Life Under Construction

Posts Tagged ‘my nephew’

I LOVE…  getting a full night sleep (which I did not get last night).

I LOVE…  that I got to be there with Lauren last night for her bachelorette party.  Her sister is wicked cool, and it was awesome to spend time with my cousin Crystal – even if Lloyd McDrunkerson was jumping in all the pictures of Lauren and her friends, and even if the mechanical bull was out of order.

I LOVE…  building the “tallest tallest tower” with my nephew.  Lincoln Logs will never go out of style (even though they come with plastic pieces these days that never came in the sets when I was wee).

I LOVE…  that my nephew is hilarious without even trying.

I LOVE…  that my friends are so supportive of me.  We might not be able to see each other as often as we’d like, but they’re always there for me when I need them and they know I’m here for them too.  It feels amazing.

I LOVE…  playing FlyFF.  I just wish I had someone to play with.  Alli doesn’t play it anymore and she’s been my biggest gaming partner ever, so without her I kind of don’t know what to do…

I LOVE…  the idea of never owning another pet ever again.

I LOVE…  lame jokes.  Where do you get virgin wool?  Ugly sheep!

I LOVE…  knowing that I’m going to have an awesome weekend filled with Harry Potter and butterbeer and fangirl fun.  Oh yeah… and Christina.  :]  There will be pictures and video to share when the weekend is over!

What do YOU love today?

I LOVE…  going to the movies by myself, especially when the theater is practically empty.  It makes the whole movie experience more enjoyable.

I LOVE…  when I find a fantastic author, and I want to own all of the books he/she has ever written.  And sometimes, with an author like Sarah Dessen, I own all their books and wish they’d write at inhuman speeds (even though I know that’s not how it works) so that I could have more.

I LOVE…  writing in my journal.  It helps me sort out my thoughts when everything in my head is jumbled (which happens more often than writing).  It also helps me figure out how I feel about just about anything, because writing reveals parts of me that I don’t pay attention to.

I miss my Dear Diary blog.

I LOVE…  spending as much time with my nephew as I do.  I remember being his age and thinking the world of my aunts and uncles, because I was always around them.  I’m glad I can be here for John, looking after him, having fun with him, experiencing things with him.  It makes me feel like I’m giving him things to look back and smile about, the same way I’ll be able to look back and smile about spending so much time with him.

I LOVE…  living with Sarah.  She truly is one of my very best friends.  We have a closeness that I always wanted with her when I was a kid.  I was that annoying little sister that touched every book, Barbie doll (OK, so maybe I massacred her Barbies), and toy she ever owned because I wanted to be just like her.  And look at us now.  ♥

I LOVE…  that Secret Life of the American Teenager is back, Heroes is back, and Lost starts up again in less than a month.  Now if only Glee wasn’t on hold until April, things would be almost perfect.

I LOVE…  the Twilight series.  You should all be happy to know that I picked up New Moon yesterday.  Not the copy with the movie characters on the cover, I picked up the original paperback at WalMart – which is what I’ve been wanting.

Happy Friday everybody!

What do YOU love today?

It’s an arid 19°F outside today here in southern Rhode Island, but I’m not going to let that get me down (even though I have to go out in it later when it will surely be colder).  Yesterday was such a crummy, stressful day, that today I just want everything to be relaxed and happy.

My nephew is being so incredibly good this morning, and I keep telling him how proud he makes me.  We’re taking a break from playing trains and watching Thomas so that he can play Super Mario Bros on Sarah’s new Wii.  If I walk out into the living room, this is what I see:

And if he catches me watching him, it’s all over.  All he wants to do is watch me play.  He doesn’t want to play himself.  And he shouts things at me.

“Jump there, Auntie Jammy!  Watch out that bad guy!  Wait!  Go down there!  Look at that lights are on!”

and:

“Get the pennies!”

and my personal favorite, one that rises in crescendo and pitch with each word:

“Auntie. Jammy.  You. Are. Really. Cool. This. Game!”

I only just got away for a few minutes, just now.

What a weird kid I have for a nephew.  I remember playing the original Super Mario Bros at his age.  When I was 6, I didn’t like watching anyone else play Mario.  I wanted to play all the time.  Me! Me! ME!  I didn’t even like two player mode because I had to wait my turn.  I hated it so much that I learned to beat the game in one guy, so that I never had to wait my turn.

I still don’t like to share.  lolz.

Ask anyone I know, they’ll tell you it’s always ‘Jaime Jaime Jaime’.  It is perhaps my biggest personality flaw, how selfish I am.

(I swear the people down the street can probably hear his squeals of excitement when he jumps over a hole, or when a mushroom gets too close to him.  It is so cute!)

So I guess that’s it for today.  I’m being summoned rather loudly from the living room, where my beloved Super Mario Bros game has been transformed from this:

…into this:

And then I will go to the store to pick up the necessary ingredients for the steak dinner I am cooking for my sister and my dad.

Happy Wednesday, everyone.

What was the first game you ever played on a game system?
Do you share well?  Are you a ’sharer’?
What are you having for dinner?

My nephew turns 6 today.  SIX.  That means he’s more than half way to ten.  More than half way to double digits.  A third of the way to being a legal adult.  I feel a slight panic coming on.

It is also Benny’s birthday.  And Megan’s birthday.  Happy birthday, Benny and Megan!

On a slightly related note: 158 days until my birthday.

OK, so you know how I pissed and moaned about how much I missed reading last month, and how I couldn’t wait to start reading the books I’d ordered?  Well, instead of reading one of the – *counts* 21 unread books that are sitting on my shelf, I’m reading The Other Boleyn Girl again.  Because I’m obsessed with Henry’s wives, particularly Anne Boleyn, and all things 16th century England.  I’m like fighting with myself not to read The Queen’s Fool and The Virgin’s Lover again once I’m done with this book.  Because I have 21 other books to read that I haven’t ever read.  How can I justify buying more books after Christmas if I still have so many yet to read?

You don’t even have to tell me how sad I am.  I already know.

I’ve been listening to Hank Green’s new album This Machine Pwns n00bs non-stop for days.  I can’t get enough of it.  I can’t even decide on my favorite song from it, it is every song.  Every song on the album is my favorite.  And I’ve been listening to it so much that the other night I had a dream that I met Hank and his brother John (Nerdfighters FTW!), and that we were inside a video game.

If that isn’t nerdy, I don’t know what is.

…

Gwen Bell’s Best of 2009 Challenge:
December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

Four words: National Novel Writing Month.  The project has definitely been my biggest personal challenge to date, not just in 2009.  I found myself in places where I wanted to just give up, where I hated everything and nothing made sense.  I got angry and frustrated, but I still kept going.  I learned a lot about myself last month, and I found that something could be hard but I could still enjoy it.  I realized without a doubt that writing is what I want to do with my life.

I LOVE…  my new last name.

I LOVE…  hot chocolate.  Especially the kind with the freeze dried marshmallows.  With a little cream in it.  Mmmm.

I LOVE…  hot tea on a cold morning, with a little milk and sugar.

I LOVE…  that Walter sent me flowers on Tuesday because he knows that I hate Tuesdays, and then he forgot he sent them.  DORK.  ♥

I LOVE…  that my nephew is going to be Peter Pan for Halloween this weekend.  The costume is so effing adorable!  I get to go around Trick-Or-Treating with him, too!

I LOVE…  both Robin Williams and Mary Martin as Peter Pan.  Since I already have Hook on DVD, I now need to find the Mary Martin version of Peter Pan on DVD and my life will be complete!  Not really complete, per se… but it will be better.

I LOVE…  that every few nights before bed John will ask me where Uncle Walter is, if he can sleep over our house again, and tells me that he misses him.  It’s cute.  But GET IN LINE, BUDDY.

I LOVE…  Casey and Cappie back together!!!!!!!!!!!! Srsly, they kissed, and amidst the squealing and giggling I may have semi-shouted “this is the best moment of my life!!!!” (read: I totally did).

I LOVE…  that it’s the weekend.  I can play WoW on Saturday all day if I want.

I LOVE…  that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) starts on Sunday (see my nifty little badge over there in the left hand column??)!!!  I have been waiting for this since I failed last year, and I’m totally going to win this year!!!  I’ll probably post my progress updates a few times a week, and you probably won’t get very many normal blogs from me until it’s over, since I have to focus on my word count, but I hope all y’all will stick around until it’s over.  I could use all the support I can get!

Happy Friday, everybodies!  What do YOU love today?

I woke up wicked early yesterday morning, and all was quiet in the house.  I was feeling anxious after the stressful dream I’d had and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  I tried, I tossed and turned, and finally decided that I’d sleep better if I peed.  So I did.  And the clock said 6:45, so I then decided to check to see if Sarah was awake yet because if I went back to bed I would just wonder and that would keep me up.  She was awake.  And John was sitting in the chair by the living room window.

He was just sitting there, looking out.  So I sat next to him, said good morning, and he leaned against me, resting his head on my neck.  I whispered “you my best friend” and he snuggled even closer.  I thought it was so sweet how he was quiet and tired, that post-dreaming awakeness, just watching the morning world go by.  And then I realized, before he spoke, that he was watching the lights.

Stupid me, I should have known.

“Auntie Jammy, yoooouuu-yoooouuuu sit here with me, and watch the lights turn off with me?” he asked me.  He was grinning, droopy eyes grinning and content.

How could I say no to that?  So I settled in and let him rest against me as he pointed out which ones would go off first.  “Over that one” he pointed.  Sure enough, when they started to go off, that one was first.  I didn’t stay to watch the rest of them.  He had to eat breakfast and get ready for school, and I wanted to try and get some more, better sleep before I had to get up for work.

But it felt good.  It felt peaceful and good.  That’s my happy thought for today.

For a great, informative read, check out Walter’s latest blog:  The heart matters in the matters of the heart.

I LOVE…  that chocolate milk fills me up in the morning.  It’s been my breakfast nearly every day since the 5th grade.

I LOVE…  that I got to spend two wonderful weeks with Walter.  I love that I married him, my very best friend in all the world.

I LOVE…  that I posted my very first TMI Thursday blog yesterday.  I was wicked nervous about posting it because I don’t know all who reads my blog.  I know some people from work read it because I find out all the time my co-workers read it when someone I never expected to care about my blog says something to me about the content of what I posted that day.  Not that it’s a bad thing.  It’s totally not.  I’m not the anonymous blogger type.  I was just… nervous at how it would go over.

I LOVE…  Flintstones chewable vitamins.  Yeah I take them.  GOT A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!  (the purple ones are my favorite)

I LOVE…  watching TV with Sarah.  There are lots of good shows on this year, and if we don’t watch them together we at least talk about them.  I especially love watching Heroes with Sarah and daddy.  We rot our brains as a family, the way a family should.

I LOVE…  sleeping through the whole night and being so into my dream that I want to sleep longer.

I LOVE…  that Lauren and Sean are engaged!!!!

I LOVE…  that my bedroom is the warmest room in our apartment in the wintertime.  It’s nearly always at least 10° warmer in there than it is in all the other rooms.  :D  I don’t particularly love it so much in the summer, but I’d rather be hot than cold!

I LOVE…  knitting.  The scarf I’m knitting for Sarah is coming along so well, I’m jealous of her.  I want it.  I WANT IT!  I’d post a picture, but a picture can’t convey the softness of it!

I LOVE…  hearing from my readers.  <3

Happy Friday, everybody!  What do YOU love today?

I LOVE…  watching movies in bed.

I LOVE…  reading a book so good I get lost in it.  I’ll be posting a review of The Help by Kathryn Stockett at the beginning of October, so watch for that.

I LOVE…  wearing cute sweaters over casual jeans.

I LOVE…  that I’m going to see my dad tonight.  I didn’t see him last Friday, and it feels like I haven’t seen him in a month.  I don’t like the way that feels.

I LOVE…  that when Walter gets here in less than two weeks (!!!!!!!!) I’m taking him out to dinner with Alli, Sarah, my dad, John, and hopefully Robert.

I LOVE…  watching John get on the bus in the mornings.  He sits down in his seat and looks out the window at me with a big smile.  He’s getting to be such a big boy and he knows it.

I LOVE…  that Christina asked me to go shopping with her tomorrow.  Hello debt, here I come!  I need some more books, and some more cute sweaters wouldn’t hurt either.  :D  You know… nothing really fits me anymore so I have an excuse to buy new clothes!

I LOVE…  Christina.  I wish she would start blogging again.  *hint hint mC!*

Remember to check out these other awesome I LOVE…Fridays posts!

• Lauren
• PQ
• Walter

If you post an I LOVE…Fridays blog and want me to link to it in my blog, email me the link at irishgamergirl [at] gmail [dot] com!

What do YOU love today?  :D

Today feels like Tuesday.  NOT GOOD, PEOPLE!

Man, I started my morning off right.  I tried to get John to put a sweatshirt on before leaving for the bus but he didn’t want it.  Then, just as we could see the bus he says “I so cold Auntie Jammy, warm me up!”  !@#$%^&*(>~?  I ran back to the house and up the stairs, grabbed the first available sweatshirt (that totally didn’t match his outfit, btw), ran back down the stairs and to the bus stop to hand him his sweatshirt just as the bus was getting there.

I’m still out of breath.

“What If” Wednesday wasn’t a big hit yesterday, but I’m going to give it another shot next week and see how it goes.

Walter is blogging now!  He’s going to be writing at the PQ Nation sometime in the future, but for now he’s got his own blog with WordPress.  Check him out!

Nextly I want to tell you about my dream from last night but I only remember bits and pieces (is that a good thing?  You tell me…).

I dreamed I was at this underground cabin with a yard that looked just like my grandmother’s.  There was a bathtub outside the house in the grass, and Alli and I were arguing over who was going to take a bath first.  Monsters started coming out of the ground, weird colorful monsters that took us and some of our family members into their lair or space ship or whatever it was.  They were planning to tear us to shreds.  I had my baby cousin in my arms, and one of the monsters needed help.  In exchange for my family’s safety I told them I would help them.  Some other monsters had invaded their hideout.  I helped them as best as I could, when one of the last invading monsters threw something at me.  It was a ball, but just before I was going to catch it it stopped in mid air.  I could see it was spinning and it was a perfect replica of the Earth.  I had a feeling deep down in my gut that it wasn’t a replica, that it was the real.thing.  It started spouting colorful fuzz at first, and I frantically wiped it off, terrified of what it was really doing.  But it grew back thicker and faster, it was like monster fur and it wouldn’t stop.  Then a chunk of the earth fell off, and the inside of it was an apple.  The invading monsters laughed at me and the good monsters (were they good now?) were panicked just like I was.  They wanted to help me save the earth, but there was nothing we could do.  The apple started turning a dark brown, then black, and started crumbling from the inside.

Then I woke up.

I know.

So what’s going on today?  It’s not Tuesday, I have to keep reminding myself that it’s Thursday.

It’s a long sleeve day today in Rhode Island.  I’m not sure I’m prepared for this weather yet!

Goodbye summer.  I’ll miss your hot and humid days, your muggy nights, and sunny afternoons!

It’s not quite light jacket weather yet, which is good.  I hope it’s not too cold for Walter when he gets here.  He’s used to the hot, dry weather in the desert and all now.

WALTER IS COMING TO RHODE ISLAND!!!!  Every day I am more and more excited.  It feels more real the closer the day gets.  It’s not ‘if’, it’s ‘when’.  And ‘when’ is less than 3 weeks away.

Sarah put my nephew on the bus this morning for his very first day of kindergarten.  He’s so excited to be going to his new school, he loves making new friends.  He looked wicked cute in his Thomas & Friends hat and his Red Sox backpack.  We took a bunch of pictures, and he said “stop taking pictures of me!” before we even got outside.  After Sarah picked him up and kissed him, she put him down and he said “mommy, don’t do that again ok?”

I’m going to be putting him on the bus in the mornings because Sarah usually has to leave for work before the bus comes.

Eating has been hard the last couple of days, and I don’t normally give up when it comes to food.  The first time I got my tongue pierced I didn’t even feel it.  There was no bleeding, no swelling.  This time I almost passed out at the piercing parlor because there was a wee bit of blood.  It hurts a lot at the moment and I’m all out of Advil.

Also I think I’m more of a baby than I was 8 years ago when I first got it done.

Do you have your tongue pierced?
Do you have any piercings at all? Where?
What’s the weirdest piercing you’ve ever seen?  The coolest?