The Rices

On a whim, I decided to dust off the macbook and log in to the blog to do a little updating. I feel bad for Griffin because I dropped the ball on writing him a 10-12 month update letter. He deserves better than that but fortunately for me, he doesn't know that yet. He'll learn soon enough that his mom falls short of pretty much everything all the time.

And poor Clark has gotten the shaft on the blog too. I wish I would have been more diligent to record on this little e-space of mine all of his little accomplishments as they surfaced because now it seems way too daunting a task to go back in history and remember when and how he became the little man that he is this morning. It's a good thing I'm not horrible at taking a thousand pictures a day so at least I have photo evidence of his growth.

I'm going to split this up into two posts because I think I have too much content to squeeze into one, so here is a little glimpse into what Aaron and I have been up to.

AARON
Arnie started a new job in December at a firm in Ridgeland called Butler Snow. He is working hard but he loves it and is grateful to be there. When he's not working, he's....well, that is not applicable because at this present stage in his life, he is always working. He usually gets home early enough to get some serious play time in with the kiddos and eat whatever food ingredients I have managed to scrape together to form a meal. I think Aaron and I both have accepted by now that he did not luck out when it comes to having a wife who wears a cute apron every night and has clean, rolled hair and loves to cook. However, since he happened to be looking for a yoga pants wearing, messy tshirt, pony tail, zero make up kind of wife, he hit the jackpot. He has been hunting a few times this season so far and has had no luck, but did manage to bring home some deer sausage from somebody else's trophy deer. Score! Other than that, he's leading a pretty uneventful life. Except that time we went as a family unit to the mall to get him some new blue jeans. That was the most eventful non-work-related thing that has happened to Aaron in a long time. Bless his poor soul.

We had a great Christmas break together as a family. Aaron was off work for almost a week and I just didn't know what to do with all the time we had together. He handled himself very well. I honestly didn't know how he would do being surrounded by his pregnant, moody wife, his overactive toddler, and his unhappy teething infant all day, everyday, but he made it look easy. We spent most of it in Hattiesburg with all the Rice brothers and sisters and their families and as usual, it was incredible. It was awesome watching Christmas unfold through the eyes of a three year old. Clark was all about some Santa Claus and I loved listening to him tell us how Santa would fall down the chimney, fill up our stockings with chocolate, tip toe to the tree and put lots of presents under it, tip toe to the table where his cookies and milk would be, rub his belly after he eats it and say "HO HO HO" and then tip toe back to the chimney and jump up it and go home. We heard that narrative at least three hundred times per day leading up to Christmas. It was beyond hilarious to us (and probably no one else).

ME
Nothing much changed for this gal. I continue to not stress out enough about a messy house and not worry enough when I see Griffin eat and possibly swallow a rock. I manage to keep some clean clothes on people's bodies and we usually eat food everyday day so I would say I'm doing pretty good.

Actually, a lot has changed for this gal. I don't know what I was thinking. I am pregnant again, and that's a pretty big deal. I get kind of caught up in the madness of the three year old and one year old doing 360's around me that I sometimes forget how exciting of a time this is for our family. I am ten weeks along and we are expecting to meet this little one in mid-August. This pregnancy doesn't seem to be too different from any other ones. I was sick off and on for a week or two and thankfully that part seems to be over. In retrospect, the whole sickness thing really wasn't that bad. But I can clearly remember throwing up in a very unfortunate public place one time and feeling like death. Overall, I'm grateful that it was short lived and not horrible. Now I can move on to the can't-keep-my-eyes-open phase and the constant I-desperately-need-a-nap-but-that-is-not-possible-now-is-it feeling. I'm tired a lot. But that is normal, if I can recall, and hopefully in a couple of weeks I can wake back up and go back to life in the real world and not on the couch with my eyes closed just hoping I don't hear a loud crash or somebody screaming for dear life.

I have managed to stick to my workout routine despite the nausea, and before I get a pat on the shoulder for being so dedicated to a healthy pregnancy or whatever, let me confess my reasons for hauling myself and two kids to the gym four or five times a week. First and foremost, I desperately need a short break from Clark and Griffin at some point during the day. I'm not too proud to admit that I need some me time and usually the only way I can get it is to drop them off in a huge, fun play room and let them burn some energy away from me. Second, I have learned that if I stay active, I can somehow keep the nausea at bay. And third, I really do want to refrain from gaining the typical 40-55 pounds I tend to inherit during a pregnancy. It totally doesn't help that I could eat an entire Oreo pie at the drop of a dime (I really did almost eat an entire Oreo pie by myself last week) or my constant craving for anything chocolatey or Sprite-y is always on the forefront of my mind. I can't seem to control my food intake, but I can control my exercise so I'm going to work with what I've got.

The only other truly exciting thing I am looking forward to is my pending trip to Bogota, Colombia to visit my best friend, Nikki. She has been there since September 18, 2012 and that is entirely too long for me not to hang out with the person I have pretty much seen every day for the last 24 years of my life. I've missed her terribly, and even though we get to talk a lot it is simply not the same. I need to hug her neck and squeeze her kids who I miss just as much as I miss her. My trip is from February 1-5, and my mother in law, who also goes by the name of Saint Debbie, will be watching the boys while I'm gone. I do not envy her one bit. I do not look forward to telling her that lately they have been waking up at about 6:30 in the morning and trying to change Griffin's diaper these days is worse than participating in a professional wrestling match. Oh and naps aren't really going so well either for either one of them. She is bound to have a great time. The only appropriate way to thank her for this would be to treat her to a two week long all inclusive tropical vacation because she (and her husband, Geez) will truly need it after Hurricane's Clark and Griffin leave her house.

As expected, I rambled too much and this ended up being too long and semi-pointless. I'll do an update on what the kids are up to and that might not be quite so boring. And I'll even put some pictures up, which I am sure is the only thing anybody who reads this wants to see anyway. Thanks for reading. I'm sorry if this made you sleepy.