Random Thoughts

--I love Thai food. The whole family went to Thai last week and even though we made the poor servers overload with stress (Cubby wanted to serve himself from their bowls) the food was so GOOD. My favorite is.......all of it. I love the Tom Kum Ka soup (coconut milk, lemongrass, broccoli and cabbage--the perfect combo of sweet, sour and hot) the most. I want to be marinated in a vat of it when I am buried. I also want a gallon of it waiting for me when I have this baby. Not kidding.

--I have a new testimony of "lowering the bar and being awesome" (a la, Oh Judy, CJane and many, many others). I find that it is MUCH happier to be surprised at how GREAT I am than being guilty at not doing enough. I have very low expectations for my kids and myself and each night go to bed thinking "WAY TO GO!!! You are AWESOME". Seriously. NPR did a program on this recently, and said how people who have realistic expectations say that they are happier. Makes sense to me. My expectations this week? 1) children fed, not off the floor 2) house kept "clean-ish". That means clean enough that all garbage gets thrown away, but I don't have to bend over more than necessary. I'll just tip my ladies really well this week 3) Don't have a baby 4) Get dressed in something clean. See how easy it is!! I really am awesome.

--I don't have many clothes that fit me now. I have stayed about the same size on the bottom (pretty much, it just all redistributed itself). I lost a lot of weight during the hell that was last summer and now, at 9 months pregnant, weigh about the same. I gained more than I should have this pregnancy, but since I am eating whatever I want, it is a fair trade. This week, though, my shirts are JUST a bit too short. I am constantly doing the "pull, pull, tuck, tuck" thing. It kind of drives me crazy, but I am too lazy to buy new clothes. Am I the only one that does this? Can I tough it out for a few more weeks? Will I just have to wear the last two shirts for the next month. Maybe. What can you do? ;-)

--I might be obsessed with food (shocker). I had another Reuben for lunch today. Heaven. I slather it with horseradish and cranberry mustard. Enough said. I had one waiting for me when I had Lauren. My favorite is from a place called Max's. We stopped there on the way home from the hospital when Lu was born. It was each kids first "outing". They changed their menu recently, so the food isn't as good as it was, but it is still my first choice. Lucky for me, our new house is just a few blocks from another Max's. And a Thai place. The really important stuff (I hear the schools are good too).

--My whole family is pretty much in bed by 7:00 pm. Really. I wish that I could totally blame it on my husband's early schedule, but my kids play hard and all I can think about is sleep. I assume that this is a pregnancy thing. I also have stopped checking my phone messages. I might check the missed calls log, but don't count on it. I know this is terrible, but if you want me, e mail me. This is all part of project Lowering The Bar.

--I watched the Oscars, but got bored after the 37th red dress. The best part was when a very impaired Gary Bussey kissed Jennifer Garner on the neck during her interview with Ryan Seacrest. She had NO idea who he was, and to be fair, he did look like a homeless guy wandering the carpet. That Gary is always good for a laugh. He then tried to be best friends with Ryan and Ryan played it off pretty well. Good times. I didn't see any of the movies so I assume that the people who won deserved it. If they didn't, I don't really care.

--Thanks to the raves on Rarely Home Mom, I started watching The Biggest Looser. Now I am obsessed with it. Pretty much that and the Animal channel (along with my boyfriends) take up my TV time. Tonight one of the trainers, Jillian, was dealing with one of the girls who didn't want to keep going with her workout and she said "Do one more or I am going to rip your arm out of the socket and beat you over the head with it". Now THAT is a good motivator. I am going to have to remember that one.

--I have decided that along with not checking my messages, I am not going to do links on my blog for awhile. You know the trick where you make the word the link? It takes too much time (I have to go back and find the website that explains it, and then I might actually have to engage my brain.......). Sorry to my 12 readers for the inconvenience, but not sorry enough to do it.

--I have also decided that I am not going to make my daughter do her homework for the next two weeks until we move. Nor will I go to the parent/teacher conference this week (sorry mom and all you other teachers). I am not impressed with her teacher, and since I have very low expectations you can assume that she is REALLY something else. She is pretty much a worksheet teacher, and does not do any creative classroom things that I can see. She is sarcastic to my daughter and I have had words with her in the past about her attitude towards my girl (who is the sweetest thing, but still 7, so I am sure has her share of sass. Guess what? Don't teach 2nd grade if you don't like the age). Even though we go to a public school, this school gets A LOT of money from the parents. Each CLASS has a yearly fundraising goal of $1.5 million. Yes, million. The tickets to the yearly fundraiser "hoedown" are $250 per person, not including the food tickets. People donate and auction off things like trips to Mexico in private jets, stays in guest houses in Europe or Asia, vintage wine, lunch with the President, etc, etc. Not really my peer group. They also pride themselves on paying their teachers more, giving more, having small class room ratios etc, etc. So, frankly, I expect more from her teachers than a regular, overworked, trying her hardest w/ too many kids in the class teacher. Too bad. I also think that sarcasm has no place in the classroom. I also don't like passive/aggressive. So, I will take it out in my own passive/aggressive way by not having her do her homework. I realize that she will still need to know the info from the worksheets, but frankly I think she has too many anyway.

--This baby is going to show up soon. I keep trying to ignore it but it seems like it is still going to happen. I have one outfit, I will find the carseat in the move and the hospital will give us diapers. She can sleep in a laundry basket in the closet for the first little while like all the rest of my kids did. So, in theory, we are ready.

--I really am not as ambivalent about children and my life as it might seem. Just logical and content. Things are going really well here. Derek is working hard, we are about to move into our house, I just conned one of my sisters into helping me unpack (thanks Nie), I have good friends, good family and occasionally (like today) my kids go for more than an hour without fighting. What more does one need? Besides more Thai food, of course.

Welcome to my mind. Do you wish that I would go back to pictures (and can anyone tell me why the formatting on Blogger is so LAME? It doesn't want me to keep spaces between my paragraphs).