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Friday, September 25, 2009

7 Quick Takes Friday, #33



1. I had the weirdest random conversation this week. At a small grocery store, while checking out my few items, I yawned. It was a polite yawn - silent, mouth covered, trying not to open too wide. I thought nobody even noticed it, but I was mistaken.

"Shallow breathing," said the older man at the cash register.

I looked up, not sure if this diminutive man had really spoken at all, and if he had, that I'd heard him correctly.

With my brow furrowed, I said, "Uh....w...what?" I was truly stumped.

"Your yawn there..." he clarified. "It means you're breathing too shallow. You need to open up your diaphragm and let your belly pooch out to get your lungs filled up with oxygen-rich air. I'm a personal trainer." He went on to explain the physiology behind true deep-breathing techniques and a certain book by a certain author he wanted to recommend.

All the while, I was nodding and glancing around to see if anyone else thought it was strange that I was getting breathing tips from a personal trainer/grocery bagger. I just couldn't fathom two seemingly unrelated professions being housed in the same body - in my local mom & pop grocery store, no less.

He was very polite, not pushy - just informative. But it wasn't until later that I could clear my stereotyped associations far enough to realize what I should have said in response: "Well, shallow breathing, sure. But it's the shallow sleeping that comes with being a mom of two little ones that I think does the trick where my yawns are concerned."

Or the past-my-bedtime-blog-surfing. Either one.



2. Remember the craft I mentioned in last week's quick takes? We made it! Mia loved doing most of it herself and thinks it's the cutest thing since Lauren Jade. I'd have to agree.



Here's the link to the super simple instructions again, if you'd like to do it yourself.



3. When I was talking with Mia about our plans for the pumpkin, she piped up with another suggestion. She wanted to make a spiderweb. With a really REALLY big spider. Since it was, after all, the first day of fall ("It's fall's birthday, mama!"), I was on board with any themed activities matching my favorite season.

So we put together a spider and a web. Because I am totally cool with spiders dangling from my doors.





4. In the car, driving past the hospital where Mia and Lauren were both born, Mia surprised me with this conversation:

Mia: Mama...I think I want another baby, OK?
Me: Oh you DO, do you?
Mia: Yeah. Uh, actually, I want three babies.
Me: You DOOOO, do you?
Mia: Yeah. I want a baby Chloe, a baby Jack, and a baby Lauren.
Me: So, you want Lauren and two more babies? A boy and a girl?
Mia: Uh-huh. Can I please have them?
Me: Wow. Maybe, I mean, if daddy, I mean...
Mia: I got a sucker today, mama!
Me: oh thank goodness



5. One of Lauren's favorite new games is hide and seek. Always in the same hiding place, she stands still and giggles in between yelling 'Momeeee! Yor-yeeeen!' (Her pronunciation of her own name.) If she's lucky, she can convince the whole household to play along with her.



She is lucky. But so are we.



6. Our weekends are starting to become clogged and booked up with parties and fall activities. This weekend, for example, we've been invited to 4 separate events. Most of me likes it. I like the pumpkin patch visits and fall parades and outdoor parties and the whole fall season. I like being included in fun things, having something to do. But another part of me wonders...

Will my house ever get to be cleaned from now until January? I count on weekends to do some deeper cleaning than I can do during the week by myself with both girls under my feet.

I guess technically, I could use the preschool hours for that. But - nobody ever liked technically.

When would I get to be lazy?



7. I've decided that I cannot cook a good steak. Last night I tried to grill steaks on my cast iron grill pan. First off, I marinated them for a few too many hours...but hoped for the best. Then I got the grill pan too hot so that the steaks were nearly burned on the outside (lookin' just about right to my well-done steak loving self), but a bright, raw red in the middle. No pink anywhere. Disgusting all around. Even my husband (the medium steak loving man) couldn't handle the redness in the middle. We put them back on for a few more minutes, but I still couldn't get the memory of the rawness out of my mouth.


And with that awful mental image, I bid you a happy weekend! Visit Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes.

19 comments:

  1. You shallow breather you!

    Love the hide in seek pictures!

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  2. #4 = Awesome :)

    And next time, send your raw steaks our way. As long as it's not mooing, my husband will ingest it :D

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  3. 1. Oh so funny! At least you just brushed it off - I would be in a panic and looking up the book he suggested! "No, not shallow breathing! Anything but that!"

    4. I think that sounds like a great idea! You don't even have to come up with the names, as Mia's got that covered!

    7. And that is why I make my husband and FIL do the grilling.

    And the rest: cute cute cute.

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  4. Isn't it funny the odd things that some people feel comfortable saying to perfect strangers? Very random.

    That pumpkin is so cute! Makes me wish Lily was old enough to do a craft like that!

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  5. Your steaks sound about perfect to me. I'm still training my husband to make them good and red inside.

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  6. Yes, I'd have to agree with the shallow sleeping creating the yawns. He obviously doesn't have kids... Breathing, ha! :)

    And yes, technically since it's nap for the little one and my oldest is at K, I should be cleaning or something. Ha, again!

    Have a wonderFALL weekend!

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  7. 1. Hmm...maybe you are just afflicting with a tendency to yawn in the grocery store. I am, for some strange reason. I shop and yawn.

    2 &3 Fall crafts were my favourite seasonal crafts as a kid. I made turkeys out of pine cones with construction paper feathers and wreath centerpieces out of leaves.

    4. Sounds like a good idea to me!

    5. Adorable!

    6. I'm glad I am not the only mom who values her lazy time a little too much.

    7 Our steaks (grilled) are ALWAYS overcooked. I like mooing rare, and hubby likes medium well. They always turn out almost well.

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  8. I love the hide and seek game!!! Too cute.

    Try the broiler. When my husband is too lazy to wait for the grill to heat up, we do them under the broiler. Excellent!

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  9. You are so crafty!! Love the hide and seek! Well at least you know Mia is on board for extending the family...too cute!! OH and as for Fall cleaning...you could just be lazy like me and NEVER clean ha ha...except the extremely impressive quick cleaning I do when company is expected ;)

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  10. pumpkins already?? I'm in denial. It's still summer!

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  11. I love fall crafts and activities!

    And I'm with you on "technically." Definitely NOT a fan! Especially when it comes between me and work avoidance.

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  12. That's one amazing pumpkin! How did you make that nifty spider's web? I know a certain little girl who would love a project like that...

    Oh, and I love the expression on Mia's face in the hide-and-seek picture. I also love that Lauren's already trying to dash away.

    As for the deep cleaning, I say forget about it until the kids are old enough to help.

    And about #4, I'm totally expecting you to make an announcement in about 6 weeks. I'm just sayin' (Don't panic. Just take a nice, deep breath.)

    Great quick takes this week, as always.

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  13. I love your bits of humor. Thank you for your quick takes today.

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  14. So funny. My Weston wants a baby named Jack too. Ha!

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  15. Lenae - Tell him I said EEEWWWW! :)

    Amy - File it away for next year! It's great for a two year old.

    MelanieB - I say this with deep affection: EEEWWWW! :)

    Kate - Your pun made me smile. But then again, *most* puns make me smile.

    Katie - I am sooo not crafy. But I like that I can *appear* crafy over the internet :)

    Kacie - Don't make me cry! Maybe in TX you can still claim summer, but up here I'm *this* close to apple pie.

    Emily - You're freaking me out a little with your thoughts on 'announcements' (and I'll not mention them to my gun-shy hubby or else I'll never be allowed in the same vicinity as his, um, body) so we're just gonna skip right to the spider web, mkay?

    I was planning on making concentric circles of yarn and gluing or tying on white pipe cleaners in a spoke fashion. But then I saw this pre-made web for $3.99 and I was hooked. So the 'project' for us was making the spider. We bent and curled together 4 pipe cleaners and talked about how many legs spiders have, etc. I think we're still a ways away from the patience it would've taken to make the web ourselves.

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  16. steaks are one thing i cna actually cook. everything else i burn. i like rare steaks too.

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  17. I love #4. So sweet!

    I also love your haircut! Very stylin'

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  18. I love the pumpkin and spider crafts. I need to get busy with a little fall decorating before fall is over. I realized that I left my spring wreath on the front door all summer.

    Our weekends are always busy and I too wonder when, if ever, my house will be clean. I don't even have a preschool time that I could "technically" use. It doesn't help that I'm a slob.

    I like my steaks medium-rare and my husband likes them mooing, so those would have been fine over here.

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  19. Gotta love all that advice that strangers hand out :)! I love that pumpkin craft - too cute!

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Hmm...And how did that make you FEEL?