I Want, I Need, I Have To Have

It is 10:00 a.m., I am in my pjs, my head is wrapped in a towel, and we are supposed to leave soon. But I have an irresistable urge to blog. I promise that it is irresistable as I have been trying to resist it for about thirty minutes.

Check out this nifty gadget I discovered in a catalog this week:

As I was washing, drying, and putting away three dish-drainer loads of dishes yesterday, I yearned for this handy little device. I definitely don't need it. I am perfectly capable of washing my own dishes. And to be honest, I don't even really want it. It would take up valuable space in my all-too-small kitchen. But it certainly is a fabulous idea!

I hope this satiates my blogging urges for the time being as My Man has finished changing the oil in his car and will be walking in the door any minute ...

How I Surprised My Man

Before I can tell you how I surprised My Man, I must give you some background.

My Man and I "met" in May 2005. That is to say, we found out about each other via our parents who had been approached by a pastor friend who thought that maybe, just maybe, we should meet. Our parents asked us if we would like to email and get to know each other. My Man said, "Sure, why not?" I said, "No way!" I was not interested in writing to a strange guy clear across the country. It was too weird. It was kind of like online dating and kind of like being set up by my parents. I couldn't wrap my brain around it and I was NOT INTERESTED. My Pops wisely said, "Think and pray about it for a day or so. You don't have to do it if you don't want to ... but I think it would be a good idea." I did think and pray about it but ultimately the only reason I agreed to do it was because Pops thought it would be a good idea. We started emailing at the end of May. It was very, very weird to me but I will admit that when Pops initially told me about My Man I thought in my heart, "this is probably The One."

We emailed for a few weeks and then My Man asked Pops for permission to call me. Once we started talking on the phone we talked every.single.night. without fail. In August of 2005 My Man and SIL3 flew out to Washington for a week so we could meet in person. That was also very, very weird. The first three days were spent figuring out how to actually be around each other. It's one thing to talk on the phone but it's another thing to spend time in the same vicinity! It didn't take My Man long to tell me that he loved me. I knew he had wanted to say it for a long time but I hinted that I preferred to hear it in person as opposed to over the phone. When he went home to New Jersey he told his parents that he was sure I was the girl for him, and we were officially "courting."

Can you guess how I realized I was in love? I never had been before. I lost about ten pounds over that summer and my clothes were falling off of me. I lamented to my mom, "I don't know what's wrong with me! I have no appetite and I'm losing weight. What's going on?" She answered, "Well, that's what happens when you're in love." Isn't that funny? It was true but I didn't want to admit it to myself and had to have someone else point it out to me. :) I think more than anything I wanted to be positive that My Man was The One God had for me before I gave my heart away.

In October I flew to the East Coast to visit. My Man and his parents met me at the airport and a few hours later I had a diamond ring on my finger. We had known each other for five months and had spent a total of nine days together when we got engaged. I spent a week in Jersey then and another week right after Christmas. My Man planned to come to Washington for a weekend in March and our wedding was set for April 22, 2006. But January to March was a long time to go without seeing each other so I decided that I would surprise him with a visit in February!

MIL and I conferred secretly and made our plans. I bought a ticket to Philadelphia for the Friday before Valentine's Day (which was the following Tuesday) and my return flight was on Monday. My flight out of Seattle left early in the morning which presented a major problem: My Man and I talked on the phone several times a day. Sometimes he called me on his way to work, around 4:45 a.m. for me (three-hour time difference.) We always talked at 7:00 every morning which was My Man's morning break at work. We talked at noon which was my lunch break and his afternoon break. We talked every night around 8 pm and we texted each other throughout the day. At 7 a.m. I would be on the plane with my phone turned off. If he couldn't get through on my cell phone he would call my house looking for me. If no one answered he would worry. So I came up with an elaborate plan. While I was on the phone with him on Thursday night my BFF called me and left me a voice mail. I told him she was calling but that I would call her back later. According to plan the message she left me said, "I need to talk to you and will call you tomorrow morning at 7:00." According to plan I didn't listen to her voice mail until after hanging up with My Man. The next morning I was up and getting ready to leave at 4 a.m. so I called My Man and said, acting sleepy like I just woke up, "BFF is going to call me at 7 so we can't talk on your break so I thought I would call you now." Then I made a fatal error. I said, "If your break isn't over when I finish talking to her I will try to call you." I never, never, never should have said that, as you will see.

My travels went smoothly and I arrived in Philadelphia a little bit before 3 p.m. This was where my carefully-wrought plans began to go awry. Because My Man had his afternoon break at 3:00, I figured I could call him from the airport as if I were on my lunch break as usual. However, when I turned my cell phone on I had numerous voice mails and multiple text messages. Most of them were from My Man. They ranged from "Hi, I'm thinking of you," to "I miss you," to "Where are you?" to "What is going on? Why can't I reach you? Why don't you call/text me back?" One of the voice mails was from my sister Vee who said that My Man had been calling everywhere trying to find me, my cell phone, my house, my work! My coworkers were in on the surprise. I truly thought he wouldn't call there looking for me but asked them to cover for me just in case he did. After listening to all the voice mails and reading the texts I called my office manager who said that every time he called (which was multiple times) they made up another reason why I wasn't available to talk on the phone. I began to feel sick. I never intended it to go this far! I hadn't wanted anyone to actually have to lie for me. I didn't want to make him mad! And oh my, he was very mad.

MIL and FIL met me at the airport. I told MIL what was going on and she saw the funny side of it, and then I began to as well. I didn't dare call My Man from the airport because he would hear all the background noise. I sent him a text message that said something like this, "I'm so sorry I haven't been able to get back to you." This was true. I couldn't use my phone on the airplane! "I can't call you right now but I will explain everything when we talk." His response was brief and to the point, "I am not happy. At all." By then I was really seeing the funny side of it. MIL and FIL took me straight to My Man's work. BIL1 worked there as well and was also in on the surprise. He sneaked me into the computer server room and then asked My Man to get something out of that room for him.

I will never forget that moment when he walked into the room, those few seconds before he saw me. His whole body just radiated irritation. His head bent and his face was just plain angry! He was so mad that I had been ignoring him all day ... or so he thought. Then he realized someone was in the room and he looked up at me. His face suddenly cleared, his arms dropped to his sides, he said "Oh!" and turned around and walked right back out of the room! Of course he came right back in and we made up. :) It was the best surprise EVER. It's one of my favorite memories, him walking into that room.

We had a great weekend. We made our first annual trip to the Philly Auto Show. We had a huge snowfall which actually caused church to be canceled Sunday morning but melted in time for me to get home on Monday. The best part, though, was that MIL and SIL1 planned a surprise bridal shower for me, that Friday night -- that meant the entire church and several relatives knew I was coming and no one let it slip to My Man! I thought that was amazing. It certainly was a weekend to remember. It taught me a lesson, too. Sir Walter Scott said, "Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practise to deceive!" I don't think I'll ever go to such lengths to surprise someone again!

Poor Sick Boogie

My poor baby. She is so sick. She developed a fever and started coughing yesterday. At 3 o'clock this morning she woke up so hot, shaking and teeth chattering and everything. :( We stripped her down and cooled her off but the fever has persisted throughout today, and so has the coughing. However, she is pretty happy! Isn't that strange? I'm not complaining, believe me. She occasionally wants to snuggle for a bit and she prefers to be close by us. If we're on the couch, she wants to be on the couch, etc., but she doesn't need to be held all the time. I know it would be different if she had sinus congestion. That always makes her miserable. I'm praying that she'll feel much better in the morning.

As for me, I was sicker on Thursday than I did on Wednesday and felt progressively worse as the day went on. My Man took the Boogie to church with him and I got to take a nice long relaxing bath. I slept well that night and felt much better by morning, which was good because ...

...on Friday I got to meet up with a fellow mom from the April 2007 babies birth board that I'm part of! She and her family were here in Jersey for a week. They live in Kansas but are originally from here and came out to visit family. It was so nice of them to take time out of their probably too-short week to see us. We met at Chick-fil-a where the little girls played and we moms chatted for a couple of hours. She also has a cute 3 1/2 month old baby boy whom the Boogie ADORED. She would go right up to his face and talk to him and he would smile at her ... it was so cute! I had a wonderful time and am so glad we got to go. I did take pics but don't like to post pictures of other people on my blog without their okay, so you will have to imagine it in your head: a clean Chick-fil-a play area, two toddler girls playing together nicely, two moms chatting, and a chunky baby smiling and cooing at everything.

Friday night was our ladies' meeting. There was some delish food there and we played a game where each lady or girl had to write down five things about her husband, or father if she wasn't married, that described him. The descriptions were read aloud and we had to guess whose they were. Then we had to say something that we loved about our husbands (or dads.) I told about a little conversation that My Man and I sometimes have that goes like this:
Me: I love you!
My Man: I love you back.
Me: Well, I love you more.
My Man: Well, I loved you first.
I love starting that conversation cuz I like when he tells me that he loved me first. It's true. He was twitter-pated after just a few weeks of talking on the phone. :)

At the ladies meeting Mrs. G told us a quote she heard on the radio and I thought it was so good: "A father is a daughter's first love and a son's first hero." I know that my Pops was my first love! He was (and still is) so affectionate and made me feel so special. He was definitely the man in my life till I met My Man. I hope that My Man will be that for the Boogie, too. I think he will.

Yesterday was my one-Saturday-a-month recepting ... receptioning ... receptionisting ... (take your pick) at work and I came home to a sick Boogie. This morning My Man stayed home with her while I went to church since I had to teach Junior Church. Tonight is my turn to stay home. The Boogie is down for a super-late nap which I'm sure I'll regret when we're both up until midnight tonight, but I know she needs the sleep for her body to heal. Lots of people at church are sick. Oh, well, 'tis the season, you know.

At Last!

I finally got a video to upload! And then, wouldn't you know it, it's the wrong one. Oh well. Here is her royal highness in her fake-tantrum-throwing mode.

Don't Ask Me Any Hard Questions

The Boogie threw a major fit at five o'clock this morning when I wouldn't give her what she wanted. She ended up in bed with me and we both finally went to back to sleep around 6:30. I am sniffly and sneezy today (though not as sneezy as I was yesterday.) Thankfully the most intensive thing I had to do today was fold five loads of laundry. I did work out for about thirty minutes and contemplated putting on pj's after my shower but since it was only 5 pm managed to resist the call of comfortable pink-plaid flannel.

I've been playing around with the camera settings. The more I learn about it the more I like it! I figured out how to downsize the videos and the pictures so that they aren't HUGE all of the time. Blogger still won't let me upload a video. I'll keep tryin' ... another day. My pictures are mostly of the same subject. Please ignore any boogers. You will remember that Boogie is short for booger, and that is for good reason.

When I lived at home (by that I mean with my parents, before I got married), every Valentine's Day my mom would give each of us a small box of Sweethearts. Today we got a package in the mail with a little box of Sweethearts for the Boogie and a big bag of hearts for me and My Man. Since I hit up the candy clearance aisle at Target last night, we are well-stocked with small sugary hearts! The Boogie has been enjoying them with me. "Mama? Can'ee? More, please, can'ee." She's a polite little thing.

There was probably going to be more to this post but whatever it was has been absorbed back into my brain.

Word Of The Day

Today the Boogie grabbed her sides and squeezed them repeatedly saying, "wushy, wushy, wushy," which I interpreted to mean, "squishy, squishy, squishy." Hmm, wonder where she learned that, Mom Mom? :)

New Camera!

It's here! I've spent a couple of hours snapping away but haven't played much with settings or even looked at the manual. I'm uploading a video to Photobucket -- while the quality is a thousand times better than my cell phone, consequently it takes much longer to upload! I'm not a very patient person. We shall see how this affects the coming videos I may or may not post in the future ... here are a couple of pics, though.

New Look

What do you think? Does it make your eyes bleed? It's certainly very bright. What I do like about it is that I don't have to change any of my font or border colors which is always a plus when getting a new blog "wardrobe."

I'm very excited because My Man is going to Staples where he will purchase our new camera! This is a little tax-return gift to ourselves. I've been eyeing it since before Christmas and BIL/SIL1 found a good deal on it. It's an inexpensive Canon and if it takes half-way decent pics I'll be happy for a couple of years until we can afford a nicer one. I might be back later to post some new-camera pictures! Yippee!

One Hundred Fifty

I can't believe that this is my 150th post! I'm so excited!

This morning I sang a special at church. I took the Boogie up on the platform with me and before my song I sang "Jesus Loves Me" and tried to get her to sing it with me. She was a little disconcerted by all the people staring at her and she wouldn't sing. She also got very shy and did her bent-head-looking-out-from-under-the-eyebrows thing that made me want to laugh and my voice got all shaky. My Man told me later that he thought I was about to cry but really I was trying not to laugh. When I finished "Jesus Loves Me" everyone applauded and I handed the Boogie to her daddy and continued with my song. I figure if we take her up with us every time we sing, she will get used to it at an early age. She loves to sing so much, there's no reason why she can't be a blessing in church! Maybe next time she'll remember the applause and will actually sing along.

When we were dismissed for Junior church the Boogie went with me into my class for a few minutes. She saw the older children eating pretzels so I let her have one. The other children were remembering their manners and saying, "thank you, Rachel," (they are supposed to call me Miss Rachel but that's a continual work in progress; it's confusing to them because HJ is in there and to her I'm supposed to be Aunt Rachel. I think they all give up after a while and just call me by my first name alone.) So what did the Boogie do? I handed her a pretzel and she said, " 'ank you, Kay-kal." She always adds the name when thanking someone. If we don't respond right away she repeats it until we do. So it's, "thank you, Mama," or "thank you, Daddy," all the time at home. It took a couple of repeats for me to realize that she was saying my name, just like the other kids! She's been calling me that all day. It went from Kay-kal to Ray-kal to Ray-cho and back to Ray-kal again. I think it's so cute that I don't always correct her right away. Next thing we know she'll be calling both of us "babe" since that's what we call each other!

Last night we had dinner at 52 so we ate our Valentine's dinner for lunch today: linguine alfredo with shrimp. Mmmmm, shrimp. I like to say it with an Italian accent in my head: lin-GWEEN-eh al-FRAID-o with SHRIMPS. It was delish. Then I took a nice nap. I love naps, you know. I love sleeping. I'm going to go do some of that right now. Ciao!

Happy Valentine's Day

Guess what we did to celebrate? Nothing! Ha! We joked around about going to the store, choosing cards for each other, exchanging them and reading them in the store, and putting them back ... but we didn't even do that. I am planning an excursion to Target next week for clearanced candy, however. Maybe I'll find a clearanced card and surprise My Man with it.

Today I accomplished two things: I filed our taxes, and I balanced the checkbook. The taxes I intended to do last week so I'm pleased with myself that I'm only a week behind on that project. The checkbook was a long, drawn-out process as I was transferring from a paper register to Quicken and I made lots and lots of mistakes but I finally got it finished and it balanced! Praise the Lord. Whew. Am I glad to be finished with that. Hopefully Quicken will make keeping track of finances much easier. I am the kind of person who must know where the money is going and how much there is of it. I can't just go by our checking account balance. The very thought fills me with horror. I simply cannot do it. Anyway, finishing those two things made me feel like I really accomplished something.

When HE was here we put her in the Boogie's old crib, a small portable one that folds up. I didn't put it away and yesterday the Boogie begged to be put in it. Once she was in she needed everything out of her big crib: "Binky? Burpie? Pee-low? George [Curious George doll]? Pooh? Blankie?" With everything around her she was satisfied ... for five minutes. Then she wanted out. Then in again. Then out again. Finally I lowered the side and showed her how to get in herself. She hasn't figured out how to climb out but at least she is only bothering us half the time now. This afternoon as I walked by her room I saw her in her big crib. "Babe," I called to My Man, "did you put her in her crib?" He hadn't. He lifted her out and asked her, "Can you get in?" and she could! At naptime I told her, "Time to go night-night, go get in bed." She trotted right into her room, threw her burpie in the big crib, climbed over the rail, stuck a binky in her mouth, and lay down. She was very pleased with herself.

I know I promised the story of how I surprised My Man. I haven't forgotten about it. I'm simply too tired to pull my thoughts together for that story. I will soon, though! G'night, y'all.

Insomnia

I couldn't sleep last night. It wasn't really because of insomnia, however. It was because of the coffee I drank with my dinner at the Valentine's banquet. I knew I would regret it and I did. I didn't go to sleep until close to 1:30 a.m.

The Valentine's banquet was fun. Did I mention before that My Man and I coordinated it? Neither of us had ever even been to a Valentine's banquet, much less pulled one together. I was a little freaked out at first, I'll admit. It turned out okay, though. I was very disappointed in the restaurant where we had it. I was told that there would be Valentine's decorations but the only ones were a couple of hearts with lights on the walls. Nothing on the tables, even! My food wasn't that great and the ice cream for dessert tasted freezer-burned. Oh well. I think everyone had a nice time anyway. My Man and I came up with a couple of games and it was fun to watch everyone doing them. Our special speaker talked about the parallels between marriage and our relationship with Christ. I didn't take a single picture but several others did. I'm terrible about picture taking.

Right now we are having a cousin sleepover! It is the Boogie's first one ever. LC with the initials HE came over after the banquet and stayed all night. When the girls spotted each other at opposite ends of the apartment, the Boogie launched herself out of her daddy's arms and they ran to meet each other and hugged. It was the cutest thing EVER! At bedtime we prayed with them and put them in their cribs. HE immediately began to cry and the Boogie popped up and said, "Are you okay? Are you okay?" Just as quickly HE stopped crying and I never heard another peep out of her all night. The Boogie, on the other hand, talked and sang for about forty minutes until she finally conked out. I am convinced that she put her cousin to sleep. Normally we go in after a bit and tell her to lay down and be quiet but we didn't want to stir things up -- as long as no one was crying we were happy! I'll definitely be getting pictures of their cutenesses today.

Coming soon: the story of when I surprised My Man, per Miss Wendy's request. :)

Girls Always Go To The Bathroom In Pairs

The Boogie has started accompanying me to the bathroom. "Go po'ee?" she asks. If I mention that I need to "go potty" she leads the way. " 'om on," she says as she heads down the hall, " 'om on, Mama. Go po'ee." See? It's true. Girls do always go to the bathroom in pairs, and it starts this young. It's how we're wired, y'all.

My Man and I went to the Philadelphia International Auto Show on Saturday. It was a perfectly beautiful, springlike day. We took the train into Philly and walked around the convention center for several hours. It was our fourth annual trip -- the first time we went was in 2006. Our wedding was two months away and I had flown out to NJ to surprise My Man (I certainly did surprise him but that's a story for another day.) That first trip we checked out all the cool cars and trucks that people with no children are interested in. The second time we went I was seven months pregnant and from that trip on we checked out all the family-friendly vehicles. Every year we like different ones. This year I picked out this one:

I think we could fit a couple of car seats in the back, don't you? But if a Rolls Royce is a little beyond our price range I might be persuaded to settle for this:Then I'll just starting having lots of babies so we can be like the Gilbreths:

The Boogie spent Saturday with her friend DiDi, her Mom Mom and Pop Pop, and her Auntie (SIL3). Auntie took her out shopping and to Arby's for dinner where the Boogie was completely uninterested in her popcorn chicken or curly fries because for the first time in her short life she had a cup of soda all to herself. To make it even better, she got to drink it through a straw. Though it was caffeine-free the sugar in it kept her up later that usual that night, but what's the fun of shopping with your Auntie if you can't indulge in a little Sierra Mist every now and then?

Sunday was even more beautiful than Saturday. Open all the windows! Let the fresh air in! It was a heavenly taste of Spring. Come soon, Spring. I am waiting for you.

For The Rest Of You

Those of you who know my family know that we LOVE classic films. One of my dad's favorite goofy comediennes from the 1940s is Betty Hutton and here are a couple of clips to help you understand why I posted that last video of the Boogie for my dad.

Another One For Pops

Okay, Pops, who does this remind you of?

Name That Tune

Listen closely to what the Boogie is singing -- can you guess what it is?

Happy Birthday, Pops!

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!

Budding Math Genius

Tonight on the way to church the Boogie counted like this: "One, two, free, mumble, fi', kix, sehen, eight, nine and ten! Nine, ten, ehwehwen, twel, keekeen, teeteen, nine, ten!"

Rocket science, here we come.