oh boy

i'm actually a little nervous about writing since it's been so long. this is going to be a wierd one because there will be no flow to it and it may confuse some that do not know me very good. i'm just going to write about the things that i think are puzzling, interesting, or boring. i'm positive you will find this at least one of the above.

first off, i'd like to say what my family is doing right now. ian, sarah, and abby are all "sleeping." and by sleeping, i mean i put them in their beds. it's really fun to be awake during this time b/c every 10 to 15 minutes for about 3 hours, they (not abby) ask if they can "wake up." kinda strange how they don't understand in order to wake up, you must be asleep. in no circumstance does the question "can we wake up?" make sense. meanwhile, dean is at work, in his new uniform of navy blue shirt and khaki pants. very easy to get him ready in the morning. that is, until this morning when i was ironing his shirt and some yucky stuff came out of the iron. it was some sort of calcium buildup for the iron. and as you can imagine, smeared calcium and navy blue don't mix. so, dean can explain the wrinkled new shirt to his boss. i tried my hardest. and what, you ask, am i doing? well, i'm blogging, thinking (which some of you may find comes naturally unless you have three little ones at all times asking for something, of which all three feel that crying is the best way to get my attention. so this is actually a lot of work.), and sitting in a pretty comfy little computer chair. also, i'm curious if you out there would rather get an extra hour of sleep or take a shower and blow dry hair and all that girly stuff. because i hate to admit it but i'd chose the sleep. poor dean. i need to get dressed more often. pajamas just don't raise the self esteem.

okay, on to even more interesting thoughts. i've been listening to us wives make menues for the week, and am often puzzled by the thought process we americans have about meals. i think this is a major reason for our overeating and major weight problems. and believe me, i speak not as a critic from the outside but as a participant from the inside of this mess. on a previous episode of oprah, dr. oz suggested eating the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. very good point. why do americans feel that we need a different nationality of food for every meal? how many times have we said, "didn't we have italian food two nights ago?" "or mexican food last night?" "or japanese (i wished) once already this week?" have you ever seen an italian say, "didn't we have italian last night?" of couse not. they are not as spoiled as we are and they are thinner for it. because we've trained our taste buds to hunger for every kind of food, we feel the need to eat a bunch of it because we didn't have this last night or the night before. imagine how much less we would eat if we had the same thing over and over. we would eat only because we were truely hungry, not because we hadn't tasted a steak in a long time or a pasta dish or a burrito. and think of the money we would save when going shopping. i imagine in mexico, they buy beans, flour, cheese, jalapenos, groud beef sometimes and some vegetables. how cheap. italians, same thing. pasta, tomatoes, (i'm not sure about italian food except for the olive garden so that will be the end of that list.) i'm just saying, we need to concentrate less on food and more on the important things in your life, whatever that is for each person (unless it's food.) finished ranting about food.

what else. i think that babies grow up way too fast. how come the best part of life, the 0-3 months, is the shortest time of life? except of course the 0-2 months. that's a little shorter. but you know what i mean. ian and sarah are so old, and abby already started rolling over. well, once. but i count it. ian will be going to school in about 8 months (dry the eyes) and i'm not looking forward to it. i hope he makes friends with the nice kids. i can't think about it anymore. i can only imagine how frustrated the teachers are going to be with his level of energy. he's obedient, but he's got tons of energy. oh well. he's athletic so maybe they'll pass him just so he can be on the peewee basketball team and lead them to their first championship. i'm kidding.

let's very quickly compare the pros and cons of new vs. old houses. new pro- great insulation, no spiders from the eighteenth century, windows that open, door that close, lock, and don't squeak, microwaves that are faster than microwaves, carpet that isn't stained (yet), garage for easy access to the car during bad weather (big help with kids. they sit in there forever waiting for dean and i to get ready. how sad that they are that eager to get out of the house.), clean walls that you can hang pictures on instead of breaking nails trying to hammer them into metal, new house smell, and rooms that are square instead of very awkward rectangles or even shapes i've never heard of. new house cons- no friedmans next door, very shallow sink in kitchen, not being able to figure out how to raise the temp in the house above 68. brrrr. old house pros- friedmans next door, didn't matter if the kids kicked down a wall. old house cons- don't get me started with the insects.

well, this has been a rediculously long blog. if you've hung in there, you are a true friend. don't feel bad for those who didn't hang in there. they won't know what bad friends they are because they didn't read that part. i'm fixing to go sleep so when my kids ask if they can wake up, i won't answer them. it's still considered sleeping if your eyes are open and the tv is on right? that's a good excuse not to respond to your kids. "leave me alone. i'm sleeping just like you are." until they sleep again.

the mckinney ledbetters