Anita Blanchard: About Us

Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:14:53 GMT

Update to the Update

For those folks checking out this section, a few things to update you on.

I had a miscarriage in December. It was completely unexpected, but we got through it and expect to start trying again. For those of you who stumble onto this site and are dealing with your own miscarriage, it’s tough but it gets better. Six weeks later, I feel that everything is going to be OK. In fact, I feel like everything is going to work out well.

Conor is 18 months old and growing daily. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. No one told me that it just gets better and better. Well, everything but the sleep gets better and better.

Welcome to our site and feel free to stick around and make a comment or two.

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 01:18:50 GMT

Happy Anniversary Baby….Got you on my Miiiiind

Five years ago, approximately now, Dave (although he continues to deny it) asked me to marry him for the first time after about 3 months of dating. My exact response was “Slow down cowboy.”

Four years ago, I was living in NC and Dave was living in Los Angeles. By this time, we were both pretty dang sure that This Was It. Dave proposed to me in Hawaii one month later.

Three years ago today, we got married. It was definitely one of the best days of my life.

Two years ago, I was 6 weeks pregnant.

One year ago, we were still getting used to our new little family. (and Conor had just stopped sleeping through the night and started to teethe, a fact that really hasn’t changed all that much since).

Today is our Third Year Wedding Anniversary, celebrated traditionally by leather and modernly by crystal and glass. Fitting into neither of those categories, Dave massive surprised me by having my PhD diploma framed and, among other things, presenting me with my own personally dedicated-to-Anita-my-Internet-Researcher signed copy of Julie and Julia. I was stunned. (I know Julie Powell never reads other people’s blogs, but on the absolutely outside chance that she is, Thank You Very Much)

I am very happily looking forward to 67 more years with my smoochie muffin man. Hmmm? you ask. 67 more years?

Yes, when Dave asked me to marry him (again), I told him that I could not commit to forever. It seems too easy to take each other for granted. Instead, I told him that I would marry him for 70 years with a 5 year option to renew. After that, well, we’ll just have to see what happens after that.

If I ever start back running again, I intend to remain (become?) a hottie again so that in 67 more years, my options are still wide open. Unfortunately, the same is true for him. And considering how handsome and kind he is, it is more likely that I will be the one wooing him.

To let Conor enjoy in on our celebration, we let him watch part of the wedding video. (The first 5 minutes until he became distracted by a spot on the floor) Conor never gets to watch TV and so, doesn’t really pay any attention to it. Until he saw Dave walking across the screen in his tuxedo. Da? Dadjie? Conor asked with his finger pointing directly at Dave’s head. Yes! I said. Conor leaned over and kissed the TV.

Can you stand that? Can you stand any of this? I feel lucky to be me today.

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 14:58:52 GMT

About Us, Part II (What's new since the last time I updated this section)

We are currently in the process of TTC---Try To Conceive---a new addition to the family. We've finished the Garage to Office remodel, and are currently deciding on whether or not to remodel the house. Today's Remodel-o-Meter is pointing strongly at Way Too Poor. Dave is training for the Marine Corps Marathon and I'm just trying to get in a couple of 4 to 5 mile runs per week.

The baby sleeps through the night most of the time, but we're having a real problem of getting him to go to sleep at bedtime. We don't use CIO methods, but most certainly do not judge families and friends who do. Although I am currently leaning towards a HIO method: hotel it out in which I leave for a good night's sleep and the boys figure out how to sleep on their own without me. If Priceline would ever accept my $25 bid for a 5-star hotel, I would SOOOOO be out of here for a good night's rest.

Sun, 06 Feb 2005 17:51:48 GMT

About Us

This blog is about a man and a woman who married a bit later in life and who are trying to have it all. I am Anita, a tenure track professor of psychology. My husband is Dave, the director of Human Resources at local company. There are 5 and a half other characters who make up this blog.

First is Conor, a.k.a., the Monkey, our 7 month old son. He is the main character of this blog, despite what they say in the NY Times. He currently likes sitting up and playing, snuggling with his parents, flirting with other people while in the arms of his parents, and is a big fan of the boob. He loves being out doors and shaking a big glob of linkadoos.

Patches is our first born dog, a 3 year old collie we adopted from collie rescue. As a working dog, his job is to keep the indoor squirrels, errr, the cats in line. He likes playing Catch the Frisbee and Herd the Big Red Ball Around the Yard. He is very happy to have Conor as his own little boy.

Duncan is the oldest male cat, the elder statescat, as it were. He is pissed off. We do not leave clothing lying around because he will pee on it. Clearly, he has problems and we are waiting to hear from the vet what our options are.

Scarlett is the oldest female cat. She is also known as Psycho because she hisses at everyone who even looks at her except for us. Oddly, she absolutely loves the baby and will let him pull handfuls of fur off her tail without twitching a whisker. She especially likes getting in my lap while I’m nursing Conor at night and vibrating with purrs.

Simba Louise is our newest adopted cat, a female. She’s small and feisty. Although she and Duncan get along well, she and Scarlett continue to engage in catfights. We think they are pretending that they are fighting while in actuality they are playing. She is also the only cat who plays with Patches.

The one-half character in this blog is Sergio, our red Betta. He would not appreciate being called a one-half character, but as he doesn’t really interact with every one else (except for confronting Simba when she checks in on him), he doesn’t get a lot of blog time.

At one point, Dave and I used to run marathons to keep in shape. Now we do laundry for exercise. We are in the middle of remodeling our garage to make it and office and of finishing up our landscaping additions. We garden in the summer and have thus far had one bad crop and one good crop. We’re currently planning for the Summer ’05 garden.

We document all of these stories in our blog to help others who are as clueless as we are. If you’ve got it all figured out, please share it with us. If not, welcome to our lives.