John Hawkins scoffs at arm hair woes. Trust this hirsute chick, it can be a worry. Excessive hair anywhere is a nightmare. I lucked out and inherited my dad's genes, so I get to fuss with hairy knuckles, a lady mustache, and eyebrows that would make Oscar the Grouch cringe. And I do the best I can, but apparently the problem is bad enough that my husband's uncle gave me a mustache trimmer for Christmas this year. (Yeah, ouch. That's like getting punched in the stomach for Christmas.) So John Hawkins might not get it, but I do.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:29 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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1 Wow. Husband's uncle highly presumptuous, to say the least and mildest possible. I share your pain. Recently caved and began having some strategic waxing and doing some tactical tweezing. Eeyaarrrggh.

Posted by: Anwyn at February 29, 2008 05:35 AM (uNpky)

2 I've got German ancestry. That means someone in our background mated with a bear. Seriously. My poor half-Russian kids. Ohhhh, the poor kids!!! Anyway, TWEEZIE! Best. Thing. Ever. It plucks the hairs and actually inhibits growth, so after about a year of using it, my hair is growing much more slowly and much lighter. Yay for damaged follicles!

Posted by: airforcewife at February 29, 2008 06:58 AM (mIbWn)

3 I'm right with you, AFW--I swear there's a bear in my heritage. I've got wiry hairs that sprout in places no woman should have hair! And all that hair grows fast, too. And sadly, my follicles don't seem to damage easily. *pout*

Posted by: FbL at February 29, 2008 02:40 PM (rW1/8)

4 My only real issue is my eyebrows. To make it more insulting flyboy has the most perfect eyebrows, nicely shaped, nice light coloring, and NO HAIR IN BETWEEN. Actually insulting was when he was honestly shocked that hair grows between the eyebrows and people pay to get rid of it. oh the shame. although your hair trimmer as a gift takes the cake!

Posted by: lea at February 29, 2008 04:00 PM (NJQf+)

5 This may be good news for you (or not!) but as we woman age, we lose alot of body hair. I can go a week easy without shaving my legs and no one would notice. Unfortunately, I think it all migrated to my nostrils. Just GROSS!

Posted by: Raging Mom at March 03, 2008 05:32 AM (l+Chn)

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I've decided it's Scare Sarah week on the internet. Parents seem to be posting horror stories about their kids in an effort to dissuade me from wanting them.

First it was Army Blogger Wife, compiling all the creatively bad things her daughter did.

Which reminded me of the time AWTM's kids got into plaster of paris while her washing machine was broken.

Then Pink Ninja took a ride on the garage door.

Then Erin told me on the phone that the honeymoon is over with Tucker and that she's frazzled and exhausted. She said all of this on the phone while she was planting spring flowers, because she didn't have enough time in the day in between Tucker's screaming to both talk to a friend and work in the garden.

Then today AWTM posted some Bill Cosby comedy about the maddening things kids do.

You guys are conspiring to freak me out, right? That's the awful thing about trying for more than a year to get pregnant: there's too much time to think about it! Time to think about whether you really want to sing Barney songs while cleaning an overflowed toilet. Or reprimand your son for playing with himself in public. Or pull your kid out of a grave.

This needs to happen quick before I lose my nerve...

Posted by: Sarah at 03:36 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 Ya know Sarah, every time someone tells me "you will never guess what my kid did?" I say....is it as bad as falling into Grndas freshly dug grave? the answer is generally a horrifed look of no... I win every time. Pink Ninja pooped on the floor in front of company, cut her hair, broke both arms within months of one another leading me to have a discussion with social services as well.... the list goes on and on.... Parenthood, is not for wussies.... indeed

Posted by: awtm at February 28, 2008 04:07 AM (TEH0y)

2 and did anyone mention ''almost drownings''? I promise you, it's all nessecary, to build you up, for the parenting of teenagers....I also promise it's worth every minute, of laughter, tears, and fears!

Posted by: debe at February 28, 2008 05:48 AM (Hn47u)

3 Think of it this way... they don't start out like that. You get to work your way up to it gradually. You adjust as they get older and get to work through each thing as it comes along. While you're pregnant, you figure out (as you get near the 9 month mark) that you can live without much sleep. This helps when the baby comes along and wants to be fed several times a night and keeps you awake all day too. Cat naps... Then they start to roll, then crawl, then walk, then talk, then... well you get the idea. Each thing is a new adventure. If kids didn't do stuff like that - you would start to wonder what was wrong with them. LOL. But remember - none of these kids started out doing the fun and fascinating things you are reading about, so relax a bit. You'll be able to handle it when the time comes.

Posted by: Teresa at February 28, 2008 06:43 AM (rVIv9)

4 You forgot to mention that they crap all the way UP THEIR BACKS when they are infants. Sound impossible? Oh, just you wait. Physics are nothing when baby crap comes into play. Oh, and just for an update, I thought I was going to have to run to the ER yesterday when my son jumped off the kitchen counter and tried to do a ninja kick landing. He ended up with a HUGE goose egg on the part of his head that is bald. So we couldn't hide it. And we had Little Gym, so everyone got to admire it.

Posted by: airforcewife at February 28, 2008 09:16 AM (mIbWn)

5 Oh it's definitely not for the faint of heart, but it is fun, frustrating, rewarding, inspiring and so much more! Once they come out kicking and screaming you will adapt super fast and soon you will be a pro.....and a little grayer! All the good things far outweigh all the not so good things that they do.

Posted by: Army Blogger Wife at February 28, 2008 09:28 AM (Y3JJK)

6 LOL I am really enjoying this post and comments . Theresa is right, you do work up to it. Here's two off the top of my head: last winter, Ronin ate something blue, and we never figured out what, but Jim insisted we go to the emergency room. We got a stern brochure about locking up the chemicals in your cabinets. And, with the exception of the "episode" last week, every time that Ronin has thrown up in his short 5 1/2 years of life, it has been all down the front of me

Posted by: Kate at February 28, 2008 02:17 PM (576n8)

7 Other commenter was right, you kinda get eased into it. But it doesnt always make you feel anybetter at the time. But I'm probably a bad person to ask about this at the moment. Our house is being invaded by the terrible threes. Lets hope we make it to four.

Posted by: Lea at February 29, 2008 03:08 AM (NJQf+)

8 It's still totally worth it...

Posted by: Erin at March 01, 2008 01:46 PM (y67l2)

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Last night we watched The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. One Rotten Tomatoes reviewer said it was like "watching a book on tape." If that seems like your bag, this is the movie for you. I really enjoyed it, but I don't mind things that take their sweet time. I thought it was lovely and thoughtprovoking.

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I don't know...CaliValleyGirl's new puppy is awful cute, but my loyalties lie with ol' Charles here.

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Heidi asked for a Charlie update, but there's not much to say. Here's a funny picture (please disregard the utter pigsty that is our TV room) of Charlie watching the Tibetan terrier take fourth place in group at Westminster.

We got the camera out while Charlie was standing right in front of the TV, staring at the dogs. He circled and laid down on the floor right when we got the camera ready, so the picture sucks. But it was hilarious to see Charlie watching his own kind on a dog show.

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1 Liked it a lot.

Posted by: Nicole at February 20, 2008 08:01 AM (YHVU/)

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Lorie Byrd posted a touching story of finding old Valentines in her grandmother's belongings. I have had a similar experience. I came across some letters last year that my grandmother wrote to me when I left for college. She passed away in 2003 after a long battle with dementia, so it had been a long time since I'd seen my grandmother's true personality. Reading those letters brought back memories of what my grandmother had once been like and helped me remember her as a fiesty lady instead of the frail shell she was at the end of her life. I was so glad that I had those old letters from her.

Despite how attached I am to the internet age, I am still a fan of writing letters. I love old fashioned correspondence. And those letters from my grandmother are cherished.

Posted by: Sarah at 04:57 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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My friend here has a 19 year old son. I was alone with him for a while at their house yesterday and, not knowing what else to talk about, I asked him about music. We began trading favorite songs and bands. He knows all the new stuff -- he knew of Weezer because of "Beverly Hills" but didn't know the blue album, for heaven's sake -- and none of the old. Shoot, he was born in 1989; I loved hearing the question, "What is Styx?" (In all fairness, my husband reminded me that Styx is even before my time; I have my dad to thank.) He taught me some new bands and I filled him in on some old and some esoteric; he now knows what alt-country is (he liked the Jayhawks and Wilco, but Uncle Tupelo was "too twangy" for him). And I confessed that I had indeed been to a Snoop Dogg concert; I think that solidified my coolness.

You know, my new cell phone is also a music player, but I have no idea how to use it yet. I also don't listen to music like I used to. When I was in France, I practically wore out my cassette walkman. Riding the bus all over that town, I was constantly in my own little world of music. I don't do that anymore, I don't walk through the world with headphones on.

But talking to this kid yesterday, I have taken a second look at my CD collection with fresh eyes. I have pulled out stuff I haven't listened to in years. And it takes me back...

It also makes me want to spend more time with this kid. I could show him Seu Jorge and Jude. And let him listen to "Come Sail Away."

Man, I remember vividly the first time I listened to "Come Sail Away."

Posted by: Sarah at 09:23 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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One year ago today, I assumed I was in the process of getting pregnant. I could barely concentrate on the Super Bowl because I thought there were miraculous changes going on inside my body. If you had told me then that I would be watching the next Super Bowl unpregnant and without a baby, I think you could've knocked me over with a feather. I can't believe we've been running in place for a year.

I know some people think I was incredibly naive when I went into this process. And apparently I was. I did not know that people had to try to get pregnant. Sure, I had friends with actual medical conditions -- endometriosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome -- and I knew some people tried for years to get pregnant and then had to have fertility help, but I thought that if you didn't have Major Medical Problems, you just got pregnant. I know people who got pregnant by forgetting to take one day of their birth control pill. I know a lot of R&R babies, which means people managed a one-shot-one-kill tactic in the random two weeks their husbands were on leave from deployment. And within three months of the husbands' return from Iraq, our entire street in Germany was pregnant. I know of so many people who got accidentally or immediately pregnant that I thought that the female body was dying to procreate the first chance it could get. I honestly thought that all you had to do to get pregnant was not prevent it from happening.

And here we are.

The sad thing for me is that I now feel smothered by a blanket of apathy. Where last year I fretted and fussed over temperatures and charts, now I just don't care anymore. I don't feel excited about getting pregnant, and once I do finally get pregnant again, I know I will feel nervous and detached. I am not going to enjoy it the way I should, which frustrates me beyond belief.

So this Super Bowl is a "grim milestone" of sorts for me. And tomorrow when my husband takes his DLPT, our Safe Year officially ends. And we have absolutely nothing to show for it.

Posted by: Sarah at 03:34 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 You don't have "nothing to show for it". Yes, you do not have an infant, but you had a year with a loving husband. Trust me, that's more than a little "something" to have. Many people go their whole life without that. (Don't jump to any conclusions. I have a loving wife, we've been married for 17 years. I'm just stating something about what you have from the last year.)

Posted by: Gus at February 03, 2008 04:45 AM (V+clK)

2 Incredibly sad post! Just keep trying. That apathy is defensive. When your body deceives you, it's difficult to trust it again. I still don't believe that I have babies. I never, ever, in a million years, ever thought that I would be so lucky. Just keep trying. At least THAT part is fun. If you had to get root canal to get pregnant, that would SUCK! Try not to worry about it. Drink some wine. It worked for me! And I'm OLD.... I wish I could take your burden. I've already been there and back. It hurts to see people that you care about suffer.... I wish I could snap my fingers and make everything all ok.

Posted by: Allison at February 03, 2008 07:12 PM (f2kPQ)

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