A plea for Fall to come (or if you are Garrett, Christmas)

Fall, where are you?

Highs in the 90’s all week? Seriously?

I am over the summer. I am over the heat. (So is Piper….)

I want to sit comfortably outside on my patio with a glass of wine, maybe even while wearing a sweatshirt.

I want to be able to turn off the A/C, open the windows, let Mother Nature cool the house instead. 

I want to bake some bread and make some soup and cuddle up under a blanket.

A couple of weeks ago, when it was feeling a little cool and crisp out, my mom and I went shopping for some Fall-weather clothes for Haydie-Hoots. We didn’t know that that cooler weather was just a tease. We got carried away.  This child’s drawers are literally now exploding with long sleeves, pants, sweatshirts, cozy fleece jogging suits, dresses with little tights, new shoes, courderoy overalls.  Are we wearing any of these things here in these first weeks of fall? Nope. We are rationing our last 3-4 summery outfits that fit, squeezing into some that do not fit at all, and going for the hillbilly “baby in a diaper” look around the house. (BTW, if you see me around and my kid looks unkempt, it is not because I am a terrible mother – it is because the weather won’t just make the change so my little fashonista can make a change too!! Don’t judge me, please!)

To compound my issues with the weather, my husband is shopping….  Not for football jerseys, not for pumpkins, not for a new rake to clean up the yard. Oh, no, not my husband.  Heck, he isnt even shopping for pool toys, new shorts, sunscreen, or any other thing that this heatwave would warrant.  What is he shopping for you ask?

Well, Christmas lights of course.  Seriously.  I saw it pulled up on my computer screen this morning and nearly keeled over dead. Christmas lights? Really? OMG. It is 95 degrees outside, man! What are you thinking?  There is some serious seasonal confusion going on here.  Apparently the only person here here knows it’s Fall is me!  (and Piper, as you can see above. LOL)

So I guess that for now, I will just suffer on through this crazy Indian Summer.  I will stop at Maverick for dollar fro-yo cones, dress my kid in out-grown clothes, and crank the A/C. (Let’s keep that last one on the down-low. I am married to a man who is known for being…. well… thrifty? Yes, let’s go with thrifty – seems nicer than cheap.)  And my husband will deal with the heatwave by preparing for Christmas.  I will not pretend to understand his methods,and I will not complain.  But I will be silently cursing the heat and begging Fall to show it’s face.  Sooner rather than later please. Sometime before Christmas would be best.

TOUCHDOWN!!

hanging out together, football, a finished tutu, dinner with the fam.

around here, we <3 sundays.

Leaving my baby for the first time....

I am going to Apple Hill with my friends tomorrow.  I love Apple Hill.  I love my friends.  It will be fun.  Yet, I have a reason not to be over the moon about this: I am leaving HootOwl behind. 

I know that if I wasn’t fortunate enough to stay at home with my little sweetie, if my circumstances were even the tiniest bit different, I would have had to leave her for a whole day a long time ago.  But, as luck would have it, I have never had to go anyplace without my tiny girl, and I have never left her for more than two hours or so. 

I was going to take her with me, but after a little heat from my parents and my husband, Hayden is staying with my mom.  I know that it will be good for us both.  I know that she will be fine.  I suppose I will be fine too.  But if all of that is true, why do I feel like my heart is going to explode?

Being a mom is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Last fall, when Owl was still on the inside, I knew that there would be sleepless nights, I knew that there would be times when I wanted to cry.  I knew that it wasn’t an easy job, this mom gig – I worked with kids for 10 years in my previous life.  I had no fairy-tale illusions about having a perfect kid or being super mom all the time.  I knew what I was in for – but there are so many parts that I couldn’t even begin to understand.

I didn’t know that I would sometimes feel so happy to have her that I cried.  I didn’t know that every little milestone would be more bittersweet than the one before.  There is not anything that could prepare me for what it is like to forever feel like there is this big tender spot inside of me that never stops throbbing. To feel like my heart is walking around on the outside of my body.  I knew that I loved my husband, and I felt like I could never love anyone more than I loved him.  I do love my husband, but the love that filled me up the second the doctor placed that wiggly, screaming little girl on my chest, my heart floated and got so heavy I couldn’t hold it all at once.  She is my world, and was my world from the second I laid eyes on her chubby little face.    

Why am I so heartbroken about something so “minor” as leaving her with her grandma (who by the way loves HootOwl just as much as I do and who HootOwl is madly in love with in return) for the day while I do something fun?  Because it is a reminder that time is moving so fast and she will just keep growing, and that my heart will just keep breaking over and over again as she does.  i don't want to miss a single minute.  I know that my heart will break many more times than this.

I also know that as time passes the breaks will feel less impossible to overcome and that when I get home tomorrow night she will be here waiting for me, tiny little angel that she is. So tomorrow, I will just push through the hurt, smile and wave bye-bye to my little girl, and go have fun with my friends.  But I am not going to lie – I will be counting the seconds until I am back home and my little Owlet is back in my arms.  and hopefully she won't have walked or said a full sentence or learned to drive while I was away. :)

One Flying-Fairy Wand = COMPLETE!!

that is right, folks! one step closer to a flying fairy costume! and the Owlet approves! (she especially liked bonking me in the face with it and chanting, "Mama, Mama, Mama!!" - I did not like that part as much.)

p.s. Yes, this little urchin is my child, still in her PJs with her hair all crazy looking.  Don't judge me! It's still early!! LOL  The truth is I thought she looked so cute and sleepy, I thought I'd share her with all of you. :)

A crafty night around here....

I got all of this stuff today:

It may not look like it, but it is going to be a Halloween costume.  A first Halloween costume.  For this cute little kid:

I wanted it to be an owl, but I couldn’t find a pattern for an owl that wasn’t so scary or ugly or costing $50+… so I was talking about modifying a pumpkin pattern when Garrett admitted that he thought something else would be cuter:

This, my friends,  is Abby Cadabby. Hayden watches her on Sesame Street while I make her breakfast in the morning.  She loves her. I love her.  (The truth is that Hoot prefers Elmo.  But Elmo is a boy and wouldn’t make as cute of a costume as a sweet little fairy-in training like Miss Abby here.  And let’s face it, I am the mom and until she can talk I get to pick.)

 So now I have a pile of stuff to make into a costume.  I figured I should get a head start on it since it takes me forever and two days to get anything done, especially in the craft project department.  I am hoping (while promising nothing) that this will not look like the same little heap of crap on October 28^th or thereabouts.  I am making a goal here to go against all that I usually do and not procrastinate.  We’ll see how it goes. J

And now to take the heat off of me and my goal making, I bring you some pictures of Haydie-Hoots herself, a crafty little lady in the making, working on her first art project with her daddy.  We bought her these little chubby markers and a notebook at Walmart the other night.  We chose to blow off the fact that the package says “18 Months +” and the fact that our kid is only 8 months.  We, like all parents , believe she is a genius.  So, without further ado, Hayden Paisley The Genius gets crafty:

"You see me, Mama? i am coloring!"

"I don't NEED your help, Dad!"

More issues with unwanted help....

"See, I can do it MYSELF!!"

 

I just think that this is the funniest picture i have ever seen. (And so does she. LOL)

AND VOILA!! A MASTERPIECE!!

man, i love this kid. :)

Jumping In and A Peek Into the Past

At the urging of my darling husband, Garrett, I am joining the new millennium – okay, so I am ten (almost eleven) years late to the new millennium.  I am late for everything, so why should starting a blog be any different? I realize that I am not the first person to start a blog, and I am comfortable with that. I am not really a trail-blazer in a lot of respects – I like to sit back and watch and observe for a while before I jump in.  At any rate, here I am, jumping. Always late but worth the wait – that’s what I always say!

Speaking of jumping - today is our wedding anniversary. Three years ago we took that “jump” and we were married under huge weeping willows by the river, in front of around 200 of our closest friends, at the most gorgeous ceremony ever.  I wore a huge ball gown with beading and a train and the whole nine yards.  There was a tent and a full dinner and dancing and roses and candles and two cakes.  (Something you should know about me: while I am not one for jumping in without thinking long and hard about it as I mentioned above, once I am “in” I am of the “go big or go home” mentality – and my wedding was no different.)

We of course have pictures of this blessed day. Pictures of my father walking me down the aisle, pictures of us exchanging rings, kissing, dancing. Pictures of us eating and toasting, and cake cutting.  Pictures of our guests, our bridesmaids, groomsmen, flower girl, families, friends.  Pictures of Piper Penelope (she’s our pug, our “first baby”) partying it up like the rest of us.  Beautiful memories.

There was, however, a lot of things going on outside of the view of the camera lens. What some may consider “less than beautiful” memories.

We had a fainting best man. That’s right, out cold in the grass, just as we were exchanging rings.  It was just too hot for him, in is black tuxedo with the sun beating down on his back.  Those of you who were there may be saying, “Oh yeah – it was terrible! He got hung up on the barbed wire fence!” Yes, he did.  You may be remembering, “Oh, yeah!  He hung there like a scarecrow! He nearly tumbled down a hill and into the river!” Yes, he did. You may also remember that we just carried on with the ceremony as people were trying to revive him, and that his wife (who was also in the wedding party) actually shouted, “Daniel! You are ruining their wedding!”

Strangely, there are no pictures of any of this.  Back to the part where we carried on with the ceremony, and the afore mentioned pictures of us exchanging rings and Garrett kissing the bride and all of that jazz, I laugh everytime I look at those and think about what is  happening just two feet to our left.  And he did not ruin our wedding at all. In fact, poor Best-man Dan, it has become a favorite family tale that we will share for years to come.

Later in the night, we also had a fire on the cake table caused by some wayward napkins and one of the 2.75 million candles I insisted on lighting – you know, for mood lighting? The burning table ended up being a different kind of mood lighting, I suppose, but alas we have no pictures of this either.  As is true for even a little later in the night when the sherriff showed up because our music (which at this point had gone from the beautiful selections that started the night off had digressed to more colorful selections such as “I Like Big Butts” and “Ridin’Dirty”) was apparently offending some people a mile away across the river who had the nerve to feel like sleeping at 2am.  Like I said, no pictures.

Where were all of the cameras for all of this, you might ask. I have no idea. Am I said that these moments happened? No. I am glad they did, actually.  In a lot of ways, that night and all of its hiccups were a metaphor for our married life.  Things aren’t always perfect around here.  While a picture can capture a moment, it also leaves out some of the best parts.  The parts of our wedding that I hold most dear three years later are the parts that are a little “imperfect” – and they are the same types of things I hold most dear about my marriage to Garrett. The things that you may not see, or take a picture of are often the sweetest moments around here.  Our life is not a fairy tale, but we are loving it, hiccups and all.

Happy Anniversary, Garrett.  I love you. J