Thanks Everyone!

Well, I managed to sort of delurk a couple. I guess these are the people that guilt works on. The others? What will work for them? I will have to keep thinking...

But I LOVED hearing from you! And I learned stuff too! I had forgotten about Sally kicking Noah, and I CAN'T believe that Joolee actually told impressionable young children youth group gossip! (you know...Joolee from Spot on the Sopha...I just can't do any linking tonight...sorry guys...) Thanks, Sally, for delurking. And I *may* make a real (as in not fake) facebook account just for you.

And I love how my dad and Karla talk about DJs like they know them. I do that too, but I, of course like actually know them. Or not. I love sugar too. When you get home, lets eat sugar together. Just you and me.

I laughed about Mrs. Jo needing to wash dirty feet. I just don't look at my kids feet. What YOU don't know won't kill THEM, right? I am totally with you on the mice. They freak me out with their constant movement and beady eyes and rat like features.

And M@? (see, I can be a geek too!) I may start always counting with 0. Just because I think it is cool- in a software engineer kind of way. I already use military time, so why not? It boosts my ego to know that you read my blog and comment. But may I ask you, where is your sweet wife?! She is purposely doing this to me...lurking...isn't she? Just to get under my skin? It is unnerving. Quick, Becki, what author always has people giving aspirin to kids in her books? Can you still not respond? WHAT WILL IT TAKE? Or, horror of horrors, do you not even read this?!

I like my mom's color quirkiness. She is definitely good at art and deciding on paint colors and stuff. And that combined with the weeding certainly makes keeping her around a good idea. Just kidding mom. That is not all I still need you for!

Heather- call me up and we will go to Dairy Queen together! And then run or something?! And I am so glad to know about the "No-ah", "Yes-ah" thing. I think it is definitely helpful in making points and I think it sounds absolutely professional :)

And Grandma Debbie...oh no! You notice what people wear?! Why did I not know that? Now I am never going to be able to wear goldenrod yoga pants to your house ever again! And my children? Does that mean that you remember all of the weird combinations I have had them in over the years? I like the witty, clever stuff in the dreams. I wish I was witty and clever in my dreams but I am almost always running from murderers. Must.keep.running.

Elise- I am totally with you on number six (or in M@'s world, number 5. Wait, why is M@ suddenly hyperlinked? Where does it go? I goes it is not. It just turned blue and underlined itself. Or did I do that?) Anyway, I don't like to squish bugs either. I wish my clothes were organized like that and oh what song should I try to get stuck in your head? How about "Dora, Dora, Dora the Explorer..." :)

Genna, Genna, Genna. You are quirky, aren't you? But you remind me of your brother and I rather like him, so it is all good :) At least I know where to get fruit snacks the next time the boys need a haircut. And, BTW, I am a physical contact to the minimum person myself. You third borns... :) Good thing I have lots of babies to hand people to take the hugs for me.

Thanks for getting your comments in so that I could move on to other topics. I was getting nervous that I was going to have to make up 7 people and make up 7 quirks about each of them so that I could start blogging again. I was starting to withdraw big time. I did get my laundry folded though :) Yeah! Clean underwear for all. Even for those in the family that don't use it.

7 Quirky Things

I got tagged by Heather to share some quirky facts about myself. She tagged me, I think, because she thinks a) that I will have some quirky things to share and, b) she thinks she is faster then me. Heather, I demand a footrace. Right here, right now!

Maybe not here, not now. But definitely sometime before October 11th, because after that I think I will stop running for awhile. Or maybe I won't. It is addicting. Kind of. In a "I despise this but I must. keep. going." kind of way. But I digress.


Here are my 7:

1. I can't say "graffiti" unless someone else says it first. I try to say it in my head and I just can't get it right. And then someone else says it and then I can say it for awhile until it has been too long and I can't replay them saying it in my head anymore. Then I have to go back to, "I am so glad my kid can't read yet. You can't imagine what some kid spraypainted all over the park this morning". And other creative ways of avoiding "that" word.

2. I won't hostess a garage sale. It is too stressful. I love to go to garage sales, but I just can't have my own. I have a paralyzing fear of people laughing at my junk. (Isn't that a nice way of putting it? Not "I won't have a garage sale", but "I won't hostess a garage sale" It sounds like a perfectly pleasant tea or something, doesn't it?)

3. I do all kinds of nasty, disgusting, gross things at my job. Things I won't even tell you about because I may lose readers. And I don't have that many anyway. Inspite of that, however, I get SERIOUSLY grossed out by dogs licking me. I just can't stand it. So if you have a dog and I come over and I am wearing my orange prison jumpsuit with gloves, that is why.

4. My first work of art was a melted pen sculpture I named, "Jot and Tittle" (can anyone guess why? I put a bunch of pens on aluminum foil and melted them in the oven. I was convinced that if I only tried I could get it into the modern art museum downtown. I wonder where that sculpture is?... I could sure use my 15 minutes of fame now...

5. When I run or swim laps I have to keep track. If I get off by one I always take the lower number and start from there. If I get off by more than 1 my whole workout is shot. I just can't mentally recover from it.

6. I am totally paranoid about bridges and steep hills. Seattle was not the most therapeutic place for someone with those fears. I had trouble with bridges long before the tragic bridge collapse, but after the collapse, it got worse. I carried life jackets in the back of my van for months! I also worked out careful escape plans for if it ever happened to me with a van full of kids. And the steep hills? Well, I used to have a recurring dream in which I was driving up a hill and it got so steep that the car flipped over backwards. I used to ask people if that could actually ever happen. I never got a good answer. I should send it to those "Myth Debunked" guys. That show is a life changer.

7. I love historical museums. Even if they are one room deals in tiny counties. I still like to go to them and I always learn some small tidbit.

I am sure they would have been much more interesting if Noah had been home to point some out to me...

Now I am supposed to tag some people, but since this is already going around my blog network, I don't have many blog friends to tag that haven't been tagged already. So sad. I know. But I do have A LOT of lurkers. So here is the deal. I know it is the weekend, but I want my dear and faithful readers (not just lurkers, any readers) to write their 7 quirks in my comments section. I will not post again until I have 7. So, if you want to read about my controversial topic and dream with me about houses and see more pictures of your adorable grandchildren, I would suggest you get to writing about your quirks :)



oh...one more thing about me. I am not sweet. Real life conversation:



The setting: Noah and I sitting in the van, in our driveway ,in the dark, and drinking Arctic Rushes. His cherry, mine watermelon. (did I tell you he isn't drinking pop until his 30th birthday?)



Noah: "The problem with Arctic Rushes, or Mr. Misty's, is that they are so sweet. I think they should be a little more tart."

Julie: "I like them sweet. I don't wish they were tart. I like sweet, because I am sweet."

Noah (with a playful grin): "yes, you are so sweet."

Julie: "Who are we kidding. I am totally not sweet."

Noah: "Totally not".

So there you have it. I am not sweet. So start telling me and the rest of the world your quirks!

I Think a Psychologist is in his Future

I had the above book out the other day. I was looking up something. Back in the day we didn't have good old Google or Wikepedia. We looked stuff up in our textbooks and these archaic computerized article databases. We did have email, though, so we were sort of cool.



Anyway, I kept all of my old nursing textbooks and I will occasionally use them for reference if I just can't get an answer from good old Web MD.



I should have waited until the boys were occupied, but I didn't. Sure enough Deacon wandered over and started looking over my shoulder...



fast forward 20 years. Deacon and his lovely young wife are in marriage counseling...

Deacon's 9 month pregnant wife: "I don't know why, but he just refuses to be present at the birth. And I really want him there for me. And for our baby."

Counselor: "Deacon, what is holding you back from being present as your child, your own flesh and blood, takes his first breath?"

Deacon: "The only thing I can think of Dr, is a vague memory from childhood...some picture of a woman getting bigger and bigger...and then..."

Back to present:

Anyway, when I set the book down Deacon started to look at it. I was a little wary of it, because I didn't really know what he would come across. So I stayed close and answered his questions about the pictures of the baby growing in utereo. I didn't want to freak out and insist that he put it away, because I thought that may make things worse. After looking at the pictures of the babies growing he set the book aside and went to play. I took the book and put it back into the office.

fast forward 20 years:

Counselor: "Yes, Deacon, then what happened?"

Deacon: "I don't know. I think I stopped looking at the book, but later it seems to me that I found some pictures later of a woman...and she was on her hands and knees and it looked like she was pooping a baby right out..."

back to present:

Sure enough, on Saturday when I woke up from my nap after work, Noah said with a concerned look, "have you been discussing babies and giving birth with Deacon?"

"Well, we were looking at my text book and talking about how the babies grow inside of the mommies..."

"He found the book again, Julie, and he was looking at it and he said, 'look at this Dad. The baby grows and grows inside of the mommy, and then when it is big enough she poops it right out!'"

"what did you say?" I asked (very glad it was him, not me).

"I told him that the mom didn't poop the baby out, even though that is what it might look like. I told him there is another opening very close to the bottom called the vagina. There is a tunnel to that opening and that is where babies come through." (that is my husband, very technical :) "He said, 'oh, ok' and that was it."

[He didn't believe me initially, I had to show him another picture to prove it -N]

I didn't realize which picture he'd seen. Later, I saw the pictures that Noah said he was looking at. Ugh...unusual birthing position and relatively graphic...hopefully he won't have to see a baby coming out like that again until he is in the labor room with his wife...and hopefully he won't have a flashback to those pictures at just the wrong time...

Ugh...

Just a side note: I am apparently losing credibility. Deacon said to Noah, "I want to be a nurse when I grow up. There is a problem though. Mom says that there are boy nurses, but I am just not sure that there really is."

Noah backed me up and said that there were boy nurses. Deacon asked him how he knew that. Noah explained that I had told him about them and that he had seen them working when he was at the hospital. Deacon then asked, "Did you see them outside or were you walking around peeking in the windows?"

What have we done to make him so suspicious of our motives, and how is this gender bias ingrained in him so early?! I have always talked about female MDs I work with and male nurses I work with. It must be all those books I read him... Mostly I blame the one about Curious George at the hospital. All of those nurses in little white dresses. Even Deacon knows a man just couldn't pull that off.

Who Cares?

In the next day or two I plan to blog about a more controversial topic. Why? Because I simply can't keep my mouth shut sometimes.

But in the meantime, I have noticed what I think is a disturbing trend: people who get so defensive when they even think that someone may be commenting about the size of their family or the way they choose to school their children or if one parent decides to stay home.

I love it when people ask me (even negatively) why I would ever want to homeschool. I don't mind telling them and I don't mind debating/discussing with them if that is what they want to do. I don't care if people laugh about me being continually pregnant. I pretty much am and I laugh about it myself. Most people think it is cool that I mostly stay home, and if they don't well, I pretty much think that they just have no idea how endearing a little knight in shining armour can be :) So I show them my pictures.

Happy Birthday Roman!

It was Roman's 3rd Birthday on Monday. Thanks to the good people of this state choosing to not enter the hospital this weekend, I was able to stay home from work Sunday night and frost the cake. Ahhh...Baby Jaguar. Then I spent Monday trying to clean and get ready for the big party. I would have kept everyone updated on party prep via Twitter but Noah doesn't want me to use Twitter. So I didn't. And don't.
Roman said a sweet little "Thank You" after he opened each present

For some reason he was totally fascinated by this Veggie Tales Card. He just stood there for the longest time examining it.

Lincoln pretty much loves Roman's new bike.
It was a good party. Roman did leave in the middle of it to go take a bath, but I guess it is his party and he can bathe if he wants too. (should I worry about OCD?)

One of the Best Things We've Done

Breastfed babies end up in their parents beds. A lot. Especially when it is cold and dark and it is a middle of the night feeding...

With both Deacon and Roman I would always start them out in their bed, but about the time of the first feeding after midnight, I would haul them to bed with us and there they would sleep. All cozy and warm and happy. And close to their food supply. They like that.

And I liked it. Kind of. But I didn't sleep hard. It certainly was easier and since I don't drink or take sleeping aids, it seemed unlikely that I would squish them. So we carried on that way.

And then it was getting closer to the time for Lincoln to be born. And I was thinking about co sleeping. And I decided that I didn't want to do it again. I realized that with 3 kids 3 and under that I was going to need to sleep well at night, and quite frankly I did not sleep well co-sleeping. So I decided that I would not take him to bed with me. I would nurse him in the chair and put him back to bed. And I would put him to bed awake if at all possible. And so that was what I did. And we loved it. And we still love it.

He is our best sleeper! We never had to do the cry it out thing like we did with our other two because he knows how to put himself to sleep. He is our best napper- and I attribute at least some of it to being used to sleeping unassisted and alone. He genuinely likes his bed and he is literally a JOY to put to bed. (so he puts on a little screaming show now at 16months, but he quiets down very quickly)

I know it seems like an odd time to post this, but I actually still think about it every night when I just put him in his crib and he goes to sleep. The results of my training him from the beginning are definitely paying off...

Last Parody

These are from my mom, Pam. She wrote them with help from my sister. Or maybe my sister wrote them with help from my mom? Anyway, they sum up the personalities of my kids pretty well! Thanks Mom (and Erica) and enjoy!


to the tune of "Here comes Peter Cottontail"

Here comes Deacon Christopher,
He is not a whisperer,
You can always hear him loud and clear.

Verse:
Radiating all life's joy,
He's the most excited boy,
Things are so much fun when he's around.

Chorus:
Here comes Deacon Christopher,
He is not a whisperer,
You can always hear him loud and clear.



to the tune of "Row,Row,Row Your Boat"

Ro, Ro, Roman Boy
He's the middle of three
He will paddle his own canoe,
Just you wait and see.



to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

Lincoln, Lincoln how he rants,
We will call him "crabby pants."
Up til midnight, he's so loud,
But his smile wins a crowd.
Lincoln, Lincoln baby boy
Deacon, Roman share that toy