The Daily Hughes

Chess-t

2012-02-06T17:35:00.000-08:00

Oh the innocent humor that is behind Henry's latest obsession! Saturday afternoon, Mark showed Henry a chess game on his computer. After about a half hour, he was hooked! He learned a few piece names, where they moved, and learned how to use the "help" button so he could do it on his own. All the while, I was patiently waiting (aka - getting some emails out) for them to finish so I could take Henry to the library. Before we left Henry said "Chest is my new favorite game!" Haha! Then Mark suggested that we should look for a book or movie at the library on chess. When we got to the library, Henry cut right to the chase. Immediately, in the loudest and clearest voice that I've heard him use in public, he asked a sweet lady "Do you have a book or movie on chest?" I knew he'd say it like that, so I was expecting the librarian to look a little shocked or confused at his not-so-age-appropriate request. She must be fluent in toddlerese because she quickly responded "On chess? Let's go take a look." Later, she did give me a "that's so funny" look when she heard him say it again.

On the way out of the library, we stopped and watched 4 old men playing on one of the tables together. It was hilarious to hear them trash talking each other. Boys will be boys - even when it comes to geriatric chess. The "word in the library", is that they come every weekend. Woohoo! And, from observing them myself for just a few minutes, I think they must stay a long LONG time, so no rush if we want to catch them again. I heard one of them say "That's fine! It was your turn to win....I already beat you six times in a row!"(Then proceeded to switch chairs to play a new partner).

Well, Henry DID come home with a book on chess for children (it's might as well be for adults it looks mighty boring - just the book, not chess in general). But he loves it and brought it with him to a baptism we attended that night, to church the next day, AND was the first thing he asked for when he came into our room this morning to wake us Mark up this morning. What a cute little dweeb I have!!

It's hard not to snicker. Especially when he says "I love chest!"

The Journey Continues

2012-02-03T07:02:00.000-08:00

Have I said how grateful I am to have changed pediatricians? Well I'll say it again....I'm so happy we switched!!

Henry has had a hard couple days filled with non-stop coughing. I let it go one day with me trying to just do what I thought was best. I gave him his ventolin as scheduled, lots to drink, a little fresh air (it was a warm day), and got him to bed early. I even pulled out our stethoscope (a real one that Mark sterilized after he and Henry found it on a walk close to our apartments - probably was our ~~arrogant~~ confident and frequently shirtless neighbor's who was a med student) and couldn't hear any wheezing or anything abnormal in his lungs. Just an FYI - I'm not a doctor but I obviously like to pretend. Anyways, he wasn't showing any other symptoms of a cold and hasn't for a long time, so I'm thinking asthma, asthma, asthma. PS - according to many online resources, you can have asthma without wheezing

During the night he was great. But as soon as his tooshy got out of his bed, the chorus of hacking began again. So this time we steamed him, gave him his inhaler again and just waited to see what happened until the dr's office opened. It was still bad enough that I made the call. We got an appointment a few hours later and I had another great conversation with a different doctor there. She checked him out and heard him cough and ruled out this being just asthma because the inhaler would have stopped the coughing. She listened to me long enough to hear all the "clues", that maybe he has something going on in his sinuses and is experiencing post nasal drip (something that I had thought of but hadn't mentioned yet). He's lying down all night, things are dripping and collecting for hours and as soon as he gets up it takes a few hours to clear it out and bothers him enough to cough every few seconds. She thinks it's all allergy related and saw other indications that it could be. So now we have the H-dogg on a child's antihistamine.

Later yesterday I also got the results back from his allergy test....and...drum roll....NOTHING! Nada! He's not allergic to anything that we tested for. Milk, eggs, wheat, soy, all nuts, tree nuts, apples, and environmental things... all clear! This is good but bad news. She gave me some advice and wants me to come in again to do the skin test once he's off the antihistamines. (This was blood work).

Today he woke up as per his usual coughing, but is doing great now. I'm thinking the Allegra is working.

The journey continues....

The Mom Gut

2012-01-30T18:52:00.000-08:00

This post has a double meaning:

The first being that for years I've had a "feeling" deep down that something is just off with Henry's health. He's a smart little crumpet, but every time he gets sick he ends up coughing for weeks and weeks and weeks, especially at night. He also has some eczema on his arms and legs and sometimes complains about his tummy. Not really serious health problems, but enough to bother me and have me try to get to the bottom of it. Our former pediatrician wasn't really hearing me when I would bring things up. He also wasn't very tender to my kids. He would come in, poke and prod and that was about it. Nice man but didn't even try to make things easier for my kids. So, I went with my gut and changed pediatricians.

Our first appointment with Dr.#2 was awesome. Right away she was like "well maybe he has asthma." Then she said "lets send him to an allergist" and then also prescribed him an inhaler. THANK YOU!! She also actually talked to my kids and was so sweet to them. When I got home I called the allergist and got in on a cancelled appointment the next day. So now we're just waiting to see if anything comes back. I feel peace just knowing that I'm soon going to have answers.

Next topic. My other gut. Other than one 20 minute bball pick up game this last Saturday, I haven't run a distance further than my car to the house in almost two months and I have a permanent grouchy mood to prove it! Watch out!!! And because my endorphins have been caged, I've had very little motivation to get out of this cycle. I'm just seriously craving a team to join to get me out at least once or twice a week at night consistently. Something for ME! I've tried looking into rec basketball and vball leagues here on LI and either they are secret underground mafia leagues or they just simply don't exsist at all. The university only allows students and faculty to play in their intramurals and so I don't think it's going to happen. (anger) So I'm trying other ways to make sure my physical mom gut doesn't get the best of me.

Picknames

2012-01-16T22:25:00.000-08:00

One night while we were staying with Mark's parents, Henry decided that he wanted to be called by a nickname. He chose "Frank". So for the next few hours we referred to Henry as Frank and if we got it wrong, Henry (or should I say Frank), corrected us. Later that night he added "Scoot" as another option.

The next day Grandy and I took Frank and Jane to the park. On the way there, I caught Frank picking his nose in the car and must of said "Hey Frank, stop picking your nose!" (or something motherly like that) Which then just gave him the idea of his next nickname of "Pick". Hope that one doesn't make a comeback when he'd older in school.

Shirley

2012-01-16T22:05:00.000-08:00

Us Hughes did our annual reverse snowbird trip up to Canada for Christmas again. Maybe I'll try a real snowbird trip one day. It's a love/hate relationship I have with these voyages. Maybe I'm a wuss, but traveling with little ones is hard and I never look forward to the flight plus the change of time and pace for my kids. This momma worries! But it's all worth it to get to see our families and close friends.

One experience I was sure not to miss was a chance to see my Aunt Shirley again. Six months ago she was diagnosed with rectal cancer. I saw her back in August before she started treatments. She looked as she usually does, beautiful and elegant but with a cloud of the unknown ahead of her. After a round of chemo and radiation, her body has taken a toll. She is lighter, weaker and broken. She says her stomach is constantly growling and food goes straight through her and she is in a lot of pain. She lives on a bowl of cream of wheat in the morning and a boost at night, if that. I never knew what battling cancer looked liked. I just heard the word "battle" tossed around. But now I have a small glimpse. She is, however, still so beautiful and is full of grace.

When we (my sister Alyson's family and ours) got to my Aunts house, we were told by my cousin and uncle that she would only be able to come down and visit for 10 - 15 minutes. She was just too weak for more than that. Of course we were happy to get even those offered to us. But something short of a miracle happened. What was supposed to be 15 minutes turned into a long, amazing, two hour plus visit. We were entertained by stories of her dating life (which could be a romantic comedy, seriously - guys fighting for her left and right), I was able to share with them a slideshow I had made for them of all the cousin's families from this past year. She talked and talked and the more she talked the more I wished I could just visit her every day and hear her tell me more...about everything.   She shared with us a very special experience that a family member had in the temple recently that I will never forget. I will record that elsewhere. Her testimony is so strong. She reiterated over and over again that what she is taking from this is that NOTHING is more important than families. She said that she doesn't worry about things the way she did before (referring to mainly politics). This coming from a staunch republican at such a heated time as now. Family is EVERYTHING she said. Numerous times.

I could feel her love and gratitude emanating from her. She was amazing before, but is even more so now because (or despite) her trial. I know this concept, but am reminded by her experience - that this is why sometimes "bad things" like cancer happen to people in the world. That we (people) are reminded what is important in this mortal life. We begin to look beyond ourselves. Families, friends and communities are united when one suffers. Hearts are softened, perspective sets in and love takes over. It can be beautiful. It's something that I don't believe can happen without sacrifice. I look at my relationships around me and those that I'm closest with, I have suffered with.

The good-bye to that visit was beyond hard. It seemed like after every sentence I spoke at the entry way, there was an embrace immediately after. Hug after hug after hug after hug. Tears, tears and more tears. She just didn't want to let me go and neither did I.   I don't know what the future holds but I am grateful for that experience. I feel somewhat regretful for not paying more attention to her humor, knowledge and wisdom growing up. Its hard to play catch up but I will try.

Smarter Than Your Average Bird...and Animal

2011-10-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

For most of my life I have had a pretty extreme dislike/fear of birds - particularly black crow-like ones but really ALL birds. I just feel like they have an unfair advantage being able to fly and all. For years, my backyard and street were filled with dive-bombing, yellow-eyed, grackles that looked like they came straight from the underworld. I have memories of having to run like heck to school in the middle of the road, sometimes with a bicycle helmet on, clapping my hands above my head like a maniac so they wouldn't peck my head. Just an awful and embarrassing time of my life.

This evening Mark and I were chillaxing in front of the tube after the kids had gone to bed. With the lack of quality television combined with our lack of options, we were almost forced to watch a pbs documentary on crows. It was called "A Murder Of Crows". It took me about half the documentary to realize there wasn't going to be an actual murder performed by the crows, but that a "murder" is what they call a large group of crows. Can there be a worse name for a group of anything?? Even the term "gang" sounds friendlier. I wanted to turn it off, but thought I should learn about my enemy...you know what they say.

What I learned is that scientists all over the world are realizing that the crow is one of the most intelligent species, right up there with apes (humans being top of course). I learned that crows have facial recognition for a period up to two years. They can pick individuals out of a group. They teach each other about their experiences. They make and use intricate tools. Can perform at least a three step problem solving task to obtain food (that was amazing to watch). A certain reward type cognitive test was completed at about the same level as a small child - way faster than dogs. And the list goes on...but really do you care??

My point is that I have a new found "respect" for the bird. However my fear is almost heightened knowing that an over-passing black scary omnivor can look at me, remember me, tell all their other evil bird friends about me which = my chances of getting pecked that much higher....or at least in my brain. I could run and hide but unfortunately the only continent without crows is Antarctica...and I don't think Antarctica has a Target so that's a no-go.

The First of Many Fall Photos

2011-10-12T19:33:00.000-07:00

If there's pumpkin and child within a few feet of eachother, be assured that I'll be reaching for my camera. There's just something about the bright orange against my pasty white children's skin that I love. Here's just a few of hopefully many more fall photos to come this year. We still need to make it out to a pumpkin patch....hopefully this weekend if I can get the old man to agree to it. Speaking of "old man", Mark is currently in the process of training Henry to refer to him as his "old man". I however, think "mom" is fine and will give out smacks to whoever dares call me "old woman". Anyways, enjoy!

Part 3 - Plymouth and Newport

2011-10-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

On our next and final day away we decided that our way home would be slow but we'd get to see a few more spots along the way.

First final day stop, PLYMOUTH, MA. I had really wanted to go there from the beginning. One of my aunts (a family history buff) had figured out that we had relatives that came over on the Mayflower. I called her the night before we went, and to my surprise I was told we were actually related to about 7 or 8 of the passengers that came over. After the phone call I stayed up and tried to learn as much as I could about the whole thing. I sort of felt like I was on an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" It was/is really exciting to find out about your ancestors. Anyways, here's some photos.

View of the shore where the ship landed.

The Mayflower II up close. What a beaut!

"The" Rock.

The other side of the shore.

The Rock's "house" so to speak. You can see it at the bottom behind the black gates.

Up close shot of the monument for the people who didn't make it through the first winter. About half of the passengers didn't survive. Sad! If you look closely you can see Edward Fuller and his wife. That was one of my relatives.

William Brewster, another one of my relatives. He became the main Elder (in the "new world") of the religion that the pilgrims practiced.

Me with the monument for William Brewster. They dedicated this park to him.

Henry trying to ring the unringable tied up bell on the ship.

The captains quarters.

Middle level of the ship. I think there were actually three levels. This level is where everyone hung out and slept. The lowest level is where the animals and supplies were kept. Interesting fact - while they were traveling across the ocean, they gave even young children and babies beer because it was "cleaner" than the water. Poor babies!

Mrs. Mayflower?? jk

NEWPORT, RI

As I was updating my status about our trip on facebook, a friend of mine suggested we check out Newport, RI if we had time. So, I googled it, realized it looked pretty beautiful and that it was on the path home so we added it to the agenda. I'm SOOOO glad we did. It was better than we thought. We definitely want to go there for a longer stretch of time. The town is so so so cute and historical, there's hundreds and hundreds of sailboats and then there's the other side of the water that has all the amazing mansions. It's the sailing capital of the world and I'm told that the Kennedy's would often vacation there. If it's good enough for the Kennedy's, it's good enough for the Hughes! Here's us on a cliff walk by the mansions. Sorry no photos of the town or boats. The pictures definitely don't do it justice.

THE FERRY HOME

One the way to Boston we took the cheaper yet longer way around the Long Island Sound. We decided it was well worth the money and could be part of the adventure if we paid the moola to take the ferry across on the way back. It was so fun for the kids to drive the car on to the boat, get out and party on the deck. I wish it wasn't so dang expensive cause we'd do it way more often.

I bet you didn't know a strand of hair could make a question mark.

Mohawk.

Mini lighthouse in the background.

Incredible sunset and perfect way to end our trip!

Boston - Normal

2011-10-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Boston - Normal. Definitely not as weird or thrilling as the prior post, but still important enough to document. After reading both posts, just mix all the stories and pictures up and there you have our day in Boston. Plymouth, MA and Newport, RI were day 2 of our trip. Still to come...

Henry in front of the Massachusetts State Building and the crazy boat/bus. We saw a bunch of those weird looking amphibious tour vehicles around downtown. I guess they go from street to water and back without having to stop. Pretty cool! Maybe next time we'll try it out...if we're not feeling our usual cheap selves. I also can go from street to water and back for free, just at a slower pace.

We visited a very very old graveyard. This is where Benjamin Franklin's parents are buried. I wonder if there's an open plot next to them. I can see them as being great grave neighbors.

Some other really old tombstones. There's something really cool about graveyards I think. I've often thought about doing pictures there with the kids just because of the textures and such, but then realize how creepy people might think that is. Well, just don't be surprised if you see a post of Jane popping her head out from behind a gravestone in the future. It still could happen.

Walking, riding and sleeping on the "Freedom Trail". This is also Mark BEFORE he bought his fake Ray-Bans.

One of the stops on the "Freedom Trail". I think this was the top of the Old South Meeting House. Not sure, so we'll just pretend if it's not.

Very cool that the meeting that started the Boston Tea Party was held here... along with many other cool things.

This Chipotle (a very yummy restaurant) was once the Old Corner Bookstore, Boston's oldest commercial building. Steve Ells was probably pretty excited about this opening.

Quincy Market (Aka - Faneuil Hall Marketplace). This marketplace is over 250 years old. It was a lot of fun to hang out there. Just a lot to see and do...and eat.

A pretty decent street performer in front of Quincy. I was entertained (and I'm not an easy audience). While I'm on the subject, I have no idea how many shows this guy does a day. But using my mad estimation skills (say he did 3 shows a day) I bet he's walking home with somewhere between $300-$500/day. I saw the full sack of money with my own eyes. He just empties it out before each performance to look poor. If he's doing that all summer, that's some decent coin man. I'm almost ready to tell Mark to quit school and dust off his yoyo and magic lights. And...when the season is done here, he's probably off in other countries doing the same thing. They say they're lowly....but I know the truth!!!

Mark didn't push ALL day.

Panini? Yes please!


Can't smile with my mouth full!

Trying to get a laugh out of a tired little Jane.

Henry looks like he's growling at the swans. That probably came from me...I don't like them, don't trust them, and don't like being close to them. I've seen too many rogue swans in my day. Also, notice something different about Mark?

Keeping the crazy girl back. She has a lot to learn about swans.

Boston - Abnormal

2011-10-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

To celebrate our 5 years of wedded bliss, Mark and I decided to take a quick couple days and explore the some more of the "east syyyyde". We loaded the ipod with movies, tossed the kids in the car (yes, the kids came) and were Boston bound. The trip was perfect. It feels like forever since we last had taken a family vacation with JUST US. We went at our own pace, decide what worked best for us and didn't worry about anyone else (so selfish I know). Our trip was short but had a lot packed in. I've decided to separate the trip into two blog posts. "Boston - Normal" and "Boston - Abnormal". I'm treating you to the "abnormal" first. Just a few weird things that either happened to us or that we saw.

First off, just a photo of a very unique looking and sounding busker. I never knew fedoras and argyle would work so well together. Glad the dog was comfortable in his classy blanket. And a million dollars to the first person to name that instrument. I actually can't remember if we gave him anything. I'm going on my gut and thinking we did..maybe a single.

Busted! He's totally breaking character. He should be sipping water from a ladle and eating biscuits from a pouch. But honestly, who could stay in full character when there's a pretzel stand on your corner. Also (just thought of this), it's probably also hard to "go on lunch" as that kind of street actor. It would take half your break to take the costume off. He's excused.

Nothing abnormal about this photo (except for that lady who looks like she's about to sleep on Mark). This is just the preface to the next photo story. We were in Quincy Market eating lunch. After Henry was done I took him to look at some of the kiosks while Mark finished up with Jane. The story continues....

Once Henry and I returned from our browsing, the jolly yellow trolly man got my attention and said to me in a very serious voice pointing at Mark, "HE IS A GOOD GOOD FATHER!!" It did not stop there, he continued to sing Mark's praise for another 5 minutes (at least) and, I don't know how, but somehow halo's and medals were talked about. New captain of the fan club. He didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, but what this means is basically I have some serious Christmas shopping to do! No, but it did make me think about how much time this man spends people watching (he's basically paid to be in a people watching cube), and how fantastic yet sad it is that Mark stood out so much. I'm so happy I snagged him, but I'm also sad that there's not more dads like him out there. BTW, next time we go to Boston, we're getting a steal of a deal on Trolly Tours. Yes!

Humans are dumb. What do they do when there is potential danger lurking? They get out their cameras and cell phones and gather around that potential danger to see what is going on. Curiosity killed the cat and probably a lot of nosy people. I'm the first to admit that I'm nosy. We saw roads blocked off, people gathered, lots of talking and looking up, a few police cars topped off with a splatter of helicopters hovering above...how could we not check it out? Well what happened was there was an earthquake (the one that hit Virginia and was felt up the east coast), and I guess someone called in who thought that one of the buildings behind me looked or sounded unstable. Maybe it IS leaning a tad to the left.... Anyways, a nice fireman suggested in an "I know what's really going on, hero fireman" kind of voice that we should leave the area because we have children. Thank you! I appreciate it...but what about the others who don't have children with them?? Shouldn't they leave too??

The exciting conclusion of this story is that the building was fine and we didn't even know there was an earthquake when it happened - felt absolutely nothing. I bet, while all the rumbling was going on, I was in the middle of the "your husband is awesome and you better reward him" lecture from the yellow trolly tours man. Wait, did I say it was an exciting conclusion??

The helicopters above.

Man in a wheel chair device fishing for a kite...or maybe fishing for something else using a kite as bait. I'm having a hard time thinking what would eat a kite.

Somewhat disturbing fountain sculpture of two naked children. Is it disturbing or am I just that uncultured?


My cute man splashing in the inappropriate fountain.

And so concludes the tale of Boston - Abnormal. Stay tuned for our other adventures in Boston - Normal. Sounds dull right? Well we'll see.

All Dressered Up

2011-09-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

After 5 years of staring at this dresser (that was so graciously handed down to us from Mark's parents), and hauling it from Alberta to Ontario and then with us here to NY, I finally had the guts and time to have some fun with it. I figured this time of year was perfect. Not scorching hot and the leaves haven't started to fall yet. So with Mark on kid duty, I woke up early Saturday morn and got started.

BEFORE - not the best before picture. The plastic green handles were already off and some drawers gone but you get the point...definitely in need of a makeover.

I spent some time sanding (and felt super macho doing it) but the sander I was using only got the finish off and didn't touch the paint. I gave up and just decided to prime over the green. Soooo, much faster.

After the 1st coat of primer.

I forgot to get some more "in between" photos. But here is the finished product. TaaDaa!! I decided to go with yellow because 1) I love the color and it makes me happy and 2) We're still young(ish) and living in an apartment so why not be daring. I really love it. It compliments my chairs that I covered a while back and also my matching frames that I painted the same color. I'd like to give a shout out to my neighbor Brian who gave me the courage to crack open my glaze. It's very subtle but gives it that little bit of aged look. Thanks good neighbor!


Here is my stud of a boy. He looks so old here.

Mark was very patient the whole day, even made a trip to Home Depot for me. Such a good hubby! Sadly, he thought I was done until he came home yesterday and saw paint chip samples on the table. The walls are next!

What Do You Get A Dad With Too Many Ties?

2011-07-07T19:02:00.000-07:00

Mark may tan my hide for this...but I thought this video was too ridiculous to keep to myself and my laptop.

Background: While my friend Lori and I were in the city we stopped by F.A.O. Schwarz and saw an employee demonstrating this magic trick. I was thoroughly entertained and I don't know why - my husband has never before expressed an interest in magic - but I thought "I need to get that for Mark for Father's Day." I bought it, took it home, and weeks early, spoiled the surprise. We watched one YouTube demonstration and then off he went! What you'll see was his first attempt/performance. Not bad eh?? Since then, he's calmed down and entertained our kids numerous times. They love it, and that makes us love it, which makes it the best Father's Day gift EVER!

If you'd like to hire him for your birthday, stagette or anniversary party, please comment below with details. But I warn you, he's not cheap!

Turn up your volume and if you'd like, tilt your screen.

Picking Up the Pace

2011-07-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

So pretty much ever since I posted Jane's 10 month update, she's been a walking maniac. Walking has definitely brought out the crazy in her. At 11.5 months now her pace is almost at a run (a staggered drunken run) and I have to be "on alert" all the time. I've already lost her at church - momentarily, and today she booked it twice for the stairs at the library...me swooping in just in time. Time to get my head back on the swivel. Henry was so good at staying close. Jane just has that "look" in her eye. You know, the look. The look that's accompanied with the mischievous giggle and squeal. I love it though. She really is so awesome and has the sweetest personality.

Here's a glimpse of her walking about a month ago. Just fast forward at a x2 rate to see what she's like now. (And no, she didn't just come in from the sprinkler or pool...my kids are in a constant state of sticky sweat this summer. Oh humidity!!)

We Could Contain Him No More

2011-07-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've been going through my photos and videos recently and thinking "Wow, I need to blog about that, and that, and that...." the list goes on. One thing in particular I needed to document was the momentous move of Henry from his crib to his big boy bed. I know some parents are eager and excited to introduce their kids to freedom, but Mark and I would probably have teenagers in cribs if it was somewhat socially acceptable and didn't end us up on a talk show.

It all started when we had a family over for dinner and their daughter who is much more adventurous than Henry showed him how easy it was to get in and out of Jane's pack'n'play. I witnessed a toddler epiphany and knew our days were numbered with his crib. We were right. Probably a week (maybe two) after that, our little animal realized he had the brain and braun to escape from his cage too. So off to the storage locker we went and out came the BBB. He's done relatively well going to bed. Getting up in the morning has sucked the big one though. He rises SOOOO much earlier than he did before and comes into our room and gets us up. He refuses to sleep with us in our bed and won't go back to his. Yes, yes, we've thought about the lock on his door but we fear his tampering and attempts would just wake Jane up. The joys of a two bedroom apartment. Anyways, we've adjusted and it's fine. He loves it to pieces and every time someone new comes over he is quick to give them a tour.

Here's a video of us setting it up. Sorry it's sideways...not sure how to fix it...other than turn your screen clockwise 90 degrees.

Baby Jane - 10 Months Already

2011-05-19T18:47:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that this crazy girl is just two months away from her first birthday.

Mark and I really can't get enough of her. She is so awesome to have in our home. From morning until night she is constantly smiling and giggling. The laughter has even escalated ever since she has learned how to pull her self up on things and can move around. This milestone has truly rocked her world and she loves getting up in everyone's business. Every day she is getting closer and closer to walking. She's just now starting to be brave enough to let go and try and take steps to me. Right now she gets a kick out of letting go of whatever she's holding on to, then balances for a while and then leans back just enough to make herself fall smack on her bum...and then starts laughing at herself. It's really hilarious to watch.

Although she's getting closer and closer to walking, her crawling still needs some serious work. She is incredibly lazy when it comes to it and will only take 2 or 3 really awkward looking "crawling steps" before she gives up and flattens her body and just rolls over. Think of poor Bambi on ice and you will have Jane. Whatever motivated her to get up in the first place just wasn't worth it.

This standing business definitely has a downside. Just putting her down in her bed and letting herself fall asleep is not going so well anymore. She wants to be snuggled and will stand and fight almost to the death to get her way. We are working on this.

As for language, she has her baa's, daa's, faa's and vaa's down pat and I hear the occasional maa... (or maybe I'm wishfully imagining it...but I'm like 90% sure I've heard it).

I can tell she loves la musica. She either claps or puts her hands in the air when she hears a song come on. There's just so much I could say about her but all in all she is simply the best addition to our family I could have asked for.

Avril Leaving

2011-04-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

A quick glance at my title may make one think this post might have something to do with the young pop sensation from Canada. But no, it's a little more "complicated" than that. I'm about to talk more about how fast April, or "avril" en francais, has come and gone.

It seems like just yesterday I was splashing water on my pj's trying to convince the Marky Mark that I peed the bed. But no, that was almost an entire month ago. Yikers! Where has this month gone??

Well I will certainly tell you...it was good, bad and ugly.

~ I remembered that I was literate. The first time in __ years I picked up a book (aka downloaded one onto my phone), and started a leisurely read. It was the Hunger Games. I chased that bandwagon down and pushed a few people over to make room for me. I really enjoyed the first two books and have yet to finish the 3rd.

~ Henry had a severe case of the "2's/almost 3's" for a couple weeks. This kid was driving me bananas. He can be sweeter than honey this boy, but man he can also make my blood boil. The defiance was coming hard and strong, left and right, and that, on top of potty training and the onslaught of accidents was NOT fun, not fun at all. I once thought I was an extremely patient parent, but my normal plus emergency supply for 2011 was sucked dry in those few days. Maybe a silver parachute full of extra patience will magically float down from the sky when I'm about to absolutely loose it. (that was for all you Hunger Gamers out there).

~Primary Activity! Two weeks ago I had my first activity with the kids as el presidente. The theme was "Search, Ponder and Pray" (going along with the 2011 theme "I Know The Scriptures Are True"). We did a scavenger hunt, painted some rocks and had our bishop and one of his counselors act out a story about the golden plates. The best part was, we had about 30 kids who attended and seemed to really enjoy it. I was thrilled with the attendance and how everything came together. I can't thank my presidency enough for their hard work.

~Last Tuesday, I got a phone call from Mark telling me he was hit by a car (while on his bike). He was taken in an ambulance to the hospital. His bike was found wedged under the car and he was told by witnesses that he was thrown pretty far off it. His helmet has a small crack in it, making me SOOOO so so grateful he's smart and wears one....we need that brain of his! He jammed up his knee, elbow and shoulder and has the oozing road rash to prove it. But overall, he is okay. He's still needing to take it easy but he's doing okay. I really think he had some added protection and I thank my Heavenly Father it wasn't worse.

~The Hill's came! My sister, her husband and their two wonderful children came all the way from Alberta to visit us. We had such a fantastico time. We (minus Mark "the injured") went into the city not once, but twice and sure painted it red. We also ventured out passed the Hamptons to Montauk to see the tip of the island and the lighthouse there. Sunday we of course did the annual Easter egg rolling down a hill and also an egg hunt. And the other two days were spent around town, making sure we had our fill of Red Mango frozen yogurt and the scenes around the marina. Henry and Jane LOVED playing with their cousins and I loved being able to show another family member what us Hughes' are experiencing here in NY. It was awesome and I miss them all already.

~Now in just two days it will be Mark's birthday...the last day of the month. I will do my darndest to make sure "avril" is left on a good note!

Who's the Fool

2011-04-01T12:47:00.000-07:00

Last night while Mark was at the school I did a little digg'n around on the webbernet trying to find a perfect April Fool's Day joke to play on him. I wasn't in love with what I found. Most either required too much work (and let's face it, we all know I'm pretty lazy), or they were just cliche - like pretending you were pregnant. He'd be able to see right through any of those.

This morning I woke up and the light bulb came on immediately, pretty much as soon as my eyes opened. I'm not saying it was the best joke idea I've ever played on him, but it was quick, easy, unconventional and I thought pretty funny.

I saw that I had a little bit of water left in a glass I had in my room. So, I started cupping handfuls of water and throwing/patting them onto my pajama pants....aiming for the crotchal area. (You see where I'm going with this.) Once my pants looked convincing, I then poured a little on my side of the bed approximately half way down.

Mark was already up with the kids eating breakfast with them when I came out of our room and walked directly and quickly to our bathroom making a few dramatic huffs and frustrated grunts as I entered. After a few moments I called to him in a somewhat sad tone saying "Mark I think we need to change our sheets!" He came to the open bathroom door and asked why. His first thought was menstrual related - not pee related to which I'm sort of grateful for. When I told him it wasn't that, the look on his face was priceless. When it kicked in he said "You PEED the bed??" I told him to go look. He came back to me and was just completely shocked. His reaction and comments for the next few moments were a mix between disgust, excitement, laughter with a side tone of "you are never going to live this one down...I will mock you to the grave".

I really should have let it play out a while more but it wasn't long before I "April Fool's" him. He certainly was fooled..the wool practically had to be peeled back from over his eyes. However, who was the one who ate breakfast with cold wet pants on...ME! Maybe I was the fool too.

The BB 5K

2011-03-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, my wonderful friend and neighbor Brenda emailed me saying she was organizing her very own, homegrown, organic, 5K race and that I was invited to run with her. No money down! The only cause we were running for was a half hour away from our children. The date was set - March 12th, the course mapped, and the gun would go off at 8:30AM sharp. How could I pass this up? I definitely liked the idea and needed something to motivate me to exercise...so I committed. Well committed I was, but exercise I did not! I (no joke) ran 1/3 of the course twice over those few months prior and that was seriously IT. Pathetic, but I did it, and it was a BLAST!

There were 7 of us there that beautiful morning. We ran down main street to the marina, along the beach front, even hopped a small gate (steeplechase style) to run down to the very end of a dock, then around the beautiful village and back up to our apartments. It was more than picturesque. Once everyone finished and the sweaty after-shot was taken, we cooled down at my pad with some delicious, muscle bulking, protein smoothies (or mooshies as Henry calls them).

It was an awesome morning. I think everyone that was there (and a few more who couldn't make it) are excited for round 2. The plan is to do it every 4 weeks. Maybe I'll run a whopping 3 times before the next one! Thank You Brenda for planning this! Anyone interested in joining us that lives in the area is more than welcome. Just comment and I'll get back to you.

Oh and lest I forget...I think I need to mention that my friend who is almost 6 months pregnant tied for first (and I definitely wasn't the other "first" with her). Humbling indeed!

Here are the before and afters.

Before

After

Top Ten Reasons Why...

2011-03-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

I would not be a good contestant for "The Bachelor":

10. I don't know who would want to help watch my kids for months at a time.
9. I don't have my own set of vampire fangs and/or porcelain veneers.
8. I am only competitive when it comes to sports, buffets and parking stalls...not men.
7. I have a few stretchmarks and a little cellulite (aka cottage cheese). Shh!
6. I'd likely be labeled the "crier" because I'm emotional and sensitive and America would mock me...which would make me cry more.
5. I'm allergic to roses.
4. I do not have a great wet "emerging from a swimming pool" look.
3. I wouldn't be there for the right reasons. I'd be there solely for the food and travel opportunities (or to promote my new country album).
2. The production crew would be required to have an ample supply of ginger ale on hand for all the toasting that goes on.
1. Oh, and I'm MARRIED and already have someone to "guard and protect my heart".

Face to No-Face

2011-03-11T11:21:00.000-08:00

Do you see a problem with the photo below? Maybe it's not too obvious to someone who isn't hearing the dialog accompanying it.

Henry, my dear son, has recently decided he won't let his cars with faces play with his cars without faces. For example, yesterday while driving Henry routinely asked for some cars to hold. So, I cautiously dug around in the diaper bag and pulled out a nice melting pot of cars and handed it back to him (still cautiously). Well, this was not good. Not good at all. He reached and tried handing me one back with a face and requested a different car sans face. This is only one recent example. There have been others.

Then I wake up this morning to see this on the couch. I don't know about you, but I think I'm witnessing some serious toy segregation going on here.

I'm concerned. Next thing you know he'll be demanding separate toy bins to put them in at night. I want to nip this puppy in the bud before things get too out of control. Why can't we all just play together? It doesn't seem like it was that long ago when Lightning McQueen would happy crash into the DHL delivery van or Guido would pretend to change the tires of the no-name tow truck without question. I dream of a home where once again all cars can roam the couches and floors - together - free of stereotype. I hope this is just a phase and nothing more.

My Cupboard Door ReStore #2

2011-03-10T12:16:00.000-08:00

A long time ago in a far away post, I decided to share this project that I made for my good friend Jessica. I had started one for myself pretty much at the same time but unfortunately had a spray paint/wind/newspaper mishap, leaving me irritated, and leaving my cupboard door untouched for a very long time. I guess I don't do well with setbacks.

Eventually my laziness was overpowered by my annoyance of having my necklaces tangled up all over, so I dug out the sandpaper and got back on the horse. So after sanding, spraying, drying, measuring, drilling, screwing and hanging, here's what the end product looks like. I'm not claiming it's extravagant, but it does the trick and cost me almost nothing.

Naked

Clothed with jewels. Looks kind of messy I know. I didn't stage it, this is how I had it at the time. The photo above this one was after I took all of them off.

Saturday Fly By

2011-03-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

This last Saturday was the first in a what has seemed a very long time that neither Mark nor I have felt like we've had too much going on to do a longer outing with the family. Our plan was to explore some uncharted territory...go to a place where no Hughes has gone before. We decided on Brooklyn - Prospect Park to be exact.

Before we "hit the road", we made a few quick pit-stops, one being the bank. Mark mentioned to one of the tellers (he's quite chatty with the public) that we were headed towards the city. Thanks to his flirtatious ways, she then printed off a list of a few places in the city that were free the first Saturday of every month if you showed your bank card. Finally, something positive our bank has done for us.

One of the places on the list that popped out to us was the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. An air craft carrier turned museum. Even if the museum was a boring bust, you still got to go on an air craft carrier. We'd be fools not to check it out right? So, because us Hughes' fly by the seat of our pants, Brooklyn took a rain check and we set course for Manhattan.

Here's a few pics of the fun/educational day we had. It was great to see these amazing machines up close and learn the huge part this vessel played in history.

From the outside.

This plane was called "Blackbird" and can break the sound barrier. That yellow machine beside it has 2 V8 engines inside and is used to help get the plane's engines going fast enough before take off. The speical black paint somehow helps the plane from being detected by radar.

The helicopter in on the right is a coast guard helicopter and has rescued more people than any other in the world.

I think this was one of the jets on "Top Gun".

Weird looking plane used in radar detection.

I had never seen a cruise ship up close. This was in the neighboring dock. Have to admit, I really want to go on a cruise now and wave good-bye to all the suckers who don't get to come with me.

Henry and Mark flying a "MASH" type helicopter. Where's Hot Lips Houlihan?

Don't think Henry is cut out for space travel.

Oh Janey!

2011-03-04T13:44:00.000-08:00

Jane turned 6 months about 2 weeks before we were scheduled to return to NY. We decided to just wait to introduce solids to her until we were back home. Well, we had no idea what we were up against. It was like hitting a spitty, brick wall. It's like she thought we were feeding her poison.

Take a looksy.

The cuteness lasted about a week or so. Then, when her 7 month birthday came and went and nothing had improved, it started to stress this sister out a little bit. I know babies don't "need" food, that it's more just practice for the first while, but seriously, I began to wonder if she would like anything other than ME? Jane also decided bottles were for chumps and stopped taking one while we were away. So no bottles, no solids, just mama! I'm flattered..really.

Well good news, with MUCH faith, prayers, consistency, time and work, Jane will now feed from a spoon as well as take a bottle (both only to a certain degree). She still loves moi the best, but we're making progress. That's all I can ask for.

She keeps me on my toes, but I love this girl and can't get enough of her.

I'm Back Like a Heart Attack!

2011-03-02T17:02:00.000-08:00

I'm starting to see a pattern in my blogging. Over Christmas I plummet. A month or two goes by...I feel guilty...don't know how to catch up. And then BOOM, I'm back.   Just like a phoenix rising from the ashes. I'll try and break the trend come Dec. 2011, but please keep those expectations low (where they belong).

My life has been SO full and busy. Let's < < RW back to December and then quickly FF > > to now.

1. Went home to Alberta, Canada for Christmas for SIX (yes you heard me) weeks. It was so great to be home with family and friends. We didn't let too many days go by without some sort of visit or activity planned. We blessed Jane while we were there. We put a lot of Alberta mileage on Mark's parent's car. Both Jane and Henry were perfect little travelers (thank goodness). Needless to say, it was an absolutely exhausting 6 weeks. (Good exhausting!) I was so thrilled to be back in my own home after that to try and get back to routine.

2. Before we left for Canada I received a new assignment at church. I was called as the Primary president. I had one Sunday with the kids before I left. I had one meeting with my counselors before I left and the rest was done via email. I found it very difficult to not be there. The emails were numerous and lengthy which takes a lot of time. Luckily I have 3 AMAZING women working beside me who stepped up and worked extremely hard in my absence. I was really excited to see them and the kids my first Sunday back.

3. Primary catch up. As soon as we returned it was my month to do sharing time (we take turns a month at a time), the new 2011 theme needed to be put up in the room and a scripture reading challenge organized to go along with it, budgets set, teachers interviewed, activities and other dates set, meetings..etc. Pretty much every spare second I had was doing something related to primary. This sort of work is time consuming and can be emotional, but over all I really love it. I love teaching and hearing the children talk about eternal things that 99% of the world doesn't know - and should. It shocks me how smart and wise these kids are. I can also see areas of my life where I have definitely grown...and will probably need to grow more.

4. We moved Jane & Henry into the same bedroom. May not sound like a big deal, but it was something that I have been worried about as Henry was/is a light sleeper and Jane is still waking up on average twice a night. Nap times can be tricky because of schedules. Sometimes I lay Jane down on my bed, but overall, we've LOVE the change. They wake each other up way less than I thought they would.   Then it occurred to me...when Henry hears Jane cry, he knows there's nothing he has to do about. Just "noise" to a toddler. Might as well roll over and ignore it. I think he enjoys having someone else in there with him and now Mark and I have our room BACK!

5. I've become a math widdow. For the past three weeks Mark has come home for supper and the kid's bedtime and then gone back to school until at least midnight to study. Six out of seven days a week he's done this. Just yesterday he wrote his exam and PASSED! Hallelujah! I'm so happy for him. It's been a year and a half in the coming. Stage 2 of 3 of his PhD complete. Now all he has to do is write a thesis...in math...easy right?

6. Potty training. I didn't want to rush into this with Henry. I always said "I just want to do it and get it done." Well we're a week in in the wee wee training and he's only had probably 4 accidents in total. Sometimes it takes me a few seconds to realize he's telling me he has to go. He says "Mommy, I think I have some!" Pretty cute. I don't know when I'll have the guts to take him on an outing diaperless.

7. Jane has "started" eating solids. This is a post in itself. I think I said in my 4 month post that she was a monkey when it comes to eating. Well...not much has changed. I'll let a video speak for itself. Stay tuned for that.

I think those are all the main events. I'm probably missing some other ones that should seem obvious...but my mind is mush. Between all of the above and trying to keep my home stocked with food and not becoming a hazardous waste zone, while eating my weight in cookies to cope, February has been just one of those months. I will not miss you February! Sayonara!

March you better be better...and yes, that's a threat!

Jane Marie - 4 Months

2010-11-23T20:08:00.000-08:00

My little chicken nugget is growing and changing so much. I can't believe she is 4 months now. That's 1/3 of a year! She is such a wonderful addition to our family. She receives our sometimes suffocating love for her like a champ. Here's a few fun facts about my favorite little female friend (saw the alliteration and stuck with it...).

Most recent photo of Jane (left) snuggling her amiga Ayla (right). They are 4 weeks apart.

She was born a grunter. Stopped for a while. But is now in full grunt swing again.
She is obsessed with her toes. My friend Lori (mother of Ayla - above) asked when babies start playing with their toes. Me in my crazy absent mind said "oh I think it come a little later...maybe like 7 or 8 months." Not even two days after having that conversation, Jane found her piggies and can't leave them along. Boy was I way off.
Jane rolled at 9 weeks and did it oh, maybe a dozen times during that week or two, but decided it wasn't time yet to fully commit. She stopped and hasn't done it again.
She is a monkey when it comes to eating. She physically nurses well, but if there is the slightest bit of distraction...game ova!
She wakes up in the mornings incredibly happy.
Jane is becoming quite the little Grabby McGraberson. I love that she's starting to discover her world in this way. Brake out the baby toys.
Jane poops (strong and hard) when we least need her to...especially right before we leave for church. That seems to be her prime poop time. She always seems so proud of herself too. I think she likes to make us late just so she can "make an entrance".
I've just discovered that she might be a balla like her momma. While laying on her kick pad she gets annoyed with her hanging fish, but loves playing the hanging ball with a rattle in it. When she grasps it, I swear she's posing the triple threat position ready to either shoot, pass or dribble. As soon as she's walking, we'll be having our first one-on-one.
Oh and she can stick her whole fist in her mouth. Does she have an overly large mouth or just small hands? We're still trying to figure that out.

Race Day 2010

2010-11-09T12:14:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was the infamous "Race Day".

On the scale of

I think my fitness level was sadly still teetering more on the couch potato side than the hot chick with incredible arms side. I found the race to be harD (with a capital D). If my post-maternity atrophied muscles could talk, I think they would have been spewing out profanities. My memory of the course from last year was way off. There were twice the amount of hills than I recalled, whose slopes seemed much steeper. Several times I was disappointed as I came around a bend or reached the peak of a hill thinking I would then see the glow of the finish line, but only saw another hill and corner staring me in the face...almost mocking me. Yeesh, you'd think I was running the NYC Marathon by the way I'm talking.

It was only a 4K for goodness sakes!

Somehow I finished. I gave it my all. Sprinted the last 50m AND ended up beating my time from last year. How? I don't know. Despite my complaining, I'll probably do it again...just because it's good for me and it's great to have goals.

I was not alone in this endeavor. My friends Jackie and Jessica were right there freezing and then sweating with me. My wonderful friend Jessica (who is recovering from having a child and a brain tumor in the past 2 years) was such an inspiration. I think she told me the longest she had ran in her training without stopping was 7ish minutes. Well, come race day, she shows up with the words "DON'T STOP" on her arm, and that she did. She ran the whole time...hills and all. What determination.

I can't forget to mention my men. Mark and Henry did the Family Fun 1K Run together prior to my race. I really wish I could have seen it (I was parking the car and getting my packet). Mark said that Henry was definitely the smallest doing the race and did pretty awesome considering his step ratio to an adults is like 4 to 1. One kilometer is a hefty distance for stubby little two year old legs. He ran all but about 100 feet of it. All the while I guess he was saying how he was faster than "McQueen" (Lightning McQueen). So cute! I don't think Henry understood that he was supposed to cross the finish line though. He stopped right before it for a while, and had to be urged to move forward to officially finish. Once he did cross (in last place), he was awarded a certificate and a dog tag necklace (This was the Veteran's Day Race btw).

I couldn't be more proud.

Last highlight of the day was when we went back to the auditorium where they were serving hot chocolate, bagels and chowder, they had a big board with a bunch of bib numbers written on it. Mine was among them. I had won an instant door prize. $50 gift certificate to a running store!! Yeeehaw! Now if only I was a true runner...

How to Hush a Hubby

2010-11-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

Who ever said swaddling was just for babies was wrong...dead wrong. I've recently discovered that the delicate art of the swaddle works for even the crankiest of husbands as well. I liken it to origami, but with a human stuck in the middle. The "arms free" technique seems to be ideal for my husband. This allows him the freedom to suck on his own hands to "self sooth" if he wishes, yet he can still feel the warmth and security of being wrapped. I feel like this has cleared up a lot time for me to do other things (like blog) as I'm not always having to tend to him. So if your hubby has been fed and changed and is still fussy, just give the swaddle a try.

Fall Photos

2010-11-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last week on the most perfect fall day, we headed out and got some photos taken as a family. We really couldn't have asked for a better day. Here's a small sample of the incredible job my good friend and neighbor Lori did. If anyone in the NY area is reading and interested in having her shoot for you, I'd highly recommend her. And if you don't live in the NY area, don't worry, she told me to tell people she'd fly to you for FREE!! Just kidding.

Scarf It Down

2010-10-25T11:42:00.000-07:00

With all the "upcycling" I've been seeing these days, I've been keeping a lot of my reject clothes around trying to think what I could change them into. In the past, I was very quick to send these items off to what I call "clothing orphanage" hoping that they would make it to a new family who would treat them better than I. But not lately. I've realized that I paid good coin for them and so why not try and salvage them - keep them in their home - not let them slip through the cracks of society.

Below you will see what was once a slightly pit-stained (yes, I sweat...even with d.o.) pink t-shirt, magically transformed into an adorable scarf. Kudos to the Shwin sisters for giving me the idea. Fortunately and unfortunately there are more t-shirts where that came from.

Side note: arm pit areas were avoided in the making of the scarf.

Thank you to my adorable model and friend, Emma. She did this scarf justice! Isn't she cute?

Love the pose...and the way it's tied here.

Attack Of The Clones

2010-10-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

I saw this picture of Jane and immediately thought of this one of Henry. Had to roll up my digital sleeves and do some digging in the archives but I found it and love seeing them side by side.

Take Me To Your Leader

2010-10-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

Can you spot Mark? He's in the back behind green t-shirt lady. But do not worry. He has not joined a cult nor is he being held at gunpoint. Feeeufff. He is simply one of the many contestants in a super intense, winner takes all "Simon Says" game. The stakes...a Roomba vacuum.

Unfortunately 10+ years of "Simon Says" silence for Mark was only good enough for 4th place. I guess my dreams of having a robot clean for me will have to wait. No, you did great though honey. I could see how mentally exhausting it was, and I'm pretty sure Simon was out to get you personally. Did you date his wife back in the day??

This was one of the many things going on at a fall festival we went to this past Saturday. I had my turn on stage with a Hoola Hoop Contest. My hips told me that they could do it ...but I guess my hips DO lie. I was the second one out. But I only missed out on the grand prize of a chocolate bar...which would have gone straight to my undeserving hips anyway.

The fun sure didn't stop there.

Our little gopher played in a hay stack.

I joined him just for a photo op.

We got starred down by a posse of goats....

...and bullied into feeding them.

Then we lost Henry but spotted a really cute turkey....

...and a pumpkin...

...and then I lost Mark too...but spotted an apple who I swear could have been his cousin.

Sorry. No pictures of Jane at the festival. She was fast asleep in her car seat and was pretty disappointed when she woke up and we told her we didn't win the Roomba. I think that would be a great 1st Christmas present though.

Come...Have a Seat

2010-10-13T11:36:00.000-07:00

What a journey it has been to get to this post. It took me months and months to find a table for our small apartment. Mission accomplished...but...the table was chair-less. Then it took me a few more months to find cheap enough chairs that didn't absolutely clash. I think I did that...however...the chairs were extremely dirty and needed some TLC. Weeks flew by (picture the calendar pages flying off) while I tried to find a fabric and then find the time to wash and recover the chairs. I've actually had three of the chairs done for a long time now...but only recently finished the rest of them. One last delay...my house never seemed clean enough during the day when the lighting was the best to take a good picture. Once we've tidied in the evening, it just seems too dark.

Anyways, I'll spare you more of the boring details and just show you the pictures.

TahDah!

BEFORE

I bought 5 of these chairs for a whopping $13 (total) at a garage sale.


Unfortunately they were extremely dirty and had some mold on them. Before I bought them, they had been stored in a shed for a unknown amount of time.

AFTER


The fabric is from Jo-Ann's. I feel like I stepped far out of my comfort zone with the boldness of the print. Who knows how long I'll keep them this way. But for now, they're just fun.

The wood type and stain on the chairs matched exactly with my table top. I may one day switch that up...but not now. And the bottom of the chair legs even had a similar swirly detail as the table. What are the chances?

One last AFTER shot for your convenience. I would hate to make you scroll more than you needed to.

Clear Skies Ahead

2010-10-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

The weather has been pretty dismal the last couple of days.   We've spent a lot of time indoors and we're ready for the sun to come shine down on us so we can play again and get the fresh air and exercise we all desperately need. Expecting the next couple days to be similar to the last few, I was initially surprised when I looked at the weather and saw that Saturday and Sunday were the only days in the next week that didn't have rain in their forecast...yay SUNSHINE! Then I paused and chuckled to myself "of course that's the way Kim...it's conference weekend!"

General Conference is a huge broadcasted meeting with all the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (mormons). It's an opportunity for us to hear talks from the prophet and other church leaders along with some wonderful music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. It happens twice a year - first weekend of April, and first weekend in October. Each weekend consists of 5 two-hour long sessions that are spread out over those Saturdays and Sundays.

The timing of these conferences must be inspired...or more like a joke or test from God because the weather is more often than not, beautiful for the season.   April's session hurts because it usually is the first really awesome weekend after a long, horrible winter. And October's stings because you tend to think that this is last chance to get out before the frost comes.   What to do? What to do?

I could totally ditch out on conference and say to myself that "I'll catch up later", but I know that I really do need this...and now. The talks that are given are so incredibly wonderful and provide incredible perspective. They truly fill my soul up when I'm getting close to empty or already feel like I'm sucking fumes. After it's done, I feel as though someone's hit the "reset"button on me. As much as I would like to participate in a full day of sunshine outdoors, I think I'll do something that will give me 'inner sunshine' that will hopefully last me the winter long until April when it's time again for my boost.

If you would like to watch or listen, visit www.lds.org or www.byutv.org and follow the links. Session times are 12:00pm, 4:00pm and 8:00pm* on Saturday, and 12:00pm and 4:00pm on Sunday. Times listed are EST.   Video recordings and transcripts of sessions are also available on www.lds.org.

*Not a live broadcast

Not On Track or Field

2010-09-28T11:14:00.000-07:00

My kiddies and I have been sick for the past two weeks. It's been so fantastic really. If I could put mileage on boogers, I'm sure my nose would have ran the full 4K that I'm supposed to be training for. Thankfully, the height of our kleenex mountain is getting smaller, so if I read the evidence correctly, I think the end is in sight.

Needless to say my running goals have suffered. I've done a total of 10 minutes of running since I lat posted about me doing the run two weeks ago. And for those few minutes I was running...things just felt really different. I won't go into details, but it's not a good different. Post-baby body sucks! I feel like a geriatric.

But, I'm a [Women] At Work and "ain't nothing going to break my stride"...I'm going to "keep on moving".

Henry Have you Seen The....

2010-09-24T13:10:00.000-07:00

You know that show on TLC "Hoarding Buried Alive"? I will watch the odd episode here and there...usually while I'm also working on some sort of craft or project. Sometimes after a show I will look around at my semi-chaotic toy-filled, yet easily tidyable surroundings and feel pretty grateful that no one in our household has a similar problem.

But then the other day I was doing the regular end-of-day tidying and I happened to open the "trunk" to Henry's ride-on car. This is what I found....full to the brim.... Should I call the psychologist now or wait until we forget the color of the carpet in his room?

Let me do a quick inventory of the top visible layer: 2 race cars, a bow tie, baby lotion, grocery receipt, tractor, fuzzy ball, duck and a tape measure.
When I dug a little deeper, I found rocks, money, my crochet hook (which I had been looking for), price tags from my thrift store clothes and many many more interesting things. Mark and I just laughed as we pictured him gathering each item and what he could have been thinking..."this might come in handy one day...don't want to loose this one..."

It's just toys and treasures though right?? Well I wish. The icing on this hoarding cake was that the other day after his doctor's appointment, I busted him adding his used band-aids from his 2 year shots to his little stash. It's getting nasty boy.

I'm not getting worried quite yet...I think I read this is common in toddlers. But wait, I just thought of something...maybe TLC see can create a new program and air it between "Toddlers and Tiaras" and "Hoarding Buried Alive" and call it "Toddlers Buried Alive".... it's a great segue isn't it?

Sleeping Beauty

2010-09-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

Just had to share this photo. Is she cute or what?

It's a race to the race.

2010-09-15T11:54:00.000-07:00

It's official. I'm now a registered participant of a 4km run that's happening at the beginning of November. So now's the hard part. Somehow, somewhere, I have to go from THIS.....

to THIS...

....in just over a month.

Let's be honest...I will never look like the above skinny minnie with picture perfect arms and abs. (She obviously hasn't had children in the past 3 months or ever). But if I could get somewhere in between the potato and her, that would be nice.

Maybe some of you remember that I did this run last year and really enjoyed it. It was mighty difficult for a novice runner like myself. I thought my lungs had collapsed and could feel my pulse beating in my temples for hours after, but once that stopped, I felt fantastic. My training regime then was pretty pitiful, I didn't even put on my runners a month leading up to the race, but I feel like this time I'm even further behind schedule. I just had a baby!! The most running I've done in last year has been from my small apartment living room to the nearby microwave in the kitchen when I thought the popcorn was going to burn. It's bad guys.

So the questions are now: When am I going to run? Where am I going to run? Is it going to be light enough outside or have lighting to keep me safe from the pervs? and How the heck am I going to find the energy to do it when I'm up every 2-3 hours in the night and can't nap during the day.

I think I'm going to have to be creative with this one. Maybe running on the spot in my living room....

From The Rich to the Thrifty

2010-09-09T18:33:00.000-07:00

This morning I met my girlfriend Jessica for a much needed "thrift store / try and catch up on eachother's lives" shopping trip. Before she even arrived, I had managed to already acquire a heaping shopping cart full of incredible finds. This ain't your typical thrift store. Long Island is full of rich wasteful people...and for that, I'm forever grateful.

Like a casino or grocery store, the thrift store too is a place where time doesn't seem to exist. One thrift store minute = 30 real world minutes. Before I knew it, I had been there almost three hours.

Anyways, I came home with 17 items that I'm pretty excited about. That is definitely a record for me. The breakdown is: 5 pairs of pants (one of them being my first pair of skinny jeans...I know, I'm like 3 years behind on that one), 1 pair of jean shorts, yoga capris, 1 skirt, 2 adorable blazer jacket thingys, 1 hoodie, and 6 tops. Do you want the grand total? Less than $94 for all that jazz. That's an average of $5.50ish per item. I'm as pleased as a peach on the beach. I think my neighbors who usually see me in the same two outfits over and over won't even recognize me..."Who's that walking out of the Hughes' apartment with their children?...someone call the cops!"

Storm's a Coming!

2010-09-03T07:04:00.000-07:00

With hurricane Earl afoot and Long Island in his path, there's a small part of me that's a little excited. With that mindset I think I'm asking for trouble. Maybe my excitement is because it's my first encounter with a real hurricane (as opposed to a fake one) and I can only picture a really cool and intense rain storm. I think it definitely helps my mindset that we are in the safer - you can stay in your home - dark green zone seen above, and not the scary - get your behind out of the way - purple zone.

Mark and I have been trying to prepare for today. We pulled out and reviewed our 72 hour kits (that are awesome to say the least - check them out here), did our laundry, filled up the car with gas, got some cash out, made sure we had enough candles. We're keeping our laptop plugged in and fully charged so if the power goes out we can still watch a movie...or do an excel spreadsheet ;)

I think the only thing I'm missing is a 72 hour supply of chocolate. I'm not sure I can't make it through Earl without it. It's key in hunkering down.

Now it's just a waiting game. Looking out the window it seems really quiet...I guess this is what they mean when they say "calm before the storm".

Good luck to my fellow east coasters!

Blue's Clues LIVE!

2010-08-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

We've lived here almost a year now and finally made it to our first show at our very cute & quaint local theater. Blue's Clues LIVE!!

It was such a fun activity to take Henry to. Perfect for his age and something different from our 'everyday'. I was excited to see that as each child walked in, they were handed their very own handy dandy notebook, complete with a green striped crayon and told not to open it until Steve told them to. Ooohhh such anticipation...

I don't know why I would expect this, but I was slightly heartbroken when "Steve" came out on stage for the first time and I realized he wasn't the real "Steve"....or even the real Joe. Of course he wouldn't be, but I guess I just really hoped that we would be the lucky crowd that got the real deal. The fake Steve did a pretty decent job, but it took a while for me to warm up to his lisp and his version of the "skid-do" dance.

It's sometimes hard to tell whether Henry is enjoying something new like this or not. He's not the usual 'yell out the answer and dance on command' type of kid. He tends to just stare and soak in his surroundings. At times he would participate and it was really cute to see him point out Blue and the clues when Steve was looking for them.

He still remembers each clue and what the end message of the show was - that our homes are the most spectacular places on earth. (cue the soft music)

I think I'm saying "BLUE!"... trying to get into the spirit of things.

Mark also on is handy dandy notebook (aka iPod)

Henry a little terrified of Tickity...maybe because the time was wrong on her clock.

I love forcing my child to take photos he doesn't want to take.

Henry's Birthday

2010-08-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

There seems to be a trend starting in my home and I'm not sure I'm liking it. The Hughes men appear to get month long birthday celebrations. Henry's birthday month started over two weeks ago. We had a few friends join us at a local farm that has a large play area for young children. It's pretty awesome and what made it's awesomeness even awesomer, was that it was Fafafa-REE that day! (But now it's only $6/child...still a great deal). The farm has 3 huge bouncy castles, a play house, animals to feed, large wooden trains a big truck to climb on, playground, sprinklers to keep the kids cool and most of all, it has 4 power wheels cars. That is what Henry spent most of his time on. He's a car nut! He absolutely loved play taxi driver to those who were still working on their driving skills. I'm not really shocked he got the jist of driving right away.

A few days after the farm (on his actual birthday), we had a small birthday dinner with just Henry, Mark Jane and I. We took him to IHOP...which I would highly recommend for a kids birthday. Kids eat FREE and Henry thoroughly enjoyed the banana and strawberry 'happy face' pancake he got that he could decorate himself with a yogurt tube. The staff also gave him a small serving of ice cream topped with sprinkles with a candle in it and sang to him. He LOVED it!! Any chance to blow out candles.

Last Thursday, Grandy, Grandma and Sarah came for a visit from Canada. It's not a visit from the Grandparents/Aunt if gifts aren't involved right? And then of course we have a round 3 of cake and candle blowing.

Just when I think all traces of Henry's birthday are gone and over with, I look up and see my "Happy Birthday" sign still hanging up over my hall entrance (just out of pure laziness on my part) and remember that Grandma picked up one last thing for Henry that she'll give him tomorrow.

After this, I swear, he's done. And all future birthdays (after mine in October of course) need to be one-day ONLY events.

My Trip to Pennsylvania

2010-08-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

Remember my close call? How just 7 hours before I started labor I was on the road...away from my family, doctor's and hospital? Well here's a link to "Thelma's" new blog. She did a great job recapping the escapade. Key words: bumper and duct tape.

http://pampersandpuccini.blogspot.com/2010/08/pregnant-lady-audition-and-bumper.html

BTW - I'd keep an eye on this blog. Jessica is a funny, crafty, incredibly talented mother/opera singer who's life is never ever dull.

Room Service

2010-08-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

I just came across this photo tonight and remembered how funny I thought it was. I know, so much to report on from this past month and THIS is what I decide to blog about now... I'm weird I know.

Each time I called this number to order my meals in the hospital after having Jane, there was something deep down inside of me that believed or maybe more like "hoped" that Justin Timberlake gave up all the glam was going to dance his way into my room to deliver my food to me. I'm mean just look at the poster. Can you blame me for thinking so? Okay, well maybe it looks more like a latino version of JT. But no, the man who brought "sexy back" never brought me anything. Instead, I got Tatiana. A loud, firm, yet incredibly sweet, Russian women that talked A LOT when she came in. I always agreed with what she was saying for fear that if I disagreed, she'd pull my ear or pick me up, lean me over her lap and spank me.

Good times at Stony Brook.

The Labor

2010-07-25T18:20:00.000-07:00

A day or two before I left for the trip, I'm pretty sure I started feeling some contractions. Nothing painful, but definitely some regular "tightenings".   I didn't think too much about it as you hear of women experiencing these for days or weeks before going into labor.   They subsided completely before I left, making me think I still had a ways to go so with that, I had a good feeling about leaving.

Well, the real labor "gun" went off only 7 hours after getting home from PA. A little close for comfort, but I'm still so glad I went. I woke up at 4am Sunday morning in some pain. These contractions were about 15-20 minutes apart. Once Mark woke up, I told him I thought I was in labor...but I still was not positive as I was induced with Henry. I was debating whether or not I should go to church that morning because really, 19 of those 20 minutes I was feeling relatively fine and things can take a while to progress. But, there was a fear in me that pictured my water breaking in the middle of sacrament meeting or worse, in the middle of a "Do As I'm Doing" type song in front of all of my 5 year olds that I teach. I would prefer them not remembering me as the teacher that peed her pants.

By around 9am, I felt like labor had pretty much stopped.   Now I was really confused. I decided that I would still stay home from church and continue to get ready for the possibility of things firing up again. Mark and I had been counting on me going passed my due date so I still hadn't packed a hospital bag yet (it was top on my to-do list once I got back) and had a few other things I wanted to do around the house before said baby arrived.

Luckily things started up again around 1pm. Contractions were still not very consistent until about 6 pm. They still seemed to be about 10-15 minutes apart for a few hours. Then, it seemed like all of a sudden they went to under 5 minutes apart and were "kicking me where it counts". I called my midwife at about 11:30pm and she said to "call the sitter" and come in to the hospital. That I did. My wonderful friend Jessica was here in a jiffy.

It was weird. It seemed like once we were on our way, contractions slowed down again. I had one before I got in the car and only one more before we got to the hospital. I was thinking "great, they're going to send me back home".   I had a few more while I was there and when they checked me I was 3 to 4 cm dilated and 50% effaced. They didn't admit me quite yet. They actually sent Mark and I walking for 2 hours to see if I could get the contractions coming more regular and having them all be owie. Those two hours of walking were VERY productive....and extremely painful. I could barely go 10 steps sometimes without having another contraction hit. We went back after two hours and they checked me saying that I was 6 to 7cm dilated and 75% effaced. My body couldn't stop shaking from everything. I was definitely ready for my epidural at that point. I think this was around 4am.

I was able to relax and rest. At 7:20am my water finally broke. The midwife was happy that I was able to do it on my own. I made it to 10cm pretty much right after that, probably around 8:00am but the baby's head was still not low enough to give me the urge to push. The midwife suggested letting the contractions work a little longer to bring her down. This part seemed to take FOREVER. Maybe it was just my concept of time and that I hadn't moved in a while.

Unfortunately my epidural ran out during this phase. They topped me up but it was still not working. I was feeling pretty much everything again for about an hour with some back labor on top of that. The anesthesiologist returned with a higher dose and that did the trick. I was able to get the best rest of the event that next and final hour. I thought that I still had a ways to go because I was starting to feel the pressure and urge, but it would go away after the contraction was done. Well, at 12pm I was woken up and checked again (don't know if there's anyone out there that could sleep through being probed) and was told that the baby's head was right there! I could (and did) feel it with my hand and it WAS right there. Who knew??

At 12:14pm I started pushing and she was born at 12:53pm.

I was able to pull our new little lady up onto my chest myself and they left her there on me while they stitched me up.   Mark cut the cord and we've had a hard time putting her down ever since. She's lovely!

I am still amazed at how quickly I was able to get up and move around afterward compared to my section. I'm very grateful for that... especially with having Henry at home. I'm feeling pretty sore right now, but I think it's because I thought I was superwomen and went for a shopping trip to Wal-Mart solo two days after. I'm definitely paying the price for that. Stupid Kim. Stupid!

What A Weekend

2010-07-20T05:19:00.000-07:00

Reporting LIVE from the hospital.

I just wanted to quickly announce that baby girl Hughes has arrived. Her timing was impeccable. Contractions started early Sunday morning just after I returned home the night before from a quick one night get-a-way to Pennsylvania with my friend Jessica. It was just what the pregnant woman ordered. All I did was sit and eat and enjoy air conditioned places paid for by others. I joked on the way home that "It was such a relaxing trip, I'm ready to have the baby!" Well....

The still nameless baby girl was born 10 days early at 12:53pm on July 19th. Weighing in at 7 pounds 1 ounce and 19 inches long. She scored a 9/10 on the apgar and is feeding like a champion (so different from her older brother)!

My VBAC experience was fantastic. I can't say I thought that the entire time during labor, but overall I am extremely glad I went that route.

Well I think that's all I'm going to write for now. A more detailed account will be coming soon to a blog near you.

Mr. Chip & Mr. Dale

2010-07-13T12:38:00.000-07:00

Who would have thought that just minutes after coming home from a beautiful day at church, things would turn so scandalous?

The Countdown

2010-07-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

At 37.5 weeks, I decided that posing in front of the clock would be more appropriate. Time is winding down and our family of three will soon be four. (big gulp) I highly doubt the little lady will come early but it's always on my mind...especially when I think of all the things I'd like to do before she comes.

I've started trying to prepare Henry for the main event - asking him a few times a day where mommy is going to have the baby and where he is going to be while I'm there at the hospital. I think he gets it and he seems excited about being able to stay with his friend and her family so that brings me some peace.

Like I said a few posts back, I'm attempting a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). After 24 hours of labor with Henry and then needing a C-section, some of you may think I'm nuts for not just scheduling a second operation. I'm right there with you...I'm captain of the doubting team. My experience the first time around was less than textbook, unless your textbook was on horrible experiences. Henry was induced early, was face-up, and had/has a huge noggin. I don't think he or my body were ready when I went into labor. But, he came out healthy and beautiful so I'm grateful for that.

So why am I choosing to go this route? A couple reasons: 1) I want to be home together as a family as soon as possible. 2) Recovery from a C-section can be much longer and I want to be able to pick up Henry when I want/need to. 3) I feel like I have no idea what my body does naturally when it comes to labor. Etc.... there's more but those are the main three.

Things are looking much brighter this time around. Let's just say if they had a VBAC American Idol, I'd make it to Hollywood for sure...maybe even top 20. I'm pretty much the perfect candidate. The way they cut and stitched me up was ideal. I don't need to be induced and can wait until I naturally go into labor (yay, "induction" is now a swear word in my house). The baby is measuring around the same as Henry, maybe even a half a pound smaller, and, she seems to be staying in a good position (so far) with her head in the face down position. While I need to be monitored still pretty closely, I do have a little more flexibility in how I labor this time from last time. I can for short periods of time get out of bed which I think will help a lot in coping with the pain and moving things along faster. And, when/if the time comes that I need my best friend named "Epidural", she is more than welcome to join in on the fun.

I'm still terrified of the whole thing and worry that it will be a repeat of last time. If any of you have some spare luck you want to send my way, it would be much appreciated. I accept four-leafed clovers, rabbit's feet, even old ginch or socks worn in a championship game...anything really.

4th of July Yummers

2010-07-05T06:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the culprits. Yes, this was a big weight-gain weekend for the Hughes family but can you blame us?? Look at what we were dealing with here. There was much more delicious food where these came from but these were the festive ones.

Brownies with cream cheese icing, decorated in flag style with strawberries and blueberries.

Made by yours truly.

Adorable American Bald Eagles made by my friend Brooke Thurlow. These are double stuffed Oreos, topped with white chocolate and coconut covered marshmallows. The eyes are done with a dark gel icing and a cashew for the beak. So cute!!!

Radar Love

2010-07-03T17:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday night Mark, Henry and I finally made it to the hospital for our tour and a chance too meet all the possible midwives that could be helping me with my VBAC. Everything seemed pretty standard as far as hospitals go with the exception of one thing....

I will basically have GPS on my baby until we're released. Along with the I.D. bracelets, I guess it's standard to attach a LoJack (tracking device) on the umbilical cords of all the infants born in this hospital once they've had all their poking and prodding done to them. They didn't show us an example of one. I can't help but picture this big, red, flashing light bulb glowing through my baby's sleeper for the first two days of her life - blinding me as I nurse. I hope it doesn't beep. I guess it's not a bomb...see what t.v. does to me.

They explained that even if we are carting our new wee bundles too close to the exit doors (with no intention of leaving) it can trigger the complete lock-down of the whole ward. The doors are immediately sealed, elevators are shut down, and every single baby has to be accounted for before the unit can be reopened. Intense stuff. Such tight security Mark and I wonder if they've started making babies out of solid gold these days. Again, my imagination gets the better of me and I picture all the new moms lined up against a wall raising their baby's arm as their name is called out saying "HERE!"

I appreciate and can see why a hospital would implement a procedure like this. I will try not to feel like a prisoner while I'm there. But it just seems ironic that a fame hungry couple like the Salahi's can make it passed the secret service security, shake hands with the President of the United States, and I can't take my baby on a full lap around the postpartum unit without fearing an Armageddon-like security breach. Knowing me, I'll be the one who accidentally does it and I'll see my picture added to the wall of shame.

Extreme Post

2010-06-30T18:08:00.000-07:00

Wait! Come back...don't be scared...I'm sorry for starting my blog with a picture that should be for my eyes only, but look closely at the shirt my husband is wearing.

No...he hasn't been selected for a Make-Over...

...or isn't modeling for an upcoming edition of "Contractors Weekly"....

The other day Mark was riding his bike home from school and he rode past a tent set up with a spectical of cars, gates and people around it. He (being the inquisitive guy that he is), asked what was "going down" (probably not in those words), and found out it was the Volunteer Sign-In Tent for "Extreme Make-Over, Home Edition". He immediately came home, ditched all the plans that he had to spend time with us (ouch) and went right to work. But how could I not encourage him to go. You see, Mark and I have a dream of making it BIG while we're here in NY. This was just another window of opportunity for us to get discovered. It's taking longer than we thought. Going to the Martha Stewart Show and hanging outside NBC studios all those times with no real offers after was getting old, so of course we thought THIS could be our next big break. Mark ended up going 3 times to the site. He basically built the house himself.

So close to cameras, celebrities and "stardom".

BTW - Ty and his crew (as far as we could tell) are all fakes and lazy bones. They just stand on ladders and pick up lumber for a quick shot for the camera and then go back into hiding...or to Sears. Not that I honestly thought they were there the whole time helping out. I have to admit though, that the pink hard hat and tool belt get-up are too cute to get dirty so I don't entirely blame the blond one (is her name Heidi, or am I thinking of Home Improvement??).

Mark captured the back of the house and pool area. I don't really see the logic of filling the pool while there was so much construction still going on. But who am I to judge? Just a lowly, pregnant spectator that just wants to be famous.

They had spectator areas across the street for those that were too old, young, fragile, pregnant or selfish to watch while everyone everyone else worked in the blistering heat and intense humidity.

Henry, not taking his eyes off the bobcat, crane and bucket truck working right in front of him.

Interesting, Behind The Scenes Fact: Word on the street...If you are a neighbor of the house being worked on, the show will either send you away while all the "Extremeness" is happening or you can stay home and keep the money they would spend on sending you away and just put up with the round-the-clock chaos. Also, if they use your property for some reason (spectator areas, parking, supplies, Porta Potty's, etc.), they will replace your grass after all is said and done. Not too shabby.

On our way back, we stopped at the random Boy Scouts tent (I felt right at home - wish I had my shirt), and Henry got to paint a bird house. It started off green, but ended up completely pink. I think pink may be his favorite color. It's the only one he can name 100% of the time. Hmmm...

I'm beginning to think our quest for celebrity status failed again. We haven't yet received any calls from the producers of the show asking us to join them next season. They obviously don't know true talent when it's staring them right in the face.

Bye Bye Bottle Video

2010-06-21T11:36:00.000-07:00

Ever since Henry was about 14 or 15 months, I've been having this lingering issue in my mind about when to get rid of the "baba". I can't tell you how many times I was ready to throw in the towel and throw out the "nipples". I guess I just didn't like the idea of him being so dependent on something. Although, looking back, I'm so relieved he did have it for as long as he did. Boy it came in handy. Well he's 22 months and last week we did it. Ding Dong, The Bottles Gone! And this is how....

At first, we were just giving him a small amount of milk in a bottle (between 3-4oz) before his nap and bedtimes. He was totally fine using cups during the day. That was not a problem at all. We would hold him our chair with us and have our snuggle time and then once he was done drinking, we'd give each other hugs and then we'd lie him down in his crib. Done and done.

Mark didn't feel comfortable just cutting him off cold turkey so we decided together that we'd decrease the amounts gradually. As we were decreasing the amounts, I would have conversations VERY frequently with Henry about him getting bigger and how "bottles were for babies". Henry also loves seeing the mail truck come every day to our house (and loves the mail song on our Blue's Clues video) so I thought using the mail theme would be a good way to approach this.   Again, for weeks I told him that soon we'd send all his bottles to the babies that needed them in the MAIL!! (of course acting like it was the most exciting event of his life).

I think we were a few days off our BBB day, when one night time Henry actually asked for his "cup" instead of his bottle.   Mark and I just looked at each other in utter shock and rolled with it pretending that everything was normal. He did just fine that night. The next morning, we decided to mobilize and initiate our bottle terminating sequences right there and then. Without much preparation, we quickly found a box and started our "closing ceremonies".   (See video below).

Well we weren't in the clear. Henry had a horrible nap time. I couldn't put him down in his crib and had to hold him for a long long time and eventually take him to my bed and lie beside him for him to sleep. That night, he also cried and cried. It was hard. It had been a long time since we'd had to show him tough love.

BUT....our tough love prevailed. It was just that one day and night that he seemed to be really upset. It's been almost a week now and he's doing remarkable. What a champ! He still asks for his "baba" every once in a while, but we just turn around and ask him where they went. He tells us the whole story again and that's the end of it. He knows they're gone and we remind him how nice it was for him to give his bottles to the babies.

Here's a super cute video of a portion of the mail-off.   Please disregard my awkward stumbles. I hate being on camera...even if it's only my voice. Blahh

Belly Evolution

2010-06-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

March 2nd - 19 Weeks

April 4th - 24 Weeks

26 Weeks

May 4th - 28 Weeks

June 15th - 34 Weeks

(With pooffy hair and in desperate need of a root touch up)

My poor cubs shirt. The last few buttons are hanging on for dear life.

Cupboard Door ReStore

2010-06-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

Here's another one of my latest projects I finished a few weeks ago. It was something that I had started and ALMOST finished for one of my friends for Christmas. I basically dangled this in front of her, letting her look at the nearly done present she was about to get. Guess when she actually received it? Only a few weeks ago. I'm a BAD FRIEND.

This "accessory hanger" (I guess you can call it) was originally a piece of an old cupboard door. We found that, and all the vintage unique pieces of hardware at this amazing store called "ReStore". It's the Habitat For Humanity store where people who are remodeling or renovating can take their old items and donate them so they can be sold for profit. We left with a ton of ideas and items for under $12. Definitely search on-line to if your city has one...they're all over.

Anyways, this is just the cupboard door with a few coats of black spray paint. Then I just measured and drilled the holes in the middle. It would have been done A LOT sooner but the screws that came with the knobs were too long for the thickness of the board. I had to go to the hardware store on two different occasions to get the right fit (not all the knobs had the same thread) and for some reason it took almost 6 months for those two trips to get done. Last, I just screwed in some hardware on the back so it would hang on the wall. Easy peasy. I have everything I need to make one more for myself one day...or in a year.

Toddler Apron

2010-06-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a glimpse at the apron I just finished for my friend's daughter's birthday. She turned 2 two days ago. Happy Birthday Ella!!!

This was something I started...oh...let's say 2 or 3 months ago. And, like most of my projects, I put this one away and left it until it was absolutely necessary for me to finish it. I'm pleased with the results for a couple reasons. First, being that my mom wasn't here to give me step by step sewing guidance. I guess I've "cut the apron strings" so to speak. (wah wah) Next, I was flying blind working without a pattern. It was up to me to guesstimate the size and measurements of everything. You'd think having a toddler of my own would allow me full access to a model...but NOPE! Not once would Henry help me out. Okay, well maybe I had one "fitting", but it was of course while he was running away from me. And last of all, I wanted it to have some sort of ruffle on it along with trying out applique for my first time and both I think were relatively successful. Probably beginner's luck.

Favorite Part - The skinny whisk pocket. (click on the picture twice to see it closer...if you'd like no pressure)

Critiques - I think next time (if there is one) I will use fabrics that are more contrasting. A fabric store was liquidating so I got these for a steal. Also when making the oven mitts, I thought I was making them big enough even with a seam allowance, but they STILL turned out mini and I had to sew slits on the sides so Ella could even have the option of getting them on.

~~
Ella, I've heard, immediately tried the apron on and wore it around the house....pantless....just as all aprons should be worn!!!

Henry To The Rescue!

2010-06-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

As sad as it is to see Henry changing and getting bigger by the second, there are some definite advantages to him developing and getting more independent.

Yesterday I was....a.... "stuck on the bowl without a roll". He now has the comprehension, height and coordination to be able to open the linen closet door and can bring me what I desperately need when I need it the most.

I think he's going to come in handy!!

Rotten Eggs

2010-06-08T22:40:00.000-07:00

All those who are sick of clicking on the my blog and seeing the annoying Easter egg wreath on my door say "I". I know I am, and I'm almost tempted to delete that post so no one has to look at it again.

Things here have been quite steady since April. I hate to condense the moments and memories, but there's only so much a person is willing to read and so much I'm willing to write to catch up.

Mark's parents arrived at the beginning of April for about 10 days. It was funny because Mark's dad showed up wearing a jacket that Mark had left behind over Christmas. This jacket isn't anything special, but Mark's dad just loved and still loves it and seemed quite disappointed when we told him it was Mark's instead of one of Ben's (Mark's younger brother) friend's who left it at their house, and are all probably gone on missions right now. He wore this thing EVERYWHERE...to church replacing a suit jacket, biking, walking, swimming (just kidding). Mark could see how attached he was to it (and probably how much he sweat in it) and decided he couldn't possibly take it back after all they had been through together. He let his Dad take it back home. We often get to see it when we Skype them. This is how technology blesses our lives - clothes visitation rights. Anyways, we had a nice mix of a few busy days in the city with them, along with some others just touring around some of the local sites. Highlights being the Easter Egg Hunt with the Zameks (Henry's girlfriend's family), The Lion King, walks along the beach, and just hanging out and letting them enjoy our funny little guy.

Then not even a week after Mark's parents left we opened Hotel Hughes again for our wonderful friends Lisa and Doug Johnson to come for a few nights. It's was Lisa's birthday gift to come to NY baby free (they have a daughter pretty much the same age as Henry). Again, we went into the city to spend some time with them there. As there's only so much time to see the sites, Doug opted to find chinese take-out in those cute white boxes over seeing the Statue of Liberty. Glad we could help him fulfill that dream of his. And just before we were about to give up, we found the carousel in Central Park for Lisa. It was destiny. We made it just in time for the last ride of the day. And best of all Henry LOVED it!

THEN....about two weeks after Doug and Lisa left, we had the privileged of hosting my lovely oldest sister Alyson for a few days. I was so happy she came. We had been talking about it for a long time. She was able to arrange someone to watch her kids and husband (yak yak) and found an amazing deal on flights. It was her first time flying anywhere and I'm glad it was to see me. She arrived at Hotel Hughes late Monday night and had to "check-out" early Friday morning so we had our work cut out for us. Tuesday (Day 1) we had tickets to ......drum roll please....yes, the Martha Stewart show (time #4.... and hopefully my last), along with tickets to see Wicked (my second time and I loved it even more). In between our scheduled shows we also fit in Statue of Liberty (but didn't get chinese take-out), Ground Zero, Wall Street, Lunch, Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, and even had time to get on a billboard in the middle of Time Square (see below). Yes, we are dressed the same. I was quite proud of my endurance that day. I have to gloat that it was my sister (the none-prego) who "cried uncle" after midnight to say it was time to start on our journey home. Wednesday (Day 2), we went in again to spend some time in Central Park, see the Manhattan temple, eat some street meat, and went to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. We walked a lot that day too. I know for sure that we ended the day by walking over 30 blocks along 5th Ave, so in total who knows. Day 3, the Thursday, was spent shopping close to home and then finally we were able to show a little of our cute little town to Alyson. Needless to say, I crashed on Friday.

We had another quick visit with some more friends from Canada a week after that, Mike and Eujean and Sarah Peterson. We wish they could have stayed longer but we're still glad they were able to come for the day. It was so nice to visit with them. We miss them a ton!

Mark's birthday was also mixed in there between our guests. We joke about how it was a whole month of celebration. But for some reason I still feel like I didn't do enough for him...maybe because I ate all the candy I was going to give him in a candy gram that never got made.

Soon after all our guests had left our laptop screen decided it had been pinched too many times and quit on us. We had/have access to two other back up computers (both dinosaurs), but blogging seemed like the last thing I wanted to do on them. I know, I realize I'm spoiled. So now, with our new laptop in lap, I feel like I'm equipped with the right tools again to blog.

COMING UP....

Project Photos
Pregnancy Update
Henry Update
and other jibba jabba

Hopefully after those, the Easter photos will be bumped to a new page.

Easter Time

2010-04-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a glimpse at a few of my Easter decorations this year.

I kept things cheap by using things I already had around the house and just altering them slightly. I cut the eggs and bird out of paper I already had and put them in my "seasonal frames", changed my berries to yellow tulips in my vase, took out a photo I had in a frame and replaced it with a paper doily and a cut out egg, glittered some plastic eggs I had bought for Henry (you have to look closely at the second photo), and used raffia at random places to make things look 'nesty'. My friend Jessica had found the empty window frame on the side of the road and had given it to me for Christmas. I've been waiting and thinking of how I wanted to use it and then last night I tried it out there and thought it looked cute. The only things I purchased were the flowers and the the egg wreath on the door. The total came to $5.

After what seems like a long winter, seeing my house brighten up like this just feels great.

P.S. I might have a new obsession with the color yellow.

The Lights Were Off And Somebody Was Home

2010-03-30T19:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday night we came home from a family's house for dinner and put Henry straight to bed as it was past his bed time. I got on the computer, and then it dawned on me....like it was inspiration. WHAT TIME IS IT?? Oh crap! I'm late for Earth Hour. It was 8:45pm. I quickly set my facebook status (deliberately using that small space as my picket sign) saying I was shutting down for the occasion and proceeded to scurry around the house making it Earth Hour friendly.

It wasn't until the next morning when I read my Facebook status comments, that I was not only 15 minutes late for Earth Hour but 24 hours and 15 minutes late.

Some comments were:

"Wasn't that yesterday"
"yeah kimmie, i think you're a day late!"
"And a dollar short." (that one was from my mother)

Boy were my cheeks red. But were my efforts in vain? Nay. To that I say. "Live every day like it's Earth Hour Day!"

...or for those of you who enjoy Latin "Carpe Earth Hour Diem" (I know it doesn't really make sense)

Mohawk Mystery

2010-03-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight was a pretty standard date night in the Hughes household. Yep, we turned on our previously recorded favorite t.v. shows that we often miss during the week, sat a few feet closer together on the couch, shared remote fast-forwarding responsibilities during the commercials, and topped it off by indulging in a second bowl of cereal for the day. The only thing that makes these special date nights different from a regular evening after the babe goes to bed, is that I sacrifice my Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy time (America's Game shows) for some quality time to chat with my husband.

Our conversation tonight went from me making fun of Mark's current math textbooks he's using and how they sound like Gryffindor and Hufflepuff from Harry Potter, to the hockey game he went to last night, to who we thought would win the Final 4 tournament (which is weird because we haven't watched a single college basketball game together - ever), to our rocker neighbor's girlfriend's new mohawk....and so on.

I asked a few simple (or what seemed simple) questions to Mark about mohawks. Shockingly he was no help to me at all. I was so young during the peak of the traditional mohawk, and because of my own personal style and social circles, I feel extremely uneducated on this subject. So now I'm curious and pose these same questions on to you...and will not sleep until I know.

WARNING: Faux-hawk answers are not recommended.

I want to know:
1. How long does it take to create a mohawk in the morning?
2. What kind hair products are used? Is there a special combo recipe or specific sequence you use them in?
3. Can you sleep with a mohawk in? If no, how do you release or tame the "hawk" before bed?
4. If you are sick of the mohawk one day or sleep in, is there a go-to alternative style after that?
5. Have you ever injured yourself or others, or have been a victim of a mohawk attack?
6. Is it common the carry back up haircare products with you at all times in case of wind, rain, or the sudden need to wear a helmet?
7. How many spikes are in the traditional mohawk? Is it luckier to have an odd number? (sort of like bamboo shoots)?
8. Does it hurt to try and bend a spike?

I could go on for a long time, but I'll just start with these basics.

Thanks.

π Day

2010-03-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Some of you Alberta born readers may have heard of or remember the legendary days in Calgary where there once was a man - for the sake of this post we'll call him "Don" - who would host huge annual March 14th (Pi Day) Parties. I was never fortunate enough to attend any of them because they died down by the time I was in the "scene", but I hear they were pretty fun. All were invited to attend...however - and this is a big HOWEVER - in order to get a direct entrance into the festivities, one would have to recite at the door by memory the first 25 digits of Pi. If you failed to do so, you would be directly banished to a separate room known as "pi-gatory" until you were able to do it.... a room where you would be beaten with a club or whipped profusely every 5 minutes you were in there. You think I'm kidding? Well I am, but only about the physical abuse part. "Don", was amazing at his digits. I remember him asking my friend Serena and I one day after a class to help him study his digits while handing us a sheet of probably 1000 numbers on it, which he proceeded to recite flawlessly. Amazing.

Anyways, after being married to a mathematician for almost 4 years now, I figured I would show a little number pride (woot woot) myself by initiating our first, and hopefully annual, Pi Day Party...maybe more like "gathering". We had three families come over on Sunday night, each supplying a pie and 10 digit cover charge to get in. (I'm a little more lenient than "Don".) I don't think all of them knew their 10 digits but I figured this being our inaugural year, I'd let it slide. Next year though we may have to designate Henry's room as our own pi-gatory... we don't own a "club" but we do have a baseball bat that would work just fine I think. ;) I made mini chicken pot pies, two enchilada pies, and we had two delicious dessert pies (peanut butter and ice cream) brought by our guests. Yum and thank you! Mark and I also had an anthem (to the tune of "O Christmas Tree") we could have sung, but again, this being our first year, we were a little shy and didn't know how it would be received. We're still quite "newish" here in New York and already stick out as being the "Canadians". We'll wait one more year before we're known as the "dorky Canadians" (if we're not already labeled that behind our backs).

Here's a photo of our left over pot pies...I meant to take a picture of all of our delicious pies but forgot. Mark had them in 3.14 number order in the muffin tins.

Results Are In

2010-03-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

For those of you who guessed "Team Bella", give yourself a gentle pat on the back...or better yet, go treat yourself to a massage. The gender score is now tied in the Hughes household at 2-2. I told Mark that we're going to have to stalk up on corn syrup or glue because I'll be needing to stick those little bows to that bald scalp of hers for a long time if her hair growth is anything like her brothers.

We're very excited for this little miss to come. Time to start thinking of names... and try and find some magical hidden unused space in our tiny apartment for the added girl clothes we'll be collecting.

Cutest Baby Ever!

2010-03-11T12:57:00.000-08:00

Just prior to going on mat-leave from my job at the newspaper, one of the very talented graphic designers that I worked beside threw together this very funny yet extremely disturbing photo...blew it up, put it on some foam core with a background and boarder and had this as my going away card for my fellow coworkers to sign. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving! She found all that she needed in my Facebook albums without me knowing a thing about it. I should have reported her to whatever Facebook "police" there are out there because this is almost criminal, but I didn't. From that time on until Henry was born and I could see his perfect little face, I had a huge phobia of my sweet newborn coming out with a mild mexi-stash and a full set of teeth. We lucked out that time, let's hope we make it 2 for 2.

Tomorrow 9:30am...all will be known. Will it be team Edward (the reigning champion)? Or team Bell (the underdog)?

What'll It Be?

2010-03-05T18:48:00.000-08:00

One week from today (on March 12th), Mark and I will be getting our first ultrasound with baby numero dos. I'm very thrilled and anxious about the whole thing. My last appointment 6 weeks ago was also my first appointment seeing my midwife...or any medical professional for that matter. Because it was my initial consultation along with already being 13 weeks in, I think hearing the heartbeat got overlooked by getting everything up to speed (I remembered but I didn't want to seem like a pushy patient). This will be the first time we hear or see our baby. Mark felt a small kick about two or three weeks ago and said "Okay, now I believe your pregnant!" Did he think I was pulling his leg this whole time? This isn't an episode of Glee Mark...

I think next Friday will be the day that things REALLY sink in for us. Some people get feelings or have dreams on what they think the gender is...Mark and I really don't have any leads either way. We're not really the "in-tune" type of people. So like every pregnant female blogger, I open this up to you.

Who's team are you on? Team Edward? or Team Bella?

(And yes, there is such thing as Team Bella...I just invented it)
(And no, I won't assume that you think or hope my baby will be a vampire if you vote 'boy')
(Yes, you can change "Edward" to "Jacob" if you feel the need)
(No, I'm not a die hard fan of Twilight...I will probably listen to the 3rd book on mp3 while folding laundry right before the next movie comes out)

Winners of the team challenge will receive a special commemorative "Team" t-shirt or sweatband courtesy of The Daily Hughes. This is a collector's item, so don't forget to comment.

Announcement

2010-03-04T05:36:00.000-08:00

I'M IN CUB SCOUTS!!

Oh...and I'm also 19 weeks pregnant too. Due July 29th!

And here I am in my new/borrowed shirt (that is only going to last me a few more weeks), doing the Cub Scout sign...and I just noticed right now that it's the wrong hand. Can you tell I grew up with all sisters? These boys are in great hands.

Say No To Pot

2010-03-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

It's a rare day in Hughesville when I'm not in the car with Mark and the brewing rage I feel inside about the ridiculous road conditions comes bursting out like a volcano. We have to remind ourselves over and over, "No, I don't think we're in Kosovo...this is Long Island right?...that's where our plane ticket said."

Today's headline in our newspaper said something to the effect "Roads In Ruin - 19,878 pot holes in only one Long Island Town". I can't say I was shocked with that news because every single road we need to take to get anywhere in and out of community is completely blemished with cracks, bumps and holes. Imagine the worst acne you've ever seen on a teenager (poor thing - I felt your pain) and then pretend to have a mini car and drive on their face. That's Long Island roads. Mark and I often ignore and cross any road division lines just to avoid what we're supposed to be driving through on our side.

I was cheesed before because I was worried about our alignment and other effects this would have on our car. Now I'm even cheesed-ier because Mark found a bulge and a major leak in one of our BRAND new-only driven on for a single month-tires that we just bought. Warranties, we're told only cover tread and not road damage. We're going to try and see if they'll still replace it. The town or county might also be getting a nice letter from your's truly. I'll let you know if anything develops with this story.

Look! Before You Watch

2010-03-01T15:45:00.000-08:00

Raise your hand if you've been guilty of picking out the movie that you thought looked awesome only to find that when you finally sit down with say your mother or father-in-law or girlfriends from church to watch it, it is totally inappropriate? ....Both of my hands would be up if I weren't typing.

I've been really meaning to post this for a while now and feel like if I were rich, I would send every reader of this blog at least a 20 spot for letting them waste their money on movies that they probably would have preferred not to watch.

There's a website that I've been using for probably over a year now (thank you Tressa) that describes EVERYTHING that could possibly be questionable in a movie. I'm talking about violence and gore, sexual content, language and substance abuse. You can find it at http://www.kids-in-mind.com/ . I'm sure there's a ton of these websites out there, but I find this particular website will give you a heads up on anything from the most vulgar of scenes to even if a women is wearing a low cut shirt. It will also number the f-bombs dropped, but also let you know if someone calls another person a "dummy". EV-ER-Y-THING! It's almost ridiculous how detailed they are.

So...if you're thinking of taking your sweet, old, innocent grandfather to a what seems like "classic" movie like Titanic (like my family did upon its release) and are unaware of the long, drawn-out nude scene (like we were), this website will save you from those completely horrifying and awkward moments when you wished you had known what was coming. Poor grandpa. Poor us.

Oh and if anyone knows of a similar website that does this for books, please comment and let me know.

Henry's First Day of Nursery

2010-03-01T07:35:00.000-08:00

Henry had his first day in nursery at church a few weeks ago...on Valentine's Day to be exact (hence the ugly cat balloon in the picture that we actually still have floating in our house). I can't believe he's old enough now to be going. Each week he's gone he's cried a little bit during those few hours and has to be brought out to Mark (because I'm teaching a class), but also each week he's able to go back in and can be left to the end. So all in all, I think he's doing pretty good. One of my favorite things is when he runs out of the room and shows me the picture he's colored that he's so proud of. I just love this guy.

Picture Proof

2010-02-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

I'm A Luge-er Baby

2010-02-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

I had nearly forgotten about this particular event in my life until recently. Back in Calgary, when Mark and I still had our commitment issues and were only dating, we decided that for a date we would venture out to Olympic Park, and for a fee that was probably more than we could afford, we would try our luck at the luge. Yes, the luge...the tiny unprotected sled that goes down the tube of ice at a ridiculous velocity. Now let me explain that the the general public didn't start from the top of the run. Our starting point was after the full loop much closer to the bottom.

One thing that surprised me about the experience was the amount of preparation and gear (or lack of) that they gave you before you were pushed down. Basically they said, keep your shoulders back, point your toes, here's a helmet and elbow pads, now see you at the finish line (if you make it).

If I recall, I think our fee paid for two runs. My first run was a disaster. I crashed near the bottom, sort of hurt my neck a little, and ended up having to drag my sled walking to the finish line. It's about the furthest from an Olympic moment as you could get. Needless to say, I wasn't so thrilled about going for my second time. I did it anyway and made it to the end crash free, still intact with my sled. Yay for me, it's done. I can chalk it up to another life experience that I'll probably never do again.

Now Mark's experience was much different. He fell in love with the sport immediately and actually had the fastest time of the day out of everyone who went down. I don't know how many times I heard him remind me of that victory in the following weeks, and how he was now contemplating taking up the luge full time to become an Olympian like his mom always wanted him to be (which isn't true). He often said it was his other "calling in life". Hmm...

Well, as most of you know, Mark is not in Vancouver right now on the roster to race for Canada. We are here, in NY, watching from our couch, and I'm quite comfortable with that.

In a Nutshell

2010-02-16T11:11:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to combine all my options from my last post and do my "recap" by adding some random unconnected photos from the holidays along with a few short point-form comments to go along with them. Try and follow along.

Hughes Christmas. Some members of the Hughes family ready to do the Nativity program...others just wanting to make good use out of a crutch.

Don't be alarmed if you don't remember the part in Luke 2 about a person of African decent, wrapped in toilet paper, wearing a sombrero, while gnawing on a carrot in the Nativity. It's not in there. We've moved on to another part of our Christmas festivities.

Snowman making competition. I think we were all winners that night.

Christmas p.j.'s.

Now to Raymond with the Leavitt's. Henry and Olivia his cousin. Who has the better Blue Steel?

I think Olivia is a clear winner.

This is what happens when you kick the "boys" out of the house to the church to play some good ol' fashion basketball. For any of you reading, hearken to my words....a 3-person jump ball is NOT a good idea. Two people tops! There's a reason why the ref runs away immediately after he tosses the ball. Elbow to the eye. My dad however, loved every minute he had that shiner.
Ironically, this was on boxing day.

Ain't nobody going break our stride. We're back at the church with more family playing more ball. No stitches or black eyes were incurred this round. Lesson learned.

Most of my sisters and a cousin...all of us seem to love posing.

Something would seem amiss if during a family get together my dad didn't show us his turbo jam moves. He's lost over 50 pounds btw doing it (and diet of course).

A frosty day in Raymond. This beautiful crab apple tree is in my parent's back yard.

Back in "the Hat". Henry in the playhouse outside. Such a cute little man.

The family went to see the Olympic torch relay as it was passing through Medicine Hat (home to the World's largest teepee).

Maria with most of the Hughes cousins.

There, I feel a little bit better with my blog standing. I'm at least in 2010 now. Happy Olympics everyone.

Two Months and Two Days

2010-02-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

Everyone can calm down...take a deep breath...everything is okay. I haven't died or have been diagnosed with severe carpal tunnel or anything like that. I know, I know, what else are you supposed to think but the worst when someone just drops off the face of their blog without any explanation. I've been nothing but rude and selfish I realize.

Part of the reason why I haven't posted anything in recent weeks was mainly because I didn't, and still don't, know how to "break the ice" of coming back. There's sort of an awkwardness I feel coming back after a longish absence. How do I begin? Do I need to explain myself? Or do I just start up again as if I have done nothing wrong? (because not committing your entire life to your blog is clearly sinful). Should I try and pull a "here's my life these last two months in a nut shell" and just use point form? Or should I just post photos and let onlookers fill in the gaps? What approach does one take? I don't know. I'm playing this by ear. Haven't decided yet.

Just know that the Hughes are okay. We're keeping up with our internet payments and our laptop still works if we keep it plugged in at all times.

More to come.

There's Nothing Worse Than....

2009-12-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

Here's a few ways I've ended this sentence lately:

There's Nothing Worse Than...

...picking up a forgotten cold, heavy, wet diaper

...soaking your fresh clean socks you just put on by stepping in a camouflaged puddle of water on your kitchen floor. (did that 5 minutes ago)

..."2012" (I actually didn't see it, but I heard it was bru-tal).

Obviously I'm hyperbolising here. These circumstances aren't tragic by an means. I do realize that war, hunger, cancer, and being on an over crowded train when someone expels gas are all considerably worse than anything I've listed.

But how would you end this sentence? What gets your goat?

(I'm aware I am completely setting myself up by asking this question. eg ...reading Kim's blog).

Assimilation

2009-12-06T18:54:00.000-08:00

As my residency here in the USofA continues to lengthen, I'm starting to observe certain political influences trickling into my home. This is a frightening thing - I know.

For my first example, I think I can split the blame between Obama and Henry's sudden obsession with Bob the Builder, but I seem to be saying "Yes We Can!" more than I'd care to admit. I can't decide who to blame more for this one, both are obviously powerful and highly influential men. Anyways, you'd be surprised at the randomness of moments this phrase slips out. It's definitely bizarre.

Only moments ago is when I discovered my second example. As I was making, my now second night in a row, pan of late-night nachos (you can hear my butt get bigger as I say that can't you?), I was incredibly careful, as probably most of you are, to ensure that each chip was warmly dressed with a sufficient amount of cheese. I guess I wasn't careful enough because as I was placing the pan into the broiling oven, I saw I had missed a spot and immediately reversed my motion to make my corrections. It was then that former president George W. Bush's "No Child Left Behind" policy came to my mind. However I altered it slightly to fit my situation as "No Nacho Left Behind". I think we can all agree that both phrases are probably equal in their importance. No nacho should go without.

Maybe my forthcoming visit back home to Canada over the holidays will cure this curious case of mine. I'm just grateful that it hasn't escalated to the point where I've started talking about how "rogue" I am when I don't do the dishes one night, or start replacing my friend's names with "Joe the Plumber".

Our Home And Native Land

2009-12-01T13:18:00.000-08:00

We just returned home from our new annual tradition of heading up to Ontario for the American Thanksgiving weekend (that we turn into a week). It's a good thing we only do this once a year because I think we need the other 51 weeks to recover from the fast-paced almost drive-through visiting we cram in and the long journey there and back. Henry was a super champion baby for the drive even though out of the 9 hours of just driving (one way) he slept for only 1 of those hours. I'd like to give a special shout out to Thomas the train and his friends: James, Percy, Sir Topham Hatt, and all the others for helping us all get through that final hour. You were there for us when we needed you the most. Another shout out goes out to Mark for putting up with listening the whole way there, the romantic tale and over-emotional thoughts of a dramatic teenage girl in "New Moon". (Although I think you secretly enjoyed it so it wouldn't really be "putting up with it" would it?).

As much as we are settling in to our lives here in NY, we really do love our friends and miss the time we spent in Ontario. I'm positive we'll feel the same way when we eventually leave NY...but I don't feel the need to think about that right now as it is a ways away.

Thank you Cheryl and Eujean for putting roofs over our heads and food into our mouths and everyone else for fitting us in your busy schedules. Oh and Happy Birthday Cheryl! Try and get all the freebees you can today.

Peer Pressure Works!

2009-11-19T11:15:00.000-08:00

The picture you see above is a desperate attempt from a mother to try and teach her son that diaper changes are not a form of torture... water boarding - yes, diaper changes - no.

I'd noticed that Henry would often eat, drink from his sippy cup, get into his high chair and do many other things much better if he saw fellow tots doing those things. So I took this observation of mine and tried to apply it to our currently struggling diaper changes. And no, giving him something to play with wasn't working any more. When it was time to change Henry, I would first say "It's time to change Jake's diaper Henry. Can you help Mommy?" He would usually come closer at least to watch what I was doing to his stuffed friend. I would then talk Jake/Henry through the diaper change. "Okay, let's lay down." "Jake, lay still please. No moving. Good boy!" "Oh, you've pooped!" "Almost done!" Of course being very gentle the whole time. I would also invite Henry to help me wipe Jake's bum (but Henry would always just wipe his foot). Then once Jake was done, and we had all given each other our high fives and 'pounds', I would say, "Now it's your turn Henry!" (then I would try and mimic the same routine as he had just seen). Occasionally, I would get a peaceful, pin-free diaper change from him but more often than not, my ploy did not work... Or at least I thought.

I continued to do this for a few weeks. I can't say for sure what it was that finally convinced Henry that it wasn't cool to kick and roll in your own feces but for the past few days he's been great. I no longer feel my blood pressure rising when I hear those unmistakable grunts coming from my little boy.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

2009-11-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

I think I must be compensating for last year where lack of space and not even being home for several weeks over the holidays made it next to impossible for me to deck out my halls. So yesterday, we found the storage bin, got rid of the spiders that had found their way into our tree, and turned on only a token round of Chipmunks Christmas music and started trimming away. I feel like it's been forever since I've really dived into the spirit of the season. Hopefully I can keep this momentum going.

Parent of the Week Photo

2009-11-16T13:52:00.000-08:00

Without an explanation, I'm sure social services would be at my door step in no time. But please believe me when I tell you that the hand you see in the above photo is a loving and gentle hand. One that is in the process of urgently taking the mousse away from the unknowing child and not offering him that potentially dangerous (but necessary) hair care product as a mid-afternoon snack.

And also please believe me when I also tell you that Henry has never himself, nor is accustomed to witnessing, the consumption of whipping cream from a can. I know, I see it too...he looks like a natural. I guess I can't speak for the times Mark watches him...but at least on my watch, he's clean.

D-O for the B-O

2009-11-16T07:55:00.000-08:00

By the look on Henry's face, I probably should have taught him
how to stick the pit a little earlier.

Race Day

2009-11-09T08:32:00.000-08:00

So Saturday I ran my first road race. Let me share a couple of things that I learned and will hopefully take with me if I dare do it again:

Don't judge a runner by their shape or age. There were some curves, 7 and 80 year old's who kicked my trash. And on the flip side, I also passed a slightly younger, skinny mini with an I-pod strapped to her arm on the second half of the course.
MP3 strapped to arm does not = speedy runner.
People wearing those short mini running shorts and have extremely muscular legs = speedy runners.
You should probably try and run at least once within the month leading up to your race.
You should probably try and run the full distance of your race at least once in 5 years leading up to your race.
Getting stretched by a professional HURTS. (I should have payed more attention to what was going on on the mats - I thought they were giving massages).
Long Island clam chowder is tomato based and not cream based.
Power bars and power drinks make me want to power vomit. (Gatorade is fine though)
Trust your friends who suggest taking off your sweater before the race and live with the cold for a few minutes. You will warm up.
Pin your number to your t-shirt underneath and not your sweater if you decide not to listen to your friends.
Double knot your shoes. (I ran probably 1km with my shoe untied not wanting to stop)
Running and drinking is messy and almost pointless.
Littering your drink station cup on the ground feels awkward (I hate littering and strongly dislike people who litter - harsh I know).
I'm still stubborn and competitive and won't stop no matter what. (Marathon would be different).
Crossing a finish line with a better time than expected feels exhausting....but great!

Trying to get psyched before the race. Where's "Jock Rock" when you need it?

Best dressed award goes to the old man in the shiny 70's basketball uniform.
(pretty sure he beat me)

See #3. This guy finished the 4km in just over 12min.
He lapped me on a two lap course.

See #1

"I think I can! I think I can!"

Happy to finally take off my sweater and also fighting the urge to puke and faint.

One of the most random street names I've come across.
Saw it on the drive home and suddenly got the munchies.

Ticked Off / Tickled Pink

2009-11-06T09:23:00.000-08:00

Welcome back to another Friday edition of "Ticked Off / Tickled Pink".

Ticked Off:
Dog poo on human shoe! Someone in our apartment complex has decided that their dog's enormo-poos (that are deposited right in front of our entry) are too essential to the circle of life to be picked-up once "released". What gets my goat is the fact that we've had some minor tracking of it in our apartment where poo zones are kept strictly to the toilet and diaper. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Henry trips and falls into a pile slightly hidden by leaves.

Tickled Pink:
This Saturday I will be running in my first road race. It's only 4km but considering my training has consisted of me running only about 5 times and the last time being over a month ago, it should still be challenging. I think the short distance and the promise of hot chocolate, clam chowder and bagels waiting for me at the finish line was what made me know that this was the race for me. Very wise of them to offer it after and not before.

Halloween Stunk!

2009-11-04T18:30:00.000-08:00

A few photos of our stinky Halloween night...

Here's Henry with his cover shot pose before he put on the rest of his costume. Mark and I thought the girlie, tight black clothes were hilarious on him and let him roam the house for quite a while as we laughed at him. He looked like a tiny mime or young Luke Skywalker. As hilarious as it was, what was more funny was watching Mark try to teach Henry how to mime. Oh my! I wish I had that on video.

He's probably so happy because he just finished adding the "scent" part of his costume.

Looks almost real from behind. He had the waddle down packed.

"What happened to the lid?"
(which had just fell inside the pumpkin)

I wish I could say he was begging for candy. How perfect would that picture be? But no, he was facing the wrong way and was probably wanting me to pick him up to go outside so he could run free. This kid loves his independence and didn't really get what candy was this year - which I'm fine with.

And just for fun, I thought I'd add a photo from last year.
It's weird though looking back. After I took off the costume, he still continued to be a little monster.
And, now that I've taken off the skunk costume, he's still continues to be quite stinky.
Maybe next year I should make him be an angel...or a millionaire
....or maybe a millionaire angel.

The After Shot

2009-11-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

Oh how the mighty have fallen! It's been probably two weeks or longer since I've watered Mark's Chia Homer and you can hardly tell right? Man these plants are sturdy...like cacti in the dessert. No, of course I'm kidding, but now I realize if Mark starts begging me to get a dog or a gerbil and says he'll be the one to take care of it, I need to say a big fat NO! because this is what happens to things that end up in my care that I don't really care about. Death - slow, ugly and probably painful. You can tell by just looking at his chest hairs that appeared to be hanging on for dear life.

It didn't take that long before poor Homer started reminding me of the guy on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade who at the end drank out of the wrong goblet and within seconds withered away to dust. Tragic thought I know. So long Homer! I'm sure none of us will miss you.

Chia Update

2009-10-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

Inquiring minds (wait, did I pluralize that last word? ...I meant "mind") have been asking "How's Chia Homer doing?". Well inquirer (aka Melissa), see for yourself. This photo is taken from about a week and a half ago when Homer was alive and well. Long, luscious green locks everywhere the eye can see, chest hair thicker than my husbands, a nice wind blown look, and full of nothing but water and confidence. It looks like bedhead, but you know he styled it that way. He looks happier and healthier than the day he married Marge.

Ingrain this photo into your minds (oops! I keep pluralizing that word). This is how I want you all to remember Chia Homer by.

Tomorrow you will see what a week and a half of neglect can do to even the best of Chia's.

24 Hours of Pure Luck (or Pure Blessings)

2009-10-26T19:24:00.000-07:00

Since moving out of our furnished apartment, our home was in desperate need of a few basic yet potentially expensive items to be complete and make it organized and functional. These included: a bookcase (see a couple posts down to see the end of that story), a kitchen table, and a dresser.

After getting that bookcase for free, I was determined not to have to spend very much, if any, for these other items and continued scouring craigslist for the perfect fit.

My run of luck all started one Sunday night when Mark and I were returning home from a friend's house. It was dark outside but I spotted on the side of the road a kids table and two chairs. I wasn't really in the market for this but they appeared to be pretty intact (driving at 40 miles/hour) so I asked - or probably more like ordered - Mark to stop the car so I could take a look. With neighbor's eyes watching, we threw the 3 piece set in the back of our vehicle and drove off slightly embarrassed and with no real plan on what we were going to do with them. I just couldn't pass them up.

(This is a picture of the chairs from yesterday. I was just about to start sanding. You can't really see it, but they have some bubbling on them from water damage.)

Then later that night I came home, slipped into something a little more comfortable, and like a reflex, began my ritual of searching craigslist. The "free" section is where I always start looking first, then the furniture section (pictured items only and everything <$100). Almost by chance, I found this table and immediately contacted the person and set up a time for the next day to pick it up. With over a month of searching, I had never seen a table like this one. PRO of living near NYC - you have so many options. CON - nothing is close by. The seller lived 1 hour away (without traffic). But it was only $50 and came with 3 leaves.

(I really LOVE this table. Chairs are still to be found.)

My luck didn't stop there. The next morning I went grocery shopping and decided to take a different route home...mainly for the scenery but partially in hopes that seeing new curb-sides would up my chances of finding new and free gems to fix up. And it did. I ended up picking up another item that wasn't on my wish list but was too unique and cute to let it get chucked. I can't tell whether it's for a human or animal. I'm hoping human.

Later that afternoon, I had cleaned out the car and was on route to go and get my new table. Waiting at a stop light not even two minutes from my house, I see out of the corner of my eye the bottom legs of what I thought could have been a dresser (up-side-down). I questioned myself thinking it was probably the top of a fence. But my gut said GO!, so I decided to turn and lo and behold it was EXACTLY what I was looking for in a dresser. One that had good bones and would look sweet after some sanding and a coat of paint.

After lifting that sucker into the car, I called Mark and told him I was on my way home. He was very confused as I wasn't expected home for a few hours. I told him "I found a dresser!" and he said "You're CRAZY!" But what could he do right? We quickly unloaded the dresser and shoved it into the last available space in the apartment and then off I went to pick up my new table.

So let's review. In a matter of 24 hours I had found, a kid's table and chairs, a kitchen table, a fun little chair that could really be for a pampered cat (who knows), and a dresser. All for a total of $50. Then if we add my bookshelf and this antique treasure chest I found at a garage sale a couple weeks ago, my total then goes up to $80 for all of these things (maybe $100 with gas). Amazing!

I understand that this sum total will rise slightly as I'll be spending many hours and some additional funds for paint and what not, but I do feel really blessed that I have - with a lot of searching and patience - found everything that I felt our family needed to keep our house happy organized and running smoothly.

Like I said, Mark thinks I'm completely of my rocker, but I think deep down he's grateful for the money we've saved. We have since agreed that we don't have any more room for anything else and I need to curb this habit of mine. I told him, he needs to be grateful it wasn't strayed animals I was bringing home.

Now I just need to find the time to work on all these projects.

Congratulations! It's A....

2009-10-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning, Mark woke up at 2:30am and left our bedroom to what I thought was just semi-routine rendezvous with his math textbook in the bathroom. He didn't return for a good 20 minutes (which isn't abnormal for a Hughes) but I decided to leave my warm cocoon of blankets to see what was going on. To my unfortunate surprise, I found him flat on his back on the floor of the living room. He's never been one for yoga so I knew something was "going down" ( whoops, was that foreshadowing??). He said he was having really intense pain in his lower back on the left hand side. Mark and I have seen probably just enough E.R. or House episodes to know that that sounds like a kidney problem. However, not knowing for sure that it wasn't just extremely bad gas or a slipped disc, he spent the next two hours rolling on the floor, almost puking, then puking, talking to a nurse on the phone, applying heat, getting massaged, walking and probably praying...a lot. He had a few moments during that time where his coloring came back and I noticed he could sit still for a while, but it seemed those moments were short lived. When the next wave of pain erupted, we decided to go into the E.R. (which was empty!!) and get him first of all, some pain relief, and second of all, some answers. He was admitted immediately, got doped up on morphine and went up within minutes to have a CT scan. (why is everywhere up in a hospital?)

The results came soon after. We have TWINS! Yep, Mark was showing not one but two kidney stones. The doctor explained that he was at 3rd base with the first and smaller one, but the second and bigger one was still in the kidneys and there was no saying if/when it will pass.

They prescribed him a very generous amount of some of the best painkillers and sent us home to await the arrival of our newest addition. Fortunately, after leaving the hospital Mark didn't ever have another wave of pain and thinks he hit "home base" while still under the influence at the hospital. Also fortunately, we now have a full, untouched bottle of percocet that I hear goes for about $20/pill on the street. So I'll be starting the bids at $400 for the whole bottle (which is a deal for you my readers of course). Just leave your mailing address in the comment section and I'll courier it to the highest bidder. Look for "Kim's Homemade Raspberry Jam 2009" on the label. Oh and make sure you add shipping. Thanks.

The best part of the experience - which of course wasn't any part while he was in pain - was when I came home from picking up the prescription and Mark said he found a great website on kidney stones. Clearly it was the website that described the pain as "worse than childbirth, a gunshot wound and any surgery". For the rest of the day he was talking about his "gunshot wound" he'd just endured.

On my facebook status I asked what our stone baby should be named and here are some of the suggestions:

BaROCK Obama
Stone Phillips
Cephas
Peter
Rocco
Nefertiti, Rena, Rollie, Rocky, Pebbles & Scrapey-all-the-way-downey-ouch!

Sven
Hercules

Dwayne "the rock" Hughes (I came up with that one).

Book Club

2009-10-10T16:01:00.000-07:00

This last Wednesday I attended our ward Relief Society's book club. This was my first time going not only to this particular group but a book club in general. I'd been meaning to participate prior to this, but of course life gets in the way and I've discovered I'm not a good listener because it takes probably at least 4 or 5 doses of announcements at church for the information to sink in on what book we're on and what day we're meeting. But, by the time I finally get it, it's far too late for me to even try to catch up so I give up before even starting. I've even tried going the route of looking ahead months in advance to see what book(s) is/are going to be discussed and I still fail consistently and miserably even then.

So as stated before, I made it this month. However, shamefully I admit this last attempt wasn't a complete success. How could it not be a success Kim? You read the book right? Nope, not a single page. AND...I didn't even have a copy of the book with me the night of to even fake it by thumbing my way through the pages while others spoke and nodding my head ever so often at their comments. One of these things was not like the other. I guess I was there more for the "club" and less for the "book". But the important thing is that I WENT...slightly embarrassed, but I went.

Now, on the flip side, I'm proud to announce that this time I'm already on top of the game and have in my possession a copy of next months book. (Virtually pat me on the back right now) However, I'm seeing a huge uphill battle coming my way as the book we're doing is Bram Stoker's Dracula and I'm having a hard time even looking at the cover. Don't mock me reader! If you saw the same dark blood shot eye staring at you saying "read me", you'd feel hesitant too.

Has anyone read it? And if so, will I lose sleep over it? (Keep in mind I'm a new-ish mother and since becoming one, have merged into a wimpy and over sensitive marshmallow who needs basically butterflies and balloons at the end of every story).

An Old Friend

2009-10-04T19:21:00.000-07:00

Oh the treasures you will find when you go through the unpacking process.

When Mark pulled from a box the Chia Homer I gave him for his birthday back when we were dating, he held it up and asked what he should do with it. I fought the urge to instinctively say "toss it" as I usually do as a general rule to things that haven't been used in years, but I could tell by the tone of his voice and the look on his face that there was some sentiment involved here. Maybe he longed to have a pet growing up but couldn't and the Chia was the only thing he had to fill that empty void. Maybe he's a closet horticulturist. Or maybe the Chia Homer was the quirky gift that kept him interested in me and without it there would be no "us"... I don't know. Regardless, I couldn't make him throw it away. So instead, I said "Tell you what, I'll give you one week to find seeds for it and if you do, we can keep it." Seriously, within minutes he finds more seeds for it so guess what's sitting on my kitchen counter right now? Freshly baked cookies? Well yes, but also the worlds tackiest house plant/herb/weed in the shape of a bald, fat, cartoon who doesn't even have hair in real life. The whole concept of a Chia Homer just doesn't make sense. But I guess I have to give someone a little credit because I bought it. So anyways, I soaked the seeds and the clay for 24 hours as instructed, and in a few days our terracotta Homer will be sporting or should I say sprouting some lovely, green, afro locks...and hopefully some chest hair too cause I added some seeds down lower just for fun (something we didn't do the first time we sowed).

Well, if this posting inspires any of you to go out and buy your own chia plant to love and cherish for years to come, I would strongly suggest going with the Chia Obama. But I'd hurry, cause after seeing this advertisement for it, I'd wager they'd be almost sold out by now.

The Almost Finished Product

2009-10-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

The rest of my house is still a disaster but here's a peek at what my new bookcase is looking like. I still need to find some storage baskets for the bottom shelf to put my food storage in.

ZOOMED IN:

Found this old camera in with some of Mark's things as I was unpacking and decided to take it out of it's dusty case and just display it.

Here's my weak sauce (pun intended) collection of cookbooks. I didn't want to mix them with any other type of book so I grabbed two of my big spices to use as book ends.

My Wall Street Bonus

2009-10-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

So everything at our new apartment is just super, with the exception of one thing - storage and cupboard space. I know...those are pretty huge minuses for most home seekers, maybe even deal breakers, but my gut was telling me to move here, and my gut has never let me down yet...except after those chili cheese fries from Taco Bell, but that doesn't count.

The obvious solution was to get a jelly cupboard or portable pantry and just slip it in a corner by the kitchen to store my mounds of food storage and extra dishes. Good idea but, what happens after I spend the big bucks and we relocate to a new place in the future that doesn't require me to have such a thing? This being our 4th move in our marriage, I've realized that I don't want to invest in furnishings that are so house specific. So my solution was this...something that looked nice and could be useful in many different rooms.

My vision was with this I can hide my food storage in baskets in the bottom, make Henry's books, toys and puzzles easily accessible to him while at the same time display some of my extra dishes, decor and books. Win-win-win-win and win. How many win's was that? Probably too many, but we GOT IT and the biggest "win" I have yet to tell is.......it was FREE!!

Long story short, a presumably wealthy, Matt Damon-esk (says Mark), corporate lawyer who lived and works on Wall Street had moved and had to get this sucker out of his old apartment asap. When we were about to shut the deal down because of mere logistics of getting it from his house to our house he offered it to us for free. FREE? ME? Yes please!! He said that the money wasn't an issue and I sounded like a really nice person and he would be happy to see it go to someone who really wanted it. (I thought I sounded slightly chipmonk-ish on the phone but I guess that's what "nice" sounds like.) Mark, my hero, then spent most of the day traveling to and from the city, finding parking, disassembling the thing, hauling the zillion pieces to the car from the 21st floor of a building, then reassembling it once he got home. Thank you Mark! I feel tired just reading that. But it was FREE glorious FREE!!

My new hope is that there are other Wall Street suits out there who received undeserved and unnecessary bonuses that can just sluff off maybe a nice shabby-sheik dresser and a kitchen table to me for free as well. I can't say I'm not going to look.

TO CRAIGSLIST!!

Ticked Off/Tickled Pink

2009-09-26T03:22:00.000-07:00

The Medicine Hat News newspaper has a small section in their Friday's edition called "Ticked Off/Tickled Pink" where people of the community write in a small and simple statement of why they are mad or happy - to put it simply. Next to the comics, I think it's the most fought-over section of the newspaper in the Hughes household. Here's a few samples pulled straight from their website this morning:

Ticked Off
"I'm ticked off as to why the only person in the factory who is getting normal hours and overtime feels the need to steal all the empty pop cans. He has been doing it for years. By the size of his girth it surely can't be to buy food, or maybe it is?"

Tickled Pink
"We had a few meals at a restaurant on South Railway Street. It had the best food and the largest plates we ever had. Go and try this place."

Feels almost therapeutic reading it doesn't it? I think that's why it's such the craze in the Hat. It's like your venting right along with the ticked off person, at the same time releasing your own frustrations...and then almost immediately you're celebrating yourself, freeing all those tucked away endorphins, just happy that someone else is happy, for the pink person who's been tickled. THIS right here people is what the 1st Amendment is all about....large plates and the fat pop can stealer!!

Well in today's edition of The Daily Hughes, I'm going to write in as my own community member and make a statement on my feelings.

Tickled Pink
We are moving out TODAY! And I'm thrilled to soon purchase a shower curtain of my choice that is free and void from all jumping or swimming dolphins.

~~~

Read on if you'd like to learn something new today...I did:
Etymology: The tickling pink concept is of enjoyment great enough to make the recipient glow with pleasure.....The inclusion of the term in a newspaper, without any explanation of meaning, indicates that the writer expected readers would already be familiar with it. It seems that that phrase didn't originate much before 1910 though.

Oreo Face

2009-09-23T17:43:00.000-07:00

Can't say this is my proudest moment as a mother....

Lesson Learned

2009-09-21T10:14:00.000-07:00

After putting the Hankster down for a nap, I decided to try and tackle some of my books that needed some work done on them from the mold damage. First one on my list, my great grandmother's Book of Mormon. I think some pages will forever be wrinkly but I think I can live with that. Next book to save, was a book one of my best friends surprised me with right before I had Henry. It's called "Glimpses Into the Life and Heart of Marjorie Pay Hinkley". Amazing book by the way. Once all visible mold was wiped away I opened the book right to the beginning of the chapter on optimism. Coincidence? I think not!

Directly beneath the chapter heading "Optimism" it says "Do What Needs To Be Done, When It Needs To Be Done, With A Cheerful Heart". This intrigued me slightly so I read on. (Side note: This book is edited by Marjorie's daughter and is really a compilation of letters and quotes given mostly by Marjorie herself but also includes explanations and insights from the rest of the family.) Her daughter says this about her mother: "The cup is never half-empty, always almost-full or about-to-be-full. With this optimism comes a willingness to be flexible and adaptive, to not overreact to daily irritations. Her basic philosophy is that things always work out somehow."

I continued to read a little further and feel like I've been changed slightly for the better. Hopefully it sticks!

The Mold War

2009-09-19T14:58:00.000-07:00

This house would seriously be up in flames by now if it wasn't for my incredible husband. He has really put this moldy burden on his shoulders and done every ounce of the grunt work. Endless hours he has spent in what I call "the trenches" spraying, scrubbing, wiping, sorting, hauling, chucking, laundering, and now cutting this mold away from our belongings and really, our lives. And to top it off, I haven't heard one complaint come from him...ever. Simply AMAZING!!

Gratefully, we've been able to salvage most of our items but a few. Here's our current list of casualties (just off the top of my head):

Whiteboard
Office Chair
Over One Month's Supply of Food Storage
Small Cabinet
Baseball Bat
Craft Items and Gift Bags
Various decor and storage baskets
Pizza Stone and other random kitchen items
Photo Frames
etc...

Apart from the food storage, I haven't really minded seeing these things make their way to the dumpster. I've just tried to be optimistic by thinking "we didn't need them anyway, they were just extra things adding clutter to our lives". This was my attitude until yesterday. We thought we were in the clear with only a handful of boxes left to examine. Then last night I heard 'the call' from Mark, "Kim, can you come take a look at this?" He proceeded to show me a box that contained many of our hardcover church books, personal journals and sadly, a Book of Mormon that was past down to me from my great grandmother - all with varying degrees of mold damage to them. I treasure that Book of Mormon so much because I can see what verses she had highlighted and can read her notes in the margins. It's just irreplaceable and priceless. Now we're getting personal mold! However, with careful and time consuming work on the books we may be able to save a few.

Then today emotions were kicked up a notch when we had another surprise attack from the mold. We opened another box which in it contained our wedding photo album and other albums and loose pictures from different stages of my life. Only about half of the photos are digital and can be reprinted. Mark once again softened the blow by then spending probably 3 hours or so removing all the photos from the albums and either cutting the edges off or cleaning them gently so my memories could be preserved. I really do think he deserves some form of badge or medal of honor for his work.

I don't know what it is about this particular situation we're in. Usually I can 'suck it up' in challenging times and work alongside Mark or do my part to just get through whatever we need to get through. But for some reason this mold damage coupled with the regular annoyances of the house has completely immobilized me and I feel like I have very dismal reserves or troops to send out to fight. I avoid that cellar like the plague and become rapidly frustrated, sickened and saddened when working with items that have even the slightest smell of must on them. I try and make myself feel better by saying I've been doing my part as I keep the meals coming, keep the Henry happy, and do as much packing as I can up where it's clean and safe. I just can't wait to to move. Only 6 more days until the war is won.

Happier posts to come! But here's a little sample of what we've been dealing with.

Rise and be Shiny

2009-09-13T17:35:00.000-07:00

When Mark and his siblings were each in high school, every morning they would be woken up for early morning seminary by the chipper voice of their father. He had a rotation of "wake-up quotes" he would call out, using a different one each time he had to visit his subject's rooms. If it went anything like my experience trying to wake up for seminary, the Hughes kids probably each made it through the whole rotation on a daily basis before finally dragging their lifeless bodies out of their warm beds. I know this fact about Papa Hughes not only from the tales both Mark and his siblings have described to me since joining their family, but from my own experience....yes, it's true....I myself have been a victim of his.

The first round starts off with a "Time to rise and be shiny!" followed by a "Time to take the bull by the horns!". If you haven't succumbed by then, you will next hear, "You can't sleep your whole life away!" which then leads to "Who do you think you're fooling here?" (that one may be a little misquoted).

I bring this all to the surface for a reason. Tomorrow is the beginning of the end of sleeping in for my husband. He has been asked to teach early morning seminary to the youth of our ward. A great and rewarding task, but the kicker is, is that it starts at 5:45am. Which means that Mark has to be at the building at 5:30am, which means he is up at 4:45am.....everyday. Our lives have begun and will continue to be altered by this new assignment. It's only 9:20pm and we are on the final stretches of our bedtime routine. Going to bed this early is completely foreign to us but I'm sure we will learn quickly it's required. Good luck Mark! All you have to be is slightly less comatose than the kids. In the end they will only remember that they attended.

Niner

2009-09-09T08:26:00.001-07:00

I just read my sister's blog and was reminded that today is 09/09/09. I commented on her posting that maybe I should go and buy 9 lotto tickets...but then concluded that I probably won't because I don't gamble, but instead will eat 9 oreo cookies which will likely make me gain 9 pounds.

This made me think of other 9's to do today:

Do 9 sit ups to counteract my 9 oreos. Maybe I should make that 9x9...x9
Kiss Mark and Henry at least 9 times.
Listen to 9 of my favorite songs.
Not watch 9 hours of t.v.
Do 9 loads of moldy laundry.
Try and go to bed while the clock still says 9:
Post 9 more blog entries...just kidding.

She Wouldn't Notice Would She

2009-09-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Now that the deal is sealed and our move is most definite, I need to start packing. It won't take very long as there are still things in our luggage from the summer. I guess I was somewhat in a state of denial, thinking that if I didn't unpack and settle in, we wouldn't have to stay here. An outward expression of an inward protest. But even with that, we do have a little packing and sorting out of things that are ours and things that are Ester's. Most of the items will be easy and obvious to divide. Anything cheap and gross - Ester's. Anything not - ours. However, there are exceptions to this and there will be a few things that I will be tempted to sneak into our boxes as they get filled.

The first being Ester's knives. She has a set of like 5 or 6 of these little knives that are so spectacular for cutting almost anything. Sharp like you wouldn't believe. I could even cut my shoes with one. (...for any of you Jerry Seinfeld fans out there)

Then there is her fan. It's loud and powerful and makes the best white noise for Henry when he's sleeping. That's going to be a hard one to not take.

Next, her mini food processor and her deep skillet with a lid that fits it and also mine as well. There were many sensations made in that wonderful skillet.

Last but definitely not least, her one of a kind wall ornaments. How will I ever know where to serve my guests in my new house....Or which way the beach is?...Or, worse yet, how will I keep track of what comes first....is it the roast, then the toast? or is it the other way around? I don't know!!! These and all of the other kitchen reminders are what has kept me going this past year. My new kitchen will feel so cold and barren without them. She wouldn't miss or even notice they were gone right?

Mr. Mantis

2009-09-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

"How does it feel to be back in NY?" That's the FAQ that I've been getting these last two weeks. My answer has changed drastically from day 1 to day 14. Let me explain.

We were welcomed home after a long day of traveling to a house filled with dog hair, sand and dirt everywhere the eye could see (and I'm sure a lot more where the eye couldn't see). Our belongings that we stored in the basement were/are still covered in mold, including Henry's high chair and bed he was supposed to sleep in that night. Not having an ounce of patience for what we came home to, plus a slight fear of dying from inhaling what could be toxic mold led us straight to a hotel. (The mold has since been determined to be non-life threatening - but still not cool). As I spent my next few days sanitizing and reorganizing, you can imagine how excited I was to be reminded of the luke warm showers and the bug infested cupboards we also had here at our luxurious beach home. (To see move-in 2008 photos click here.)

All the while, I had to try to keep my emotions and complaints to a minimum as Mark had to focus on what one may call "the test of a lifetime" that he had to write only 4 days after our return. But once he was done...it was then my time to whine. Just kidding but we did immediately start looking at some other places. Nothing seemed right until the very last day we could possibly give notice to our landlady (Ester #3&4). Talk about the 11th hour. The place we ended up finding is EXACTLY what we, or more like I, needed - clean, up-dated, non-furnished, closer to school and church and civilization, and we have friends that live basically a stone or cotton ball's throw away. The only problem was, is that we had to get our application accepted.

Then yesterday, I found this praying mantis on our car. Mark being the macho hunk he is, let the little critter crawl all over him and I think they became quite close in those few moments together. After the photo op, we put him down safely on our porch where he ended up staying for hours without moving. It was not long after we put him down that Mark and I started receiving all the great news. Mark had passed his exam and we were also approved to move into our new place with the lease conditions we requested. Yeah!!! We joked that it was all because of our praying mantis friend and his long supplication he made outside our house. I was tempted to find a little cage and keep our new good luck charm on the back of my belt - sort of like the cricket on Mulan - but Mark thought he deserved a little more reverence or respect than that.

He's gone now. And I realize that Mr. Mantis had nothing to do with the way our lives have changed as of late. It is however due to our friends and family everywhere who have kept us in their thoughts and prayers the past few weeks. I know they were heard and answered and I thank you all for helping us in such a simple but powerful way.

Now it's time to start de-molding and packing and I'm so excited to do it.

Shallow Halle

2009-08-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is taking a lot of courage for me to admit this, but I've tuned in a few times to see the new show this summer called "Dating In The Dark". Sounds pretty skeezy at first, but it's not what you think it is. It really a social experiment to see if looks really do matter in finding a connection with someone of the opposite sex. It's been a very long time since I've been in a lab or done any reportish type writeup so bare with me.

Background Information: The show is set in a house that is completely divided in half. The women stay on one side and the males stay on the other. The only common area is a room that is pitch black. Each episode starts off by 3 females and 3 males going into the room where they then get to have a group date all together. Once they get a feel for who's there, they get to go on single dates in this room with whomever they choose - communicating to them only by email out of the room. More often than not, they all find a connection with someone else there. At the end of the show each person gets to choose one person to see what they look like. The person being reveled does not get to see the on-lookers reaction. Once they've seen the person they have the choice to meet them on the balcony and continue seeing that person or just simply walk out the front door and never look at that person again. No good-byes, no explanation, nothing.

Obervation: I have yet to see someone on the show that would be considered by society as very unattractive.

Results: Sometimes there is clearly no match made in a show. Now here's what's shocking to me (and Mark...yes he watches too). Both genders are usually equally excited about the other person when there is a match. They both feel that they've made a connection with that person by using all of their 5 senses but sight. Then, probably about 9 times out of 10, the male will look past his preconceived idea of what his "type" is and decides he is willing take a chance at finding love and will go out on the balcony only too see his date, the women) walk out that front door and head for the highway. The girls (in general) come out from seeing what their dates look like and start nit picking saying things like "he's too pretty" or "I didn't like what he was wearing" or "he's the type you'd bring home to your mother".

Conclusion: It's pretty interesting to see the difference between the genders and also how people prioritize appearances. I think everyone involved learns a lot about themselves whether it be favorable or not.

Happy Birthday Henry

2009-08-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Last week was a monumental day for me - my first child's first birthday. It was such a wonderful day. We had great weather, fantastic family and friends around, and best of all, Henry made it through the celebrations without a meltdown. He was so happy the whole time. Maybe it had something to do with letting him finally eat cake. I had been trying to keep him far from anything resembling a cake or a cake's cousin (cookies) up until that point so he would enjoy it so much more. I think of it as a "cake honeymoon". He did pretty good job on it considering he had just eaten a full meal just minutes before.

I'm just so glad I have the Hankster in my life. He is an amazing amazing boy who exudes happiness, sweetness and silliness everywhere he goes. I know he's going to be something extraordinary.

Yo Yo Pa

2009-08-13T21:53:00.000-07:00

Thought I would share this as it just happened moments ago. So I just finished writing an email - laptop still in hand and Mark comes into our slightly crowded room we're staying in at my parent's house and picks up his recently purchased yoyo (a rekindled love of his) and asks "how much time to I have?" (meaning before we go to bed so he can practice).

Barely avoiding hitting the fan, roof, door and bed, he then proceeds to fly his yo yo straight at my face which he knows I hate and says "trust me...when you've been yoyoing as long as I have honey..."

For some strange reason I didn't feel any safer after that comment and continued to yell at him to stop.

As long as I don't get a yoyo in the face I will continue to support him in this hobby and think it adorable. What is even funnier is Mark's tale of how he single handedly started a Medicine Hat city-wide yoyo craze which emptied the stores of all yoyos for a period of time.

~Stay tuned for Henry walking and b-day posts. Too special to just whip up like this one.