I Want And I Want And I Want

I'm unsettled - that's probably the best way to describe this mood I can't seem to escape lately. I feel pulled in a million different directions and my mind is a whirlwind of want and confusion. I can't turn off the thinking and the questions and the wanting --- the terrible, nagging wanting.
What do I want to spend my time doing? What's the best use of my money? What are my priorities? What should they be?

For starters, it turns out I really like this blogging thing. I'd like to be better at it, spend more time doing it, find more opportunities in that great big beautiful blogosphere. Fix my blog up proper and make it into something I can be proud of. I want to take pictures of Weston's bedroom now that it's finished and see if I can get it featured here. But first I'd need to dust his room, and while I'm at it - really my whole house needs dusted. Actually the whole thing needs a good thorough deep cleaning.

But, I can't put Oren down long enough to dust one room, let alone the whole house. Because he has those cheeks...oh those cheeks I can't resist. Tell me, how does one exactly live an existence without baby cheeks in their life? I guess if you've never had baby cheeks to kiss and nuzzle on a daily basis, you don't really know what your missing. But, here's the thing... I have. And now that I've had a taste, I can't go back.

And what happens when those baby cheeks turn into toddler cheeks then into little boy cheeks? Surely I will need another baby to fill the void. Babies! I would have a million babies if I could! I can't stop thinking about them. Their roly poly little bodies and toothless grins. I still have a baby and I'm already dreaming of the next one. (cue the Josh eye rolling now)

But then, where does that leave me? Less time for everything else...and I've been growing my hair out for so long now, that I really just want to sit in front of the computer and watch hair tutuorials for hours. (Seriously, I dream of this. I'm not even kidding.) Or finish that book I've been reading for about a month now and am only half way through. When will there be time for reading again? Oh, and Pinterest! Oh my lord, the hours I could spend on Pinterest if only I had the time...But then that just makes me find things like this. And now I need that bag. Like, NEED that bag, it's my bag soul mate, I'm telling you. (I've already alerted Josh to this fact, hint hint)

Or worse! I find things like this. And then --- there I go again, dreaming of a sweet baby girl to fill those shoes. But if I have another baby, how could I afford the bag? Or even the shoes?! And then I think...I shouldn't be spending money on any of these frivolous things. So, I go on on investment blogs and try to learn about stocks and money market accounts and then I get really confused.

These are the things that keep me awake at night.

******

Other things I want:

a VACATION - alone with my husband (but I can't leave my babies! Oh, the conundrum)
a massage
a manicure/pedicure/both if I'm really being honest
SLEEP
a college fund for Oren (hasn't been started yet)
a bigger college fund for Wes
a college fund for me (see: pay off my smothering mountain of student loan debt)
a haircut
more snuggle time and book reading with the babes
a new camera
a dining room rug
my abs back (P90X again?)
time to do P90X again
a retirement fund (ha! I threw this one in just for giggles)
to only work three days a week
the entire children's fall collection here
new clothes for me too, now that I think about it

I could go on, but I'll spare you.

And I can't have all the things on that list --- not even close. And to have some, I will have to let go of others.

What do I give up? What do I fight for?

Can I just forget it all and have some ice cream instead?

Thoughts?

(The best therapy I have come up with so far is to force myself to remember the movie Precious and remind myself that some people have actual real problems in life. It helps.)

Mommy-Wes Day

Wes and I spent some quality one on one time together Saturday when I took him to the Natural History Museum to meet Dr. Scott the paleontologist from Dinosaur Train. That show has been Weston's favorite since forever --- since as long as Wes has been able to have a favorite show in his whole three years of life. And he was so totally pumped to meet Dr. Scott - a major celebrity for the 5 and under crowd. He's like the Michael Jackson of kids (err, probably not the best analogy) but if you ask Wes, he's like "rully, rully, rully cool."

...just one look at the guy and there's no denying his star power

and after some rigorous testing, he even certified Wes as a Junior Paleontologist. Thanks, Dr. Scott!

It was awesome.

No, really, it was. I loved spending the day with my little guy, just the two of us. He's the best, ever.

ever. ever. ever.

more days like this, please.

(and thank you)

A Night with Black Star!

I mean, do I really even need to write a review of this show? 

It was Black Star - live.

It was amazing - duh.

Because, it's Black Star - and Talib Kweli is in Black Star.

And I love Talib Kweli.

He's the Tom Cruise to my Rosie O'Donnell.

(except he's way better looking (not a scientologist) and I have a real crush on him, not a fabricated one I pretend to have to keep my conservative daytime stay at home mom viewership strong)

(also, that reference was really old and also by making it I thereby just admitted that I used to watch the Rosie O'Donnell Show, and for this I apologize to you, on both points) 

also Mos Def is in Black Star and he's pretty alright.

So really, I was sold before the show even started. Mos and Kweli could have just come on stage and played a game of chess I probably would have been just as enthralled.

What can I say? I'm a girl in love. And my love for Kweli knows no bounds. 

Also, please don't worry, Josh is fully aware of all of this. He has accepted that our relationship is, generally speaking, a life long monogamous commitment... unless Kweli were to see me in the crowd and feeling an uncontrollable and unspoken connection to me, stop performing mid sentence, leap from the stage, profess his desire to spend the rest of his life with me (his soulmate) and suggest we ride off into the sunset together... well... then... all bets are off - sorry josh. 

But, since there's a 99.9999999% chance that that will never happen, I think Josh has decided he can live with those kind of odds. He's a good man.

So Black Star performed, live, 10 yards away from me. And yes, It was all I had hoped it would be.

And THEN, just when I thought it couldn't get any better Hi-Tek showed up and hopped on the mic and they did some of the Reflection Eternal tracks off Train of Thought (MY FAVORITE ALBUM OF ALL TIME) and I thought my head might explode. 

I've seen Reflection Eternal live before, but RE and Black Star in one night??? It was almost too much.

And so, the moral of the story is, if you weren't there, it might be the biggest regret of your life - just sayin.

Also, if you've never heard any of this music before, start here. This is the song that made me fall in love with Kweli all those many many moons ago.

Then go back and listen to the original by Nina, cuz, she's a goddess. period.

Our New Favorite Game

We've recently discovered a new way of entertaining the babe

It doesn't get much cuter than this

#100

Well, here it is folks, my 100th blog post! Can you even imagine?! Confetti! Streamers! Fireworks! Trombones! (wait...trombones? ok, i guess...why not.)

To celebrate, I'm taking Adam's suggestion of a clip show of sorts for this centennial post of great epicness.

And so I give unto you my top 10 favorite posts to date --- hope you enjoy! (again)


#10 This was my first ever blog post. It had to make it to the top 10. Without this one, there would never have been a 100th post, or a blog at all for that matter! And then where would we be?! I shudder to even think about it.

#9 A clip show within a clip show - whoa, I'm getting crazy over here, watch out!

#8 I still haven't quite figured this one out yet.

#7 About my pup, whevever I'm missing her, I go back and read this one and it always makes me smile.

#6 Here's hoping days like this are few and far between.

#5 And here's hoping days like this one come a little more often.

#4 My kid, he cracks me up.

#3 Funny to look back at this time and even stranger to think that there was a time in my life where I hadn't met my Oren Henry yet. Hasn't he just always been here?...

#2 Just flat out love this one, that's all there is to it.

#1 My most popular, most read, most traffic driving post to date - where some posts have only a measly 15 or so page views, this one has upwards of 600. Whatta work horse! Guess people really do love those Duggars!


Thank you all for reading, sincerely and truly, I mean that from the bottom of my heart. On to the next 100...

Cedar Point, Blogged

Question:
What's the worst possible decision to make before spending the day at the roller coaster capital of the world?

Answer:
You eat this.

Followed by this.

I am a poor decision maker.

I mean, let's be real here, any trip to Cedar Point is as much about eating insane amounts of park food as it is about riding the rides... (mostly for Adam though, see the last trip here)... but this was before we even got there.

Two roller coasters in and I was a hot mess. Thankfully, a few trips around the park on the good old timey train allowed time to let my stomache settle so I could enjoy the rest of the day.

And then it turned out to be so much fun! It was supposed to rain that day and it's the off season and it was September 11th. So what seemed to be the perfect recipe for a bad day at Cedar Point turned out to be the secret recipe for the best day at Cedar Point EVER. bwahahahaha!!!! NO LINES and not a drop of rain.

We win.

There was a lot of roller coaster ridin'

and even more eating

but mostly peace signs.

Then those crazy boys rode the Top Thrill Dragster



Abby and I rode the scrambler.


P.S. Today is Adam's 30th birthday! If you see him today make sure you tell him happy birthday and throw him a peace sign for me. We are so lucky to have a friend like him in our lives.

like I said, we win.

Whhaa Whhaa Whhaa Whaaat?!

Dudes! I'm only two posts away from my 100th blog post. How did that happen? It seems like I just started this silly little blog. I feel like I should do a special post of some sort for the occasion, but I'm not sure what it should entail. So, to my three or four lovely and devoted readers out there, I will leave it up to you...any special requests?

(if not, josh will be the only one voting and he will surely think it should be a post about him, so just sayin' unless you want to read all about the amazing-ness that is Josh Booth you better start brain storming)

Cedar Point World Peace Sign Tour 2011

Crazy, crazy fun/slightly nauseating trip to Cedar Point over the weekend.

Many more pictures coming soon.

Invasion of the Flying Reptiles

As I mentioned before, we've gone full on pterodactyl over here

Reasons My Job Makes Me Smile

Hi Emily,  Thank you for everything.  Our new home is beautiful.  You, Eric, and team did a great job with all the selections.  Absolutely out of this world. 

Best Regards,

Dave and Karen

Labor Day Weekend

So, I've been thinking about it and instead of a mommy/baby blog my blog is really becoming more of a food blog. Not your typical food blog though - like, it's not one where I make the food and write about it, it's more just one where I eat food made by other people and take pictures of it. I think it works.

This past weekend I did a lot of eating. What's new though, right? Lockview with Josh Friday night, delicious (as usual) followed by a screening of this...

It was funny and touching and just altogether great. And I may have a cried just a little when Phife talked about his kidney transplant surgery and his wife who gave him the kidney. (Ok, I might have cried a lot.)

Saturday, we had breakfast at our new favorite restaurant. They were out of the quiche (sad) but their sticky buns were out of this world (like a piece of baklava the size of a brick and at least 3847875 calories). Then, Abby and I spent Sunday in the most ridiculous way possible - driving around the greater Akron area looking for something "different" to eat, which is not easy to find on the Sunday of a holiday weekend, where most everything except the chain restaurants are closed. In the end we ended up at a taco truck in Ellet and ate our tacos in the car in a CVS parking lot. However, those tacos were the bomb and super cheap too. Totally, worth the 2+ hours of driving time it took to find somewhere to eat and facing the sketchy Che Guevara look-a-like loitering out front.  

We will be back. Oh, yes, we will most definitely be back.  

THEN, Sunday night was spent with my girlfriends Bonnie and Beth (or as my brother calls them, Beth and Bonnie Works...or Beth, Bon and Beyond...oh, how I digress) at Cilantro for a belated birthday dinner and a night of sushi and catching up. Then we hit up Mary Coyle afterwards because that's just how we do.

Akron has really, really good food you guys.

Other than that, just a low key weekend at home listening to Oren squawk and screech like a baby pterodactyl while Josh and his dad took Wes up to Cleveland for the airshow. Insert cute picture below:

Also, my boy has learned how to not only take pictures (and instagram them) on my iphone. He

also now takes videos, his directorial debut below -

Hopefully, video of the baby making his pterodactyl noises coming soon.

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

tickets on our fridge right now