ICE, ICE, Baby

So, I consider myself a somewhat educated woman. I live in Florida. Beach destination for thousands of tourists. Our morning news has the UV report every day of the year. Shorts on Christmas. My veins should sing with SPF. They must've had laryngitis this past Saturday.

Oh, yes, I saw you Sun. Looking completely harmless, lounging behind fluffy marshmallow clouds, conveniently drying the morning dew while the birds sing and children play. All the while watching as I roast like a rotisserie chicken. Might I introduce my new best friend to you?

• 5 1/2 hours at Little League games each Saturday - $250 for two kids' Spring season
• 1 grilled chicken sandwich combo - $3.50
• An awesome sunburn that looks like I'm wearing a super flattering, one piece white bathing suit from the 1920's? - Priceless

Friendship Defined in Three Photos

So, we had our BCF over on Saturday. Since I can't expect you to know the wacky way my brain works, I will translate. You know how you have the single,unattached friends? They don't have kids and I'm sure roll their eyes when they go home because isn't there anything else to life besides your kids? Really? No. There's not. They consume almost every waking moment and the rest of the time, you desperately try to fill your free time because you forgot what you used to do with it. But then, there is the pair of attached people who are also parents and can be introduced as your best couple friends - your BCF.* And ours came bearing steak and spicy chicken dip on Saturday. We ponied up the bacon wrapped shrimp and corn on the cob and we commenced to grill.

Now, what makes a good BCF you ask?

When one rolls with the punches, when thirsty, he asks a six year old, "Where are your glasses?" and this is what he gets...


When the other half recognizes the value in a once in a lifetime photo op...

Can you see the well-disguised glee in the careful aim and skillful delivery of several well placed Nerf darts right to the head? Nah, I'm a terrible actress. That is pure joy, people.

Again, additional evidence of the incredible depth of the relationships in our lives and proof positive that life is too short to take it sitting down!


*While the BCF referenced in this entry are of the "with kids" variety, this is an equal opportunity blog and we welcome friends of all kinds ;)

We Interrupt This Blog for a Dose of Hope

No surprise to those who know us, we are a family of church goers. Doesn't mean we're perfect or judgmental or holy-than-thou. Really, we're imperfect, struggling and hanging on just like every other family. We have found what works for us, what keeps us together and what makes our lives better. Oh, and somewhere I can wear jeans and flip flops to church.

I don't know what your beliefs are, but if you believe in change, and you believe in hope and you believe in second chances, watch a few of these. It's probably one of the most moving things I have seen in a while and I was blown away when our church did it on Sunday. I was even more blown away by the honesty and guts it took to stand up and admit things that most people are ashamed of. It's just real people with real struggles sharing real victories.

And as for me and my house...

we believe in second chances.

Hope your Easter Sunday was full of hope, family and an unhealthy amount of chocolate! Now back to your regularly scheduled blog posts....

Love is the Honor Roll

The Bugs couldn't be more different. The first born, Bug1, is long and lean with olive skin, straight brown hair and brown eyes. Bug2 is stockier, his sandy hair has a tendency to wave a little and he has green eyes and fair skin. (The Saint always said I was lucky they both got the dimpled chin that runs in his family or he just might wonder...as if!) School for Bug1 has always been a necessary evil while Bug2 breezes through phonics and subtraction. Bug1 is going to be my pro athlete and Bug2, a vet or rock star. It makes life challenging and interesting to have two brothers, just 2 1/2 years apart in age, be light years apart in personality and strengths.

When Bug1 was little, he was diagnosed with febrile seizures and after 8 seizures in less than a year, his doctor prescribed phenobarbital. The good news was that it controlled the seizures but the bad news was that is had cognitive side effects. He couldn't pronounce certain letters and while it was the cutest thing to hear him call a fish a "shish", it was becoming apparent that it was time to change medication. Only a few months after we started Trileptal, the speech impediment went away and we could see a positive shift in his thinking and speech. It was the good news, bad news scenario again only that Trileptal can affect moods and Bug1 had a permanent ticket on the Mood Swing Train.

So, we recently went for a follow up EEG - electrodes gummed to his scalp, strobe lights flashing, blowing on a pinwheel for three minutes - only to find that the abnormal brain waves are still there. Not the news we were hoping for. But our neurologist is pretty progressive and presented the option that we could try to take him off his medication. He was confident that Bug1 would not have a seizure. So, we talked about it with Bug1 and I believe his exact words were, "WOO HOO!" accompanied by some spontaneous dancing and fist pumping. Needless to say, we began the process of reducing his medication 1/2 mL a week until he was totally done - for the first time in over 7 years. We held our breath the first time he ran a 103* fever, stood at his door and murmured prayers while he slept and exhaled when he made it through seizure-free.

I say all that to say this: Report cards came out yesterday.

Bug2's was great! All Satisfactory or Working On It and his teachers' note said "Bug2 is such a super student. He is a great reader and writer." And he is! His Achilles heel will not be academics and for that I am supremely grateful.

Bug1's report card is so representative of this journey we have been on:

• 1st quarter comment: These grades indicate good effort.
• 2nd quarter comment: Keep up the good work!
• 3rd quarter comment: You are an excellent student.

That simple statement just blew me away. He is an excellent student. An excellent student! This is my joy as a parent; the return on my investment in ambulance rides and twice a day medication for seven years; the relief for the tiny worry in the back of my mind that his medication might not hold off a seizure and that we'll have to hold his shaking body until paramedics arrive. This is standing on the top of the mountain and looking back at the valley and knowing that we are through that dark part of life. This is the thing that makes you realize there is no limit for the unexplainable, unconditional love for your children.

Love, my friends, is the Honor Roll.

L is for Lunch

Need something for lunch?

The Laughing Cow Light Cheese - oh, the yummy goodness of these 35 calorie wedges nestled in the cute little sturdy paper box. Don't let their diminutive size fool you. One wedge will meltily spread over two pieces of toast or smoosh happily inside celery sticks. I laugh with you, Cow! At all the other inferior cheeses and because you totally rock those earrings!

Need a cool way to pack your lunch?

Laptop Luncbox - Fashioned after the Japanese Bento box, this cool little carrying case has all sorts of compartments and containers. And silverware! Just look at all the potential lunch combinations in the gallery. I want to meet the kid who eats star beets and sweet potatoes, neat loaf (ummm, yeah) and eggplant for lunch. Do your parents want you to get beat up?!

Need something to do at lunch?

Lunchtime Lists - I love lists. Lists of people to invite, to-do lists...there is just something about a neat, orderly list. I like to write things down and cross them off. But this site? Seriously loves lists. The best part? They're other people's lists! I am not exactly sure what it is but I could click through these lists for hours. I've thought about planting a list in my grocery store to see if it would show up here eventually.






So kids, lunch time is over but I'll save you a seat tomorrow. Wanna trade your oatmeal pie for my swiss roll?

Please Pass the House Hunters, Matthew

As previously discussed, The Saint and I are in the process of buying a house via short sale. Side note: Don't you just love using the word "via". It just makes you sound so important, "I came to Orlando via North Hampton." "Please contact me via any of the means listed below." All of the celebrities who can't make an event attend "via satellite". How awesome would it be to RSVP to a wedding, that, while you regretfully decline you would like to attend via satellite?

And moving on. A short sale is a long and irritating process, but as an almost homeowner and a half-full kind of girl, I feel that it is my duty to educate myself on the current real estate market and house purchasing process. While I hoped it wouldn't come to this, I have come to the conclusion that this can only be accomplished by DVRing every single episode of House Hunters. Really.

If you haven't seen it, which pains me to even type, it is about folks who are hunting for some new digs: a vacation home in Colorado, a new house in the ATL 'burbs, a bachelor pad for four recent college grads. The buyers narrow it down to three contenders and at the end, hold you in suspense with, "We picked the"...insert rapidly flashing pictures of the three houses..."split level fixer!" And, since buying in America is not enough for us greedy HGTV viewers, House Hunters has gone International!

In a recent episode which is summarized here, Ira (who looks like "Happy Little Trees" Bob Ross) was buying a place in France and Matthew was his lucky realtor. Now, I am all for the mnemonic device of repeating the name when you first meet someone so you don't forget it, but Ira took this to a whole new level:

• I love these exposed beams, Matthew.
• Matthew, this kitchen is quite small.
• This garden is fantastic, Matthew.
• Matthew, this is the city not the country.
• The tiles are nice, Matthew.
• Is this the original stone wall, Matthew?
• Oh, I really like this wood, Matthew!

I mean seriously?! First word - two syllables; book of the Bible; in the top 1000 names since time began. And I am fairly certain that you might just run into your realtor a time or two in this whole home buying thing so you'll get a go at it again.

In the end, Ira found his charming 6/3 in a quaint French village and The Saint and I have found a new way to entertain ourselves. In the spirit of Ira, we tack "Matthew" onto all of our sentences much like you add "in bed" to the end of your fortune cookie fortune. Try it: Would you throw this in the laundry, Matthew? Matthew, are we going to grill these ribs tonight? Scoot over, Matthew.

Why, yes, we do have a very serious and intellectually stimulating relationship. I will let you know when our lecture series on Greek pottery and its role in the cultural development of ancient society is starting back up. Matthew.

Love and Marriage...Oh, And Grease!

So, nine years ago A Girl and The Saint stood lakeside on a wooden dock under the shadow of a wooden cross with a handful of their most important People to say, "I Do.". They were young and sort of scared and strangely hopefully that this thing might actually work. They were not a typical couple: The Saint was street smart and a little rough around the edges and she was a goody two shoes and a little naive. He was a techno club kid with four siblings and she a communication major and only child. Everyone around them had some doubts and wondered how long they would last. But his rough edges were smoothed out a little bit and he learned to match. She loosened up a little bit and learned not to take life so seriously. He will eventually load the dish washer properly and she will someday learn to cook with spices, but they have a long, long time to figure it all out!!

On a lighter note and for your reading enjoyment, since I generally think in song titles (my brain is wired for useless trivia apparently), I figured I would summarize our relationship in song:

Opposites Attract - Paula Abdul
Are you picturing the wolf and Paula dancing on the roof top? Did you just put your hair in a side ponytail? Sweet!
*Alternate Entry: Beauty and the Beast ;)

Praise You in this Storm - Casting Crowns
This would be the "for better or worse" part and probably one of my favorite songs ever.

Hangin' Tough - NKOTB
If you do not know who NKOTB are, take your side ponytail down and hand over your slouch socks.

You're the One that I Want - John Travolta & Olivia Newton John
Somewhere, somehow, Grease had to be a part of this list and this song is SOOOO much better than Hopelessly Devoted to You. I see you doing the hand jive...

Baby, Baby - Amy Grant
Get it? Ha!

Looks Like We Made It - Shania Twain
Sheesh...you can take the girl out of St. Cloud, but I guess you can't take the St. Cloud out of the girl.

So there you have it, your April 2nd anniversary playlist!

For The Saint, I have one question: After nine years, will you still kiss me at midnight? Love you!

In the beginning, there was a girl and her blog...

Well, this is it: the beginning of what I hope is a good long run. Glad you're here, so come on in and sit down a while. Pressed Down, Shaken Together basically describes my life at this very moment. It seems that there is not quite enough time, creativity, money or ME to tackle everything on my To-Do list but I am certainly going to give it my best shot, and heck, why not even add a blog?!

A Little About This Blog

I don't necessarily have anything profound to share, no global mission, no specific purpose. I just wanted a place to document the Every Day, talk about things that strike a chord in me or make me laugh, voice my thoughts on this and that and share the mundane and grand things in my life. Basically, this is my Dear Diary, the letters I mean to write to people I know and love, the phone calls I should make and the things I should say but sometimes forget to. So, if I owe you a return call or email? Stop on by.


A Little About Me

I love, in random order: all things red, my husband (who will be known from here on out as The Saint), reading anything and everything, my two boys (The Bugs), perfectly painted toenails, office supplies, my few close friends, anything on sale, a good British accent, vocabulary, reality TV, coffee in the morning, Greek food and singing in the car. I am ridiculously imperfect and unrealistically optimistic. I don't like talking on the phone, spicy foods, high maintenance anything or getting lost.


A Little of What is To Come

We are buying our first house (hopefully! keep your fingers crossed) so there will be some photos, design junk and probably some gushing over stuff that I would love to buy but would never spend the money on. I love to scrapbook so I'll probably share some of my favorite things or projects. My family is loud, crazy and a huge part of my life, so there will be a disproportionate number of posts about my husband and children, of that I am certain!* Continuing...one of my goals this year is to run a 5k every month for the rest of the year so join me if you can. Oh, and there is this pesky 15 lbs (what?! okay, 20 lbs) that I am trying to lose but it always finds me, so hopefully there will be some sort of motivational something or other thrown in here as well.

Sound good? Good. Come back soon!

*You can skip those if you want. Just kidding. While they are, of course, mainly for my benefit since I have a terrible memory and I actually mean to scrapbook about this stuff one of these days, they are sure to be entertaining!