My Pet Peeves...and a little forgiveness

I realize that I just wrote a post not too long ago about the importance of being positive, but gosh darn it people bug me sometimes! Here is a list of little things that have been bugging me BIG time during the last few weeks:

1) People who let their toddlers run around your house with stinky diapers for hours because "they can't smell them." This goes for anyone anywhere who has mysteriously become immune to the smell of their child's feces or because of laziness just don't feel like changing the nastiness. I pray that I will never become a member of that club.

2) Have you ever had a really good idea, or so you thought, and decided to share it at a dinner conversation only to be shot down before you had even finished your sentence? Arggg! Granted, the idea may not have been great, but be polite enough to let me finish! I have found that there are people who are perpetual idea killers...have you met anyone like that? Or, gasp! Are you one of those?

3) When people very literally make themselves at home in your home, without being invited to do so. This weirds me out more than anything. I think that this level of familiarity takes a long while to cultivate, but maybe I am just weird. I still always ask if I can have a drink of water or use someones bathroom, raid cupboards/refrigerator, look through personal items etc. Children tend to be exempt from this rule in my opinion, but definitely not adults.

4) Wymounters are notorious for this one: Calling before 9 AM or after 9 PM, you KNOW who you are! My momma raised me to know better than that! I believe that the only time anyone should ever call later or earlier than that is with family. I still get pretty nervous whenever the phone rings during those hours. So, if you call our house between those hours and we don't pick up the phone, yes, we have caller ID and are ignoring you. We hope you learn your lesson.

5) This may just be greedy, but I hate it when I ask parents to not let their children play with something in my home, even if it is a child's toy, and then they let them do it anyway! I have toys set aside for their kids to play with which may not be as cool or entertaining as the things their child has found, but if I don't want them to play with them, that is my prerogative.

6) Last of all if I don't want to talk about something, such as the never ending topic of my pregnancy, I won't indulge the topic. Get the hint! Maybe I am bizarre but I don't actually enjoy talking about all the in's and out's of being pregnant and having children ALL THE TIME. I also don't want to hear all your childbirth/parenting horror stories or about how smart/good looking your child is. I have a brain! I can talk of other things! For example: the current book I am reading, or the political race which I am interested in. What about science? Perhaps we can talk about a favorite restaurant or a good movie we have seen lately? See, there are lots of other things to talk about!

Ok, that is the last of my ranting and on this Easter Sunday, which I really should be thinking about Christ's atonement rather than raving about every one's faults, I leave on a note of forgiveness. If you find that you may have been guilty of any of these things, whether to me or others, just know that I don't hold these things against you and will try to be more forgiving of your imperfections and love you more for the wonderful person you are. I am also going to forgive myself because I know that I am most certainly not perfect and anyone who reads this can probably write their own blog entry about how annoying I am. I will, however, strive to be better and more conscious of what I do/say to others. Happy Easter!

Birthin' Momma Cake and Baby Shower

Look how good Amanda is at multitasking!
For my baby shower with my friends this last weekend I decided to go crazy and make a Birthin' Momma cake. I got the idea from this website: http://www.birthingfromwithin.com/mamma_cake but decided it would freak people out if it was as graphic as the original, so we adapted it. This is supposed to be me in labor (happy thoughts) and my friends Elisabeth and Jillynn helped me make it. It took hours to decorate but check out that rack! She is certainly more busty than we anticipated but we got a lot of laughs, especially when it came to eating the cake...

Check out this quilt made by my friend, Natalie. Isn't it amazing? She even made it with vintage fabrics! I got a ton of beautiful homemade gifts like this one and I am so grateful that my friends were so thoughtful!
Natalie and Jamie eating the breasts from the birthin' momma cake. Yum!

The Importance of Being Positive

I love Elisabeth Karlsson. I really cannot say enough about how wonderful and amazing she is, especially when it comes to being positive in occasionally not so positive situations. A perfect example of this is pregnancy. When I first started talking to Elisabeth about having a baby she shocked me by telling me how wonderful it is. This was literally the first time I had heard that pregnancy could actually be a good experience. Did Elisabeth have a "perfect" pregnancy? No, she did not, but she chose not to dwell on the tough things and focused instead on the miracle it is to create life.

Having now experienced the majority of a pregnancy I truly appreciate how important this positive outlook is. A journey into the unknown is often pretty darn scary, uncomfortable, and just plain irritating at times but friends like Elisabeth make the difference between dealing with those times and dwelling on them. Having a doula has also been a great thing for me. Jillynn NEVER dismisses my fears or my concerns. She NEVER tries to force her beliefs on me despite the fact that she is so passionate about them. She has remained a cheerleader, a listening ear, and a wise guide in my pregnancy journey.

I am so grateful that I am not afraid to give birth. So many women lack that gift and their pregnancies and birth experiences often suffer because of it. I am not so naive to believe that my birth experience will be perfect or painless, in fact I expect it will be very painful and far from perfect, but I have found peace in knowing that having a positive view of the birthing process and the part that my body plays in that process will help me have a better experience. So, it is with life! Opposition and trials are a vital part of our existence! We grow and develop because of difficulties and suffering as well as joyful experiences. If life were perfect how would we learn? The important thing to remember is to always look for the positive in these difficult situations, even though it is difficult at times. That is why we have friends.

I hope that I will always remember to speak positively to others about my experiences and not fall into the common practice of negative group "purging" that I see so often when groups of women get together. It is SO damaging and anything but instructive and supportive, kind of like gossip, but that is a topic I will reserve for another time!