Feb 19, 2014 | Love & Marriage, Sesame, Uncategorized |
Christopher put the baby’s car seat in on Sunday.
I stood around reading the manual while he talked about how the activity was stressing him out. Good times all around! I hate reading manuals but I felt it was the responsible parent thing to do. It was probably more helpful than my speech about not liking car seats until the child is old enough to buckle/unbuckle himself.
We drove down to the fire station to have them inspect our work because have I mentioned the responsible parent thing? Not to mention that the car seat was flopping all around which seemed just a little unsafe. The front door of the fire station was locked so we walked around back. The back door was unlocked but the place looked dead so naturally Christopher walked right in and started poking around. This would be a good time to point out that the 911 system in our town is less than stellar. They’re pretty much a 9-5 operation that takes the weekends off. I wish I was kidding. Based on this knowledge I wasn’t surprised no one was around. I stood by the door while Christopher looked for someone then decided I didn’t want to be charged as an accomplice if he got in trouble for wandering the building. I vowed to stay with him in sickness and in health, not situations of possible arrest. I fled the scene with a clean conscience.
Just as I was walking away from the door a fire truck pulled up. I didn’t know what else to do so I avoided eye contact and made it seem as if I was VERY INTENT of fixing my hair. In other words, I tried to look completely sweet and innocent. When I got to the car I realized it was locked but never fear! The window was down so I reached in and unlocked it. Everyone knows the best way to protect the new car seat you just paid an arm and a leg for is to leave the car locked with the window down.
In what is the most anticlimactic ending to a story in the history of stories, the firemen weren’t upset about a law-abiding citizen wandering their halls. They looked at the car seat in all it’s floppy glory and declared it was made that way. “The weight of the infant will hold it down.” Well let’s hope we have a 16 pound infant* because a tiny 4 pounder won’t do much.
The fire chief did point out that generally the police station is the place to visit in times of car seat questions. I told Christopher that but yet we ended up at the fire station. I never vowed to not keep track of how many times I am right during our marriage, so another point for Team Sarah.
*I am so totally kidding about the 16 pounder. I never in a million years want to deliver a baby that large.
Jan 11, 2014 | Love & Marriage, Sesame, Uncategorized |
I found this on Ashley’s instagram; I didn’t write it.
It occurred to me last week that I mostly talk about the parts of pregnancy I dislike. It also occurred to me that along with being way smaller, I feel like I’m different than a lot of the other pregnant ladies in the blog world. I don’t have an app on my phone telling me the days, hours, minutes and seconds until my due date. I couldn’t even tell you what day of the week April 2nd is. I don’t do well with major life changes so for the sake of my sanity PLEASE no one tell me how many days are left until April 2nd. I will get a serious case of anxiety and once I know I’ll never be able to unknow. Not knowing the gender of the baby doesn’t keep me awake at night. I’m curious but unlike someone else around here, I’m not dying to know. Ever since I was little I wanted the gender to be a surprise. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have a girl, but I’ll find out soon enough. It doesn’t kill me when someone touches my belly as long as they don’t go too high up or too low down. People make it sound like everyone and their cousin attacks your belly but I haven’t found that to be true at all.
I guess I don’t talk about the parts I do like much because overall I haven’t enjoyed the process of making a person, but it isn’t all bad. Besides, I don’t want Sesame to read this in 20 years and think I wasn’t happy about him/her.
* I loved seeing Sesame for the first time. I had seen many ultrasound pictures from further on in pregnancies, but I had never seen a 9 week old baby wiggle around. It was THE cutest.
* I loved the first time Christopher felt the baby move. He came home from work all bummed out and Sesame gave him a nice little high five through my belly.
* I like when Sesame moves.
* I like when we have story time. Christopher always does the reading because I’m busy holding the baby. Obviously.
* I really like when Christopher talks to the baby. He has very detailed conversations about word definitions and good vs. bad morals. I usually just say something really educational along the lines of “Let’s crank up the tunes.” Someone has to introduce the child to the (other) main men in our lives, namely Josh Turner and Brad Paisley.
* I like decorating the nursery.
* I like being able to make a statement about being pregnant without people telling me “When you’re pregnant you can talk.” Well, now I am so I do.
* I especially like that Christopher is around. If he wasn’t I’d be somewhat of a disaster.
Jan 8, 2014 | Love & Marriage, Uncategorized |
Last weekend we took a vacation to a cabin in the woods. We don’t often take two vacations within three days of each other, but the government doesn’t often shut down and cause the camping trip I had scheduled in the fall to be canceled either. Not that I’m still bitter about it.
Christopher wasn’t sure about how fun staying in the cabin would be (see also: very skeptical), but we both agree it was most likely 12 times better than our original cabin camping trip would have been. For one, this cabin had indoor plumbing. Not to mention it was so cute.
It was so cozy I wanted to live there forever.
We didn’t do much besides read, play games and eat chips and dip but it was THE BEST time. We also posed with a larger than life buffalo. (Perhaps he was an accurately sized buffalo. I’m never been near enough a real buffalo to say for sure.)
Dec 23, 2013 | Love & Marriage, Uncategorized, What's going on |
We’ve been talking about getting a new car for a little while now. Last week Christopher gave me a list of acceptable cars and told me to go on each website to learn more about each car. He asked if I know about car buying to which I replied that it is not my forte. I may have also said something along the lines of not knowing whether 12 or 72 horsepower is better. What can I say? I have simple car buying criteria:
* nice color, preferably blue
* good blinker (None of this clickclickclickclick stuff. I prefer click pause click pause click pause.)
* must have a regular key that goes in the ignition (Apparently that makes me very old fashioned.)
* no little screen that pops up when the car is put in reverse (I was taught to look in the direction in which I am driving so it makes no sense to look forward at the screen when I’m traveling backwards.)
I went on each website and really tried to be more objective than rating the cars according to cuteness, but one website was lacking in pictures so I was thoroughly confused. This told me absolutely nothing about the car.
What is this variable cylinder management of which you speak?
Last Saturday we went out test driving. Naturally I fought the urge to giggle the entire time because that’s what I do in situations where I should seem grown up. We were driving one car when Will the salesman piped up from the backseat, “Can you feel how the gears don’t shift? It’s all one smooth motion.” I hadn’t noticed. I was trying to figure out if the car came with seat warmers and how big the glove compartment was. Christopher deals with the mechanical specifications and I take care of the frilly details. It’s a system that’s worked well so far.
After test driving a whopping one vehicle, we went back Wednesday to buy it. (For inquisitive minds, we got a Nissan Rogue. The name makes me feel wild and adventuresome.) It does have the reverse monitor, but it’s easy enough to ignore. Buying cars really is hardly something I do every day, so I didn’t know that sometimes you need to be prepared to spend three hours of your day in the dealership waiting for papers to process. At least Will provided fresh cookies and water to make our stay more pleasurable. I needed something to comfort me after Christopher pointed out to me, Will, AND the insurance lady on the phone that I had two new gray hairs. He’s just the sweetest.
While the car will belong to both of us, technically it is more mine than Christopher’s because we still have his car. As proud owner, I will have more power in matters of importance such as what we name it and any outer decor. I was also told I can have whatever I want on the license plate. I’m thinking of a picture of Jimmy Stewart in one corner and a picture of Dick Van Dyke in the other. Maybe a third of Harrison Ford just to round things out.
Dec 12, 2013 | Holidays, Love & Marriage, Uncategorized |
We really thought we couldn’t top our gingerbread house last year. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. I don’t mean to boast but our house knocks all the other gingerbread houses off the shelf.
Christopher decorated the front and the little man. The roof, sides, and carefully assembled walkway were a joint effort.
We probably spent 10 minutes individually icing the tiny candy balls leading up to the door. Don’t come between us and a bag of piping.
I decorated the back of the house. It has a swirls and hearts theme.
Notice how no two gumballs along the wall are the same color. She who shall remain nameless was very insistent that be the case.
Dear Sesame (and all future children),
We love you and look forward to decorating a gingerbread house with you, but don’t be offended when if we make our own on the side. We don’t like icing to go where icing doesn’t belong.
Love,
Your adoring and slightly particular parents
Feb 18, 2013 | Holidays, Love & Marriage |
We decided to take our Valentines celebration on the road this year by visiting the Parthenon in Greece.
Or perhaps it was the Parthenon in Nashville. The exact location is a mere technicality.
The earliest dinner reservation available that evening was 9:15, so we had plenty of time to kill. I spent more than a little of that time reading an article about Nashville’s most eligible singles. In retrospect, Valentines Day may not have been the most romantic time I could have chosen to read that article.
We had a few pre-appetizers at a different restaurant before the main meal at the fancy restaurant because if you’re going to travel all the way to Greece to celebrate true love, you might as well hit up all the restaurants. I kept Christopher entertained by telling him one of the world’s most anticlimactic stories about the time I mixed up my purse with Jenn’s. As I got to the punchline, “But I mean, OBVIOUSLY it was her purse because no one else was around at 5:30 in the morning,” the waitress leaned over and said, “All the sketchy stuff happens at 5:30 in the morning.”
Well. Had I known you were eavesdropping I would have prepared a better story.
(How many self-portraits can I include in one post?)
I realize this picture makes it look like we intended to pose with the white lamp over Christopher’s shoulder. We did not. I was also unaware of the hair sticking straight up off my head. These are the types of problems you deal with when continually forced to take self portraits. Next Valentines I’ll be sure to bring a pack of photographers with me when we spend the holiday in Paris.
Paris, Tennessee that is.
