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December 30, 2007

Happy 14th Birthday Trevor!

I can't believe my little boy with the bowtie mouth is 14. It's been a good year with Trevor, let's hope the trend continues.

Posted by krystal at 8:51 PM | Comments (4)

December 27, 2007

Plenty

I wish I could gush about my Christmas and leave it at that but that's just not how I roll.
We have our new baby and our health and more good stuff of the physical variety than anyone could ask for. Dan gave me a journey diamond necklace w/ a diamond for each family member and a big honkin' external hard drive that just makes me tingle. Even the kids got gifts for us and Jake used his own money and bought gifts for his siblings on his own. I didnt even hint that he should. Christmas morning was splendid. Everyone got lots of stuff and nobody fought on the way to my folks house. That, on its own, was a huge gift. Most of the time we can't go anywhere all together without all hell breaking loose.

The day at mom and dad's was perfect. We all ate tons and got more stuff. Dad said that we're also getting 1/2 of a pig. This is great news for my freezer. We're gonna be loaded w/ sausage and pork chops and ribs. hoorah! My dad had been searching his mind for something that he could give Dan that they could do together and finally decided on gun stuff so they can shoot targets in the back yard. I fear a new militia is in the making. I just hope this practice means they'll each be better shots than they currently are.

Everything was wonderful until time to go home. Jake and Trevor got into a fight over who was sitting in the backestest back seat. It moved on to Jake saying "LET ME OUT OF THIS CAR" and then ended with us picking him up as he ran down the road being chased by a very angry and very tiny dog. I have to say, had it not been for that tiny dog chasing him, I'd find nothing at all funny about the entire scene.
Let's add to all of this the fact that Tess has the same cough/crud that Jake had last week and Dan's had for like 2 months now. She wasn't in a good mood for most of Christmas and clung to Dan like his touch was keeping her alive. She did enjoy opening gifts and she loved all of the food and parties but she felt so bad. It seems like finally today she's better. Her cough is better and the baby is now snotty. I pray he doesn't end up with her cold since he's so tiny. I keep hearing about babies getting RSV and I find myself staring at him constantly making sure he's not sick.

I have been eating way too much and it's not good for the fat I haven't lost. I'm going to get serious about this diet thing as of uh, right now. (I would have said *today* but I just ate 2 pieces of pizza). I can't go to the gym for 4 more weeks but I'm gonna. I am.

It was a good holiday. I wish I could stop thinking "it would have been great if ..." insert; jake wasn't such a gigantic jerk, Jake didn't crash our car, Tess wasn't sick, I wasn't so tired, I had clothes that fit, ...blablahblahblah". I just wonder why it's so hard for me to accept that families and life are just not perfect. We try to do the best we can and we love without reservation but there's nothing to stop bad things from sneaking in. It happens to everyone and it is not the end of the world. Yea right. I'll be doing this again next year.

Posted by krystal at 3:01 PM | Comments (2)

December 24, 2007

diet...bandicoot...our saturn...

Things with "crash" in them? Tha's RIGHT!
Yesterday Jake crashed our saturn vue into a mercedes. A parked mercedes. A parked mercedes on the other side of the road. He's fine, our car is broken and the mercedes guy is a peach for not choking the living daylights out of the kid. I guess in the end we just have to say "thankfully nobody was hurt". I've not really felt that way though, in all honesty. I want to hurt Jake. I'm grateful for Dan. He went to the wreck, dealt with insurance and saved Jake from dealing with me. I would have run over him with the other car.

Last night we went to Gayle and Wil's house for a small gathering. It was just what I needed, too. I've had my poop in a group for a while as far as Christmas goes, but hadn't gotten into the spirit. Last night was the visiting and drinks and cookies and music that made things festive. Tess ate so much that she barfed around midnight and I have a hangover the likes of which I haven't seen in over 9 months. All is merry and bright....aaah. Thanks Miss geeeyul and mr. weeeol.

Today we have the family reunion and Tree and Jason are visiting this morning. I love Christmas Eve. There's still anticipation and there's also food. (and beer!)

We need to go to the store for milk, batteries and some drinks for mama's house tomorrow.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Posted by krystal at 7:13 AM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2007

Christmas eve eve eve eve

Merry Christmas!

It's weird...we've gotten everything ready for Christmas and it's not here yet.

Today Max had another checkup with his pediatrician and he's fine. His weight is normal, his color is great and he's got the prettiest eyes ever...that's what the doc says. I agree. Now we just have to go back at 1 month and start teaching him to hate the dr's office. It's nice to have Dan home on Fridays to go to these appointments with me.

I have to admit, while I haven't had the baby blues, per se, I've lost my energy and desire to see people, answer the phone, shower and socialize. This isn't like me and I'm sure part of it is due to the fact that percocets ran out before pain ended. It's also due to lack of sleep and I'll self diagnose and say that I'm fine and this is all normal. If anyone wants to donate percs though I'll be eternally grateful. :)

When Grammy O'Brien was here she got me a gift card for starbucks and even gave me coupons to treat someone else when I get my coffee so I'm hoping that sometime today I'll get out of the house and practice the art of paying it forward. Thanks grammy! That was so nice of you.

I guess I've run out interesting things to say for now except that today at the dr's office when the receptionist asked Tessie if she's ready for Santa, Tess replied with "i want a hippopotmedicine for christmas!" causing the ladies behind the counter to start singing to her. It was beautiful.

Posted by krystal at 12:19 PM | Comments (2)

December 18, 2007

delovely...is it even a word?

Today's the first day that Max and I will spend alone. We've bonded a lot over the past 2 nights since he decided we should stay up and watch Intervention rather than sleep. Til 4am. I try to be mad at him and tell him that he's doing it wrong, but this baby smiles at me. He's just a week old and he really does smile. I know you think it's gas but it's not. He's a smiler and that's his saving grace right now.

We've had a whirlwind week since he was born. The hospital stay seems like a blur and maybe it was a percocet induced blur, but it was just fast and company-filled. Thanks to everyone who came to see us in the hospital. It was so fun showing off the baby and seeing my friends all at the same time. Dan's mama and grandma were here too so Tess got to play with them and it was nice getting to meet more of Dan's family since we haven't yet gotten out to California. The distance didn't seem to matter a bit and by the 2nd day Tess and grammy were fast friends. I think she loved it. So far she's not a bit jealous of Max and she is excited everytime she sees him. In fact, when she walks in the door he's the first person she asks for. I am very surprised. I thought we'd have a case of baby blues like you've never seen before but it's not that way yet. (I know...YET).

Yesterday my mom came over and saved my life. I know that it's not important for the house to be clean when you have a new baby. I know that recovering and bonding are the main things you need and it's really nice to have a nap thrown in there. I also know that my mom understands my insanity in a way that nobody else does. I'm highly aggitated by dishes in the sink, laundry undone and crumbs on the floor. I don't even like shoes in the living room. She came over and put everything in its place, cleaned Jake's room, finished up the laundry I hadn't finished and brought dinner. In the mean time she played with Tess and took care of Max so I could take a 2 hour nap before exiting to get her hair done. I'm in a better frame of mind thanks to her.

Posted by krystal at 10:57 AM | Comments (3)

December 14, 2007

myspace, here we come!

Jake's teaching Max how to pick up babes on the innernets.

The first night home was so smooth. We got up once for a feeding/diaper change and then it was back to sleep for 4 more hours.

Posted by krystal at 6:22 PM | Comments (1)

December 13, 2007

Maxalicious

Max David O'Brien was born on 12/10/07 at 12:52 pm. He weighed 7 lbs and 7 oz. He's lost a good bit of weight so we have to go see the Dr. first thing tomorrow, but I'm sure he's fine. He's so stinking cute and good and wonderful and he smells just like a baby. It's the best.

We came home today and he seems to not hate it here so I guess we'll keep him.

Posted by krystal at 4:05 PM | Comments (7)

December 7, 2007

mi oh mi oh my oh

Just when we'd grown tired of home cooked meals, delivery pizza and chinese food, Terri and I discovered that we could indeed get the folks from Mi Pueblo to deliver to my house. Last night was our Thursday night date night which has happened less frequently during this season of Survivor. We had mexican food delivered. It was the best thing since sliced bread. There's always leftover pizza and leftover chinese food. Not the case with Mexican food. That stuff was gone. As far as Survivor goes, I see that company leaves faster when ordering double beans, no rice. Just sayin'.

Today I'm getting a pedicure and my eyebrows waxed. You may not realize it, but this is an important part of having a baby. It won't matter nearly as much that I'm like 100 lbs overweight as long as I don't have straggly eyebrows and crusty feet, I know it's demented and I'm at the point of making my entire family want to move to Iceland or something, but hopefully within a few weeks I'll be back to a semi-normal level of insanity and we'll just call it "quirkiness". For now, they all hide from me lest my bizarre requests start to involve them. (on that note, Jake's alarm just went off...I can start bothering him early today!)

I love woot-off's even when I don't have any money. It's happening right here, right now. Every single bit of my Christmas shopping is done and I'm still giddy wondering what crap I can get on the innernets today. Hooray!

Posted by krystal at 6:02 AM | Comments (2)

December 6, 2007

I love you. go away.

The kids woke up all sad this morning because school wasn't cancelled. Not even a delay. I got up early just to see the looks of disappointment on their little faces. Heavenly. It's not everyday that I want them gone, but today it's important that they go. I have 2 school days left before Max arrives and Tess and I have things to do. Not to mention, the cleaning lady comes today and I need the house as empty as possible so she can work her magic. I'm not sure if Dan's working from home or not, but I hope he stays home. I like it best when he's here; especially now that I'm so close to having the baby.

We bought our tree yesterday. This is the 2nd year in a row that we've gone to roxbury mills to get our tree. The kids and I prefer going to the tree farm to cut a tree down but last year got cancelled for some reason and this year we just don't have a good day to go so we found a beautiful tree for way too much money and it's now sitting here, lopsided, in our living room. It's just a little crooked and you can only notice it from 3/4 of the room...Dan and Jake tell me to shut up, that it's fine, but I am sure I'll obsess about it even though there's nothing I can do to fix it. Otherwise the tree is as perffect as the rest of this family. Tree hunting was as peaceful as ever. There was bickering and yelling and all of the other fun stuff that goes with taking 6 people to choose 1 tree. When we got home Dan and Jake got the tree into the stand while Kendall and I fixed dinner. The eruption really happened when Jake slapped Trevor in the back of the head for ignoring him and then Trevor threw a container of cheese at Jake at the dinner table and stormed off to his room...you get the picture. So anyway, we listened to carols, decorated the tree and retreated to our rooms to recover til time to go get some ice cream at Brusters. All in all it was a pleasant chaotic night and we all went to bed still loving, if not liking, each other. There's no way June Cleaver could survive in this atmosphere but we all seem to thrive on it.

Dan and I took Tess to the mall to see santa yesterday. She let us know right away that the man in red would get nowhere close to her. We spent some time with the SAHM's at buzzy's play place and then got some chicken teriyaki and came on home. I don't care about the santa picture. I recall not taking the other kids when they were little because I didn't want them getting germs and god knows what else from the the mall santa. The mall was fun and at the Stuffy Bear Company we scored 3 shrek babies for 10 bucks. Not bad, eh? If I were rich I could be a professional mall person except that freaky-weird-talk-to-themselves people approach me and I really get skeeved out by it. I guess I'll stick to amazon.

Posted by krystal at 7:08 AM | Comments (0)

December 3, 2007

date night

Dad and I are going shopping tonight for mom's Christmas gifts. It's the one night a year we go out without anyone else. It's fun, productive and usually there's a meal afterwards. We just went out for lunch yesterday though so I'm not sure if we'll eat this time. It's going to be interesting this year since mom refuses to give me a list. She said that she has everything she needs. COME ON. WE ALL NEED SOMETHING. WE ALL WANT SOMETHING. THROW ME A BONE HERE. She whined and whined til I sent her lists for all of my family and now she's doing this to me? I don't think so homey.

I have so much crap to do. I'm outtie. Just wanted to reflect on the happiness that is going shopping with my daddy.

Posted by krystal at 12:18 PM | Comments (2)

December 2, 2007

Better 40 than pregnant.

I believe I actually said that last year when I turned 40. Boy oh boy. I guess now that I'm 41 and pregnant I need to revisit those words.

I should have listed on my 10 things about me tag thing "I love to complain...I'm not unhappy when I complain, I'm doing what I love best". That's how the last 9 months has been for me. I have complained about being pregnant, the kids we have, dan, work. etc. But in reality, those are all things I love the most. I think I complain because there's humor in it. It's funnier to me when I say "I don't know when to stop having babies" than "I feel so blessed to have a 5th baby on the way". I say that I've done my Christmas shopping in case I die before Christmas rather than "I love this season and just can't control myself". It's just how I am. This should go without saying, but just in case...ya know?

Today we're going out to lunch for my birthday with my folks. I wish we were going without Tess but she's going because she's here...she's ours. We'll take PSP along with us so hopefully she won't run amuck in the restaurant. After we eat I plan on getting the rest of my Christmas stuff wrapped and stashed away.

This coming week is going to be a busy one. I have to shop for food for while I'm in the hospital, clean the house up so the cleaning ladies can clean it after me, get the river house ready for grammy O'Brien and grandma Mary's visit. Finish getting the nursery ready and dig up enough clothes for 4 days in the hospital. Tess stayed home with me the last 2 days of last week and uh, that wasn't very productive. She's bossier than I am. I know it's hard to believe, but she's quite a task master. I'm sending her to Ms. Gayle's this week so she can play with Bella and I can get my stuff done. I feel bad sending her but she's happier with routine and I'm happier when things are crossed off of my list.

Just in time for me to feel older, Jake turned 17 this week. He can now rent Rated R movies. As with most things in my life, I complain because I love. It's true that he makes me absolutely nuts a lot of times. He has caused me more sleep loss than any of the other kids. He pushes the boundaries of my patience and makes me cuss a LOT. In reality though, I think that Jake has grown to be a very nice person. He's funny and smart and easy to reason with. He still asks for permission rather than forgiveness and for that, I am grateful. I worry about him and his choices and I'm sure I always will...but I feel confident that he's going to be just fine.

Just in case you guys may not know...I can drink again in eight days.

peace.

Posted by krystal at 9:25 AM | Comments (5)