The Time When I Went Shopping With My Husband

Marcus and I took a little trip to Chicago this weekend! We were invited to a friend's baby shower on Sunday, so we thought we'd make the most of the weekend and get away just the two of us.
We met up with friends, played cards, ate way way way too much, but best of all, I got him to go shopping with me. I'm being serious.
It ended up being a lot of fun. Mostly, funny. Marcus does 99% of his clothing shopping online. He basically knows what size he wears and hopes for the best once it arrives. We were at H&M and both found some things to try on. Mine happened to be regular priced maternity items, and his were super clearanced  hipster pants. We both crammed into one fitting room and I knew this was going to be funny. I made a comment about  it being like a Hinder song being in the dressing room, but he wasn't sure what I was talking about.
He had no idea what to do with the clothes once he was done. "Do I hang them back up? Where do I put them? That shirt is $24?!"

We both had success, and continued over to Top Shop for even more ridiculousness. The racks were filled with crop tops and hot pants - neither of which are things that I could make work for me. We headed up to TopMan for Marcus and he couldn't help but point out every item that he has seen at Goodwill and announcing that it should be $1 and not $65. There's something funny about seeing a dude shopping and saying out loud "this should be a dollar. i'm not joking. I would pay one dollar for that."

We made our way to a Starbucks and it took way too long to find considering it's a Starbucks in Chicago, but we chilled for a bit and planned our dinner. We were still so full from having dip dish pizza at lunch, we waited about 8 hours before eating dinner and we still weren't hungry. So we had a popcorn appetizer and called it a night.

It was a really nice trip overall. We picked up a little souvenir from The Disney Store (a little minnie mouse) for Charlotte and I felt so oddly sentimental about it. It was the first time we got her a toy while we were away and I feel like she's old enough to make the connection between her Minnie Mouse and the Minnie Mouse she sees on TV. And I don't know...I can't put my finger on it anymore, but I just felt all sappy about it and even got teary while in line. I think I just really missed her. We saw a lot of children there and I think it would be fun to bring my little girl some place soon.

Anyway, that's all for now.
Oh, by the way, Charlotte loved her Minnie. She hugged it immediately and fell asleep with it tonight. My heart has broken into a million little pieces.

What's Black and White and 6 Feel Tall?

That? is a receipt for our most recent grocery store visit.

It's nearly 6 feet long.

I should also mention that this was a combined visit between our home and our bro & sister in law.

Marcus and his brother went shopping together (this just cracks me up), and it was about 10:30 pm by the time Marcus got back home. I was already in bed sleeping, and he comes bounding into our bedroom like a big goofy 4th grader and wakes me up to show me how long the receipt is.

I yelled at him.

"Don't ever wake me up to show me a piece of paper."

But the next morning I reckon I found it quite entertaining.

Marcus loves coupons. He used to be into couponing...before there were television shows about it. We'd get groceries together, and he'd be running all over the store picking up a package of 4 t shirts (that he had a coupon for) because with the purchase of those t shirts, he'd get a free carton of eggs. And if he bought 15 boxes of cereal (using said coupons) he'd get 2 packages of batteries. I mean, obviously. He's not quite as into it these days, because there are only so many febreze candles one house needs.



we saved more than we spent!

I pixelated the swears on the receipt. Why do they do that?

Marcus also called me twice from the store SO TICKED that they didn't have some of the specific items he went to purchase. So, if any of you...ahem...you might know who you are...can put in a word to purchasing...if that's possible....and tell them to buy more of EVERYTHING, we'd appreciate it. :)

Happy Tuesday!

My very first "Guest Blogger"

Marcus has been showing an unusual amount of interest in my blogging lately. Saying things like "if I blogged, I would dominate!!!" and "I want to blog about pickles!" <--well, not that (completely).

So I offered him the opportunity to write for my readers.

When I asked him what the title is all about, he made me notice how the font gets smaller. So it's sort of like an echo or something? I don't know. Ask him.

So, welcome Marcus! This dude loves run on sentences!

Guest Guest Guest Guest Blog Blog Blog Blog

So Emily left me with C-nibbles (that’s today’s nickname for Charlotte (her name starts with “C” and she’s recently taken to nibbling things)) for the 2^nd night in a row so I’m taking this opportunity to “Guest Blog”, or so I think.  Technically I’m writing this in Microsoft Word© and I have to leave it up to Emily to enter it into her blog.  So it’s her choice to take this .docx file and do with it what she pleases.  She could just leave it saved here on her computer where it would be a misplaced journal entry.  She could read it out loud to C-Nibs (Short for C-nibbles) as a bed time story.  She could email it to herself, copy the email on her phone, MMS it and make it an unusually long and grammatically correct text message.

So as a person who has made a choice to refrain from broadcasting my life on the internet, I’m going to that say that I’m not blogging right now, I’m just typing.  I don’t have anything against the people who spend a lot of time social networking;  it just isn’t for me.  I’m borderline ADD as it is-- I’d get nothing done if I had to manage a facebook account and real life at the same time.  You may say, “You should try twitter, it’s fun and doesn’t take up much time at all.”  But if you said that to me, I would slap you in the face hard.  Because I do have something against twitter.  Why are hundreds of millions of people around the world using twitter?  I liken it to a bunch of middle schoolers who are given an assignment in writing class to compose a Haiku.  Twitter takes about the same amount of creativity but it has two fewer rules.  Well, maybe 1 fewer rule.  Keep it under  one hundred twentysomeodd characters and avoid tweeting photos of your crotch.  Last week something smelled like poop in Grand Rapids, people started tweeting, someone started a #hashtag, and there was a story on mlive.com that was as focused on the tweets as the poop smell.  Ridiculous by every measure.

So speaking of poop smells, back to Charlotte.  I took her  grocery shopping tonight.  Clausen Pickles are $2.50 a jar and buy 5 get $5 off so we did not go to the "ritzy" Meijer store just down the road from my house that never has the sale items on the shelves—we went to the Meijer at 54^th st. with the ill-conceived parking lot where the lines are short and the shelves are stocked.  Being in that part of town, I thought Charlotte and I could witness a shoplifting event, then I could report said event, show Charlotte the consequences, and teach her a valuable life lesson.  Then we could go home and eat pickles!  The shoplifting event did not happen but we had fun anyway.  It’s evident that Charlotte loves pretty much everything that moves so long as it does not emit a loud, startling noise (That means you—guy in the old blue Caprice Classic who honked at the SUV that was not backing out, but rather was simply centering itself in its parking space.  If you were paying attention, you would have understood that the SUV posed no danger and I was carrying a baby 5’ from you.  It’s bad enough that an idiot designed that parking lot, that’s no excuse for your idiotic behavior).  So yes she loves just about everything that moves. 

A glimpse into the inner workings of Charlotte’s mind:

Hey lady in the dirty XXL Disney T-shirt with the mangy looking pony tail? (Back to my mind:  people should call them donkey or ass tails when they look that bad).  You’re moving near me, here’s a big ass smile for ya!

Howdy, middle aged man wearing a leather vest who has to ask the lady in the technology department where the cheap MP3 players are, and who then proceeds to grab one, bring it back up to tech. dept. lady and ask her if it has radio because you don’t want to miss “the game” (Me:  Oh, so you don’t want an MP3 player).  I think this whole exchange has been utterly hilarious, let me turn my head side to side and smile at both of you!

But the trip was a success; Charlotte learned that her dad is totally awesome.  She might think it’s a little odd that I took the pickles to the technology department for checkout, but she also saw me save a guy $20 by telling him to use a Meijer Summer Buck for $20 off a GPS unit that he was buying anyway. And I also helped a girl out who was asking the tech. dept. lady to see a sample so she could get a visual of how big the 18” x 24” poster print would be if she printed a photo that size.  You may think, “Oh, 18x24?  That’s about a foot and a half by two feet”, which is exactly what I thought before I pointed the girl towards a display appeared to be 18” x 24”.  Tech. Dept. Lady didn’t have a sample, but did have a tape measure, and proved to Charlotte and the girl asking the question that I sure am good picking out dimensions.

So we returned home, and I ate a pickle (C-nibbles, despite today’s nickname, wasn’t really interested).  I gave her a bottle and got her to bed on time by my standards.  Emily understands that my standards are different than hers.  When she says, “give her a bottle by 7:00, then put her in a size 3 diaper, swaddle her up and put her to bed”, and that process starts at 7:12, I think I’m doing pretty well.  Though Charlotte did not appreciate the step I added just before the swaddling—bumping her head on the end rail of the changing table.  Whoops!

So that’s it, Charlotte is sleeping, typing is finished.  Thank you, Microsoft Word©-osphere, for listening.

Project Marriage

Oh. Hey there, blog!
I've been struggling to come up with a topic for my newest blog entry. But after visiting mommyfriend, I was reminded of the Project Marriage challenge for June; sharing your love story. I think overall, our love story is less than thrilling. I mean...don't tell Marcus I said so. However, we've had plenty of memorable moments.
Here's one of my favorites.

Marcus and I had been dating for nearly 3 years when Spring of 2006 came around. Marcus was basically obsessed with me and wouldn't stop telling me how much he wanted to get married.
Read that last sentence and replace "obsessed" with "putting up" and "married" with "buffalo wings."

It was I who was constantly bugging him about making a life long commitment to me, and I'm sure I made it super appealing by being as annoying as possible. I just didn't want to be wasting my time having fun with a guy I totally adored, ya know?

I kept on waiting for clues. But there were no special dates planned, no bridal magazines hidden under his bed, nothing! Finally, I told myself to relax and just enjoy the time that we are actually having! I was creating unnecessary tension by looking for a way to bring it up all the time. (Ugh, what was I thinking?)

One Friday night, we decided to go out kind of last minute. I had to work the next morning, so I didn't want to be out too late. He asked me where I'd like to have dinner and I decided on one of my favorite tapas restaurants. It's usually quite busy, and we didn't realize that there would be a long wait to be seated. We decided to just sit along the grill and enjoy our dinner there. It was hot, it was loud, but we had sangria and lots of laughter. And since things were going so swimmingly, we decided to grab an after dinner drink.

There's kind of a swanky spot nearby that we tried to get into, but they were at capacity, so we wandered down the street to a popular bar where you know you'll always see a familiar face. Once we got there, we thought it would be funny to sneak into one of the VIP events they had going on. It happened to be Cinco De Mayo and it was quite the fiesta in the club. We snagged a seat on a big leather couch and I ordered a glass of chardonnay, and Marcus ordered a beer. We felt so sneaky...trying to look around to see if anyone noticed that we were crashing their party. As far as I could tell, we were under the radar.

There was some hot chick strutting around with a tray full of complimentary tequila shots, and with Marcus being Dutch (read: frugal) he couldn't pass up that offer. Besides, tequila is was his liquor of choice. (He has since moved on to Scotch.) He picked up a shooter for me as well, even though I can't stand the stuff. But hey! It's Cinco De Mayo! A holiday I've always cherished because I love guacamole.

Being the ever annoying girl that I was...I just had to bring it up. Tease him a little bit about his habit of dodging "the subject". So I say to him, "What will you give me if I take this shot of tequila?" So coy, I was.
He response was somewhat uncharacteristic and he said, "I will take you for a romantic stroll downtown..."
Continuing to be delightful as ever, I replied with "That's lame. You know what I want to hear." (oy.)
All I had really expected was "Okay. Fine. I'll marry you if drink that tequila." And I would have been a happy senorita.
Then, wouldn't you know it, he was in front of me on one knee, holding a sparkly ring.
And I'm holding a mini glass of tequila.
"Emily, will you marry me?" he asked.
My eyes hurt from being open so wide and my hands were covering my mouth.
As far as I know, I said yes.
People all around were noticing.
It was the biggest surprise EVER.
I downed the tequila.
We continued celebrating when we saw nearly everyone we knew downstairs in the main portion of the bar.
I recognize it's sort of tacky to say we got engaged in a bar, but it was one of the most fun nights I've ever had.
Had he actually taken me on that romantic stroll, I think I would have realized what was going on. I loved the spontaneity and the surprise. I'm glad there wasn't a trail of rose petals and a fancy dinner...my man knows how to make memories.
And now I ponder what other surprises await me over say, a dram of Scotch...

World's Best Mom

This is my new title. I appointed myself with it. I'm not even being sarcastic. I might be exaggerating though.
When I get some sleep, I am a better mom and a better person in general. And after a night like last night, I am the best.
That's all on that subject.

Next on the docket? My husband's birthday is this week. In years past, I've most likely had his gift ready and wrapped (or at least ordered). Uhh...I feel like I've already screwed this one up.
I feel like I have to scramble around looking for something that he might like that is also a good deal (it's always a bad idea to pay full price for something in this household). The best way to get a good deal is via the internet, and I no longer have enough time to order something. I simply cannot keep using the baby as an excuse for all of my mess ups. That's not nice, nor completely true. And on top of all of this? He has become too stylish for me to afford. Since when did the boy that I met go from baggy jeans and 5k t shirts to William Rast jeans and True Religion socks? Seriously. I shop at Target (not that there's anything wrong with that...I love tar-jay), and he uses Bumble and Bumble in his hair. I may have created a monster. Yes, I'm taking credit for the transformation. True Religion socks. <shakes head>

Today is my day off and we start out by taking the ol' (3 year ol') hound to the vet to check on her tumors. I feel so sad and just hope she's still doing okay. I don't want to keep having her be cut open and deal with the stitches and healing...but it might be our only option. We're going to discuss other treatment today if necessary. Oh, how I love that dog. And HEY! HATERS: We still love our doggie the same after our baby arrived. Charlotte easily has priority, but Darby still gets her daily park, rollerblade, run...etc.
So after the vet, it's time to find the best birthday present OF ALL TIME!!!!
(Any suggestions are appreciated. :) )

So it's not just me, then?!

My life has been flipped, turned upside down for 8 weeks already!
Just thought I'd remind you of that.
I'm sort of surprised at how little I actually get done on a daily basis. I mean, she's just a newborn. (wait, when is she no longer a newborn? I like saying newborn. I don't want to stop.) newborn. See, it's nice.
There are days where I'm super psyched that I am able to complete a few simple tasks. Oddly, since I brought baby C home, I haven't been able to increase the number of simple tasks per day.

Well yesterday, like every 4th monday of the month, I had cooking club. This is where I prepare 8-10 (depending on the month) meals and meet with neighbors and swap. Preparing the meals is pretty time consuming, and if I were a smart person, I would have planned to do it sooner. I usually do it the day before club, but suddenly it was already Monday and my meals were not made. I knew I would need help because it's not as easy as "oh, I'll do it when Charlotte sleeps." (HA!!!)

Long story short, my mom came over and helped with Charlotte and when she needed to eat, she helped with cooking club. Thanks, Mom!

It was a busy day for me, as I had cleaned up the house a bit, worked on getting C to nap in crib, which is not as easy as it sounds, got groceries, and then spent 3 hours working on my meals.

When Marcus got home from work around 6, he was excited to bring in the 2 enormous boxes that contained our new lighting fixtures proclaiming, "I'm going to play electrician tonight!" which was then followed by my reminder that I have cooking club and I'll be leaving around 7:30.

I started dinner, installed some printer software on my computer so I could (holy crap!) finally print my labels for my meals (did i mention i was leaving in like a half hour?!) and gave Marcus a refresher course on how to heat a bottle, all while holding fussy child.

Meanwhile, Marcus is on a ladder, beginning the installation of the new fixture.

Dinner was not finished in time for me to eat, oh well. I'm trying to lose weight anyway.

When I got home around 10 pm, I see that the boxes are still everywhere, ladder still in front of door, light not installed. (not a big deal.) Marcus says, "She's been crying pretty much the whole time."

Surprisingly, only a small amount of guilt set in.

The only other thoughtI had was "ahhh...so it's not just me!!"

I still don't think it really occurs to Marcus that most days are just like those 2.5 hours he had, and that's okay. I'm not here to rub anything in. (teehee)

But it sort of feels good to know that I'm not a big loser who can't take care of a baby, clean a house, make food and do laundry all in one day. Or if I am a big loser, so is my husband. :)

Today, when feeling utterly exhausted, i cried to marcus, "I can't even dry my hair!!" to which he responded so adorably, "it's okay, it dries itself."

I love how he hs come to expect so little of me. :)

This is C's new favorite face. Breaks my heart and makes me smile at the same time. little stinker.

to sum up a saturday...

Last night, we went out with friends for dinner and had Grandpa and Grandma R watch Charlotte for the evening. I'm still getting used the whole babysitter thing, but it went swimmingly and she even slept alright...until about 3:30. Then it was wide, wide, wide awake time. Smiley and awake. So cute. And tiring.

Marcus was a dear and kept C asleep for a while so I could sleep in until about 9. But we just chilled all day. Love it.

Came upstairs and Darby got comfortable with the boppy. No joke. She did this herself.

The "Family Bed" :)

My little sweetie. Before she got crabby for the day.

Life is good. But now I spend my evening folding laundry. Something that several months ago would have been the biggest drag ever. But this is what we asked for, right?

Ikea tomorrow. Thinking it's time to actually decorate and make my bedroom a room to enjoy.

Consider this blog to have training wheels.

I decided it's high time I start my own blog instead of just creepin around on yours. So...here is a little background:


Marcus and I got married in November 2006. The past 3 and a half years have gone quickly and wonderfully. We always knew we'd start a family someday, and "5 years" seemed to be the answer we'd give when people would ask when. But 5 years in Emily-talk is different than 5 years in Marcus-talk. When Marcus says he'll be done with a project in 20 minutes, it usually is at least another hour. When Emily gives herself an hour to do something, she'll usually wrap it up in 20 minutes. SO...are you catching on here?

I enjoyed thinking ahead to the days where we'd have a little one, but was loving my time and freedom with my husband. We love taking long weekends away, throwing parties at our place, and being spontaneous in general. But after a few years of wedded bliss, we mutually agreed that 2010 could be our year. We started to make the most out of our time going on vacations and being "selfish". We had it in mind that everything changes when you have a baby, and we may not be able to maintain our current lifestyle. In my mind, I'd get pregnant the moment we'd start trying. Marcus planned on it taking a while...or perhaps he just hoped it would. But after "a few" (5 or 6, depending on who you ask...) months, it happened!! Bun successfully in oven!

People love to ask how I found out. I never realized what a personal question it really is. I mean, really...how do you think I found out? I suppose there are a lot of people who weren't "trying" to get pregnant and end up on TLC's "I didn't know I was pregnant". Wait, no. There really shouldn't be that many people.
Basically, folks, I had been hoping for a few months, didn't want to wait another couple of days to take a home pregnancy test, so I peed on a stick. When all you've ever seen is one pink line every time you've tried a test, it's all you expect to see. On this particular day, Mother's Day '10, I saw two lines. My first thought was "oh well, not this month either...." and then....WAIT, WHAAA?? So I ran downstairs, forgot about any cute way I ever thought about telling Marcus and showed him the test. Since he's not overly familiar with the concept, I pretty much had to explain it to him. We were both THRILLED! Couldn't believe it!

So now, at 19 weeks pregnant, I start this blog. I have had a text book, every-symptom possible pregnancy. You name it, I've probably experienced it. Maybe not worse than anyone else, but I've been there! At almost 5 months pregnant, I am feeling much better, and am feeling far less gross than I did for the first several weeks.
Whoever came up with the pregnant woman glow thing is delusional. Unless "glow" is grease, dark circles and blotchy skin. In which case, yes, thank you, I am glowing.

This Friday, we're having the "big" ultrasound. Our plan is to find out the sex. I can't wait. I have ants in my stretchy waist pants. So if you hang tight, you can find out if it's xx or xy.
Needless to say, I am over the moon for this little baby. I know Marcus is too, but I'll do my best not to speak for him. I am looking forward to documenting the next 20+ weeks right here, and hoping for some good advice and fun stories.

Thanks for visiting! :)