drowning in my excel spreadsheet

I'm finishing up my freelance project (procrastination rules) and have been up until 2 a.m. every night this week.

It feels a bit like college.

Only there is a baby that wakes me with his MOMMYDADDYDADDYMOMMY alarm clock voice at 6 a.m.

Wah Wah. Feel sorry for me!

(Ignore the fact that I did it to myself and BRING ME COFFEE!)

Oh why did I wait so long to work on it? WHY? Sometimes I shake my head at myself.

More blogging to come!

AND AND we might get some snow and ice tonight in Little Rock. (Does that mean my project gets a snow day?) I, like always, firmly believe that the weather won't make it down this far south and teeter tooter on the see saw of wanting it and not.

Ok back to work!

ouuuuuuussssssssssiiiiiii peeeese: familyisms

We took every opportunity we had this past week to play out of doors. I think Nate would stay outside day and night if we let him. Also, after my complaining about the pictorial documentation, I think I finally got some decent shots. So much easier for Nate to look at the camera sans flash. Photographer I am not.

Here is a Sunday snippet Naterism for you:

Nate has been stringing together two words. I know that might not sound that exciting but IT IS. It is BIG. It might be my favorite thing right now. He will say these, uh, phrases: 1. My daddy. 2. Big Ball 3. Ni Ni Milk 4. Nate's truck. 5. Mimi's knife. He continues to be real big on identifying certain people to go with certain objects. (Mimi often wields a knife.) He also says 'i do it' and 'i get it' a lot. (I'm all for him doing it!)

Here is a Sunday snippet Karlism for you:

Karl has been busy at work overhauling capsearch.com. He has been stringing together NO WORDS b/c he stares at a computer screen all day and all night. He has, however, been obsessively listening and purchasing country music albums (do you still call them albums?) to listen to while he works. He doesn't even pretend to like other music genres anymore. Yesterday he was listening to a song that began "It's all about sex, love, and Texas" which DOESN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE.

Here is a Sunday snippet Katism for you:

Kat, er, I (I don't speak in 3rd person. Sorry.) have been stringing together lots of words. Lots and lots and lots of words. In my spare non-speaking time, I attempted (by my lonesome) to put air in my (deflating, leaking) tire for the first time ever. I have an irrational fear of my car exploding when the tires are being aired so I was super proud of myself for making the decision to fill it myself. With Nate in the car. It was HUGE. I was all "I don't need no man" about it until I got to the gas station and there was an enormous truck completely blocking the air compressor pump thingey. I immediately called Karl all "awwww man I can't do it today!" and, he, being the wonderful husband that he is and knowing me well DID NOT suggest I simply go to another gas station and told me to head on home.

And, just like that, January is rushing to a close!

book clubs and baby showers

We've been busy.

But not.

That's kind of how I feel about the month of January thus far. We have lots going on this month, but aren't traveling so it feels quiet. Is that strange? I don't know. I kind of like it. Ish.

(OLD.)

This week I had both book club and a baby shower.

(OLD.)

Our book club read "Precious (Based on the novel Push) by Sapphire. Heartbreaking. Disgusting. Intense. Awesome. I loved it, and we had a great discussion about it. I also used book club as an excuse to consume several beers. I stayed up till Midnight. ON A TUESDAY.

(NOT SO OLD!)

This resulted in a bit of a head ache and a burning desire for both Sonic tater tots and Coca Cola Classic for breakfast. And a nap. (Alas, I was up with Nate bright and early and got neither of these things.)

(OLD.)

Our little group also held a baby shower (tonight!) for one of our own who is due with boy/girl TWINS! within the next couple of months! Excited. It was an offbeat baby shower planned by this girl...idea borrowed from this offbeat mama post (aptly titled ONSIE DECORATING THAT DOESN'T SUCK.)

Here is one I made:

Melissa, a twin herself, with the WOMBMATES:



Audra's Octo:


A GEEE-taur:
I don't want to inundate you with thousands of FREAKING ADORABLE onsie photos for the twins but there were many, many more. Like this many:

Every one just as cute as the last.

(WE ARE YOUNG AND HIP.)

That's RIGHT.

The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music (AAAAAAWWWWAAHHHHAHWHWHWA-AAA)

Sometimes, when I have a moment of BRILLIANCE (read: i think to myself 'i should blog that!'), I pop (BANG) open my blogger account and start a post. Then I just leave it there, unpublished and unedited. Then, I lose my mind and completely forget what I was going to write about..... Um, I mean, when I find myself not feeling the bloggy blog blog inspiration, I try and look back to see if I can make some sense of my ramblings.

on 12.27 I wrote this:

THE SOUND OF MUSIC
ROLLER SKATES
PAULA ABDUL
STRAIGHT UP NOW TELL ME

which makes me giggle just by itself.

I don't really know where I was going with the post. I know that the Sound of Music was on TV that night and that Karl had never seen it before and he was SUPER IMPRESSED with my recitability (new word? new word!) skills. (There's a sad kind of clanging from the clock on the wall.)

And that I began reminiscing about my Sound of Music obsession. At my 4th grade talent show, my friend Jessica and I performed a roller skate routine to SO LONG FAREWELL! (yep, in front of the whole school) whilst all the cool kids performed a hippity hoppity Paula Abdul dance. (Straight Up YA'LL.)

And then... uh.... no and thens? I have no idea what the POINT was going to be. Be yourself? Learn to Rollerskate? Just say NO to dancing? DARE to keep a kid off drugs?

There, apparently, was no point. But I like the image of myself as a wee one, hair flying behind me as we criss-crossed the stage on our Popple roller skates (gracefully I'm sure. As most everyone who knows me can attest, I. am. GRACEFUL.). AHHH. I can still smell my gym teacher's cigarette smoke from 'her office' in the wings of the stage. I decided to share b/c it got me all HOPPED up - what will Nate DANJAHANDZ Hills will want to perform at his first talent show? I can't wait to see it. And VIDEO TAPE IT.

Boys Learn in Motion

These days when Nate sees the big ole camera making an appearance, he runs. Well, come to think of it, pretty much he just runs all the time so maybe it's not the camera. Either way, picture taking is not the easiest of tasks. Most of them end up like so:
THAT BOY IS A CLIMBER. Thus far, I have found him on chairs, tables, toilets, our hutch, our bed. I don't even understand how he SCALES these things. So far, he has not made it out of his crib. (Though now that I have blogged it, it will without a doubt, 100% happen within the week.)

Or, if I can catch him in my lap for a brief moment, i get faces like this (from the both of us - YIKES.):
Sometimes, I can catch him on my phone. Like when his hands are full of paint.

Sometimes I can catch him prior to bed. Though his blurry legs are still moving even in this shot.

We were at the library for story hour a few weeks ago and there were three little boys and three little girls (all around N's age.). All the little girls were sitting pretty prim and proper on their mama's laps listening to the story. All the boys were running around, touching the book and running in circles (and into each other.) The librarian mentioned (casually) that it was okay for them to run around because children, PARTICULARLY BOYS (she said as she glanced around the room), learn in motion.

Oh, yes, trust me Ms. Rhonda, we know all about motion. Nate is in MOTION all day every day. Even in sleep he is a tosser.

That's all I really got today.

It's been a busy and slow and restful and exhausting week and I have loved (almost) every minute of it. (Cause there was that one minute I had to clean poop out of the bathtub. I didn't love that minute.)

keeper of the calendars

one of my favorite things about a New Year is a NEW CALENDAR! (Not in the figurative sense; nope, as literal as can be.... a new 'planner' or 'diary' would be more appropriate terminology I guess. What do you call it? An engagement calendar?) Anyway, I adore planners. Exhibit A: My Collection of Hello Kitty Planners:
Last year, I bought Andy Riley's hilarious Bunny Suicides planner and was entertained weekly by images of bunny suicides, like so:

I like to keep my planners. I have boxes of old planners in my closet and some on my bookshelves, and I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you how entertaining they are to look back through. Some of them have fun memories like "Party at E's house" or "Wedding Shower for J" or "BUY SHOES!" Some have post-its stuck to certain days/weeks and some have little nonsense doodles around the dates. Some of the older ones, when Karl and I were focused on paying off our debt, are FILLED with numbers re: how much we could pay that month and how much/little we needed to live on. (Glad that's over with!) Some are mostly empty, but I can't bear to throw them away (dramatic much?).

I find my attachment to sit-down-and-write-it-out planners somewhat entertaining since pretty much everything else I do is connected in some way to technology. I blog, I twitter, I blip, I foursquare, I have ALL digital pics, I shop mostly online (after two stores yesterday, I am even considering purchasing laundry detergent online. Where the F is your Tide Free HE, huh, Target? Kroger?).

Karl and I do share a calendar on our iPhones, and I will admit to using it more and more in the last six months. I GUESS it's easier to whip out your Magic Phone to schedule your next dentist appointment or your next book club instead of lugging around an enormo planner and digging for a pen or asking for one. Sigh. It IS easier to put it on the phone. I admit it. And Karl and I being able to share a calendar that easily is pretty invaluable. DAMN YOU technology... you win again.

HOWEVER, my friend Amanda found this gem of a 5 Year Calendar/Diary that I am hopelessly and totally in love with. I ordered it the second I read about it. Honestly, it's more of a DIARY which is what I love the most about my planners - looking back in them. So, now that I have the techno-phone-calendar for keeping day-to-day schedules and appointments, I intend to use this one like DEAR DIARY: TODAY KARL TOLD ME I WAS PRETTY. HIS HAND WAS SWEATY BUT I LET HIM HOLD MINE ANYWAY.

It's teeny tiny. There are about six lines per day. The first page is Jan 1 and it covers Jan 1, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, right? So I have been keeping it beside my bed and jotting (jotting - what a goofy word. so casual.) a few lines every night. The idea that five years down the line a single page could be like

May 12
2010: We had spaghetti for dinner.
2011: Found out we were pregnant.
2012: We had spaghetti for dinner.
2013: Found out we were pregnant.
2014: Got a babysitter and went out for spaghetti.

makes me want to jump up and down in excitement. I know I sound ridiculous getting all jazzed about calendars (and not christmas!), but I think this silly little diary thing just sums up so much of the way I feel about life - some days are boring and full of routine and then some days are EVENTS to be remembered - but it's important to remember a little bit of both, right? And to see how they compare year to year, right? Because I've been keeping this blog for FIVE YEARS (Some things I can commit to.) and, though some of my initial posts are all pink text and Happy Birthdays every other day, I do love every word that I have written, because it totally captures SO MANY changes over this time period - new jobs, a husband, new dogs, more new jobs, new baby, better posting, better pictures, growth, change, sadness, happiness (and so on and so forth).

Do you have your calendar for the year? Whatcha gonna remember from Twenty aught Ten?

Place Bowl on Head. Cut.

Thanks for your questions. Apparently half the world is also testing out the formspring site right now (narcissists unite?) because their site was up and then down and then up and then down. Additionally, like two days after I answered a question, I would receive an email saying "Formspring has a question for you!" and the email would repeat the already answered question. Bad form, FORMspring. I hate plugging a site that doesn't operate correctly - even when I am just doing it for funsies. It was entertaining though and I am going to leave the widget up for the time being - feel free to use it whenever.

As promised, here is a picture of Nate with his bowl cut. I pretty much hate it! (and his , ahem, chest hair peeking out - he likes to unzip his pj's like that...usually further down though. I don't believe he is going to be a Never Nude!)

I have quite a bit to blog about - nothing terribly earth-shattering, but there are words I want to, no, need to, purge!

Stay tuned?

Step Right Up

Additionally, I have been dying to do this silly (?), narcissistic (?) formspring thing that eleventy billion other people have been doing over on 'the Twitters'.

(I don't normally post twice in one day but I am still unsure if I should have published my last post about my embarrassing teeth issues so I am trying to cover that up by posting quickly after.)

Anyway, formspring is crazy interesting and I totally want to see how it works. So, um, the point is to ask questions - on anything, to me, and I will answer. So you could ask me about my favorite Apples to Apples card (Answer: Jack the Ripper. Which is weird since he murdered women, but it's fun to play to describe like "Cuddly" or "Lovable) or you could ask me "Why did you quit your stable job in a recession?" (Answer: Uhhhhhh.) or you could ask me "EZ, Why you wear your pants that way?" (Answer: E-Z access baby.)

Anyway, here is the link:
http://www.formspring.me/kat22stl

ASK AWAY my friends. YOU CAN BE ANONYMOUS. (Or not.) (And I can choose not to answer you if your question is inappropriate or hurtful, but I will try to answer all questions openly and honestly.) I am also going to put a widget on my sidebar so you can ask whenever. I'm not really sure what I expect to take from this experiment, but LET US PLAY.

(And I promise to post new pictures of Nate (and his 43rd haircut) tomorrow if you ask me some good stuff.)

things you do not expect to hear from your dentist

Soooooooooo I was at the dentist last week (prior to New Years) having my teeth cleaned.

Reasons why I am the worst dentist patient EVER:

1. I gag. A lot. (It says it in my file.) Like I can't even do the bitewing thingeys. They have to go old school and x-ray me with cotton in my mouth. Which also makes me gag.

2. I drool. A lot. I feel this is more embarrassing for me than for them.

3. I'm "slow to numb" - also says that in my file. (so proud). I had to have a cavity filled last year and the dentist and I chatted for a solid thirty minutes while waiting for the magical FOUR shots for one tooth to numb my (apparently) dense bones.

4. I had pregnancy gingivitis issues while pregs with Nate (all that gagging on the toothbrush and vomiting surely didn't help) and still have slight gum issues. Yuck.

My hygienist and I were discussing my bloody gum issues. Apparently I have strong teeth but weak gums (Just say NO to flossing!). Nothing that is a big deal or that requires more dental work, but still, embarrassing. I mean, Nate is 18 months old. No longer can my pregnancy be blamed. Momma would not be proud.

So I am talking to her about medicated rinses and she and the dentist begin to ask me questions like "Is there any chance you could be pregnant?" AND I can't immediately say yes or no b/c I can't remember certain, uh, timing of uh, certain things (eek - uncomfortable! hi dad!) AND then the dentist said "I am not predicting anything but your gums look very hormonal!" and then mumbled something about he wouldn't be surprised and maybe I should go home and find out. And (I swear to god ya'll) my heart skipped a few beats and I had an IMMEDIATE flashback of myself, three days prior, biting into an enormo cookies and cream Hershey's bar that I threw in my grocery cart at the last moment. I craved (and ate) many a Cookies N Cream shake from Chic-Fil-A when I was knocked up with Nate and hadn't even thought about the combination since.

Uh, yikes.

I did go home and POAS (Pee On A Stick). (Clever acronym, o wise internetz).

It.

Was.

NEGATIVE.

I was relieved and able to drink my champagne without a worry as the ball dropped. I know I posted a few weeks ago about my increased baby fevah but there's something about Doing It All Again that I'm (clearly) still a little teeter-tottery about!

So, overall, it was one of the more AWKWARD exchanges with a dentist that I have had in my life (though one time I did have a gynecologist tell me I had birthing hips (at 17 and no more than 110 pounds!) which was WAY more awkward, but apparently, TRUE.)

Hormonal gums.

Hmph.

Off to floss for the third time today. (What? I'm all paranoid now! I can't lose my teeth - I live in Arkansas for gods sake. WE HAVE TEETH HERE.)

You say you want a resolution....weeeeeell you know

Twenty Ten Resolutions:

NUMERO UNO: To use the phrase "to be perfectly frank" more often. (And then to actually be perfectly frank.)

So, to be perfectly frank, I don't really do resolutions cause they'd be all: 1. Loose one half of body weight. 2. Stop eating. 3. Don't spend more than $5 a week. 4. Pay off mortgage. 5. Read every book in the library. 6. Tell everyone I know how wonderful they are ALL THE TIME! (via handwritten post of course!) 7. Have eight babies. 8. Run a marathon twice a week. 9. Climb Mount Kilimanjaro. 10. Save all the orphans in THE WORLD.

What? I like to think BIG! (And UNREALISTIC!)

Where did the 'resolution' concept come from anyway? The thing is I really like to set attainable goals but the pressure of it being a NEW YEARS RESOLUTION (and that you have to have like forty of them) gets me all freaked. I have been reading quite a few resolutions of online friends (not you) and I can't help but wonder how long will they stay resoluted? (That's a new word - resoluted.)

So, I do have a few - most of them revolve preeettty strictly around myself (is that wrong?). Like one is: 4. Get hair cuts more than once every year. And number 12. USE SEWING MACHINE i resolved to use last Christmas (see? A FAILED RESOLUTION!!) and 27. Use proper capitalization techniques on my blog (though it kills me and I want to type in all lowercase ala e.e. cummings ALL THE TIME). And 45. Continue Wednesday morning runs with my friend Julie.

Honestly, (AWW CRAP. I mean 'to be perfectly frank') I am not going to put a lot of pressure on myself to keep any of them, but it was fun to make a list. I really just have great feelings about 2010. I'm excited to say goodbye to 2009. I want to use 2010 to focus on treating myself better, treating my marriage better, and trying to find a better work/life balance for all three of us. (Oh, and NOT TRAVELING. YOU HEAR THAT UNIVERSE? NOT TRAVELING THIS YEAR.)

What do you do friends? Do you make em? Do you write em down? Do you hate it when I type in all lowercase? I REALLY, REALLY MISS IT.