Discipline Should Always Be This Easy

Solomon absolutely loves to jump on the couch. Though he's hurt himself plenty of times doing so, it doesn't deter him. We've tried several approaches to get him to stop but all have been less than successful: talking plainly & calmly, yelling, spanking, ignoring, timeout. Nothing works on this kid. Jason told me Solomon was jumping on the couch again last night & Jason told him to stop because it was bad. Solomon proceeded to grab his brush & smack his own bottom with it, saying, "Bad!" to himself! I hate disciplining - it makes me sad - so if Solomon will spank himself, by all means, go ahead child. Maybe he'll listen to himself better than he listens to us...

The Countdown Begins...

I'm so excited about moving away from CA that I'm already counting down! I'm not sure of the exact day we will leave, but Jason graduates in early/mid June so we will be moving within a week or two after that. We'll be gone before June ends. YAY!! Assuming June 30th as the last day, we have 334 more days to go; 47 1/2 more weeks. I know I sound a little crazy, but you have to understand: I've been homesick for FOUR FREAKING YEARS STRAIGHT ALREADY. I miss my family. I miss Maria. I miss seasons. I miss the scenery. Of course I will miss things here when I leave, but it pales in comparison to my homesickness. The only things in CA I will miss when we leave are our church (we'll never find another like it :( ) & a small number of people I can count on one hand: Jon & Molly, Trevin, & Dave (I will miss others too, but it will actually be painful to leave these folks behind).

We just had an earthquake. Literally -- like one minute ago. Solomon gasped & made an exaggerated "O" face; his reaction was cute.

This is what happens when your kid lacks playmates his age.

He won't let me take them off!

Not Just In My Head After All

I had my 34 week checkup today with my OB/GYN. I told her about the nonstop crying, overeating, feeling miserable, etc. & she immediately became very solemn & said I should be on medication. She told me that I'm at risk for postpartum depression (I'm clearly suffering from some type of pregnancy-induced depression now) & once the placenta is delivered & my hormones plummet, it will only get worse. She gave me a prescription for Zoloft in low doses & said that I should be feeling significantly better the next time she sees me in 2 weeks. As I expected would happen, upon telling Jason he was very skeptical of the diagnosis or that the medicine would help me (based on his own experiences with antidepressants). It's really frustrating because I feel like he thinks I'm exaggerating my symptoms; I feel very alone in this & that I'm not getting his support. I know that compassion & empathy are not his gifts but his attitude about it certainly isn't helping my situation. Hopefully the medicine will balance me out so that I can be a better wife & mother soon.

(And, yes, Maria, I will acknowledge that you've told me more than once to join a mom's group because that will provide a lot of support for me & fun for Solomon. I'm not going to rush to do that now but will definitely check some out after the baby is born.)

Solomon making a cake.

Just a Few Thoughts...

#1: We went to the OC fair yesterday. It was a lot of fun - especially since Solomon was big enough to ride some of the attractions! The food was amazing as well. I ate a beef brisket sandwich, a smoked turkey leg, Dippin' Dots (caramel brownie!) & funnel cake. Jason & I split most of it, of course, although I'm sure I wouldn't have had much trouble finishing it all myself :) The day we go to the fair is one of the few days of the year I'm permitted to be a glutton so I definitely take advantage!





#2: I'm tired of being pregnant now. I love being pregnant, but because of all the stress I've been under this pregnancy I haven't been able to enjoy it. Only 6 more weeks (but I think she's going to come sooner)!

#3: I'm mad at God right now. Last week we found out that my mother-in-law's cancer has apparently spread to her liver now. They decided against a biopsy as it is too risky. Jewel doesn't want to do chemo (which I don't entirely understand her reasoning) but she's going to apply at the NCI to see if she's a good candidate for any of their programs. I feel like God is snuffing out our entire family pretty rapidly. I guess we can't say for sure if Jewel's cancer is necessarily a death sentence but it's still unnerving; especially not knowing exactly what the cancer is & the best method of treatment. At this point we're just playing the waiting game.

On the Verge of a Meltdown

I have been beyond crazy this pregnancy as my mental stability has taken a serious plunge. I cry almost everyday, usually over dumb, insignificant things, I yell a lot, & I just constantly feel miserable. I don't feel miserable about the pregnancy (though at this point I am certainly ready for it to be over), but I guess my hormones are all out of whack because of it. I cried this morning because Jason said I was yelling at Solomon too much, so I felt like a bad mom. (Actually, I feel like a bad mom a lot because sometimes I don't even like being a mom. Does that make me evil??) Then he added that I've been yelling at him more too & that made me feel worse.

Later this afternoon I tried to take Solomon outside to play in his pool because he hasn't played in it in a couple of weeks. Well, he lost interest about 5 minutes in & started running away. I had a hard time catching him, but when I did I made him go back inside the house. Then I cried over that because I wanted him to have fun in his pool but I was sad because he wasn't listening to me. That episode had me crying for about an hour; heck, just typing it out is making me cry right now!

When Jason came home this evening we got into an argument & he told me it's OK that I feel the way I do but I can't act the way I've been acting -- INSANE. Yep. Cried some more.

All of this was just today!

Please pray that God intervenes because I think I'm going to go jump off a bridge now.

It's a Kid's World

Tonight Solomon & I went to a friend's birthday dinner at BJ's Brewhouse (I love their food! But it pales in comparison to Claim Jumper...). I had to use the restroom & when I walked in there were 2 little girls, sisters I think. I started walking into the first stall when the oldest stopped me & said, "Excuse me, ma'am, but that's a kid's toilet. You have to use the bigger one down there for grown-ups," & pointed to the handicap stall. "Oh!" I said as I clearly should've known that, "OK," & went to use the handicap stall to take care of my business.

Solomon & I went walking around our housing area the other day & I checked to see if people have been taking the tear-away tabs on my fliers for the cats. So far 9 tabs have been taken, however I have yet to receive a phone call from any of those people. I'm really annoyed about it.

FAIL

My friend Dave introduced me to this awesome website, failblog.org, today. There are countless pictures & videos that will entertain for hours! Here are a couple of my faves of the ones I've viewed so far:


see more pwn and owned pictures


see more pwn and owned pictures


see more pwn and owned pictures


see more pwn and owned pictures

There's also a video called "Elephant Handler Fail" but I can't figure out how to link it from failblog's site. (Danielle, please don't watch that video. You throw up too easily...)

Se Habla Español

Just something I often wonder:

Certain commercials, namely lawyers & insurance companies, are completely in English. Then at the end of the commercial they say, "Se habla español." How does the Spanish speaking person, who doesn't know English, know what the commercial is for? Do they have to call & ask for a Spanish speaking rep, who they then ask what the organization does? If so, I bet 9 times out of 10 the call turns out to be a waste of the Latino's time, since they need neither a lawyer or insurance, or a lawyer for insurance fraud.

I Guess I Can't Tease My Sister Anymore

It is well known that Danielle has the craziest dreams for which we all make fun of her. I still don't think my dream last night was as weird as her's usually are, but it was pretty strange.

It started when Jason asked me to go to his Jujitsu class with him (& no, I wasn't pregnant in the dream - though that would've made things even more interesting, I'm sure). We were at this gym-type building, out on a back patio bordering a cliff to these wild waterfalls. While we were jujitsu-ing, Pat Sajak was hosting a game of Wheel of Fortune right next to us & the wheel was made of some bouncy, rubber material & painted in primary colors. Mr. Sajak was wearing a navy blue suit but didn't have any shoes on & his feet were orangy tan with pearly pink nail polish on his toes.

Here, the details get a bit hazy, but somehow we ended up in this room on the Black Pearl with tables, chairs & a blackboard - like elementary school. Pat Sajak was teaching the class & he was being super nice (he's rumored to be somewhat of a jackass in real life, but since I've never met him I'm in no position to judge). Then Johnny Depp, in the form of Captain Jack Sparrow, barged in & disrupted the class as we were apparently under attack by another pirate ship.

Some more stuff happened after that, but I can't really remember. I would blame this on watching too much TV, but since Elmo, Nemo, & VeggieTales were absent from the dream, I'm guessing that is not the case.

Trapped

When we moved here 4 years ago we adopted 2 cats, Gabe & Lucy. It was wonderful until we had a baby 2 years later. Then suddenly the fur started bothering me, Lucy started annoying me (she's an attention whore so she doesn't leave me alone; she sleeps on my head if we let her in our room at night), & the litter pans became unbearable. Now that we are moving in less than a year & have another baby due in 8 weeks, we are desperately trying to find new homes for them. We really don't want to take them back to a shelter so I've posted ads on craigslist.org, our church's online classifieds page as well as fliers in our housing area. Gabe & Lucy are already really old for cats (14 & 13 years old) & I know most people prefer younger cats so I don't have high hopes in finding them new homes. I keep trying to come to terms with the fact that we won't have any other choice than taking them to a shelter, which makes me cry about once a week.

Then last night Jason decided that we need to keep them; we made a commitment when we adopted them & we must stick to it. The problem is, we can't keep them when we move. We will be moving in with my parents temporarily until we find a home of our own & my mom is deathly allergic to cats. Even when we do have our own house, we still can't really have cats because then my mom would never be able to come over! I like my mom slightly more than I like my cats so, as heartbreaking as it is, the decision is simple for me -- it's off to the shelter with them.

Is it wrong of me to ask God to take care of them for me? I mean, they are old & not in the best of health - Gabe's obese & Lucy vomits chronically. Natural causes would make everything so much easier...