2011 in review

Chances are I’m either typing this with a baby on my lap, or in the few and far between minutes baby is asleep (or on someone else’s lap, which is a lot more common), so who knows if it’ll actually get finished by New Year’s… but I’ll try!

Wow… I kind of can’t believe it’s over (well, almost… technically I have three more days, but I’m really doubting anything significant is going to happen.) The time didn’t exactly go fast (except for the past two weeks which have flown by!) but it seemed more, I don’t know, cohesive than other years – everything flowed together. Or maybe I’m just crazy and sleep-deprived. On to the review.

My beautiful little family <3

Highlights:

• The obvious one: meeting (and getting to know) our beautiful and amazing son, Damien Isaac. In fact, I’d even say being pregnant for most of the year was a highlight… weird, I know, but I like being pregnant. (The gestational diabetes, however, I could do without.)
• Dan getting a job, and in graphic design too! (Technically his degree is in product design, not graphic, but we were just happy he got a job in the art field and didn’t have to stock shelves at Walmart or something.) (Which may be what I’m doing in a month so I shouldn’t knock it, lol – see below.)
• Being able to work at the high school I used to attend – unfortunately my job ended in December due to budget cuts so I’m now on the lookout for a new job (well, I will be when I’ve recovered a bit more from Having A Baby), but it was fun while it lasted.
• My sister moving back to town – I know this isn’t necessarily a highlight for her (it’s not exactly a happening place, lol) but I love having her closer :)
• I would be remiss if I did not mention that 2011 was the year I FINALLY (oh holy crap after 10+ years of trying FINALLY) beat Minesweeper on Expert. Sure, it’ll never happen again, but once is enough.

Lowlights:

• We experienced a lot of loss this year. In January I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks pregnant, which was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever experienced. I’m actually experiencing a lot of the same emotions now after Damien was born, because now I know how a pregnancy can equal a real baby, and it makes the loss even more real. On the other hand, it’s hard to reconcile the idea that if that baby was born I’d never have Damien… but I think I can love them both and wish there was a world where they could both exist.
• We also lost my maternal grandfather (died the day before Damien’s baby shower) and Dan’s aunt (died on Christmas eve), and in both of those situations the awful timing contributed to the pain of loss I’m sure. I feel bad that neither of those very special people got to meet Damien, and it’s hard to imagine that they’re not around anymore. Obviously we’re still dealing with this and will be for awhile.
• General angst and anxiety from still living at home/not being able to provide for my kid/not being a real family/etc etc… my goal for 2012 is to improve on this!

Fun things:

• Overnight trip to Mt. Shasta for Valentine’s Day with Dan (and Ripley, hehe – we stayed in a KOA so she could stay with us)
• Went to several Giants games in San Francisco
• Trip to Arcata for Dan’s and my 3rd anniversary/our ‘babymoon’ (I was 20 weeks pregnant)
• The first time we heard Damien’s heartbeat (at 11 weeks)
• Seeing Damien for the first time at 13 weeks, and finding out he’s a boy at 19/20 weeks
• Baby shower! (It was co-ed and fall themed and 10x better than any shower I’ve ever been to – thanks family!)
• Is it crazy to put giving birth as a fun thing? But, in a way (a stressful and painful way), it kind of was.
• Thanksgiving wasn’t anything to write home about, but Christmas was fun

Songs that remind me of 2011:

• Three Days Grace, “World So Cold“
• Seether, “Country Song“
• Evanescence, “What You Want“
• Korn (feat. Skrillex), “Get Up“
• Bush, “The Sound of Winter“
• SheDaisy, “Baby Mine” (lol @ the link, it’s the only version they have on YouTube! And it doesn’t play the whole song either… but you get the idea)

Favorite new things watched:

• The X-Files… every season, plus the movies (I am more fangirl about this show than I have been anything since perhaps high school, lol – just a decade or so late!)
• Dexter season 4 (and I just bought season 5 for $15 at Target, so now I just need to make Dan watch it with me!)
• Waking the Dead (a BBC-produced cold case show with great characters)
• Buffy seasons 1-4 (I get really obsessed with watching, get burned out, and get back to it a few months later
• Witchblade (the anime version – LOVED this show, and since I watched it while pregnant the end made me cry)
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl Who Played with Fire/The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (I LOVE Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth and am a little hesitant about the American versions, but will give them a try. I really like Daniel Craig so that should help.)

Books read: See this list, which isn’t complete (especially for November/December), but it’s the closest I’ve ever came to keeping track to what I read in a year. Next year, I’m afraid, the list will be significantly shorter – I always vowed I wouldn’t be THAT MOM who never read, but holy crap, it’s hard to read with a newborn who constantly needs your attention, and when he doesn’t, you’re so sleep-deprived you can’t focus on anything (or there’s something else you need to do.) That said, my MIL gave me a Nook for Christmas, and I’ve found I can sneak a few minutes of reading in during night feedings (when I’m not playing Sudoku or checking my email…) Though paper books will always be my first love, e-books may be my saving grace as a reader and a mom.

Goals for next year:

• Be the best mom possible to Damien :) (and the best wife possible to Dan, too!) (and pet-parent to my furkids) (you get the idea)
• Become more self-sufficient – even in a crappy economy, you can only live with your parents for so long…
• Find a job of some sort, to help with the whole self-sufficiency thing
• Take a few classes, so I can 1) finish my degree (FINALLY) and 2) not have to pay back my student loans!)
• Experience as many new, fun things as possible!

 

some good things

As I posted about earlier, it’s been a pretty shittacular week – but, I’m trying not to focus on that and to feel better. In that vein, here are some good things that happened today:

• Took a nap with my cuddlepuppy <3 (…the first nap I’ve been able to take in a verrry long time, due to an extremely full house and general business, stress, and all that fun stuff) (and yes, Ripley actually cuddled with me! Like a stuffed animal! I think that’s maybe the third time she’s actually stayed in my arms for any length of time, rather than fleeing to the foot of the bed as soon as I let her go)
• My family brought home a Christmas tree (they cut it up in the mountains while I was napping, heh), and it’s now decorated and surrounded by gifts (that I’ve been storing on the changing table for weeks, lol – they’re much more appropriately placed under the tree)
• Went to Target with my sisters, and almost peed my pants laughing on several occasions (I hold the lack of pants-wetting as a point of personal pride, being as I am nearly 40 weeks pregnant)
• Ate the most delicious sugar-free brownies ever (thanks Kassi! They really are amazing, and totally as good as the real thing!)

an unhappy camper

This is going to be a little Ranty McBitchfest, just to warn you, so go ahead and leave if you’re not into that.

I’ve been reaallllly struggling the last couple of days. I think pregnancy hormones have dramatically reduced my patience (at least I’d like to blame in on that!), so when something comes up that would frustrate me anyway, I am REALLY FREAKING FRUSTRATED. In addition, I decided to be an overachiever and get postpartum depression done early, so in addition to being frustrated I feel like I got run over by a semi, both mentally and physically (although to be fair, the physical pain is probably less depression and more being nearly 10 months pregnant.)

I won’t go into detail over All the Crappy Things That Are Happening, because that won’t help, but their effects are undeniable. For example, I’ve gone from being a model gestational diabetes patient to losing my glucometer and not even checking my blood sugar for days… and not caring. (Well, caring as much as I can when I’m depressed, and if you’ve ever been depressed you’ll understand that.) Also, at my last doctor’s appointment my nurse practitioner theorized I’d probably go into labor within the next two days, because I had all the signs of labor (minus painful contractions/water breaking) and I was dilated, effaced, etc. Well, that was five days ago and I’m still very pregnant. I think all the stress made my body decide that now wasn’t a good time to have a baby, so I just wasn’t going to do it. (And honestly, I was okay with that, because no one wants to have a baby when they feel like crap and can’t even get excited for it.) (And also when a bunch of people are stressing you out in various creative ways, but that’s another story altogether.)

Today I have a (brief) respite from the situational stress, so I’m hoping I can convince my body to feel better, because this isn’t fun anymore. Christmas is in fifteen days, and my due date is in five, and it would be so much better for everyone if I wasn’t in a homicidal rampage/depression-induced lethargy for either.

ants (and other randomness)

THERE ARE ANTS EVERYWHERE. I feel like I am on some bug-fearing drug trip, but there are no drugs, only ants, and that tickle I feel on my skin may very well be a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE ANT.

Ants often come into our house when it’s raining, but we normally find them in the bathroom or occasionally the back bedrooms, which are closer to the yard. Today, though, I discovered two huge ant infestations in the kitchen (which is obviously way more disgusting due to the food), with nary a raindrop (or even left-out food) as explanation. I killed all the ants I could find, then did it again a few hours later, then did it AGAIN, and finally gave in and put out ant traps. I hate ant traps because the problem gets worse before it gets better, even if it’s a more permanent solution than, say, attacking them with 409 (which at the very least is satisfying.)

I was dealing okay when the ants were just in the sink/counter area, but then I noticed they were getting into the pantry cupboard too, and that’s when I really started to lose my ish. (That’s my veggie curse word. I’m practicing for baby!) I had to get rid of several food items (well, they’re in a bag outside the front door because it’s 1am and I don’t feel like walking ALL THE WAY to the outside trash can) and cleaned off a bunch more, but I’m kind of afraid to look back in that cupboard after the ant trap is out. Ewwwww ants…

I think part of this insanity may be due to lack of sleep – I’ve lost the ability to sleep more than two hours in a row, and usually it’s more like one hour. I’m used to waking up to pee, and as annoying as that is at least I can go back to sleep afterwards (although I must admit to more than one night wishing I had a catheter, which is pretty screwed up.) The big issue now is that I am sooo freaking sore. My hips and back, they are broken. Not BROKEN broken, but really loose and ready to let a baby out, and while I’m thankful for that I really miss the ability to sleep. I’ve officially built myself a Pillow Nest, without which I would not sleep at all, ever, so at least there’s that. Still, that explains why I fell asleep at 9pm totally exhausted and woke up at 11pm to do more battle with the ANTS OF DOOM.

Were it not for the sleep thing, being nine months pregnant wouldn’t be that bad. Sure, I move about as slow as a comatose turtle, can’t fit through small spaces, own absolutely nothing that covers my belly (even maternity clothes!), and have to talk to strangers constantly (and then hear about their best friend’s sister’s cousin’s traumatic birth story)… but it’s not the horror show that the rest of the world seems to think it is.

Right now I’m 38 weeks two days pregnant, with really no indication I’m going into labor any time soon – I think the baby wants to be born in March. Because of my gestational diabetes I’m pretty sure I’ll be induced on my due date, which is Dec. 15, which is in 12 days, so the March thing clearly isn’t happening. But honestly, I don’t feel THAT different than I have all third trimester, and would happily be pregnant for awhile longer were it not for a few nagging details (not sleeping, for example. And the inability to eat anything delicious – aka carb-y or sugar-y – is REALLY getting old. Methinks one of baby’s first trips out of the house is going to be to Cold Stone!)

how i accidentally got a mom hair cut

Usually, this is me:

I have to admit there’s a the laziness factor too; it’s much easier to NOT get a haircut than to go out of my way to get one. And I’m a girl, so if my hair gets too long no one really cares, and then I wear it in a ponytail for three months. (See here, where I actually waited a year to get my hair cut. This year I did it again, only it was nine months this time, so not QUITE as bad. But still bad.)

I have another issue with haircuts – I have a really hard time getting a good one. Either I suck at explaining what I want, or I don’t really know what I want, until I get something that I definitely don’t want and then I’m frustrated. I’ve actually had to get two haircuts in the same week because of this.

The same thing happened last month. I went to my usual establishment of hairstyling – okay, and at this point I should probably add part of my problem COULD be because I go to your stereotypical Supercuts-type places, where things are cheap and convenient but not always, well, good – and noticed that a new hairstylist was there. As luck would have it, she was the one available… and she gave me a crappy haircut. It was not only not what I wanted, but it was just all-around a bad haircut – the bottom was way longer than the top layers, and it was really difficult to style. I knew I’d want to get another haircut before my baby shower so I wouldn’t look too crappy in pictures.

The unhappy haircut:

Don’t mind my dazed expression; it was night and I was sleepy!

Fast forward to this week. My shower is on Sunday, and I really wanted my hair to be semi-presentable by the weekend. First I went back to my usual place (the bad lady wasn’t there,thank goodness) and tried to make an appointment; they were busy but told me they’d call me back in a few hours. I waited by my phone (well, my phone was in my pocket, but close enough) but never heard from them.

This morning I decided to try a new place. The stylist asked me what I wanted, and I told her… at least I thought I did. She then informed me: 1) my description was vague, 2) it was also crap, 3) it could be because I have Pregnancy Brain (okay, I won’t argue with this one), and 4) I needed to look through magazines until I found what I wanted. Problem was, I have pretty unique hair and couldn’t find anything close. The hairdresser kept asking me questions I didn’t understand (“where do you want your fall line to be?” “do you want your hair to be triangle or round?” um, how about hair-shaped?) until finally I found a cut that was vaguely what I wanted, only much shorter.

Here were my Extremely Vague instructions: same haircut I already had, only a few inches off the longest length so it hits just above my shoulders, and just trim the further-up layers that already exist.

What I got: baldness.

Okay, not really, although it felt like it when I looked in the mirror. What I actually got was really short hair – like to my chin short. I’ve had hair this short before, and I actually don’t hate it, but it just wasn’t what I expected. And I’m a little afraid it’s too mom-hair-ish, and that at my shower everyone will think I look like a man. Or a lesbian. Or an old lady. Or I have no idea, and I need to not stress out about it anymore, right?

Thus, my tale of accidental mom hair. Maybe I should just shave my head and wear a wig – at least it would always look the way I want it to!

My short hair – cell phone crap quality, of course.

some updates

Preg update: I’m finally looking pregnant and not just particularly fond of beer, which is always a good thing. A complete stranger asked me when I was due last week, so that confirms it. :) On the not-so-happy hand, at my last doctor’s appointment I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It was surprising (and disappointing) because all my other blood tests, along with my weight gain, are really good. I’ll get my glucometer and diet plan next week, but until then I’m just supposed to eat lots of protein, reduce carbs, and cut out sugar. Cutting out sugar was surprisingly easy, but the carb thing pretty much sucks… But doing this for my baby and not just for me makes it easier. (-er, not easy!)

Oh, and because of the GD, I’ll be delivering on my ‘official’ due date on the 15th (if I don’t go into labor before that.) I’m not too happy about my chances of being induced, but at least I won’t be having a baby on Christmas day! That also makes me a little more pregnant than I thought – I’ll be 29 weeks on Thursday.

Life update: I got to start TLC again -  we have the funds to go until December, and then we’ll go from there. It’s nice to have a regular job in addition to subbing, because geez, those bills don’t pay themselves. : P Still looking for an affordable place to live – our price range is pretty low, so available places disappear fast (when they appear at all…) We may have to make until our name comes up on Section 8, because as much as I’d like to be in my own place RIGHT THIS SECOND, I don’t want to go (further) into debt to do it.

Random: Being an amazingly coordinated individual, I exploded a glass mug all over Dan, my laptop, and me. There was much blood and glass fragments EVERYWHERE – oh, and did I mention it was at midnight? Oops.

And, I am SOOOO freaking ready for fall. This was a relatively mild summer, but the combination of living in a cooler climate for awhile and being pregnant has made this season pretty unbearable for me. Not to mention fall is my favorite time of year anyway! :)

(I’m so boring lately…)

 

 

san francisco adventure

Dan and I just got back from an Adventure in San Francisco with Dan’s mom. I experienced several firsts (my first hotel with a phone in the bathroom! my first time not able to tie my own shoes! my first time seeing the Giants and actually being able to recognize individual players because I wasn’t in the nosebleed section!) which were all very exciting and I’ll detail as I go…

We left yesterday morning and drove down to San Francisco. Marcia actually booked us a hotel in the city, which was pretty cool because I’ve only slept within the city limits two times (despite living in the Bay Area for two years and the Napa Valley for four, which I guess is why I didn’t – I had a free place to stay nearby-ish.) This was a huge improvement over my previous accommodations (a nonprofit organization in the Tenderloin and a youth hostel) – we were at The Palace, a historic (built in 1875; rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire) and gorgeous San Francisco landmark. Apparently Dan’s mom got a really good deal, which is pretty amazing, because otherwise I’m sure I’d never stay in a place that offers $4,000 rooms. (Our room was nowhere close to that, mind you, but apparently such rooms exist. They save them for the president or something.)

To my amazement, I was not immediately kicked out of said hotel for not being fancy enough, and we crashed a few minutes in our rooms (where I discovered the beforementioned bathroom telephone. I didn’t use it, but I did drink the Complimentary Bottled Water.) We had a few hours before we had to get to the ballpark, and Dan wanted to check out Rasputin, so we took a little walk down Market Street to the shops. I decided to step into Old Navy on a search for comfortable jeans, since I was wearing The Most Uncomfortable Maternity Pants Known to Womankind (they were my first maternity clothing purchase, and I had no idea what I was doing) (ironically also from Old Navy, but it’s the style that sucks, not the jeans themselves.) I found a much better pair on sale, along with a cute (and also on sale) tank top. Unfortunately this was when I also discovered I can no longer tie my shoes on my own – goodbye, feet. I did the best I could and made Dan fix it after we got back to the hotel. In Rasputin, Dan found a supercheap video game (usually $20, $3 at Rasputin – that place is amazing!) and after a quick stop at The Coffee Bean, we were back in our amazeballs hotel getting ready for the game.

Our hotel was only a little over a mile from the ballpark, so we decided to walk. Thankfully although I am unable to dress myself, I can still walk just fine, even if my pants fall down constantly (seriously, it’s the plague of maternity wear – super comfy, but as your hips blend into your stomach there’s just nothing to keep ‘em up. Think beer-bellied men with plumber’s cracks, only cuter, because preggies are cute right? At least cuter than fat men’s buttcracks?)

How 'bout I distract you from that visual with a giant glove/Coke bottle combo? From our seats at AT&T park

Once at the ballpark, we once again were ushered to a Special and Fancy Zone – Marcia decided to try some new seats, in the club level section. We were in section 229, about halfway in between third base and the edge of the outfield (visualize it here!) The really cool part was we could watch people warm up, and actually recognize who was who. The other good part was that the club section has much better food, with more options. (The merch shops aren’t as good though, so there are drawbacks. I guess fancy people own all that stuff already.)

Here's me trying to get Dan to take a picture with me as he says, "I don't want a picture"

Mama view - my fat tum (aka baby at his third baseball game, not that he'll remember any of them!)

We found our seats, watched the Padres batting practice, grabbed some food (Dan stuck with his traditional garlic fries; I feared the heartburn consequences and went with a delicious grilled veggie burrito instead, an option limited to the ‘spensive seats) and settled in to watch the Giants outfield warm up. For example (and please excuse my crappy camera – at least it’s not a cell phone!) -

Here's Pablo Sandoval and Orlando Cabrera palling around - right after this, Lou Seal came out to chat them up

And here's a stretching Tim Lincecum with Chris Stewart, who just suited up in his catcher's gear

It was a really fun game to go to, and not just because the Giants won, although that was a big bonus (especially with how they’ve been playing lately…) I always love seeing Timmy pitch – I think he’s my favorite Giant, although don’t tell my other favorites that! – and his RBI single was just amazingly (and somewhat hilariously) awesome. There were some tense moments, but they were mostly smoothed over with delicious ballpark hot chocolate (which, by the way, Baby Boy happens to love – I’ve never encountered a food that made him so hyper. Maybe he was just excited the Giants won?) Oh, and not pictured, but I got to wear my awesome Giants hoodie (which amazingly still fits over my preggo belly) and Giants scarf (not an official team item, but I crocheted it in orange and black stripes in honor of my team.) Wearing cozy clothes is extra exciting when it’s 100+ degrees at home.

The one pic I actually took during the game... before my camera ran out of batteries. Oops. But hey, Timmy's pitching!

The next morning I walked around the block looking for a city classic for breakfast… and settled on a McDonald’s. Close enough. I brought it back to the hotel to lure Dan out with delicious smells (and to probably be the only one in the entire building eating fast food, lol) and soon we were ready to go. We decided it would be fun to go to the Academy of Sciences, since the last time we went it was super crowded and not too impressive. I’d heard things had improved, so we headed over to Golden Gate Park to check it out.

For once, people were right; we had a much better time at this visit. Of course, the tickets are still outrageously expensive, but at least this time I feel like we paid for something good. The aquarium is expanded, and almost a day in itself – you could get lost in there! We actually got to go through the Rainforests of the World exhibit, which is inside an indoor dome, and though it was hot and humid it was worth it to see all the colorful butterflies, birds, frogs and lizards. Though it’s temporary, I of course LOVED the Snakes and Lizards exhibit. They even had the animatronic python from Anaconda on display, along with bones from an extinct python that was even bigger than the movie version. We even checked out the Academy Cafe, which was delicious and not too pricy – I got ratatouille, ‘smashed’ potatoes and veggie gravy, and fresh iced tea for under $10 (and the portions were huge!)

The planetarium wasn’t open until way later, so we ended our day with a highlight – the penguin feeding! I’m a big pengie fan and watch these particular guys on penguin cam, so I was extra excited. All the visitors sat on a big square rug in front of the tank while a rather attractive penguin dude told us all about the African penguins on exhibit. Inside the cage, a marine biologist fed the penguins and answered some questions as well.

Pengies!

That pretty much covered everything at the Academy of Sciences, but Dan expressed the desire for something “chocolate-y or ice cream-y” before we left the city, so we trekked over to Ghirardelli Square. The line was a bit crazy, our order was misplaced, and I rediscovered my morning sickness when a kid directly across from me lost his lunch all over EVERYTHING (seriously, it was a three-mop event), but all was worth it when our delicious ice cream came. (Dan had a cookies and cream cone, Marcia had a brownie sundae, and I had a chocolate peanut butter sundae. It was good, but I’m going back to my classic sundae next time – I need all the hot fudge I can get!) :)

Alas, it was time to come home, and the wonderful Bay Area evening traffic made this a bit of a drawn-out occasion. (Actually, I shouldn’t complain – once we got out of the city it was fine, and I’ve personally experienced my share of East Bay hell, so we got off fairly lucky.) And now I’m in my own comfy bed, which is nice, but I’m trying to un-depress myself from Bay Area exposure (why don’t I live there anymore? *sob*) and that’s not quite as nice. Time to go cuddle with the pregnancy pillow.

new room

The ‘computer room’ is no longer. It is now: the bedroom. Well, my bedroom (that I guess I share with Dan and Ripley and eventually Baby, but hopefully not for too long, because those apartment waiting lists can’t last forever, right?)

Anyway. Even though at the moment it feels like a glass box (with glass french doors we haven’t found curtains for yet, plus a huge window and sliding glass doors) it’s soooo much better than the tiny hellhole we were in before. Our bed does not take up the entire room; in fact, it doesn’t even take up a third of the room. How amazing is that? We have a dresser, Dan’s computer desk, a dirty clothes hamper, and two bedside tables, and there is still lots of visible floor. (Of course, it’ll get a bit smaller when we get a crib, but I think they’ll still be plenty of room.)

Since it’s not a ‘real’ bedroom there’s no closet, but I’m thinking of acquiring a folding rack to hang a few things on – I hang all of my shirts, and it would be nice to be able to get dressed in the necessities in here. Last night we bought curtains for the sliding glass door (which look surprisingly nice, we just need to raise them a bit – they’re dragging on the floor) and attempted to buy panels to put over the french doors, but they were two inches too short. Lovely. So today we’re going to check out some other stores and see if we can’t find some I Don’t Want The Whole Household To See Me Change Every Morning fabric.

The bookcases are still full of not-mine books, and eventually I’d like to switch those out with the books in our former room. Two corners remain full of household stuff that needs to be relocated, and I’ll probably work on that later today, but the room is certainly livable now (except for the Naked Doors) and it makes me happy.

As for the room formerly known as our room, it’s now a zoo. The bunnies are next too each other for the first time in a year, and they love that (they’re like siblings who need their own rooms to like each other, heh). The birds and fish are still in there, though I kind of want to move the fish in with me; I like looking at them, but their tank is so huge… maybe if I can find a smaller, more portable tank. We also moved in a futon, so you can sit on the couch and watch TV (well, Netflix at least) or play video games, since our ancient TV is still in there (as is the PS2 & 3.) And, of course, the closet is still full of our stuff (and will stay that way, since we don’t have another option) and the shelves are literally crammed with crap – we put everything that was under the bed/on various furniture on the shelf, with the lofty goal of organizing it later. It’ll happen… eventually.

And pictures? I’d love to, but I have no idea where my camera is… in the zoo room, somewhere…

at one point, this happened

One of our recent projects has been to clean out the ‘computer room’ (see beginning of this post) and make it into a bedroom/nursery (more on that here.) So far, the pictures are off the walls and relocated to other parts of the house, Kaeli’s turtles are swimming happily in my dad’s science classroom, the Giant Desk of Horrors has been relocated to the back of the van and is hopefully on the way to its new home in my dad’s office (crossing my fingers that Dan and my dad don’t get squashed by its frightening hugeness), the random junk piled on said Giant Desk has been relocated (much of it to the trash can), and finally, the approximately thirty-five million unlabeled CDs piled on desk have been sorted.

That last part is what Dan and I did last night. We found: a very large number of blank but still very scratched CDs (trash!), DVDs with only one song or photo burned on then (k?), many mix CDs, 70% of which inexplicably began with Beyonce’s Irreplaceable, and an entire hoard of unlabelled CDs of photos. Every single CD containing data was faithfully placed into my laptop’s DVD:R drive to check its contents, and on one such CD I found… something.

It’s time for a little backstory: one of my Funny Family Stories I like to tell people (like my husband, probably more often than I remember) is the time when my youngest sister was two or three, and on Easter I set up an entire display in my front yard in honor of the holiday. And then proceeded to dress up as the Easter bunny, in my own homemade costume, somehow convincing my sister that I was the ‘real’ Easter bunny and apparently she’d been really good this year, because look at all this candy! (Do you have to be good for the Easter bunny? I’m not sure of the mythos of the thing, but in all events, there was candy to be had.)

Well, we found a photo of this glorious event:

(click to embiggen, for the full effect)

Yes, I am the one in the paper bag mask. I wore a turtleneck and gloves as a part of my costume, but for whatever reason decided a bunny could wear jeans if she darn well pleased. My middle sister (the other kid on my lap) collected bunnies as a child, which provided most of the props (the giant pink bunny was actually mine), but apparently I felt the need to spice up the place with several other characters, including a wooden rocking horse, Figaro the kitten (from Pinocchio), and Winnie the Pooh. They all coexist happily in Easter Land! (Also note the canoe and wooden ‘stable’ behind us, which was actually a prop from our giant light-up nativity scene that sheltered cats the rest of the year.)

So basically, all the cleaning was worth it to relocate this little piece of history. I laughed for about fifteen minutes straight when I found it…

yep, guilty as charged