the happy homewrecker

I switched things over to Wordpress last night, but if you're still seeing the green and turquoise and brown design try going to http://www.happyhomewrecker.net . Within a day or so I'll be deleting my Typepad account so http://happyhomewrecker.typepad.com will no longer work.

Thanks to everyone who recommended blogging software. I've successfully installed Wordpress and am trying to figure out some domain/server stuff before switching over. Just in case things get messy, you can see the current Wordpress incarnation here: http://stinkerpie.net/hh . Eventually I hope to have it at www.happyhomewrecker.net.

It would be a difficult thing to do, seeing that I've had the domain since 1999, but I think it may be time to let go of stinkerpie.net. The only thing that's there anymore is the kids's photo album, which has more than a thousand photos and is running on an ancient version of Coppermine. I wish I could move the entire album over to my other domain, but I don't know if that's even possible without having to reinstall an photo album program (if you're using a good one, please let me know!). In the end, I may wind up having to do just that in order to let stinkerpie go.

Four years ago tonight I was in labor. I was eating chicken and rice for dinner; Gary cooked because I was totally scatterbrained, and he was royally ticking me off because he kept trying to talk to me while I was breathing through contractions. I was excited about being in labor, worried that it wasn't the real deal, and I had no idea what was in store for me.

Being the mother of Baby Spencer was a million times more difficult than I thought it would be. There were days when I thought I wasn't going to make it through to the next morning without walking out the door, there were nights when I'd have gladly given all the money we had for three consecutive hours of sleep. I thought postpartum depression was going to be the end of me. I thought I wasn't cut out to be a mother. Somehow, not in spite of how hard things were, but because of it, I grew to love him more than I could have ever imagined. The things we went through, we did them together.

Now he's turning four and I can't believe that I have a child who will be starting kindergarten next year. I remember being four. It freaks me out that he is an age that I remember being. I can't believe that he's reading and writing and asking a lot of questions that sound awfully grown-up. He has this whole preschool life outside of our house, and a growing circle of friends, and a way of making me feel like I'm the World's Best Mom even when I feel like every parenting decision I make is the wrong one. I love his grin, the way he dances with abandon, how he loves and looks after Ginger like only a big brother can.

Happy fourth birthday, Spencer-boy.

Happiness is a new set of cookware.

Gary received an annual gainshare from his company recently; most of it is going toward bills (unexciting, but necessary), but we took a small part and used it to buy a new set of pots and pans. We've had a T-Fal set for almost eight years, and the nonstick finish had started chipping off. I begged Gary to save us all from getting ill from eating nonstick finish, and we decided on this stainless set from KitchenAid that was rated well in Consumer Reports. It's so shiny.

It's time for my contract renewal with Typepad. I love the ease of the system, but not the price, especially since I'm already paying for webhosting for two domains. Any thoughts on programs like Wordpress or other things that I can download and use myself for free? I used to use Greymatter but I got really tired of the comment spam.

I'm sure I'll leave some people out because I forgot to type as I was watching, but here are a few quick AI notes anyway:

Mandisa: Excellent! I loved it. So sultry. And I liked that dress on her.

Paris: it was ok, but I really liked her dress, too.

Chris: very, very interesting. I've never heard one of Johnny Cash's songs done that way. I liked it.

Katharine: I like her, wasn't crazy about the song but she sang it well.

Taylor: Listen, Taylor, I love you to death, but I thought that was a horrible song choice. Please get some help with that, I don't want to see you kicked off too soon.

Lisa: underwhelmed. Bored.

Kevin: ugh. It's like watching a little choirboy sing.

Elliott: He's amazing at vocally challenging stuff. I enjoyed it.

Kellie: I really like this song, so I'd probably enjoy hearing anyone sing it, but I haven't been wowed by any of her previous performances, so . . .

Ace: I think I probably disagree with the majority here---I didn't like it. It sounded whiny to me. But I'm not a big Ace fan; I liked 'Father Figure' but that's about it, and I don't find him all that good-looking, so I'll be irked if he makes it to the final three riding on his looks.

There is a child at Spencer's preschool who is dropped off and picked up mostly by a caregiver other than his parents---whether it's a relative or other babysitter or daycare person, I'm not sure. This caregiver also usually has two other children with her, both younger than preschool age. I've seen her leave both smaller children in the car alone while she walked the older child inside, which bothered me, but I'm most upset by the fact that the four year-old rides in the front passenger seat of the car. I'm pretty sure that by law, the child should be in a carseat, and whether or not it's actually a law in Ohio, there's no way he should be riding in the front of the car. I do know that the preschool handbook states that all children have to arrive at and leave school in carseats.

I'm not sure what to do. My instincts tell me that I should mention it to the school's director. On one hand, am I sticking my nose in where it doesn't belong? On the other hand, I'm genuinely concerned about the safety of this child (not to mention the other two, but I think that while leaving them alone in the car for several minutes might be foolish, it's not illegal), and if something happened to the child, I'd never forgive myself for not saying something. What do you think?

One of my very favorite Christmas gifts this year was the subscription to Cooking Light that my sister gave me. In every issue I find at least five or six recipes that we like, and having access to the archive of recipes online is widening my source of dinner ideas.

In the current issue there's a little blurb about edamame, the green soybean that can be salted and eaten as a snack. I'd love to try it, but I wasn't at all surprised not to find it in the freezer section of my local grocery (which is where CL said to look for it). Anyone know if these things are sold anywhere other than health food stores? What do they taste like?

The other day Spencer and Ginger were playing quietly in his room. You know how it is: they're being quiet and nice to each other and the very last thing you want to do is go in there and disrupt the peacefulness. I was down the hall in the dining room getting the favor bags together for Spencer's party (photos to come!) when I heard Spencer say, "Put your head under my bum, little missy. Come on, put your head under my bum."

Of course my ears perked up at that, and I was torn between going in to see exactly what was going on, or leaving them be. I chose option B, then later asked Spencer what they'd been doing. He'd been trying to climb up onto his bed, and he wanted Ginger to give him a boost using her head. Which makes complete sense now, but at the time . . .

Good news for fans of NBC's "The Office": "The Office" Working Overtime . Dwight and Angela's budding relationship is killing me. And Michael? "Oh, I have the perfect screenname! LittleKidLover." My sister watches it, too; she said that to her sometimes it's almost physically painful to see some of the things that Michael does. But it's oh-so funny!