Why I can never go back to Iowa

So, we had a lovely vacation in Iowa. The weather was pretty rainy, but it cleared up enough for a couple visits to the splash pad, a trip to the pool, a day of golf for Mike and Jerry, and a baseball outing for the boys as well.

But I can never go back to Iowa, because if I do, I will once again have to deal with the cousin-withdrawal Emma has suffered through this week. She has been running around the house looking for other wee ones to drag around and pway wiff. She's been crying out for Gaby (GAH! GAH!) when mommy is being insufferably mean. She's been endlessly looking for those hiding cousins, and darnit, they hid too well this time! And Max... oh dear. Her stuffed puppies just won't do, anymore, now that she spent a full week with a REAL DOG. I've been a constant source of disappointment to her ALL WEEK, and I just can't handle that kind of blow to my self esteem.

Also, I can never go back to Iowa, because if I do, I will once again have to deal with a husband so disappointed in our dinner options, it's not even funny. I go through phases with my cooking. I have really tried to cook heartily and healthily, and to make the best use of seasonal items I can. I like to try new recipes, and new ingredients. But lately I have been in a SLUMP, mostly because Emma refuses to eat anything I make. It's kind of a downer, and has been discouraging me from making anything other than what I KNOW is a sure fire Emma pleaser. Which limits us to PB&J, chef boyardee mini raviolis, and homemade pizza pockets. Bah.

So, while in Iowa, Sara of course spoils us all to death with her ridiculously good cooking. Pork burritos, egg rolls, Iowa chops, tons of guacamole, homemade pizza, fresh berries out the whazoo, and cheesecake (she didn't make them but that's irrelevent). And it goes on.

And now Mike is just a shell of a man, as he sits down to my pathetic culinary attempts. And I just can't handle that kind of marital stress.

It was great, Iowa. But I don't think we'll ever see you again.

FAIL

Remember that one time I blogged about how I was "off the junk"? Ya know, how I had kicked my caffeine habit, and made that major life change?

Bahahaha.

Fail.

This is why I'm glad I gave myself the YEAR to do it. Of course, I'm not nearly as bad as I was. I wouldn't say I'm addicted like I was. Which is good. But I slipped back into drinking that dastardly Dr. Pepper probably once a week. We've decided to keep little to no soda in the house, so other than the random drink I pick up while out, I have been good about drinking less soda. So that's progress. And I really DO think I can be completely soda free by year's end. The weird thing is that I will go weeks without drinking any, and then the floodgates will just open for one reason or another and I'll be chugging the stuff. So I just need to fight off those situations (like while traveling, and when I have headaches!) and I think I can do it!

In other news, I BOUGHT NEW TYLENOL TODAY! I woke up this morning and felt like I'd been punched in the side of the head. Right in the ear, really. It was strange. Anyway, Mike was gone this morning golfing with Dad, so when he came home in the afternoon and could see I was hurting, he asked, "Did you take anything?"

Me: no
Mike: Why not?
Me: All we have are those cool caps, and they make me sick
Mike: Well, we'll have to go pick up some of the regular stuff
Me: No, then we'll just be wasting the cool caps.
Mike: But you're not taking the cool caps?
Me: Nope. Don't like 'em.
Mike: You're Stupid.

The man makes a good point. So, I went out and bought the rapid release pills, and am headache free:) WOOHOO!

What I don't want

You know when you have one of those headaches, where your whole body hurts, and it's kind of making you nauseas... don't you just really get the urge to drink a glass of liquid icy hot?

No? You don't?

Someone at Tylenol apparently does. Because that is EXACTLY what taking one of their "cool capsules" is like. It's like drinking liquid icy hot.

I had a horrible headache when I woke up Monday morning, and I was laying in bed listening to Emma and Mike play downstairs, and thought, DANG IT! I don't want to be miserable on this gorgeous holiday!! So I trudged over to the bathroom closet and whipped out the Tylenol, and threw back two capsules. And immediately regretted it. First I felt the cold on my tongue. Then it creeped down my throat and into my stomach. And it spread through my stomach. And then the burning started. If I was a little bit nauseas before, now I was full on puke-ready. I laid in bed, miserable, for another 20 minutes before the effects wore off. But was the headache gone? No. Not so much.

The headache plagued me all day. By bedtime, I was even more miserabler, so, with a COMPLETELY ABSENT MIND, I said, "hey, maybe I should take some Tylenol." And then I repeated the morning's process all over again. Stupid stupid stupid.

Pure misery. So, why did I buy these cool capsules in the first place? Purely on accident. What I THOUGHT I was buying was Tylenol Rapid Release, which I have found actually works REALLY well for me. And because of that mistaken identity, I bought one of those ENORMOUS bottles. And ya know what? I'm so cheap that I will probably use the entire bottle of cool capsules before I will break down and buy a bottle of the good stuff.

Bah.

Small Miracles

So. For the last few weeks we spent in our old house, and the first few weeks in the new house, Emma was being a little terror. We didn't pick up on it at the time, but we're thinking, in retrospect, that the likely spur of her terrible behavior was caused by the chaos in the house, with boxes and packing, and things constantly changing. We think she was just trying to show independence, and take control of her environment, and the way she did that was to throw huge tantrums every time she didn't get her way. I mean HUGE tantrums. Had me on the verge of a mental breakdown. That's when I sent out my SOS to my sisters and asked for advice from their experiences with THEIR kids. And I got some gems, let me tell ya. That's the great thing about being in a huge family - always someone to talk to! Always little nuggets of wisdom to be passed on, always a supportive shoulder to lean on. ANYWAY, I got some great advice that I was able to implement immediately. It was a little hard for me to swallow it all... realizing how badly I was caving to Emma and her rants, but I realized that I needed to start taking charge, and letting her, and showing her how to be independent in appropriate ways. And it didn't take long before we saw changes in her. Already, her tantrums have chilled WAAAAY out when she does have them, and they are few and far between, now. So, THANK YOU SISTERS!!

I just wanted to share one little example of Emma's progress. She had a Dr.'s appt on Friday, and she hates them. HATES HATES HATES them. She knows where we are, and what will happen there, immediately. So, it was ugly. But understandably ugly. She didn't throw a fit or anything, but she was crying and holding on to me for dear life the entire time we were in the exam room. When we got home, however, she was mad. She was mad at me for making her endure such trauma. I sensed a tantrum coming on, so I told her it was ok to be upset, but that we were home now and that she was safe. I then laid her blanket out on the couch so she could climb up there and cuddle with it. But, I guess she was still mad at me. However, instead of throwing her tantrum, she crawled up underneath the blanket, with nothing but her feet sticking out. She laid under there for several minutes, refusing to talk to me. But I was totally ok with it, because at least she wasn't flipping out!!

PSA

Things NOT to do, if you'd like to avoid getting punched in the face. By Me. Or maybe I'll send Bird after you:

1. Come up to my kid in her stroller at Target, and GIVE HER FOOD. Ummm??
a) You are a stranger. How do I know you're not poisoning my kid?
b) You are a stranger. How do you know my kid doesn't have allergies?
c) You are a stranger. How do you know I'm not currently trying to train my child to eat at prescribed times, and trying to get her to eat a wider variety of healthy foods, and NOT the jelly beans you are offering her right before we're headed home for lunch??


What the heck is it with people?? I would NEVER think of giving some strangers kid food in the middle of a store. Emma was just sitting there in her stroller, playing with my water bottle. She wasn't throwing a fit, and it's not like she saw the lady with candy and was begging for some. I get it if you're trying to be nice, but maybe ask me before you just hand her candy? Because guess what, when I took the candy away from her, Emma DID start flipping out. Wouldn't you? And the lady didn't understand why I wouldn't let Emma have the candy! She tried to give her another piece! And then when I told her to stop, she gave me a dirty look, told me I needed to "lighten up", and walked away.

Really? WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE IN HARRISBURG????

Beach

So, we had a beach vacation with Mike's family to Myrtle Beach, SC. Actually, we stayed in a sweet beach house, right on the water, in Surfside, SC, about 3 miles south of Myrtle Beach proper. It was sweet in every form of sweetness you can imagine. I'm still beat from the whole trip, so I'll get around to the details later. But here are some pics. Emma absolutely LOVED the beach. As soon as she woke up in the morning, she would go to the large glass doors and point to the beach and say, GO! It was torture for her to wait long enough to eat breakfast, and GASP! THE HORROR! For us to put a swimsuit and sunscreen on her. But once we got her out there... man she was just in heaven. Loved the water, loved the sand, loved going out in the waves with us. I was a little worried she'd eat a lot of sand, and drink a lot of sea water, but she did really good. Hooray!

About the house...

Before I forget -

Anna, we have wall paper in only one room in the house, the living room. It's a brown-ish color with a diamond pattern and a border at the top. The blue dining room is just a faux paint job, and actually it's not blue anymore, it's now Desert Camel, as is the family room and entry way. The kitchen is still white. Our bedroom is a FUNKY purple faux paint job with a border at the top. Once the border comes down, we will be painting it Gentle Rain, which is a very pale, soft gray color. Emma's room was just plain white, but we've painted in Pale Daffodil, which is the exact same color she had in her old room. We figured the more we could make it feel like her old room, the easier she'd adjust to the new house. We have wall paper borders at the top of the kitchen, the spare bedroom, and the half bath on the first floor (the walls in the half bath are the same as the walls in the master bedroom). We plan on leaving the wallpaper in the living room for now because it's not SO bad, but will be getting rid of it eventually. We do plan on getting rid of the borders everywhere as soon as we have the time.

Faith - I know I already facebooked you, but just for everyone else' sake, I'll say it again. You were so right. I am sooo sooo sooo in love with my new washer and dryer. The washer took longer than I expected, but then BAM! The dryer took 27 minutes to dry an extra large load. I almost peed my pants with excitement!

But, just so you don't think I'm bragging, Anna, I'll go ahead and tell you all that my dishwasher sucks Butt. Big time. In fact, my plates don't even fit in them. Anywhere. It is so bizarre. And it's like mom and dad's OLD dishwasher, where you have to actually use a sponge and soap to pre-wash the dishes before you put them in the washer. Sort of pointless. So. Bah.

I'll take more pics once we get things in their place, get furniture situated (OMG - Mike and I are actually getting bedroom furniture this weekend! Can you believe it?) and things put away so you can see the improvement with the paint jobs and whatnot.