calling all creative-types

Watch this.  It gets better and better the longer you watch, so don’t give up after 10 seconds.

My church is totally ripping this off and doing it this year for a big banquet-y thing that we have annually.

Mr. Mouse and I are planning on participating as a couple in this cardboard testimony thing (assuming that Baby Swiss is either not born yet, or home with us in which case she will be participating with us) and we need some help with what to write on our cardboard.

If you’ve been reading for any amount of time, you probably know the highlights of our year, but just in case your world doesn’t revolve around my life, here they are:

• miscarriage #3 pointed us toward adoption
• home study physical found Mr. Mouse’s hugely enlarged kidney that was recently surgically remedied
• pregnant teenager from our church that was in my small group when I used to lead a small group asked us to adopt her baby
• car accident totaled my car and got me a minivan (this seems to be unrelated to the rest of the stuff, so probably won’t get thrown in anywhere)

Now, keep in mind that Mr. Mouse and I will each be holding a piece of cardboard with a front and a back.

Okay.

Go.

weights and measures

• 5 liters: the amount of fluid drained from Mr. Mouse’s non-functioning kidney
• 20 lbs: the amount of weight Mr. Mouse lost between Tuesday morning and Thursday afternoon
• 4 hours: the amount of time his 1.5 hour surgery took
• 2.25 hours: the amount of time his 1-1.5 hours of recovery took
• 5lbs 5oz: the estimated weight of Baby Swiss as of today
• 4 weeks: the amount of time until her due date
• 3+ hours: the amount of time I lost being on the phone with and/or waiting for Sprint’s technical support in a 24 hour period of time
• $20: the amount of money being credited to us by Sprint on our next bill
• 28 years: my age as of today

tiny littles

I love giving people their first baby gift.  When I find out a friend is pregnant, I usually run out to buy a small little gift to show that I’m sharing in their excitement – nothing extravagant, just tiny little socks or tiny little shoes or a sweet tiny little onesie.  I know what it’s like to be newly pregnant and to dream of the little tiny person that you’re expecting in mere months and I imagine it’s exciting to have tiny little packages containing tiny little things to open up even though those tiny little things are 5 million times the size of your microscopic tiny little person.

Today I got my first baby gift.

My sister told me a few days ago to be expecting a package of baby stuff in the mail.  Because it is what we do, I asked her what it was.  She didn’t tell me exactly, but she told me it was from here and that she wasn’t telling me what she picked out, but that I would have an idea if I looked at their website.

I was clueless.  Why on earth would I be able to just look at their website and know?

Well, I’ve never been one for surprises so… I looked at their website.

And I knew.

Because I clicked on “Newborn” and then saw “Baby Girl – Little Field Mouse”.

(My sister is the one who originally started calling me Mouse.  Seriously, this started way before any of you were blogging.  She still calls me Mouse.  Always.  Instead of my name.)

So, the box came today.

And I opened it.

And was totally, completely and utterly overwhelmed.

This is the first baby gift we’ve gotten and whether it is for that reason or because it is just so much stuff or because it is from my sister, I’m not sure… but I wept.

at the risk of sounding political in this election year, I’m going to talk about change

People keep telling me things along the lines of: “You’re life is about to change,” and “This baby is going to rock your world.”

My response to this:

“DUH.”

Seriously.

I may not know all of the details of how my life is going to change or all of the specifics on how my world is going to be rocked, but we’ve been very intentional about building our family.  Doesn’t it seem obvious that we would know that some changes are coming?  Doesn’t it seem obvious that we WANT this?

you can’t stop the beep

Picture this:

It’s 3am and Anonymouse & Mr. Mouse wake up to a lovely intermittent beeping.  Obviously it’s a smoke detector with a low battery.  The question is: which one?  The upstairs hallway smoke detector is right outside our bedroom door, and we can ascertain that the beeping is coming from either our bedroom or right outside of it.

Mr. Mouse goes down to the kitchen to retrieve our supply of 9V batteries.  He stands on the office chair to change the battery in the detector in the hallway.

And the beep goes on.

He gets the step ladder out of the garage to change the battery in our bedroom’s smoke detector.  It’s not tall enough to reach the tray ceiling.

And the beep goes on.

He gets the ladder out of the garage to change the battery in the smoke detector.  Gets the job done, moves the ladder to the hallway to avoid any other nocturnal mishaps.

And the beep goes on.

I’m laying in bed laughing hysterically about the whole situation.

And the beep goes on.

Mr. Mouse checks the bedroom smoke detector again.

And the beep goes on.

He checks the hallway smoke detector again.

And the beep goes on.

Finally, Mr. Mouse checks the carbon monoxide detector conventiently located in the wall outlet in our bedroom (no step ladders or ladders required).  He changes the battery and life returns to normal.

It was awesome.  I’m still laughing about it.

my name is anonymouse and I don’t feel bad about not posting in 3 weeks

This will be a bullet point post.  Before I get to that, go here.  I’m not even going to act like I have the words to describe this woman and her life/blog.  She’s pretty much the bee’s knees and I like her writing, her heart and her blog.

Now, back to one of my favorite topics.  Me.  Just kidding.  Well, it is about me and my life.  If you don’t like me, just click the link above and close this window.

Mr. Mouse:

• Husband’s surgery is scheduled for next week.  When I think about it too much, I get all anxious and can’t sleep and want lots of ice cream.  Is it over yet?
• Next week also happens to be my birthday week, so I sometimes like to make the surgery about me and feel sorry for myself that I won’t get a fun birthday (first day back at work after surgery and laid up husband).
• Mr. Mouse is taking me out for a pre-birthday week celebration this weekend.  Don’t worry.  It will be good.  And involve cheesecake.

Baby Swiss:

• Ummm…did you see the ticker?  Yes, we are at less than 40 days until Baby Swiss’ due date (I feel the need to qualify this because I don’t want to be one of those people who thinks that my baby will not be late when all most first babies are late).  This is what we call craziness.
• I went to childbirth class on Saturday with T.  Can someone tell me if this little nugget that they told us is true or false: after your water breaks, you “lose” a pint to a quart of fluid with each contraction.
• T is measuring small, so we have a sonogram on 10/24 to check the baby’s size.  Rumor has it, that they will induce labor early if Baby Swiss is staying small.  Please pray about this – that the timing would be right and that Baby Swiss is at least getting good healthy lungs, guts, etc. even if she’s not getting fat.
• T also has really bad asthma that has worsened with pregnancy and is being monitored for that.  As of last Friday, she was only getting 50% of what she was supposed to be getting in terms of oxygen.  This effects Baby’s oxygen, so pray about that too.  They are checking on this again on the 24th also.  I figure that they would be seeing her sooner than two weeks if this was serious emergency.
• The clothes are washed and the bedding is washed and on the bed.
• The bumper is too big for my washer and demonstrated this by causing the washer to throw up extra water today.

Anonymouse:

• I saved myself for last because I’m so self-sacrificing.  (See comment above and making Mr. Mouse’s surgery about me.)
• I got a minivan.  Yeah, I did it.  I was really excited about it until everyone at work made fun of me.  I know minivans are not cool.  You can’t beat them for functionality though.  If you are a minivan hater, then I don’t want to hear about it from you unless you can claim that you always choose the “cooler/more stylish” option.  So, here’s my logic.  I wear high heels and big earrings, so I can be practical with my vehicle.
• I’m training my replacement at work and it is making me want to rip my face off.  She is sooo slow.  And always asks the same questions over and over.  And she asks the same questions.
• I’ve been thinking about this lately.  I’m getting some of what I wanted.  Not everything, but it’s okay.  I’m really thankful for the way God has healed my heart in terms of the losses and in terms of wanting a biological child.  This is not something that I have worked on or even prayed about specifically.  I’ve just had a total peace about all of it.
• I’m considering starting “Project High School Reunion: An Effort to Look Even More Fabulous”.  I’m holding myself back because it doesn’t sound like a very fun project.
• I’m going to be in the delivery room when Baby Swiss is born.  For all of you who have had babies, do you have any tips for being a great “support person” (that’s the pc term they used in childbirth class)?  Do you have any tips for must have items in the hospital bag?