The monkey and I were messing around yesterday, and I happened to take two of the cutest pictures of her yet.

She does this funny sniff like a rabbit thingy and its so funny. I caught her doing it.

She's such a ham.

Happy Copernicus Day!!!

Today is Copernicus' birthday! He was the astronomer who first theorized that the Sun was the center of the solar system, rather than the Earth.

Me shoes

These are the shoes I'm mouring over. Belk had them up to a size 8.5, but I have Peggy Hill feet, so of course they didn't have my size. Waah. I figured I could find them on eBay, but nope. I found them on some other websites, but I'm not paying $40 for them when they were on clearance at Belk for $12. Call me cheap.

Well, we didn't get much accomplished this weekend. Friday night just set the mood. My dad called me around 8:30, with news that an ambulance was on the way to take him to the hospital. He was feeling dizzy and lightheaded and knew something was wrong, and didn't think he could drive himself there. He turned up being dehydrated, and after 4 Liters of IV fluid, he was feeling much better. When he was home, the doctor upped his blood pressure medicine, and it contains a diuretic, and he wasn't taking in enough fluid. They kept him a few hours, and he's fine now. Made me worry though!!

Saturday we were planning on taking Lauren to the pet store to look at the animals, but she passed out in her stroller on the way there. We ended up stopping at Target and spending money, of course. I hate Target. We also went to Belk and I found a few things for the cruise for cheap, so that was good. Also found a pair of awesome Rocket Dogs, but they didn't have my size. I cried a little inside.

Today we just lounged around. Did our weekly swim tonight, and chatted with a professor from Tougaloo College that lives in our complex. Also got the laundry put away, which is a bigger accomplishment that it sounds.

I just realized this is excruciatingly boring. Enough now.

Americans are Idiots

This video makes me so sad.

Our week in Pictures

We went to the Natural History Museum last weekend and had a great time. Rooster loved watching the fish. I think she would have stayed all day if we would have let her.





I just wanna grab one so bad!!

Riding the frog

And petting the bear...

Here, kitty kitty....

Yes, this is a skull.

Three things:

What is up with smocked dresses and the South? Before moving here, I'd never even seen or heard of the things. I guess all the little girlies wear them to church or something and the mommies think they're adorable. I personally think they're ugly (the dresses, not the girlies). And jon-jons! Those are horrible. I can almost imagine a little boy growing up to want to kill his mother for putting in something so horrific. I dunno, I guess I'm just a damn Yankee.

The only decent thing about these get-ups are that when I find them in the thrifts, I can sell them to all those yuppie-southern-belle mommies out there for a pretty penny. Hehehe.

Second, and related to First: Why must little girls have HUGE hair bows? Again, must be a southern thing because I've never seen such craziness in my life. The combination of smocking and bowing is enough to drive me batty.

Third, and most importantly: Every time I'm in the Wal-Mart parking lot, I want to jump out of my car and beat somebody. People will wait for someone else's parking spot for the longest time, backing up traffic through the rows. This drives me nuts. Monday I had to run to WM to get some junk, and I wasn't half-way up the row walking back to my car, and some idiot was following me waiting for my spot. I didn't even have a good spot! There was another spot open literally three slots up from me, but this idiot waited for me to move so she didn't have to walk the extra ten feet! I knew what the lady was doing as soon as I saw her, so I purposely took my time putting my bags in the trunk, buckling in Lauren, and opening my soda. It had to have taken me a good 3-4 minutes. And she just sat there, waiting for me to back out. All the while, of course, there's a line of cars backed up behind her who can't get through because she's too lazy to walk the extra ten feet. OOOOOhhh this pizzes me off. It ticks me off even more when I'm stuck behind one of these bimbos. Seriously, I've never seen people do this before. Even in Wisconsin when it's 10 degrees below zero, people just find a spot and deal with it. Or at least keep driving around until a spot closeby opens up. But NEVER, just sit and wait.

*Stepping off soapbox now*

I started this new job thing with Brainfuse.com doing online tutoring. My first sessions were today and it was fun! I'm a little worried about doing it with Lauren at home, since I really need to concentrate on my students, but today it worked out okay. She slept the first hour and a half, and then when she woke up I had tons of goodies out to keep her busy. I did four-one hour sessions today, but only two of the students showed up. At least I get paid for waiting! If it works out, I'm considering hiring a mother's helper to come play with Lauren in the afternoons while I work. I just don't know how much I'd be able to pay. What would be reasonable for playing with a one-year old while mama is still there from 2-5:30 Tue-Friday? $50-60 a week? I have no idea what real daycare costs LOL.

Here are some pictures of Lauren "entertaining" herself while I was working today.

My dad is back in California now, and I'm so jealous! For this contract he is in Santa Barbara and is living in a condo right on the beach! I would really like to get out to visit him this spring, but with the cruise and all, I don't think we can afford it. Maybe he'll take another contract there and I can go this summer.

Lauren really bonded with grandpa over the last week. For the first nine months of her life, she did not like him at all. If he even looked at her, she would burst out in tears. She loved her grampy this time, though. I'm glad she was asleep when we dropped him off at the airport because I think she would have cried when he went "bye-bye"!

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of them together, so I don't have any to post! Silly mama.

Updates

My mom is going to be fine. Her scan showed that two minor vessels off of her carotid artery are 85% blocked, but they are going to try to get that cleared up with drug therapy. Her doc said that 99.9% of the time they are successful doing it that way. All of her other vessels and arteries are 100% clear, which is great news considering our gene pool. Doc said that she should be feeling better very soon.

Peeler and the pacifier are no more. The pacifier just kinda....disappeared...and I honestly have no idea what happened to it. This house eats things, I swear. Anyway, she never even noticed it was gone, so whatever. I'm glad that phase was short-lived.

Dad is home from California and is leaving again on Thursday already. We've had some...interesting....moments. He decided to go out on Saturday night in his leather get-up. Yeah. He did babysit for us on Friday night, though, which was AWESOME, because Donald and I got to go to Olive Garden and a movie.

Mmmm....other than that, not much is going on. I have a few things I want to blog about when I get the time, but who knows when that will be.

The Mommy High and Withdrawl

Somedays things just go right. Lauren is in a good mood, I am in a good mood, and we connect. Yesterday was one of those days. I was experiencing a "mommy high".

Yesterday Lauren was the baby I love to love. I love her everyday, of course, but there are some days when I just look at her and melt. I've been teaching her body parts lately (thanks for the suggestion, Kelly!), and for the past week she's been getting them right around 50% of the time. Yesteday, every time I asked her she'd grin and point to the right part. She was so giggly and cuddly yesterday. We chased bubbles, ate pizza, and read books. I loved being her mommy and was on a mommy high.

Today was the complete opposite. I couldn't do anything to make the girl happy. She woke me up two hours early and was then naughty all day long - grabbing, hitting, throwing tantrums, etc. By dinner time, I was ready to put her outside for the night. I was having mommy high withdrawls. I simply could not wait for her to go to bed so I could regain some sanity.

I hope Lauren gives this mommy some good drugs tomorrow so I can have more mommy high. Withdrawl sucks and the kid never gives in!

My mom went in for her MRI today. The hospital called a few hours after she got home and told her that she needed to come back in tomorrow for a Carotid Artery Scan, so we're all thinking they found a blockage. Apparently a blockage in the carotid artery isn't that big of deal and it can be removed with a pretty simple surgery, but it still sucks for her. I'm just thankful that she went to the doctor in time for something to be done.

In other news, my sister might be pregnant. I say might because she's claimed she was pregnant before just to get attention, so who knows if she's telling the truth. She says she took a home test last week and it was positive, but "she's not worrying yet because sometimes the tests are wrong" (her words, not mine). I told her that she needs to get into Planned Parenthood and get a freakin' test, but she doesn't seem too concerned. Ugh, that kid does not need a kid of her own.

Lovely, I tell ya. Just lovely.

But there is one good thing - my dad will be home tomorrow night!

Somewhere along the line in high school, there was an assignment that involved picking a controversial topic, picking a side and defending your opinion. Persuasive writing - that's what it was called. I think I ended up picking the death penalty, but I could be wrong. I had such a hard time with this paper because I couldn't pick a side. For the longest time, I couldn't pick a side on anything. I had no opinions. I had no beliefs.

I know exactly when this changed. When I studied abroad in London, my whole world view changed. I was forced to think about things, to examine my beliefs, and to pick sides. Nothing was safe. My beliefs about everything - politics, religion, life, family - were all turned upside down.

Over the last three years, my beliefs have become more ingrained in who I am. I believe what I believe because I've asked questions and thought long and hard about issues. For a long time I had a hard time expressing my opinions and beliefs because I didn't want to offend anyone or hurt any one's feelings. I now realize, of course, that this is ridiculous and it only made me boring.

There's a quote out there from Laurel Thatcher Ulrich - "Well behaved women seldom make history." I don't want to be a well-behaved woman anymore, and I sure don't want Lauren growing up to be one, either. I want her to be a fierce, independent, free-thinker, capable of making bold decisions and asking questions. To do this, she needs a role model. That's why I'm going to make more of an effort to get involved in things that I believe in. It's hard, especially in this area, for me to find like-minded people, but I'm going to try.

And I'm going to buy bumper stickers. Lots of bumper stickers. Since I'm going to be driving my car until it dies, I might as well make it pretty!

Okay, so apparently I'm the last person on Earth to realize that Kirk Cameron and Candace Cameron are brother and sister. I mean, it makes sense, considering they have the same last name and everything, so I guess I've been living in a box the past twenty years. Oh well.

Donald went out for a guy's night tonight, so it's just me and the babe. Which is good, actually, because I actually got to watch TV after Lauren went to bed! I never get to watch TV because someone is a remote hog!

Lauren found a pacifier somewhere last night (buried in her toybox, I think), and has been chewing/sucking on it since. When she was younger I was dead set against giving her a paci, and the only reason we had one around is because we got some from her baby shower. I told Donald I was going to throw it away because I really don't want her getting attached to the thing now, since she's never had one before. He said that she's just chewing on it and to leave her be, but I think she is sucking on it. She had it in her mouth today and I snapped a picture, hopefully the only one we'll ever have with the damn thing in her mouth.


This whole paci thing would be inconseqential if not for the fact that it could be a useful tool in my battle to take back my nights. Lauren has always had a habbit of waking up several times before I come into bed, and she needs to be nursed back to sleep every time. This wouldn't be a big deal if I had nothing to do at night, but unfortunately I have school work, eBay, and now a job to do at night. Donald is going to have to help out more at night, and this is going to include bedtime and beyond. Anyway, I decided to give the paci thing a go tonight, and so far it has worked like a charm. I nursed her almost to sleep, then unlatched and stuck the thing in her mouth, and she's been asleep ever since. It could be a coincidence, but I'm thinking not. Ugh, I really, really hate pacifiers, but I guess if it helps her sleep at night, I might consider giving in. But only at night. Otherwise I'd have to hate myself.

My dad has always been a little fruity, literally. Growing up, I always knew my dad was gay, even though he didn't come out and tell me until I was in 5th grade. This fact has caused me to have some, let's say, unique experiences.

When I was in middle school, Dad dated a guy named Brett that was totally awesome. He drove a purple Camero and listened to dance music. He had long hair and pierced nipples. Previous boyfriends liked to go antiquing; Brett liked glow bowling and shopping. He was a teenager's best friend. One night, Brett took me into town in his Camero and we stopped at a gas station. He told me I could turn the music up (La Bouche), and I did. At the gas station, I saw a kid I went to school with and she asked me if Brett was my boyfriend. I just laughed and said, "No, he's my dad's boyfriend!" Needless to say, I was tortured at school after that and we moved soon after.

When I lived in Wisconsin during high school, all of my friends knew that my dad was gay and it was totally awesome. When I moved to Mississippi, though, I figured I'd better keep it under wraps since we were in God's country and all. Even though I thought it was pretty obvious, I don't think any of my friends ever found out that my dad was gay (with the exception of maybe one person I worked with at McDonald's, but he was cool enough not to say anything).

I turned 18 in May of my senior year, and my "birthday" present was that I got to go to the bar with my dad. I'd been in bars before, but never a gay bar. It was quite an experience. I remember some lady coming up to me, assuming I was a lesbian, and hitting on me. The highlight of the night, though, was the drag show. I'd never seen anything more hilarious in my life. A week or two after that night, I convinced dad that he needed to go back to the bar and enter the drag show himself. Together we picked out music for his routine and he "borrowed" my prom dress to wear. I vividly remember him practicing his routine in the living room, and me laughing my ass off.

Despite all of these moments, I was caught off guard by my dad's phone call tonight. He calls me almost every day, and today he said he was going to San Fran to buy a pair of leather chaps. He called me again afterward, and said that he'd bought the chaps and a few "other" things and that I'd get to see them when he gets home next week. I told him that was fine as long as he wore pants under them!!!

Life is never boring.

Donald's family left this morning, so life is back to normal again. We had a nice time. Will post pictures when I get time.

I guess my mom has been having mini-strokes for the past month or so, but just decided to go to the doctor today. The Dr. thinks she has some blockages and is doing an MRI and a bunch of blood work next Monday. Heart problems run in our family, so I'm hoping they've caught it early enough to prevent any major damage. Her blood pressure is really high, too - 186/100 today. I know she has a script for BP medicine, but I'm not sure if she's been taking it recently. I'm hoping everything will be okay! My mom is too young for this kind of crap - only 46!

Happy Birthday Lauren!!!

My baby Lauren,

I can’t believe you are a year old already! Happy Birthday!

You have grown so much this year, and every day I enjoy watching your personality emerge. You are a fairly cautious girl, yet you love to explore. You don’t like new people or new situations, and it takes you some time to warm up to strangers. When grandma and grandpa come to visit, it takes you almost a whole day before you’ll let them hold you! You like to be close to mama and sometimes cry if a stranger looks at you the wrong way.

You love to “talk”, but only around people you know. You can say a few words, but mama knows you know what many more words mean. You can say “mama”, “baby” (buhbee), and “yellow” (ello). You know other words like “num-nums”, “bye-bye”, “daddy”, “kitty”, “ball”, and you will give mama things when she asks. You are such a smart girl!

You are fascinated by the kitties, and are learning to be gentle around them. Sammie likes you and will let you pet him, or even tug on his tail once in a while, but Chloe is a little scared of you! You know how to “pet nicely” now, and I think the kitties will be your friends when you are older.

Climbing is your new favorite activity. Just today you climbed up on your chair that mama made you all by yourself! You can climb up steps at the playground and love to try to climb out of your high chair and stroller. You can climb into the recliner all by yourself and you try to get up on the couch. Sometimes you scare mama with all that climbing!

Your favorite book is Millie Moo. You love to feel the different textures on the pages and help mama turn the page as we read. You also love “reading” books all by yourself and will sit and look at a book for 15 minutes at a time. Mama made you a photo album with lots of babies in it that you also love to look at. You have a Baby LeapPad that you like to play with and make the pages make sounds.

You’ve taken swim classes since you were seven months old and you’re quite the little swimmer! Your teacher, Miss Kim, says you are doing very well! You can almost climb out of the pool by yourself and just the other day you managed to put the balls in the basket all by yourself! You can swim underwater for a few seconds and are getting better every day. You’ve always loved the water and I’m glad that we are able to give you swim lessons.

Nursing is your favorite pastime, and that doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon. You just love your mama milk! You also love vegetables, including green beans, peas, and sweet potatoes. You don’t really like too many fruits, except pears, and will not eat bananas or peaches. You love YoBaby and Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies for snacks and love to feed yourself. Your favorite food, though, is pizza. You can eat almost an entire slice yourself!

You’re not walking quite yet, but we catch you standing on your own a few times a day. You are one speedy crawler, though. If mama turns her head for just a second, you are gone in a flash!

Daddy and I want you to know that you are so loved. We will always love you and will be proud of you no matter where life takes you. You will always be our little rooster.

Love,

Mama

You may not hear much from me the next few days because I have to Get Stuff Done. Donald's family will be here early Saturday morning! Here's what I hope to accomplish:

Clean kitchen
Finish Laundry
Put away laundry
Clean both bathrooms
Clean and reorganize the playroom
Move twin bed into playroom
Find blankets and pillows for everyone
Vacuum
Pack up miscellaneous eBay inventory that is scattered all over the house

Yeah, so I'm going to be busy. Plus, it's one of our friend's birthday tomorrow, so we're going to Buffalo Wild Wings tomorrow night. Gotta run.

Last weekend we went metal detecting. It was a lot more fun that I thought it would be and it kept us busy. Lauren really enjoyed crawling all over the playgrounds at the schools we went to. I forgot the camera on Saturday, but took these Sunday.

Okay, I'm goona go down now!

This is so fun!

Gotta get down now!

Hey! Mom, where'd ya go?


Man, these rocks are AWESOME!


Okay, time to swing now!


Or maybe I'll just bite the swing...whatever works.

Gotta stop for a picture with mommy.

All that playing made me hungry!
So hungry I'm eating the bottle! I might wither away if you don't hurry up and give me some food, woman!

Lauren's Birth Story

Since it's almost Lauren's 1st birthday, I guess it's time I post her birth story.

Throughout my pregnancy, I'd been having trouble with my blood pressure, so I'd been seeing the doctor every week since my 5th month. I'd had multiple non-stress tests, but the doctor wanted to be cautious and monitor me every week. During my 34th week, the doctor put me on blood pressure medication.

I went to my regulary scheduled doctor's appointment the morning of Friday, January 20, when I was 36 weeks. My blood pressure was higher than usual, so the doctor was a bit concerned. She went ahead and did another non-stress test, hoping that my blood pressure would go down while I was relaxing. It didn't, so she thought it was best that we induce labor right away. Donald and I decided that it was probably the best thing to do, so I was wheeled right from the Dr's office to the hospital.

Once I arrived in delivery and was admitted, the nurses began to prep me for induction. A nurse gave me an enema (why, oh why don't they tell you these things beforehand?), and started my IV and hooked up the fetal monitoring belt. The monitoring showed that I was actually having steady contractions, about 3 minutes apart. What I had thought was just back pain was actually the beginning of labor! At exactly 12:00 noon, the pitocin drip was started.

The pitocin didn't immediately help get the contractions going. I was still having weak, steady contractions, but I wasn't dialating much. When I was admitted at 10:00 AM, I was at 2 cm., and at 3:00 PM I was only 3.5 cm. Around 4:00, a nurse asked me if I wanted to get an epidural, and I decided that I wanted to wait until I was dialated more so I could get to experience real labor a little.

My contractions began to get more intense, and I opted for the epidural around 5:00 PM. It took the Dr. three tries to get the catheter in the right space, and it was not pleasant! They made Donald leave the room during this time, too, so I had no support there. After the epidural was placed, a nurse put in a foley catheder. The epidural provided almost instant relief from the pain of the contractions.

At 6:00, the Dr. decided that my water should be broken to help speed up labor. Donald says this was gross, but I didn't get to see much since my belly was so big! It was a quick and easy procedure and I didn't feel a thing. After my water was broken, they also inserted an internal fetal monitor.

By 7:00, I was dilated to 5 cm. The nurses were not impressed, and my pitocin level was increased to the maximum dosage. They told me that if the pitocin would not work, I would need a c-section.

In the next hour, baby's heart rate began to have decelerations during contractions. The nurses had me try a bunch of different positions, and finally we settled on me lying on my right side. The decelerations subsided somewhat, but the nurses still seemed concerned and had me wear the oxygen mask.

Because I was stuck on my right side, the epidural wore off on my left side. The Dr. gave me a bolus to try to help my left side, but it didn't work. For the rest of my labor, I experienced near full pain on my left side.

Around 10:30 PM, the pain was really starting to get to me. My contractions had picked up, and I was 8.5 cm. dilated. Around this time I told the nurse that I was ready to start pushing, and she checked me one more time and found that I was 9 cm. She told me that there was a bit of a cervical lip left, and that I could try to push over it if I wanted to. I began pushing at 11:00 PM.

Pushing helped relieve the pain from the contractions, but it took me a few tries before I got the art of pushing down pat. After about a half hour of pushing, I was getting frustrated because I couldn't see any progress. A nurse brought in a mirror, and this helped so much! It was so awesome to see the baby's head come down with each push. After just a few pushes with the mirror, I was ready to deliver.

The nurses called in the Dr. and the pediatric team, but it took them about 10 minutes to get ready. During this time I wasn't allowed to push, and that was very hard! Once the Dr. was ready, it only took me two more pushes to deliver baby Lauren.

Baby Lauren Elizabeth was born at exactly 12:00 midnight on Saturday, January 21, 2006. She weighed 7 pounds, 2 ounces and was 20.5 inches long.

Humm....so I have a bunch of pictures I need to post, but they're still on the camera and the camera is in my car. And it's cold out. Therefore, no pictures tonight. Mabye tomorrow.

I'm going to get my car licensed in Mississippi tomorrow. Yeah, we've been here a year and a half and are still driving on Wisconsin plates. I guess it has sunk in that we're not going back, so I guess it's time. I'm very afraid of what it's going to cost me, though. I'm really hoping it's not more than $200, because if it is, I might cry.

In other exciting car news, Donald's car has decided not to run. I think the battery might just be dead, so when it warms up a little we'll go out and try to jump it. Right now he's driving my dad's car, but dad will be home Jan. 30, so we have to get it fixed by then. I really hope that car can make it another few years...we totally cannot afford a second car payment. Who am I kidding...we can't afford the one we have right now!!!!

When I lived in Janesville, I worked at Kwik Trip, which is the best convenience store that exists. The store that I worked at was outside the city limits on the south side of town and located near several trailer parks. All of us that worked there long enough (I was there 3 years) got to know our regular customers, and they got to know us. Many of our regulars were in nearly every night to pick up milk, bread, cigarettes, lottery tickets, or bananas (Kwik Trip is known for their bread and bananas).

One of our regular customers was a single mom named Danyetta. She had two kids, Nicole and Scotty, who always came in the store with her. To be honest, the kids were a handful. They would come in the store and argue with one another and wouldn't always use their "indoor" voices. Nicole was oldest, 10-12 when I worked there, and her brother was 3 years younger. Daynetta and her kids came in almost every night so we got to know them pretty well. It was obvious that Daynetta had her hands full; of course she was a single parent, and they lived in one of the trailer parks. They didn't drive a nice car and Daynetta always bought the cheapest brand of cigarrettes we carried. The kids always begged their mom for a "treat", but mom most of the time had to say no, probably because they didn't have enough money. Even so, Daynetta was a super-nice lady, and we enjoyed talking to her when she came in the store.

I read Janesville's newspaper online every day. Not much ever happens there. It's a medium-sized city with lots of nice houses, good schools, and landscaped yards. The cops are notorious in Janesville for pulling everyone and anyone over for the most minor traffic violations - we always joked it was because they had nothing better to do with their time. Maybe once or twice a year a gas station is robbed, or a house is broken into. Other than that, Janesville is about the safest place you could live.

That is why it came as a huge suprise to me yesterday when I read the paper and saw that a family of three had been murdered in their own home in the middle of the night. I read the article and recognized the names, but I couldn't place them. Until today.

The Gazette posted a new article, this time with pictures, and I knew immediately who it was. Daynetta and her two kids, now 17 and 14, were murdered in their trailer in the middle of the night. Police so far have no idea why or who did it, but I hope they find the person soon. It scares the begeebes out of me and it breaks my heart.

I'm sure my old co-workers are grief-stricken as well as afraid. They lived right down the road from Kwik Trip. My heart goes out to their family and friends who suffer from this. I hope that whoever did this is found and locked away forever.

Just a vent

My mom only calls me when bad things happen. See, the thing is, I don't care. I don't care how drunk Jake got last night. I don't care that Lexy called the cops on him for bashing her in the head. I don't care that mom bailed him out of jail for it. I don't care that she hates her job but doesn't have the balls to find something new. I don't care how many guys Lexy has slept with. I don't care how many creditors have called or how close she is to filing bankruptcy. I don't care that she makes $90,000 a year and can't find the money to pay her car insurance. I. don't. care.

It's not that I want bad things to happen to them. I don't. I want only good things to happen to my family. It's just that whenever the phone rings and "Mom's House" comes up on the screen, I know she's going to complain about something. I sit on the other end and say, "Uh, huh...that sucks....yeah, I hear ya...."

It's always the same story every time we talk. The dog had a seizure. I hate my job. The kids are brats. Lexy is a whore. Jake got drunk last night. Lee is driving me crazy.

Hey...I have the perfect solution to all of this. Kick the kids out (they're 19 and 20), stop drinking, and pay your damn bills! I'm a freaking genius.

This is the reason I moved to Mississippi. This is the reason that even though I'm homesick as hell, I will never move within 100 miles of my mother again. I love my mom, I just can't stand being around that chaos.

I'll keep my simple, lonely life, thanks.

Kids + Cell Phones

I was standing in line at the post office a few weeks ago, and there was a mom and her daugher, who looked to be around four, in line behind me. The daughter was playing with mom's cell phone, and started whining that she wanted her own cell phone. Much to my suprise, the mom's reply was "You can have one when you're six, just like your brother."

Needless to say, this suprised the hell out of me. What, exactly, does a six-year-old do with a cell phone? As a teacher, I know I wouldn't want them in my classroom during the school day. I just can't think of any time that my six-year-old would ever be without adult supervision, that she would need a cell phone.

Since my experience at the post office, I've come across a few discussions on this topic on various discussion boards. I was shocked to learn how many parents get their young children cell phones. Many of these parents say that their kids are safer with the cell phones, or that life is just easier with the kids having their own phone. If the kid needs a ride home from school, he can just use his own phone instead of having to bother an adult.

Turns out, there are lots of cell phones that are made especially for young kids, like the Firefly. These phones can only call certain, preprogrammed numbers so kids just can't call whomever they like. I can see how these phones could be useful for children, but it should be the exception, not the rule.

The only way I would get my 6-7-8-9-10 year old kid one of these phones is if they were heavily involved in some kind of sport or activity that requried them to be away from home often. I'm talking like the kid is going to go to the Olympics someday and practices 5 nights a week, not just I take ballet once a week for an hour. That is the only way I can forsee myself ever getting a cell phone for a kid that young. Maybe I'll change my mind when Lauren gets older, I don't know. Right now, the idea just seems ridiculous.

As a part of our New Years Resolutions, we enacted a new household rule - no TV or computers between 5-10 PM. Donald and I were both having some serious screen addiction, and neither of us like Lauren watching TV, so we decided to shut 'em off. This, perhaps, explains why, at 8 PM tonight, we were at the park using Donald's new metal detector.

Donald started talking about how he wanted to go "treasure hunting" with a metal detector a few weeks ago. I told him that when I saved up enough of my eBay money, I'd buy him one. Turns out I had a good week last week, so he got his new Garrett Ace 250 in the mail yesterday. Of course he wanted to try it out right away, so he dug a few holes in the yard last night, but didn't find anything.

So, tonight, as I'm putting away the laundry, Donald sneaks in and says he wants to go to the park. We all got dressed and we went. The first hole we dug, we found nothing. We eventually decided that it was probably too close to the swingset, and that the detector was just picking up the metal from the poles. We found another spot and dug for what seemed forever. Finally, we found a penny. Whoohoo!

We stayed out for about an hour, and ended up finding three pennies, a dime, a washer, two nails, and two pieces of gum wrapper. This, my friends, is how exciting my life has become.

He's a remote hog even when he's sleeping :o)

He does have shorts on, I promise! LOL.

To wean....or not

Lauren is a boobie-baby. When I started breastfeeding, my goal was to make it a year. Hooray! Almost there. I decided that after a year, we'd play it by ear, and wean when when we were both ready. Lauren is no where near ready. I, on the other hand, could be ready to at least wean from daytime nursing.

The kid loves her num-nums. She nurses now probably as much as she did when she was a newborn - at least 7-8 times a day. A few of those times are only for a minute or two, probably just for security reasons. She's not really into solids too much. I don't know if this is because she's nursing so much that she's not hungry, or if the opposite is true. Mabye she doesn't like solids, so she's nursing more. Either way, we offer solids at least four times a day, and most of the time everything ends up on the floor (she does this weird flicking thing with her food - flick! on the floor). She does eat a good dinner with us at night, but then she usually wants to nurse right away afterward, too.

Breastfeeding has been wonderful for us, but at this point it is getting a bit limiting. I need to work in the evenings, and I would love to go into the spare room, lock the door and stay in there for a few hours without being interrupted. Hell, even wearing a shirt during the day wouldn't be so bad (*knock knock* Crap someone's at the door, where's my shirt? I swear one of these days I'm going to answer the door without one on).

I'm not adverse to extended breastfeeding, and wouldn't mind continuing with the morning/night nursing sessions. I don't know. I know that nursing can be a great benefit during the toddler years, so part of me just wants to keep on keeping on. And then there's the whole sleep issue. How, exactly, do you get a kid to go to sleep without nursing them?

I guess at this point we're going to keep going, at least until Lauren starts to let up on the num-nums a little. At the same time, I'm going to try to start giving her milk in a cup during the day, and hope that helps lessen the frequency. We'll see!

I just spent an hour and a half trying to get the kid to go to sleep. My nibbles feel like they've been through a war. She went to bed around eight the first time, but she only got about 90% asleep when she coughed hard and threw up. I brought her out to the living room for a while, and then she wouldn't go back to sleep. She's still in there coughing now, so I hope she doesn't wake herself up (again). Poor thing.

I'm feeling better now, four days and two bottles of Robitussin later. Lauren seems to feel okay, but she's got the cough thing going on. Donald is getting stuffy, so I'm sure he's in for it next. Lucky him :o(

In other news, Donald's mom and sisters are coming down in two weeks! They just called tonight and told us. Grandma wants to be here for Lauren's birthday, so she's making Charlotte and Anna drive her. Haha. Thank goodness they'll be here before my dad gets home, otherwise I'm not sure where we'd put them all. I'm excited though; I adore Donald's mom and his sisters are fun, too.

Freakin' crap, I'm sick again. I started feeling icky yesterday, but today it really hit me. I just love cold and flu season. I spent most of the day in bed, so of course now I'm wide awake while everyone else is sleeping. I finally broke down and took some Robitussin, which I don't like doing because I'm breastfeeding, but it did help. There are times when all the natural remedies in the world just don't do it, and today was one of them. Oh well. Peeler will live.

We had a nice time last night. We went to dinner with the J's (Cozumel, yummy) and then went to their house for a while. We ended up buying some fireworks and blowing up a turtle pinata. Yeah...long story. We didn't get home until about three this morning, and now it's 1:00 PM and Peeler is still sleeping. She did so well last night and fell asleep in her stroller while we were lighting off fireworks. I don't know how that happened....

I don't think we're doing much today. I need to go to the grocery store to buy some healthy food, but other than that, we're laying low.

2006 was a year of beginnings for me and Donald. We began our life as a family in January and have spent the year adjusting and readjusting to our new roles as parents. In February we moved to Jackson. April brought a new job for Donald which is very much turning into a career. We are both very thankful for his job in that it lets me stay home with Lauren. In June I began on the path towards my Master's degree. Finally, in November, we began the long process of paying off our debt so that we can buy a house someday.

Looking back, its fun to see how far we've come. Ten years ago tonight, I had my very first date. I was in 9th grade, and my very first boyfriend was Jason from Ohio. We met at the campgrounds over the summer, but we lived 30 miles apart, which to a 14 year old might as well be 1000 miles. I remember I would save my lunch money to call him on the payphone, because his number was long distance and dad wouldn't let me call him from home. Anyway, on New Year's Eve, dad took me to the skating rink he worked at, and after Jason got off work, we skated together. It was perfect, in that 14 year old sort of way. I remember writing in my journal later that night about how I was going to marry him. Eventually Jason and I lost touch, and I have no idea what he's doing now.

Looking forward, I'm hoping this will be a good year for us. I'm hoping for a year of continuity, to work on all the things that began last year. A year of growth, happiness, and calmness (doubtful with a toddler! in the house). Happy 2007!!

Okay, so Peeler and I went to the mall today to do a Godiva shop, among other things, and every other person I saw was wearing mini skirts, leggings, and big belts. I feel like I've just stepped out of the 80s. There are some fashions that should just NOT come back. I'll admit that Peeler has a pair of leg warmers, but they were just too darn cute to pass up. I dunno, I guess Santa's gift of choice this year was 80s duds.

On another note, I'm totally loving Freecycle. In the past few weeks, I've gotten rid of so much clutter - the crib, ExerSaucer, old stroller, other random baby stuff....I love it! A lady is supposed to be coming tonight to pick up some more stuff. I really thought I'd be sad about seeing all the baby stuff go, but I'm not. I'm so ready to be past the baby stage.

Speaking of baby stuff - how exactly does one go about entertaining an almost-one-year old for long periods of time? Maybe this is bad - but I get so bored trying to entertain her all the time. Well, not all the time, because she's pretty good about playing by herself, but of course I need to play with her sometimes. After we do the ball rolling thing, ring stacking, reading a book or two, playing with the cat....I'm just out of ideas. I tried giving her markers today, but she was more into eating them than drawing with them. Any suggestions?

We've been swimming the last two nights. There are three very good reasons for this:

1. Swimming at night = No bath for Peeler. Yes, we're lazy.

2. Swimming at night = Very tired Peeler when we get done.

3. We are very boring people and sitting in the house sucks.

We finally got smart tonight and brough P's pajamas with us to the pool so that when we were done we could just change her right out of her suit into the pj's. Worked well. Smart mommy.

I'm supposed to be working on a school paper right now, but it's really proving difficult without having the textbook. Heh. We've been so freakin' poor lately that I've been putting off buying it until after Christmas, but it looks like the time has come. I sold $50 of stuff on eBay the other day, but I'm still waiting to get paid, so hopefully when they pay me I'll order my book from Half.com. Oh, the joys of being young and poor. Heheh. I just keep repeating....it'll all be better someday.

Merry Christmas!

We've had a nice, quiet Christmas here. Our festivities began Saturday night. We went out to Applebee's for dinner, and Donald's mom called us during dinner and insisted that we open our presents that night, because that's when they were opening thiers. So, we got home and opened up our presents from Donald's family. Lauren didn't really get the concept of "opening presents", but she had fun once they were opened for her. She got soooo much stuff, and I really don't know where we're going to put it all. She got:
3 outfits from Gymboree (Donald's mom)
4 other springy outfits (Donald's mom)
Old Navy bibs and turtleneck (Charlotte - Donald's sister)
Drop & Roar Dinosaur (Me & Donald)
Baby LeapFrog system & cartridge (My dad)
Playskool Ball popper thing (Kate & Mike - Donald's cousins)
Laughing baby doll (Aunt Cathy)
Regular baby doll (my mom)
Little People play set (Me & Donald)
Two hooded towels, frog and duck (Donald's mom)
Two Pooh outfits (Danielle and Eric - Donald's cousins)
Crocodile Piano (My mom)
Farm animals popper thing (Anna - Donald's sister)
Mega Bloks set (Me & Donald)
Glow in the dark Care Bear (Donald's mom)
Little Tykes Trains, Planes, and Cars toy (Me & Donald)
Check for savings from Great Grandma Addyman
LeapFrog Farm Puzzle (My dad)
Musical shape stacker thing (Donald's mom)
And I know there's more, but right now it's buried so sorry to those people who's stuff I didn't list.

Our almost-hidden Christmas tree.

Peeler opening her ball popper thing that takes FOUR "D" Batteries. Ugh.

Hmmm....what's this?

The Crocodile Piano that doesn't work - gotta take it back to Toys R Us and get an exchange.

Later, Donald and I exchanged our gifts. He got me an arm band for my iPod, a rack for the DVDs and tapes, and two watches. I gave him a marshmallow gun, a talking bank for all his change, and a watch. From Donald's family I got a shit-ton of scrapbooking stuff and a candy dish. Donald got loads of Star-Wars stuff and a day planner. Then Donald got busy assembling everything :o)

Yesterday (Christmas Eve), Donald had to go into work for a while to play catch-up, so Peeler and I cooked dinner. We made ham, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and ham gravy, glorified rice, rolls, pumpkin pie, and apple crisp pie. It was all yummy, and Donald cleaned up after dinner. The rest of the night we sat around and watched Christmas shows on TV and played with our new stuff.

Today, we got up around 10:30 and I cooked a big breakfast - eggs, pancakes, hashbrowns, bacon, sausage, cinnamon rolls, and donuts. We've talked to a million people on the phone, and now we're just lounging around. We don't plan on getting out of our PJs, except to go swimming later, and that's just fine with me. I would have liked to spend the day with family, but since that's not possible, this was okay. Next year we're going home, darnit.

Hope everyone had a great day!

I must say it's been a good week. First, I got my iPod. Second, Donald got a 20% raise at work. Then, we got our deposit in the mail from our old apartment. Today, Donald got a really nice Christmas bonus from work. Oh yeah, can't forget that I have the perfect Christmas present for Donald. Will have to tell you about that later, though, because he might read this.

We are so excited for Christmas. Well, at least I am. Donald is the grinch :o) Peeler has sooo much stuff under the tree already, and we're expecting two more boxes from Wisconsin today! Speaking of, I wish UPS would hurry up and get here because I'd really like to take a shower and got to CVS.

We've got the extra room almost cleaned out. The plan is to put a bed in there for my dad, and also use it as a playroom for P. Right now all of her toys are in the living room, and it's driving me crazy. I just need to be able to shut the door on the chaos, know what I mean?

iLove...

my new iPod! I've been waiting and waiting for the UPS man to bring it, and finally, yesterday, he did! Yippie! I've only been wanting for for the past 2 1/2 years, and now I'm the last person on earth to get one. My dad promised me one for my birthday this year, and like all things my dad does, it was just a little late. But that's okay, I LOVE IT! Now I have no excuse not to go work out. Hopefully Donald get me the armband for Christmas (hint, hint).

Thanks, DAD!!!

The Hooters shop went better than expected. Mystery shopping is when you go to a business, rate the service, etc, then go home and fill out a questionnaire about it. You usually get paid to eat there or make a purchase, plus a fee. It's kinda fun...it's like you're spying on the employees, hehe. You basically just watch for all those things that companies require, then report on it. Easy cheesy. Anyway, the food was yummy, so that's what matters.

There's a video on CNN.com today about a high school that is abolishing the honor roll because it causes too much stress for students. Put simply, I think that's BS.

I remember high school. I always made pretty good grades, and part of the reason for that was that I liked be rewarded for my efforts. There were other reasons, too (internal motivation, my dad killing me if I didn't, etc), but recognition did play a role. I knew that if I went to school, turned in an assignment that wasn't up to par, I'd hear about it - from my teachers, friends, and parents. Sure, I was stressed in high school. But when has stress become such a bad thing??

In the last 5-10 years, kids have become coddled to the point that it makes me want to puke. Teachers can't use red pens because it's damaging to kids' self-esteem. Huh? Sports teams can't hold try-outs because it's not fair that some kids aren't good enough to make the team. Oookay. Sure, seeing your mistakes and realizing that you're not the best can be stressful, but that's what life is all about. If kids go through life without learning about these things, they're going to be in for a fun time when they're adults. Can you imagine an employer just hiring everyone so they didn't hurt anyone's feelings? Unfortunately that's not the way things work in the real world.

I think schools have an obligation to prepare students for life after high school. Any way you look at it, stress is part of the real world. We are not doing kids a favor by protecting them and not teaching them how to deal with these things. Life's tough - and they should be prepared. Abolishing stress from their lives is NOT they way to do it.

We have to go to Hooter's tonight to do a mystery shop. When I got offered the assignment, I asked Donald (because he's the resident Hooter's expert, lol), if we could do it since Peeler will have to be with us. He assured me that kids go there all the time, so we'll see. Peeler'll probably be looking at all the "hooters" and thinking, "Man, that's a lot of milk!" We'll see how it goes. I can't say I'm thrilled about it, but hey, it's $20 plus a free meal. I've only been to Hooter's once, and I swear it was just to play trivia.

Peeler's in a crappy mood today. I think she's getting ready to conquer another developmental milestone, because she's just been restless the past few days. She's really on the brink of talking, I think. My girl is growing up so fast!

We had a quiet weekend, mostly. Saturday we had just a few Christmas errands to finish up, but it was crazy out there! Traffic on County Line Rd. was horrific - I think it took us about 20 mintues to drive from FedEx to our house, which is only about 2 miles away. Nuts. Donald was going crazy by the time we got home.

Today I went to CVS and Wal-Fart to get some groceries. I hate Wal-Mart. I usually go to Kroger, but I had a gift card for WM, so I went. Bleh. That place is my own personal hell. At least Donald stayed home with the kiddo so I could drive the cart in peace.

We went swimming tonight - we always go swimming on Sunday nights. A few weeks ago, Donald *invented* backwards swimming. LOL, don't ask. Anyway, he was being all big and bad about how he could almost swim all the way across the pool backwards and how hard it was. Soooo...I gave it a try and got all the way across the pool on the first try. LOL. He says he doesn't like being beaten at his own game. I'm a pretty good swimmer though (or at least I used to be), so maybe he shouldn't get too sad. He had to re-take swim all four years of high school :o( Poor Donald.

Cruisin'

Okay, I can't keep it to myself any longer! We're going on a cruise in April. Yippe! Well, Donald's staying home, but he was invited. My cousin, Trisha, is getting married on a cruise and I wasn't even planning on going, but my dad called me today and asked if I wanted to go. He was going and found out that he had to pay a higher rate because he's single, and the rates are based on double occupancy, so it was the same price for me to go along as it was for him to go alone, so he's buying! The only thing we have to pay for is airfare to Ft. Lauderdale, which shouldn't be more than $200. So....Peeler and I are going on a 5 day Royal Caribbean cruise to Key West, Cozumel, and Belize! I've never been on a cruise before but I think it will be fun.

So this makes three trips we're taking in the next six months. P and I are going to California in March, cruise in April and Wisconsin in May/June. I'm so lucky that Donald is completely cool with us going all over the place all the time. Hehe, he doesn't care because he gets to live the bachelor life while we're gone. He is coming with us to Wisconsin in May, but he's only staying for a week, and P and I are staying for three.

I'm so excited!

Oh, No you didn't!

This is what happens when I'm on the phone and Peeler's on the loose. This is mild, actually - last week she emptied my coupon folder and they were all over the dining room. I need a cage.

"Can't you see I'm busy, mom? I have lots of letters to write! Now leave me alone, please."

How Lauren became Peeler

Donald is big on nicknames. I can't tell you the last time he called me "Katie". Our cats, officially Sammie and Zowie, and known as "Choopie" and "Co-pee". I guess he has a thing for p's. So, it should come as no suprise that our little girl was called "Lauren" for all of about an hour. He first started calling her "Lilo", then that gave way to "Pilo" which eventually became "Peeler". And Peeler has stuck. Sometimes we just call her "P"; I usually call her Peanut, monkey, roo, or rooster. The poor kid probably doesn't know her real name. I'm sure she'll hate us someday for all these weird nicknames, but oh well. Every kid hates their parents for something. Heh.

Monday was the last day of Peeler's swim lessons before Christmas. I did not know this because we missed the previous week because the kid was sick. We knew that the swim school had a big Christmas party on the last day of class, and Donald had intended on taking the afternoon off to come. I thought it was next week. So, we got to class yesterday and everyone's parents and grandparents and third cousins were there, and I felt like a jackass because it was just me and P. Needless to say, I also didn't bring the teacher's Christmas gift. Oh well. Classes start again Jan. 3, and P got to move up to Waterbaby 2! She loves the water so much and lessons are so much fun for both of us. She's learned to go underwater completely, swim alone about 1-2 feet, and can splash and kick on command. Well worth it.

~~~~~~~~~

I think I've talked before about how much of a pain it is to find somewhat healthy food on a buffet for Peeler to eat. At Pearl River Monday night we had the same problem. The only vegetable on the buffet that wasn't soaked in butter was lima beans. I scooped some up on my plate, but wasn't too optimistic about P eating them. Boy, was I wrong! The kid devoured them. Honestly, she's really not into solids too much as she's still a boobie baby, but man she liked limas. I'm going to have to go buy some now. The only thing she liked better than the limas was Donald's ice cream. Heh. Figures.

~~~~~~~~~

We did have a nice time at PRR. It's always nice to just get away for a couple days. Monday night we just kinda hung out in the room.
A funny side story that I must add: When we got home from swim school Monday night, I got P's clothes ready for her to wear that night. I put them on the couch and then asked Donald to get her dressed. I went in the bedroom to get myself dressed and came back out to the living room a few minutes later. Donald was getting some stuff ready to pack, and I went in the living room to work on the suitcase. I saw P's pants still on the couch, and told Donald that he forgot to put the kid's pants on. He said that he did put them on...... He had put her pajama pants back on her, thinking they were her real pants! Boys. Good thing I usually do the dressing...the child would be scarred for life. Heh.

~~~~~~~~

Tuesday we had nothing to do, so we decided to drive to Meridian just for the fun of it. Yeah, there wasn't much fun. Two good things did come of it, though. First, we got to eat lunch at A&W, which we haven't done since we left Wisconsin. They even had cheese curds!!!! They weren't nearly as good as Culver's, but they were cheese curds nevertheless. Second, we stopped at Big Lots, and I bought a Venus Fly Trap plant!

Now, I think this thing is freakin' cool, and I don't want to kill it, but I have no idea what to do with it. The instructions say to keep it at 40 degrees Nov-Feb, because that is when it is dormant, but the darn thing doesn't look too dormant to me. So, I guess to get it to go dormant, I have to put in the cold, but where exactly am I supposed to put it that's 40 degrees? The fridge? And should I just stick it in there and leave it, or gradually get it used to the cold? Or should I just forget about making it dormant, an keep in the warm for the winter? Gah I'm so confused!

~~~~~~~~~

Because I am a mean and horrible person, I made Donald pose with Peeler for some Christmas-y pictures. He'll forgive me someday :o)

I've been saving up some links lately:

This site has some lovely, beautiful games that will keep you occupied for hours. I especially like this one.

This guy is my hero. If I didn't have any debt, I would do the same thing. Very inspiring.

This lady is completely crazy. She seriously needs some Prozac or something. Warning - contains some swearing, listen without the kids.

We kinda had a lazy weekend around here. Today I went through all of our CVS stuff and organized it so we can give more away and then donate the rest to a women's shelter. I also finished decorating the cookies and got a few tins ready to be mailed out to Wisconsin. We went swimming this evening for about an hour, then came back and just hung out.

Tomorrow we're going to Pearl River for two days just for the fun of it. We get coupons in the mail every month for two free nights, so why not. We're leaving after Peeler's swim lesson and we'll be back Wednesday morning.

Don't let me forget - I need to post a picture of all our CVS goodies! Seeing is believing :o)

Why I am a Horrible Mother Part I (Because I'm sure there will be more)

So, yeah Peeler "helped" me bake Chistmas cookies. After I had finished mixing the dough, her little spider arms grabbed the spatula from the counter, and she started licking the dough off. At first I didn't really think anything of it - I figured I'd let the kid have some fun. Haha. Then I realized there were raw eggs in the dough. Yeah. Yummy salmonella. Well, she hasn't gotten sick yet, so I'm assuming it'll be fine.....

Mother Shock

A few months before Lauren was born, I read this post on Tertia's blog. I sort of forgot about it until tonight. Tonight Donald and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings with the crew from his office, and as we were leaving he said something to the effect of Peeler ruins lots of things and that he kinda misses our old life. Peeler actually had done pretty well - we'd went to the boat parade at six, and then we went straight to Wild Wings and we were there until nine. She started getting antsy about 8:45, so we decided it was time to go. But for those almost-three-hours, she sat in her high chair, watching and listening to all the big people, smiling when necessary.

When you're pregnant, everyone tells you how much having a baby will change your life. I always just sort-of believed them. How much different could it be, really? Even the first few weeks of Peeler's life, I remember thinking, "Oh, this isn't so bad....I don't know what everyone was talking about". And then, slowly, you start to learn that you're not in charge anymore, a tiny baby is, and that whether you like it or not, she will control your life for the near future.

Sure, Donald is right in a way. Having a baby has "ruined" some parts of our life. We can't go out with our friends whenever we want and stay out until dawn. We don't get to go to the movies, or to the gym, or even to the grocery store in peace. But I don't like to think of those parts as "ruined"....just different. Someday we will be able to do all those things again, without a baby. But for now, we're living in a different country, and need to speak the language of the locals. This new country has lots of parks, lots of laundry, and tons of hugs.

Finally, after almost a year, I'm becoming fluent in this new language. Mothering is coming more naturally and it's hard to imagine going back to my "old" life. Donald's getting there - some people just need more time to adjust than others. Driving home from Wild Wings, the Mother Shock concept just kinda popped back in my head, and it makes so much more sense now than it did before.

The baking stage of sugar cookie maddness is over. Tomorrow the icing will begin. I believe I have about 9 dozen in all, so it should take me awhile! All I have is time, though. Heh.

Donald's sick now. I seem to have escaped the wrath of the germies for now. Hopefully it continues that way.

I have lots of stuff to write about schwooping around in my head right now, but no energy to write about it. Here's my list
~CVS and the crazy Kleenex lady
~Pictures of Peeler "helping" me make cookies today
~Entertaining Peeler while I'm on the phone and why I hate talking on the phone
~Boat parade on the Reservoir tomorrow night

Okay, maybe that's it. So I have a list, now I have to write about it. We'll see :o)

First, I have all of my baking and decorating supplies ready to go for tomorrow. Tomorrow night I'm baking and cooking till the cows come home. I'm sending goodies to some of my teacher friends at the church, my mom, and my dad in California. I think it's so sad that we're not going to get to be with any of our family this year, so I guess I'm providing myself with sweets for therapy. Hum.


Second, Donald and I bought Peeler a set of Mega Blocks for Christmas, but we couldn't contain ourselves and had to get them out to play with last night. We made some robot-looking guy, which Peeler promptly destroyed. We also came to understand why the Mega Bloks were so cheap and the Legos were so expensive: the Mega Bloks suck. They don't stay together for anything! Guess we should have spent the extra $20 for the real thing. Oh well, I doubt Peeler will care. Anyway, I forgot to take a pic of the robot guy, so here we are cleaning up. Note Donald's reach-y thing....since I bought him that, he won't bend over to pick anything up, not even toys. Lazy man.

Finally, I had to entertain myself for a while today by decorating Peeler with a bow. She didn't like it.

I'm sad to say that my special delivery did not arrive today. Instead, the UPS man brought one of Donald's Christmas gifts. Darn UPS man. Bring my goodies soon!!!

Turns out that all the antibiotics Peeler's been taking has given her diarreha. That's just wonderful. Let's just say that we're not using cloth this week. Bleh.

Finished, finally.....on to better things

Okay, so I just submitted my last task for my last class of the last term (never mind that the term ended a week ago), so that entitles me to some fun, right? Good...because I wasted like 3 hours today watching movies. First, if you haven't seen March of the Penguins, watch it, because it is awesome. I never thought I'd tear up over a penguin, but I did. Very good. Second, I watched the documentary, Jesus Camp. Also highly recommended but for entirely different reasons. That movie is frightening on so many different levels, and when I muster up enough brain function to write about it, I will.

Okay, on to Christmas cookies. For some reason, I like baking Christmas cookies. So far I've made some chocolate Andies mint cookies and almond bark pretzels (okay so really not a cookie but whatever). I think I'm going to make some sugar cookies, but beyond that I'm stumped. Anyone have any good suggestions? I'm not really one for all the "traditional" Christmas cookies, if you know what I mean....and simpler is better. I want to try Gingerbread, but I've never made it before, and I only like the soft kind. So I dunno, we'll see.

Ohh yes....I got everything done today that I wanted to do! Peeler (who's feeling much better) and I went to the Post Office, CVS, and the grocery store. So all of my Christmas cards and packages are mailed!!! Yippeeee! Tomorow I want to run to Target to pick up some tins for cookies so I can mail some to the far-away family, but I need to be home between 2-5 because I have something extra-special coming via UPS!!!! So excited!!!!!

Catching Up

We ended up taking Peeler to the Dr. yesterday afternoon. Turns out she has bronchitis and an ear infection. They gave her a shot of Rocephin in the office and a prescription for Omincef for the next 10 days. I'm not usually a big fan of antibiotics because I generally think they're overused, but honestly, I don't have the energy right now to care. Sounds bad, I know, but I'm wiped. The good news is she seems to be feeling better today and actually slept from 9:30 last night till 8:00 this morning.

It seems now though that Donald and I are getting sick. I'm all coughy and stuffy this morning, and Donald says he is stuffy, too. And that's just terriffic. HAHA.

I did pass my test last Wednesday. Seems like a month ago already, but I guess it wasn't. Heh. My new term started Dec. 1, but I'm taking it easy for now.

I'm shopping for good, affordable health insurance for Peeler and I (Donald gets his free from work). Any suggestions? Donald can add us to his policy at work for about $280 a month, but that seems like an awful lot.

Okay, guess that's it. If I've promised you anything in the last week or so, I'm sorry. I'm sooo backed up in all areas right now. I REALLY need to go to the Post Office today - I have about 10 packages and all my Christmas cards to mail. So if you're expecting a package from me - with any luck at all you'll have it soon. Heh.

Sick baby

Poor baby girl has been sick since Wednesday. It started with a simple runny nose, but by Thursday morning she was really stuffy. This is the first time she's been sick, and I'm blaming it on that dumb airplane. I just feel so bad for her because there's really nothing that I can do. I'm sure she'd feel much better if she could just figure out how to blow her nose, but unfortunately that's a few years off yet.

She's on the mend, now though, I think. She was happy playing this evening and didn't want to go to bed, unlike past nights where she's passed out at any chance. She's still having trouble nursing though, because she's so stuffed up, so I have to attack her every so often with the snot sucker (professional term). She hates that thing, and cries every time she sees it. Poor thing.

I started to feel like crap yesterday with a headache and sore lymph nodes. Today the headache is gone but the lymph nodes are still swollen, so I'm hoping I've escaped illness. We'll see though.

The thing that really blows about all this is that Donald and I actually had a babysitter for last night and had to cancel because Peeler was sick! Grrrrr. Oh yeah, last night around seven one of Donald's friends called and wanted him to go out and play pool. He then asked me if it was okay, and I told him it was up to him and his conscience (hehe). He told his friend he'd call him back later and let him know if he'd be out. After he got off the phone, he asked me again if he could go and I told him that I'd really rather he not go out. I mean, come on....kid's sick, wife feels like crap and has been taking care of sick kid the past three days by herself....give a girl a break here and stay home!!! Oy vey! MEN!