish Pasties

So we're back now to the daily grind, but wishing we were still in Cherry Land.

Hope everyone has a great day!

We're off to see the wizard!

2009-06-12T10:32:00.011-04:00

Well, as long as the wizard lives in Traverse City anyway. Yellow Brick Road here we come!
Right so we have an eight hour drive with a four year old in tow. Can you say portable DVD player?? Very good. We made a spontaneous decision to buy a mammoth (19'x19') tent and various other camping goods and head into the wilderness of a state park in our old hometown. Spontaneous decisions rarely go well, especially since the weather forecast has just called for rain...and cold.

Jack is especially excited to CAMP! and ROAST MARSHMALLOWS! This is the first time he'll have been back here since we moved to Ohio in '06. He wasn't even a year old yet, so he'll get to see the house we used to live in and the hospital he was born in. James and I are just excited to hit our old food haunts. Red Mesa is an excellent Mexican restaurant that we looove up there,there's also Bayview Pizza, they kept us alive for most of Jack's first six months.

Traverse City has to be one of the most beautiful, laid back cities in the north. It's got tons to do in every season, and the views are spectacular. They host the Cherry Festival every July and have a film festival founded by Michael Moore. Their downtown is the best part of the city, it's full of unique shops , bookstores and restaurants. Can ya tell I love the place? I must stop this blabbering now and go pack the gazillions of bags we need for two days. Wilderness here we come! I'll leave you now with some of my favorite Michigan Photos.

.

Where am I?

2009-06-10T15:15:00.002-04:00

Yay! my own blog!....now what. *Looks around empty page* I have no idea what to blog about. When I woke up this morning I had no intentions of creating this...little slice of ....what? Blogdom?

Ooh spell check had a field day with that one.

No, seriously I am completely nerve wracked and wondering what the hell I was thinking. Can you officially have writers block when you haven't even published your first blog yet?

Okay let's give this a shot. Me, well I'm Amanda and my life consists of my son, my husband and various other not so important things. Jack, our son keeps us on our toes from the time he wakes up until we tie him to the bed. He's just turned four so we're learning alot about independence and how much he thinks he should have. My husband is James, he's got one of those funny accents that all the women swoon over. Yes, he's British. But that's not his only redeeming quality. He's a kick ass programmer with fantastic blue eyes, a very nice ass and again with the accent. There's alot more to know about him than that, but what would I put in all my other entries. Ha!

We met online about eight years ago. You know, that story. Girl meets boy who lives 4,000 miles away. They fall in love. Then they go through a three ring circus of paperwork so that boy can live in same country as girl, and maybe (obviously) marry her. Omg...the paperwork. Yeah, so that's us in a very odd nutshell.

Hopefully I'll get better at this whole grammar/spelling thing soon so that if anyone actually reads this they'll know I do actually know how to communicate with these little letter thingies. To make up for it I'll leave you with a drool worthy (see...the grammar!) picture.