the past week, in cell phone photos

It’s been another busy week, but busy in a mostly great way. We’ve done a lot of fun things since my last post, and this is a good time to relive them since the past couple of days have been...well, to use one of Will’s new favorite words, they’ve been poopy.

(I can’t help it, you guys, this cracked me up. I think it’s the frowny face and the use of the word “very.”)

Last week when the weather was in the 80s, I took the boys for their inaugural walk in the jogging stroller I bought on a whim (except not really on a whim, because I’ve been wanting to get one for a long time and finally just sat down one random weekend and purchased one). I don’t know how much actual jogging action this stroller will get, but I sure do love using it for walks. It’s so aerodynamic and easy to steer, and I’ve already gotten my money’s worth out of it.

We walked up to the town square and went to the ice cream parlor, since it was such a nice day. This is one of the reasons I love the town we live in: It has an actual town square, and an ice cream parlor on that square, with tables out front for dining al fresco. It’s a little slice of Americana, and something I’m really glad I can give to my kids.

Friday I took the day off, and my sister and I went to an afternoon showing of The Hunger Games. In short...I loved it. I could write an entire post (probably more than one) on the things I loved about it, as well as the very few things I thought could have been addressed more effectively. But we both really, really loved it, and cried like babies a handful of times, and came out of the theater talking excitedly about how it was everything we hoped it would be, and making plans to see it again.

Saturday evening was the second meeting of the cooking club that a few friends from high school and I started. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it too much here, but it’s something I really look forward to every month. These women have known me nearly all of my life, and getting together with them once a month to talk, eat, laugh, and reminisce is so incredibly good for my soul. This month we made Italian food, and had a feast of bruschetta, fresh-baked pesto garlic bread, prosciutto-stuffed mushrooms, caprese skewers, lasagna, and (my contribution) tiramisu cupcakes (which were OMGAMAZING).

Next month we’re doing vegan food, and I’m really excited for that.

Sunday the boys and I met my best friend and her daughter at a park halfway between her house and ours. It was a gray, kind of cold, kind of drizzly day, so we had the entire place to ourselves. It was nice to get out of the house for a while, and I know all the kids enjoyed themselves. Ever since, Andrew has been calling my best friend’s daughter his “baby.” It’s so adorable.

On Monday, even though it was chilly, we took the boys to our local park to play.

The whole “playing at the park two days in a row” thing may have spoiled them, because now they seem to think they’ll get to go to the park every single day. That’s probably not going to happen, but I bet they’ll be able to convince us to take them again tonight.

That about brings things up to speed, because Tuesday isn’t really worth mentioning. In sum: technology issues at work, little boys who pushed the limits of my patience, and too much yelling when my patience inevitably ran out. It wasn’t my best day, and some of the same issues (see: technology stuff) are persisting today. But writing this post and reliving all the fun moments we’ve had in the past week have done wonders to improve my mood.

a birthday and a baby shower

As I type this, I am a newly-minted 29-year-old, and The Baby Shower That Tried To Eat My Soul is over. I am feeling pretty darn good about both of those things.

First up, the birthday. In short, it was wonderful. In less-short, we had a very low-key day. The weather was beautiful, from what I can remember the best weather I’ve ever had for my birthday. Joe bought me a new phone and we went out to dinner with his family. Mind-blowingly, those two events intersected when I took these pictures of the boys, with my new phone, outside the restaurant:

The baby shower also went fabulously, and thank goodness for that. I took a half-day off of work last Friday so I could go shopping and start prepping the food (also so I could go renew my license and registration, which was kind of necessary), and I was in my kitchen from 3:00 PM until nearly 10:00 that night. It made everything go much more smoothly for me on Saturday morning, though. I was so thankful that my other sister-in-law (Joe’s brother’s fiancé) co-hosted and took care of all of the decorations. Together, we were a great team.

The hit of the shower was the table we set up with headbands, bibs, and onesies, with fabric markers, sequins, and buttons to decorate them. Everyone loved doing this, and my niece is going to look adorable in all of these things.

It’s been such a busy month, and it’s not going to be slowing down anytime soon. This weekend is The Hunger Games and my cooking club, and then Joe’s birthday and Easter are a couple of weeks after that. And work continues on the boys’ rooms (although I did finally decide on beds/bedding/etc.). At this rate my 29th year will be over before I know it, AND THEN I’LL BE THIRTY.

basically this is just me thinking out loud. thanks in advance for humoring me.

Here is something that I really don’t like: being in the middle of things. Let me explain further. I really enjoy starting projects. I like making lists of things to do/buy for said projects. I like finishing projects, too, and having some sort of major accomplishment to show for my hard work. What I don’t like so much is the middle of the project, where the hard work actually takes place. I don’t mind the hard work itself; what I don’t like is having to make decisions, and having things not finished.

I am currently in the midst of a couple of projects that are conspiring to make me lose my mind. At the very least, they’re keeping me up at night. Losing an hour of sleep for Daylight Savings Time? Not an issue for me, since I wasn’t really sleeping anyway! Woo!

Project #1: Will’s bedroom.

When Joe was on vacation the weekend before last, he ripped out a wall in Will’s room that had some cracks in it, and was generally just...not put together very well. You may remember this as the weekend my mother-in-law was supposed to keep the boys, but didn’t. It all worked out, though, and Joe was able to get all of the drywall/spackle/sanding done in a matter of days, because he is handy and awesome.

But now we’re in the middle of the project, and things aren’t finished yet. We moved Will’s crib into Andrew’s room for the time being, which is actually working out really well (except for last night; they were up for two hours after bedtime laughing and cracking poop jokes -- I blame Daylight Savings Time for the wakefulness and Joe for the poop humor), so getting him back into his own room right now to sleep isn’t the issue. What is the issue, for me at least, is that now we have all of these decisions to make, and I can’t make up my mind.

Here’s just a sampling of what’s been cycling through my mind regarding these decisions: Should we move Will to a toddler bed, or should we just move him directly to a twin bed? If we move him to the toddler bed, we’ll still need to get him a twin bed in a year or two anyway. Either way, we’re going to need to get a new bed and new bedding for Andrew. He’s outgrown the toddler bed even if Will doesn’t use it. So what kind of bedding should we get for Andrew? I really like those red and blue patchwork quilts in the style of Pottery Barn Kids, but unfortunately the only place I can find one in stock is at Pottery Barn Kids, and it’s much more than I’d like to spend. We should probably paint Andrew’s room sometime soon, too, but what color? And what color should we paint Will’s room? What kind of bedding should we get for Will’s room? I’ve narrowed it down to dinosaurs or outer space but, hilariously, whenever I ask Will which one he’d like, he answers with the opposite of the answer he gave when I asked him previously.

So yes, I have lots of decisions to make. I’m leaning towards just getting both of them twin beds along with new bedding. I need to decide on the bedding before I decide on the paint color, because it should obviously coordinate. But just when I think I’ve made up my mind, I second-guess myself. I hate these types of decisions, although I know that in the big scheme of things, I’m waaay over-thinking it and it’s ultimately really not going to matter all that much.

Project #2: My sister-in-law’s baby shower.

The shower is this coming Saturday afternoon, and I’m co-hosting it with my other sister-in-law (although it is, thankfully, at an outside venue, which saves me from freaking out about the state of my house). She’s in charge of the decorations, and I’m in charge of the food. At this point, I’ve done all I can for my part: planned the menu, written out the grocery list, set out a timeline for Friday night and Saturday morning as far as what I can prepare when. But although I have it all planned out, I’m still freaking out because it looks like so much, and I can’t really start doing any of it yet. Also, I know there is going to be way too much food. I always, always plan a ridiculously large and varied menu when I host things, and yet I still always question myself: Will there be enough variety to please everyone? Even though OH WHO CARES, THEY ARE GETTING FREE FOOD, THEY CAN DEAL WITH IT.

I also have a fun activity planned for the shower, which involves making homemade flowered headbands for the baby girl (my niece!). This, in itself, was a huge test of my decision-making skills. Saturday morning found me rushing all around the store, trying to find the perfect silk flowers and headbands and buttons and rhinestones and SERIOUSLY, CASSIE, JUST MAKE UP YOUR MIND. This tendency of mine to over-think everything makes being in the middle of projects SO MUCH WORSE.

I am quite aware that these are all solidly in the First-World Problems category, and that I’m making it much worse on myself by obsessing over all of these things. And now, I’m off to stare at the stuff saved in my Target shopping cart, until I finally make the decision to purchase it.

bonus points if you know what movie i'm quoting in the third paragraph.

Well, the weekend didn’t go exactly as we’d planned. It was still a nice weekend, and at least partly relaxing, but it wasn’t exactly what we’d anticipated.

What happened was this: On Friday afternoon, I got a text message from my mother-in-law, saying that we needed to talk about whether or not the boys should come. She said that the friend who lives with her had an ear infection, bronchitis, and pneumonia, and that she herself had bronchitis and shingles. Mind you, I’d talked to her the previous evening at about 9:00, and there was not one mention of any type of illness. She said she was “leaving it up to” me whether or not the boys should come.

Um, exsqueeze me? Baking powder? As if! Like I would even dream of letting my sons spend the weekend in that House of Sick. Long story short, they did not spend the weekend with my mother-in-law.

I was pretty ticked off, I’ll be honest. Maybe she really was sick, but at this point, she’s done this so many times that it’s kind of hard to believe her excuses. It was her idea to have them spend the weekend with her, and she herself told the boys about it, and Andrew talked about it all week last week. I’m so tired of seeing their hopes crushed when it comes to her. I told Joe that the next time she asks for them to come, I’m just going to say no outright. And if she asks why, I’ll tell her the truth.

Thankfully, my stepmom was able to take the boys on Saturday evening, and she brought them back last night, so we still got a bit of a break. Joe had been planning to spend both Saturday and Sunday working on drywall in Will’s room, but he wasn’t able to start until Sunday since the boys would be in the house on Saturday (and judging by how upset Andrew was that he couldn’t help Joe last night when he got home, that was the right choice. I wouldn’t have wanted to deal with that all day on Saturday if Joe had started the project as scheduled). Instead, we had a wonderful  family day on Saturday. We all went grocery shopping together (something that I actually kind of really love, even if I do always end up spending more than I would if I went alone), and came home and did this all afternoon:

Not pictured: Me at the other end of the couch (well, before and after taking this picture, that is).

It was pretty lovely. After my stepmom picked up the boys, Joe and I spent the evening watching a music countdown show on VH1 (we love those) and drinking Shamrock shakes.

Joe was able to start doing the drywall yesterday, and somehow I got roped into helping him at least part of the time, so it wasn’t quite what I imagined when I was planning out my weekend of relaxation. But it was still a great weekend, despite its rocky start, with the perfect balance of family time, hard physical labor, and rest.

cassie the grouch

I have been so grouchy this week, due to a combination of things. I haven’t been sleeping very well for a few different reasons: I can’t get comfortable (with the crazy weather we’ve been having I’m either too hot or too cold); Andrew’s been losing Pooh multiple times throughout the night; and Will is in the middle of a flare-up of his bronchiolitis, which has necessitated mid-night breathing treatments. I’ve been busy at work, my house is a mess and I have no desire to clean it, and Andrew is in a particularly difficult phase wherein he whines and cries about EVERY.SINGLE.LITTLE.THING.OMG. When he’s not crying or whining, he’s defying me in one way or another. All of these factors have combined to make me tired and irritable. The boys and Joe should be thankful I don’t have my period on top of all of this. For real.

But it’s March now, and some exciting things are looming this month. I’m throwing a baby shower for Joe’s sister, and I’m deep in the planning stages and having so much fun. My birthday is also this month, and I’m excited about that (even if I’m not so excited about the number). The Hunger Games movie is being released on the 23rd, and I’m taking that day off so I can go see it with my stepmom and sister.

Joe starts a week of vacation today, and he’s celebrating by doing our taxes (refund FTW!) and starting some framework for new drywall in Will’s room. Also, my mother-in-law is picking up the boys tonight so they can spend the entire weekend at her house, so I have the whole weekend ahead of me to do whatever the hell I want. That will definitely include sleeping in, taking at least one long bath, having at least two adult beverages, and eating out a lot.

I need the break so badly. Hopefully when they come back on Sunday, I will be in a much less grumpy state of mind.