Owner: Fluttering Butterflies URL:http://michelle-says.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 10 Feb 2007 11:10:30 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: Ramblings, mostly of books and the adventures of raising a toddler, from a twenty-something American living in England! Site statistics:Click here
Still not up for proper blogging 2007-07-24 15:26:00 ...but I give you some photos instead. For my birthday, N planned a surprise lunch with some good friends, which was great. And then on my actual birthday, we went into London and wandered about the Thames for awhile, it was nice to walk along the river and see the interesting people there. I love my photo with the Invisible Guy. Elliot actually looked like he liked me in a bunch of photos, it was fantastic :) There was this children's play area we went to, and Els ended up very attached to the slide! Then N brought me to this cool candystore in Covent Garden that sells American sweets and I went wild, as you can see from the photo! Topped off with a visit to the Natural History Museum. Lots of walking, but a very enjoyable day! More (and interesting) posts later, I'm sure.
Something scary 2007-08-02 06:05:00 Just to let you all know, I've updated my list of 101 things to do in 1001 days. You can click on the link in my profile bit if you're interested. I do feel slightly guilty as I feel like I've cheated. One item on the list is to do something that scares me and another is to join a bookclub. Well, I've combined the two and - STARTED A BOOKCLUB MYSELF. Well, when I say 'myself' I mean in conjunction with the local branch of NCT, but whatever - I am now officially the Book club coordinator for my city. It's a citywide book club and apparently there are already 5 or 6 people interested. We've yet to have our first meeting, but because of the complicated way in which the NCT works and because of advertising, I've had to make all the big decisions myself. Where we are to meet, how often we are meeting, and the first two titles. I really dithered over the titles. I am so worried about what other people think of me and my choices of books. If ever there was a time when all my insecuri
New blog about religion? 2007-08-01 05:13:00 I'm not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I've started taking ... I don't want to call them 'classes' but I don't have a better word for it, with my local priest in order for me to be baptised and to be an official member of the Catholic religion. It all feels a little strange to me. I've never felt overly religious, and I'm finding this to be a very strange experience and I was wondering if anyone would be interested if I started a new blog and wrote about it? It should be a different blog, right? I would like to hear your honest opinions!
Movie marathon 2007-07-31 05:22:00 I STILL haven't seen the new Harry Potter movie, so to get my fix, I've decided to watch a HP movie marathon! I've just finished Chamber of Secrets and am now 20 minutes into Prisoner of Azkaban :) I promise to post more, eventually...
PostSecret 2007-07-30 17:38:00 I've blogged before about one of my favourite websites, PostSecret. I've looked at this website every week for years, it feels like. When I first saw the website, I felt like I could relate to so many different postcards, and I felt less alone. These days, I don't feel as closely connected anymore. Which is a good thing, as I'm happier and have a better self-image. I've also wanted to send in a secret of my own, but have never done so. Recently, I did see this postcard, and it felt like it could have been sent by a younger me...
Science used to scare me 2007-07-27 12:31:00 I was watching An Inconvenient Truth the other day, and it struck me how little I used to pay attention during my high school chemistry or physics classes. I never had that one teacher who got through to me and hardly anything has stuck with me, science-wise, over the years. And I wish it had. Are there any science-y books out there to help me to not be such a science-dunce? Something that won't make my head spin, please. Read more:Science
You really love me... 2007-07-26 05:24:00 Woohoo! Tasha and Christie have both awarded me with this cool Rockin' blogger award! I'm both flattered and grateful... I'm meant to pass it on to 5 other bloggers, and that really is too difficult, so I think I'm going to take the easy way out (a la Gina) and award everyone listed in my blogroll instead. You're all great and deserving of this award! Congratulations and thank you again!
Happy anniversary... 2007-08-07 05:24:00 Today marks the 7 year anniversary of me moving to England. 7 years. It's a long time. I was so young when I moved. It's been the best 7 years of my life. Read more:Happy
Cool links. 2007-08-10 14:18:00 I forgot to mention that I had decided to create a separate blog for my thoughts on religion and I've meaning to put up a link and haven't until now. So without further ado, Becoming a Catholic. Don't get too excited, there's only two posts up for now, but more will come very soon. I'm more excited to write on it at the moment than I am to write on this. I do find it strange how my writing style has changed when writing on that blog though. I wonder what that means. Also, my husband N and some friends (who may or may not blog regularly) have also started up a new blog, I Like to Watch, Play and Touch. Check it out. That's all from me at the moment. Read more:links
Oh the hideousness... 2007-08-10 03:45:00 I was saying to N the other day, I really think that crocs will be one of those things that people will look back on in 10 years and think 'what the hell was I thinking wearing those?!' I was taking a walk the other day, and I passed by this woman. It was quite a hot day and she was wearing a cute denim skirt and a tank top. I notice these things, and was thinking 'cute outfit' until I saw her shoes. She managed to ruin the entire ensemble by strapping some hideous pink plastic to her feet. Why do something so ridiculous? I've never worn the things, so I can't really comment on how comfortable they are, but to me, they just look ... heavy. Everywhere I turn I see little girls, teenagers, boys, moms, all wearing these things on their feet, and everytime I pass some such person I can't help but wonder 'WHY?' I will never understand.
Boo! 2007-08-09 05:17:00 Did I mention that I went to a girl's night in a few weeks ago? It was organised by the local NCT coffee group, of about 8-10 young mothers in the area. It was really great to get out of the house and laugh and drink (not that I drink, but you know what I mean) and have conversations that don't necessarily revolve around our children. One of the topics that came up were weird sleeping habits. Here's my confession: I'm kind of an odd sleeper. I have to say that I must be Queen of the weird sleeping habits, because I have done it all. I grind my teeth, I talk in my sleep, I move around, I even sleepwalk. Anyway, at this girl's night in the other day, I told this story about an incident that happened a few years ago, which isn't as funny sadly, as when it's told in person. It was before Elliot was born and we were still living in our poky 2-bed terraced house. It was the middle of the night, and I somehow managed to walk in my sleep out of the bedroom, and halfway down the stairs.
Words and numbers and my cute little boy 2007-08-13 15:14:00 We've been trying to get Elliot to say some new words over the last few weeks. He's gotten quite lazy and only says his favourite words ('hi' 'bye' and 'I love you' mostly). So, we tried different animals and objects around the house. Then we tried numbers. We went through 1-10 and he seemed to pick up on one particular number more than the others and it's now become one of his favourite words. Whenever we try to go back to teaching Elliot his numbers, it usually goes something like this:Me: Elliot, can you say 'one?'Elliot: NINE!Me: How about 'two?'Elliot: NINE!Me: Three?Elliot: NINE!Sometimes N tries really hard and says 'onetwothreefourfivesixseveneight....' really quickly before Elliot shouts 'NINE!' so then at least everything is correct and we can clap. Elliot is loving books at the moment. He always has loved books, which I adore, but in the last few days it's become an obsession. Everytime he sees a book, it must be read aloud to him. He keeps pointing at the Read more:Words
, little
Mmmmmmm... 2007-08-15 14:00:00 There's nothing I love more than breakfast for dinner. I love breakfast. My favourite (respectable*) breakfast ever has to be Belgian waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, but it's not often I get to have that around here. The runner-up breakfast, is stacked American pancakes with fruit compote and maple syrup, which I had recently at this fun restaurant in London called Giraffe. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Tonight though, we had cheesy scrambled eggs, toast and sausages. It was very nice. *My actual favourite breakfast is cold leftover pizza, but the other one sounds better, doesn't it?
Weekend loveliness 2007-08-20 05:51:00 ..Did I mention that I had food poisoning the weekend before last? There's nothing better than a weekend bent over, with severe abdominal pain and violent vomiting. Sorry, I had to share that. This weekend it poured with rain. So far, my summer has not gone well. I'm thinking I need to have a barbecue or a picnic in the park or something to turn things around... Read more:Weekend
I'm boring, I know this. 2007-08-22 05:14:00 I'm sorry I've been so boring
lately. It's the summer holidays, it's made me slightly depressed. While school is out and the kids are all on holiday, it means that all of the toddler groups that I go to are also closed. And without this reason to get up and leave the house at a decent hour, I've taken to lounging about on the sofa and watching old movies I never get a chance to see. And one thing leads to another - bad habits encourage other bad habits. Along with all the laziness, I've been making poor eating decisions which explains my recent food poisoning. I tried to give up all fizzy drinks (mainly my beloved Coke) for an unknown period of time the other day. Do you know how long that lasted? One week exactly. I now know I have zero will power. To make things worse, I haven't been doing any reading.
Bank holiday weekend + lots of books 2007-08-27 14:34:00 It's the end of our last bank holiday weekend until Christmas, and we spent in a much honoured tradition of doing some much-needed DIY around the house. Ahem, actually, N did. I mostly just looked after Elliot and stayed out of the way. We've decided it's finally time to redecorate our house. It's been almost an entire year since we moved into our house, and we have redecorated all of one room: Elliot's. We started small, by painting the smallest room in the house - the guest toilet downstairs. Not very interesting, but it's a start. And it makes everything else in the house look so drab and tired. Definately looking forward to further progress. The entire house, except for one room is painted in this almost-white-but-really-slightly-cream colour. It's so pale it feels like there isn't any colour in it at all. I like dark colours, vibrant colours, anything but pale and neutral. We're doing the master bedroom next. Any suggestions? It'd have to match our velvet-y
The time has come around again too quickly... 2007-08-29 10:53:00 In three month's time, my little boy will be two years old. Man, does time go quickly
. We're already thinking of what to do for his party. Any suggestions? He likes cars and he's very much a people person. All the little details of parties make me stressed out, the food, the goodie bags. It's too much. At least N sorted out Elliot's birthday present.
Confession 2007-09-23 16:16:00 I was asked out in high school exactly once. One time. It was freshman year and it went something like this... I was standing in front of my locker and a guy friend came running towards me, really excited and says 'Michelle, will you go out with...' and I don't remember there being MUCH of a pause before what he said next, but my brain went into overdrive and I started to think 'hmm, never thought about going out with this guy before, it might be nice...' when I catch the rest of his question. '....with my friend, (really geeky) John*?' Except he didn't say the part about him being geeky. (but he totally was, and yes, I've always been attracted to some form of geekiness, but this guy was too much, even for me)(names changed solely for embarassment reasons as some readers, who I went to high school with may or may not know who I'm referring to) And of course, to make things so much more awkward for all involved, John was standing right behind my guy friend, waiting for m
Speaking of books 2007-09-21 04:51:00 This is what I've been reading lately:Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - I've probably read this book 10 times at least. And twice in the last month or so. It's a comfort read. I remember when I first got the book, I was still working at Books Etc, and it was given to me as an advanced reading copy. I started it in the morning and finished it by lunchtime. When I was done, I closed the book, thought about it for a minute then opened the book and started reading it for the second time. A friend thought she might be interested in reading it as well, so I left it for her on the staffroom table. She read maybe the first few chapters and then her shift finished and she didn't take it home. I put it back in my locker and took it home that night. She had creased the cover and I couldn't stand it. She didn't ask for it again, and I didn't bring it up either. Recently found Stephenie Meyer's website, where she answers lots of questions and has a 'deleted scenes' section. Intere Read more:Speaking
One room down, many more to go... 2007-09-20 05:23:00 Did I tell you that N and I decided to start redecorating our house, room by room? I find it very exciting, as it's been more than a year and this house and we'd only done the one room (Elliot's). We decided (wisely) to start with the smallest room in the house - the guest toilet downstairs. I do feel bad, as I don't think I helped in any way though. N did all the painting, he changed the floor tiles, he put up a gorgeous new splashback tiles and all the grouting. It looks really, really good now. The next project though, is something to look forward to... The only places in the house that are large enough to accomodate my books are currently the garage and the loft. So soon enough, we'll be buying bookshelves for the garage. Because here is what (some) of my books look like at the moment:The top three photos there are of just my paperback books lingering in the our spare room, which is soon to be transformed into Second Child's bedroom. The bottom photo is of hardback books an
What a waste 2007-09-19 05:46:00 Last Thursday, as N and I are sitting downstairs watching Hell's Kitchen, we had a huge power cut. No lights, no electricity. And it ended up not being resolved for a further 15 hours. 62 houses in our neighbourhood were affected and our across the street neighbour's driveway had to be dug up as well as a huge length of pavement farther down the street. Instead of staying at home and wondering when we'd get out lights back on, Elliot and I headed over to my mother-in-law's for the day. It was the first time I'd walked all the way to her house before. Everything finally did get resolved, but not without a huge waste
of food. Everything in the fridge and freezer had to be thrown away, as being pregnant, I didn't want to risk anything. We took pictures in order to claim some money back, but the electricity company doesn't reimburse for food until after 18 hours and our household insurance didn't cover us. Oh well. These things happen, right?
I heart Garth Nix 2007-09-16 16:41:00 Sorry for the lack of posts over the last few days, too much going on! More later, I assure you, but I felt I had to post this photo immediately. Yes, it is blurry and yes, I'm horribly disappointed, but if you squint a bit, you might just be able to tell that it is me standing next to Garth
Nix. Can I just say that again, because I still don't quite believe it myself - I met Garth Nix over the weekend! A huge thank you to Shadowfalcon for informing me in enough time to make arrangements, he is one of my favouritest authors ever! And he's incredibly friendly and polite and of course, I was a nervous wreck and could barely string a sentence together. I have an urge to read the Old Kingdom trilogy over and over again... and I just might. I strongly recommend to all of you, if you haven't already read Sabriel - go and do so now.
A little bit about me 2007-09-11 14:39:00 I stumbled across this huge realisation about myself the other day. It felt absolutely HUGE and yet I don't know what to do with it as yet. I'm one of those people who would seriously benefit from hours of therapy, as I find it really difficult sometimes to even know what emotions I'm feeling, and I find it difficult to understand the choices and decisions I've made and continue to make. I do wish sometimes that I could go to therapy and talk it all through with someone, but at this stage in my life it seems unlikely. Back to my realisation though. I realised that during times of crisis, I don't ask for help. Whenever I've been struggling in my life, and there have been far too many struggles, it doesn't occur to me to reach out and ask someone to help. Why is that? The single most life-changing event in my life was my parent's divorce. It probably shouldn't be, but I know now that it was. It killed me a little
bit every single day to watch my family break apart, drif
Weekend fun 2007-09-10 14:44:00 Elliot's new jungle climber arrived this weekend, and we couldn't wait to set it up for him. He seemed to really enjoy himself. He continuously went down the slide, but he refused to crawl through the tunnels, which I found amusing. I'm finding us spending a lot more time out in the garden now. It's definately worth it, to see that smile on Elliot's face. Read more:Weekend
Lalala... I'm PREGNANT 2007-09-07 14:41:00 So, as promised, here is the news I've been keeping since my birthday. I am pregnant! I've been very excited, but also hesitant to tell people, which I think is understandable. But we had our dating scan this afternoon, and although we're still in our 10th week, N and I feel confident enough about this pregnancy to finally share it with the world. WE'RE HAVING OUR SECOND BABY! I haven't been blogging as much because of this. It seems like all that's been on my mind lately is this new pregnancy and the anticipation of a new baby. Will it be a boy or a girl? How will Elliot cope with a reduction in attention? What on earth are we going to do with all the stuff currently living in what eventually will be Second-Child's nursery? Here are the bits most people like to hear about: the due date is 1 April, 2008. No, I have not had any morning sickness at all. Or nauseua. I have been constantly hungry and have had a few cravings/food aversions. Cravings: oranges, cold water. Food aversio
More tomorrow... 2007-09-06 02:06:00 I promise! I've been really busy this week as the toddler groups started up again, plus Elliot and I hosted a coffee afternoon at our house. I was all panicked about it and stressing out, making sure I have coffee and tea (which I don't drink) and plenty of biscuits... and the number of people who came was seriously reduced from previous weeks. I knew in my head that this was because 4 or 5 of the moms were on holiday, but you can bet I took it personally. It's who I am. Anyway. I promise that by tomorrow
I'll have sorted my brain out enough to write a decent post! Until then...
Grandpa's coming... 2007-09-03 05:52:00 I talk to my dad fairly regularly on MSN messenger. We didn't get along great during my teen years, but since we've both gotten older and since I moved thousands of miles away, we get along OK now. He really dotes on Elliot. He loves looking at his photos and he's always buying clothes and books for him. My dad pesters me constantly to update Elliot's (private) blog more often and loves hearing all the new little anecdotes. He's visited a few times to see Elliot. Once just after he was born, once again for Elliot's first birthday. He told me last night, he's flying in for Elliot's second birthday as well and staying for about three weeks. Usually when I hear that parents are coming for a visit, it usually means nights out with a free babysitter.. but not with my dad. Last time he was here, he didn't change a single nappy, he never once gave Elliot his bottle. And even though Elliot and his grandpa get on famously, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving my dad as a baby Read more:Grandpa
Some friendly advice.. 2007-09-01 15:33:00 If there's ever any doubt in your mind that you possibly SHOULDN'T have that third cheeseburger for dinner, then don't. I urge you to reconsider. That's all for now.
This week 2007-09-27 15:56:00 We had no broadband and no phone line for three days. No fun. Elliot and I both have lingering colds. Pregnancy is still going well, nothing to report. I'm feeling more energetic and don't need more than the one nap during the day - but am under constant threat of vomiting due to certain smells (opening the fridge lately has been tricky). Latest craving: warm cherry pie, no icecream. And a long hot bath wouldn't go amiss.
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