Happy 1st Birthday, Penguin

(c) 2008 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

One year ago today, the fire alarm went off.

That is, the fire alarm in building of the furnished apartment where we were living at the time went off at about 3 a.m. thanks to a lightning storm... and kept going off... and kept going off... and kept going off...

Fortunately, Mr. Kluges and Pumpkin were able to sleep through it, but not me. I gave up and got up, and decided to blog to pass the time.

The alarms were finally silenced (seriously, it was like more than an hour, and the alarm was right outside our door), and I crawled back into bed....

...to be hit nearly immediately by the first of what were definitely the-real-thing contractions.

So I figured even if rest was not as good as sleep, it was at least better than being wide awake, so I settled into (as much as one can) a pattern of "(silently) Oh. Ow. OW. OH, OW! OWW! Ow. Oh. Ok. Ok. *breathe* That one's done. ... I wonder how much longer.... *just begin to doze off* ... (silently) Oh. Ow. OW. OH, OW!!!"

Once they started being often enough and strong enough that I couldn't do that anymore, I woke up Mr. Kluges and told him what was going on. We decided we might as well let Pumpkin sleep a bit more and we finished packing the hospital bags. My due date wasn't for two weeks, but Pumpkin had come exactly two weeks early, too, so I wasn't hugely shocked by the timing. Eventually, still in the early morning hours, we called the hospital and told them what was up. By this time we'd been timing the contractions, which were about 8 minutes apart, lasting a minute and a half or so, and required cessation of packing accompanied by walking and breathing only. They said it was up to us if we thought we should come in and I said I thought we'd better.

So we woke up Pumpkin, and called Gramma Yori, who was very, very recently retired (as of that day, in fact. We woke her from her first morning lie-in, and she said she just knew it was us as soon as the phone rang.) to please start the long drive as she was our planned babysitter. (Yeah, not a great plan to have your planned child care person a 6+ hour drive away, but remember - we'd just moved to the area 30 days ago from Ireland and, you know, didn't really know anybody or have a babysitter in the area!)

We woke and readied Pumpkin and loaded up the car and headed out.

Checking it at the hospital was a bit of a trip. Of course, they had to ask me questions, which was fine, except that about every, oh, 3 minutes or so, I'd have to stop mid-sentence or mid-word and walk in small circles and go, "whoooooooooo, whooooooo" with my breath. But by 8:20 am I was officially admitted, and Mr. Kluges, Pumpkin, and I, official plastic wristband and all, took the elevator up to the maternity ward.

Where by 9:05, Penguin was born.

No, that was not a typo or "just more than 12 hours later" 9:05 - that is a "45 minutes after admission" 9:05 birth time. Yeah. You might say we progressed quickly. So quickly, in fact, that there was no time for an epidural and I had only the tiniest bit of pain relief in my system when I would have happily HAD the epidural, had there been time.

Which there wasn't.

Because once they broke my water, the whole process went from a pace of, you know, somewhere around a metaphorical 50 mph (moving along at a good speed, getting there, but having a chance to see the sights along the way) to 180 MPH!!!!! (Which involves, I must admit, screaming, but does get one there in a hurry.)

And then it was done. She was here!**



And she was (and still is) wonderful, and perfect, and worth every scream and "OWWWW!!!" and "I DON'T LIKE THIS!" or "I WISH THIS WAS OVERRRRRR!" yelled out during a push, and every no-epidural-moment of the birth and heartburn-laden day of the pregnancy.

(Also, I'm sure she'll be worth every two-year-old tantrum, and teenage angst, and "I hate you, Mommy!" and every other heartache and exasperation to come. Because she's my little girl. And I love her to bits and pieces, backwards and forwards, and to the moon and back. And always will.)

Penguin, I love you!

Happy 1st Birthday, wonderful, lovely, tremendous Penguin of mine!

**In fact, almost before the doctor was done rescheduling his appointments and back in the room. I remember the nurse saying (with relief in her voice), "Oh good, you're back! I was starting to think I'd have to catch this one myself!" Or something similar. I'm not sure as my eyes were closed and I might have been saying something like, "ARRRGH! *pant pant pant* THIS HURTS!!!"

Because I was a yeller. Good thing they happened to put me in a room way at the end so I (hopefully) didn't terrify the rest of the parents-to-be or horrify the just-recently-parents during those 45 minutes.

(Not that the hurting was really a surprise, you know, after having had one already, but one forgets JUST HOW MUCH it hurts. Because there is not a font size large enough to hint at the amount of hurt and pressure and PUSH! that's going on.)

(Oh, sorry, TSB... I just remembered that you're likely to read this, too, and haven't been through it yourself yet. Well, just remember, the pain does end, and then you've got a beautiful, wonderful child who makes it all worthwhile immediately merely by their angelic (if sticky) presence. Really.)

She's here!

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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She's here!!!

I know Pusher, Turtle and others have been checking in occasionally and wondering since it's been a while since my last post. Well, your wondering and waiting are over!

The contractions Tuesday early early morning were for real. I went to bed after my last post (about 4:30 am) and started having contractions every 6 minutes. Those lasted for a while, then I got up and we got ready to go. Once they were every 4 minutes, we called in to let them know we were coming, called Gramma Yori and asked her to hit the road, woke up Pumpkin about 7:30 and went in.

Well, to make a short story shorter, we officially checked in at 8:20 am... and our new baby arrived at 9:04 am! Yeah, that's no typo - it was under an hour of hospital time before she was born. I'll probably do a more-details-than-you-wanted labor and delivery post another day, but once they broke my water there, things hit overdrive. (And no, that is not enough time in which to get an epidural!)

So we're all ecstatic that our little girl is now here. Mr. Kluges is paranoid about the internets, so we won't be sharing her name on this site, she was 7 lbs. 10 1/2 oz. and 21 inches long. (That's like a pound & a half more than Pumpkin was!) She arrived bright and early at 9:04 am on Tuesday, May 1st and Pumpkin is thrilled to be a big sister!

A Waiting Game

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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It seems like I've been doing a lot of waiting lately.

Either I'm waiting for Pumpkin to wake up, or I'm waiting for her to be hungry for breakfast, or I'm waiting for it to be lunch time 'cuz that's followed by naptime.

Or I'm waiting for her to fall asleep for her nap or to wake up again or for Mr. Kluges to get home from work or for it to be late enough to start supper.

And that's not counting the regular ol' "waiting in a waiting room" for one of my appointments or one for Pumpkin's finger.

There's been a lot of life-waiting, too, it seems. We're at an in-between place right now with living in a furnished apartment temporarily while finding an unfurnished 3-bedroom to also rent temporarily while we get our house ready and on the market so that we can buy a real house here.

But of course we can't do a whole lot with getting the house ready to get on the market while we're waiting for Baby to come (and while Jaysan and Ang are waiting for THEIR house to be ready so that they can move out - which works fine for us 'cuz we couldn't be there getting the inside ready anyway due to Baby-on-the-way).

And we're still living out of suitcases and some stuff we picked up out of storage at our house because we're waiting for our shipment to come from Ireland. Not that we have anyplace to PUT it all right now, 'cuz we're waiting for the aforementioned 3-bedroom place to be available.

Plus I've been thinking "wait, baby, wait" thoughts because our babysitter-plan for Pumpkin is my MIL, who lives about 6 hours away... and just worked her last day before retirement yesterday. (So at least that waiting's done!)

And last evening was spent waiting to see if the contractions I was having were more along the lines of "I'm tired, it's been a long day, maybe if I just sit down and take it easy they'll ease up or go away" contractions or if they were shaping up to be the real thing.

They have eased up, but still are showing up more than I've had any previous night/evening, so now I'm also waiting for it to be morning because we'll at least be going in to get things checked out.

But right now? Right now I'm waiting for the fire department to turn off the fire alarm that's going off right outside our apartment thanks to the lightning storm we're having so that I can try to fall back asleep.

Good night, all. We'll try to keep you posted...

...but if we do end up in the hospital, you might have to do a little waiting, too. *grin*

We're still here & fine

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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Just wanted to do a brief post to let y'all know we're still here & still fine. I REALLY think Baby will be here in less than a week though... time will tell if I'm right. Thankfully, we've done ok so far this weekend with Mr. Kluges far away in the TC. He should be heading for home pretty soon, so that'll be good.

(Big THANKS to those who showed up to help with the yardwork at our house. I know Mr. Kluges said both sets of grandparents were wonderful help and that NoNickTodd was a masterful shoveller as well. Thanks, too, to anybody else who showed up to help yesterday or today that I don't know about - we appreciate it!)

Ok, Pumpkin's napping, so I'm going to go have a lie-down myself. Gotta store up some sleep, you know?!?

Right, so.... hmmm...

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

Right, so, I had an appointment today. Everything looks fine, blood pressure's good, weight's fine, tests came back ok, yadda, yadda, yadda...I'm dilated to 2 and starting to thin.

Yeah.... uh.... so....

Right.

Ok.


Suppose I better finish packing my bag.


And I'm thinking that I wouldn't be taking any bets on actually making it all the way to my May 14th due date. (And probably not the 15th, which is Grampa Jem's b-day, even though he was hoping. *grin*)

And this'll be Mr. Kluges's last weekend trip to the TC until baby gets here... and he's going to have his phone with him at all times.

So I'm going to try not to freak out too much about not feeling ready. I mean, we've got some baby clothes, diapers, a car seat, and a pack-n-play, so we're pretty ok with all that.

Oh yeah... still gotta get down to a short list of names... better get crackin' on that, I'd say...

So, if you want to leave any suggestions, feel free. We still like the boy name we had left over from when Pumpkin was born, but we're struggling with cute, distinctive-but-not-weird, individual enough to not be "FirstName LastInitial" all through the school years girl names.

Ok, going to check out a last couple of blogs and then read to keep my mind from hitting the worry track all night. Wish us luck and a baby who is content to wait a little while longer, ok?

More mutterings...

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

I have reached the rather uncomfortable stage of pregnancy.

The one where I look (and often feel) like I've swallowed a large beach ball. I managed to cut my own toenails again today, but it may be for the last time. (Ok, I know that's maybe more about my personal hygiene than you wanted to know, but it's symptomatic of the problem.) My cute tightish boots can't zip all the way up over my apparently ballooning calves. (Calves? I always thought the problem was supposed to be swelling ankles, you know?!?!) My skin is itchy from pregnancy stretching, indoor heat, and the crazy cold weather we've been having. And it turns out that Tums does not work as well as Gaviscon for heartburn.

But on the plus side, we got in to see a doctor today for a check-up, and things look fine, and all that (insurance, doctor, hospital, etc.) is shaping up to be much easier to sort out and take care of than it looked like at first. (Knock on wood)

And... (I know this is of even less general interest than the pregnancy-centric previous paragraphs, but thrilling for us...) Pumpkin went poopy on the potty tonight! She was in her bath and said, "That's just a fart." I said, from the other room, "Do you need to sit on the potty?" and she said, "Yes." So Mr. Kluges swooped her out, balanced her tiny tushie on the big potty, and lo, and behold, there was Business. Hooray! (Both for the pooping on the potty, and also for the no "swimmers" in the bathtub!)

So that's what's up with us. Off to the TC this weekend to check out the house, make a to-do list to get it on the market, maybe do some yard work, and pick up a few things from the basement storage, so probably no posts until maybe Monday. Cheers!

A post NOT about moving!

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

Ok, to keep this blog from turning into "movingsucks.blogspot.com," I'm shuffling it up a bit with a couple of pictures.

(Not that moving still doesn't kinda suck, but you know, I figure if I'm getting a little tired of writing about it, then you're all getting rather tired of reading about it. So a break is good!)

So here, due to popular demand (ok, maybe two requests in comments, but still...), is a picture of me and my belly. You'll note that Mr. Kluges left plenty of room in the photo for further expansion of the big ol' belly o' doom.

32 1/2 weeks

And here's a picture of Pumpkin I took after reading All Knowing Jen's post about her little one's new pigtails. It made me think about just how dang LONG Pumpkin's hair has gotten. Maybe I should renickname her as Rapunzel...

And in further news, Baby-on-the-way is a modest little thing. We went in for an ultrasound today to check for low-lying placenta (it's fine) and wanted to find out if Baby was going to be a boy or a girl. Well, Baby is rather modest, or shy, or is going to be contrary from pre-day-one, 'cuz his/her little foot was in the way. So, still a mystery.

So now we still need to figure out name options for either gender, plus figure out which of Pumpkin's outgrown girl clothes to ship back, not knowing if we'll be needing them or not. I've already packed up the neutrals, but she's got some adorable, but very girly clothes that I'm going to have to sift through now, and only bring back the ones I REALLY love. Oh well, I guess I can just call it an excuse to do more shopping once Baby's actually here. 'Cuz baby/toddler clothes shopping is fun!

Ok, so I lied in the post title and included a tiny bit about moving, but I hope you'll forgive me. Off to do some more sorting/packing/whatever.

Not so much with the "Let it Snow"

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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Due to the big ol' snowstorm in the Midwest, poor Pusher and Puck were delayed. Their first flight was canceled, which meant they couldn't get to their second flight to actually get to Ireland... which pushed their visit back a day.

No fun! As Pusher said on her blog, she's sorry she kept wishing for more snow this winter... 'cuz it came back to bite her in the butt.

Well, at least they're losing one day out of a two week vacation, not a shorter one. And they didn't have to worry about missing their tour bus or anything like that... and they've got very flexible hosts here. *grin*

Also, Pumpkin is either growing like a weed or fighting off some sickness. She's been a tad bit grumpy and easily frustrated lately... and took a THREE hour nap this afternoon. Yeah, and she only got up then 'cuz I woke her up. No problems (other than the usual amount of try-to-avoid-bedtime-itis) with going to sleep tonight, either. Here's hoping the extra rest today will help her stay in good form during Puck and Pusher's week with us! Cross your fingers, would you? 'Cuz a grumpy 2 1/2 year old is not much fun to be around... even for her loving parents, let alone guests who aren't used to toddlers!

Also, blogging will most likely be scarce to nonexistent this week due to touristing. We're even planning on all going up to Galway and staying overnight (!) at a B&B on the weekend, which Mr. Kluges, Pumpkin and I haven't done for a very, very long time, so I'm looking forward to that, too. Yay!

(Oh, and of course bringing Pusher to the English Market and to visit our favorite cheese guy. Oh, the varieties we'll try! Pumpkin's been asking for a kind of sheep's cheese that's apparently a new favorite (we've gotten it twice, I think), so she'll be happy, too. (Obasa? *shrug* That's close enough to the name that I can find it there anyway.)

(Hmmm... that reminds me... we've got some Wensleydale with cranberries in the frig.... sounds like time for a snack...)

Ok, my pregnant appetite and I are going to go. Have a great week and stay warm!

Ah-oooooo!

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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Based on my own personal sample of 1 previous pregnancy with lots of heartburn and a baby born with a good head of hair...

...and this New York Times article....

...I think I might be having a werewolf.

(That or I should just buy stock in Gaviscon.)

Some Rhetorical Questions

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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For how many days will I find black smudges around the house from the washable marker featured in the previous post?

The three-months-to-write-thank-yous rule applies to Christmas gifts, too, right?

Is it just me, or is it cruel for my husband to leave the bottle of Jameson sitting out on the counter, where it just taunts his pregnant wife, instead of putting it away himself?

How many times in a row can a two-and-a-half-year-old ask the same question?

Why do I rent a movie that I know will make me cry, and then watch it at night, while I have a cold, when I know that I will get so stuffed up I won't be able to breathe when I try to go to bed?

Will I be able to cut my own toenails for the entire remainder of my pregnancy? ('Cuz I still can now, but I'm not sure about a couple months down the line...)

So, what's happening to all the bees?


And finally...
...will you come back and read my blog next week, even if I don't do much (ok, probably any) posting for the rest of the week since my youngest brother and his wife are coming to visit?


You will?!? Oh good! See you then!

P.S. Happy Valentine's Day, even if it's a little early.

Vision vs. Actuality

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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My To Do List for Naptime:

• choose photos to get printed this weekend to get sent out with Christmas thank yous before Valentine's Day
  
• laundry
• repeatedly put girl back to bed until she stays there
• put away dishes from dishwasher
• tidy up dining room table (the "everything gets dumped here" spot of our house)
• decide if having leftovers or making bacon cheeseburgers tonight for supper
  

What'll Probably Actually Get Done During Naptime:

• repeatedly put girl back to bed (We're on 4x currently.)
• several games of spider solitaire
  
• have snack while writing...
  
• ...this post
  
• nap

Love/Hate Relationships

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
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I love reading blogs,
but I hate when I can't think of any good ideas for posts myself.

I hate being so far away from friends and family,
but I love that so many of them have/are going to come to visit!

I love The Planet,
but I hate when other parents don't adequately supervise their rough-playing kids.

I hate cleaning the goopy stuff out of the drain after doing dishes,
but I love that Mr. Kluges will do it for me. (*smooch* Thanks, hon!)

I love naps,
but I hate waking up groggy and feeling like the world shifted two degrees while I was asleep so everything is just slightly askew.

I hate heartburn,
but I love Gaviscon.

I love the library,
but I hate that they have a ton of second or third books of series without carrying the first one!

I hate (ok, dislike is a better term, 'cuz I accept that it comes with the territory, but that doesn't fit the pattern) changing Pumpkin's dirty diapers,
but I love that she'll let us know she's working on one by saying, "I just like to poop in my diaper." (Guess she's not ready for training yet, huh?)

I love that here it's considered ok to have a single beer or glass of wine a week while pregnant, which I savor on the weekend,
but I hate that it's Monday and I've got a craving for red wine...

I hate writing a post and then seeing that "0 comments" thing,
but I love getting online later and seeing it with a new number! (HINT, HINT!)

Blame it on the rain... or pregnancy hormones

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

Edited to add photo of round tower.

So, I have to apologize for not being great about posting lately. I'll sit down at the computer, open up a new post, and just stare at the blinking cursor. 'Cuz whatever I had in mind to chat about... well... it's just gone.

Blame it on pregnancy hormones, I guess. Oh yeah, that's something else I love about being pregnant - you can be forgetful and clumsy and, hey, it's not you! It's the pregnancy hormones!

(Which is especially nice 'cuz I set one of our lovely useful-souvenir-matches-our-plates-we-love-them coffee cups on the table last night, then grabbed it to move it to the counter, and somehow smacked it into the back of a kitchen chair, causing me to lose my grip on it, which mean it completely sah-MASHED! into the corner formed by the floor, the refrigerator, and the cupboards. We're talking multiple, multiple pieces here, folks. And of course, since I had been going to make myself seconds on hot chocolate, there was still about a half-inch of cocoa goo in the bottom. Which ended up splashing everywhere from half-way up the frig, to 2 to 4 feet on either side of the incident. *sigh* Cleanup took a bit. )

So anyway, we're still here and fine and all. Pumpkin is over her sickness and is sleeping wonderfully both at naptime and nighttime again. (Knock on wood) We even went touristing last weekend, visiting Dungarvan and Ardmore to see a castle and a church with a round tower, respectively. I'd include a photo here, but Mr. Kluges currently has some of our computer stuff detached, so I can't. Instead I'll leave you with cute Pumpkin anecdote from the weekend.

Upon waking up in Ardmore, (we love car naps!) and seeing the round tower, Pumpkin said, "Oh! It's a tower! Maybe Rapunzel lives there!"

Books - What to Expect When You're Expecting

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copyright 2007 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

Some things I like about pregnancy:

• getting to eat more snacks
• having my tummy stick out is no longer a figure flaw
• people telling me I "look well!"
• telling Mr. Kluges I need to put my feet up for 10 minutes
• getting a new baby to add to our family eventually

Some things I don't like about pregnancy:

• no wine
• no beer
• HEARTBURN (I know, count my blessings, it was my biggest (and really only) complaint during Pumpkin's pregnancy, but I've had it the past two evenings & I'm only 22 weeks along, so it's probably just going to get worse.)
• laugh/sneeze-induced incontinence
• being even more clumsy and forgetful than usual
• labor
  

Oh, and here's one of the books that's currently on my nightstand. :)

E stands for . . . errrrr.....

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copyright 2006 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at www.musenmutter.blogspot.com
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

My good friend All Knowing Jen did the alphabet meme on her blog. Thanks to her and the letter M, I now know about the made-it-through-the-first-year birthday drink. Yay! I also got to find out what Aunt Templeton likes about R, Pusher's favorite Ls, what Syl thinks C is for and the Ts Ang thinks are terrific.

Since I wanted to play, too, I asked her for a letter.

All-Knowing Jen gave me E.

Now I'm a girl who likes a challenge, but I have the feeling this is going to take a while & that I'm definitely going to have to remember to change the date/time of this post from when I save it as a draft 'cuz there's no way I'm coming up with 10 E things I like in one sitting. Now if she'd have given me the vowel O, maybe. I mean, there's olives (YUM!), and ogliotropic (which is one of the things I love about Lake Superior and a term I learned while visiting an aquarium up there on my honeymoon), and oil (as in massage, olive, as a tool for deepfrying, scented...), but no.

It's E.

So here goes... 10 things I like that start with the letter E.

1. Easter eggs - I love dyeing Easter eggs! They're a special holiday memory for me as well as just being fun. You see, my dad's family is much more numerous than my mom's side and we lived very near a lot of them. That mean many holidays were spent with the Huises. But Easter was different. For Easter we did the big 4 hour trek up to the Cities and stayed with my other grandma (who might get her own entry... hmmm....). And we dyed Easter eggs. And got jelly beans and chocolate bunnies and hid the eggs (several times 'cuz it was so fun) around her house. (However, here in Ireland, eggs are brown. Which makes it much harder to dye them. I even wrote about it last Easter... and included pictures!) Anyway, Easter eggs rock.
2. Eyes - Some women like butts; others like big muscles; I like eyes. I love that sexy, intense, you're-the-only-one-in-my-universe look that Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, and the younger version of Harrison Ford can do so well. Oh, melt!
   
3. Experiences - Doing new things is a big thrill for me. If you read my entry about 34 things I've done in my 34 years, you'll see that I like doing new things. Also, I just gotta mention the Girls' Adventure Weekends as experiences I've loved!
   
4. Emma Bull - This MN author wrote War for the Oaks, which was my favorite book for ages and still has a special place in my heart. It's very much a book of a certain place and time, but I love her descriptions, especially when it's of a place I've been. This book and a stuffed animal were the two anti-homesick items I brought along for my 3 months in New Zealand back in 1995.
   
5. Europe - Ok, I can use this as a blanket E to cover the 5+ months in 2002 when Mr. Kluges and I cut loose and backpacked, mostly in Ireland, but also visiting Paris, Germany, Belgium, Italy (yay for Venice, Rome & Pompeii), Prague, and London. Also our visit to France and Germany this past summer, not to mention that we're currently living in the continent.
   
6. Ella Fitzgerald - I can occasionally be found belting out "Something's Gotta Give" or "They Can't Take That Away From Me" in the privacy of my car...when I'm all by myself... and nobody else can hear me.
   
7. Embryo - Mr. Kluges came up with this one when I told him what letter I was assigned. Yup, I gotta say I am excited about being pregnant and adding a second child to our family. (Not about the not drinking or various discomforts or the pain and agony of labor, but the rest of it and ending up with a baby, you know.)
   
8. Ernie - and the rest of Jim Henson's muppets. Sesame Street, the Muppet Show - they're such fond childhood memories! (Thanks, Jaysan for this idea... you'll notice I didn't use the other one!)
   
9. Eating - Yup, I'm a big fan. I love popcorn, corn on the cob, chocolate, mushrooms, black olives, steak, good hamburgers, thick french fries, ice cream, and oh, so many other yummy things!
   
10. Extra - as in extra helping of chocolate cheesecake, extra cash, extra long hot bath, extra pair of clean socks when yours get wet, extra chocolate-y hot chocolate (like from O'Conaill Chocolate in Cork City), extra piece of pepperoni and mushroom pizza, extra long backrub, extra cob of fresh sweet corn, etc. etc. etc.!

And there you go - 10 things I like that start with E! I did it! Let one of us know if you want a letter for yourself!

P.S. Happy New Year! It's only a little more than an hour 'til we hit 2007, but a bit longer for most of the rest of you. Anyway, best wishes for '07!

December Goal

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copyright 2006 by Ms. Huis Herself
Please read this at http://www.musenmutter.blogspot.com/
because that is the REAL site. Thank you!
****************

So it's a new month. How'd November go? Well, I had two goals - to limit myself to not more than one treat per day and to finish the back of my mosaic. I did... ok with the treat goal. It got easier the further away from Halloween we got. :) Less thinking about temptation, I suppose. Not that I was great at it, but the goal did make me more aware of how many I was eating and kept me from totally pigging out.

As for the mosaic, well, I did great the first half of the month. And then? I put it away upstairs since we were having guests for dinner so it couldn't stay out on the dining room table. And I needed to cut more tiles. And I was behind on household stuff. And I needed to get going on Xmas stuff.

And so I haven't touched it since.

I know, I know - I was all about the feeling of accomplishment I'd get for finally finishing it, blah, blah, blah, but you know, I did get some of that feeling by crossing Xmas stuff off my list - like ordering presents for people or getting our Xmas cards created and ordered (not that they're done yet, but I'm well on the way - I just need to get Mr. Kluges to get his share of the writing done for our mutual friends and ones that are more his). And I did get quite a few more rows done, so progress was made. (See, I did! I wrote about it with photos!)

It just might have to be a goal another month.

And as for my December goal, I'm taking the month off!

Actually, no, I won't start any new goals, but let me say this...

My goals for December are to continue the near total (I've got a birthday coming up... and New Year's Eve - I can have a glass of wine or bubbly for those!) ban on alcohol I've been living under for a while... and to keep taking my prenatal vitamins every day.

*grin* Yup, that is an announcement! We're due mid-May. Hooray!!