Week in Review

Surprise! It's in list form!

• Remy started sleeping though the night this week! He sleeps from 9/10-4/5. I hope he keeps it up!
  
• I had two gallstone attacks. I almost caved and went to the hospital but instead I toughed it out and am feeling much better now. Just a few more weeks to go!
  
• Thanks to gallstone attacks and Remy's new sleeping schedule my milk production fell off a cliff and I am working on getting it back. Fenugreek, oatmeal and pumping - fun, fun!
  
• I'm reading Shauna Niequist's new book, Bittersweet. It's pretty much fabulous, which is no surprise - her first book, Cold Tangerines, was one of the best books I read in 2007.
• We're re-tightening our belts and getting some more work done on the Lombard house. Hopefully this will make it more appealing to people. I feel a pang in my chest when I think about the house, it's like realizing you forgot the family pet half way across the country.
  
• It was so hot, I spent almost no time outside this week. I hope to make up for it this weekend.
• I fit into a pair of pre-pregnancy pants today! When I catch my reflection in the mirror it is starting to look more familiar and that is a huge relief.
  

I think Fanny's character definitely would have benefited from a little fight club.

Ten Things...

I'm on an extra low-fat diet while I await gallbladder surgery on August 19th and I am getting very tired of rice cakes and applesauce. Here are ten things I have been fantasizing about eating!

• Chicago-style hot dog
• mint chocolate chip ice cream cone
• butter
• fried eggs
  
• pizza with green peppers and onions
• peanut butter sandwich
• Oldtimer cheese burger
  
• salmon
• Snickers bar
• chicken parmesan

(((Sigh))) Ross may have to restrain me so that I don't try to eat them all at once!

Growth!

My Perpetually Shiny Sink

As of today I have completed the first 31 days (or babysteps) of Flylady, the famous home-improvement/self-improvement program that starts with a shiny sink. I am thoroughly hooked.

Maybe it's the sleep deprivation of being a new mom, or maybe it's because on my own I am such a hopeless procrastinator, but I love waking up every day with an email in my inbox telling me exactly what to do. It even reminds me to brush my hair and put my shoes on! That might make a more together woman feel like an idiot, but at the end of the day when the baby is asleep and I can look around at a tidy house with no laundry or dishes waiting for me, I feel a wave of peace, and I can go to sleep looking forward to the next day.

If it takes having a stranger instructing me when to vacuum my carpet or clean out my purse, then so be it. Flylady's wish is my command.

An Oasis in the Desert

Summer in the Mojave Desert gets old fast. I have to go out to get the mail at night because during the day the hot air stings my nose. The cats don't scratch at the door anymore because the cement floor of the balcony scorches their paws. And if I don't water my plants at night before bed it takes them all of one day to start curling up and drying out.

So to be able to get in the car and drive 30 minutes to a place that is a good 20 degrees cooler feels like a miracle! Mt. Charleston is a favorite destination for locals for that very reason, and I made it out there for the first time last week when the Stangers were in town.

Not only is it cooler, it's gorgeous and shady and smells like pine heaven! It made me feel like I was back in the Appalachians on vacation...and it's practically in our backyard! Just one more reason that I have fallen in love with Las Vegas.

I Write Like...

I heard about this website on the oh so high brow Kathie Lee & Hoda this morning and had to try it out. You copy and paste an excerpt of your writing (a blog entry, email etc.) and the website uses an algorithm to compare your style to that of famous authors and comes back with a match. It matched me with David Foster Wallace which was kind of a disappointment because, besides the circumstances of his unfortunate end (which received wall-to-wall coverage worthy of the passing of a president on NPR a couple of years ago), I am totally unfamiliar with him.

Anyway, click on the link to see which famous author the software thinks you write like.

I write like
David Foster Wallace

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Remy News

• Remy turned two months old this week!
• He has grown about 3.5 lbs and nearly 5 inches and is now 2 feet tall!
• He loves to take baths in the big bath.
  
• He hooks his arm around me and holds on when I carry him which is sweet and helpful.
• He is a morning person.
• He likes looking at the people in my magazines, especially the pretty ladies in the cosmetics ads. He smiles and makes flirty faces at them!
  
• He has begun to notice the cats. He thinks their tails are quite interesting.
• He loves his daddy!
  
• His affection for ceiling fans is being eclipsed by his love for his teddy bear mobile.
• He is getting too tall for size 0-3 month onesies, but is too skinny for 0-3 month shorts.
  
• His smile takes my breath away.
  

What's Up

• Steph and co. are on their way for a nice long visit! I'm getting the guest room ready and counting down the minutes!
• I turned 32 this week. I don't mind the age, it's just the dang biological clock that freaks me out. I still want to have one more kid and I want to do it before I turn 35 but I can't start trying until I get my thyroid out and I can't get my thyroid out until I wean Remy, and that's not something they encourage you to rush...So I know I should chill, but EEEK!
• Ross got me a nook (Barnes & Noble's e-reader) for my birthday! Best husband ever!
• Remy's hair is growing back and it looks fabulous. Seriously I'm kind of obsessed with his hair and his eyelashes these days. I wish it was okay to put bows and ribbons on boys because he is just sooo pretty :P
  
• I'm totally annoyed at Southwest Medical, the company that pretty much monopolizes all medical care around here. It's been more than a week and I'm still waiting on a referral to a surgeon for my gallbladder and no one will freaking call me back.
• My gallbladder sucks and makes me cry. But that's what hydrocodone is for!
• Ross and I are going to a taping of Wheel of Fortune next week! Is it dorky that we live in the "Entertainment Capital of the World" and that's what I wanna see?
• Remy's two month appointment is also next week - two months, already? Slow down, little guy!
  

A Manly Man

(Photos from Fourth of July weekend.)

Followed by...

Reading...

Steph lent me her copy of Donald Miller's A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (because it hasn't come out in paperback yet and I'm cheap like that :) i'm only half way into it so far but I think it's good, at least as good as Blue Like Jazz and maybe better. Here are some of the bits I copied into my journal:

I've wondered...if one of the reasons we fail to acknowledge the brilliance of live is that we don't want the responsibility inherent in the acknowledgement. We don't want to be characters in a story because characters have to move and breathe and face conflict with courage. And if life isn't remarkable, then we don't have to do any of that; we can be unwilling victims rather than grateful participants.

If the point of live is the same as the point of a story, the point of life is character transformation.

I admitted something other than me was showing a better way, and when I did this I realized the Voice, the Writer who was not me, was trying to make a better story, a more meaningful series of experiences I could live through.

...when you are a better character your story gets better.

Charming Little Man