THE LONGEST FLIGHT EVER

Tomorrow I will be traveling for around 13 hours. No, I'm not going to Europe. I just happened to buy a cheap plane ticket to the East Coast with a lot of layovers. It might sound excruciating to some, but I don't mind the travel time. That's because Erik has agreed to take a week off of work to watch the kids while I go visit my sister-in-law, Trine, and her family, in New Hampshire. (Don't worry, Erik's getting something out of this too. It's an even trade.)

Things I am looking forward to doing tomorrow:

Watching Me and Orson Welles on my portable DVD player.
Finishing reading The Unit.
Starting The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Doing crossword puzzles.
Reading the newspaper.
Eating dinner alone.
Taking a nap.
Walking aimlessly around airports with only myself to worry about.
Watching tv shows on my iPod.

Now that I've written this all out, maybe I should have added a few more layovers to my already outrageously long trip. I don't know if I'll have enough time to do everything I want.

Do I sound like I hate my family? I don't. I promise. I love them dearly and I know I will miss them. I also know that having 13 hours to myself is going to be AWESOME... even if it is while traveling.

I DON'T BITE, BUT HE DOES

I'm not sure what to be angrier about. The fact that Luke is lying or that he is so painfully bad at it. Don't get me wrong, he is a great kid, most of the time. I'm just starting to get really irritated by how much he lies.

As I mentioned, the lying isn't even convincing. The other night he comes to me, his face covered in chocolate -

Me: What are you eating?

Luke: Nothing.

Me: Your face is covered in chocolate.

Luke: No it isn't.

Me: Stop lying and go wash your face.

You think that's bad? Try what happened last week -

Charlie: Luke bit my back!

Me: Luke, did you bite Charlie's back?

Luke: No! He bit his own back.

Me: Really? Can you bite your own back?

Luke: Yes. (Then he proceeds to try to bite his own back.)

Sheesh!


I'm trying to stay positive, so I will tell you that at least I could laugh about the biting incident because Charlie was wearing such an ironic shirt. It said, "I don't bite, but he does." So true.

THE CHAIR

Time to come clean about my lack of blogging. For those of you who didn't know, we're expecting baby #3 in March. I'm just tired and don't feel like doing anything. Yes, even blogging feels like too much work.


I knew Erik would be excited about having another baby, but I didn't know how excited until he announced to me about a month ago that he will be building a birthing chair for me. Initially, I thought, why stop there? Let's build a birth hut in the backyard too!* So now, it's official. Not only are we weirdos for setting up a tub in our bedroom and doing a home birth, but my husband now wants to build a birthing chair for me in the garage too.


You say, "Can't you just buy one of those off of Craigslist or something?" I say, "You don't know my husband. He hates to buy anything he can build himself." Actually, I did a quick internet search for birthing chairs and they're kind of hard to find. Go figure. Not everyone wants to get a splinter in their butt while pushing a baby out... including me. I didn't ask for a birthing chair, this was completely his idea, but I'm also not one to turn down a gift, regardless of how strange it will be.

Does looking at these chairs make you nauseous? It has that effect on me. I know how the baby is going to come out, but to be reminded of it by a piece of furniture is just a little too much for me.

I'm sure this will be a continuing story....

*Totally joking about the birth hut. I know it's hard to tell with us.

HE WORKS HARD FOR THE MONEY

I read a story on Fox Business today called 7 Steps to Becoming a One Income Family. According to the article, only 21% of American married couples survive on one person in the workforce. All I got from this article is that Erik and I must be a couple of freaks to make this whole one income thing work for our family. Of course we don't own a pool or an airplane, but somehow we still manage to get by.

Long ago, before I sat around all day at home to do nothing but eat bon-bons and watch Oprah, I did work. I even made more money than my husband when I quit my job (gasp!) to stay home and be a Mom. I was never scared though, I don't know why. I always assumed that the pros of staying home outweighed the cons. Besides, once you deduct childcare expenses, a work wardrobe, all those "lattes", eating lunch out (and probably dinner because I'd be too tired to cook), and commuting, it didn't seem worth it for the little money I'd be left making.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox for now. I'm just grateful that I am in a position where this works for us, because for 79% of Americans (that statistic blows me away) it does not or they don't try to make it work.