Just a reminder

I am sure most of you read or have heard of Grace Patton's blog (if you haven't, now you have and your life just got a little bit brighter).

Grace was lovely enough to ask Mike to join her in a little series on NFP last week (an earlier contribution from Jenny @ Mama Needs Coffee can also be found here), and I figured just in case any of you fine readers missed it, you could go CHECK IT OUT as well as scope her fantastic, hilarious blog.

And this is my sorry excuse for a post today, but I'll leave you with a NON grainy picture of the man himself-- who, by the way, taught me all the ways of Picasa last night and now you will no longer have to suffer through horrid photobooth pictures. Yay!

"I honestly don't understand why you always post pictures where I look either irritated or constipated. You really need to stop."

Happy 4th...

To the hottest husband in town.

 Fabulous father of 3 littles (and one in heaven)

And probably the only reason I am sane

You're the best.

For how it all came to be read:

part 1

part 2

part 3

Diagnosis: Marriage (part 1 of 3)

Alright, I am giving in. I have opened many a blogger wife/husband love story post since blogging and while I read through the thing totally enraptured, I have always gone away with the sure thought that I will never do an "Our Love Story" post. Why? I don't know, maybe because the thought of giving other people that many gratuitous deats about my past starts to put me to sleep, and it's my life.

But then I realized that I READ THE POSTS AND ENJOY THEM. There is something fun about seeing how God puts all the pieces in place for 2 people to end up together, and even more fun when you are all too inserted into that person's life via the interwebs courtesy of mom-blogging.

Plus, it's our 4th anniversary this week.
Plus, I haven't blogged in forever and need something to jump start my re-entry into the blerging world.

Enough reasons, here we go. Read on to enjoy part one of three of the saga, the drama, the epic tale that is Mike and Ana...

taken in our earlier (chubbier) dating days

We'll start where I always start when telling the story: high school. I could start back in grade school since that is where we first met, but I do not recall the meeting, only Mike does. So we'll go ahead and start in high school.

I was a fledgling freshman and Mike was a dark, handsome, Senior soccer player who never even looked at me in the hall way. This was a good thing since I think if he had really known me then he would have gone running for the hills of West Virginia never to return to the crazy that was me in the early high school days. A combination of insecurity, awkwardness, and toooooo much drinking made for a very spastic troubled young lady. Which makes sense out of why I made sure to point out to alllllll my friends just how "HOT" I thought that dark, handsome soccer player was every. time. I. saw. him. Nothing came of things then and before I knew it he graduated and was off to college leaving me to figure my shiznit out until it was my turn go off to the same college- a leeeedle bit more mature-3 years later.

Cue freshman year of college. Like I said, I had grown up a little, I had at least stopped the drinking and had chosen to attend a good Catholic college, so things were surely looking up for me. Mike was a senior when I came in as a freshman and had gotten even more handsome. Also he had taken to showcasing his amazing guitar/vocal skills at many campus events and local bars which left me all but drooling over him whenever I saw him. At one such event he actually stopped and talked to me at length about many things which I couldn't remember even 5 minutes later because I was too busy staring at his cute face and trying to keep the conversation going as long as possible so that he would never ever leave. I was unsuccessful in that endeavor, but it was a long enough conversation to send me running to my closest friend telling her "how cuuuuutte he was and that he TALKED to me!!!" Long enough to spur on an immediate crush.

And I will leave you hanging there so that I can go run this by him to make sure I am not missing anything or making anything up and then change into a maternity shirt that fits over my ever expanding belly and then run to the store fully clothed.

Dear Mike,

Do you think when we're 80 you will still be saved in my phone as this:

?

Maybe, probably, I hope so. After 4 years of marriage and a couple of dating and engagement it hasn't changed. I say that time will not change the reality of the the situation.

Love you

p.s. check out Cari's Snaphots, it is the bomb diggity.

Worst wife

I woke up yesterday morning the same fog that I wake up in every morning, feeling something akin to the old high school "drank too much all the time" days, because sometimes being pregnant and losing large amounts of sleep due to toddlers feels like being drunk.

So naturally I was in the same self-centered attitude I usually am thinking about how much of a modern day martyr I am for all the sacrifices I make, yada yada yada. I groggily opened my computer to check the usuals: reader, email, blogger, facebook, and since it was a Sunday at 6:45 a.m., there really wasn't much happenin. I opened my facebook and checked my notifications to find that somebody had "liked" my status update. Ok, that is fine, except that I never update my status and definitely hadn't that day or the day before or any time recently.

And in fact, I hadn't, but here is what I found:

Mike kind of shares of facebook account with me insofar as he no longer has his own and occasionally gets on mine to check out what is happening, and apparently to sneakily update my statuses without my knowing...

But actually he was right, I had completely forgotten about father's day. You would think that all the father-centered blog posts and pictures on facebook that people were posting the entire day prior would have given something away, but my pregnant fog does not allow those things to penetrate too far into my brain. Anyhow, his cute indirect reminder was luckily early enough that I had enough time to get some cards together and whip up some batter or Mike's favorite, "German pancakes," aka crepes.

But I made sure to keep him down to earth during the day with my constant complaining about my exhaustion and preggo discomfort. I wouldn't want him to forget what makes him such a good husband and father.

So just in case you thought you were the worst wife, know I've got you beat.

More Holland, then I will shut up.

 WARNING: This post contains gratuitous pictures of myself and better half, mostly awkwardly taken by a stranger, this is what happens when children are not involved. 

So as I mentioned before and before, Mike and I embarked on an almost unprecedented kidless mini-adventure this past weekend to a cute town in Michigan called Holland. And it. was. GLORIOUS. (It was almost unprecedented because we tried to have a kidless night away over Christmas break that took place only 5 minutes from where our kids were staying and ended with us picking them up the next morning and bringing them to the hotel for a "fun swim" which resulted in an almost-concussed 3-yr-old. This was the do-over).

My parents came into town to be with the girls and were pretty much pushing us out the door to get on our way "As early as possible" Saturday morning- can we say BEST parents ever? Yes we can. They probably reassured me 50 plus times that they had it taken care of and that they would be fine with the girls, that they had done it 8 times, etc, etc... And I still made like 20 phone calls in the 24 hour period to check on one said cling-monster. Paranoid mom strikes again. I am glad my parents just laughed me off and didn't make fun of me. Too much. I had Mike to do that.

pretty much the only not super awkward picture taken, thank you Mr. Garbage can at a decent height.

 So here is what our schedule entailed on Saturday from our arrival on:

11 a.m.: check in, lay around, do nothing
12 p.m.: Get ready without kids, take as long as we want
1 p.m.: eat lunch without kids, feed no one, have an uninterupted conversation, stare at people uninterrupted
2 p.m.: Get ice cream and share with no one
3p.m.: Walk around holding no hands, except each others
3:30: Take a lengthy nap, ended by the fact that I woke up on my own, with no screams, cries, kids in my face
4: Get ONLY MYSELF ready for Mass
5: Go to Mass together, hold hands during Mass, listen to words of Mass...
6: Stroll along beach watching other peoples' kids melting down and almost being eaten by sharks (it's lake MI, there are no sharks)
7: Eat another meal with no one to feed but myself
8: Still eating, didn't have to rush out as a result of tantruming toddlers
9: Watch a movie without child running out to ask for her 6th, 7th and 8th glass of water
Go to bed
Sleep until whenever the next day
Go back home and get kicked in the groin with reality.


I LOVE being a mom, and to be honest I thought about the girls almost every moment, and even missed them!  We kept talking about how fun this little town would be for them, but this time I am glad it was just us. I needed to miss them. Absence make the heart.. do something, you know.

 A little taste of the Dutch flair that Holland is known for.

I think you've had enough.

Mike does Holland

So did Ana but you wouldn't know it from these pictures.

exhibit A

Mike and I were away in Holland, MI for a little 24 hour second honeymoon this weekend. For an unknown reason, Mike decided that in every picture, instead of looking like his normal non-awkward self:

exhibits b, c, d, e, f and g: very intentional extremely awkward smile

He would instead look like this:

For almost every single picture.

I am not sure that Mike would approve of me making every picture extra large, but you can't really get the full effect otherwise.

Stay tuned for more Holland fun later and be sure to enter the nursing cover giveaway, it will be open until Wednesday. Peace out.

How long can a dead bee keep a family happy?

A few days ago Mike was outside playing with the girls and I was wasting time being productive inside reading blogs cleaning, of course. I went out to find Mike with Naomi and Bernadette hunched over a little red shovel while he talked in a high pitched voice. They were more intensely entertained than I have ever seen them (except during certain Disney movies, but that says a lot).

I asked what was going on and Naomi explained that they were looking at Quincy the bee, then Quincy spoke, or Mike spoke for Quincy, and Naomi talked back to him like they were long time friends. Naomi requested several times that we get a jar to keep him in, I figured as far as pets go, a dead bee would be the most low maintenance, but Mike wasn't as in to his idea.

But the girls loved Quincy. Every time we went outside they would go over to the little red shovel where he sat and Bernadette would make very intense curious faces at him and Naomi would chat for a long time with him. It was even better when Mike was there, just see for yourself:
Then yesterday, the inevitable happened, we had to send Quincy home (it was only a matter of time before one of the girls ate him). Mike threw him somewhere and said he was "flying away back to his family". No sooner had the girls and Mike sent Quincy home, when Naomi came into the house, sat down in the at her xylophone in the playroom, and sang a song for him:

"Quincy we love you, Quincy we miss you, Quincy come back to us!" 

Soon after the tribute was sung, Quincy called on Naomi's fake cell phone to give an update of how things were going, which softened the blow of his departure immensly.

So the answer to the title question is: at least 2 1/2 days. 

Mike Check: Baby Gender

I know I said that posting Mike's sayings would not be a recurring thing, and it probably shouldn't since I think it might be getting to his head- every time he says something even mildly amusing he points at me and yells "Mike check!".

However I thought I would make an exception just this once (and maybe again if he says something funny enough) to announce the gender of our third child.

While at dinner last week with my sister-in-law and her fiance, Mike announced the gender of the new baby to Hannah's fiance who she had not yet told, he said:

"Well it's either a girl, or a boy with labia"

We'll hope for girl.

Agatha Lucy Hahn, "Baby Lucy", due 10/25/2012

Sweaty sweet summer

 Enjoying a nice 90 degree day here in the Bend,

 filled with several 20 minute outdoor spurts for the girls,

 (I am a little hyper paranoid about sun burn)

 And putting Mike to work on our dinner.

He worked hard on perfecting his grilled chicken today putting together a crazy brine to soak it in prior to grilling

I have to say that this was honestly the BEST chicken I have ever tasted in my entire life. Mike was pretty proud -rightly so- and showed it by asking me a few questions while eating, like: "Did you know that chicken could be juicy?" and "Is it possible that chicken can be too juicy?".

It may be the case I am notoriously the very worst cooker of chicken on the earth, it usually ends up being something like the consistency of a dog bone and all parties are chewing on it just about as long as a dog would a bone. This, on the other hand, had more flavor than I ever thought it was possible for chicken to have, and I am advertising for no one, except my culinary genius of a husband.

Maybe one day I will share is secret, but I must consult the master first.
Happy Sunday!

7 quick takes: excitements and dreads

 I realize that this is all to similar to my "love/hates" edition of last week's quick takes, but I also realize that is doesn't matter, and that if there isn't some sort of logic to my quick takes I cannot participate in them as it makes me nervous and twitchy. So with this in mind, here are some things I am excited about in the coming weeks and some that I am dreading (in no particular order):

1) Super excited that I get to use my groupon that I bought for a pretty cheap hair cut and style this afternoon by MYSELF...
2) Dreading having it cut and styled by a man whose name I cannot pronounce and who was pretty awkward on the phone with me while I made the appointment, and I do not use awkward lightly here folks, he was super weird. And it was only a phone conversation. And the groupon is for a 45 minute cut, meaning there is no way I can get out of the awkwardness any faster than 45 minutes and it will probably go longer since he seemed like a BIT of a talker. Alright, I am done with this one.



3) Very excited for the upcoming nuptials of my sister-in-law to a fabulous guy next weekend. We leave Wed to begin the festivities and will return the next Wed after. Within this one I will say how stinkin excited I am that Hannah (said sister-in-law) will be living HERE in the Bend for their first year of marriage, always a fan of family in town and so excited to get to be around them during their newlywedship.

Hannah and Mike, because I could not easily find one of the 2 of us.

 4) Dreading 2 things about the upcoming event. 1) My matron-of-honor speech. Oh, did I not mention I am the MOH? Because I am. And there are something like 400 peeps coming to this thing. And I have nothing planned yet (don't freak Hannah, I am gonna nail it).

yeah, gonna nail it

5) and 2) (second part of 4, but I am not going to waste using up another quick take) Dreading that I realized this morning that I failed to mention to the seamstress at my dress fitting that I need some straps added to my dress. One week away from needing straps added and no one else but me knows that this needs to be done. No good. Again, don't freak out Hannah, I got it. I have about 7 plans in my head of how I will get some straps added to this dress. Seriously, I could have done a quick takes just about that, but I think that would have been lame.




6) EXCITED times 25 about the fact that Mike and I booked a hotel in this town in June (I will not tell you which weekend for fear that you will come and crash our party). My parents are coming to watch the girls for us so we can have a night away. By ourselves. I get a little short of breath with excitement just thinking about it.
7) As of late Bernadette has been just about the clingiest baby ever to toddle the earth. When I go from one room to another she weeps like I am being taken away for a life sentence never to see her face again. Therefore, I am dreading (just a little) leaving her for the night. I just don't want her to think that I have abandoned her and then have issues the rest of her life leading to undue angst and bitter feelings toward me for the rest of her life. That's all.



And so there you go, lot's so look forward to, a little to be scared of... man I had like 5 more I could have added, maybe I will do a sequel soon. But for now, go visit Jen and read some undoubtedly better quick takes here.

Children at play

Mike finished his last paper of his last year of course work for the rest of his life last night, or this morning, at around 3:30. YEEEHAW. This happened after a bed time of 4:30 the previous night working on the same said paper. His wifey (me), on the other hand, has been sporting wake times all too close to my husband's bed times due to a certain scary 3-year-old who, now that she can open her door, runs into my room at the ripe hour of 5:30 a.m. ready to start her day. Every. Single. Morning. Almost.

I am supposed to be napping right now while Mike gallivants all over town with both girls, but I couldn't sleep and my mother always said "when you can't sleep, blog". Lies, she probably still doesn't know quite what a blog is.

So as a result of the insanely early mornings, our morning play time often consist of something like this:

In case you can can't tell from at least a couple of these pictures, Bernadette is not actually tired since she sleeps until a reasonable hour of 7:30-ish as opposed to her wannabe nocturnal sister who is really completely exhausted:

I could write many tales of this difficult sleeper, but I will instead give you a little sneak peek at our babe in utero who was engaging in her/his own play time during an afternoon ultrasound (I don't know how much one can "play" inside a uterus)

The ultrasound tech put "yoga baby" on the top picture since the baby's foot is on top of the head (I love this tech, she is awesome)- so the baby was actually playing, sort of.

Also, we may or may not (MAY) have found out the gender of this baby today, but since this was only a 16 week ultrasound, I will hold off until the next one confirms what we pretty much know and then I will bust it out into the blogosphere.

I know you are all dying, literally dying to know, but I think you'll make it.

Simon Says "Mike Check"?

As I'm sure all of you are already aware (at least you should be), the fabulous and indefatigable Grace, of the oft-linked Camp Patton, has a recurring feature in which she relates hilarious things her husband says (or texts). I'm not gonna lie: it's the bees knees, and I've always wanted to do something similar.

There are several problems with this idea though. First, I don't want to look like a copycat. Second, even if I could pull it off, I could never come up with a good name for the feature ("Simon Says"? brilliant. "Mike says"? laaaaaame). Oh yeah, and third, my husband doesn't say funny things. Don't get me wrong, he's amazing and wonderful in pretty much every other way, but he never seems to say things that are blog-post-worthy hilarious.

Ok, so maybe he does and it's just that I don't want to look like a copycat.

In any case, seeing as how my pregnant brain can't hold a thought, and how I hence can't seem to think of anything to blog about, I've decided after much prayerful discernment to post the following, as a humble, non-recurring homage...

Noticing me in my sweatpants in the early pm, with my computer in my lap and a pop-tart in my hand, Mike said, "I see you've got your snacking trousers on and that you've already gotten down to business."

After hearing me explain my concern over how Bernadette has been especially clingy and sad, he said, "I may have told her that we were returning her to K-Mart after the new baby arrives."

After (thankfully) spending the evening with me instead of working, he looked down at his watch and said, "Well, my paper should be done by now, I should pop down and see how it turned out."

During Bernadette's 17th tantrum of the day, Mike picked her up and said, "You're turning into a real disappointment."

Responding to Naomi's demand to know where mommy was (for probably the 47th time), he said, "Toledo, and she might not come back." (I was in the kitchen.)

While dealing with something akin to Pearl Harbor the other day (really just the girls melting down), I yelled downstairs to Mike for some help. When he got upstairs, he said with a smile, "I have a servant's heart and a fresh spanking hand."

In discussing a possible upcoming giveaway on the blog, I said to Mike that "everyone wants a free nursing cover!" Mike said, "Not me. Well, actually..."

Dumb and Unholy

Last night while chatting before my 10 p.m. bedtime, Mike melodramatically sighed and buried his head in his pillow, and when I asked "what's wrong?" he replied gravely (but jokingly),  "You wouldn't understand, you don't even have a Masters degree." Great.

Then, this afternoon, while we were taking Mike to campus, he was pushing for putting on our newly gifted audio recording of the New Testament, but I wanted to listen to a new pop music cd, which I had brought for the occasion. I acceded to his (holier) wishes, albeit while making fun of the voice of Jesus (just a little bit). As we neared the campus I went ahead and put on some Matt Kearney, because he makes me feel good (and that's what is ALL about really, right?). So I put it on and Bernadette and I were quite content.

Not 2 minutes into the song, my other holier-than-me family member (the 3-year-old) asked repeatedly, "Can we please put on the Rosary???"

"Um, ok."

I'm just happy that even though the mother of these children is so *obviously* pagan, their baptismal graces are trumping that.

I may be unholy but I'm not entirely unhealthy:

yup, you're seeing that right, it's a carrot. stop the presses.

What can I say, I am a work in progress.

(*a note: I love the Bible and the Rosary)

TMI

My biggest fan and stud of a husband (in blogging and in life) after reading my post yesterday awarded me with this:

during one of his "study breaks" upstairs to say hi to me and tickle the girls, or was it the other way around? yikes, so weird. Anywho, it certainly made me smile and has continued to do so all day, I think I will never take it off of the fridge regardless of people's weird looks. Who am I kidding, what people??!?

Right and so today we are heading back to the Ville (our home town, short for Steubenville, OH) for the wedding of one of Mike's long time friends and some fun with the fams of course. All this means is that I have a crap load to do and instead I am blerging about about certificates and the delayed fun with Easter stickers the girls had this morning (well the fun wasn't delayed, but giving them the stickers was):

they. both. smiled. at the same time. this is monumental.

And to show that I am not a total slacker, here are some things that I have accomplished today:

1. ate a hot dog
2. cleaned the bath room. whhhaaaatttttt!!!!!
3. ate cereal, like 3 times
4. packed a leeedle
5. gathered snacks for me us to eat in the car
6. read all unread items on my google reader (this fill me with a great sense of accomplishment and sadness at the same time...)
7. took out the trash
8. checked FB like 12-22 times
9. took Mike to campus
10. thought about cleaning the other bathroom

And now that you have enough unwanted info about me to get you through the weekend, I will be back Monday with some fun weekend updates and more much not needed information.
Keep it real.

Snapshots and photos

First and foremost, go over to Cari's blog pronto and check out her 5th volume of Sunday Snapshots. They are SO much fun and her blog is primo, top notch, super awesome- go there now.

 And now for some weekend photo recaps from the old b-day.

This first one necessitated me blurring myself out due to very tired/nauseous/swollen face: it was pretty early in the a.m. Also the blurriness really gives you a concrete idea of the haze I am currently always in. But the girls are super cute in it and they were certainly more excited to open my presents than me. 

Good times

Dance party after an evening family viewing of Babe

I pretty much love Bernadette's dance move here, she was really breaking it down

Mike wins the award for best husband on a birthday, he planned a fab day for me complete with sleeping in, birthday donuts, lots of presents including some seriously fantastic maternity shorts for the summer and this book:

We rapped it all up with dinner out + fro yo and a family movie. Yes, he wins.
Have a blessed Holy Week.