Take it or leave it, quick style.

In an attempt to make up for a week of blog absence while traveling, I will go ahead and bore you with excessive details about our trip and other things:

1) My beautiful sister-in-law got married and it went swimmingly, that is, they are married. It was beautiful. 

Picture stolen from facebook, I took ZERO. She married the one on the right (her left).

2) Mike and I had a bit of a scare on Wednesday evening after our arrival in Steubenville when we realized that my tent of a bridesmaid's dress and Mike's spandex suit had been left in South Bend. (Mike's suit ended up not fitting anyways, lesson learned-- always try on suit in store when picking it up, also don't trust suit salespeople).

Utterly embarrassing photo of me for poof that we acquired our wedding attire. Photo also stolen from facebook

One of the bridesmaids lives here in SB and we were able to get her into our house and into our closet in order that we would be clothed at the ceremony, we were very grateful.

3) The old MOH speech went off without a hitch, or at least I didn't say anything incriminating or too embarrassing.

4) The remainder of our visit looked something like this:

super blurry picture of Naomi in a life jacket about to board the USS paddle boat= cutest thing ever

Lot's of fun in the sun with Nana and Papa at the Hahn cabin on a lake

 5) And this:

LOADS of fun at Grammy and Gramp's house complete with many tractor rides. I even took them for a ride- too bad we did not capture that, huh?

6) Tuesday was intended to be another super fun Hahn family day but Bernadette's stomach had other plans for us. She woke up that morning utterly exhausted and out of it and before I could say "vomit," she went ahead and and did just that. Many, many times. I had just read Grace's post the day before and thought to myself "I am so glad we haven't had to deal with vomiting children in a while"... solidarity be mine.

7) Last but not least and not in the least bit connected to the rest, just for fun. I am trying to decide whether or not to cut Bernadette straggling hairs/rat tail. When they are curly they generally look fine and even cute:

cute

fine?

When they are straight they all too similar to this:

Straight haired Bernadette is nick-named "Vernon." Growing up in Mingo Junction, I knew many a Vernon with a rat tail. No seriously, I knew several.

 To cut or not to cut? That is the question.

Now we are back in South Bend and ready for some nice weather to come back to us. It is June and the heat actually kicked on in our house today. Redic.

Go the Jen and many others for some fab quick takes.
Happy Friday!

Caged Wisdom

Again, our exposure to the outside population has been extremely limited as of late, so I have had a lot of time to sit around and ponder life (I certainly don't feel good enough to actually DO anything, common!).

Here are some things I have been thinking about:

a) I feel pretty sure that my growth as a result of pregnancy is abnormal at the very least. I wanted to take a picture of myself to ask the general public who read this blog if they think it is normal, or rather if anyone else has been this large by 11 weeks. As soon as I put the camera up to take the picture, my shame and certainty that everyone will comment that no, they were never this big until at least 20 weeks, stops me and I cannot go through with even snapping the picture.

b) I've been looking at my wedding picture a lot recently, and it hit me yesterday that not only was my hair do bad at my wedding, it actually closely resembled a Julia Roberts wedding hair style in Steely Mags:

Just add a little poof to the top and we're twins!

c) I have broken out in a terrible rash all over my legs, which I know you really want to hear about, so that's why I am telling you. I am pretty sure that it is due to pregnancy/hormone changes, but as I was laying in bed for over an hour in the middle of the night last night (also due to preg insomnia, but I am not complaining) I was pretty convinced that it was a result of a banana overdose. So the first that I did upon waking to day was to Google "banana overdose", of course! It turns out that unless I am eating over 15 bananas a day, I am not likely to have banana overdose. So I am back to the drawing board there.

d) Bernadette has a cough that sounds like she's been smoking for 30 years, and this morning I started to freak out that it is pertussis, even though she has been vaccinated for it. SO to ease my anxiety I looked online for a sound bite of what the whooping cough sounds like, I found a link called "the sounds of pertussis" so I clicked. I then proceeded to watch a 2 minute video of a mother grieving the loss of her little son to the disease. Anxiety not eased. But now I know what pertussis sounds like.



e) Last but not least, for your enjoyment (and because I know you'll all be so sweet and make me feel better about myself, or maybe you won't, just don't be too mean) and an attempted explanation of the title of this post, it's still confusing though- sorry.

me at 20 11 weeks

.

Weekly story board

 When my kids get colds, they generally leave you thinking that they've probably come down with some nasty plague, or scarlet fever, something most definitely life threatening.

So we have been spending the week in almost total isolation, save for several titillating trips out to the doctor, a nasty government building and the store: and these truly were some of my weekly highlights.

 The week has also included one late night run to CVS for another humidifier...

very little house cleaning...

many visits from my counterpart from his basement office to help me in my numerous moments of desperation...

 one constantly trantuming toddler

 and another

and chex all over the floor.

so awkward

I am still here and happy, or maybe it's just the la croix, or the donuts we got at the store... Grace's recent post on surviving the craziness of 2 under 2 was super helpful too. Either way, things are looking up.  Thank you Thursday.

We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy case of hand foot and mouth disease.

Nothing says "Christmas" like a good virus, especially one that comes with a fever and a full body rash... good times. This is what I get for NOT sending my children to day care or "pre-school" where this little strain runs rampant. Perhaps they picked it up at one of the nasty toll road rest stops where they were walking/crawling everywhere and had their little paws on everything as I attempting use the bathroom while transporting them a few hundred miles via mini van by myself... and maybe, just maybe I forgot to wash their hands (badmom?yes).

Anyways, this Christmas, instead of a visit from a fat old man who watches you all year round and then breaks into your house in the middle of the night, we were visited by hand foot and mouth disease and went ahead and infected (most likely) all 13 of the cousins present and probably the four coming in a  couple of days too. And they thought we didn't get them all presents!

Most of the children are reacting just fine to the little "disease" but not my eldest. She is a veritable basket case almost all day and is sleeping like a non-champ, with wake times ranging in the before-6 a.m. range some mornings. Luckily I have a saintly mother-in-law who takes her at a more reasonable hour (7 a.m) and lets me enjoy a few more hours of slumber, best ever.

But for real, I am done complaining and will now showcase some of the fun filled times. There was much castle fun and movie watching in honor of the birth of our Lord.

castle awesomeness

family awesomeness

you can't see naomi's little "oral lesion" but it is there in all its glory

a couch shot whilst view the Lion King the day after Christmas

This is minus any pics of my side of the family since the girls were at their worst on Christmas day, the day we were supposed to all spend over there- I am sure you'll be graced with plenty more after this coming weekend's madness (more of my siblings, more grandchildren, and more baptisms than you thought possible.)

And God bless us, every one!

Weekend madness:

I think when I was in college Saturdays were a real favorite, but since getting married and bearing children they always seem to be filled with more stress and disappointment than I can handle- it is the same amount of stress that is usually present but I still go into the weekend thinking that there will be some rest or break from the weekly routine and then I get there and it is the same exact stuff. Let's blame it on getting married so quickly out of college or something, although even the working world women generally gets some sort of rest from the weekly grind on her Saturday, either way there is some weird expectation for Saturdays that I am pretty sure will never be met (until one day far far away when Mike gets a normal job and does not have to slave away all Saturday... does that exist?). Am I being too negative? always.
Sundays are spectacular, it is the one day of the week that Mike takes off and I can count on working out AND napping, plus there is lots of sitting, o glorious glorious sitting, while Mike "plays with" or watches football with the girls. I don't care what he is doing as long as I can sit.

So our Saturday looked a little bit like this:

My first attempt at making them happy...

sleep deprived gingerbread house construction

resulting in this

And also resulting in nothing but anger since the whole idea of a house made of ginger bread and candy that you're not supposed to eat is completely backwards and torture for children. Also the only emotion conjured as a rusult of giving Bernadette candy is anger at the fact that at some point the candy is gone. Many tears shed.

So my next attempt at keeping them (and especially myself by this point) sane and happy was a trip to Hobby Lobby to pick up materials to make these little puppies: swatch portraits for our "school room" which is basically our basement play area but it feels so much more important if I call it a school room. If it actually ever lives up to that name without me being sent to an asylum we will call life a huge success.

I will post pictures of the finished hanging  product when we have the basement all decorated- I plan on posting before and after pictures to highlight the awesomeness that is my husband and my dad for finishing what was once a dank hole and making it into what is now the party basement- sit on the edge of your seats for those pictures.

Now I must attend to the screaming child who resfuses to sleep. Can I just say that sick babies are the worst? Nothing is more sad or pathetic or altogether difficult to deal with.

Once she is sleeping I will be making these to eat with our sausage & cheese quiche (cue Homer Simpson deep throat gargle) I am trying to fatten the family up for the winter- fewer layers to wear.

Happy Sunday eating!!!

Ana