Don't Judge Me

(originally posted 4/25/2013)


Today is not one of my better days, let me just start with that.



Like any other morning I got up and got dressed (sounds normal so far right?). Things were as usual until I was in the middle of a call for work.



As I sat on the call I noticed something moving near my foot out of the corner if my eye. I looked down to see a gigantic (and I mean HUGE) centipede crawling around. Immediately I screamed as if I was being kidnapped or something. At that point I remembered I was on a call for work. My first thought was 'thank goodness I was on mute!' My second thought was 'great! Now I have to present my teams' information' (which is on my computer in the area where I encountered the centipede, the area in which I can't bare to be in).



At that moment they call me to present our information...I grab the laptop and like a madwoman rip the cord out of the wall. I'm out of breath because I'm so stressed from the encounter with the bug. Standing, with my laptop in my hands, I give our status knowing that I sound as if I just ran a marathon.



I decide to go sit down at the kitchen table to calm myself down, then see this post it note that I wrote out earlier today:

In case you can't read my chicken scratch it says "I put my bra on inside out today and didn't notice for a couple if hours."

I'm not sure what's worse; the fact that I wrote myself a note like this (I wrote it to remind myself that I did it because I wanted to remember to tell Binderclips, and lets face it - I'm VERY forgetful lately) or the fact that I actually did it?

OR that I forgot to fix it and, therefore, am still wearing my bra inside out? (Oh come on! It's a sports bra type thing in my defense.)



Any who, I thought you all needed to know about all of this (as embarrassing as it is). Don't judge - you know you're not perfect either and surely you've put something on inside out at some point?



Alrighty, that's it from me. Later gators!

Look Into My Eye

There's nothing like a creepy eye picture to end your Friday! This has NOTHING to do with this post btw.

At first, it may seem as though this post has something to do with Target, it doesn't. I just thought that if you got your hopes up I would be sure to tear them down immediately.

We recently moved to Birmingham, MI. Today I went to one of my favorite places to get a smoothie for lunch - Beyond Juice. The place was hoppin' with people. What I noticed is that there were basically 3 different classifications of people:

1) Those who looked perfectly groomed, not a hair out of place with impeccable clothing and accessories to match.

2) Those who looked like they didn't care what others thought but had expensive clothing and accessories to match on.

3) Those who looked disheveled who didn't seem to care what others thought. These people also had no-name brand clothing on (which could also be expensive).

Which one do you think I fit into? 1? Nope. Most of the time my hair goes one way and I go the other. I don't think I can think of one day where this hasn't happened in my life. 2? Wrong again. I'm just going to say this and I hope I don't offend anyone with it. I don't even get the whole women and shoes and/or purses thing. I am soo not into it. For the longest time I had a Nike purse that I used. I finally gave it up when I was faced with an purse intervention at work. Since then my wonderfully, beautiful, fashion-forward sister-in-law bought me a purse that is awesome and that's all I have, the 1 purse. I am not into fashion (or fashionable, if you ask my brother) and I'm perfectly fine with that. I am also perfectly fine with others being the opposite, I just am not that way.

I usually don't notice what others have on, in fact I have no idea what is even good. I just know that Louis Vuitton is supposed to be pretty popular and I saw that name on several of the 1 and 2 folks' bags today. It got me to thinking, of the 3 groups of people who I seek out (knowingly or not knowingly) as friends. Hands down, I believe the answer is the 3rd group. So, here is a letter to my friends to let you know how I feel about you:

Dear Friends of Hulabuns,

You know those people with every hair in place? The people who look like they just walked out of a catalog? If you're friends with me, chances are, you are not one of those people.

Yes, I know, I hate to break it to you but I'm pretty sure at some point you have had a hair out of place...and, I love you for it. You are the perfectly imperfect friends that make me feel normal for my imperfections. I appreciate that you don't notice the spit up on my shirt or jeans or the salt stains on the bottom of my jeans. Or if you do, you accept that I am a work in progress (sometimes at it's worst point in production).

If I was one of those people who never had a hair out of place I would be exhausted. Looking as messy as I do is even exhausting on it's own.

I'm happy with being in the 3rd group above as I think I belong there. I am not one who wears fancy clothes or even buys expensive things. I believe living humbly best suits me, it gives me more time to value the people in my life and experiences I have more than I value possessions.

Thanks for being in my life and accepting me for who I am.

XOXO,

Hulabuns

My Mind - Unrestricted Access

Tight Pants Pic from Jimmy Fallon Show for your viewing pleasure

I was just taking a break from the kids, in other words, taking a shower. While in there I had, oh I don't know, maybe 20 full minutes to myself. As I was standing there soo many things were going through my head that I felt like I needed to document it somewhere.


Just a warning: This may be hard to keep up with, therefore I have included a  Change of Topic (COT) notification when they occur.


Anyways here we go:


Yay! Me time! Too bad at the end of it I will have handfuls of hair to say goodbye to*. Maybe I should wear a wig? I could literally have a different wig for every day of the week! Might be confusing to the kids tho...


COT


Man, Bruno Mars' hair was high during the half-time show.
I wonder if he hid snacks up in it? I'm pretty sure he could have hid some up there if he wanted to.
I wonder how much taller his hair made him? It looked like it was at least 6 inches high.
I bet guys and gals who are short were thinking "good idea, I could gain an easy 6 inches off of a hairdo like that."


COT


Singing "Everybody's talkin' bout my tight pants, I got my tight pants, I got my tight pants on"


COT


Will Ferrell's hair in the tight pants skit with Jimmy Fallon was really funny. It looked like that teacher's hair that I took Child Development (or something along those lines) from in high school...what was her name again? I believe she taught Child Development but didn't have any kids...


COT


Singing "Everybody's talkin' bout my tight pants, I got my tight pants, I got my tight pants on"


COT


I am soo not interested in wearing tight pants. I guess the pair I have been wearing lately are kind of tight but are they really tight pants? What makes a pant be classified as tight? Probably just that they are, in fact, tight...


COT


I'm hungry ... Singing "I like chicken...."


COT


Continue to sing "...I like liver, meow mix meow mix please deliver"


COT


The new black hole is the unblack hole?  Or would it be more like an tunnel based on Hawking's new theory? Black tunnel? But it converts stuff into other unrecognizable stuff... Unblack converter tunnel?


COT


Singing "Everybody's talkin' bout my tight pants, I got my tight pants, I got my tight pants on"


And that's all that I could remember that went through my head! Well, now 1 of 3 things has happened:
1) The tight pants song is in your head
2) The meow mix song is in your head
3) Both songs are in your head


Hope you have a great day!


*Do you know that when you (I'm talking to the ladies on this one) have a baby (or at least when I have just recently had a baby) your hair falls out in droves? Oh yeah, it literally cannot get off of your head fast enough...it's like your head is the plague and it's trying to avoid it.

A Letter to a Person Who Recently Unfriended Me on Facebook (PWRUMF)

Dear PWRUMF,

I hope all is well! I wouldn't know because, well, you unfriended me and I can't see if you are ok or what is going on with you.

Two days ago you shared a news posting that was talking about the Disney Channel and how they recently had a lesbian couple on one of their shows. Your comment was that you won't be watching that show anymore or something along those lines. It seemed like it resulted in a firestorm of comments with people disagreeing and agreeing with you. I wouldn't have even noticed the post if one of our mutual friends hadn't pointed it out. This individual didn't comment on your post and neither did I, and just so you know - the individual is gay. The person who pointed it out was saddened by the post, which makes me sad because I care about that person. 

Soon after I read the post you unfriended me. I only know this because the same person who told me about it asked me if I could see the post later in the day as they thought you had deleted it. When I went to check if it was still there, we were no longer friends.

That being said, I think it's important to understand that people have different beliefs (religious or otherwise) which, in some cases, dictate what people do in their every day lives. Sometimes (in fact many times) I don't understand this especially when it results in excluding certain groups of people based on various different reasons (sexual orientation for example). Let's just say "I don't get it" and leave it at that.

Either way you lean on this issue - I respect your beliefs. I may not agree with them but I do respect them.




So, you may ask yourself, why am I posting this if the person will never see this? (Let's be honest, even if I post it on Facebook, not many people will read it.) I'm posting it to say thank you to this PWRUMF. I'm thanking you because you made me come to terms with what I already knew but I guess didn't want to admit to myself; we aren't really friends and never really were to begin with (acquaintances - yes, friends - no).

It stung my ego a little for you to unfriend me, but after coming to this realization I realize I'm not going to miss your posts (even though they were few and far in between). I always hope you are doing well but I've never thought "I wonder how ____ is doing?" about you, which leads me to believe it was the right choice for both of us.

My hopes are that you unfriended me for this reason and not because I have different beliefs than you do. If that's the reason you unfriended me than I can say without hesitation, I think it's the wrong decision; one that only someone with a closed mind would make.




Goodbye.

P.S. Maybe we'll see each other at a class reunion someday - that'll be fun, right? And not in any way awkward. :)

Making Decisions: A New Approach

Yes, I did just actually do this...

I was going to make smoked salmon quiche, however I made it on Monday night and have been eating it all week. While it was good - I'm sick of it. 

It did help me make a decision but now I have to fill out another one. Wish me luck!

Snaz Fisheries aka My Battle with a Dangerous Predatory Animal

Saw these guys at the Kansas City Zoo a few years ago. Glad I saw them there and not out in the wild as described below.

Hello Everyone! We've had a lot going on the past couple of months (I mean A LOT)...had a baby, bought a house, that kind of stuff. I'm not going to bore you with those details. Instead, today I was reminded of this post by reading a Popular Science article today about an African fish that can catch and eat flying birds. I had to post this blog again because as soon as I saw this article it was all I could think about. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


I originally posted this back in April of 2010, but thought I'd post it again, since it's one of my favorite Hulabuns nightmare stories and I'm pretty sure most of you haven't read it.

This one goes back a couple of years. One night Binderclips and I were in bed sleeping. I was sleeping with my head on his shoulder (this was before we realized what happens to me when I get hot while sleeping, more on that later). So, he was on his back and I was all snuggled up on my side laying towards him with my head on his shoulder, near his ear.

Anyways, I was having a dream that basically consisted of me watching a documentary on predatory animals. It started with the black bear and how it "cautiously sneaks up on elk and moose" (said in a documentary type voice - think Alec Baldwin-ish (but not the yelling at his daughter Alec, more like 30 Rock Alec)). It went on to describe how "the black bear only hunts salmon at night as it's dark fur is easily seen during the day". I found this to be gripping and could not stop watching such a fascinating documentary.

Next came the Snaz fish, in which "sneaks up on it's prey, then, without warning, eats the prey whole in one gulp!" 'HOLY SHIT!' I thought, 'it looks like such a harmless fish'. I was obviously not expecting it to eat the nice little fishy it was following (think Finding Nemo with Dory following around Marlin type deal) whole - in an instant. 'And I thought they were friends!' I thought, devastated.

Then, all of a sudden, I was dropped into the water to compete with the Snaz fish. "Swim quick and keep chomping" said the documentary type voice "you must catch the prey before the Snaz fish does." So, what did I do? I FREAKING STARTING SWIMMING AND CHOMPING SCARED FOR MY LIFE!! I was chomping and swimming and swimming and chomping and just could not catch the darn prey AND THE SNAZ FISH WAS QUICKLY APPROACHING!! I just tried to swim faster and chomp harder!!

Next thing I know I'm looking at Binderclips who's looking at me with a terrified look on his face.


I'm awake. 'Crap, guess I lost that competition' I think. "What are you doing??!!" he says (in a terrified voice). I respond with "Oh, I was just having some dream about a documentary in which I was in a competition with the Snaz fish. I had to eat the prey before it did, you know that kind of stuff" (thinking he must have just woken up from a terrifying nightmare himself). I follow it up with "Are you ok? Must have been some nightmare you were having, you look terrified". Still looking terrified he says "NO, I'M NOT OK! I thought you were going to bite me!!"


"Bite you! Why would I do that?" I say. "Because you were squirming all around and chomping at my ear!" he says. To which I respond to with a burst of laughter. I flash back to my dream and do recall doing both of those things, however did not think I was really doing them or was I?

I finally get him to believe that I was not actually trying to bite him (it was harder than you might think as we had an incident before this in which he was teasing me with a piece of chocolate and I MAY have bit him, accidentally, of course).

To this day he does not let me live down the Snaz fish incident. In fact, on occasion I find that he's named things 'Snaz Fisheries' (he made something on my computer this name, I forget what it was exactly). We still have discussions on how I came up with "Snaz fish" as the type of fish, which I honestly have no clue why that was it's name. :)

Have a great day folks! Later gators!

Originally posted 4/7/2010

Baby A - Makes Her Entrance

Baby A's inquisitive look

Wondering what I've been up to? 

Baby A decided to make her entrance on September 15! Only 9 days early! I thought for sure she was coming the week prior to that...I was having consistent Braxton Hicks (every 2-5 minutes for a couple days there) and that's what happened the day before Baby G decided to make her entrance (she was 11 days early).

Our little smiler, she's' always smiling in her sleep!

Any who, in case you were wondering (and really even if you're not, cause I'm gonna tell you anyways) how the whole labor and delivery thing went - I figured I'd share the story.

First thing's first though - isn't she cute??!! Seriously. She's probably the cutest thing you've ever seen, I'm sure of it. ;)

So back to the labor and delivery:

At around 4:30AM on 9/15 I woke up because I was uncomfortable. Thinking that I just needed to adjust myself and how I was sleeping because I looked like this and was HUGE:

I tried to adjust and realized my discomfort came about every 3-5 minutes. The real contractions had begun. Binderclips had went into Baby G's room around 2AM and had fallen asleep on her floor waiting for her to fall back asleep. To make matters worse, Baby G, who had never done anything like this before, somehow found her way to directly in front of her bedroom door to sleep. This made it near impossible for me to open the door and tell Binderclips what was going on without waking her up.

By 6:30AM my contractions had gotten more serious. I decided it was time to wake the hubs up. I opened up the door and peered into Baby G's room and whispered "this is it" over and over again until he woke up. He finally got up, called his parents to come and get Baby G and they showed up in between 7:30-8:00. By this time, my contractions were definitely getting stronger faster. I kind of struggled to get Baby G's diaper changed and get her dressed to head out the door with her Grandparents.

We arrived at the hospital at 9:00AM...so that makes the count for how many hours I was in labor at this point 4.5 hours. They checked me and I was only dilated to 4cm. By 9:30 they admitted us.

I also should mention that because my contractions were so powerful at this point I decided that standing up and leaning over onto the bed made them slightly (ever so slightly) less painful. From 9:30-10:00 I stood there taking my contractions in stride. Almost right on the dot, my water broke at 10:00.

I asked for an epidural immediately. They told me the anesthesiologist was giving another patient one at the time and that they needed my lab work before he could give me one.

It was amazing that I even survived the half hour between 10:00 to 10:30. I literally thought I might die. I continued to stand there, leaning over when contractions hit and got increasingly more painful. I kept asking where the anesthesiologist was and eventually all I could say was "please help" as my brain and mouth combined seemed to not function anymore than that. In my head I was saying the worst profanities you can imagine. I'd like to say that this is a testament to what it would take me to drop an f-bomb in public. I came close but not even childbirth itself was able to bring it out of me.

Do you know that when your water breaks things (and we'll just leave it at that) continue to find their way out? Well they do. Every time it happened I would say to the nurse "{insert object of your choice here} is coming out!!" and she would say "that's normal". It was around this time that the nurse said to me "Now, if you feel any pressure, you need to let me know as soon as possible."

Well, people, I felt some pressure right at 10:30. I told the nurse and she told me I needed to lay down. Did I mention that the anesthesiologist still hadn't came?? I laid down so she could check me, to which she said "Ok, honey you're ready to push."

"WTF!!?? Push? PUSH?? No. NO. I'm not ready to push! My body and this little girl were ready, I'M NOT READY! I didn't mentally prepare for having this baby with NO pain relief. OMG OMG OMG!! I'M NOT GOING TO MAKE IT! " I thought frantically.

It was at this point that I also started to think about how mad I was at Binderclips for doing this to me. As he walked around the room I thought "Must be nice to be able to walk around IN NO PAIN WHAT-SO-EVER....JERK!"...amongst other things.

At that point the doctor had made his way into the room and I began to push. By 10:37 we had welcomed a perfect little girl into this world!

The only difference between her and Baby G was a half of an ounce. I'd like to think my body hits it's max capacity when the baby gets to 7 lbs 13.5 oz (Baby G was 7 lbs 13 oz) and 21 inches (both were this long). (There must be no more room left at that point or something, who knows.) Baby A came out looking around at the world taking it all in almost immediately.

So, there you have it. I had Baby A au naturale. I guess the good thing is now I can say I did it once!  Enjoy the pictures!

The girls together, one of my favorite pictures