Bella.... Oh, Bella. She is, if you'll pardon my vernacular, a mess. One minute Brittany and I are falling out of our chairs laughing at something she's said or done, and the next minute Britt is pretending to strangle herself with her scarf because Bella won't listen.
A little information: Bella is six years old and repeating kindergarten this year; she's skinny because all she eats is peanut butter, cheese puffs, vanilla wafers, goldfish, and gummies, and her gait is more of a skip than a walk, so she burns TONS of energy. She loves to sing and dance, and she likes to make up her own lyrics to tunes she is familiar with. She is obsessed with fairies, particularly Tinkerbell, and she loves Barbie. Every day, usually multiple times, she stops her bouncing long enough to ask, "What color are your eyes?" We answer her every day and usually let her get close enough to see, but still she asks--and I discovered today that she also asks her own dad the same question all the time. Recently she's also had a preoccupation with angels and daisies. When she is focused on one of these things, it's incredibly difficult to get her motivated to do schoolwork; however, she conveniently enough NEVER gets focused on schoolwork.
It can take this little stinker upwards of an hour to sort 35 bears into 5 plastic cups based on color--and this lengthy time frame has NOTHING whatsoever to do with her low vision. She's just that stubborn. She sees colors very well and she's pretty smart; she has an incredible vocabulary, which is unsurprising considering so much of her information is probably based on sound.
Since Bella is completely blind in one eye and has very low vision in her other eye, it has been determined that it will be in her best interest to learn Braille and cane skills, so that if her vision fails completely she will already be much more adaptable. Since I am with Bella for about 30+ hours a week, I get to learn these things too. We had our first big breakthrough in Braille practice today--Bella wrote her name in Braille all by herself with no more than motivational support!
This is a HUGE DEAL. She hasn't been working on this for very long, and just yesterday it took her about 15 minutes to just write her name once--today she did it THREE TIMES in LESS THAN TEN MINUTES. Note: When I say she's learning Braille, it isn't the way you picture it. As she is so young and still working on dexterity, she uses tennis balls in a muffin tin to represent the six dots that form the basis for the language. We read books aloud to her and let her run her hands along the dots on the page, but she doesn't comprehend those at all yet. It's a long process, and she has a hard time sitting still for even five minutes.
But we're learning.
Eventually I'll post more information on Braille and sighted guide (when a seeing person leads a blind person), but for now, I'll leave you with this little scene from today....
Me (to Britt): Did you know Bella can speak with a British accent?
Britt: NO WAY. Are you serious?!
Me: Bella, do you know how English people talk?
Bella: No.
Britt: Do you know what language we speak in America?
Bella: I speak....BONJOUR!
And then we died laughing.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
You know you're married when....
I had a married moment today. Bob was getting out of the shower and getting dressed, and I was getting ready to take laundry to my parents' house since we don't have a washer and dryer at our apartment. So as he opened the door I threw out my hand and said, "Give me your underwear."
Ladies, this is your life as a wife: washing your husband's dirty underwear and being glad to do it, because that way you know that at least he HAS clean underwear, and you also know when he needs a new pair because the old ones have holes bigger than the waistband.
This is not to say that Bob doesn't ever do anything to help out--today, for example, he put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and fixed dinner. Last week he did the laundry because I was out of town, and most weekends we do the laundry together and share the folding and putting-away. Our marriage is very much a partnership and every day we learn about one more thing that annoys the other person and one more thing that makes them happy.
This is also not to say that every woman enjoys domesticity: I know several women who hate either cooking, or cleaning, or laundry, or all of it. My own mother is not a fan of cooking, but it made her happy to give my sister, my dad, and me a reasonably clean home, clean clothes, and healthy meals (when we would eat them.)(I say reasonably clean not because she was not a good housekeeper, but because with two children, two dogs, two cats and numerous friends and neighbors tromping through the house every day it's a wonder the house is still standing at all.) I have several friends who would rather express a dog's anal glands than vacuum. And that's fine. Everybody has different preferences, strengths, and ideas about who should do what in the house.
All this is to make the point that while demanding that a person hand over his dirty underwear is not something I'd choose as a career, it makes me happy that I can do certain things to take care of my husband, even when he's perfectly capable of doing them himself.
Ladies, this is your life as a wife: washing your husband's dirty underwear and being glad to do it, because that way you know that at least he HAS clean underwear, and you also know when he needs a new pair because the old ones have holes bigger than the waistband.
This is not to say that Bob doesn't ever do anything to help out--today, for example, he put all the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and fixed dinner. Last week he did the laundry because I was out of town, and most weekends we do the laundry together and share the folding and putting-away. Our marriage is very much a partnership and every day we learn about one more thing that annoys the other person and one more thing that makes them happy.
This is also not to say that every woman enjoys domesticity: I know several women who hate either cooking, or cleaning, or laundry, or all of it. My own mother is not a fan of cooking, but it made her happy to give my sister, my dad, and me a reasonably clean home, clean clothes, and healthy meals (when we would eat them.)(I say reasonably clean not because she was not a good housekeeper, but because with two children, two dogs, two cats and numerous friends and neighbors tromping through the house every day it's a wonder the house is still standing at all.) I have several friends who would rather express a dog's anal glands than vacuum. And that's fine. Everybody has different preferences, strengths, and ideas about who should do what in the house.
All this is to make the point that while demanding that a person hand over his dirty underwear is not something I'd choose as a career, it makes me happy that I can do certain things to take care of my husband, even when he's perfectly capable of doing them himself.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Mawwiage
We have now been married for a little over three weeks, closing in on four. In one way it is still new and exciting and I feel almost like we are just playing house. In another way, though, most of the time it seems like life has always been this way. It feels exactly like it did when I would go visit Bob in Auburn for a weekend, only it's one fabulous weekend that never ends. It's like life was always meant to be this way--it just feels so perfectly right.
I actually cook dinner most nights--I'm trying to keep up with planning meals two weeks in advance to limit last-minute grocery trips, and having expensive vegetables go bad before I use them all, and forgetting that there is a carton of sour cream in the fridge that has been expired for two weeks (yes, sour cream CAN AND WILL EXPIRE.) Some dinners have worked out well; others have left something to be desired. Bob has never told me anything is bad, though--he always says it's at least "edible," and I'm usually my own worst critic. He never complains when something happens and he has to fend for himself or when we have a last-minute change of plans and just have to have frozen pizza or spaghetti.
Our biggest adjustment in life has not actually been living together--it's been the change in our schedules. Since I got hired at Pleasant Grove Elementary as a special ed aide and he started class instead of work, I have to get up at a painfully dark hour and he doesn't get home until after 6. That means I stay up later to hang out with him, and he gets woken up at 5:30 when I get up to go to work. As a result, we're both thoroughly exhausted. I do get home around 4, though, and that gives me time to work on dinner and have it on the table before 7:30 pm.
That's all I'm going to write for now; I could go on for awhile, but I'll stop for now. Future posting topics will include Bella, my charge at school who is almost totally blind; the reason I spend hours on Pinterest each day but don't have the energy to clean; and why sex is worth waiting for. (The sex post will NOT include inappropriate personal details, disgusting euphemisms, or judgement about anyone's personal choices--merely reasons why, if you're on the fence, I recommend waiting.) I apologize for the lack of humor lately. It's all I can do right now to keep posting with some honesty and regularity. Hopefully future posts will be funnier--anything to do with Bella will probably be pretty good. She's a handful!
I actually cook dinner most nights--I'm trying to keep up with planning meals two weeks in advance to limit last-minute grocery trips, and having expensive vegetables go bad before I use them all, and forgetting that there is a carton of sour cream in the fridge that has been expired for two weeks (yes, sour cream CAN AND WILL EXPIRE.) Some dinners have worked out well; others have left something to be desired. Bob has never told me anything is bad, though--he always says it's at least "edible," and I'm usually my own worst critic. He never complains when something happens and he has to fend for himself or when we have a last-minute change of plans and just have to have frozen pizza or spaghetti.
Our biggest adjustment in life has not actually been living together--it's been the change in our schedules. Since I got hired at Pleasant Grove Elementary as a special ed aide and he started class instead of work, I have to get up at a painfully dark hour and he doesn't get home until after 6. That means I stay up later to hang out with him, and he gets woken up at 5:30 when I get up to go to work. As a result, we're both thoroughly exhausted. I do get home around 4, though, and that gives me time to work on dinner and have it on the table before 7:30 pm.
That's all I'm going to write for now; I could go on for awhile, but I'll stop for now. Future posting topics will include Bella, my charge at school who is almost totally blind; the reason I spend hours on Pinterest each day but don't have the energy to clean; and why sex is worth waiting for. (The sex post will NOT include inappropriate personal details, disgusting euphemisms, or judgement about anyone's personal choices--merely reasons why, if you're on the fence, I recommend waiting.) I apologize for the lack of humor lately. It's all I can do right now to keep posting with some honesty and regularity. Hopefully future posts will be funnier--anything to do with Bella will probably be pretty good. She's a handful!
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year = New Resolutions to Break
Hello friends, it's January 1, and we know what that means--time to make New Year's Resolutions! Now we all know that NYRs typically follow the same patterns with everybody: a resolution to eat healthier and to exercise, usually followed by a resolution to lose X pounds; one to stay/get more organized; one to spend more time with loved ones; one to pick up a new hobby, learn a new skill, take a class, or complete X number of projects....
These are the standards. And usually another standard is to break your resolutions by mid-February at the latest. So I figured I might as well choose resolutions I have little to no control over, and that way I can avoid any guilt whatsoever if I don't succeed, and I get to feel fabulously superior if I do. So here are my resolutions for 2012:
1. Get bigger boobs
2. Have a 92% good-hair-day rate
3. Improve contact prescription (under 14 would be great)
4. Go 6 months without a sinus infection
Now I think these are great resolutions to have. There are other things I want to do this year, too, to improve myself, my life, and my marriage, but rather than call them "goals" or "resolutions" (which allow for failure if you fail to meet them) I'll just call them "things I want to do." Maybe if I am less stressed by the idea of failure, I'll do better at these things.
1. Keep our home in a state of "20 minutes to clean enough to entertain."
2. Bake or cook new recipes frequently--one to three a month at least
3. Walk more often, work up to running a couple of miles without stopping
Now, how about you guys? What are some things you want to start doing, or do better at, this year?
These are the standards. And usually another standard is to break your resolutions by mid-February at the latest. So I figured I might as well choose resolutions I have little to no control over, and that way I can avoid any guilt whatsoever if I don't succeed, and I get to feel fabulously superior if I do. So here are my resolutions for 2012:
1. Get bigger boobs
2. Have a 92% good-hair-day rate
3. Improve contact prescription (under 14 would be great)
4. Go 6 months without a sinus infection
Now I think these are great resolutions to have. There are other things I want to do this year, too, to improve myself, my life, and my marriage, but rather than call them "goals" or "resolutions" (which allow for failure if you fail to meet them) I'll just call them "things I want to do." Maybe if I am less stressed by the idea of failure, I'll do better at these things.
1. Keep our home in a state of "20 minutes to clean enough to entertain."
2. Bake or cook new recipes frequently--one to three a month at least
3. Walk more often, work up to running a couple of miles without stopping
Now, how about you guys? What are some things you want to start doing, or do better at, this year?
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Some Insight
It's Christmas Eve, Bob is out hiking with his friends, and I'm at home doing what he has termed my "womanly duties" of sorting through wedding presents and trying to get things organized. This post will be short; I just thought I'd share with you a brief thought I had while unpacking our beautiful knife set and block from my New York cousins, Jonathan and Alessia.
It's something like an 18-piece set and includes just about anything you could need for standard preparation of any food you'd actually bring home to cook rather than going out and having somebody else cook it for you.
Among this lovely set of knives is a big ol' meat cleaver. I mean one of those that is like 3 inches wide and 6 inches long, the kind you see in horror movies. And no, I didn't think about cleaving food. This is just a small example of the train of thought of people who regularly experience anxiety, are high strung, or watch too many episodes of "Criminal Minds." (Emily Pair, this is for you.)
As I took it out of the little plastic bag and paper sleeve, I look at it and thought, this is exactly the type of knife you see in horror movies. And to continue in that thread, as I looked at it and placed it in its spot in the block, I thought, "Great. Now if anybody breaks in while we're sleeping, they'll go straight for the meat cleaver and hack us to pieces."
Merry Christmas.
*Cue "Psycho" music....
It's something like an 18-piece set and includes just about anything you could need for standard preparation of any food you'd actually bring home to cook rather than going out and having somebody else cook it for you.
Among this lovely set of knives is a big ol' meat cleaver. I mean one of those that is like 3 inches wide and 6 inches long, the kind you see in horror movies. And no, I didn't think about cleaving food. This is just a small example of the train of thought of people who regularly experience anxiety, are high strung, or watch too many episodes of "Criminal Minds." (Emily Pair, this is for you.)
As I took it out of the little plastic bag and paper sleeve, I look at it and thought, this is exactly the type of knife you see in horror movies. And to continue in that thread, as I looked at it and placed it in its spot in the block, I thought, "Great. Now if anybody breaks in while we're sleeping, they'll go straight for the meat cleaver and hack us to pieces."
Merry Christmas.
*Cue "Psycho" music....
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Marriage: Day 3
Me and Bob have been married for three days now, and although it has been good so far, I have even higher hopes for the future because hopefully we will not always be sick. He has had a nasty cough for about a week now, and I am on week 3 of the crud, now with double pink eye to complete the pretty picture. He's snoozing next to me on the couch right now; apparently our first trip to the grocery store was exhausting.
Our actual wedding day was awesome--if anything went wrong, I didn't know it, and I was only seriously stressed for a period of about 30 minutes when I was wondering WHY the guys were not yet dressed when they were supposed to be on their way to the house for pictures. But we all got there in plenty of time, and the rest of the day was perfect. I believe we may be in the running for Shortest Wedding Ceremony Ever, because the time between when my grandmother was seated to "I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benner" was only 12 minutes. I have the video evidence to prove it. And it was fabulous. If you weren't there, you can read through the ceremony in the United Methodist Hymnal, and that's pretty much it. The same words couples have said for hundreds of years, cause why mess with perfection?
Nobody cried--not that I know of. We both giggled a little bit. Somebody told me afterwards, "I've never seen anybody just so HAPPY to get married before." I think that's the biggest compliment I got all day.
We left for Chattanooga by about 4:15, stopped in Trussville at Olive Garden for dinner, and then went on our way. We stayed at The Chattanoogan, which I thought would be ideal since it was right downtown and less than a mile from the aquarium, but apparently it is in the business downtown section, not the fun downtown section. So there was NOBODY AROUND. It was very quiet, though, and we were able to relax without any loud kids or drunk people wandering through the halls. Food was kind of hard to find, though, especially Sunday morning because everything in the business part is closed during weekends. We eventually found a coffee shop after walking for nearly an hour, and I got a cinnamon croissant and Bob got a double chocolate chip scone, which were both delicious. We walked across the big long bridge (Walnut Bridge I think it's called, something like the longest pedestrian-only bridge in the continental US), walked BACK along the bridge, went to TGIFriday's for lunch (I was high on Mucinex and could barely stand at this point) before going to the aquarium.
Remember how I said there was NOBODY around downtown Chattanooga Sunday morning? Well, that still holds true for Sunday afternoon. It was kind of awesome, though, to have the aquarium be so empty. We could walk at our own pace, didn't have to shove to pet the stingrays or see the penguins, and we could hug and kiss occasionally without getting dirty looks from anybody's parents.
After a much-needed nap, we hiked back down to the river area to find some dinner. We ate at the Big River Grille and Brewery, and ours was one of maybe 5 tables that had people there. It wasn't anything special, but it was a pretty good meal and we enjoyed the quiet and the walk.
Monday we came on home, which was fortunate as my crud was only getting worse. We've spent the last 24 hours moving Bob's stuff into the apartment and trying to get things organized, which is going perhaps a little slower than we'd like, but we're getting there. I've planned out our dinners for the next 2 weeks and we went grocery shopping so tomorrow when I get home I get to fix dinner like a real live house wife.
Here's hoping that we can stop coughing for 6 or so hours tonight to get a normal amount of sleep. It's so nice to have somebody to wake up to in the mornings!
That's all for now, and thanks to everyone who made our wedding so special!
Our actual wedding day was awesome--if anything went wrong, I didn't know it, and I was only seriously stressed for a period of about 30 minutes when I was wondering WHY the guys were not yet dressed when they were supposed to be on their way to the house for pictures. But we all got there in plenty of time, and the rest of the day was perfect. I believe we may be in the running for Shortest Wedding Ceremony Ever, because the time between when my grandmother was seated to "I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Robert Benner" was only 12 minutes. I have the video evidence to prove it. And it was fabulous. If you weren't there, you can read through the ceremony in the United Methodist Hymnal, and that's pretty much it. The same words couples have said for hundreds of years, cause why mess with perfection?
Nobody cried--not that I know of. We both giggled a little bit. Somebody told me afterwards, "I've never seen anybody just so HAPPY to get married before." I think that's the biggest compliment I got all day.
We left for Chattanooga by about 4:15, stopped in Trussville at Olive Garden for dinner, and then went on our way. We stayed at The Chattanoogan, which I thought would be ideal since it was right downtown and less than a mile from the aquarium, but apparently it is in the business downtown section, not the fun downtown section. So there was NOBODY AROUND. It was very quiet, though, and we were able to relax without any loud kids or drunk people wandering through the halls. Food was kind of hard to find, though, especially Sunday morning because everything in the business part is closed during weekends. We eventually found a coffee shop after walking for nearly an hour, and I got a cinnamon croissant and Bob got a double chocolate chip scone, which were both delicious. We walked across the big long bridge (Walnut Bridge I think it's called, something like the longest pedestrian-only bridge in the continental US), walked BACK along the bridge, went to TGIFriday's for lunch (I was high on Mucinex and could barely stand at this point) before going to the aquarium.
Remember how I said there was NOBODY around downtown Chattanooga Sunday morning? Well, that still holds true for Sunday afternoon. It was kind of awesome, though, to have the aquarium be so empty. We could walk at our own pace, didn't have to shove to pet the stingrays or see the penguins, and we could hug and kiss occasionally without getting dirty looks from anybody's parents.
After a much-needed nap, we hiked back down to the river area to find some dinner. We ate at the Big River Grille and Brewery, and ours was one of maybe 5 tables that had people there. It wasn't anything special, but it was a pretty good meal and we enjoyed the quiet and the walk.
Monday we came on home, which was fortunate as my crud was only getting worse. We've spent the last 24 hours moving Bob's stuff into the apartment and trying to get things organized, which is going perhaps a little slower than we'd like, but we're getting there. I've planned out our dinners for the next 2 weeks and we went grocery shopping so tomorrow when I get home I get to fix dinner like a real live house wife.
Here's hoping that we can stop coughing for 6 or so hours tonight to get a normal amount of sleep. It's so nice to have somebody to wake up to in the mornings!
That's all for now, and thanks to everyone who made our wedding so special!
Monday, December 12, 2011
5 days to go....
There are five days to go until my wedding and I am fairly sure my brain is slowly leaking out through my ears during the night, for the following reasons:
1. I can hardly finish a sentence. My mother, father, sister, future in-laws, co-workers, and lovely fiance can attest to this. More often than not, I start talking and then say, "....Wait, what was I telling you?"
2. I am having the Stress Dreams. These often resemble nightmares, some more gruesome than others. Last night's was not too bad, just creepy--before I had gone to bed, I realized I had been sitting in the apartment with the door unlocked for a couple of hours, which is highly unusual but understandable as I had had an armful of crap when I walked in. So I made a mental note to check all the closets before I went to bed. In the dream, I was lying in bed staring at the wall when I realized that I had not checked the bedroom closet, which was facing me. I was terrified that somebody was in there, staring at me, waiting for me to fall asleep. So of course I couldn't sleep. When I woke up I realized that I actually HAD been sleeping because the closet is in a different spot, but I didn't feel any more rested.
3. I LOST a pair of tennis shoes in a one-bedroom apartment. WHO DOES THAT? I looked in my closets, in my car, even called my mother to see if they were at her house--no. I eventually found them behind the couch--no idea how they got there.
4. I spent almost 10 minutes looking for my watch this morning before deciding to give up because I had to get to work--and I realized I was wearing it. I have no recollection at all of picking it up, putting it on, or where it was.
The wedding can't get here soon enough; I don't know if it will help at all, being finished with it, but at least I won't have so many things on my to-do list.
1. I can hardly finish a sentence. My mother, father, sister, future in-laws, co-workers, and lovely fiance can attest to this. More often than not, I start talking and then say, "....Wait, what was I telling you?"
2. I am having the Stress Dreams. These often resemble nightmares, some more gruesome than others. Last night's was not too bad, just creepy--before I had gone to bed, I realized I had been sitting in the apartment with the door unlocked for a couple of hours, which is highly unusual but understandable as I had had an armful of crap when I walked in. So I made a mental note to check all the closets before I went to bed. In the dream, I was lying in bed staring at the wall when I realized that I had not checked the bedroom closet, which was facing me. I was terrified that somebody was in there, staring at me, waiting for me to fall asleep. So of course I couldn't sleep. When I woke up I realized that I actually HAD been sleeping because the closet is in a different spot, but I didn't feel any more rested.
3. I LOST a pair of tennis shoes in a one-bedroom apartment. WHO DOES THAT? I looked in my closets, in my car, even called my mother to see if they were at her house--no. I eventually found them behind the couch--no idea how they got there.
4. I spent almost 10 minutes looking for my watch this morning before deciding to give up because I had to get to work--and I realized I was wearing it. I have no recollection at all of picking it up, putting it on, or where it was.
The wedding can't get here soon enough; I don't know if it will help at all, being finished with it, but at least I won't have so many things on my to-do list.
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