Henry's Emporium of Wonders

Making the internet normal again, one post at a time.

Tag: family

  • Finding out I was pregnant…

    I had never really thought about kids when I was younger. I was too busy just trying to survive my childhood. LOL. But I really didn’t care one way or the other. I never gave it too much thought or made it a priority. It was just a if it happens it happens. Obviously if it did happen I was planning on it being after I was financially stable and in a stable relationship.

    All that to say when I saw that positive dollar tree pregnancy test–after a weeklong bought with what I had thought was food poisoning–I was more in shock than anything else. I really shouldn’t have been that shocked. We were using pulling out as a contraceptive. STUPID! IDK why I didn’t think it was more stupid back then, but like we had been doing that for two years before and hadn’t gotten pregnant? Anyways at this point I’m like 31, pretty good financially, in a semi-healthy relationship–it’s more healthy now :)–so it’s not the worst thing in the world. I had already been thinking about marrying my husband anyways (more on that another day); so I told him and we made the decision together. We obvs decided to keep it, and now I have a tiny dictator in my home.

    It was just funny though because leading up to that, we had gone to this Pho restaurant with my husband’s family at a place our BiL and SiL were raving about. They had been going there for years and had a relationship with the owners. It was weird, they would go behind the counter for stuff?! Anyways, the food was good, but the next day I was throwing up. I asked my then BF at the time if he felt weird, and of course when I feel ill he feels deathly ill. LOL But the next day I was still throwing up and couldn’t keep anything down. This was serious enough for my now Husband to notice. I told him I was okay it was probably just that damn restaurant. So we were making fun of the restaurant the rest of the week. However, when I didn’t get my period that weekend, I was like OH NO.

    I used to keep a stack of pregnancy tests from the dollar tree at home just in case. I think everyone who is at risk of pregnancy should have a stash. The dollar tree ones are just as accurate as the more high end brands. IDK why they are allowed to do stuff like that. Make us pay more for things that do the same thing. Anyways, I digress, I took it and low and behold two lines appeared. I told Napoli (hubby), and he thought I was playing at first. But no, there it was. Clear as day. We had a choice to make. We discussed our current financial path, and what would change, were we ready? We made the decision that we were. So here we are now 3 years later, and I’m picking sh*t off the floor every other day because we are potty training. LOL I think we made a good choice. I’m just glad we had a chance to choose what was best for us in that moment. One of the perks of living in California.

  • Chow Chows

    When I was in my last year of college, I had gotten a black pug named Frank. I loved Frank so much. I had worked triple shifts to afford him. lol. He was with me for 2 years but then I joined the Navy. While I was on deployment he ran away. 😦

    A few months later I started dating this weird Russian guy. IDK I was just like lonely in a new town and looking for companionship. He was kind of weird, he had gone to jail before for counterfeiting, and he liked going to raves. He was really nice though. We had some good times, but he was just kind of unstable. Anyways, he had gotten me a replacement Frank. I liked the new frank, but he didn’t have like a completely back coat, he looked faded. I don’t know if that makes sense. There’s a stray cat who goes into our yard who is grey but has random patches of this weird orange color. It looks like she was bleached. That’s kind of how new Frank was.

    We wound up breaking up after a few months because he was just like too weird for me. Like I’m weird, but I’m stable and always gainfully employed, but he was just weird. I was also resentful because he came from this great family, his mom was SO NICE! She was a psychiatrist, taught herself how to paint, and was teaching herself French at the time. I was so jealous. I would think about where would I have been, if I had that kind of support from the get go, compared to what I had to go through. IDK but that’s also part of the reason we broke up. I just couldn’t relate with him well.

    Anyways, he wound up taking Frank back with him when we broke up. 😦 Secretly I was kind of okay with it because new Frank wasn’t like old Frank. He later drowned in my ex’s mom’s pool. 😦

    For my birthday that year my brother decided to get me a new puppy. We had went to a puppy store in National City. They had such dogs! There was this super cute white chow chow puppy named Elsa. I knew she was the one. When we inquired as to the price–THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS–we noped right out of there. They were talking about financing a dog. FINANCING?! Like financing for a car, but for a dog!! That’s too crazy. We jumped on craigslist and found a breeder selling Chow Chows for 300 a pup in LA.

    We went to see the puppies and Henry was the first one to come up to me. I had always seen my self as a boy dog mom, and Henry is a girl, but I had my heart set on the name Henry. Her name also serves as a litmus test for people I meet. If they don’t get how words are just sounds we attach meanings to and aren’t intrinsic to the physical material that makes up a person or thing, then we probably won’t get along. Alot of people say, “Oh, you are confusing her”, “What if she becomes gay?” It’s like first of all that makes no sense becuase that’s not how any of that works, and also BECAUSE SHE IS A DOG. Dogs don’t know English, they just know what we teach them. Words don’t have bearing on a person/animal’s sexuality, as that is just something they are born as.

    So, that’s another reason why I enjoy having Henry around. Not just for her beautiful face, but her beautiful soul.

  • Gaming as a Parent

    My husband and I used to game a lot before we came parents. Our favorite game to play together was Conan Exiles. It was just a lot of grinding, but we had fun. After we first had our son, that gaming time was practically nonexistent. Well, apart from when I got hooked on Stardew Valley, I would play it while my son napped.

    Recently I started playing Genshin Impact. It’s a really fun game, I still can’t believe it’s free. There are gacha elements for you to spend money on it, but I’m cheap and am just free to play. I feel guilty about playing. I maybe spend like an hour to game, but during that time my son is always pestering me. I set up activities for him to do, but he would rather bother me. I spend quality time with him earlier in the day. After work I typically take him outside or to the pool to play where we have quality one on one time. I guess it just makes me feel guilty. Like I should be spending more time with him, but I literally spend all day with him (I work remotely), and spend 2-3 hours of quality time with him everyday. Is it that bad that I want to game for 1 hour? I only get like one hour to myself everyday. 1/24 what is that? Like 4% of my day spent on something I enjoy. I know logically it is okay to take some time for myself, but I feel so guilty about it.

    My husband on the other hand….he’s something else. He can play for hours a day and not feel bad about it. I am the main care taker for our son, I want to be an involved parent, he doesn’t care about that until our son gets older. It’s kind of annoying, but kids can pick up on who is invested and who isn’t. If that’s the kind of relationship he wants with our son then I guess that’s what he wants. I on the other hand will continue to mentally torture myself into thinking I don’t do enough. I will however will save at least 30 min of my day to play Genshin Impact…maybe more on the weekend.