Friesencold

Please take a look here.

It has been our family tradition while at the beach each summer to celebrate birthdays. My aunt Suzy’s birthday is in June, mine and my sister’s birthdays are in July, and my dad and grandmother’s birthdays are in August. And now my new baby’s birthday is about to be in August.

As long as my grandparents were coming for the beach trip, we would always sort of emphasize my grandmother’s birthday and add on everyone else for a combined party. Every year we would get this special-order chocolate cake with chocolate icing from a local bakery and we would have a party and open presents and eat cake. It was something fun we did every year.

Well, this year, we didn’t really do a party but my mom and aunt had brought along the birthday gifts to give me since we won’t be together for my birthday in July. We decided not to get a cake since there is no Publix around (and since back in April when we visited Clemson, we all ate enough Publix cake to last us a number of months!). I have a cake on order anyway from a lady at our church who has her own business – it’s the same cake TJ got for me as a surprise for my birthday last year, but this year it’s going to be a combined birthday/baby shower cake since my friends are having a baby shower for me right around the time of my birthday.

As far as this year’s birthday party at the beach, it wasn’t much of a party without a cake and without celebrating other birthdays at the same, but it was nice nonetheless, especially since I was the one receiving the gifts

Bauer helped me open the presents and here is what I received: the new Elizabeth Berg book called The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted from my mom, a knife sharpener from my dad, and a colorful thin quilt to use for picnics or on the beach from both my parents. All three things were things I was really hoping to get this year for my birthday, so of course I liked them all. My aunt and uncle and cousin gave me a giftcard to Target (to use on myself, not on Bauer or the baby), but they also gave us a baby gift of a little matching gown and hat set and some oh-so-tiny blue booties.

Instead of cake, we ate Jello Pudding Pops. These were a favorite dessert of mine and my sister’s when we were little and would visit my grandparents who lived in Charlotte at the time. The box contained (and still contains) 3 variety of pudding pops: chocolate (in a brown wrapper), vanilla (in a blue wrapper), and chocolate-vanilla swirl (in a red wrapper). I couldn’t remember the exact flavors that went with each color, but the taste of the pudding pops is practically identical. They are not in the same shape as they used to be, however. They used to be rectangular-shaped, sort of flattened-out, and on a wooden stick and the wrappers were made of paper. Now the bars are more square-shaped like a Fudgsicle. They are still on wooden sticks, but the wrappers are made of plastic. I wish stuff like that didn’t have to change.

And now here is the point in my blog when I am supposed to have something profound to say about change. But really, I’m just going to go read some more of my book The Other Boleyn Girl because it’s a good story and because the sooner I finish it, the sooner I will get to start reading The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and the sooner that happens, the sooner I may become a woman liberated and changed.

And then maybe I will have something profound to say about change.

Yesterday as we were driving to the beach for vacation with my family, I had one of those rare few moments of feeling like everything was just so right with the world. We had been making great time on the road and Bauer had been asleep for nearly an hour and a half and had just woken up happy. It was dinnertime and we were all feeling hungry and wanting to stop soon. It was raining pretty hard, but that was no damper.

We decided to stop at McDonald’s, mainly because I had been wanting to try their new Southern Style Chicken Sandwich, which we had 3 free coupons for. Bauer had eaten up most of all the meal-type food I’d brought along for him and I was thinking maybe he could get his first Happy Meal. Honestly, I don’t think he even knew what McDonald’s was, up till this point. I knew he would like the fries, but I wasn’t sure on the burger. I got him the basic hamburger Happy Meal with apple juice (which surprisingly has zero added sugar) and it seemed to be a fun experience for him. He loved the little toy he got from the Kung Fu Panda movie and he ate his whole hamburger (his first real hamburger, in fact, if you can call McDonald’s a real hamburger) and some of his fries. He didn’t care much for the apple juice, preferring to drink my ice water instead. We’ve just realized he likes his water cold, and he drinks way more if it has ice. So that is something we’ll be incorporating.

TJ and I both got the Southern Style Chicken Sandwiches, which were surprisingly good. The chicken tasted exactly like Chick-fil-A’s chicken (which we love) but the bread was kind of weird. It was the soft chewy hamburger bun bread they use for their burgers and that definitely differentiated the sandwiches from Chick-fil-A. Who doesn’t like McDonald’s fries? And I just had to get a small Coke to round out my meal. TJ tried Mickey D’s Sweet Tea and gave it a thumbs-up.

I craved McDonald’s back when I was pregnant with Bauer but have probably only eaten there 2 or 3 times in the past 3 years since Bauer was born. So it was high time for another go-at-it. We even decided to get the 2 for $1 apple pies at the end before we left, and I know I haven’t had one of those in probably more than 10 years.

Then we were back in the car for more driving and that’s when we started listening to country music on the radio and about 6 or 7 songs in a row came on and they were almost all really good ones, starting with Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink,” followed by Taylor Swift’s newest one “Shoulda Said No” and then a newer Rascal Flatts song and then Gary Allen’s “Watching Airplanes.” There were at least 2 or 3 more songs but I can’t remember what they were.

Just listening to that music and Bauer being so happy about having a good nap and dinner and me having just eaten whatever I wanted and not feeling bad about it but instead feeling satisfied and like I did something good for my soul, even if not necessarily for my body….all of that, that is what made me have one of those moments where I just felt like this is what it means to be alive.

I forgot to list another movie I have seen since Memorial Day. It was when my sister was in town and was a movie she and her husband had just watched and liked a lot. So we rented it and watched it again with her.

So that makes #7 on my list.
7) Rocket Science

Bauer is very into counting these days. He wants to count everything. He counted the cereal boxes in the cupboard this morning. He counted his pieces of waffle left on his plate, even down to when there was only one, and he held up one finger and counted “1!” He can’t even count to 10 completely, but he likes us to count with him. If left on his own, he counts 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10.

I have been getting some good things to think about from The Cloister Walk. Here are 2 quotes that I really liked in my reading last night.

The first is Kathleen Norris remembering a conversation she had with a Benedictine sister, who was reflecting on Psalm 131 and the image within that psalm of the soul as “a weaned child on its mothers breast.”

Here’s the quote by the nun: “One of my greatest freedoms is to see that all the pretenses and defenses I put up in the first part of my life, I can spend the rest of my life taking down. This psalm tells me that I’m a dependent person, and that it’s not demeaning.”

The next quote is also referring to the psalms: “Though as adults we want answers, we will sometimes settle for poetry.”

I am very happy to report that I will now be getting $75 haircuts for only $45. Remember when I talked about getting that awesome free haircut from Mikayla, the manager/senior stylist at the salon I go to, but when I called to find out her rates, I realized I couldn’t pay the $75 that she charges? So I was just resigning myself to a junior stylist and would continue to hope for the best. But the last haircut I got just wasn’t the best. It looked good the first day or two, but as it has begun to grow out, I have had to work on it so much more each morning to get the style to look good.

My neighbor a few doors down works at the salon and I saw her recently out in her yard and she asked me how I liked my haircut, meaning the one done by the new junior stylist I saw. I said it was definitely better than the other junior stylist, but just not as good as when Mikayla did it. My neighbor suggested I call Mikayla and that she may be willing to work with me on rates. So I got up my courage and had decided in my mind that the most I would want to pay would be $45 so that I could also add on $10 for a tip. This would be $55 and with such a good cut, I could stretch it 8 weeks between appointments. Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

So I called Mikayla the other day and talked to her and she was so nice about the whole thing. I just told her my neighbor said she may be able to work out a lower rate with me, and before I even told her the amount I was hoping for, she suggested $45 as the lowest she could go. I was obviously so happy. And I already have an appointment made for later this week so I can get my hair back how I love it and enjoy a good haircut while we have company in town next weekend, as well as for our beach trip coming up in 2 weeks.

The company coming into town is TJ’s parents. They came last year this same weekend (Father’s Day weekend) and we attended a local Naperville festival called “Naper Days.” We had such a good time with them being here for that, that we asked them if they would like to come visit the same weekend this year. I’ve also made reservations for us to do the downtown Naperville Trolley Tour on Friday during the day. I thought that would be something to help us learn about the history of Naperville, plus I know Bauer will enjoy the trolley ride. We will probably eat at Sweet Tomatoes at some point (we still have some Buy One, Get One Free Lunch coupons that we haven’t had a chance to use, not to mention it is just a great place to eat a lot but still eat healthy) . I also am thinking we will do the Carillon Moser Bell Tower tour, also in downtown Naperville, which we haven’t done yet but I’ve been wanting to do. So we are anticipating a few fun days with Nana and Papa in town.

I’ve kind of been thinking that this summer is going to be our summer of movies before the baby comes. I am not really a movie person, but TJ is. He really enjoys watching movies that we rent. Usually we rent from the RedBox at Jewel down the street, but lately I’ve been wanting to watch some documentaries that I had written down ages ago, and so we had to go to Blockbuster to get those. Thankfully we had some Blockbuster Free Movie coupons from our Discover Card Rewards, but those are now gone. So TJ and I decided to join NetFlix for a while and see how we like it and see if we think it’s worth it. It’s definitely cheaper than trading in our “cash back” from our Discover card for the Blockbuster certificates.

So now we are the proud managers of a queue.

And all but 1 or 2 of the probably 15 movies in our queue are documentaries, and they all sound so interesting. Our first one was “The Business of Being Born,” which was that Ricki Lake project about the differences between hospital births and home births. It was very interesting and eye-opening, although I still think I am going for the hospital birth. The movie did make me consider more strongly the possibility of going all natural, even at the hospital, although I haven’t really decided at this point.

The movies we have watched since Memorial Day weekend are below:
1-The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
2-21
3-Cloverfield
4-My Kid Could Paint That (documentary)
5-Stephanie Daley
6-The Business of Being Born (documentary)

If you know me at all and how I am about movies, you will be amazed that I have watched that many movies in such a short time. Which is also probably why I haven’t been reading as much lately. But I am fine to take a break somewhat from reading for a while to enjoy some movies with TJ while we have the chance before the new baby in the house makes us only want to sleep.

What I am currently reading, albeit slowly, is another of Kathleen Norris’s books, The Cloister Walk, which my friend Miska recommended and is also re-reading at the same time. I am enjoying the book so far, and here are my 2 favorite quotes that I’ve come across in the 50 or so pages I’ve read.

“To eat in a monastery refectory is an exercise in humility; daily, one is reminded to put communal necessity before individual preference. While consumer culture speaks only to preferences, treating even whims as needs to be granted (and the sooner the better), monastics sense that this pandering to delusions of self-importance weakens the true self, and diminishes our ability to distinguish desires from needs. It’s a price they’re not willing to pay.” (p. 14-15)

“‘The basis of community is not that we have all our personal needs met here, or that we find all our best friends in the monastery,’ I once heard a monk say.” (p. 22)

I am also about to start reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, which is our neighborhood book club pick for the month of July. It’s such a long book that I think I better start now, especially since I’m not reading as much as I was earlier in the year. I just hope it’s a good story I can get into during our week at the beach.

I have been thinking that once I’m done with those 2 books I will reserve the month of July for reading up on some baby things that I have probably forgotten (or tried to forget). I want to go back and reread Secrets of the Baby Whisperer by Tracy Hogg and On Becoming Babywise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. I also want to read for the first time a book my friend Brooke recommended called Dr. Denmark Said It! by Madia Bowman. So those 3 should keep me busy till the baby comes. I know I will have to slip in the Elizabeth Berg book that I’m hoping to get for my birthday in there sometime, though. It is called The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation. That’s about the best title I have ever heard.