The last time we went out, we saw The Transformers and Saturday we saw Star Trek, which just happened to have a trailer for the new Transformers movie.  However, before we went and saw that fabulous movie, Jesse and I did something we haven’t been able to do in awhile.  We spent 1.5 hours at Barnes & Noble and browsed the aisles.  We weren’t together the whole time; he went and looked for books he was interested in and I did the same, but then we met up in the Cafe area and just sat and read.  It was great.  I haven’t been able to do that in awhile.  I think the last time I spent any length of time in a book store was last August when I went to the Borders in Ann Arbor for the Sherrilyn Kenyon signing.  While we were at BN, I did find some interesting novels and my TBR list was expanded again.

As for Star Trek, I liked it.  I’m not a huge trekkie fan, in fact, I’m not a trekkie fan.  I used to watch Deep Space Nine years ago, but I couldn’t tell you anything about it, who was on it, or what it was about.  In fact, I only remember truly watching it once while I was cleaning up the play room (I was probably 12 at the time, I don’t know).  So while I know that Star Trek is a huge franchise, I really didn’t have any expectations going into the movie except thinking that “It’s another one of those“.  But I have to say, it was a great movie.  There were a few parts I wasn’t crazy for (the obvious one liners that were from the original Star Trek that were thrown in to appease the fanatics), but overall I would go to see any sequel with this cast of characters.

Sunday was pretty good as well.  I didn’t get to sleep in, but that’s okay.  I made breakfast for all three boys and then they fixed my refrigerator.  Sorta.  We’re still not sure why it’s leaking water (we’re going to thaw the whole thing out and hope there was a huge ice blockage), but the doors are now opening into the kitchen instead of into the living room.  I’m loving it.  After that, all three left the house!  I was able to check my email in silence and then I promptly took a nap.  Of course, Ian and Jesse woke me up when they got home, but that was perfectly alright.  They brought me hoem something and Ian was excited to show it off.  Both of them were wearing excited smiles when they showed me the Wii Fit.  I’ve been wanting one (and I’ve already logged an hour on the thing), so this was a great surprised.  I got hugs and kisses from both and then Jesse went to put Ian down for his nap.  I ended up with a 4 hour nap yesterday.  It was awesome. Of course, I was tired the rest of the day, but it was still good.  We played with the Wii Fit, dinner was simple and Ian went to bed really well – so the night was really relaxing.  It was great.

So that was my mother’s day.  It was a good weekend.

It was suppose to be this past weekend, but since everyone here was sick, we postponed it until the 14th. And I was thinking of moving it to earlier in the day (from 3p to 11:30a) since that would work with everyones previous engagements.

I had all the plans set in my head. My sister was going to come up on Friday to help with the prep and we were going to take Ian swimming after Jesse got out of work.  Then my sister reminded me that I had a PC show that night.  In Marshall.  Where mom was going to babysit Ian.

Shit, I forgot about THOSE plans.  Ian and I were going to hit the in-laws during the day on that Friday since they couldn’t make his party.  Mom was going to watch Ian for the show and keep him over night.  I was going to come back home, sleep in my own bed, and prep for the party the next day.  Mom would bring him home in time for the party.

There is no way we could have done the party earlier on Saturday if I was going to be gone pretty much the entire day before.  So the party gets moved back to the original time slot.  Then that doesn’t help the issues of my sister having to drive the 4 hours home after the party and my mother having to be BACK in Marshall by 6pm.  Plus the in-law should wouldn’t be able to make it.  Damnit.

So I started thinking about moving it to this Sunday, and that brought up a bunch of the same issues.  Seriously, why is it this hard to have a party for a 2 year old?  All I wanted to do was celebrate his birthday with family and make up for the lousy birthDAY he actually had (with all of us being sick) and for some reason, fate isn’t letting me do it.

Basically, this is kind of a good thing for Ian.  Instead of having the one party, he’s getting three now.  One with each grandparent.  Something I have been trying to avoid, but what do you do?  We’re going to get together with the in-laws for Easter and he’ll get presents then.  We were already celebrating March birthdays at my moms in a couple of weeks, so we can include his then.  The only odd ball out was my father, but he’s going to come up this weekend, along with my sister (who is going to at a hotel with a pool) and we’ll celebrate by the pool.

This plan actually works out better for us since we won’t have to get up at the butt crack of dawn on the 21st to be in BC by 8am during a weekend where I have A LOT going on and I won’t have to provide all the food for any of the celebrations.  Doing it this way makes it simplier and cheaper, but it wasn’t what I wanted.  I’m annoyed on many levels right now.  I wanted to give Ian a birthday party.  Oh well, I’ll throw in a half-birthday party in August.  He can invite friends over for that one.

sigh…my men are so good to me. 

Needless to say, my glorious plans were not going to happen. Mom’s car isn’t working so we’re meeting halfway on Monday instead and Jesse was planning on working from home since he has a skin doctor appointment. <sigh> It was a great dream while it lasted.

Anyway, so far, it’s been a nice relaxing weekend. I’m hoping to get the office cleaned up and some other chores, as well as figure out what we’re going to do for Ian’s first birthday. I can’t wait until we get a house and we can actually have it at our own place. The apartment is too small, so we’re trying to find someplace that will give Ian a place to play, but still be a good place for lunch. I think we have it narrowed down to a couple of places, but I want to check them out before I make any final decisions.

Overall, nothing much is going on with me at the moment. Between Ian and Jesse, I really don’t have that much time for myself. My time usually comes in the form of reading or tooling around online.

QUICK UPDATE:  Not 5 minutes after publishing this, Jesse asked me to make HIM chocolate milk since I do it so much better than him.  It’s not like there is a specific science to pouring milk into the maker and adding the cocoa powder.  And people wonder why I say I have two kids at home.  

And here’s a couple of family photos that were taken recently:

Basically, Jesse is going to help me completely revamp the look and interaction of my cookbook. It’s going to get a newer and cleaner design (I hope), a place where people can submit variations to recipes as well as comments, rate their favorite recipes, etc. I will tell you this, it’s going to take a long time to do. We just don’t have a lot of time to devote to it right now (three weddings and a 7 month old who is crawling means we’re sorta busy). However, I’m hoping to have it up and running by the first of the new year, but something tells me that is wishful thinking.

If you’re interested in knowing what we’re thinking of doing or would like to make any suggestions, check out our planning page at Jesse’s wiki. Once we stat to seriously work on it, we’ll put up a development page so we can report our progress.

I need to lose weight. It’s not an option any more. I’m tired of being big and clunky. I’m ready to go shopping and be able to put something on and not think “not in this lifetime”. I’ve made some half-assed attempts in the past, but I really need to do it this time. I want to be where I was going into college. That means I have to lose close to 50lbs and that is not going to be easy. I’ve wanted to try Weight Watchers, and if it was cheaper or we had the money, I would be signing up tonight. Unfortunately, that isn’t an option right now, but I’m hoping to try it sometime this fall. For now, I’ll start with the basics. No more pasta. No more pop. No more sweets (except ice cream). It’s going to be hard. Especially the pasta. It’s an easy and easy meal and we always have it in the apartment. That’s going to change. Besides, pasta makes me tired anyway and it takes away any drive I have going that day. I’ve given up pop before and I can do it again. Sweets is going to be a little harder since Jesse has such a sweet tooth (especially at the moment). I’m not giving up ice cream because I’ll need something sweet and I can get that fat-free and it’ll still taste somewhat good. Plus, I love my Popsicles, as does Ian. Exercising is going to be hard. I have a couple of the Billy Blanks Bootcamp DVDs here and I should do them, but I always feel like an idiot doing aerobics by myself. I would walk, but I’m not comfortable doing that around here. At least not by myself with Ian. We have the Clinton River Trail running behind the complex and there is another one going through the nature reserve we’re next to, but neither are in a well-lit area or a well-traveled area. It creeps me out too much. So this decision has been made….I’m going on a diet and I’m sticking with it. It’s going to take a lot of will power that I don’t have, but I’m hoping that everyone will be supportive and help me keep at it.

Most mothers who breastfeed generally go into their infant bites them. I always thought that meant with teeth, but I’m beginning to realize that isn’t true. Ian doesn’t have any teeth yet, but he has some tough gums. It’s a natural reaction considering he’s on solid foods now, but he’s starting to bite more and my supply is going down anyway. I think it’s time to end the nursing. I wasn’t ready to stop just yet, but I’ve talked with the Ped’s office and they said that most mothers go about 6 months. I was hoping to go closer to 8-9 months, but what can I do. Plus, I’m fertile again and neither of us are ready for another kid. I think we would both lose it if I ended up pregnant. We want time to enjoy watching Ian grow without having to worry about another kid. The only way to ensure we don’t get pregnant is for me to go back on the pill and I can’t do that while I’m nursing. This is a tough decision, but Jesse and I have been talking about it and I think we’re ready to wean Ian off of it. I think the biggest problem we’re going to have is his night awakenings. Truthfully, he should be sleeping through the night, but when I can’t get him to calm down at 3am, nursing helps. Also, whenever I’ve tried giving him a bottle during the day, he doesn’t like it. He wants mama instead. He doesn’t fight the bottle at night. He knows he gets that one, but the ones during the days are different. I think Jesse will agree with this, but we’ll go until our anniversary. Then Ian is getting off of the breast milk and will be sticking to the Gerber foods and formula.

I want to go back to work. Not full time or anything big, but just something that’ll get me out of the house for a couple of hours a week. I’m thinking of getting a job at a retail shop during the weekends for the holiday season. I love being home with Ian, but I want to get out (plus the additional money would be nice). The biggest obstacle to this is day care. We can’t afford it, so we’re going to have to get it so Jesse can take care of Ian for eight hours straight. It takes a lot of patience and realizing that what you want to do isn’t a priority when watching Ian; and Jesse hasn’t accepted that yet. He’s been able to watch Ian for short spans of time, but if watching him gets in the way of him doing something he wants, he starts to lose patience. He’s always had me to fall back on and he won’t if I’m at work. We’re going to try an experiment where Jesse gets Ian for eight hours and I’ll be in the office the entire time just in case. Hopefully Jesse will be able to do it, but I have my doubts (especially considering we’ll have to find time to do it and I know Jesse has things he wants to do). He may surprise me, but I know him. He hasn’t had to get Ian to take a nap or try to figure out what is wrong or any of the small things. There have been a couple of times where I was able to rock Ian to sleep, but it wasn’t a quick 2 minute job. It took a good 10 minutes or longer and it required a lot of patience. Either way, this is a decision I can’t make on my own and I’m not expecting it to go the way I want. We’ll see what happens though.

Saturday night we went to Little River Casino and I actually made money. Well, sorta. Jesse and I each took in $10 and that is what we used to gamble with. I ended up leaving with $32. That’s not bad. Jesse didn’t do so hot, but he made up for it Sunday when we went back and I ended up losing all $10 I went in with and he came out with $14. Yeah Jesse!

We didn’t check it out last year, but we did get down to the Port City Street Fair that goes on during this same weekend. There was a bunch of arts and craft tables, some live music, and a bunch of food. At one end of the street, there was a car show going on, but I think we got to it towards the end. Most of the cars were gone when we went to check them out.

We definitely learned from our mistakes last year. We didn’t do community snack foods and I don’t think we spent that much on food. Beth and Jordan brought a lot of food with them, so there really wasn’t much for us to go shopping for. We didn’t go through anywhere near the amount of wood we did last year. Granted, it was warmer this year (by a lot), so there really wasn’t the need for a continuous fire. Don’t get me wrong, we had one, it just wasn’t roaring.

We ended up getting a new tent this year. After last year’s fiasco with the rain and the leaky tent, Jesse and I ended up with a six-person Coleman tent. It was a really nice tent, but there was one thing we were sorely lacking….an air mattress. That’s next year’s purchase. We have a decent tent now, we just need to fix the sleeping arrangements.

I think that’s about it. Jesse and I have already decided that we need to take Ian camping next spring (no he didn’t go with us this weekend, he spent it with grandma). I’m trying to convince Jesse that we should go for the Lilac Festival in Mackinaw Island in June. We’ll see if I can. Oh yeah, the pictures for this weekend are here. So enjoy.