Just Checking in!

I feel as if I've neglected my friend duties lately because of end of the year stress, but now it is Friday and I'm looking forward to two weeks of rest . . . ahhhhh. I know now that my life is going to be a lot more hectic in a few months, so I might as well take advantage of it now. The baby is doing fine. He or she has been kicking the mess out of me for days. No one else can feel it but me yet, but this child is either going to be a break dancer or a gymnast. Believe it or not, since I've been really careful about eating and walking every day to pick up the car after school, I haven't gained a pound in almost two months. Don't worry, the baby is getting plenty of nourishment. I have been craving eggs and fruit. The other day I made myself a fried egg sandwich where the yolk was runny (yuuuummmmm) and it tasted so good I actually started moaning. On the very rare occasions where I've had to grab some fast food on the run, I've gotten very sick and been running to the bathroom. Unlike with Maxwell, the thought of a Big Mac kinda makes me ill.
In just a few days we will find out whether it is going to be a girl or a boy. The secretary at my school said to me the other day "Think Pink". Actually I'd rather think purple, or magenta. We will not reveal the gender of baby Flem until Christmas, however, so hold on to your hats. I know that you all are really not interested in my pregnancy body woes, but I've lost my ankles for a few months, and I've been downing Tums like they're candy. It's all coming back to me now, let me tell you. Waking up in the middle of the night coughing up stomach acid is totally disgusting. Poor baby Max had to take baby Zantac when he was a newborn because of acid reflux. Believe it or not, I discovered that the old wives' tale about excessive heartburn meaning excessive baby hair is mostly true. I'm willing to make the sacrifice, because I think that it looks a little strange when a cute baby girl is bald and wearing one of those baby headbands. I refuse to put hair accessories on my child unless they have hair to attach it to. I think that our kids are genetically doomed to be hairy, sorry baby. I'm doing well, though, and even better now that Jack has his volkswagon running again and can drive himself home from work. Woooo Hooooo! I'll post pics hopefully of Max "driving" the bug like he did the other day. He said that he was taking me to Granny's house, and made me buckle up like a law abiding citizen. See ya later!

Hello, she's still alive and kicking!

Okay, I had all of these grand ideas about announcing this will a cute picture of Max holding a sign that says "big brother", etc. But you are just going to have to use your imagination, because I'm really really tired, a little overwhelmed with housework/cooking dinner/Christmas concert for the entire school/trying to keep up with Max/and gestating. Yes, I'm pregnant!!!!!!!!!!!!

Most of you have no idea how long Jack and I have been trying (2 1/2 years) and how badly I've prayed for this. I really felt like Elizabeth in the bible, pleading and pleading for another child. Jack and I were even almost at the point of trying to investigate adoption. I'm definitely not a fertile myrtle, let's just put it that way. There are several emotions that pop up when you are trying to get pregnant, like jealousy, fear, sadness, resignation, hope, frustration. All I can say is that the Lord definitely let me sweat it out for awhile. Maybe Max needed to be older to be able to handle it, or maybe (more likely) I needed Max to be older for ME to be able to handle it.
My life is a whirlwind of doctor's appointments: specialists in Phoenix, my very cautious OB, ultrasound techs at the hospital, now maybe a psychologist? In between doctor's visits, I'm fighting with Max to get him potty trained (I've tried bribery, force, coercion, enthusiasm, all to no avail) picking up the slack for my very busy husband around the house, and trying to teach and complete my first portion of my National Board Certification. Do you get bonus points for being tired and pregnant? Right now little Fleming is 14 weeks old and doing well. I'm afraid that I have another spitfire on my hands. I can already tell. Do two crazy children equal preoccupied children that let you get things done? Or is there some kind of chemical reaction when the two collide that cause the planets to shift orbits? Only time will tell.

Hello Again!

School has started again, which means that I now have access to the Internet and can resume blogging. Actually, I have a confession to make. School has been back in for almost a month and I've been blissfully keeping tabs on my peeps through their blogs, but couldn't quite muster a blog entry for myself. For those of you who probably checked my blog a few times this summer, then gave up because there was nothing new, I repent. We've moved from Bloody Basin to Peach Lane in Strawberry. We LOVE having wood floors again and space to move around. Jack has gotten over his pre-mid-life crisis and has decided to go back to school at NAU (Flagstaff) for an Art Ed/History degree. I love this school year so far, things have been great. Right now I'm seeing the world through non-existent glasses because Max broke my Gorilla Glued glasses with a fierce hug. But hey, I sure got my money's worth because they were ghetto fixed back in February. I have my eye on some purple frames. How perfect is that? I promise to model pics of them when I can see again. The only other exciting thing in my life is that I'm playing one of the twelve virgins in a Stake musical. Lucky for me I get to be a wise one. Snicker, snicker. I find it pretty ironic that there is only one out of the twelve of us that's actually a virgin. We're talking old ladies and married women. Call it creative licence. The last time that I played something for church was in high school when I was "Billie" from Billie and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Classic acting skills, let me tell you. Keanau Reves would be proud! Well, another day and another dollar. I'll try to post something more interesting, I promise.

Anti-sweatpants in Public Mafia

I'll admit, there was a time when I wore pyjama pants to college classes, and the store, and a trip on the greyhound bus. But I am vehemently opposed to sweat pants in public. When I saw this ad, I laughed for a good 5 minutes. I think that a member of my family (who shall remain nameless) has those exact pants, only he wears them with a turtleneck (gag. . . ) Please let me know your feelings about sweatpants. Do they give you flashbacks of the 80s, or do they give you the uh oh feeling because perverts are caught wearing them. Please, elaborate.

Sir Robin of Loxley!

Hello all. Yesterday was fantastic. Jack and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary with a movie, dinner, and a trip to Home Depot. You have no idea how long it's been since we've watched a movie in the theater, and Robin Hood was a good choice--romance for me, and arrow violence and minimal fire for Jack. Is it sad that we were cuddling next to each other during the movie, quoting Monty Python in some parts and laughing at the excessive ending? Here is my review of the movie--

Ever since I was a little girl, I've been obsessed with the Middle Ages and King Arthur and Robin Hood and all that jazz. What I've discovered over the years is that people were stinky, had bad teeth, and were lucky to live past the age of 30. The movie did a good job of depicting filthy, nasty medieval men (surprisingly, Maid Marian looked pretty fresh most of the time) and awesome, bloody battles. I was actually intrigued by the new take on the storyline. However, the ending just ruined it for me. The climactic battle between the Frenchies and England on the shore was pretty good--and then Lady Marian and her army of "feral children" (yes, they were listed as feral children in the credits!) ride into battle and start kicking butt---WHAT???? Okay, I was willing to overlook that, even though Jack and I were snickering, then there was the overly cheesy slow mo "Noooooooooooooooooooo . . . " (imagine distorted faced-Russell Crowe brandishing sword in fury) from Robin as he avenged Marian's battle wounds. Too much!!!!! And did I mention that my new favorite Mr. Darcy (Matthiew McFayden) is the skeezy Sheriff of Nottingham? If you want to distort P&P visions, just check out rotten-toothed had-to-be-reeking Sheriff. Ewwwwww.


So,

decent storyline, nice costuming, excessive violence and ruinous ending. But a fantastic date night, and I will always remember quoting "There's some lovely filth over here" to Jack's amusement, eating fried cheesecake and pretty good hamburgers, and staring into the eyes of the person I want to be with forever! I love you Jack!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Hello all of the wonderful mothers out there! (And someday to be mothers) I am going to share with you some gorgeous pictures of my abuelita and abuelito on Mother's day. She is so beautiful. I hope that I look that dang good when I'm 80 years old! If I'm even half as cool as her when I'm a grandma, then I'll be happy. Gramps lucked out when he found her over 50 years ago, and they still love each other and give each other grief :) My mother's day turned out to be pretty spectacular! Max and Jack made me pancakes with berries, then Max helped me make pot roast to put in the crock pot. For the rest of the day, he smelled like garlic. Yummm! Then (I wish I had a video of this!) Max and the primary sang songs at church, which I conducted. Max was hanging over the podium, as expected, but he was singing the words that he knew at the top of his lungs and was conducting with me. How adorable is he? Then in the afternoon we got to camp in our yard with our friends from Sierra Vista, where Jack almost burned down the rental house with a gas can and a barbeque grill. I won't even elaborate on that, just imagine Jack running around the yard with a flaming gas can, waving his arms and leaving burning patches of gas in the yard--that Gary promptly stomped out with his foot. It's not very often that I get to laugh about dumb mistakes that Jack has made, because 99.99 percent of the really crazy ones are my fault, so I shall bring this even up often. Tee heee heee.

Mr. Fox is Fantastic!!!!!

Jack grabbed some kids movies from the library this weekend and I discovered a treasure: The Fantastic Mr. Fox!!!!!! Turns out the only thing kid-like that kept Max's attention was the moving animals and neat yellowish coloring, but the dialogue was definitely adult. My favorite scene is when Mr. Badger (played by Bill Murray) and Mr. Fox (played by George Clooney) get into an argument in Mr. Badger's lawyer office. They start growling and spitting at each other as they circle around and around. Watch this clip and pay attention to how Mr. Fox eats--Max has been duplicating it all weekend.

Chocolate Covered Peeps and Mississippi Tornadoes

I was surprised yesterday by a package from my best friend (YOU ROCK LULU!)--A huge box of dark chocolate covered peeps! What could be better than cheap marshmallow goodness made stale by sitting it on the counter for a few days? Adding chocolate, of course! Stale peeps have been my guilty pleasure for about 15 years now, and my true Giuli friends indulge my passion by buying them on sale after Easter and passing them on. My habit has been aided by living in the dry climate of Arizona. One year in Mississippi, I slashed the packages open and put them on top of the fridge. I waited and waited for them to get stale, and 6 months later they were still moist and soft--yuck! Here in Zonie land, it only takes a couple of days for them to get to their peak state of chewiness. On a similar subject, has anyone noticed that bread gets moldy very quickly in the South, but only gets very hard in more arid climates? Except good old bunny bread, which has some sort of unmentionable chemical that keeps it "fresh" for about a month.

On a more somber note, I'm a little slow on the national news because Jack and I don't have TV, but as soon as I heard about the twisters in my beloved Mississippi, I ran to school and looked it up on the Internet. I read dozens of stories and watched the videos, and almost cried when it showed all of the homes and roads devastated. My goodness, it looked just like Hattiesburg after Katrina!!!!! I can still smell the chainsaws cutting through the pine trees so that we could get out of our neighborhood. The troopers of Yazoo City have a tough road ahead of them, but in true Southern fashion, the residents and volunteers are rolling up their sleeves and gettin it done. One of the neatest things about the storm aftermath in Mississippi was attending the block "pot lucks", where everyone cleaned out their freezer and cooked it up on the gas grills for friends and neighbors. Some of the fare that we ate one night was barbecued pork, steaks, fish, and hot dogs. Once the streets were clear, everyone on my block cleaned up limbs in surrounding yards, tarped roofs, and surrounded battery powered TVs to get the latest news updates. Our good ol' neighbor, Bob, spurred by homemade moonshine, mowed the yards of the entire street in a fit of good humor one day. It was surely the most scary experience of my life to be at the mercy of Nature, but the love and support of family and friends made it bittersweet. I absolutely ADORE the wonderful people of Mississippi, and I will love them until the day I die. Please keep these folks in your prayers, and share the love-Mississippi style-with your neighbors.

Louisa May Alcott was a genius!

First of all, I'd like to share with you my random teacher's lounge tear off calender quote of the week:

While faith makes all things possible, it is love that makes all things easy.

Isn't that just stinkin profound? It has been a boring, AIMS state testing week experience. I've had hallway duty. Oh, don't gasp with excitement! For 12 hours this week I've been guarding the hallway--not from intruders or masked ninjas--but from noise causing 4th and 5th graders getting rowdy while on potty break. The bad news is, I discovered that the hallway stays a frigid 60 degrees, the good news is that I've read two good books!!!!! In desperation yesterday morning I realized that I hadn't picked a new one, and grabbed an ancient one from the bookshelf that I probably haven't looked at in 17 years--"Little Men" by Alcott. It is strange how motherhood (and especially being a mother to a raggedy toddler boy) changes your perception of classic novels. I was at times rolling with laughter at the playful antics of Jo's boys, and then at other times brushing away tears as Alcott describes the search for Jo's little son Rob, who gets lost in the woods picking blackberries for his mommy. When Jo and the search party discover him, he is fast asleep in the woods, with a berry stained mouth and sweaty red face. He only eats just a few berries, despite his fearful hunger, because he was saving them for his "Marmar". After clutching him to her, Robby says "I knew that you would come!", and then proceeds to shove the berries into her mouth. Reading this novel reminds me of the sweaty dirt-stained hands that wrap so tightly around his Momma's neck and the incessant goodnight kisses bestowed upon me by my Max. I admit that I indulge him with caresses and loves and kindnesses a lot, but I don't think that he will ever fault me for not loving him enough. I am ever realizing that he is more of a miracle than I ever supposed. That unique little body and stout mind were meant to come to us, and I pray that we can grow him into a fruitful tree before long.

Max was playing beauty parlor

My sister is just going to scream when she reads this email. I have only let two people in my life brush my hair when it's dry--Jack, and now Max. (They're my men, what can you say?) I was lounging on the couch last weekend when Max approaches me with a bristle brush. "Accchhh" by inner self is saying, because bristle brush + curly hair = carnage. He just looked too coy, however, and I relented. "Brush, Mama" he was saying, and for the next 30 minutes or so he proceeded to turn my hair into a rat's nest. After every stroke, he grabbed my face in his hands and said, "Pretty!" and even occasionally inserted a kiss. I was enraptured, laughing uncontrollably, and Jack was capturing the blackmail photos. I promise to share the said photos soon. Promise not to use them for evil? Love you all.

Is Max as adorable as I think he is?

I need some constructive criticism. I was reading in the Parenting magazine yesterday at a doctor's appointment that Regis and Kelly are having a contest for the cutest baby/toddler with scholarships awarded to the winner. Can you believe that I'm actually considering it??? I've always hated those Jon Bonet-type mothers that try to get their child into modeling at a young age. I happened to be biased, too (He is the cutest boy in the world, right?). Wouldn't it be really neat for a child with handicaps to be honored as incredibly adorable? Maybe he could be the first kid with microcephaly to win a beauty contest? Jack doesn't seem to care one way or the other (or Max for that matter) but I'm pondering it. Tell me what you think!

More Witches (uh pictures!)

More images to delight the eye!

Finally, she posts pictures!!!!!!

I have promised to post pictures of my adorable son and family, etc. So here they are. By the way, you can probably tell from the pictures that we went to the Grand Canyon during Christmas break. It is beyond words.