Big babies and other stuff

So Alex weighs approximately 14.5 pounds, we’ll know exactly on Tuesday. He’s a big boy–and only 11 weeks old. Nour didn’t weigh that much until she was 9 months old. Yep. He’s pretty tall, too, at least 25 inches when I attempted to measure him with a tailor’s measuring tape.

Anyway, Sam and I were discussing our plans for our 10th anniversary–not marriage, that’s three years away, the one where we started dating. November 4, 1998. See, in my mind, and his, too, it’s almost as important as our wedding anniversary, simply because it marks the point where we know that we KNEW we were going to get married (at least, I did). I think I actually knew long before then, it just took me a couple of months to figure it out. I could go into the story, but hey, maybe I’ll save that post for the actual anniversary.

Suffice it to say that SUNDAY is our wedding anniversary, 7 years this year, and we are actually getting a day off from the kids, okay, well, about 5 hours, anyway. But hey, who could ask for anything more? I mean, when you’ve got a 2 month old nursing baby, even an hour without seems like a lot, but it will be nice to have some time alone and see a grown-up movie, and not have to worry about feeding or comforting a baby in the middle of it all. Thanks in advance, mom and dad. It’s greatly appreciated.

Anyway, it’s kind of funny to think about what I was doing 7 years ago today. Considering that it was also July 4th, we really didn’t do anything special, because it was the day Sam and his family got to Columbus. I was pretty sick for days before our wedding, because I had gotten some bacterial infection that caused major sickness. If I had any problems fitting into my wedding dress before I got sick, that infection took care of the last few pounds I had left.

I think the day before the wedding was much more filled with activity, considering that we had to get the room set up for the reception. Honestly, I definitely recommend having your wedding on a holiday weekend, it might seem crazy, but it gives people an excuse to do something on that weekend, instead of staying home. Though, I would never recommend getting married in the same weekend as your cousin–and attending their wedding, well, let’s just say you’ll get lots of strange looks from the people who just went to your wedding the day before… But it’s all good.

It’s really true that your wedding day passes in a bit of a haze. I do remember someone telling me that I was a bridezilla, but I was not feeling that way at all. I was very nervous, excited, and pretty happy. I wanted everything to go as well as possible, but if they weren’t perfect, it didn’t matter. To me, it was a perfect day. Even the mistakes are things that you look back on in laughter, because of how much better they turned out than if you had tried to make them perfect. I remember our order of ceremony got out of whack accidentally, but it all worked out, because the pastor got to make a funny joke that I still laugh at when I watch the video. There are other things I laugh about, too, but it was really a great day altogether.

I think what makes it so special is the fact that I knew without a doubt that it was meant to be. I don’t believe that everyone has to have that “aha!” moment, but I know that we were meant to be, because we care about each other so much that even when we get angry, the solution is always, work it out. There is a fierce resolve to make even the most difficult situations work, because for us, there is no other way. Luckily, we have very few of those situations, and hopefully they will always be rare.

So, I guess I’m very happy, because, in spite of myself, I have managed to find a really great husband who loves me even at my worst and who I love no matter what.

Today has been a good day, mostly because we got to relax at my parents’ house and actually have a quiet day off for once. I’m just sitting here listening to the people letting off fireworks all over town. I hope they give it up eventually, or Alex is going to wake up when I open the window upstairs.

Bellatrix

This is a funny song I found on the web, here.

If you know anything about Harry Potter and Bellatrix Lestrange, you will find this funny.

Always a Woman to Me

A filk by Murasaki to the tune of the same name by Billy Joel

Rodolphus Lestrange sings about his unusual wife.

RODOLPHUS: She can kill with one spell, she can wound without glance;
She violently battles as if she’s entranced.
She’s no reservations; she’s to the extreme.
She fights with the men, but she’s always a woman to me.

She’s a sense of power; she knows spells and she means them.
She’s a fondness for pain and a penchent for mayhem.
And she’s intensely devoted to our master Lord V.
She may be his right hand, but she’s always a woman to me.

Ohhh, she’s pureblood all along.
A Lestrange she is, a Noble Black she was.
Ohhh, and she never gives up,
And she never gives in; she’ll die before she does.

You’ll think you’ve encountered a feminine demon
For she’ll ruthlessly hex you and laugh while you’re screaming,
And she brought out the meanest and the worst I could be,
But now she’s my wife ’cause she’s always a woman to me.

Ohhh, she’s pureblood all along.
A Lestrange she is, a Noble Black she was.
Ohhh, and she never gives up,
And she never gives in; she’ll die before she does.

She’s daringly proud and she’s ruthlessly cruel;
I should have seen it back when we were in school.
She once was convicted; she served faithfully.
So strong’s her duty she’ll kill family,
But she’s always a woman to me.

Me and my crazy ideas

For starters, I’ve always enjoyed history, not from a purely scholary standpoint, but from the view of the “common man.” I like obscure history, not just the main points. I like thinking that there were actual people who thought and behaved like I do. I like the idea that history isn’t just the main points that we so often touch on, but that it is full of real people who did real things, whether or not they were remembered for them.

I digress. My favorite topic in history is that of the Old Testament. I may have mentioned this before, but the OT fascinates me, probably for the above reasons. I spent a lot of time about maybe a year or two ago trying to put together a timeline of the Old Testament people, based on references in and out of the text, and concluded that it was more of a “grad-school” project that I didn’t really have a lot of time to do at that moment. I think if I ever go back to college, I would want to get a degree in ancient history, even though a degree might suck all the fun out of it for a while.

Anyway, this really isn’t about that, anyway, it’s about Harry Potter. Okay, what does Harry Potter have to do with history? Well, not a whole lot, but it’s fun to think about even imaginary histories, as far as I’m concerned. After reading the books through last year, I started going back through them and finding references to different places within the school of Hogwarts, hoping I might be able to put together some blueprints. Well, that wasn’t totally impossible, in fact, I was able to do it in a matter of days. I just never got around to putting together a blueprint.

Why, you might ask, would I want to do that? Okay, so my other passion comes out, that is, architecture. And what I’ve been trying to find out in the past few hours is how a massive castle such as Hogwarts could possibly exist having been built in roughly 1000 AD. Because, frankly, such castles were not even thought of at that time. Sure, a bunch of wizards did it, but it makes me wonder about the backstory. I think about things that the author herself may have never considered. Maybe Hogwarts started out much smaller, and as it got more popular, the wizarding world “grew” the building until it was the size it is today. Okay, I’m totally making that up, because I don’t know what Ms. Rowling really thought about this. The fact is that the castle is far to large and elaborate to even be historically accurate to the time it was supposedly built.

As I have time (who has any of that, anyway?), I really hope to finally piece together a Hogwarts blueprint that is as accurate as it can be, one that Rowling would be proud of.

Parry Otter!

So, I just finished reading the last of the Harry Potter books yesterday, and I have a lot of thoughts, mostly things I’ve thought before, but forgot about, but some new things that I found interesting.

For one thing, book 6 seems rather rushed. Reading it the first (2) time(s) (I honestly can’t remember how many times I’ve read it), I feel like things were different this time. Maybe because I didn’t read the books all the way straight through before, and this time I did, with the exception that I read book 2, then book 7, then book 3, etc… I never realized that it seems a little rushed in the way it goes through Harry’s feelings for Ginny and some of the other issues he’s having in the book, particularly Snape, Malfoy, Potions and needing to get a memory from Slughorn. Also, I noticed that he only goes to Dumbledore’s office 3-4 times, which isn’t really that often, especially over the course of a year, but given that Dumbledore is never at the school between the lessons, I guess that is a lot. The book is very fast paced, given that it tells the story of an entire school year, which I guess bothers me quite a bit. Actually, it’s the one thing that bothers me about the entire series, the fact that each book is a different year, even though the things in it could potentially happen in a much shorter span of time.

Anyway, I have finally realized which order I favor the books in, and here goes:

Book 7: All-time favorite.

Book 5: Great, humorous, and serious all at once.

Book 3: So complex, yet so simple, my favorite part is all about the time-turner.

Book 6: Finally, we’re getting somewhere, we finally learn what this is all about.

Book 4: A little over-drawn, honestly, there’s a lot going on here, and half of it doesn’t really make sense.

Book 1: Always a classic, though to be honest, the first 2 books aren’t my favorite because the writing style is not as mature. You can tell as Harry develops as a teenager, Rowling develops as a writer.

Book 2: Not sure why it’s last, except that it was the hardest for me to get through, meaning the least interesting.

Overall, it’s definitely my favorite newer series of books, and is an instant classic because of it’s readability and the emotion that you can feel eminating from the books. You can laugh and cry in the same book, and Harry’s feelings just seem to connect with reality so well.

A garden in the making

Okay, so I haven’t got pictures of it yet, but I just started ripping up the grass for my garden this morning. I planted the carrot seeds, praying that they’ll sprout and really praying that they’ll grow to a good size.

I have about 6 varieties of veggies to plant; peas, beans, etc. The garden is roughly 4×12′ or will be once I am finished.

Let me tell you, this is BACK-BREAKING work. I haven’t even got through 2 strips of grass yet, and I’m exhausted. Put on the 90 degree heat, and I’m sweating buckets. I am smart enough NOT to try to dig in the middle of the day, I did some this morning, and a little this afternoon, hoping to do another strip tonight.
Honestly, even though it seems to me that this may be more expensive than just buying the vegetables, I find it oddly satisfying to do the work myself. I’m starting to understand why people pay others to do their gardening/landscaping, but the satisfaction of digging up your own, provided you have the strength, is worth the effort, to me anyway. Will I be saying that in August, who knows???

I’ve also got some tomato and pepper plants–bell peppers, that is, and herbs that mom gave me seeds for. The herbs are doing the best, while the others, I just hope they do okay in their respective pots for now. I also have to keep a preschooler off the garden–Nour likes to dig, and almost dug the tomato plant back out of the pot right after I’d planted it… I need to get that girl her own garden (read: pile of dirt), huh?

Cute stinkin’ kid

Nour was playing in her room this afternoon, and I thought it seemed awfully quiet, so I went to check on her, and she was having a tea party with four of her closest friends–or babies. She had moved her table, set up 3 chairs, a stroller, and an elephant rocker with four dolls, and plates of “food” (blocks) all around. It was very sweet, and I took some pictures of it. She is becoming more imaginative every day, which worries me, because she’s also started figuring out some things I’m not quite ready for her to know…

“It’s raining on my face up there”

Nour says this as she is spitting into the air and the fan blows it back in her face. Ah, three year olds, gotta love ‘em.

Well, it’s near sweltering outside, and I’ve got 3 fans blowing, all the windows open, and we’re drinking lots of water. Of course, I worry about Alex, because he only drinks milk, and at body temperature, I might add. He’s keeping cool in a tank-top onesie, though.

I just finished reading Prisoner of Azkaban, and I’m starting Voyage of the Dawn Treader, going back and forth between two book series is kind of fun, and really not confusing. I haven’t read Dawn Treader in a while, but I still remember the first time I read it, I cried a lot. I’m pretty sappy when it comes to books. I have read Deathly Hallows 4 times now and cried each time. I just re-read Prince Caspian a couple weeks ago, and am slowly reading it aloud to Nour, who is remotely interested, but falls asleep as I read, so it’s been slow going.

Speaking of the Prince, we went last night to see the movie, because I have been bugging Sam off-and-on for about 2 weeks to go. He wanted to go, so we finally made it last night. It was easy enough, Nour was pretty tired and fell asleep about 1/2 way in, and Alex was pretty compliant. I missed about 4 minutes, but not enough to be too significant, I think I know what happened during that time. I was pretty surprised at the changes made, having just read the book, but I think they wanted more interactions between Prince Caspian and the Pevensies than there actually is in the book. There’s only about 3 chapters worth, if you haven’t read it. I am really hoping that Dawn Treader is true to the book, or truer, because I think it’s a pretty straightforward story. I can’t wait for that movie, though. I think next to LWW, DT is my favorite Narnia book.

So after I’m finished with this book, I’m going to go back to reading Harry Potter. I realized that I like certain ones better than others. Honestly, the first two are rather dry to me, there are funny spots, but the second book was incredibly difficult to pick up for a second time. I will have to finish the next three before I come to any definite conclusions, but my favorite by far is Book 7, with Book 3 in second place. I liked 5 and 6, but I really like how Book 3 plays out, as confusing as it gets in the end. The movie really changed from the book, but in a similar way to Prince Caspian, it kept the essential elements, and even some minor details, just not in the exact same spot.

I’ve been in a booky mood lately, as you can tell. I have read 4 Harry Potter books, a Narnia book, and some other random stuff since the beginning of the year. If only the same enthusiasm transferred to my Bible reading. I plan on finishing Harry Potter, Narnia, and possibly re-reading the Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit before all is said and done. It might take me till the end of the year, but I’ll do it!

A three year old’s definition of marriage

“Luke (B.) belongs to Jene, and Jene belongs to Luke, and Sarah and Luke (D.) are the same.”

For once

They’re ALL asleep and I can take a break. I’ve managed to pack all of Nour and Alex’s clothes for our trip, but have a million things running through my brain that I need to get done as well. I have actually started a list, because otherwise, I know I’d forget.

Nour has been really weird lately. She threw 3 tantrums on Monday night, AFTER she had taken a sufficient nap. And she hasn’t gotten much better the past 3 days. She is very excited about going to Sarah’s house, she won’t stop talking about it, and I have had to explain to her every day how many more days it will be. Tomorrow, finally!

Anyway, I’m just catching up on blogs right now, and realizing that I haven’t been writing a whole lot lately. It’s mostly because I’m completely exhausted, and finding it very difficult to find time to sit down alone. During the day, it seems like I’m always having to take care of someone, I hadn’t had a moment where 3 kids were all sleeping in at least a week, so getting a chance to be alone for 4 minutes was most difficult. I’m glad we’re going out of town tomorrow, and I’m even more excited that Sam gets to go to Washington for the first time. I have no clue what we’ll do down there, but I know he’ll love taking pictures of it, whatever “it” is!

Growth Spurts and Double-fisted eating

Today is the second day of Alex’s current growth spurt. How do I know? Yesterday he ate non-stop, today he’s sleeping non-stop. (Well, not really “non-stop” but a lot.) He’s also developed a lovely case of baby acne all over his face–even his ears!

We had “Smiles” for lunch today, and Nour called them crackers. She really liked them, but hadn’t had them in a while, so I thought it would be a nice treat. I gave Lily 2 of them, they’re basically fried mashed potatoes in the shape of a smiley face, so they have a “crunchy” crust containing the soft potatoes. She was alternating hands, with one smile in each hand, and she seemed to really enjoy them.

We’re heading on vacation at the end of the week, and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s been a while since we’ve been out of town, the last time being a short trip to Cincinnati back in November, less than a day. Alex should do well, I hope, because we’ll be stopping every 2 hours, and I’m hoping he’ll just sleep in between. We’re leaving in the late afternoon, so I’m also hoping Nour will at least take a nap for a while as we get on our way. I’m glad to be getting a vacation so soon, especially because Sam probably won’t get one for a while unless they find new employees for the bank quickly. His branch is short a manager, a part-time teller, and soon to be a teller coordinator. I’m probably about as excited about the prospect of a long, weekend-less summer as he is, but I’m hoping to start practicing driving soon and would love to get my license by the end of summer, if not a little sooner if I’m ready. Sam will be getting his motorcycle license eventually as well, which will leave me with the car when he goes to work, which would be awesome if gas prices go down… I would love to have the freedom to get the groceries on my time, and maybe even go to a play area or pool occasionally. Lord willing, we’ll get there sooner rather than later…