melts my heart...

Henry and Matt are both asleep, semi-snoring (we'll call it breathing heavy).  Matt is on his back, Henry is on his tummy on Matt's tummy, if that makes sense.  It's the SWEETEST THING EVER.  I don't have a picture uploaded but maybe I'll post one later.

Anyway, they fell back asleep after Henry smacked his head against our iron bed this morning.  :(  He was bleeding and may end up with a swollen eye, but for now he's happy and safe with daddy. :)

not how i envisioned the morning...

Little bud woke up crying UNCONTROLLABLY at about 4 am.  Determined not to give in, we let him cry for about 45 minutes, then when Matt and I were both miserable enough, we got him out of his cribbo... That's when you think the crying would stop, right? But NO.

We tried everything... food, singing, playing, rocking, praying, even a BATH (which calmed him down a little bit, but not much)... the kid was inconsolable.  Which, as a parent, makes you feel pretty helpless and well... the mom in me was beginning to think that something was wrong.  But nothing was wrong...

So our last resort was taking him for a drive while we played some of his kids worship music CDs.  He was calm as soon as the music came on, and then after about 10 minutes he finally fell asleep.  I drove around while H and Matt slept in the car.  I know, that's a no no, but it beats inconsolable screaming.

Of course when 5:30 am finally rolled around (when Starbucks opened) I got some coffee.  We came home, and successfully transferred Henry into our bed (thank you, Lord), where he and Matt are now sleeping.  But I had coffee... so I am awake.  Which means at about 2PM today, I am going to be REALLY sleepy.

This is when I start thinking thoughts like... "Who can I pay to take Henry on a walk today for about 1-2 hrs so that I can 1-sleep, 2-clean?  Surely there is someone out there..."

Other things I think about when I can't sleep...
- rearranging the furniture in my house
-painting my house a different color and getting different furniture for my house
-getting a maid
-hiring an interior decorator
- could I cut out Starbucks and eating out if it meant I could have a maid/interior decorator/daytime babysitter?
-in Heaven, will there be monotonous chores like the laundry and the dishes and constantly putting things back where they belong? surely not... Surely Jesus can find a way to keep our clothes completely clean and to use plates and utensils that are perfectly recyclable and/or reusable, etc.  That, OR, I will just miraculously enjoy that stuff in Heaven?
-maybe I will be artistic and have the ability to decorate things in Heaven

There's more, but if I write it all I might leave you w/ more questions than answers...

following up. the winner is.

As per usual, I made Matt sit down and read my last few blog posts, and then when he was finished, I made him tell me which parts he liked the best.  And after he told me a few things, I followed up a few times with, "What else did you like?"  So, he mentioned that he thought it was rather interesting that in my "hate healthy food post" I wrote, "Diabetes is real."  Soooo let me clarify.  Clearly, I KNEW before that diabetes is REAL... I just never considered it as a possibility for ME before.  Got it?  Good.

Also, for the record, MATT is the one who thinks it is acceptable to spit your gum in the toilet as a trashcan.  He likes to defend himself by saying, "Have you ever put your chewed gum in water before?  It hardens, and it can't clog the toilet."

But still.

The way we happened upon this debate is that I noticed there was a piece of gum in the bottom of our toilet one day.  Since there is a trash can RIGHT NEXT to the toilet, I figured that Matt intended to spit the gum in the trash but accidentally missed into the toilet.  Nopety nope nope nope.  He absolutely on purpose spit his gum in the toilet.  I just didn't understand that.  Especially with a trash can right there!

So, based on comments, I won this marital debate.

Liya

So, yesterday I got an iced passion tea at Starbucks, and I noticed on my cup that the barista spelled my name 'Liya.' For Real? "Liya?" I am going to pay particular attention to the way I pronounce my name from now on... there is no "y." But still.

Next, what is wrong with this picture? Yesterday I walked pass a girl who was talking on her cell phone during a smoke break. I overheard her explaining to the person on the other end of the phone that she avoids sun tanning because she doesn't want skin cancer. Now, I'm not judging, but I am wondering... is lung cancer preferable to skin cancer?

Also, yesterday I was feeding Henry a snack outside in a busy shopping area, and a bird started to approach me. I have come a long way in the bird department, and don't really freak out about them the way that I used to. Nevertheless... I was absolutely certain that this bird would not actually continue to approach me. Surely, I thought, he would stop or back off eventually. Well, he didn't. As I was feeding Henry his snack, the bird inched closer and closer to me... more like a begging dog at the dinner table than a bird, but whatever. So, for the most part I was keeping my cool, and just calmly saying, "Go away, bird." But he just got closer until the ONLY thing standing between me and this bird was Henry's diaper bag. What would he do? I kid you not, this bird started FLYING ABOVE HENRY'S DIAPER BAG LIKE HE WAS ON HIS WAY TO SNATCH THAT SNACK RIGHT OUT OF MY HAND! I screamed out loud and burst out of my seat as fast as I could! And lots of people heard me. One sweet girl even came up to the bird and pointed her finger at it telling it to go away. I seriously can't believe how bold that bird was being. He's lucky my first reaction was to run and not to swat him down.

Lastly, as of today, my hair is DARK again, which, if you are Matt equates to "we've been spending way too much time discussing your hair today." Nevertheless, our discussion continues here... It's pretty close to my natural brown color because I am sick of highlighting, and just want my "virgin hair" back. I'll save you the details and say that I couldn't get into my normal girl cause she was all booked, but I was desperate, so I went to a dude who had way less experience, and he did a decent job, except for the fact that my roots were reddish. So he had to tone them down and now the top part of my hair is darker than the bottom part, but you can't really tell... but I can tell. Anyway, they still look decent - I just have to get used to looking at myself w/ dark hair. Basically, I just look a little whiter... which is hard because my skin is already PRETTY white to begin with.

Blog readers, thank you for letting me share the meaningless and silly surface-level details of my days with you. My most recent blog material may make you question whether or not there is any depth to my daily life at all. I assure you, there is depth. But thanks for listening to the shallow. :)

while we're on the topic...

While we're on the topic... I'd like to continue to tell you that when I drink a milkshake, I like to think of all the good calcium I'm getting. When I get a cheeseburger from McDonalds, I think about the iron from the red meat and the protein in that baby. When I drink a diet coke, I think about how even carbonated water can hydrate you (nevermind that caffeine dehydrates you). When I eat a lot of chips and salsa and/or chips and guacamole, I like to think the health benefits of the salsa and the avocado. Nevermind the fried chips, the trans fat, the preservatives, the refined carbohydrates, the fake sugar.

I could probably eat a 1/2 pound cheeseburger with butter all over the bun and think to myself, "There was a TOMATO and a PIECE of ICEBERG LETTUCE on that baby! I got my veggies in!"

(Sorry for "yelling" with the all caps. Wait, no, I'm not sorry. And It's not meant to be like yelling. It's meant to be exclaiming.)

You know, come to think of it. It's kind of like Henry with the ketchup. :) Got to have the bad to get the good. Hahaha.

Okay, I have wasted enough time today. There is laundry to be folded.

i pretty much hate healthy food

So, sugar is really bad for you. We all know it. Yada yada. To be honest though, if consuming tons of sugar had no physical affect on me (headache, stomach ache, fatigue, acne), well then I think I would eat 100000 grams of sugar a day, no matter how bad they said it was. I mean, even with all of the consequences I just listed, I still have dessert like two and half times a day. (Which, if I might say so, is still using restraint.) If anyone "deserves" to get Diabetes, by the way, it's me.

But, in my old age, I feel like it affects me more and more and I actually have started to BELIEVE that there are consequences to my actions (ahem, diabetes is real). And sugar causes inflammation, which leads to like every disease imaginable. So at last, I am TRYING a little bit harder to just cool it off with the sugar. Basically not buying a huge pack of sour patch kids and/or chewy sweet tarts every time I go to Target and trying not to keep tons of junk in the house. (Side note: I will never be someone who thinks that I am going to really be able to control my health and everything that happens to me with my diet... or that everything that happens to me is the result of something bad or good that I did... that's mainly bc I believe in the sovereignty of God. Just throwing that out there.)

So, using my logical brain, I decided that MAYBE I wouldn't want dessert as badly if I filled myself up with healthy stuff at dinner. So the other night, I filled my plate to the brim with this nasty, disgustingly textured garden salad from Central Market. My goal was to eat that salad as fast as I possibly could because I didn't want to taste it anymore, I just wanted it IN my belly so that it could be doing good things for my body and making me full so I wouldn't down the tub of ice cream in the freezer equally as fast.

Well, Matt will tell you that, with each and every huge bite of nasty spinach and arugula, I would say, "I hate salad!" Obviously, that would get annoying if you were Matt. He tried to tell me that I was extreme with my efforts to be healthy, but he also liked my "get full on good stuff so you don't eat the bad stuff" logic. So in the end, I won, and I got to keep talking about how nasty the salad was. Actually, I couldn't make myself finish it, and Matt ate the rest of it for me. How frustrating is it that he actually LIKES the salad?

Why am I telling you this? Not really sure. But here's something else. I just ate a very ripe banana because I was tired of it sitting out on the counter. Matt won't eat bananas past a certain ripeness, and he also won't eat more than one banana a day because he has a strange rule about only have food once a day. Anyway, when I was eating the banana I was thinking about how good it was that I was giving my body something healthy, but I also wanted to barf. I mean, normally I like bananas, but sometimes I just hate healthy food no matter what.

So, speaking of healthy and sugar. We finally figured out how to get our kid to eat himself some MEAT. (Which is important bc many babies around this age develop iron-deficiency anemia.) The answer? KETCHUP! High Fructose Corn Syrup me up. Henry downed his chicken nuggets last night and today at lunch all because of the ketchup. I tried to sneak him ONE piece of chicken without the ketchup, and he immediately spit it out. So, what's a mom to do?

Now, unlike his mom, Henry LIKES his vegetables, so I'm thinking we as long as we aren't feeding him bon bons, the ketchup will be fine.

Lastly, little tid bit. I like cooked vegetables that are tucked away into meals, such as veggie lasagna, or veggie fajitas, or in soup or something. But raw vegetables like salad? Yuckity!

Okay, that's all about how I don't like healthy food. Henry just woke up from his nap, so this ramble is over.