Mornings

Every morning, the first thing we do (when we don't have to take Chad to work so we can have the car that day (we need a second car!)) is feed Nathan his morning bottle. Then, it's time for my morning breakfast. I bring my morning oatmeal in the study to check emails, ESPN, blogs, etc while Nathan plays in the living room. Since he wasn't mobile until last week, this was a pretty safe arrangement. Until he started to crawl...

So this morning, I was commenting on Ashley's blog, and I heard the ominous ringing of what is distinctly the bell ornaments on the Christmas tree. I went in to find Nathan had pulled off the bottom Christmas tree lights and was playing with two of the ornaments. At least I put the baby safe ones on the bottom. He had also managed to turn on the DVD player and eject my Pilates video. I hear more rumblings in the living room. Perhaps it's time to go supervise the little rascal...

I love North Carolina!

While I lived in Boston, my mom would occasionally call to smugly tell me that was 70 or 75 degrees back in Raleigh while we were anticipating another snowstorm or arctic blast to come through in New England. The first year we were married, Boston received over 80" of snow. They literally had to truck the snow out of the city - it was piled four or five feet high on the sides of the roads and it just wouldn't get warm enough to melt. For months at a time. My first winter, we had constant snow cover in our north-facing front yard from November until April. In March, it finally melted down far enough to see the layer of pine needles from our Christmas tree in December. People were ice skating on the Charles River. The one upside of our car being stolen three years ago was that I didn't have to dig it out of the 26" snowstorm that came through the next day.

When we were debating as to where we should move, I imposed the Canada rule. This rule stated that we could not move to any state that touched Canada. They were all too cold. We could also not move any farther north than Boston. I had had enough snow and cold to last me a lifetime.

So when we finally decided to move to North Carolina, I was thrilled - no more terrible winters EVER! Several weeks ago, the office manager at Chad's office reminisced about the last major snowstorm to come through Jacksonville - 19 years ago. And so far this winter, the weather is working out better than even I could have hoped. While much of the country has received snow storms and ice storms over the past week, today's high is 76 here in Jacksonville. Tomorrow should hit 80. I'm wearing flip-flops and T-shirts in December! Nathan and I will be taking a walk later, and there will be no need for his new winter coat. I think I've died and gone to heaven. My heaven, mind you. In Chad's, they'll be skiing year-round.

Productivity - Here I come!

Yesterday, I was supposed to write the ward Christmas program (the fun side of being the ward music person), in addition to my normal shopping day. I was distracted, however, by the last Harry Potter. I know, I'm probably the last person alive, other than Chad, to have NOT read the last one, but we were supposed to be reading them together, and it's taken us forever to get through them. We were stalled out at about page 200 of the last book, and I simply couldn't handle it anymore - I had to finish the book. So I did. I didn't get anything other than the shopping done all day. I was even reading the book while feeding Nathan. But, at 4:45 as I needed to head out the door to get Chad, I finished! Hooray! I'm completely in the doghouse with Chad for reading ahead without him, but I can now reclaim my life.

Except that I still had to figure out what jogging stroller I was going to get for Christmas. Do I get a cheaper fixed-wheel or a more expensive swivel-wheel? I know a swivel-wheel would be more convenient, but I already have a nice umbrella stroller for stores and such. For six months in Brookline we used a borrowed fixed-wheel stroller. I could handle just about any store in Coolidge Corner with it, so surely I could handle our quiet neighborhood in Jacksonville with one? Our teeny budget helped solve that battle, but then, which fixed-wheel do I get? Do I go $30 past our budget and get a lighter aluminum stroller or stick to the budget and get the heavier steel one? Way too many options here, so I finally had to leave the decision to Chad. But then, the website had reviews of diaper bags, so there was another twenty minutes blown. I did get to see lots of pictures of the diaper bag I'm supposed to be getting for Christmas - I love it!

So it's now 10am, and have I started the pilates, laundry, cleaning, and Christmas program that are my tasks for today? Heck no. All I've managed to accomplish is feeding and changing Nathan and putting him down for a nap. I think it's time to start getting serious about this whole productivity thing. I believe I hear the 409, Windex, and vacuum cleaner calling...

So, we're at Chad's office this morning. Chad is currently cleaning the teeth of the missionaries in our ward, Nathan is taking a nap, and I am freezing to death. His partner keeps this office somewhere around arctic blast, which means that Chad is perfectly happy but I'm not so happy. I'm eating oatmeal and wearing Chad's jacket to try to stay warm. It's not working.

Nathan continues to make forward progress with his pseudo-crawling. It's kind of a combat crawl (probably fitting given all the Marines around), but he's happy to be more mobile. I'm happy too. If he wants something, he can go get it himself. Sort of.

We drove out to Beulaville yesterday to get our Christmas tree at Mike's Farm, this local farm that grows and sells Christmas trees. They also have a well-known-around-here restaurant with a fixed, all-you-can-eat menu. They serve plain biscuits, biscuits with country ham, fried chicken, green beans, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, pork tenderloin, and quite possibly the most amazing macaroni and cheese I've ever had. I might make the drive just for the macaroni and cheese. Sadly, by the time we got there at five, the line was out the door, so we picked out our tree and drove home. We will be back, though. Thinking about it is making me hungry. The tree is a great, big Fraser Fir that is opening up quite nicely. Tonight we get to decorate it and figure out how to keep Nathan from eating it. I'm afraid I'll be finding lots of pine needles in upcoming diapers...