You'll Crack Your Head Open!

I want to go shopping for sandals today.  But it’s raining (again), so that means that I’ve got to wear shoes and socks.  Which means I’d have to take my shoes and socks on and off every time I wanted to try something on.  Which is a PITA.  I’ve also got to do my toes because… Well, it’s just not pretty.

I’ve made a commitment to stop being a baby and get some sandals that have that thing that goes between your toes.  Which I hate.  But I’m going to suffer for fashion for once in my life.  Because the sandals that don’t have the thing between the toes all tend to look like I’m getting ready to go play shuffleboard in Boca.

I might even get a sandal with a heel.  Because I’m stylish like that.

So we’ll see how that goes.

Last night we had some friends over for gluten free Chinese food and it was pretty good.  We tried to make wontons, but it was a bust.  They were fine, but the dough we used didn’t even come close to a wonton.  It held together.  It fried fine.  They all got eaten.  But it came out more like a stuffed cracker than a wonton.  Back to the drawing board on that one.

Patrick made curry chicken and sweet and sour pork, which were really good.  For the batter on the sweet and sour pork he used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free All Purpose Flour, which is our go-to flour for subbing in savory recipes.

In other news, I’m soooo done with using the fake blog names.  It felt kind of silly in the first place, but now that I’m giving my blog address out to people I meet in real life, I feel like I have to explain the whole fake name thing, which makes me feel like a total dork.  So my name is Nancy.  There.  I’ll get around to changing the archives at some point.

Speaking of my blog name, I’m not so into it anymore.  I thought of You’ll Crack Your Head Open! back when I thought I’d be a Sassy Mommy Blogger.  Turns out?  I’m not so sassy.  At least not on a daily basis.  I have sassy moments.  Even sassy weeks.  But being sassy every day is not going to happen.  I’ve got another name in mind that I’ll switch over to when Patrick gets around to it. Then maybe I’ll be more comfortable just saying whatever is on my mind that day.

Nancy

(I know this doesn’t look like a Works for Me Wednesday post, but stick with me, it really is.  :)  )

They’re taking over!!!  Okay… They took over years ago.  And really, if I’m gonna be honest, they just took over from whatever the heck used to be MY junk messing up the house.  I can’t even remember what it was that I used to leave lying around the house.  But it was plenty.  Trust me.

I’m actually proud to say that my daughter’s room is right now the messiest spot in the house when it comes to toys.  And other than the fact that there’s no path to the unmade bed, it’s not that bad.

By the way, his room is only clean because I just cleaned it.  Up until then it was about three feet deep from wall to wall.  I’m not kidding.  There are only four bins in his room, but if I took every one of his toys from everywhere else in the house and garage, he’d easily have more than double that.  Easily.

For most of the time we’ve had kids I’ve used those clear plastic bins like the ones in my son’s room up there.  I even tried to color code them by using different colored duct tape around the edges, but it still wasn’t working because those bins take up a LOT of floor space.  After Christmas, it only got worse and I’ve decided we need to go vertical and do one of those cube bookcases with the fabric drawers.

The problem with that type of setup is that you can’t see what you’ve got because the fabric drawer fills the whole cube.  Not being able to see drives me nuts, which is why I thought those clear plastic bins up there would work.  If I can’t see what I’ve got, it doesn’t work for me at all.  I can’t keep track of what stuff is where, so I would just end up taking out every box to find what I’m looking for.  You’d think that it would be simple after a while, but let’s just say I’ve lived in this house for three years, and I still pull out the wrong kitchen drawer when I’m looking for my spices.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I’m starting to remember what was all over the house.  I like to have things where I can see them so I don’t forget what I have or where I put it.  Which means everything is everywhere.  Not such a good thing.

So anyway, I saw THIS post at We Are THAT Family with one of those cube things (the very last picture), but she used these half-height baskets.  You could see what you had, but it still looked organized.

I think I heard angels singing…

How perfect is that?  I think I can do that.

But you never know with me.  I tend to have a problem with follow through.  So instead of spending a ton of money on the nice wood(esque) bookcase thingy, I stopped by Goodwill to see what they had.  They had one of those wobbly wire ones, but I knew I’d never be able to deal with that.  Then I went down one of the aisles and saw this.

I found some half height baskets at Target and got three of them.  I figure if I can keep three categories of things organized, then I’ll let myself get some more.

That brings me to why this is my Works for Me Wednesday post.  What works for me is blogs and especially other bloggers.  Where else can you get so many great ideas?  There is also something about blogging that makes it so much easier to talk about the things we struggle with, big and small, and look for solutions to our problems and predicaments.  I’ve gotten fun things like recipes and decorating ideas, but I’ve also gotten messages of faith and comfort to help me get through whatever day or season I’m struggling with.  Sometimes all it takes to get through a bad day or a “parenting issue” is just knowing that there’s another woman out there dealing with the exact. same. thing.

And she’s probably got pictures.

So for everyone out there in blogland – Thanks!  You Work for Me!

For more Works for Me Wednesday posts, visit We Are THAT Family.

Today is the kids’ first day of school after Christmas vacation.  My daughter has to be at school at 8:30.  I was good and made sure she was in bed and going to sleep at 8:30 last night.  She always falls asleep fast.  It’s amazing, actually.  My son on the other hand, not so much.  He’s like me.  But he doesn’t have to be at school until 11:15, so he can sleep in.  As long as Patrick doesn’t have an early meeting he stays home while I run our daughter to school real quick.   Makes my morning a lot easier when our son gets as much sleep as possible.

I went to bed at 11:00 last night.  I didn’t fall asleep until after 3.  I’m not sure if it had more to do with me being stressed about having to get up early, or if it was the kitten laying on me and attacking my feet.  I can’t sleep if Patrick is so much as even touching my arm with his elbow.  I don’t know what it is, but I need space.  Apparently, kittens don’t believe in space.

I spent a lot of years with insomnia.  It’s one of those weird things that went away after I went gluten free.  I learned over the years that once I passed the point where I was going to get less than five hours of sleep, I had to mentally shift to nap mode rather than sleep mode.  If my brain tells my body I’m going to “sleep” and I only get three hours, my body doesn’t want to wake up.  If I tell my body I’m taking a nap and I get three hours, my body just thinks Wow, three hours, awesome nap.

Okay. So after that last post where I told you about one of my husband’s more irritating personality quirks, I decided to tell you some of the good stuff.

He’s very patient with our kids. He has taken over our daughter’s math homework because Momma can’t deal. They get it done in half the time. It’s amazing.

He cooks. I know! And it’s really good too. I know!

He says nice things about me to his friends.

He stands up for me.

If he eats gluten, he brushes his teeth before he kisses me.

He tells me I look gorgeous even when I don’t. (He didn’t start out this way, but he eventually learned that this is one case where I want him to lie if he needs to.)

He doesn’t like saying no to salespeople. Ask me about how we almost got a timeshare at an old rundown ski “resort” sometime. He’s a total soft sell.  I was just there for the free dinner voucher.

One of his best friends is his dad.

Up until his mom had to quit the team because she developed some foot problems, he played on the same weekly recreational soccer team as his mom for almost 10 years.

And he’s pretty cute too.  Yowza!

I love reading blogs where you really get to know the person who is writing it.  Which isn’t what I’ve been doing at all.  I’ve been writing random things rather than writing about what’s really on my mind.  I’m a pretty private person and I’m not used to sharing every aspect of my life with every person in my life.  There are things I tell my husband that I don’t talk to my friends about, and things that I tell one friend, but not my husband or other friends.  Which is pretty average I think.  Telling everyone the same thing can take some getting used to I guess.

You know, I think that’s why I never got into Facebook.  I’m not necessarily comfortable announcing the same status update to every Facebook friend I have.  It’s not that I do anything that exciting, but it feels a little weird.  I don’t know..

I’m also just too long-winded for Facebook.  If I’m going to post that I’m having mexican food for dinner, I’m probably going to want to give you a recipe or a link to a restaurant website.

So there’s that.

The next reason is kind of hard to talk about because I don’t want to make my husband sound bad.  Because he’s not.  This is just one of those areas where we don’t connect.  Basically, Patrick has a habit of turning things into a debate.  If I’ve got an opinion that differs from his, he wants to discuss and debate it.  He’s not trying to be rude or anything.  It’s fun for him.  He enjoys that kind of stuff like some guys like sports.  So if it’s fun for him it must be fun for me right?

Not.

Also, even with the things that aren’t debate fodder, he’s sooooo not interested in the same stuff as I am.  He’s a basic man.  He has no interest in hearing about my ongoing search for a good sandal or what color I want to paint the bathroom.  I remember someone once said that if you want to irritate your husband, talk to him about the things you should be talking to your friends about.  Which I think is smart advice.  But it also just reinforced my whole not sharing thing.

To be honest, I’m not sure Patrick knows the everyday-thoughts me very well.  At least not like my friends know me.  Which is a strange thing to say about the person you’re spending your life with.

If I were to say to Patrick, “I think I need a new hairstyle.”  He would vaguely register that I might have said something.  He would glance over and nod, then go back to doing whatever it was he was doing.  If I said the same thing to my friend Maggie, she would go white as a ghost, and think “Oh Lord.  Not again.”  Because she knows that we will be discussing hairstyles for weeks and I’ll be going through every magazine I can get my hands on to find THE PERFECT hairstyle.  Then after I’ve picked a few choices, I’ll analyze them, maybe make some sketches of my own.  Then I have to find THE PERFECT salon so I have to go find reviews to read so I can find THE PERFECT salon and THE PERFECT stylist.  Then half the time I chicken out and don’t even get the stupid haircut.

So, I’m not entirely sure that my husband is ready to actually know what I’m thinking about.  And I’m not sure if I’m ready to debate about what I’m thinking about.

So we’ll see how this goes.

I have been wanting a cat for a long time now.  As much as I love our big moose of a dog, he’s not exactly a lap dog.  Although I think he wishes he was.  Now I’ve got this little snuggle kitty.

Her name is Jewel and we got her at Petsmart.  She’s 7 months old.  She’s already spayed, has all of her shots and has been checked for all those things you have to check cats for.  Considering that the adoption fee was only $60, it was a bargain.

She’s pretty gentle.  Even when she goes into attack kitty mode, she doesn’t put her claws out much and she doesn’t bite down.  So once she grows out of the crazy kitten phase, she should be an awesome lap cat.  She’s already claimed my hubby for a nap buddy.

Last night I went out with a few friends and tore. it. up!  Woot!

Okay… fine.  We went to Joe’s Crab Shack for dinner (thanks to their gluten free menu that they emailed me ) and then walked around Old Sacramento.  But it was fun!

The picture is, from left to right, C, Maggie, me and Alexandria. Maggie and I have been close friends for years and we used to live just a few miles apart, but now we live on opposite sides of town. Which means of course we almost never see each other anymore. C is Maggie’s good friend and Alexandria is my good friend. It was great for us all to meet each other finally.

After we stuffed ourselves on crab and margaritas, we went walking around Old Sac to see what there was to do on a Friday night. As we were walking, C asked a bouncer we passed how much it was go get into that club and he said it was free. Fantastic! So we headed down the stairs and got ready to get our party on. There was nobody in there but us. Um… woohoo… Oh well. It was still only 9 or so, so it was way early for any crowds anyway. The bartender said that it had just opened the weekend before too. It ended up being a techno club, which I have to say wasn’t our thing, considering that most of us are either over or fast approaching 40, but they had a really cool patio area in the back.  It was a gorgeous night, so we spent a while out there.

We were about ready to head home for the night, but C said that we had to go to this one place before we left.  She led us down an alley to a place called The Back Door Lounge.  Oh my gosh!  As soon as we walked in I was in LOVE… It looks like a lounge from a movie. Dimly lit, red and gold velvet wallpaper, the whole deal.  To top it off, the lounge singer is fantastic.   Lee Diamond.  Not only is he a great singer, but he was friendly, talked to the crowd, made you feel like one of the regulars immediately and he was fun and funny.   Definitely somewhere we’ll go back to.

I’m soooo glad Halloween is finally over.  I’m ready to be done with it.  I’m not much for horror  movies or anything like that, so by the time Halloween week rolls around I’m up to here with all of the scary movies and TV plots everytime I turn on the television.  I did more decorating for Halloween this year than I probably ever have.  Which means there are pumpkins on my mantle.  I’ve always got a lot of plans for decorating, but never quite get it together.  Maybe I’ll hit some clearance sales and see if I can get some stuff for next year.

Right now I’m fighting off some sort of a bug.  It’s just hovering in the headache and sorethroat stage right now.  Thank goodness oscillococcinum and zicam are gluten free.  I hate just sitting there and letting a bug get me.  At least those make me feel like I’m doing something that might help.

I’m going to be hosting Thanksgiving for our family this year.  I think I’m going to go the honeybaked ham route if they’re still gluten free.  As of Easter, someone on one of the message boards confirmed that the ham was GF, but it’s always better to reverify I think.  And it only takes a few minutes to email.  I’m hoping their ham and turkey are both gluten free so we can have both.  It’s a small group.  Just 8 adults, one teenager and four littles from 4-8 years old.

I’m planning on going the traditional route – ham and turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes (chunks, not mashed), fried okra courtesy of my FIL and a big salad.  Then pumpkin pie for dessert.  I might add some other stuff if I’m feeling like doing it when Thanksgiving gets closer, but I think that’s pretty much going to be the basic menu.  As long as Honeybaked gets back to me with good news the only thing I need to really get that’s gluten free is pie crust from Whole Foods.  That’s easy enough.

I’ve also got my birthday in November.  I’ll be 39.  Woot!  I’m obnoxious about getting older.  I’m totally fine with it.  Some of the side effects, not so much.  But getting older in itself doesn’t bother me.

Today I’m going to try to get through a bunch of laundry.  I’m planning on going through my son’s toys and “putting them in the attic” (wink, wink..).  I always pull a few aside that I think he might still miss and keep them in the garage for a few weeks just in case he notices something is gone.  I went through my daughter’s toys a couple weeks ago and she’s done fine with it.  Fingers crossed that my son doesn’t freak about anything I can’t get back.

So, my husband read my blog  post this morning.  He walks in the room holding up his hand showing five fingers.

Five.

Five..  Five what?

$5.95 a month.  The blog hosting.  It’s $5.95 a month.  It was $80 to set everything up, but then it’s $5.95 a month.

(… )

But you said last night that it was $80 a month.

I just want you to take it seriously this time.

(…)

So yea… This time I’m taking it seeeeriously.  Oooo….  Watch out people!  It’s about to get seeeerious.  (snort..)

That was all of fifteen minutes ago and he’s already looking nervous.    Mwahahahahaa…

Hey look!  I’ve got a blog!

Again!

(ahem..)

You know that old story about the shoemaker’s family having no shoes?  Well, my husband is a computer guy.  Who wanted to host my blog on our own server.  So… yea…  No blog.

I mean, I had a blog.  Entries, pictures, heartfelt missives…  Then I stopped having stuff to write about.  Well, that’s not exactly true.  PLENTY to  write about.  Let’s just say I got sidetracked with IRL stuff and stopped blogging very much.  And I was coming up on my 100th post.  Which meant I had to write the 100 Things About Myself post.  Because of bloggy tradition and all…  So I was kind of stuck on pre-writing that.  Then there was the IRL stuff that pulled me away.  Lots of fun.  Some frustration, but no real drama.  Just life.

So along the way somehow there was some sort of computer thingy where our server that hosted my blog stopped working right and it got put on the back burner by my husband because I wasn’t actively blogging.  In his defense, he does work his booty off at work.  Like the shoemaker’s wife, I hate to ask him to have to do even more work when he gets home..  I was assuming that my blog still existed if you happened to stumble upon it, but it didn’t.  So if you found my recipes for gluten free graham crackers or gluten free goldfish crackers when I posted them a year or so ago, I really thought you could still access it.  Sorry bout that…

When I told my husband that we needed to get those posts back he made one of those noncommital noises that only computer guys can make.  If you’ve got a computer guy for a husband, you know the noise I’m talking about.  Kind of a verbal shrug if you will.  Better yet… I’ve realized over the years that computer guys are kind of like mechanics or carpenters.  So in those terms, basically my husband took off his baseball hat and scratched his head.  Then he looked at the sun, put his hat back on and wiped the back of his neck with his bandana.

As you can see, it’s a serious situation.  But I think he might be able to get the parts in by next week.

Where I was going with this originally is that my husband also realized that rather than hosting my blog on our own server, he should cough up the dough and have my blog hosted by one of those website hosting places.  So he got that all set up for me.  To the tune of 80 DOLLARS A MONTH.  Holy crap Batman!  No pressure or anything!  Geez…!

I feel like I should tapdance or something.  I’ve got to earn my keep now.  Ya ta da ta da ta…  Shuffle ball change… Flap ball change…